Battle Through the Heavens: Beauties Abound Starting with Yunlan and Her Disciples

148: Section 148On the field, the freshmen from all over the Outer Academy quickly formed small teams in groups of two or three based on their usual friendships and relationships after experiencing initial confusion and helplessness.

Then, like startled birds or beasts, they warily and swiftly vanished into the vast and unknown dense forest surrounding them, scattering in all directions.

”Husband, which way should we go next?”

Xiao Yan leaned in close to Yun Xiancheng, her large, clear black-and-white eyes filled with curiosity and a hint of eagerness. ”It’s simple.”

Yun Xiancheng extended a slender finger and pointed casually straight ahead at the path that looked deepest and straightest, a calm smile on his face. ”We’ll just go in a straight line.”

”As for the journey, if we really encounter any seniors who lack eyes and want to pick a fight with us...”

He held the Fire Energy Card, which emitted a faint golden glow, between two fingers and pinched it gently. The smile at the corner of his mouth grew increasingly gentle. ”Then we’ll just conveniently defeat them and take all the Fire Crystals they worked so hard to collect. Wouldn’t that be fine?”

The Fire Energy Card in his hand was a noble, semi-transparent pure gold. Both its material and the energy contained within were worlds apart from the ordinary black crystal cards held by others.

Clearly, this card was a symbol of a higher level or even a privilege within the Inner Academy. However, for him at his current state, this thing was somewhat of a white elephant.

After all, once one’s cultivation reached the Dou Wang Realm, the cultivation effects of the Inner Academy’s so-called Heavenly Flame Training Pagoda were no longer that significant. ”Oh ho! Treasure hunting!”

Upon hearing the word ”take,” the eyes of Xiao Yi Xian, which were usually gentle and quiet, suddenly lit up with two incredibly bright ”thievish gleams” full of excitement and anticipation.

”Husband, husband! What are we waiting for then? Let’s go! I can’t wait to see how many good things those so-called seniors have collected!”

”You little money-grubber.” Yun Xiancheng looked at her adorable, eager expression.

He couldn’t help but reach out and lightly flick her smooth, full forehead, reminding her with feigned annoyance, ”Did you forget how Vice President Hu Qian instructed us just now?”

”There’s no need for us to personally enter the fray for such a childish hunting game. Otherwise, if word gets out, people will think we’re bullying the weak.”

”Ugh... I get it.”

Xiao Yi Xian covered her slightly reddened forehead, pouting her lips aggrievedly.

However, she didn’t actually feel sad or resentful. She simply nodded obediently and said, ”I know, I know. Husband is right. We are strong experts; there’s no need to bully the weak.”

”Seniors of the Inner Academy, huh? Hehe, I’m actually quite looking forward to meeting them.”

Beside them, Nalan Yanran slowly drew her longsword half an inch. The sharp blade reflected a cold, grim light under the forest sunlight.

Her pretty face was currently filled with a powerful, eager fighting spirit.

Ever since coming to Jia Nan Academy, she had been looking forward to dueling with the various geniuses here.

She wanted to see if her reputation as the Young Sect Master of Yunlan Sect could still ring loud and clear in the top academy of this continent.

Unfortunately, the so-called ”elite disciples” of the Outer Academy were somewhat vulnerable and completely failed to pique her interest or provide a challenge.

She wondered how the level of the geniuses in the Inner Academy—the true core of Jia Nan Academy—would be. She hoped they wouldn’t disappoint her again.

”Alright, don’t just stand here.”

Yun Xiancheng looked at them all rubbing their palms and shook his head with a chuckle.

”Let me say this upfront. During this Fire Energy Hunting Competition and the subsequent cultivation period in the Inner Academy, unless special circumstances arise, the three of us—myself, Little Lion, and Xiao Yi Xian—will not easily take action.”

”This rare opportunity to spar with and hone yourselves against geniuses of your generation will be left entirely to you few.” ”Of course!”

Hearing this, Xiao Yan immediately puffed out her chest, which, though flat, was full of youthful vitality. Standing beside Nalan Yanran and her sisters, she said with pride and self-confidence,

”Husband, you just watch peacefully from the side! Even without you three taking action, just the few of us can still dominate the entire Inner Academy!”

Yun Xiancheng looked at her confident and cute appearance, dotingly rubbed the girl’s fluffy little head, and nodded gently. ”Mhm, I believe in you.”

Subsequently, this ”luxurious” freshman team didn’t linger any longer. They traveled together, walking unhurriedly toward the depths of the ancient forest filled with unknowns and a hint of ”malice.”

Just as they had entered the forest for less than a hundred meters, Xiao Yu, who was walking on the flank of the team, suddenly had her mature and charming eyes twitch slightly.

Subconsciously, she cast her gaze toward an inconspicuous corner of the forest. There, in the shadows obscured by dense bushes...

...a slightly disheveled, slender figure wearing an obviously old Jia Nan Academy Inner Academy uniform was carefully peeking out, seemingly scouting for something.

When that figure saw Xiao Yu walking at the front of the team, she first froze for a moment. Then, her pretty face, which was stained with a bit of mud, immediately showed a look of incredible and immense joy!

”Is... is that Xiao Yu?!” A crisp female voice, filled with uncertainty and a slight tremble, came from behind the bushes. Xiao Yu was also taken aback when she heard the familiar voice.

She looked carefully for a moment before finally identifying the person from her slightly disheveled appearance.

305 Xue Ni

”Xue Ni? Is it really you?!”

The newcomer was a senior sister who was one year ahead of Xiao Yu and had been very close to her in the Outer Academy. Although she was a senior sister, because they shared similar temperaments, their relationship was actually like that of biological sisters. ”Yu’er! It really is you! Wuwuwu...” The plump girl called Xue Ni could no longer suppress her emotions after confirming Xiao Yu’s identity.

She dashed out from behind the bushes like a wronged little animal and threw herself directly in front of Xiao Yu, bursting into loud, unrefined wailing.

While crying, she incoherently poured out all the injustices and grievances she had suffered in the Inner Academy over the past year to her only trustworthy sister.

It turned out that the so-called Inner Academy and the Outer Academy were two completely different worlds!

If the Outer Academy could barely be considered a ”school” with basic order and rules, then the Inner Academy was already a ”mini-society” of cruel survival of the fittest.

Here, whether it was cultivation resources or daily necessities, everything needed to be obtained by earning that incredibly precious ”Fire Energy” through constantly completing missions or contributing to powerful student organizations.

For students like her with ordinary talent and background, surviving in such a harsh environment was naturally very difficult. Basically, she was at the bottom of the food chain. Usually, she could only work for various large and small student organizations spontaneously formed by seniors.

”Working...”

...selling her labor to do jobs arranged by the academy in exchange for a tiny bit of meager Fire Energy to get the precious opportunity to enter the Heavenly Flame Training Pagoda to cultivate.

But this cruel working model, similar to ”capitalism” from a past life, naturally wouldn’t allow those at the bottom to earn much money.

During this year, Xue Ni had deeply experienced the miserable life of a worker in a capitalist society—most of the surplus value she created had been ruthlessly exploited by the heads of those student organizations.

Because of this, in the end, not only was she unable to save much Fire Energy, but her lack of strength also led her to become the very bottom ”tail-ender” in the entire Inner Academy.

In desperation, she, like other seniors who couldn’t make it, could only pin her last bit of hope on this annual Fire Energy Hunting Competition.

She hoped to improve her dire situation by ”robbing” the new, weaker ”fat sheep” freshmen.

Standing to the side, Yun Xiancheng quietly listened to this senior’s accusation, which was filled with blood and tears, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit of emotion in his heart.

It seemed that no matter the world, as long as there were people, there would inevitably be classes and oppression. What this young lady had experienced was a most typical and cruel form of capitalist exploitation.

Moreover, it was the very core essence of capitalism; there was no gender distinction, everyone was viewed as labor to be worked to death. Sweatshops truly understood gender equality best.

If one felt that the suffering of such capitalist exploitation was lesser than the ’crotch tragedies’ of cuckold Wuxia novels, then they were truly lost for life.

Beside them, Xiao Yu looked at her curvaceous senior, who was crying like a pear blossom in the rain, and her mature, charming eyes were filled with sympathy and pity.

She reached out, gently patted Xue Ni’s back, and comforted her in a soft voice:

“There, there, Xue Ni, don’t cry. It’s all in the past, everything is over.” “It’s alright,”

Her voice was gentle yet full of strength.

“Hardships cannot break your will. Look, despite going through so many difficulties, didn’t you still rely on your own perseverance to stubbornly pull through?”

“Come, I’ll take you to meet someone.”

She took Xue Ni’s small hand, which was somewhat cold due to nervousness, and a gentle smile full of pride and happiness appeared on her face.

“I’ll take you to meet my husband. Didn’t I mention him to you before? He is a very, very powerful person. With him around, no one will ever dare to bully you again.”

She led Xue Ni by the hand and brought her before Yun Xiancheng.

She tilted up her mature and charming face toward Yun Xiancheng and said softly:

“Husband, this is Xue Ni. She is a sister I met in the academy. You heard what she just went through. I want to take her in so she can stay by our side in the future. That way, she’ll have a place to go. Would that be alright?”

As she spoke, her moving eyes, like autumn waters, looked at Yun Xiancheng and gave a subtle, gentle wink.

Those long eyelashes trembled slightly like butterfly wings. Clearly, she was using a look only the two of them understood to hint to Yun Xiancheng—Husband, look, this one delivered herself to our door...

Yun Xiancheng looked at the curvaceous young lady named Xue Ni, who was weeping like a pear blossom in the rain, and nodded slightly. Well, she was indeed quite good-looking.

She had a full figure with curves in all the right places; at the very least, she wasn’t someone Xiao Yan or Xiao Mei could compare to. She was the curvaceous type like Xiao Yu, which could be considered outstanding. And she was pure and flawless, at least meeting the standard.

He cast an appreciative glance at Xiao Yu that said, ”I trust your judgment,” then nodded slightly and said in a gentle tone filled with tolerance and a hint of dominance:

“Since she is your friend, Yu’er, then she is naturally one of our own.” “How can we tolerate our people being bullied by outsiders? So what if we are protective of our own?”

Yun Xiancheng’s words were also an instruction to Xiao Yu—I’ve accepted this girl.

He didn’t object to adding a new person to his harem. As his strength and talent grew, he was increasingly able to take responsibility for others’ lives. Of course, nowadays, he basically didn’t need to actively pursue others anymore.

After all, currently, the method of the ’senior wife’ bringing in ’junior wives’ was sufficient. He would always have to trouble these experienced ”senior wives” a bit more.

The other Young ladies around also showed expressions of sympathy and pity after hearing about Xue Ni’s miserable working life.

At this moment, Xue Ni, who was at the center of the event, was already staring blankly at Yun Xiancheng in shock, having even forgotten to cry. This... this is... this is Yu’er’s husband?

What kind of dragon-among-men appearance would he have?

She had imagined it many ways and sketched countless outlines in her mind.

But in the end, all those meager imaginations could not compare to the massive visual and spiritual impact, like a landslide or a tsunami, brought by this first meeting!

“H-Hello.”

Xue Ni felt her cheeks burning so hot they could almost fry an egg. Blushing, she greeted Yun Xiancheng in a voice smaller than a mosquito’s buzz, feeling incredibly nervous.

Yun Xiancheng nodded gently to her, then reached out and lightly patted her shoulder, which was trembling slightly from nervousness, to reassure her.

“Alright, since we are all family now, don’t be so restrained,” he said in a tone full of leadership.

“Xue Ni, you are a senior student of the Inner Academy, so you must be more familiar with this forest than we are. So, next, you shall lead us and take us for a good walk through these woods.”

“By the way,” he changed the subject, a fox-like smile flashing in his deep eyes, “

If we are fortunate enough to encounter those other senior students who are also hunting along the way, you should point them out to us.”

“We just happen to want to have a good exchange with them and, while we’re at it, ’borrow’ a bit of the Fire Energy from their cards to use.”

“Ah? Oh oh! Okay! No problem!”

Xue Ni was slightly stunned upon hearing this, but then she immediately understood Yun Xiancheng’s meaning.

She nodded vigorously, and a brilliant smile full of excitement and anticipation instantly bloomed on her face, which still had tear stains!

She carefully pulled out an exquisite tool from her bosom that looked similar to a compass.

“Young Master Yun, and sisters!” Her voice had regained its vitality and confidence. A year of being exploited had made her not the least bit shy about calling her juniors ’sisters’.

“This is a basic Search Device that all of us seniors are equipped with. It can be used to search for the positions of others in this forest. Look, on this, the red light dots represent us seniors, while those blue light dots represent new students like you.”

“Please... everyone, follow me!”

She held the compass high, her face filled with the excitement of finally being able to avenge her grievances. “I will take you now to find those ’lovely seniors’!”

306 Harvest

With Xue Ni, this ”little traitor” who could precisely locate the ”prey,” leading the way,

Xiao Yan’s group, who had originally intended to take a leisurely stroll and wait for the prey to come to them, instantly transformed into a pack of hungry leopards that had caught the scent of blood. Their hunting became incredibly efficient and proactive from then on.

They no longer moved along the straight path but, under the guidance of Xue Ni’s magical compass,

traversed the dense forest like the most experienced hunters, actively and precisely seeking out the senior teams scattered throughout the woods, and then launching one textbook ”encirclement hunt” after another with no suspense.

These so-called ”seniors” who chose to stay behind during the New Student Hunting Competition to target their juniors were mostly considered ”tail-enders” who couldn’t make a name for themselves in the Inner Academy.

However, how could anyone who could stand out from the tens of thousands of students in the Outer Academy and successfully enter the Inner Academy be a true mediocre talent?

The vast majority of them possessed the formidable strength of a low-tier to mid-tier Great Dou Master. This level would already be considered the very top tier among the Outer Academy’s new students.

However, such a group of ”strong experts” who could walk tall in the Outer Academy appeared so fragile and vulnerable when facing this ”luxurious” team of unreasonable ”monster rookies” around Yun Xiancheng.

Setting everything else aside, just Xiao Yan, Nalan Yanran, and Xiao Xun’er were three genuine peak Great Dou Masters, plus Xiao Yu, Xiao Mei, and Hu Jia, three mid-tier Great Dou Masters whose strength far exceeded their peers...

With such a terrifying team, those seniors no longer held any advantage even in terms of star-level ranking.

Not to mention, in terms of actual combat power, there was a desperate and massive difference, like a natural chasm!

Thus, in this cruel forest that was supposed to be ”seniors hunting new students,” a highly comical and magical ”reverse hunt” took place. Initially, more than a dozen senior teams that were patrolling the outskirts or had been separated

were thoroughly plundered with thunderous momentum and overwhelming force by this group of ”evil stars” that suddenly descended from the sky. Afterward, the remaining seniors also...