Chapter 162: Fire Hunting Competition Against Tiangang
The vast forest was filled with all kinds of magical beasts. Every once in a while, a ferocious magical beast would rush out of the forest without knowing the danger, roaring at the griffin formation in the sky. Occasionally, some flying magical beasts would chase after them. However, whenever these magical beasts approached the formation within a hundred meters, they would be frightened and retreat by the powerful aura surging from the bodies of Hu Qian and the other three.

Of course, there were also some powerful monsters that ignored the pressure from Hu Qian and the other three and forcibly attacked the griffin formation. At this time, Hu Qian and the three old men began to show their shocking strength. Every time they waved their hands, powerful energy streaked across the sky like thunder, and then everyone heard a muffled sound, and those huge monsters exploded into blood all over the sky, flying down.

Along the way, all kinds of ferocious monsters came one after another, but there was still no monster that could pass through the blockade of Hu Qian and the four people.

The students were both shocked and envious. Judging from their aura, most of these monsters had the power to contend with any one of them. However, even so, they were still turned into bloody mist at the slightest gesture of Hu Qian and the others. Such power was truly mouth-watering.

Xiao Yuan was calm about this. After all, he had fought with a Douhuang master before, so he naturally wouldn't make a fuss like the other students.

In this way, after nearly an hour, the flying speed of the griffin formation finally slowed down. Feeling the slowdown, Xiao Yuan swept his eyes forward. However, except for a bottomless ravine under his feet, the rest of the place was still endless green shade. Let alone the inner courtyard, there was not even a single person in sight.

Xiao Yuan subconsciously released Ting Feng Yin, and after a moment, as expected, he sensed nothing.

"landing!"

The fierceness in Hu Qian's eyes gradually faded, and the powerful aura that had previously risen from his body also quietly retracted into his body. He smiled and waved at the flying formation, and the ten griffins spread their wings and slowly landed on the opposite side of the mountain stream below.

As the griffin formation landed safely, one figure after another jumped down at Hu Qian's signal, filling the open space. Everyone looked around with confused faces.

"Where is this? Is the inner courtyard here?"

After landing, Hu Jia was the first one who couldn't control his temper and hurriedly asked Hu Qian a question, and when the others heard this question, they all turned their eyes to Hu Qian.

"The inner courtyard is not so easy to enter." Hu Qian smiled meaningfully, and then under the gaze of everyone, he slowly walked forward for ten steps, paused, raised his hand and waved it. A stream of energy burst out from his hand and finally shot towards the space in front of him.

Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, a certain space hit by the energy created waves like water waves. These ripples fluctuated rapidly, and finally a pale silver door that was about 20 to 30 feet tall appeared out of thin air!
Looking at the strangely appearing silver door, everyone was shocked. Obviously, they had not expected that this seemingly ordinary place could hide such a mystery.

Under the gaze of everyone, the silver door slowly opened with a crisp sound. The scene behind the door was as dense as ever, and seemed to be no different from the dense forest seen in front of them.

"follow me."

With a wave of his hand, Hu Qian took the lead and walked into the silver gate.

Xiao Yuan knew that this was some kind of method of using the power of space, so he immediately pulled Xiao Yu along and followed.

Xiao Yan was somewhat curious about this magical method, so he stopped to observe for a while, but found that his third brother's back disappeared after he stepped into the silver gate!

"What a strange method!"

This scene made Xiao Yan shake his head in amazement, but after recalling the wrinkles in the space in front of the library, he suddenly understood that the methods of those super powerful people were indeed difficult to understand at their current level.

After marveling in his heart, Xiao Yan pulled Xun'er and followed.

After everyone including the ten griffins entered the silver gate, the gate slowly closed. The last circle of silver energy ripples spread out, and the silver gate gradually dissipated and finally disappeared completely.

As he stepped through the silver gate, Xiao Yuan felt himself in a trance, and then his feet stepped on solid ground. He looked forward and found that the scene in front of him was still the same as the previous forest, except that at the entrance of the forest, two old men and several middle-aged men appeared out of nowhere. In addition, behind them, there were nearly twenty young people standing. Xiao Yuan glanced at them and found that they all wore a badge with a tower-like pattern engraved on it on their chests.

"Haha, old man Hu, you are always so punctual. I feel relieved when I ask you to escort the new students. How are the new students this year?"

At this time, one of the two old men saw the large group of people coming in and smiled at the leader Hu Qian.

"Very good, the overall level is better than last year. The top few may have the potential to impact the strong list." Hu Qian smiled when he heard it, and then said, "I didn't expect that it would be your turn to be on duty this year. It looks like you will be tired."

"There's nothing we can do." The two old men shook their heads helplessly.

"Come here, six of you."

Hu Qian turned around and waved to Xiao Yuan and the other six. After seeing them approaching, he pointed at the two old men and said:

"These two are the elders of the inner courtyard. This one is Elder Su, and the other one is Elder Qing. You can look for them if you have any problems in the inner courtyard. Hehe, these six guys are the top five of this year's selection. They are quite strong."

"Oh?" Hearing this, the two elders looked at the six people with a little surprise, and asked in confusion: "At this age, even if they can get into the top five, their potential is indeed much better than the previous class. But why are there six people in the top five? Isn't it against the rules?"

"Well, there's nothing we can do. You'll know when the time comes. This is definitely in accordance with the rules. Don't worry!"

Hearing this, Hu Qian coughed dryly and immediately made a promise.

"okay."

Hearing Hu Qian say this, the two elders nodded and stopped dwelling on the matter.

"Wow, what beautiful girls! It seems that there will be two more people on the inner courtyard's beauty ranking." After Xiao Yuan and the other six came out, the young people standing behind the middle-aged men suddenly brightened their eyes and whistled and laughed.

"Shut up! Anyone who talks nonsense again will have five days of tower repair time deducted!" Elder Su turned around and shouted. Those young people immediately stopped talking with a grin on their faces. Apparently, the so-called deduction of tower repair time made them extremely wary.

After scolding the group of young people so that they dared not say anything more, Elder Su turned around and slowly said to Xiao Yuan and the other freshmen: "You are all new here. I hope you can adapt to this place as much as possible. If you do that, you will gain great benefits. Look at these bastards. Although they passed the external courtyard trials in previous years, they were only ranked at the bottom. But now, in just one year, I dare say that their strength can definitely enter the top ten among you."

Hearing this, Xiao Yuan was slightly startled and cast his gaze towards those young men. After a quick look, he realized that what Elder Su said was true. The strength of these young men was indeed good. Although they were not his opponents even if they joined forces, it was not difficult for them to deal with the students behind him.

Considering that these people were only ranked at the bottom in the trials in previous years, they have now made such a huge improvement. It is enough to see how rapidly their strength has improved after entering the inner courtyard.

Fire energy, Qi refining tower, and fallen heart flame.

Thinking about the distant memories in his mind, Xiao Yuan's eyes flickered with a thoughtful look.

It was not until Elder Su raised his hand and threw out a handful of pitch-black chips, making them float in front of everyone, that Xiao Yuan came to his senses and reached out to hold them in his hand.

When Xiao Yuan picked up the chip, he immediately felt a strange heat seeping out from it. He immediately lowered his head to take a closer look. On the chip, there was a transparent mirror, and on the mirror, there was a big red word printed: "Five"!
Fire crystal card?

Looking at the chip in his hand, Xiao Yuan raised his eyebrows. Just as he was about to put it back into the ring, he noticed that the group of young people standing behind the middle-aged man in front of him were looking at the black chip in his hands with fiery eyes, with undisguised greed in their eyes.

Want fire energy? Coincidentally, I want that too!
Xiao Yuan smiled slightly in his heart, and immediately put the Fire Crystal Card into the storage ring.

"It's hard to explain this, and you will understand it later. However, you only need to know one thing now, which is to take good care of the chip in your hand as if it were your life. When you enter the inner courtyard, you will understand its importance to you! Of course, you may understand a little bit if you look at the eyes of these guys."

At the end, Elder Su pointed at the group of young people and smiled. Xiao Yuan turned his head to look at Xiao Yan, then looked at Hu Jia and Wu Hao, and then nodded slightly.

Xiao Yan immediately understood and returned the look.

"Next, you need to enter the forest and successfully reach the inner courtyard at the end of the forest." Elder Su's finger still stayed on the group of young people, and said lightly, "When you shuttle through this forest, be careful of them! According to the rules of the inner courtyard, they can attack you at will in this forest.

Remember, the word on the chip in your hand is very tempting to them, so they will use all means except killing to obtain the "fire energy" on your chip. You will find this word very familiar and lovely in the future!
Now, you have to avoid them or defeat them. As long as you don't get caught by them and successfully reach the inner courtyard, you will have the final reward. The earlier you arrive, the richer the reward! "

After saying this, Elder Su suddenly moved his finger towards the forest behind him, and then continued:

"This is considered a test before entering the inner courtyard. We also call it the 'Fire Energy Hunting Competition'!
Now, I declare that this year's "Fire Energy Hunting Competition" has officially begun! Students, start escaping!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Xiao Yuan and Xiao Yan came to Hu Jia and Wu Hao together.

"What are you going to do?"

When they saw the two brothers from the Xiao family surrounding them, they subconsciously became alert and asked with frowns.

"I have an idea that I think you two might be interested in. Want to hear it?"

Xiao Yuan said with a smile.

"Can you not listen?"

Hu Jia was silent for a moment after hearing this, and then asked in a low voice.

"that's not allowed!"

Xiao Yuan's smile became brighter and brighter, like a cunning fox.

"Fuck, why are you still arguing for advice?"

Hu Jia's pretty face turned serious when she heard that and she cursed.

But her body followed Xiao Yuan's steps towards the forest very obediently.

Wu Hao was not a fool. He had already deduced some information from Elder Su's words just now. He knew that Xiao Yuan most likely wanted to win over himself and Hu Jia to form a strong team. Naturally, he would not refuse. After all, if the so-called "fire energy" in this black chip was really important, with Xiao Yuan's help, he would definitely feel more at ease than those other students who wanted to rely on themselves.

The six people soon arrived at a secluded jungle and began to talk.

"Tell me, what do you want to do?"

Hu Jia asked carelessly, anyway, she was no match for Xiao Yuan, so instead of resisting, it would be better to cooperate.

Wu Hao on the side also cast a curious look.

"You all heard what Elder Su said just now."

Xiao Yuan nodded when he heard this, and in his mind he corrected the memories he had sorted out into appropriate words, and then he analyzed it seriously:

"Since the fire energy in this black crystal card is displayed in numerical values ​​and is coveted by the inner courtyard students, it means that this thing is probably some kind of important resource, and its function is probably similar to currency. From the fact that a mere five points of fire energy can make them so covetous, it can be seen that the monetary value of this fire energy is also extremely high!

Of course, there is another possibility, that is, in the inner courtyard, the fire energy is consumed very quickly, and their demand for this fire energy is very high, to the point where they will not let go of any fire energy!"

At this point, the other five people all nodded in agreement, and then Hu Jia couldn't help asking: "So should we find a way to reach the end quickly? Can't you fly? Why don't you just take us and fly over there!"

Hearing this, Wu Hao on the side couldn't hold it anymore.

After thinking about it at noon, he had guessed that Xiao Yuan's wings were probably the legendary flying fighting skill. Even if this thing was advanced, it couldn't carry five people at the same time, right? Wouldn't it be exhausting? It was okay for him to carry his girlfriend, but to carry outsiders? Haha!

Besides, he had just observed that although the students in the inner courtyard were strong, he might not be their match. It was not nice of him to be scared before they even started fighting!
"There's no need for that. My brother means that since the students in the inner courtyard need fire energy so much, we probably won't be able to do anything with the little fire energy we have after entering the inner courtyard. In that case, we might as well snatch the fire energy from the old students in the inner courtyard! After all, the rules don't say that we can't snatch it from them!

Besides, we also need these seniors to explain the specific effects of fire energy to us!"

Xiao Yan couldn't listen any longer and immediately pointed out Xiao Yuan's hidden meaning.

"That makes sense! Besides, our strength is not weak either. If we combine our forces, those old students may not be our opponents!"

Hu Jia suddenly realized what was going on when he heard this. He patted his smooth forehead, smiled, and said confidently.

"Well, if you have no objection, then I will command the team and we will split all the profits equally. How about that?"

Seeing Wu Hao nodding in agreement, Xiao Yuan also suggested with a smile.

"I have no opinion."

When Wu Hao saw Xiao Yuan's gaze, he expressed his opinion without hesitation.

"Well, as long as you don't regret it, I have no objection, but you can't use us as cannon fodder!"

Hu Jia naturally would not refuse, but still reminded him with some concern.

"Don't worry. Since I took the initiative to recruit you, it is naturally for the common prosperity. I will not burn bridges after crossing the river."

Xiao Yuan smiled and nodded when he heard this, then raised his eyebrows and continued:

"I sensed a strange aura. I think it's the inner courtyard team. Follow me!"

After saying that, Xiao Yuan turned around decisively and ran quickly towards the forest behind him.

(End of this chapter)