"Win him over?"
Truthfully, Jiang Chen's knowledge of Emperor Nian was virtually nil. In theory, a Great Emperor who wanted no part in worldly affairs should remain neutral at critical junctures.
Yet Emperor Nian had chosen to agree to Asura Great Emperor's convocation of the Council of Lords, cloaking his decision in the rhetoric of considering the bigger picture.
In reality, the Glazed Glass Royal City's prospects were better left unchanged. If the Council of Lords was never convened, the city might not spiral into chaos so quickly. Convening it would only inflame existing tensions, bring every contradiction to the surface, and upend the city's balance of power.
"Yes — win him over!"
"And then there's Emperor Zhenyue. The reason he chose to support the convocation is that circumstances forced his hand. Under the combined pressure of Asura Great Emperor and Canghai Great Emperor, he had no way to resist. In truth, Emperor Zhenyue and Asura Great Emperor have never had much of a relationship. Of course, Asura Great Emperor is no longer allied with Canghai Great Emperor alone — Emperor Zhankong has also sided with them. A three-way coalition has formed."
The Great Emperor power structure of the Glazed Glass Royal City, once a complex web of shifting loyalties, was growing clearer by the day.
Asura Great Emperor, Canghai Great Emperor, and Emperor Zhankong — these three Great Emperors had already formed an alliance.
As for Emperor Panlong and Emperor Jime, they stood on Peacock Sacred Mountain's side. If the Peacock Great Emperor were still here, he wouldn't even need allies — he could dismantle any factional arrangement with ease.
But the Peacock Great Emperor had reportedly met with disaster, and that news had thrown the entire city's political landscape into an incredibly delicate state.
Now, the neutral Emperor Nian and Emperor Zhenyue had, for various reasons, chosen for the time being to support the convening of the Council of Lords.
This didn't necessarily mean they had allied with Asura Great Emperor, but at the very least, the scales of their hearts were tilting ever so slightly in that direction.
Now, everything depended on how Peacock Sacred Mountain responded.
A good response could reverse the tide of disaster.
A poor one, and Peacock Sacred Mountain would lose all its standing — becoming the next target for Asura Great Emperor to eliminate.
There was no denying it: reality was cruel.
Jiang Chen was silent for a long moment before letting out a soft sigh. His voice was low and measured. "My biggest worry right now isn't that those three Great Emperors have joined forces."
"Then what are you worried about?" Both Emperor Jime and Emperor Panlong wore puzzled expressions.
"What worries me is — why is Asura Great Emperor so confident that he dares convene this Council of Lords without fear of provoking the Peacock Great Emperor? Could it be that Asura Great Emperor already knows something? Or that he truly knows the Peacock Great Emperor's whereabouts?"
"Young Master Zhen, what are you suggesting?" The faces of Emperor Panlong and Emperor Jime turned grim in an instant.
They had mentally run through every terrible possibility on their own as well. They simply hadn't been willing to accept any of it.
After all, in their eyes, the Peacock Great Emperor was invincible. They refused to believe that Asura Great Emperor possessed the power to end the Peacock Great Emperor's life.
Theoretically, even if all three Great Emperors joined forces, they might still not be able to defeat the Peacock Great Emperor. Besides, Canghai Great Emperor had been in the Glazed Glass Royal City the entire time — he had never left.
Asura Great Emperor and Emperor Zhankong had each departed the city at various points, but the two of them together could take on the Peacock Great Emperor? And they could silence him so completely that not a single message got out before he was destroyed?
No matter how you looked at it, that was absurd — utterly impossible.
Yet hearing Jiang Chen say these things, a seed of worry took root in their hearts. After all, the Peacock Great Emperor had been completely out of contact for an unconscionably long time. That was fact.
If the Peacock Great Emperor were truly fine, would he have let all these things happen in the Glazed Glass Royal City without rushing back to take charge? Would he have simply allowed Asura Great Emperor to run wild like this?
Jiang Chen furrowed his brow. "I have always believed that the Peacock Great Emperor is still alive! At the very least, I refuse to believe that Asura Great Emperor could bring about the Peacock Great Emperor's fall. He doesn't have that capability. Even if every Great Emperor in the Glazed Glass Royal City attacked together, they could absolutely not kill the Peacock Great Emperor. Perhaps they could jointly defeat him, but they could never make him fall."
On this point, Jiang Chen was supremely confident.
He had given a drop of the Heavenly Kun bloodline to the Peacock Great Emperor. The Heavenly Kun bloodline was naturally highly compatible with the Peacock Great Emperor's own bloodline.
If the Peacock Great Emperor refined it, his power would surge enormously — he might even break through the constraints of the Emperor realm in one leap and ascend to the Heavenly Position.
After all, the Peacock Great Emperor had long since sensed the laws of heaven and earth, had sensed the concept of the Heavenly Position.
Had the Peacock Great Emperor not deliberately suppressed his own advancement, he might have already become a Heavenly Position powerhouse long ago.
Now, with the Heavenly Kun bloodline, the Peacock Great Emperor was fully prepared for ascension to the Heavenly Position in every conceivable way.
A quasi–Heavenly Position cultivator — how could a mere coalition of a few Great Emperors possibly kill him?
Jiang Chen had immense faith in the Peacock Great Emperor. But there was one thing that worried him now. He worried that Asura Great Emperor might be drawing upon the power of external forces.
Previously, he had assumed that no matter how much Asura Great Emperor coveted power, he would never go so far as to collude with outside factions.
But this time, upon returning to the Glazed Glass Royal City — specifically in that pill shop next to the Grand Origin Pavilion — Jiang Chen had begun to suspect that Asura Great Emperor might not have held to that red line after all.