Battle Through the Heavens

Su Qian smiled at Xiao Yan when he saw that the latter was the first to enter. He eyed the expression which showed he had recovered to his previous self and nodded his head, feeling pleased. He quietly praised in his heart, “This little fellow not only possesses shocking talent, but his character is also this tough. It is not a coincidence that he has so many achievements.”

Lin Yan, Lin Xiuya, and the others came in one after another not long after Xiao Yan entered. The eleven people stopped in front of Su Qian. Other than Zi Yan, who had an impatient face, the others appeared a little enthusiastic.

“Hey, Xiao Yan, I have eaten all of my stuff. You must help me refine some once we leave this place.” Zi Yan ignored Su Qian as she leaped to Xiao Yan’s side. She pulled his sleeves while swinging her pale-purple pony tail and muttered, “I hate coming to this tower the most.”

“Yes.” Xiao Yan slightly nodded his head. He clearly knew that Zi Yan’s original form was a Magical Beast. Hence, she had somewhat of a mentality that rejected flames. The so-called ‘Essence Heart Flame’ did not have much of an refining impact on her anyway. After all, she had already advanced to the Dou Wang class. It was useless to pave the way again. However, it was better than having nothing. Being able to refine her body once again for free would more or less have some benefits for her. Therefore, Zi Yan was not opposed to it. Although she had a naive character, she was still able to clearly distinguish the benefits.

Su Qian coughed softly and stared at Zi Yan who was not concerned at all. He immediately turned his gaze helplessly toward Xiao Yan and the others as he spoke in a stern manner, “All of you should follow me all the way. Do not walk about on your own. You should not walk about randomly once you reach the bottom few levels of the tower. Do not observe your surroundings no matter what kind of activity occurs. Otherwise, I will revoke your qualification. Do you understand?”

Everyone was somewhat stunned when they heard this, but they still nodded their heads.

Seeing that everyone had nodded their heads, Su Qian turned around and led the way at the front. The route he took was different from when they usually descended the tower. Instead, he entered the metal door Xiao Yan had broken into back when he first entered the tower.

Xiao Yan’s heart instantly leaped as he watched Su Qian take this route. He clearly understood that in the darkness behind this metal door was an extremely large, deep hole. Moreover, the true ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ was concealed in this bottomless, dark-black hole!

Xiao Yan adopted an unusual emotion as he followed Su Qian and entered that metal door that was closely guarded. The faint dim light shot down from the wall, shining at the enormous space behind the metal door until it was quite obscure. Although the light was hazy, it did not hinder Xiao Yan as he looked at the large hole in the middle of this enormous space.

The other few people also curiously looked all around them. This place was somewhere that even Liu Qing and Lin Xiuya were entering for the first time.

The gazes that looked all around paused on that deep, black hole not long later. Although everyone’s hearts were filled with curiosity, they did not dare to carelessly move out of line and go over to check it out when they recalled Su Qian’s earlier instructions.

Xiao Yan’s gaze intensely paused on that dark, deep hole. It was a long while later before he forcefully pulled his gaze back, His gaze was lowered slightly as he followed Su Qian in front of him.

The route that Su Qian led them along was merely at the edge of this spacious interior. Therefore, it was quite far from the middle. Even so, Xiao Yan and the others sensed a kind of extremely hot temperature.

They walked along the edge for a couple of minutes before Su Qian led everyone into a somewhat dim tunnel that slowly spiraled down. As Xiao Yan’s footsteps followed the repeatedly winding stairs, he could sense that he and the others were heading deeper to the bottom levels of the ‘Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower’.

The security in this tunnel stairway was extremely tight, and was enough to cause Xiao Yan and the rest to feel shocked. Almost every couple of minutes they descend the stairs, a guard who was standing like a statue would appear. Accompanied by the surrounding dim atmosphere, this kind of tight security caused a couple of people to secretly swallow their saliva. If they didn’t have too much trust in the Inner Academy, it was likely that some of them would suspect Su Qian was bringing them to a dangerous place.

The group of people basically did not have the mood to converse in this kind of pressuring atmosphere. Other than Zi Yan’s voice which was repeatedly muttering to Xiao Yan, the remaining people all had tense faces. The entire stairway only appeared to have a somewhat messy, heavy breathing sound.

This travel under such a pressuring atmosphere continued for nearly half an hour before it was finally broken by a light that appeared at the end of the dim tunnel.

“We have arrived!” Su Qian swiftly walked toward the end. His faint voice immediately caused everyone’s spirit to be roused. Their footsteps became faster before eventually scrambling to swarm out of the tunnel.

Everyone’s footsteps stepped out of the dim tunnel. The eye-piercingly intense light caused Xiao Yan and the others to habitually shut their eyes. However, they swiftly opened them. Their faces were immediately filled with surprise as they swept all around.

This was an extremely spacious and empty space within the tower that occupied a vast area. At a glance, this was basically more spacious than any other level above. As this place did not have many training rooms, it had an empty feeling when one took a glance at it.

Xiao Yan’s gaze moved around. A moment later, it stopped at the area in the middle. There was a large hole that was approximately dozens of meters wide there. His gaze slowly shifted up and Xiao Yan’s eyes immediately narrowed. There was a similarly enormous hole in the ceiling that was nearly a hundred meters high that was facing the deep hole below with great precision. Clearly... almost every level of this ‘Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower’ had such a hole and that these holes were connected to one another.

“Looks like in this deepest part should be the place where the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’ is located. It is just that I do not know which level this would be...” Xiao Yan muttered in his heart.

“All of you should follow me.” Su Qian’s gaze looked all around him. He immediately waved to Xiao Yan and the others before lifting his feet and walking over to the middle area. Xiao Yan’s gaze brightened when he saw this and was the first to follow.

As he approached the black hole in the middle, Xiao Yan could clearly sense a strange temperature covering his entire body.

Su Qian was still over twenty meters from the deep hole when he paused his footsteps. He waved his hand and two figures immediately flashed and appeared from an unknown area before finally stopping around ten meters from the hole.

Xiao Yan’s gaze eyed those two figures. These two people were clearly also the Elders of the Inner Academy. However, they did not frequently reveal themselves outside. Hence, even he had never seen them before.

“All of you, sit down!” Su Qian pointed at a spot on the ground. There were eleven specially made jade platforms there. At a glance, they were jade-green in color.

Xiao Yan and the ten others hurriedly followed his instruction after hearing his words. Each of them searched for a jade platform before sitting down.

Xiao Yan immediately felt a wave of faint coolness seeping into him the moment his buttocks touched the jade platform. As he sat at this spot, it appeared that even the hot temperature of the outside world was isolated.

Su Qian finally turned his body after seeing everyone sitting on the jade platforms. He spoke a couple of words to the two Elders in a soft voice. After which, the two Elders slowly walked closer to that deep hole. Their hands formed a couple of seals in a lightning-like manner before letting out a soft, deep cry.

As the cry of the two people fell, the empty surroundings of that deep hole suddenly began to fluctuate. Following which, a layer of somewhat illusory energy ripples slowly surfaced in everyone’s sight.

“So this place also has a special energy seal. Looks like this Inner Academy has an extremely tight defense against the ‘Fallen Heart Flame’.” Xiao Yan’s spoke with a sudden understanding in his heart as he watched that seemingly illusory, yet extremely firm energy ripple.

The two Elders beckoned with their hands following the surfacing of the energy ripple cover. Immediately, a white-colored light that was the size of a human head slowly drifted out from the deep hole. Finally, it seeped through the energy ripple before being suspended at a spot around two meters from the ground as it floated up and down.

Other lights came drifting out one after another not long after the first pale-white light drifted out. A moment later there were a total of eleven light clusters appearing in front of Xiao Yan and the others.

Everyone blinked their eyes and studied the chicken-egg-like white-colored lights with doubtful expressions.

Su Qian smiled faintly as he saw the loss on everyone’s faces. He waved his sleeves gently. Immediately, the color of those white-colored light swiftly became transparent. Finally, it revealed the thing within it in front of everyone.

As the color paled, the thing that appeared within the light was, surprisingly, what seemed like an invisible flame that could still be seen by the naked eye. These flames curled and rose within each of their own light clusters. However, all of the temperature appeared to have been completely isolated by the light. Therefore, Xiao Yan and the others were actually unable to sense even the slightest heat.

“This is the ‘Essence Heart Flame’.” Su Qian stared at this invisible flame as he spoke faintly, “This kind of ‘Essence Heart Flame’ is extremely difficult to obtain. Every year, we exhaust a great amount of human effort in order to obtain three to four clusters. Moreover, this also depends on one’s luck... This thing does not have much use for those of the Dou Wang class and above. However, it is able to pave the way for someone below the Dou Wang class to advance to a Dou Wang. Of course, there is also quite a great amount of risk. The pain of refining one’s body is extremely difficult to endure. If one is not careful, not only will one fail, but the flame will also cause significant damage to one’s body.

“First Elder, this refining of one’s body with the ‘Essence Heart Flame’... what is the... success rate of previous years?” Lin Yan raised his hand and carefully inquired.

“The failure rate of each batch of top ten of the ‘Strong Ranking’ who come here to receive the body refinement is quite high. Each time around, around half the people fail.” Su Qian mentioned casually. However, cold sweat began to appear on the forehead of some people. A fifty-percent chance of failure... this seemed to be a little high, no?

“The Dou Wang class is the defining line of the experts on the continent. All of you who are at the peak of the Dou Ling class should be clearly aware of just how difficult it is to advance to this class. If one does not have sufficient luck, it is possible for one to pause at this level forever.” Su Qian glanced at Lin Xiuya, Liu Qing and the others as he spoke.

“You can tell me if you don’t dare receive the refinement of your body. This ‘Essence Heart Flame’ is extremely rare and precious. It would naturally be good if we can save it.” Su Qian carelessly spoke.

Everyone faced one another upon hearing this. However, no one dared to say anything about withdrawing. It was just as Su Qian had said, advancing to the Dou Wang class was far too difficult. If one were to give up on having such a chance, a future with regret would be...

“Since no one has any dissenting opinions, all of you should close your eyes and sink your mind into your body. Don’t get distracted. We will intervene if any problem occurs.” Su Qian waved his hand when he saw that no one spoke. The eleven light clusters flew toward the foreheads of everyone. Finally, they emitted a ‘bang’ and broke apart in front of everyone’s eyes, which were staring intently at them. The invisible flame within it fell and entered into everyone... from the tops of everyone’s heads...