Duan Ling Tian met up with more than a dozen Ten Stars students, excluding the Zhong clan’s Zhong Ke Qi, Ding Yan, Hou Qing Ning, and Liu Jin.
A dozen Ten Star students already accounted for half of the Hidden Fog Academy’s Ten Star students.
“Duan Ling Tian!”
Duan Ling Tian had just left the trial grounds and was heading toward a group of Ten Stars students who had gathered when he heard someone calling out to him from the distance. He turned around and discovered that it was Ding Yan.
When Ding Yan saw that Duan Ling Tian had survived the trial without any signs of injuries, he sighed in relief.
Seeing the smile of relief on Ding Yan’s face, Duan Ling Tian felt slightly moved. Although he could be considered friends with Ding Yan, their relationship did not run deep. For Ding Yan to be so concerned about his safety was truly surprising.
“You came out rather quickly.” Duan Ling Tian smiled at Ding Yan. At this time, he also discovered the four teachers of the Hidden Fog Academy, who were also the chaperones for the trial, looking at him. He saw Yu Qian Shan look at him with bright eyes while a hint of amazement could be seen in the other two teachers’ eyes.
As for Zhu Chun, despite looking calm outwardly, his emotions were surging in his heart.
Ding Yan shook his head. “It took me less than an hour to leave. Saying that, there were some who left prematurely…” Then, his eyes shifted toward Zhong Ke Qi and Zhong He Liang before he continued to say, “I heard that they left trial grounds prematurely because they were injured. However, based on their appearances, their injuries must have been so light that it didn’t warrant them leaving the trial grounds at all.”
Duan Ling Tian glanced at Zhong Ke Qi and Zhong He Liang, not surprised by Ding Yan’s words.
After all, once the Zhong clan discovered the deaths of their death warriors, there was no doubt the clan would get in touch with Zhong Ke Qi and Zhong He Liang immediately, asking them to leave the trial grounds.
The Zhong clan naturally did not know Duan Ling Tian was responsible for the deaths of their clan’s death warriors. He had killed them so quickly that they did not even have time to send a Communication Talisman back to the clan. He was confident the Zhong clan did not know whether it was him or a helper who had killed their clan’s death warriors. Nonetheless, regardless of who was responsible for the deaths of the death warriors, the clan would definitely order Zhong Ke Qi to leave the trial grounds immediately, in fear for his safety.
“So they left the trial grounds ahead of time, huh?”
“I’ll return this favor to your family for sure. Keep praying you’d be as lucky as you were today,” Duan Ling Tian said to Zhong Ke Qi through Voice Transmission.
Then, Duan Ling Tian looked at Zhong Ke Qi with a piercing gaze that caused Zhong Ke Qi to shudder in fear. He was so frightened that for a moment, he thought, perhaps, he should forget about his conflict with Duan Ling Tian. However, he quickly dismissed that thought. Then, he hurriedly sent a message to his father, Zhong Er, and his third uncle, Zhong San, telling them about Duan Ling Tian’s threat in an exaggerated manner.
“If Duan Ling Tian doesn’t die, it’s fine if something happens to me, but I’m just worried he’ll go after the Zhong clan…”
…
When Zhong Er and Zhong San received Zhong Ke Qi’s message, both of their eyes flashed with killing intent. They were both Kings of Gods so the others around them could easily sense their killing intent.
Zhong Da, the Clan Leader of the Zhong clan, was the first to ask, “Second Brother, what happened?”
Zhong Er hurriedly recounted Zhong Ke Qi’s words, causing Zhong Da’s expression to turn frosty. Similar to his two brothers, killing intent flashed in his eyes as well. He said, “Wait for me to come up with a plan. We have to kill Duan Ling Tian. Otherwise, he’ll only bring trouble to our clan in the future.”
Originally, Zhong Da, unlike the others, did not care much about Duan Ling Tian. However, he had begun to take the matter seriously when he learned that Murong Sui Feng intended to recommend Duan Ling Tian to become a core disciple of the Hidden Fog Sect. With this, he knew that if nothing were done about Duan Ling Tian, it would definitely bring disaster to the clan in the future. After all, if a core disciple of the Hidden Fog Sect were given time to mature, destroying the Zhong clan would be as easy as flipping one’s hand.
…
Duan Ling Tian was unaware of the commotion he had caused in the Zhong clan. Even if he was aware, he would not have cared at all.
From the moment the Zhong clan sent their death warriors after him, he was already determined to kill them. Between him and them, only one of them was allowed to live.
It was the first time since he had come to the Profound Energy Land that he planned to annihilate an entire force. After all, even when he avenged the southern village of the Duan Clan Village, he only killed the culprit responsible and did not annihilate the force the culprit belonged to.
However, it was different this time. Zhong Ke Qi and his clan had acted against him, trying to kill him.
At this moment, Hou Qing Ning sought Duan Ling Tian out as well. Upon seeing Duan Ling Tian unharmed, he sighed in relief. Then, he said with a smile, “I’m relieved to see you’re fine. I was worried you’d die in there.”
After saying that, Hou Qing Ning did not beat around the bush and bluntly asked, “So what happened in the end? Did the Zhong clan make a move against you?”
Hou Qing Ning came from a king-rank force on par with the Zhong clan. Although the Zhong clan was the local tyrant of Skywind City, he naturally did not fear the clan. After all, he knew the clan would not dare to rashly make a move against him.
Duan Ling Tian replied tonelessly, “It’s just as you’d guessed. They sent a group of death warriors to kill me. Alas, they all died.”
“They all died?!” Hou Qing Ning exclaimed, “You killed all of them?”
Hou Qing Ning would not have been surprised if Duan Ling Tian killed two advanced gods on his own. However, he was certain the Zhong clan must have sent more than two death warriors to kill Duan Ling Tian this time. He did not expect Duan Ling Tian to be capable of killing all the death warriors.
“In the beginning, I found a few of them concealing their presence and tailing me so I quickly got rid of them. More and more of them appeared later, and I got rid of them as well,” Duan Ling Tian said in a leisurely manner.
“They concealed their presence, but you found them?” Hou Qing Ning was astonished. He was not surprised that the death warriors had spread out to look for Duan Ling Tian. After all, moving around in a large group would only attract attention. However, he was surprised that Duan Ling Tian managed to detect the death warriors’ presence even after they concealed their presence.
After a moment, Hou Qing Ning said in relief, “Fortunately, the Zhong clan didn’t send any of the leaders of the death warriors in their clan here. Otherwise, it would’ve been difficult for you…”
Duan Ling Tian only smiled upon hearing the words ‘leader of the death warriors’. He was rather certain he had killed the leader of the death warriors from the Zhong clan. However, he did not say anything to Hou Qing Ning. After all, to be capable of such a feat would only reveal to everyone that he was much stronger than what he had shown during his fight with Hong Jun.
…
Soon after, all the Ten Stars students finally gathered. Most of them were fine, and only a few of them were injured.
“Hand over your Point Accumulation Tokens,” Yu Qian Shan said.
Duan Ling Tian and the others obediently returned the tokens.
Yu Qian Shan’s expression remained the same as he collected the tokens from the students. However, when he received Duan Ling Tian’s tokens, his expression changed immediately as soon as he sensed the points that Duan Ling Tian had accumulated. He instinctively turned to look at Duan Ling Tian.
Yu Qian Shan’s reaction did not go unnoticed by the others, resulting in them turning to look at Duan Ling Tian as well.
“What happened?”
“Teacher Yu Qian Shan looks quite surprised…”
“I’m really curious. What can make Teacher Yu look so surprised? It must be the points Duan Ling Tian has accumulated, right?”
The Ten Stars students discussed among themselves, curious.
Similarly, the other three teachers of the Hidden Academy were curious as well.
In the end, one of the teachers could no longer hold back so he asked curiously, “Teacher Yu, how many points did Duan Ling Tian accumulate?”
“You’ll find out for yourself once the ranking is out,” Yu Qian Shan replied with a smile, maintaining the suspense.
With that, Yu Qian Shan led the curious teachers and students back to the Hidden Fog Academy.
During the journey, Hou Qing Ning moved next to Duan Ling Tian and asked, “Duan Ling Tian, how many points did you accumulate? It must be shocking for Teacher Yu to look so surprised…”
Duan Ling Tian only smiled as well. Even before leaving the trial grounds, he had known his points would far surpass the others students. After all, his speed of killing the monsters was not something Hou Qing Ning, Hong Jun, and the others could hope to match.
When Hou Qing Ning saw Duan Ling Tian’s response, he said, slightly exasperated, “It seems like you’re trying to keep everyone in suspense like Teacher Yu.”
Then, Hou Qing Ning shifted his attention to Ding Yan and asked, “Ding Yan, how many points did you accumulate this time?”
“8,000 points,” Ding Yan replied.
Hou Qing Ning nodded slightly. “Not bad. You’ll be able to pass the 10,000 points soon.”
“What about you?” Ding Yan asked in return.
Hou Qing Ning smiled before he said, “It’s better than the previous trial. This time, I accumulated more than 20,000 points.”
“More than 20,000 points?!” Ding Yan exclaimed.. Then, he said, “During the previous trial, even the top ranker didn’t manage to get more than 20,000 points, right?”
