The Supreme Battle Sect Elder narrowed his eyes as he stared at the Vice-Sect Leader. Being a lifelong member of a sect such as the Supreme Battle Sect, the man did not fear death, but the situation before him was not good. Being the target of the Vice-Sect Leader was never a good thing.
Even within the Supreme Battle Sect, the Vice-Sect Leader had a reputation of brutality and violence.
"You...Why are you here?" the man asked.
"Why am I here? This is my Heavenly Lightning Sect, where else would I be?" The Vice-Sect Leader asked in response, her tone still tinged with amusement, as if she was talking to a plaything.
"You know very well what I mean. You went to the Divine Martial Continent, and even began to make a name for yourself in those lands. Why...and when did you return?" the man asked.
"Oh, that," the Vice-Sect Leader responded. "Maybe if your Supreme Battle Sect cared about anything besides battle, you would have already known this intel. I have done absolutely nothing to keep my presence this last year a secret, but your lack of interest in deploying spies to other sects truly shows how short sighted you bunch truly are."
The man frowned as he heard the Vice-Sect Leader talk about his sect in such a way, but couldn't argue. Everything the Vice-Sect Leader said was true. The Supreme Battle Sect only cared about cultivation and battle, and ignored everything else.
This included having a robust spy and information network, and so the Supreme Battle Sect was always the last to pick up on news regarding the lands. The Vice-Sect Leader had returned just a year ago from the Divine Martial Continent, and had not shown her face outside of the Heavenly Lightning Sect yet.
As such, the Supreme Battle Sect thought she was still in the Divine Martial Continent.
The Vice-Sect Leader suddenly felt the man's divine sense pass over her, as he was attempting to inspect her cultivation. However, much to his surprise, he was not able to do so.
"You're wearing a cultivation shrouding artifact?" the man asked in a questioning tone.
Normally, cultivators were able to detect the cultivation of others with their divine sense. However, if one was wearing a powerful enough cultivation shrouding artifact, it would hide their cultivation from whoever scanned it.
There was another explanation for why the man could not detect her cultivation, but he dismissed such a thought, as the Vice-Sect Leader would never have returned to the Yuan Continent if that was the case.
The Vice-Sect Leader smiled smugly at the man. "Do you really believe I would concern myself with such useless things?" she asked in a mocking tone.
The man's eyes suddenly widened as he heard this. "You're hardly thirty years old, and yet you claim to have reached that realm? If this is true, why would you have returned to the Yuan Continent. With your age and talent, you would be valued even in the Divine Martial Continent," the man rebuked, refusing to believe the Vice-Sect Leader.
Slight surprise appeared on John's face as he heard this. Not because of her cultivation, but because of her age.
'Cultivators age much slower than mortals, so while the Vice-Sect Leader appears to be in her twenties, I figured she was much older. It seems like she's actually still quite young!'
John was shocked to hear this, but didn't say anything as he sat there in silence as the two adults conversed.
"Hmph," the Vice-Sect Leader scoffed at the man's assumptions. "My reasons for leaving that land are my own. But that's not the important thing right now. The thing to discuss is your brazen barging into my sect, acting as if we are not worthy of being placed in your eyes. That is not something I can forgive."
The man frowned as he heard this. It seemed as though the Vice-Sect Leader was going to make things difficult for him.
"This boy, a disciple of your sect, stole our Supreme Battle Art and had been blatantly using it. I'm sure someone like you can understand that this is a serious matter, and that the boy must be brought back for questioning no matter what. Your sect would do the same if it was in this position," the man replied, his tone firm.
He still didn't believe the Vice-Sect Leader's story about not using a cultivation shrouding artifact, and so figured their strength was on the same level. The last rumors of the Vice-Sect Leader was that her cultivation was in the Heaven Tribulation Realm, and so the man was confident in keeping himself safe at the very least.
The Vice-Sect Leader nodded her head in agreement at the man's words. "What you say is true. If one of your members had the Heavenly Lightning Tome, we too would bring them back for questioning."
The man slightly relaxed upon hearing this.
"However," the Vice-Sect Leader continued. "You've made one grave error here. This 'boy' isn't just a disciple of my sect, he is also my Direct Disciple."
The man frowned upon hearing this, while a slight surprise appeared on John's face. The Vice-Sect Leader had always told him he was not her disciple, but she seemed to have changed tunes now.
"As such, you treating my disciple with no respect is as if you're treating me with no respect," she continued.
The Supreme Battle Sect Elder opened his mouth to reply.
Bang!
A fist collided with his face, sending him flying back like a cannonball. His body flew backwards violently, and slammed onto an unoccupied mountain in the far distance several miles away. The mountain exploded into a hail of rubble, and began to crumble from the force of the impact.
John, as well as his three friends, stared at the scene in complete shock. The man, who was a Peak Heaven Tribulation Elder, was knocked back violently with a single attack, unable to do anything to stop it.
Not only that, but the force of a single attack from the Vice-Sect Leader was enough to shatter a mountain, stunning them completely.
"Wait here a moment," the Vice-Sect Leader said to John as her body suddenly disappeared.
The four of them saw her reappear above the mountain in the distance, staring down at its shattered remains below.
An explosion of debris erupted from the ground as the man shot out of the rubble. He stopped, and stared up at the Vice-Sect Leader who hovered above him. She stared down at him with a calm face, as if his Peak Heaven Tribulation cultivation was nothing more than a trifling matter.
He now believed the Vice-Sect Leader on why he could not detect her cultivation level.
As he thought of this, a bad premonition appeared in his mind.
"You're...you're actually in the Dao Transformation Realm!"