Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

The domain realm master who Ling Lan stopped was the strongest among the three domain realm masters that were hiding in the manor. Ling Lan had detected his force of presence and concluded that he was only half a step away from becoming a t.i.tled domain realm formidable warrior. Hence, she decided to stop this person herself as no one other than her could match-up to him. Plus, Ling Lan had already made the decision to eliminate everyone here, so she would, of course, not allow anyone to escape.

The domain realm master frowned when he saw Ling Lan appearing in front of him. At first, he thought that Ling Lan would stop the weaker domain realm master, so he was slightly furious that Ling Lan chose him. Did his opponent think that he was afraid? He only chose to escape because he didn't want the manor to suffer more damages and was also going to look for reinforcements.

There were two powerful domain realm masters guarding the headquarters. One was Elder Hong who disappeared without a trace yesterday. No one knew if he was on a secret mission or was he caught by the military. The other person was Elder Liang. Elder Liang liked to suppress his force of presence and hid among the ma.s.ses. He was not like Elder Hong who had a high status. When they were retreating, Elder Liang even disguised himself and fought with the enemies outside. He didn't retreat from the headquarters with the first batch. This domain realm master was planning to ask Elder Liang for help.

Since he was stopped, he could not leave this place anymore. His only hope was to tie down this person so that his comrade could maybe leave. The domain realm master made a decision and immediately activated his domain. He prepared to fight with Ling Lan, to the death.

Ling Lan felt a huge gush of hot air when this person activated his domain. Flames appeared out of nowhere in her opponent's domain. Compared to Mu Chaoran's red flame, this person's flame was slightly green and the energy in it was more powerful than Mu Chaoran's red flame. If she was right, a green flame was a tier higher than a red flame. This showed that her opponent had a strong understanding of his domain concept.

Ling Lan frowned. She didn't expect her opponent to have a fire elemental domain. The fire and ice element naturally restricted each other. Additionally, she had ever fought with a fire element domain realm master before. Will this fight it give her some new experiences? Ling Lan felt a growing fighting intent, and a cold aura started to exude out from her body.

"Ice element!" The fire element domain realm master was extremely sensitive to elements that restricted him. Ling Lan had only released a little of her force of presence but he instantly knew what her element was.

His expression changed slightly. He started to turn vigilant. This kind of mutated domain was very hard to predict and was very powerful, so they were hard to deal with. Domain realm masters hated opponents who had such mutated domains. Thus, to not get caught off guard by them, one would have to constantly stay on their guard.

Among the five basic elements, the fire element had the strongest offense, the metal element had the greatest explosive power, the earth element was the st.u.r.diest, the water element had a good balance between offense and defense, and the wood element was the hardest to detect. All of them had their advantages. It could be said that most domain realm masters knew these five elements inside-out. Thus, when they fought against such elements, they already knew what to expect. However, mutated elements were rare, so not much information could be gathered. Thus, people could only rely on their personal experiences to battle against these mutated elements.

This kind of domain was very troublesome to deal with. However, there was another kind of domain that was not just troublesome, but it was also so scary that enemy domain realm masters had to be constantly careful and be alert of it, and it was the special domains. Li Lanfeng's weird domain was a perfect example of those special domains. No one could know what the domain could do, so a moment of carelessness might cause one's death.

On one side of the battlefield, the air was burning hot and filled with green flames. On the other side, it was cold and icy. Steam appeared at the meeting between the two domains. Soon, the steam disappeared.

The two of them confronted each other silently for a few seconds. Then, at the same time, the fire and ice arrows flew towards each other. The two people acted in unplanned unison. Both of them were trying to gauge each other's strength. No one was able to gain an advantage over the other. The clash between hot and cold produced a slightly warm mist that warmed up the entire battlefield. It seemed to be overpowered by the warmth from the flames.

The fire element domain realm master's eyes suddenly lit up. The mist surrounded him started to clear up first on his side first due to the heat from his flame. He could see his surroundings clearly again. Then, he saw the mist around his opponent and suddenly had a thought, and instantly, his entire body became engulfed in flames. The flames around him started to spiral upwards, twisting and curling into a huge green flame dragon that flew towards the Ling Lan side, covering the Ling Lan's entire side of the battlefield.

However, the fire dragon didn't hit anyone. It just struck an empty piece of land. Molten rocks and boulders were flung into the air. The fire dragon stood up and it started receding back, forming a human silhouette which was the fire element domain realm master who was wearing a worried expression. The green flames around him started to burn even brighter and grew from three inches to ten inches. His force of presence also increased almost three times.

He didn't expect his opponent to disappear without a trace. There were no signs of ice around him. Where is the ice element domain realm master hiding? Why wasn't there any force of presence here? Domain realm masters who could turn into their element would usually carry the presence of their element with them. However, he didn't feel any coldness around him.

Did he leave? The fire element domain realm master inspected the air around him again and confirmed that there was no coldness in it. Another thought flashed through his mind.

This is bad! He suddenly turned his head towards the direction where his comrade when and he felt the force of presence of a domain realm master with his comrade. He immediately understood what had happened. He got tricked by his opponent. His opponent's real target was his comrade.

The other party didn't plan to let any one of them away! The fire element immediately changed into a green flame dragon again and flew as fast as he could. He was filled with anger and grief. "Don't worry, I'll definitely find Elder Liang and take revenge for all of you!" At the last moment, he chose to save himself and sacrificed his comrades.

He was focused on escaping that he didn't notice a warm mist entering his domain. The temperature of the mist was the same as his aura so he thought that it was just some leftover mist from the battlefield. By the time he realized that something was wrong, it was already too late.

"Ice Blockade!" A cold voice could be heard next to his ear. He felt his body turning cold. The moment he felt that his body froze into an ice statue.

The mist around him slowly dispersed, revealing Ling Lan's body. She had never left.

The fire element domain realm master didn't stop struggling. The green flames on his body tried to burn the ice surrounding his body. However, he was cut off from the surrounding fire elements by the ice, so he could only rely on his domain energy. If he couldn't escape before his energy got depleted, he will be dead.

He saw Ling Lan walking out of the mist. His eyes widened in disbelief. He could still clearly feel that there was no cold aura in the mist. It was warm. This couldn't be done by an ice element… He let down his guard because of this and allowed his opponent to infiltrate his domain with his ice element.

The coldness in his body got even colder. The cold didn't just come externally, it came from within him too. When he turned into a flame dragon, he sucked in the mist accidentally. This mist turned into ice element in his body and disrupted the energy inside him.

"As expected of someone who was almost a t.i.tled domain realm formidable warrior. You lasted for a long time even after my ice element infiltrated into your body," Ling Lan said calmly.

This battle with this fire element domain realm master made Ling Lan gain a deeper understanding of the third state of the water element. Compared to the other two states, this state was almost invisible. She could attack her opponent without a trace. The bugged technique could only be used when her opponent touched her in her liquid state. In the gaseous state, she could hide in her opponent's domain and sneaked an attack on him without him noticing.

The damage done to her opponent when her ice element infiltrated his body was stronger than any external attack. If she purely used her ice element in its solid state, she would need to use a technique that would overpower her opponent. For instance, Ice Blockade. However, her ice element energy would be used up in the process, and she wouldn't be able to resist against an attack by another domain realm master. If she used the gaseous state to infiltrate her opponent's body and then turned it back to its solid state, the results would be the same as using Ice Blockade. But, the energy consumed would be much lesser. Even if another enemy came to attack her, she would have the strength to fight against him.

Through this battle, Ling Lan was able to use the three states of the water element interchangeably and seamlessly. She understood that strength was not the only decisive factor in a battle. Understanding her opponent's mindset and using the right technique could kill people were important factors that could swing a battle to either side.

At first, Ling Lan thought that she already had a good understanding of her domain. Now, she realized that those understandings were just theoretical, and only through experience would she be able to gain enlightenment and more insights towards her own domain. She always thought that the gaseous state was only suitable for sneak attacks and not direct confrontations. Now, she felt that she needed to further explore the offense techniques of the gaseous state. She might be able to create some new and unique techniques.

No wonder her father always gave her difficult missions. His intention was to let her understand her domain quicker through all these experiences. As expected of her father, he knew her the best. Ling Xiao knew that Ling Lan was not someone who likes to fight. Hence, he had no choice but to bear with the pressure from his wife to give Ling Lan some troubles.