Chapter 1535: A Smokeless Battle

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“I’ve only been here twice and it’s been three years since my last time here, so excuse my hazy memory.” Duan Ling Tian randomly made up an excuse to tell Di Jue.

After that, he proceeded to move forward and all of a sudden, he shouted out for no reason, “That’s right! It’s here!” From his tone, it was as though he had just discovered a new continent.

He successfully drew Di Jue’s attention. Di Jue noticed that Duan Ling Tian had gone into a patch of seaweed and without warning, he raised a leg and stomped the sea bed.

Bang!

A loud blast resonated and where Duan Ling Tian stomped his feet, the water was swept away by a visible impact wave, causing the seawater to gush in all directions.

After a long while, calm was finally restored again. However, Di Jue’s attention was not fixed on the commotion now.

His gaze was staring straight in the distance where a gigantic tower had appeared out of the blue. The moment it appeared, the seawater surrounding it drained away.

The seawater slapped onto Di Jue’s True Origin Light Shield on the surface of his body and continued to spread, but he could not be bothered about that at all. His gaze was completely captivated by the gigantic tower that had appeared out of nowhere in the distance.

The gigantic tower was separated into seven levels. Looming in front of him, it seemed like an enormous beast.

The most significant thing was the aura Di Jue could clearly sense emanating out of the gigantic tower. The aura gave him a sense of unfathomable profoundness, and on top of that, terror started to rise from the bottom of his heart.

“It’s this tower.” Right at that moment, Duan Ling Tian’s voice resonated, “When Di Yong and I first entered, we didn’t dare to go deep at all…But even then, we still managed to find many Saint Weapons that were inscribed by Three-Star Saint Inscriptions surrounding it. It seems like where we ventured was merely the perimeter of this tower since we didn’t enter deeper into it. That time, Di Yong told me that there might be more treasure inside.”

“Do you know about the origins of this tower?” Di Jue asked.

“I do,” Duan Ling Tian confirmed, “Not long after Di Yong and I first entered, we found some historical remains. All the signs indicated that the person who left this tower behind was called Feng Qing Yang. That’s right. When he signed it in the end, he called himself the Sword Saint or something.”

In the end, Duan Ling Tian added again.

Feng Qing Yang?

The Sword Saint?

“The Sword Saint, Feng Qing Yang!” The instant Di Jue heard him, his eyes narrowed right away as shock filled his face. “A-Are you sure it’s this person w-who signed the words?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Duan Ling Tian responded then asked with a confused look, “Do you know him?”

In the face of Duan Ling Tian’s query, Di Jue did not answer, but his feelings were in great turmoil. His eyes were glittering brilliantly as he stared fixedly at the giant seven-story pagoda.

“The Sword Saint, Feng Qing Yang… It’s actually a relic left behind by the Sword Saint! It’s rumored that the Sword Saint was once the strongest person in the Dao Martial Saint Land. In his era, nobody from any of the different sects in the Dao Martial Saint Land could withstand his sword at all.” At that moment, Di Jue’s heart was beating rapidly as he could not suppress his feelings.

He did not find it strange that Duan Ling Tian did not know who the Sword Saint, Feng Qing Yang was.

After all, he only managed to find out about the Sword Saint from some of the records about him in the ancient books in the dragon clan. From there, he knew that this was an extremely gifted Sword Cultivator who had taken the entire Dao Martial Saint Land by surprise in that era.

It was rumored that the Sword Saint had left some relics behind in the Dao Martial Saint Land for the destined people in the later generations.

“Could this be the relic the Sword Saint, Feng Qing Yang left behind as mentioned in the rumor?” Di Jue stared at the Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda hungrily, like a hunter who had just seen a prey.

“It looks like he’s heard about the Sword Saint, Feng Qing Yang too.” When Duan Ling Tian saw Di Jue’s expression, he heaved a sigh of relief in secret.

As it turned out, he had made a wise gamble.

Since Di Jue knew about the presence of the Sword Saint, and now that he had told him this story, he believed that he could not detect this trap that he had set up at the moment.

This trap of his was set up at the last minute after Elder Huo suggested it to him.

Actually, the trap was very simple. It was none other than luring Di Jue to enter the Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda and let Elder Huo deal with him.

Elder Huo’s cultivation base had recovered quite a lot and although he was far from having improved to his prime time, it was obvious that his strength now was in no way inferior to Di Jue’s.

This trap sounded easy, but in truth, it was extremely difficult to implement.

The most important part was to make Di Jue believe his words and stop resisting the suction energy of the Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda so that it could draw him in.

However, if he had an ounce of reluctance or vigilance, the Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda would not be able to pull him in.

If he did not enter the Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda, this trap would eventually be broken by itself once time dragged on. Duan Ling Tian would once again fall into a direful situation and would most likely have no way of being rescued.

Just now, on the way there, Duan Ling Tian was thinking about how to persuade Di Jue to believe him so that he would let the Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda draw him in.

Therefore he even let his tongue run loose and had said that Di Yong’s death had something to do with the Seven Treasures Exquisite Pagoda.

On top of that, he had even told him that there was treasure hidden inside the pagoda.

All of these were to lure Di Jue, his enemy, to enter it.

In order to make his words sounded more believable, he pondered about it for a moment and even mentioned the Sword Saint, Feng Qing Yang in the end. He was trying to gamble to see whether Di Jue had heard of him before or not.

Right now, it looked like he had made a wise guess. Di Jue knew about the Sword Saint, Feng Qing Yang too.

“Just now, you said that you’ve seen many Saint Weapons that were inscribed with Three-Star Saint Inscriptions at the perimeter of this pagoda when you entered it the last time, didn’t you?” asked Di Jue in a deep voice while looking at Duan Ling Tian as a brilliance flashed across his eyes.

He sounded very careful when he was asking.

Secretly hissing to himself as to why would Di Jue be so careful, Duan Ling Tian did not hesitate at all. With a raise of his hand, he took out the Saint Weapon that the inner court elder of the Moon Illumination Sect, Zhao Feng, always carried with him and passed it to Di Jue. “This is the Saint Weapon that I found inside that time. There’s a Three-Star Saint Inscription and two Two-Star Saint Inscriptions on this Saint Weapon.”

Di Jue took the Saint Weapon that he passed to him and after a moment of studying it carefully, he nodded his head. “It indeed has a Three-Star Saint Inscription on it… But did you really get this from inside the pagoda?”

Even though Duan Ling Tian had already proven it with evidence, Di Jue was still being very cautious.

The dragon clan was originally a tribe prone to suspicion. As a Five-clawed Golden Dragon from the dragon clan, Di Jue also possessed the imperial bloodline of the clan. The suspicion that he was born with was greater than his other clansmen and basically, nobody could lie to him.

“I’m from the Mortal Continent. Do you think I’d be able to get this Saint Weapon that was inscribed with the Three-Star Saint Inscription elsewhere?” When Duan Ling Tian heard Di Jue’s words, he laughed mockingly.

Of course, this was all just an act. His heart had started to become slightly heavy as he never thought that Di Jue would be so wary.

Even after he had already brought up the Sword Saint, Di Jue still did not believe him 100%. From the beginning till the end, he was being very conservative.

Of course, Duan Ling Tian also clearly knew that he must be even more careful now at this point and not be so anxious.

If he revealed a single flaw, everything would be spoiled!

As Di Jue questioned him, his gaze was locked upon Duan Ling Tian to study the tiny changes on hi’s face. When he saw that his self-mockery did not seem fake, he nodded his head secretly too.

He had come to Half Moon Island for quite some time and investigated Duan Ling Tian’s origin thoroughly.

“Even the cultivation base that I have now is all thanks to a type of herb inside the pagoda. That time, Di Yong and I consumed this herb and in the end, my cultivation base improved tremendously and so did Di Yong’s. Three years ago, after he consumed the herbs, he made a breakthrough to the Perfection Saint Rudiment Stage right away. If he was still alive now, I’m sure he would’ve already reached the Saint Stage.” When Duan Ling Tian reached the end of his sentence, he sighed emotionally.

“No wonder your cultivation base has improved so fast.” Taking a hard look at Duan Ling Tian, hints of avarice flashed across Di Jue’s eyes.

He was tempted by that marvelous herb. Perhaps, it would also be of great help to him too.

Before this, he had already investigated Duan Ling Tian’s information thoroughly and he also knew that Duan Ling Tian had not even made a breakthrough to the Mortal Shedding Stage yet before he left Half Moon Island.

A Mortal Continent Dao Cultivator who had not broken through to the Mortal Shedding Stage three years ago had now advanced to the Perfection Saint Rudiment Stage.

When he first saw Duan Ling Tian, he was filled with disbelief, but the truth was right before his eyes, dispelling any doubts he had.

At that time, he had already guessed that Duan Ling Tian might have encountered some fortuitous meeting.

Now, he could see that this seven-story pagoda must be his fortuitous meeting.

At this moment, the suspicion in Di Jue’s heart started to dissipate quite a lot.

Of course, this was also because up until now, Duan Ling Tian had not shown any flaw at all.

Every word that he said was smooth and went along with the current as though it was answering each of the suspicions Di Jue had in his heart.

Of course, Di Jue did not voice any of his suspicions; all of these were Duan Ling Tian’s speculation.

At this moment, a smokeless battle was taking place between Duan Ling Tian and Di Jue. It was a battle of wits.

“Unfortunately, though there are a lot of those herbs, Di Yong and I realized that only the first batch that we consumed would actually bring any effect to us. Thus, he and I even trampled on more than ten of the herb shrubs. When we left, there were no more than ten of the shrubs.” Duan Ling Tian saw the greediness that flashed across Di Jue’s eyes and he went along with the flow.

As expected, the moment Di Jue heard him, his eyes lit up as he whispered in his heart, “Idiot!”.

When he first came to Half Moon Island, the reason Di Jue — who was so enraged that he almost lost his senses — annihilated everyone on the island rapidly was that he wanted to vent his anger so that these people would die with his son. However, after that, he calmed down and although after he noticed Feng Wu Dao and the rest returned to Half Moon Island, he did not make his move on them at all.

In this one year or so, he concealed himself patiently by the side.

At that time, he had also recovered his sanity and all he wanted to do was to find out about the truth of his son’s death.

Of course, if his son was killed, he would never let the killer roam free.