Cong Taiyan's fury had burned to its absolute peak. All his life, he had lived by his own sword, settling scores and seeking vengeance. It was always he who crushed others, bullied them, and made them swallow their grievances. When had he ever been the one to swallow such bitterness?
Yet here was this whelp, barely dry behind the ears, ordering him about right to his face. Not only had the brat killed members of his Meteorfall Society, but he was now flaunting his dominance in Cong Taiyan's own territory.
This was what the Meteorfall Society did to others. Today, the roles were completely reversed!
Human nature was base, and men like Cong Taiyan were the very embodiment of that. When he had crushed, suppressed, and slaughtered others in the past, he had never once considered their perspective. He’d never wondered if they felt wronged, frustrated, or were simply innocent. Now, in this moment, he possessed no such self-awareness. His entire mind was consumed by a single thought: destroy them, tear these insolent dogs limb from limb!
As for Third Master Jing, this matter absolutely could not be left unresolved. Even if the man was the Vice Sect Master of the First Branch, even if he had his own backers within the Moon God Sect.
Cong Taiyan met Jiang Chen's gaze head-on, his own eyes vicious and savage, glaring as if he wanted to rip the young man apart on the spot.
"Enough talk, boy. Go die!"
The dam of Cong Taiyan's rage finally broke. Like a volcano that had been simmering for ages, it erupted all at once.
With a single palm thrust, his force surged forth, wreathed in a crimson radiance. A tidal wave of flames, like a rolling sea of fire, swept violently toward Jiang Chen, billowing and churning, instantly engulfing the area.
The Peerless Emperor moved in a flash, positioning himself before Jiang Chen, and said with detached calm, "I'll handle this."
He extended his large hand, and an invisible force erupted forth, pressing directly down upon the oncoming sea of fire. This invisible palm force was like a heavenly net, catching the entire inferno and containing it completely.
In the next instant, the sea of fire began to compress, shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The sea of fire shrank to a fireball, the fireball to a flame, the flame to a mere spark, and the spark dwindled to a single, minuscule crimson particle before vanishing entirely within the Peerless Emperor's palm.
The Peerless Emperor gave his palm a light pat. The tiny red particle fell despairingly to the ground. He took one step forward, pressed down gently with his foot, and extinguished it completely.
"Show me some fresh tricks." The Peerless Emperor's tone was faintly contemptuous as he glanced at Cong Taiyan. "Decent fire-element talent, I suppose. Pity it doesn't even qualify as an Innate Fire Spirit Body. Your path ends here. You'll never even reach the half-step Emperor realm, let alone the true Emperor realm."
His voice was like a pronouncement from a judge—cold, unfeeling, yet impossible to dismiss.
Cong Taiyan had encountered strong opponents before, but never one like this. A casual wave of the hand, and his most powerful fire technique was snuffed out. Being extinguished was one thing; the manner in which it was done was practically a humiliation.
What did this prove? It proved that Cong Taiyan's cultivation had not even merited a serious effort from his opponent. They hadn't even needed to use their real strength. A trivial gesture had shattered the attack he was so proud of. This level of power...
Hearing the Emperor's assessment afterwards made Cong Taiyan feel as though he'd been plunged into an ice cellar. Every pore on his body stood on end.
He had heard similar words before, spoken by a Great Emperor of the Moon God Sect. Back then, Cong Taiyan hadn't truly believed it. In his youth, arrogant and full of himself, he believed his talent was peerless and his fortune unmatched, determined to prove that Emperor wrong.
Yet, walking the path all the way to now, he had reached the absolute peak of the Sovereign realm. But he remained forever stuck, unable to take that final half-step, unable to grasp even the slightest inspiration of the Emperor realm.
In other words, he couldn't even break into the half-step Emperor realm, let alone challenge the Great Emperor realm itself.
His path of martial cultivation had been predicted and sealed from the very beginning. Whether he was willing to accept it or not, this was the unalterable fact.
With no hope of further advancement, Cong Taiyan had grown disinterested in the power struggles within the Moon God Sect. Gradually, he had shifted his focus to Frost Moon City, establishing his own sphere of influence there. The Meteorfall Society had risen and grown under his direct management and ruthless ambition.
"Hmph!" Cong Taiyan was, after all, a peak Sovereign. Though momentarily unnerved by the Peerless Emperor's words, he soon regained his cold composure. He snorted and called out, "Friend, your cultivation is impressive. But coming here to my Meteorfall Society and acting the fool? That's not enough!"
As he spoke, his left hand brushed a ring on his right hand.
In the next instant, Cong Taiyan rubbed his palms together and actually conjured a fireball. This fireball appeared smaller in scale than the previous sea of fire.
But as it shot forward, the heat and destructive power it generated were three times greater than that of the earlier inferno.
The Peerless Emperor's brow twitched slightly. He gave a low shout, "Watch out!"
Swift as lightning, almost simultaneously with his warning, the fireball exploded violently. Countless crimson arrows of fire, like a shower of meteors, streaked toward Jiang Chen and Long Xiaoxuan.
Even the Peerless Emperor hadn't anticipated that the fireball could detonate and split into myriad individual projectiles. His warning came at practically the exact moment of the explosion. In such a situation, it was clearly too late.
Fortunately, Jiang Chen's attention had never wavered. The moment he saw the strange fireball form, his battle instincts had already sounded the alarm.