When Lin Xiu opened his eyes, he saw a beam of golden sunlight piercing through the top of the cave.
A chill ran through his hands, and a thin layer of white mist filled the surroundings.
"Lin Xiu, you finally woke up. How do you feel now?" Su Qian asked with a faint smile on his face not far from the shore.
Turning over, Lin Xiu landed in front of him and respectfully bowed, "Thank you, Elder, for saving my life. My body is fine."
"No need for formalities. I'm Su Qian. I originally intended to check on the cultivation of your Fire Spirit, but I didn't expect the Fallen Heart Flame to suddenly erupt," Su Qian said with a slight shake of his head. "This incident was the negligence of the Academy. Your survival is solely due to your own fortune. When we return to the Academy, I will arrange compensation for you."
"You don't have to, Elder. These days, you've used a lot of medicinal materials on me. Without them, I wouldn't have recovered so quickly," Lin Xiu waved his hand, declining politely.
Then he turned his right palm upward.
A semi-human, semi-beast Fire Spirit appeared, standing over ten centimeters tall, with a pair of bull horns on its head. Its body was primarily blue, with red light burning inside.
There were faint patterns winding around its body surface.
"You've actually cultivated the Fire Spirit to this extent?" Su Qian looked closely, somewhat surprised.
The aura emitted by the Fire Spirit was no weaker than that of a Rank 6 Beast Flame.
Compared to the actual fires condensed by many fire attribute elders in the Academy, it was much stronger.
Even Elder Huo, who was closest to being a Sixth Grade Alchemist within the Academy, his condensed actual fire was not as good as the Fire Spirit in front of him.
Moreover, this Fire Spirit seemed quite agile, not at all stiff, and was akin to the cunning Fallen Heart Flame.
"The only difference is that it's slightly weaker in strength," Su Qian felt that being a bit weaker was normal, after all, the Fallen Heart Flame was ranked fourteenth on the Heavenly Flame Ranking.
"Lin Xiu, can you now compete with the Fallen Heart Flame using it?" Su Qian immediately asked.
Lin Xiu shook his head, "Elder, it was injured in the previous battle with the Fallen Heart Flame, and now it needs some improvement."
The Fire Spirit expanded its body, revealing densely packed scars all over, like a piece of fragile glass about to shatter.
Ah... If only I had gone to the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower earlier and had contact with Lin Xiu sooner, the Fallen Heart Flame wouldn't have had a chance to harm him.
In that case, relying on this Fire Spirit would have been enough to deal with the threat of the Fallen Heart Flame.
After hearing Lin Xiu's words, a trace of regret flashed across Su Qian's face, but he quickly concealed it.
"It's okay, you go ahead and improve it. The Academy can wait for you," Su Qian patted Lin Xiu's shoulder.
This child just went through a life and death situation; it's best not to push him further for now.
"By the way, you shouldn't go to the Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower next," Su Qian suddenly remembered something. Seeing Lin Xiu furrowing his brows, he continued, "The Fallen Heart Flame bears grudges. Since it couldn't settle the score with you once, if it appears again, it will surely go berserk. You should focus on cultivating in the inner courtyard for now."
"Alright, Elder," Lin Xiu nodded in realization.
It's fine if he can't go. At most, in another two months, the Strong Ranking Grand Tournament in the inner courtyard will end, and the Fallen Heart Flame will completely erupt.
Once he obtains it, he won't need to go to the Qi Refining Tower anymore.
As for the slower progress in cultivation during this time, he can endure it.
Provoking the Fallen Heart Flame again might require using all his strength, and without Han Feng and the others to restrain the elders, he won't have a chance to seize the Fallen Heart Flame.
"During your coma, Zi Yan searched many mountainsides for spiritual herbs for you. She didn't sleep for several days and nights. When you go back later, take her with you and take good care of her," Su Qian pointed not far away to a slender figure sleeping soundly on a simple stone platform.
"Elder, rest assured, I will," Lin Xiu responded with an extremely earnest expression.
He was only unconscious for the first few days, but he was fully aware of everything that happened afterward.
Therefore, Lin Xiu remembered all of Zi Yan's actions.
In fact, from the beginning, Lin Xiu did have a purpose in getting close to Zi Yan intentionally.
After all, this young girl's background in the Dou Qi Continent was not inferior to Xun'er's in the slightest.
"Well, the inner courtyard's Strong Ranking Grand Tournament is still waiting for me to handle. Because of you, I've wasted quite a bit of time in the past half month, so I need to make up for it," Su Qian hastily explained a few more words before leaving the cave with a blink of an eye.
Walking to the edge of the stone platform, Lin Xiu reached out and lifted Zi Yan.
Although Lin Xiu tried to make the movement as gentle as possible, Zi Yan's eyes still opened a crack.
"Lin Xiu, are you better? I took a lot of beatings for you, you have to help me get them back," Zi Yan said in a childish voice, still in a half-asleep state.
"Okay, you can point them out to me one by one later," Lin Xiu replied with a light laugh.
Upon hearing this, Zi Yan pouted a few times, then fell back asleep, even when Lin Xiu lifted her up, she showed no reaction.
In the cave, accompanied by the gradually fading footsteps, it gradually fell into silence.
Lin Xiu returned to the dormitory first.
He placed Zi Yan on his own bed, then walked outside.
Lin Dun and Du Chaoping saw Lin Xiu returning, extremely excited, recounting their worries over the past few days.
Blazing Sky Qi Refining Tower had an incident, and the others weren't familiar with Lin Xiu, so they didn't know much about it. But they were different; they hadn't seen Lin Xiu for a while, and they were as anxious as ants on a hot pot.
Later, Zi Yan, feeling a bit impatient, told them that Lin Xiu must be fine and would come back in a while. That's when they gradually calmed down.
"During the time I wasn't here, did you encounter any trouble?" Lin Xiu briefly mentioned his own affairs, then changed the subject.
The two glanced at each other and shook their heads.
At that moment, Lin Dun seemed to remember something and suddenly looked up. "Brother Xiu, recently Xiao Yan has been coming around a lot, seems like he's got something to talk to you about."
"Yes, a month ago, he wanted to talk to you, but at that time, you were on the eighth floor of the Qi Refining Tower, and we couldn't go down, so we couldn't tell you," Du Chaoping chimed in. "At first, it seems like Senior Brother Lin Yan from the inner courtyard brought him over, but when we asked what it was about, he didn't say."
Hmm... Could it be that Xiao Yan intended to trade for the Green Wood Celestial Vine a long time ago?
A trace of astonishment flashed in Lin Xiu's eyes.
Just as he was pondering, footsteps approached from outside the door, and the three turned their gaze.
A young man in a black robe walked in.
He looked somewhat dazed, as if he had repeated the same thing many times.
"Excuse me..."
Xiao Yan just started to speak when his gaze landed on the figure sitting next to Lin Dun and Du Chaoping, and he suddenly froze.
He looked startled. "Senior Brother Lin Xiu?!"
"Come, sit down. They've told me that you've come to see me many times. Is there something you need?" Lin Xiu gestured for Xiao Yan to sit, smiling as if he didn't already know why he was here.
"Senior Brother Lin Xiu, I heard that you have a Green Wood Celestial Vine. Is it still with you?"
Xiao Yan could barely contain his excitement.
So, after all, he had come to buy something?
Du Chaoping and Lin Dun exchanged a glance quietly, somewhat surprised.
"Are you referring to this?" Lin Xiu took out a vine from his Spatial Ring. It was roughly the length of an adult's arm and emitted a faint glow on its surface.
Staring at the vine on the table, Xiao Yan's eyes lit up as he carefully examined it.
"The age is sufficient, it can be used for alchemy," Yao Chen's voice echoed in Xiao Yan's mind.
Upon hearing this, Xiao Yan reluctantly set down the vine, met Lin Xiu's gaze, and nodded. "That's right, Senior Brother. I'd like to buy it. Could you name your price?"
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