"Brother Tie Fan, look — isn't that the brat who meddled in our business before?" Suddenly, from the back half of the queuing crowd, someone pointed at the sky and cried out. It was the group that had clashed with Chu Feng earlier, and they had spotted him along with Jiang Wanshi.
"Hmph, serves them right for being busybodies. Looks like they'll be sleeping outside the Misty Celestial Peak tonight." Tie Fan laughed with malicious glee.
The entrance to Misty Celestial Peak would close before sunset, and judging by the number of people still queuing and the speed of the inspections, their group would just barely make it inside before the cutoff. But if Chu Feng and Jiang Wanshi joined the line now, they'd have no chance of getting in.
Had Chu Feng and his companion not gotten involved earlier and had instead come straight to queue, they'd be ahead of everyone else right now. That was why Tie Fan and his group were gloating — they figured Chu Feng and Jiang Wanshi deserved exactly what they got.
"Look, what's that thing the brat is holding?"
"No way — is that a Misty Celestial Token? That hag must have given it to him."
"It really is. It looks exactly like ours. Is this guy actually planning to sneak in with a fake token?"
"Surely not. Even he can't be that stupid." Tie Fan and the others whispered amongst themselves, eyeing the token in Chu Feng's hand.
"Sister Jiang, how long does Senior Misty typically need to deal with those demonic creatures?" Chu Feng asked Jiang Wanshi from high in the sky.
"It's hard to say. Sometimes it takes just a moment, other times several days. My master once told me that even though Senior Misty's strength is immense, she once spent days struggling against a single demonic creature — and came back wounded at that," Jiang Wanshi replied.
"She's that powerful?" Chu Feng was genuinely shocked. If what Jiang Wanshi had told him earlier was true, then the demonic creature sealed within Misty Celestial Peak was terrifyingly strong. A mere projected phantom had been enough to wound Senior Misty — how powerful must the real thing be?
Shocked as he was, this kind of affair was far beyond what someone of his cultivation could involve himself in. So he said to Jiang Wanshi, "Sister Jiang, going by what you've said, we have no idea when Senior Qiushui will return. If she doesn't come back today, we'll have to spend the night outside?"
"That's..." Jiang Wanshi hesitated. She truly had no idea when Qiushui Fuyan would be back.
"Tell you what — why don't we try this Misty Celestial Token?" Chu Feng said with a smile, holding up the token in his hand.
"Junior Brother Chu Feng, you absolutely must not! Do you really think that token is genuine?" Jiang Wanshi's face changed drastically and she hurriedly tried to stop him.
But Chu Feng merely smiled faintly. "Real or fake, the only way to find out is to try. Besides, I don't think that girl would set me up."
"Even if it turns out to be fake, so what? At worst, I'll get laughed at by everyone and then obediently go stand in line. Sister Jiang, you care about what people think — but I couldn't care less. You don't have to come with me. I'll go on my own." With that, Chu Feng launched himself toward the entrance.
"Junior Brother Wuqing, wait—" Jiang Wanshi had wanted to follow, but after pressing her lips together, she pulled back her foot, which had already stepped forward, and did not give chase. She was convinced the token had to be fake.
True, compared to the geniuses gathered here, she herself was nothing extraordinary. But she hailed from a prestigious sect, and among all the reclusive disciples of Yuantai Platform, she was still someone of note. She wasn't about to throw away her reputation like that.
"Brother Tie Fan, look — that guy's actually flying toward the entrance! Is he really going to try to pass off that fake token?" The first-rank Martial Lord whom Chu Feng had knocked back earlier pointed toward the sky.
"He can't be serious. He'd have to have had his brain squeezed in a door to do something that stupid." Tie Fan shook his head. He didn't think Chu Feng was the kind of person with zero judgment.
"He is — look, he's really going!" the other insisted.
"No way... Could he actually be an idiot?" Even Tie Fan was startled when he watched Chu Feng land at the very front of the queue, his face full of disbelief.
"Hey, what's your problem? Why aren't you queuing? You just cut in front of me! Get to the back of the line right now!"
Standing at the very front was a first-rank Martial Lord. The person ahead of him had just entered, and it was finally his turn to present his identification for inspection. But then Chu Feng suddenly descended from the sky and landed right in front of him, sending him into a fury.
"Exactly! Where did this ill-mannered brat come from? Can't you see everyone is queuing? Who do you think you are, cutting the line?" The people behind the man were equally angry. They had all endured a long wait to get this far.
Guarding the barrier entrance was a white-haired elder. He was also a Martial Lord, but his cultivation was far higher — a sixth-rank Martial Lord, in fact, a full rank above Yafei, the supreme genius of the Immortal Execution Archipelago.
He sized up Chu Feng and, not believing that someone of his level could have received a Misty Celestial Token, spoke sternly: "Go back and queue immediately. If you insist on breaking the rules, I don't care where you come from — don't blame me for being harsh."
"Oh? I have a Misty Celestial Token. Do I still need to queue?" Chu Feng merely smiled calmly at the elder's reprimand, then held up the token in his hand.
"Ha ha ha! A Misty Celestial Token? Someone like you actually received a Misty Celestial Token? I'd wager you bought it from that beggar woman just now!" Before the elder could even respond, the crowd behind burst into laughter, all convinced the token Chu Feng was holding was fake.
The elder didn't even deign to look properly at Chu Feng's token. Instead, he barked coldly: "Truly beyond redemption. I already warned you not to bring a fake token here and try to sneak in, yet you persist in your stubbornness, treating my words as nothing more than wind in your ears. It seems I must teach you a lesson today."
As he spoke, the elder's sharp eyebrows bristled upward, and a tremendous wave of oppressive pressure surged forth, crashing toward Chu Feng.
Yet Chu Feng showed not a hint of fear in the face of this. Holding up the token, he said to the elder, "You haven't even looked at it and you already know it's fake?"
*Whoosh* — at that very moment, the token in Chu Feng's hand released an invisible wave of force. That force not only swallowed the elder's oppressive pressure in an instant but also sent him staggering back several steps.
At that, the elder's expression changed dramatically. He stared at the token in Chu Feng's hand with eyes full of shock, then quickly straightened himself and bowed deeply to Chu Feng: "This old man was foolish and failed to recognize the genuine Misty Celestial Token. Please forgive me, young sir!"