"Flaming Bar," Red Lotus petals bloomed and swept up Ji Dong's body, disappearing silently from the luxurious room.
Ji Dong could not help but take a deep breath as he stood firmly in the familiar red world and sensed the surging fire element in the air. As his strength gradually increased, he grew closer to the fire element in the core world. He was no longer the frail young man who could be roasted at any time.
To Ji Dong's surprise, the Flaming Bar was actually waiting for him on the rock platform in the center of the Earth's Core. Her gaze was filled with desire as she looked at him.
"Flaming Bar, what's wrong?" This did not seem like the Flaming Bar's style. Ignoring the fact that she had suddenly refused to see him a few days ago, even under normal circumstances, she would only appear after he arrived. This was the first time she had waited for him like this.
The Flaming Bar pouted her red lips and said with some dissatisfaction, "Ji Dong, you're hiding something. What's up with your Yi Shooting the Nine Suns today?"
Only then did Ji Dong come to a realisation. He laughed, "So it's because of that. My body wasn't up to par in the past, so I couldn't use it. It's all thanks to you soaking me in dragon's blood that my body is strong enough to use that technique. I'll make it for you to drink now."
The Flaming Bar blinked. Only then did her anger turn into joy. She said, "That's more like it. But, it's only for a day."
"Alright, alright. As long as you like it, you can do it anytime. However, it's a little troublesome to make the Yi Shooting the Nine Suns. I need a table."
The Flaming Bar smiled, "That's easy. Just cut a rock." Perhaps only the Flaming Bar could say that it was easy to cut a rock that was far harder than steel.
The temperature of the Earth's Core Lake was already very high. Although Ji Dong was already extremely resistant to fire, he was still drenched in sweat after making the Yi Shooting the Nine Suns. He began to cultivate tiredly.
Standing beside Ji Dong, she quietly savored the different flavors of each glass of Fallen Sun. The Flaming Bar's gaze remained on the slightly pale young man. She stood there for a few hours. By the time Ji Dong woke up from his cultivation, the glass on the rock table was already empty. However, the Flaming Bar was still standing there, silently watching him.
When Ji Dong raised his head and saw Raging Flame's calm gaze, his heart felt as if it had been struck fiercely. His gaze suddenly became a little blurry, and even the pleasure of absorbing a large amount of fire elements had been thrown to the back of his mind. He softly called out, "Raging Flame, have you been standing here waiting for me?"
"Ah!" The Flaming Bar woke up from the silence. She said, "I'm not waiting for you. I'm thinking about something." Turning her head away, she did not let Ji Dong see the panic in her eyes. She did not know why, but ever since she saved Ji Dong from the hands of the Snow Dragon, Feng Shuang, his position in her heart seemed to have changed. In the past, the Flaming Bar only treated Ji Dong as an interesting little friend. Now, he was even more like a family member that she could not bear to part with.
When the Flaming Bar turned around, her expression had already returned to normal. She did not let Ji Dong see any flaws in her expression. She said, "Ji Dong, your ability is still far from enough. After soaking in the dragon blood, your body will be much tougher than an ordinary person's. You will also have a part of the dragon's self-healing ability. Although you cannot be compared to a real dragon, your body will be much stronger. At the same time, the dragon blood has also increased your body's resistance to various elements. Although Feng Shuang was an Ice Dragon, I have neutralized the element in the dragon blood. Therefore, apart from having a strong resistance to the fire element, you also have a certain resistance to the wood, earth, metal, and water elements. Regardless of the Yin or Yang element, you can resist all of them. However, your overall strength is still very weak. You can't slack off in your cultivation. I'm the Queen of the underground world. It's inevitable that I'm not around to deal with some matters in the underground world. Even when I'm not around, you can't slack off in your cultivation. Do you understand?"
Ji Dong understood that the Flaming Bar was reprimanding him for being dispirited for the past few days. He blushed and nodded. Whenever they talked about cultivation, the Flaming Bar would obviously reveal her majesty as the Queen. At this time, she was more like a teacher than a friend to Ji Dong.
Flaming Bar said, "Go back, it's almost daybreak in the human world. You now have four benchmark skills. You have to practice diligently. The requirement to obtain the next benchmark skill is to use each of the four benchmark skills a thousand times. At the same time, your mana must reach two crowns. This thousand times is different from what you used previously. You must use the Bing Wu Primordial Yang Sacred Fire and the Ding Si Underworld Spiritual Fire to count. The next time you come, you can directly practice the skills. When you practice the two Sovereign Skills, it is also a tempering of the fire element. Your mana has risen to level 14 because of the previous nine days of hard work."
Ji Dong asked, "Flaming Bar, how many benchmark skills do the two Sovereign Skills have in total? When will I be able to learn their Hit Skill? "
The Flaming Bar smiled indifferently and said, "Don't you understand? The skills of the two sovereigns are called standard skills because you don't have enough magic power. As your strength increases, every standard skill can be a hit skill. When you use their skills together, their power will far surpass normal hit skills. However, you might as well learn some normal skills from the Heavenly Stem Academy. After all, the skills of the two sovereigns consume a lot of magic power. When you don't need them, it's not bad to have some normal skills to hide your true strength. Just like the fireball you just learned, it's more practical. "
Ji Dong nodded and said, "I understand. Flaming Bar, I'll go back first. Goodbye." Pieces of Red Lotus rolled up. Just as Ji Dong was about to be teleported away, the Flaming Bar suddenly said, "Ji Dong, remember, every time you make a cocktail for me, it can't be worse than this one. The Yi Shoots the Ninth Sun that you made is very good."
"Uh …" Everything in front of him was fiery red, and the sound of the Flaming Bar echoed in his ears. Ji Dong's body had already been teleported away. He really regretted it now. Why did he have to compete with the Bartenders Guild for no reason? Can't it be worse than the Yi Shoots the Ninth Sun? Even he only knew a few of these top-notch techniques. If he wanted to make a better cocktail, he would have to work hard on the ingredients. However, the better the cocktail with the ingredients, the higher the price. He didn't have any income now. Moreover, some top-notch cocktails could only be found by chance. They couldn't be bought even if he had the money.
Of course, Ji Dong wouldn't tell this to the Flaming Bar. No matter what the Flaming Bar wanted, as long as he could do it, he would try his best to satisfy them. As for the difficulties, that was his own problem.
When he returned to the hotel, the sky outside had just brightened. Feeling the peak state of the dual-elemental magic in the Origin Yin Yang Crown, Ji Dong couldn't help but smile. Ever since he condensed the Origin Yin Yang Crown, his cultivation could be said to have advanced by leaps and bounds. The two Sovereign Marks helped him increase by one level, and the remaining three levels could be said to be the result of his unremitting efforts. In just two months, he had advanced to level 14. Although the process was arduous, it was definitely worth it. Only by winning two championships could he obtain the next Benchmark Technique. This was the current goal that Ji Dong was working hard towards.
Taking advantage of the balance of Yin and Yang elements in the early morning, Ji Dong rested for a while. When Bissou and Carr came to knock on his door, the three simply ate something and left the hotel.
Bissou had already asked the Fire Cauldron Hotel branch of the Fire Cauldron Chamber of Commerce. The Heavenly Stem Academy was in the northern part of the Central Plains City, occupying a very large area. Due to the size of the Central Plains City, it would take nearly an hour to reach it on foot. Therefore, the three left early and took the hotel carriage straight to the northern part of the city.
Sitting in the carriage, looking out the window, Ji Dong and the other two couldn't help but sigh at the magnificence of the city. When passing through the city center, they could vaguely see the heavily guarded pale-golden walls of the Central Plains Empire.
Although it was early in the morning, there were already a large number of people on the wide streets. Business people were busy opening their doors, and all kinds of work were busy eating breakfast by the roadside. It was a very lively scene. As it turned out, it was a very wise decision for them to leave early. Even if they took the carriage, it still took them more than an hour to reach the northern part of the city.
"Three Young Masters, we've arrived." The carriage stopped. The driver lifted the curtain and respectfully made an inviting gesture.
Ji Dong and the other two jumped down from the carriage. Bissou said to the driver, "You can go back. If we pass the assessment today, we should be able to directly enter the academy."
While Bissou was talking to the driver, Ji Dong's gaze was already cast forward. His eyebrows slightly twitched, and his eyes subconsciously revealed a glimmer of surprise.
Just a hundred meters in front of them was a tall wall. Compared to the palace they had passed by earlier, it was slightly shorter, but only by a little. The wall before them was at least eight zhang tall. The wall itself was pale yellow, and although it wasn't as luxurious as the pale-golden color of the palace, there were ten strange and incomparably dazzling totems carved on the wall that stretched as far as the eye could see.
Every ten totems formed a group, and they extended endlessly to both sides. Just the carving alone must have cost a lot of money. One must know that on the eight zhang tall wall, the background of each totem was at least ten zhang long. This was definitely a grand siege. Judging from the width of the wall, it was at least a thousand meters wide. Such a grand scale was probably only second to the palace of the Central Plains Empire.
With a single glance, Ji Dong saw the third fiery red phoenix totem in the first group, and the fourth was a blue serpent with wings on its back, the Soaring Serpent of the Fuhuo series. The other eight totems were also extremely exquisite. From a distance, just the wall alone gave off a majestic pressure.
Without needing any introduction, Ji Dong and the other two immediately understood that the wall before them belonged to the Heavenly Stem Academy. As expected of an academy jointly funded by the five empires. Even in Ji Dong's previous life, he couldn't remember seeing any academy of such scale.
Carr said, "Boss, the main gate is over there. Shall we go over?"
Ji Dong nodded, and the three of them walked along the wall towards the main gate. It was about two hundred meters long and fifty meters wide, with granite as the main body, marble as the exterior, and jade carvings as the decorations. On both sides of the huge gate, there was a row of large words.
On the left were A, C, E, Geng, and Ren, which represented learning during the day of Yang. On the right were B, D, Ji, Xin, and Gui, which represented learning during the night of Yin. In the middle of the gate, there were four large golden words: Heavenly Stem Academy.
In front of the gate, ten young men and women around the age of twenty were lined up in a row. In front of each of them was a table with a piece of paper on it, and behind them was a banner — "Freshmen Assessment Registration Point". Needless to say, these ten men and women each represented a department. To register, one just had to go to the corresponding department.
Whether it was because it was too early, or because the number of students accepted by the Heavenly Stem Academy was too few, there weren't many people in front of the ten tables.
Ji Dong and the other two quickly walked over. Since they were already here, of course they had to register first. They could also understand the rules of the entrance exam and make preparations so that they could have a head start during the exam.
When they got close, the three of them couldn't help but be a bit stunned. Sitting behind the ten tables, among the young men and women representing the various departments, there were actually two that they recognized.
Sitting behind the Third Fire Department's table was Zhu Gui's older brother, Zhu Tian, who had pleaded for Ji Dong during the final exam. Zhu Tian was older than them by five years, and was now a youth nearing twenty years of age.
And the other person they recognized made the three frown. Sitting one seat away from Zhu Tian, behind the Fifth Earth Department's or Yang Department's table, was shockingly the Bartenders Guild's two star bartender, Night Sorrow, who had been fiercely slapped in the face by Ji Dong yesterday. Right now, he was wearing a bright yellow school uniform. He didn't have yesterday's arrogance, but when he saw Ji Dong and the other two, his gaze clearly changed.
Bissou said in a low voice next to Ji Dong's ear, "It's that Night Sorrow. Why did he come to the Heavenly Stem Academy? This guy won't use his position to get revenge, will he?"
Ji Dong shook his head and said, "Let's wait and see. He's from the Fifth Earth Department, different from us. Let's register first."
As they spoke, the three of them took out their recommendation letters from the dean. Ji Dong and Carr went to Zhu Tian's table, while Bissou went to the next table, in front of a slender female student with long pink hair.
"Zhu Tian, do you still remember us?" Ji Dong took the initiative to go forward and greet Zhu Tian.
Zhu Tian froze for a moment. Although he didn't recognize Ji Dong at first glance, he recognized Carr. After all, Carr's figure was very obvious among his peers. He quickly came to his senses and said, "You're called Carr, right? You are …" After all, he had left the Fire Academy for three years, and he had only met Ji Dong once, so naturally he didn't have a deep impression of him.
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