Starting as a supporting character in Doupo

Xiao Yan, who was standing to the side, simply nodded to Han Yue as a greeting.

The students around them, seeing the two's hands clasped tightly together, had something flash in their eyes... oh, heartbreak.

Elder Liu glanced at the two of them thoughtfully and said with a smile, "Hehe, you are one of the few male students in the inner courtyard who can shake hands with Yue'er."

"That's truly an honor." Xiao Fan smiled faintly, his hand gently and politely grasping the slender, soft skin before releasing it.

"Junior Brother Xiao Fan, you guys have really stole the show this year!" Han Yue looked at Xiao Fan's right hand, which he had just touched and released, and said to him with a smile, a hint of satisfaction in her eyes.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Fan simply smiled before replying, "There was no other way; I was forced into it!"

Upon hearing this, Han Yue reminded Xiao Fan, "Then you'd better be careful about what happens next."

"Sigh, we've already run into each other!" Xiao Fan waved his hand helplessly.

"Oh? It seems some senior students have already come looking for trouble with you." Han Yue was somewhat surprised, then a faint smile appeared on her lips. "I suppose you should already know about the situation in the inner courtyard, and you also know the advantage of having powerful protection. Do you have any plans to join any faction?" Han Yue stared at Xiao Fan, speaking seemingly casually.

Hearing Han Yue's words, Xiao Fan helplessly shrugged and pulled Xiao Yan next to him to block her. "Um, my junior brother has already established a force called 'Panmen' at the suggestion of this year's freshmen."

"You built your own force? And all the members are freshmen?" As Xiao Fan finished speaking, not only Han Yue, but even Elder Liu standing to the side couldn't help but look at the two of them.

Han Yue frowned slightly, and after pondering for a moment, she said to the two of them, "Your actions may cause trouble. Every year, the new students are the time when major forces absorb new members. Basically, all the new students are divided up. Now you have taken them all in one go. I estimate that you will have a lot of trouble in the future."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Fan and Xiao Yan exchanged a glance and smiled faintly: "Who cares? We'll deal with whatever comes our way."

Xiao Fan joked, "If I really can't make it here, I'll come and seek refuge with Senior Han Yue."

"Hehe." Han Yue was amused by Xiao Fan's words and shook her head with a smile. "If you need any help in the future, just let me know."

"Hehe, thank you very much, senior." Xiao Fan put his arm around Xiao Yan's neck and smiled at Han Yue.

"Alright, you two chat with Elder Liu. I still have to go to the sixth floor, so I'll be leaving now." Han Yue smiled at Xiao Fan, nodded to Elder Liu, and then left.

"Hehe, Xiao Fan, how's Yue'er?" After Han Yue left, Elder Liu looked at Xiao Fan with a smile and asked.

"Tsk tsk, I bet Senior Sister Han Yue has quite a few suitors in the inner academy!" Xiao Fan chuckled. Such a beautiful woman, with white hair—oops, silver hair—must have attracted quite a few students!

"Hehe, I see her attitude towards you is quite different," Elder Liu said teasingly. "With your talent, it probably won't be long before you have a chance to succeed!"

Xiao Fan rolled his eyes at Elder Liu, "Never mind, Elder Liu, why don't you introduce the Heavenly Flame Refining Tower to us first!"

"I almost forgot!" Elder Liu slapped his forehead and said to the two of them, "Come with me." He then led the way, taking the two of them into the tower.

The black tower, which looks enormous from the outside, also has a considerable interior space. Following Elder Liu, Xiao Fan discovered that the space on the first floor could probably accommodate five hundred people cultivating at the same time. To put that in perspective, the entire inner academy only has about a thousand students.

Inside the circular tower, there are many cultivation rooms of varying sizes. However, most of the rooms are already occupied. Above the door of each room hang red signs indicating the level of cultivation: advanced, intermediate, and low.

It seems that this is the cultivation room for different cultivation levels in the Heavenly Flame Refining Tower that Atai was talking about!

As they moved forward, the two discovered that the training rooms in the tower were more advanced closer to the center, while those near the edge of the tower were mostly low-level training rooms.

"The training rooms in this Heavenly Flame Refining Tower all need to be fought for by the students themselves. The amount of fire energy for each day of training on each floor is fixed, but the effects obtained from different levels of training rooms on each floor are different," Elder Liu said to the two of them, pointing to the training rooms around them.

The students who occasionally passed by looked on with surprise as Elder Liu kindly led the two on a tour. After all, although Elder Liu was kind, not everyone could be treated differently by him. Their curious gazes swept over Xiao Fan and the other person, and then they frowned and left, entering some training rooms that were not occupied by students.

"The same fire energy, different cultivation effects, wouldn't this lead to a situation where the strong become stronger and the weak struggle to catch up?" Upon hearing Elder Liu's explanation, Xiao Yan frowned and asked.

"There's no way around it, but when faced with adversity, some people will always unleash their potential. Only when suppressed to the extreme can the unleashed potential allow lagging students to catch up with those who were once unattainable. This happens every year," Elder Liu said with a shake of his head and a smile.

Chapter 135 The Invisible Fire Python

"Force your potential to be unleashed..." Xiao Yan nodded in agreement and continued forward with Elder Liu. Before they knew it, they had reached the center.

As Xiao Fan gazed at the bottomless black hole ahead, a mixture of suppressed emotion and excitement flashed in his eyes.

After all, this is where the fire spirit of the Fallen Heart Flame resides. It's no wonder Xiao Fan is nervous at such close range.

"This is..."

Xiao Fan approached the bottomless black hole. There was no obstruction from top to bottom. It should have run through the entire black tower. If the top of the black tower on the ground were removed, the bottom of the black tower could probably be seen directly from the sky.

Within the pitch-black abyss, an endless heat seemed to emanate from within. If one were to sense it closely, one could discover that the heat of the entire Heavenly Flame Refining Tower seemed to originate from this bottomless black hole.

A glint of darkness flashed deep within Xiao Fan's eyes, while within Xiao Yan's body, the Azure Lotus Earth Core Flame also circulated slightly, and a hint of cyan flashed in his pupils.

The two of them peeked out slightly, looking down into the dark, deep hole.

When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you!

The sentence suddenly flashed through Xiao Fan's mind. Then, thinking of the barrier set up by the Dou Zun and the sealing formation of the academy, he felt at ease and continued to gaze into the abyss.

With the blessing of the Chaos Fire, the pitch-black space below seemed to gradually close in, and then the blackness slowly faded. Just as Xiao Fan continued to stare, he discovered that the space suddenly underwent a subtle distortion, and these distortions, as if they were alive, were climbing up towards the top of the tower.

"An invisible distortion, a fallen heart flame?"

"Back off!"

Just as the two continued their investigation, Elder Liu suddenly exclaimed from behind, placed his withered hand on their shoulders, and pulled them away from the dark cave entrance.

As Elder Liu pulled, an invisible energy burst forth from the black hole, hissing like a snake flicking its tongue.

The pitch-black flames reappeared in Xiao Fan's eyes. Above the previously empty black hole, a huge, invisible fire python, more than ten meters wide and of unknown length, now appeared.

The invisible flame that had just appeared in Xiao Fan's heart enveloped the entire snake's body, its huge triangular eyes coldly watching Xiao Fan and the other person.

It angrily crashed towards the top of the black hole, only to be blocked by a layer of folded space. Invisible flames shot out, impacting the space at the top. After several attempts, it still couldn't break through the black hole's range. It roared in frustration for a while, glanced at Xiao Fan with its triangular eyes, then turned its head and fell into the black hole again.

As the fire python disappeared, the rising temperature in the surrounding area gradually returned to normal after a short while.

Elder Liu, noticing that the surrounding space had returned to normal, murmured with lingering fear, "That was close. How could this thing suddenly awaken?"

"Elder Liu, what is that..." Xiao Fan knew it was the Fallen Heart Flame, but Xiao Yan still didn't understand and asked Elder Liu with a look of lingering fear.

Hearing Xiao Yan's question, Elder Liu finally came to his senses and said to the two of them seriously, "You must not mention what happened here today to anyone! Originally, students were not allowed to approach the central area, but I was a bit negligent today."

Seeing Elder Liu's solemn expression, Xiao Fan and his companion quickly agreed.

"We didn't see anything, except that the temperature had risen a little."

Hearing what the two said, Elder Liu nodded without doubt. After all, even he couldn't see that thing; he could only rely on his senses to roughly judge its location and shape.

"Alright, let's go..."

Elder Liu glanced back at the bottomless, pitch-black cave one last time, still shaken, and led the two of them out.

After leaving the central area, Elder Liu led them around the first floor for a while, pointing out some things to pay attention to, and then looked at the two of them.

"How about we practice today?"

Xiao Fan and Xiao Yan exchanged a glance; their minds were still on the fire python, and they had no interest in cultivation. They shook their heads.

"Alright." Seeing that the two refused, Elder Liu nodded. "Next time you come, I'll find you a good place for intermediate-level cultivation. The cultivation effect there is no worse than that of advanced-level cultivation."

"Even cultivation rooms of the same level can be good or bad?" Xiao Yan looked at Elder Liu with curiosity.

"Haha." Elder Liu chuckled. "Of course, only we tower-guarding elders would know about this situation."

A look of joy flashed across Xiao Fan's face as he bowed to Elder Liu. "Then thank you very much, Elder Liu!"

Elder Liu smiled smugly, then said to the two of them, "By the way, Xiao Fan, I think that if you from the Panmen come here to cultivate in the future, it would be best not to compete with others for advanced cultivation rooms. After all, there are rules in the tower, and as long as the fighting in the tower doesn't result in death, we elders will generally not get involved."

After a moment's hesitation, seemingly afraid of discouraging the two, Elder Liu continued, "Of course, once you have a Dou Ling, you'll be considered a second-rate force in the inner courtyard, and you can compete for it then."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Fan smiled and revealed his strength as a one-star Dou Ling.

"A one-star Dou Ling? You've advanced to Dou Ling?" Elder Liu looked at Xiao Fan in surprise upon sensing his aura. This was a freshman who had just entered the inner courtyard!

"Hehe, it seems I don't need to worry about it."

Xiao Yan, standing to the side, asked curiously, "If having a Dou Lingdu means you're only a second-rate power? Then wouldn't a first-rate power need a Dou Wang to oversee it?"

"Hehe, that's not true. Generally, if a force can produce three or four Dou Ling level experts, it can be considered a first-rate force. As for Dou Wang level experts, they are qualified to compete for the position of elder." Elder Liu smiled and shook his head, speaking calmly.

"So that's how it is..." Xiao Yan nodded upon hearing this.

Afterwards, the two bid farewell to Elder Liu and left the Heavenly Flame Refining Tower for good.

Watching the two figures gradually depart, Elder Liu's eyes flashed with curiosity. "Such talented disciples, both possessing the coveted rare flames, I wonder what kind of teacher could have produced such students..."

"The rise of the Inner Court relied on... and now, two youngsters, not even twenty years old, possess this item. Even the many elders of the Inner Court must be incredibly envious! These two youngsters are truly enviable..."

Chapter 136 Xiao Yan Battles Fu Ao

After leaving the Heavenly Flame Refining Tower, the two exchanged a glance and headed towards the accommodation area without prior arrangement.

Back in the room, Yao Lao's soul floated out from Xiao Yan's ring, set up a simple defensive barrier, and then slowly spoke.

"I never expected Canaan Academy to dare to do this!"

"Teacher, what do you mean?" Xiao Yan pressed, "What exactly is that invisible fire python?"

The old doctor shook his head, a cold smile on his face. "That is the fire spirit of the Fallen Heart Flame. I didn't expect this strange fire to have grown to such an extent that it has actually given birth to a fire spirit with intelligence."

"Moreover, it seems that Canaan Academy is imprisoning it again and using it for students' training. This is simply digging their own grave!"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yan's face showed shock. After all, he had witnessed the power of the Strange Fire, and he hadn't expected Canaan Academy to dare imprison it. However, thinking of the spatial folds around the black hole, Xiao Yan asked:

"But teacher, with the strength of Canaan Academy, it shouldn't matter, right? I don't think that fire spirit can break through the seal set up by Canaan Academy at all."

The old apothecary shook his head, about to speak, when Xiao Fan spoke up, "It is better to guide than to block a strange fire. Canaan Academy may seem to have sealed the strange fire within it now, but as the strange fire grows, the restrictions on it will only become weaker and weaker until the day it breaks through the seal, which will be a disaster for the entire academy."

Upon hearing this, the old apothecary looked at Xiao Fan with admiration and nodded. "That's right, Fan'er, you're right. But although the whereabouts of the strange fire have been found, it will still be very difficult to take it from Canaan Academy."

Upon hearing this, all three fell silent.

Xiao Fan couldn't very well tell them, "Don't panic, the strange fire will break through the blockade soon. At that time, all the Dou Huangs in the Black Corner Region will swarm over like flies that have smelled the aroma." Not to mention whether Yao Lao and the other two would believe him, Xiao Fan also couldn't explain the source of his information.

After a moment of hesitation, Xiao Yan broke the silence by speaking first.