Chapter 871: The Battle of the Five Peaks

"I ought to end it already." Duan Ling Tian glanced at Huang Daniu who was still rampaging about like a headless fly, and then he smiled indifferently before flying out.

After a short moment, he arrived by Huang Daniu's side.

On the other hand, Huang Daniu seemed to have not noticed it in the slightest. He was still punching the air with might that could crumble mountains, and strands of energy that were like earth dragons leaving their lair gushed out from his fist to sweep out.

Bang!

Duan Ling Tian casually slapped out with his palm to descend onto Huang Daniu's back, and it blasted him flying.

At the same time that Huang Daniu flew out, his face flushed red and couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood, and then he looked behind him and cried out. "Who?! Who's helping Duan Ling Tian?!"

Duan Ling Tian shook his head and smiled when he looked at Huang Daniu who was looking at him.

In the illusory realm that Huang Daniu was in earlier, there was no one where he was standing now.

When he saw Huang Daniu looking left and right while seeming to be looking for who launched a sneak attack against him, Duan Ling Tian shook his head and smiled before retracting his soul skill, Thousand Illusion, causing the illusory space to vanish along with this.

At the same time, his entire body appeared before Huang Daniu's eyes.

"You... How could you be over here?" Huang Daniu seemed as if he'd seen a ghost when he saw Duan Ling Tian.

Subsequently, he hurriedly turned around to look behind, yet he noticed there was no one there.

"Impossible! How could your speed possibly be so swift?! Unless you're a Void Transformation Stage. Expert, otherwise, it's impossible for your speed to be so swift!" Huang Daniu shook his head ceaselessly and didn't dare believe everything before his eyes was real.

"Haha... Daniu, are you convinced now?" Meanwhile, Chen Wei walked into the practice grounds with large strides to stand by Duan Ling Tian's side, and then he grinned as he said to Huang Daniu, "Needless to say, your strength is not bad indeed..."

"But you have to be aware that Duan Ling Tian had once killed eight bandits of outstanding strength all by himself! Amongst those eight bandits were even three existences at the sixth level of Void Interpretation Stage." Chen Wei spoke of Duan Ling Tian's exploits in combat.

"What?!" Huang Daniu's pupils constricted and had an astonished expression, and then he looked at Duan Ling Tian and gasped. "You... Could it be that you're really a Void Transformation Stage expert?"

"Do you think you would have lasted a move if I'm a Void Transformation Stage expert?" Duan Ling Tian shook his head and felt Huang Daniu was truly too naïve.

Or if said in a more displeasing way, Huang Daniu was too simple-minded!

"Daniu, Duan Ling Tian is a fifth level Void Interpretation Stage martial artist like you." Chen Wei smiled.

"Impossible!" Huang Daniu shook his head resolutely. "It's impossible for him to be a fifth level Void Interpretation Stage martial artist! Unless a fifth level Void Interpretation Stage martial artist had comprehended Intermediate Earth Concept at the sixth level or above, or comprehended another ninth level Intermediate Concept, otherwise, it would be impossible for a fifth level Void Interpretation Stage martial artist to defeat me on the ground."

Huang Daniu was extremely confident of his strength.

"Moreover, the speed he used to arrive from there to here was extremely swift, swift to the point I was completely unable to react to it... Only a Void Transformation Stage martial artist is capable of doing that before me." Huang Daniu spoke with extremely certainty.

Chen Wei was slightly speechless from Huang Daniu's one-track mind.

But he still spoke the truth. "Then what if I told you that Duan Ling Tian utilized an illusory realm to confuse you before injuring you earlier?"

"In other words, the Duan Ling Tian you were attacking all along wasn't the real Duan Ling Tian, and it was instead constructed from the illusory realm... In the world in our eyes, you'd always been hitting the air." Chen Wei finished speaking in one go.

"An illusory realm?" Huang Daniu frowned, and then looked at Chen Wei at an appearance that said 'don't even think of deceiving me' before he said, "I didn't sense any fluctuation of an Inscription or an Inscription Formation earlier... It's impossible that it was an illusory realm!"

"Unless this Duan Ling Tian is a Demon that had taken human form, so he was able to utilize his Spiritual Force to construct an illusory realm." Huang Daniu added.

"I've already said that Duan Ling Tian's true cultivation is only at the fifth level of the Void Interpretation Stage... I wonder if you've heard of Variants?" Chen Wei shook his head, and then he finally spoke of Duan Ling Tian's identity.

"A Variant?!" Huang Daniu frowned as he muttered to himself. "I seemed to have heard someone mention it in the past... Wait, let me think about it."

Huang Daniu spoke as he fell into deep thought.

"You're really a big oaf!" Ye Xuan stuck out her tongue playfully and couldn't help but grunt.

Duan Ling Tian shook his head before walking out of the practice ground, and he noticed that Yang Ling had arrived since an unknown time and instantly smiled as he greeted Yang Ling. "Elder Yang."

"Duan Ling Tian, your cultivation is at the fifth level of the Void Interpretation Stage, yet you're actually capable of affecting a sixth level Void Interpretation Stage martial artist with the illusory realm constructed by your Innate Ability?" Yang Ling asked with a stunned expression as he'd obviously heard what Chen Wei said earlier.

"Yes." Duan Ling Tian nodded with a light smile. "Even though my cultivation is at the fifth level of the Void Interpretation Stage, because I've consumed a spirit fruit that increases the level of the soul, my Spiritual Force is higher than my cultivation."

"Haha..." Yang Ling smiled. "Looks like there'll be a good show to see in the Battle of the Five Peaks this time."

"Battle of the Five Peaks?" Duan Ling Tian couldn't help but be stunned when he heard Yang Ling. "What's that?"

"The Battle of the Five Peaks is a martial competition between the five peaks that our Five Element Sect is about to hold for the disciples of the younger generation, but it's different from ordinary martial competitions... Besides deciding on a rank of individual strength, every single peak will send out three of their strongest young geniuses during the Battle of the Five Peaks to carry out a team competition with the other peaks."

"In the end, the specific rankings of the five peaks will be re-ordered according to the individual strength rankings and team strength rankings!" Yang Ling explained with a smile.

As far as he was concerned, the Battle of the Five Peaks was an opportunity for the Wood Peak to reclaim its glory.

"I've decided to follow all of you back to the sec to watch the show," said Yang Ling.

At the same time, his eyes stared fixedly at Duan Ling Tian, and it faintly flickered with anticipation as he anticipated that Duan Ling Tian would be able to obtain a good ranking in the Battle of the Five Peaks this time.

"I remember now!" Suddenly, a voice that was like muffled sounded out.

Huang Daniu that stood in the practice grounds had returned to his senses, and he looked at Duan Ling Tian as if he was looking at a monster as he cried out with surprise. "So you're a Variant! So your ability of constructing an illusory realm to affect me earlier was your Innate Ability?"

Innate Ability?

Duan Ling Tian smiled yet didn't admit it nor deny it.

Allowing others to misunderstand somethings wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

However, when Duan Ling Tian's smile entered into Huang Daniu's eyes, it was undoubtedly a form of tacit admission.

"How old are you?" Suddenly, Huang Daniu arrived by Duan Ling Tian's side and stared at Duan Ling Tian with a burning gaze. "Based on your appearance, you're only around the age of 25... Your true age ought to be over 30, right?"

"28." Duan Ling Tian shrugged.

"What?!" Huang Daniu was instantly shocked when he heard this. "You... You're actually younger than me? I'm already 31. Freak! You're the real freak!" As he finished speaking, Huang Daniu cursed.

Duan Ling Tian shook his head and smiled.

He'd become accustomed to this since long ago.

But even though Duan Ling Tian was accustomed to it, it didn't mean that Ye Xuan was accustomed to it, and she was instantly displeased when she heard Huang Daniu curse Duan Ling Tian.

"You're the freak! Your whole family is full of freaks!" Presently, Ye Xuan was completely and utterly like a mother leopard that was protecting her cub.

Yang Ling and Ke Zheng laughed joyfully when he saw this scene, and they were both amused by Ye Xuan.

Duan Ling Tian and Chen Wei couldn't help but laugh as well, and then they looked at Huang Daniu at the same time as they wanted to see how he would deal with it.

Huang Daniu felt a wave of speechlessness instead, and he was at a loss for words.

As far as he was concerned, his cursing of Duan Ling Tian seemed like a different method of praise.

After all, every single time someone called him a freak in the past, he would feel extremely happy because it indicated that he was outstanding and out of the ordinary.

"When do you intend to leave?" Yang Ling looked at Ke Zheng and asked.

"Tomorrow," said Ke Zheng.

At dawn the next day, their group departed from Settlement City and headed towards the Five Element Sect.

The five of them had just left the city when a middle aged man appeared from the shadows before returning to Settlement City, and then he headed straight towards an estate that occupied a vast area and entered into its rear garden.

"Elder Tang." The middle aged man stood outside the pergola at the rear garden and bowed respectfully towards the old man within it.

"Have you discovered their whereabouts?" The Earth Peak's Tang Lin who was playing go with himself slowly raised his head and asked with a low voice.

"No." The middle aged man shook his head, and then he said, "But Ke Zheng led a group back to the sect... They weren't following along with Ke Zheng, so they've probably met with calamity."

Whoosh!

Tang Lin stood up abruptly from his seat, and his eyes flickered with cold lights as he said with a low voice, "Wood Peak, how audacious! You actually dare lay a hand on the disciples of my Earth Peak."

The middle aged man was speechless in his heart when he saw Tang Lin losing his temper.

You've already sent people to be spies in the Wood Peak, yet you don't allow them to exterminate these spies?

Of course, he only dared think like this in his heart, but didn't dare speak of it.

"Besides Chen Wei, was there a young man that looks to be around the age of 25 that departed with Ke Zheng?" Tang Lin took a deep breath, and he stared at the middle aged man with a burning gaze as he asked.

"I didn't dare go too close, so I didn't see his appearance clearly... Besides that, it wasn't just a single person following along with Ke Zheng and Chen Wei, and it was four people instead." The middle aged man continued.

"Four people?" Tang Lin frowned. "Who else?"

"One of them was the person in charge of the Wood Peak's point of operations in Settlement City, Elder Yang... As for the other three, they were unfamiliar faces, and one of them was comparatively robust." The middle aged man spoke of everything he's seen.

"That fellow Yang Ling?" Tang Lin's face sank. "That old fellow has actually left Settlement City and returned to the sect with Ke Zheng? Could it be that he thinks that the Wood Peak would be able to rise up in the Battle of the Five Peaks this time by relying on Duan Ling Tian?"

"Hmph! Yang Ling, Ke Zheng... I'll let both of you know that even though your Wood Peak has worked for so long, the benefits will be reaped by my Earth Peak in the end!" Tang Lin grunted coldly, and as he finished mattering, his figure flashed to vanish into thin air.

"I'll be returning to the sect... Manage the matters here in Settlement City for me." At the same time, Tang Lin's voice entered into the middle aged man's ears.