"Elder Liu, you flatter me. I just had a bit of luck, recently achieving a small breakthrough."
Yan Qingshan smiled, appearing humble, yet he didn't deny defeating Liu Qing and Lin Xiuya. By now, he didn't need to hide anything anymore.
This Inner Academy was a place for showing off one's spirit. If you wanted to stand out, you had to display your strength. His continued silence and forbearance would seem out of place.
"You're an interesting kid. Come with me, and I'll introduce you to the situation here."
Elder Liu smiled and turned to lead the way. Yan Qingshan followed closely, while the senior students swarmed into the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower.
Yan Qingshan entered the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower with Elder Liu. The interior of the tower was surprisingly spacious. The first floor alone could accommodate five hundred people for simultaneous cultivation.
Within the vast space of the tower, various cultivation rooms of different sizes were built. At this moment, most of these rooms were already occupied, and small red tags hung above the doors of these rooms.
Yan Qingshan followed Elder Liu to the center of the black tower, a bottomless black hole, dark and gloomy, stretching to the end of the line of sight, without a trace of light.
"Don't!"
Yan Qingshan was about to move further forward when Elder Liu stopped him in time. Unbeknownst to Elder Liu, Yan Qingshan's eyes flashed with green flames.
Through the green flames, observing the endless black hole, he caught a glimpse of a sleeping formless fire python, emitting extremely high temperatures and countless Fallen Heart Flames.
"Young Yan, which floor do you plan to cultivate on?"
Elder Liu chatted amiably, leading Yan Qingshan down to the second floor. The flame aura here was significantly denser than on the first floor. Cultivating on this floor required considerable strength, but for Yan Qingshan, the flame aura density here was still too low.
"The fifth floor, perhaps!"
Before coming to the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower, Yan Qingshan had exchanged some Fire Energy from Liu Qing and Lin Xiuya, and with the gains from the Fire Energy Hunting Competition, he had gathered a total of five hundred, enough for a hundred days of secluded cultivation on the fifth floor, sufficient for him to switch Dou Qi Methods and advance further.
He had advantages that ordinary people didn't. Even with strong fire resistance, ordinary low-level Dou Spirit would inevitably suffer from fire toxins while cultivating in the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower, and would have to leave after five to seven days at most.
But he possessed the Green Lotus Core Flame, so fire toxins were not a problem for him. He could cultivate for as long as he wanted.
"The fifth floor? That's where intermediate Dou Spirit go. But since you've even mastered Di-rank Dou Techniques, your physical quality should be fine."
After considering for a moment, Elder Liu nodded. He didn't doubt Yan Qingshan's strength. Although the Fire Energy Hunting Competition had only been less than a day, they, the elders, were already well aware of Yan Qingshan's strength.
Di-rank Dou Techniques were rarely truly mastered even by them, the Dou King experts.
And someone like Yan Qingshan, who could control it so freely, was virtually nonexistent.
In this regard, Yan Qingshan surpassed most of the elders in the Inner Academy, which was one of the reasons Elder Liu took a special interest in him.
Yan Qingshan followed Elder Liu to the fifth floor. The fire aura in the air was almost tangible, and the rings of almost colorless scorching air seemed to give the Fallen Heart Flame a physical form.
Under this temperature, even Yan Qingshan's forehead was sweating.
Elder Liu pointed to a corner of the advanced cultivation room area, where rooms were sparse. "An advanced cultivation room just became available there. The previous cultivator went out on a mission and won't be back for several months. You can go there."
"Thank you, Elder Liu!"
Yan Qingshan thanked Elder Liu and walked in that direction. The fifth floor was mostly for Dou Spirit-level students, and there weren't many students of this level in the Inner Academy, so you rarely saw students walking around casually.
Yan Qingshan entered the advanced cultivation room smoothly. After inserting the Red Fire Crystal Card into the card slot of the advanced cultivation room, Yan Qingshan slowly unfurled a scroll with a green-blue glow on the stone platform.
"Xuan Wood Azure Dragon Art, condense life wood Qi, achieve the supreme dragon body, condense the source dragon Qi with the origin of life, and when the dragon Qi is first formed, the world changes..."
Yan Qingshan carefully read and pondered this Di-rank Dou Qi Method, increasingly feeling its subtlety and depth. Di-rank Dou Qi Methods were completely different from Xuan-rank techniques in terms of energy refinement and efficiency. Even just trying to enter the threshold required tremendous effort.
"Hoo..."
Yan Qingshan slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air and sat cross-legged on the cultivation stone bed. An aura of surging life Qi formed an azure lion outside his body, and Yan Qingshan also carried extremely strong fire and lightning energy.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes sharply, a flash of azure light in his pupils, and the roaring azure lion outside his body suddenly collapsed. His aura began to show signs of instability, but this didn't last long.
The Xuan Wood Azure Dragon Art scroll on the stone platform slowly floated up, and an azure light shot towards Yan Qingshan's forehead, entering his body and guiding his Dou Qi to switch to a more complex and profound Dou Qi Method route.
As his Dou Qi circulated, the light azure Dou Qi outside his body gradually condensed into a dragon shape, and dragon roars echoed continuously.
Yan Qingshan's Dou Qi fluctuated in speed, his aura fluctuating in strength, and his body underwent a deep transformation as it was tempered by the new, high-quality Dou Qi. He became a different person.
A deep green flame appeared on Yan Qingshan's forehead, and then his hair fluttered as the flames enveloped it. From a distance, it looked as if his head was leaping with green flames, like a fire god from mythology.
Yan Qingshan entered a deep transformation state after switching Dou Qi Method. The cultivation room suddenly fluctuated, and Fallen Heart Flame energy was drawn from all directions, eventually condensing into strands of slightly tangible light red energy.
These tangible light red energies swirled and roared outside Yan Qingshan's body, and then, as if attracted by some force, they frantically crashed into Yan Qingshan's body, completely merging into him.
Yan Qingshan's body was like a black hole, accepting all comers. Countless energies were absorbed by him, and even more energies were drawn over.
In the cultivation room, an extremely strange scene appeared. Yan Qingshan floated slightly in mid-air, enveloped in a light red energy halo. The violent energy fluctuations spread rapidly through the cultivation room like ripples.
At this moment, Yan Qingshan was like a bottomless pit with infinite suction, swallowing all the extremely dense Fallen Heart Flame energy in the cultivation room.
This almost terrifying absorption would probably leave those cautious cultivators dumbfounded if they knew about it.