It wasn't that the Asura Great Emperor was blindly overconfident. He was a Great Emperor who had been famous for three thousand years, and in his eyes, Jiang Chen was nothing more than a young genius who had only half-stepped into the Emperor realm.
The gap between them was plain for all to see. As for the notion that Jiang Chen could mount a stubborn defense, the Asura Great Emperor naturally didn't believe it was remotely possible.
Jiang Chen, for his part, knew full well how grueling this fight would be.
He reached out with one hand and produced an Emperor's Descent Armor Talisman. Without a moment's hesitation, he activated it immediately.
The powerful force of the talisman surged throughout Jiang Chen's entire body. Strange, tadpole-like runes blazed with dazzling radiance all around him.
This wasn't the first time Jiang Chen had used an Emperor's Descent Armor Talisman.
A single talisman could be used a total of three to five times. The one Jiang Chen had was a gift from the Peacock Great Emperor from their last encounter.
He had used it as well when fighting the Blood Sunflower Demon Emperor.
However, Jiang Chen understood that this battle might prove even more difficult than that fight against the Blood Sunflower Demon Emperor.
After all, the Blood Sunflower Demon Emperor at the time had only recovered twenty to thirty percent of his power. The current Asura Great Emperor, even if he couldn't match the Blood Sunflower Demon Emperor at his peak, was at least equivalent to sixty or seventy percent of that demon's strength.
This fight would not be easy!
But this time around, Jiang Chen had one enormous advantage compared to before.
The last time he faced the Blood Sunflower Demon Emperor, he had only been a half-step Emperor realm cultivator, not yet fully within the Emperor domain. Now, he was a bona fide Emperor realm powerhouse.
After entering the second palace of the main tower of the Glazed Pagoda, Jiang Chen had broken through to the Emperor realm, elevating his cultivation to an entirely new level. He had also obtained the Earth Treasury Origin Pearl, which had granted him tremendous advancement in the art of formations.
That was precisely why Jiang Chen had the confidence to step forward.
Empowered by the Emperor's Descent Armor Talisman, his defensive capability instantly surged to the level of a quasi-Great Emperor. The only drawback was that the talisman's duration was limited to roughly an hour.
Fortunately, the Emperor's Descent Armor Talisman could be used in succession.
He still had three uses remaining, so lasting for two hours would not be a problem at all.
Most importantly, Jiang Chen cultivated the Divine-Demonic Golden Body. His physical body was extraordinarily robust, so using the Emperor's Descent Armor Talisman twice in a row would not result in any backlash whatsoever.
This was what set him apart from ordinary users of this talisman.
Most Emperor realm cultivators who occasionally employed the Emperor's Descent Armor Talisman found that the strain on the physical body was severe. An average powerhouse could typically withstand using it only once.
Jiang Chen's physical resilience, however, was more than sufficient to support two uses.
Back when he had fought the Blood Sunflower Demon Emperor, he had simultaneously activated the Emperor's Descent True Force Talisman and the Emperor's Descent Armor Talisman—one for offense, one for defense, both at the same time.
If not for that, he never could have fought the Blood Sunflower Demon Emperor to a standstill.
The Asura Great Emperor's brow furrowed when he saw Jiang Chen produce the Emperor's Descent Armor Talisman. He cursed the Peacock Great Emperor silently for having passed such a precious talisman to this brat.
"Hmph. You think using the Emperor's Descent Armor Talisman actually means you possess Great Emperor-level strength?" The Asura Great Emperor's tone dripped with disdain. "A mere half-step Emperor realm whelp wielding that talisman will only die faster. If that's the extent of your trump cards, I have to say—I'm rather disappointed in you."
It was a psychological attack.
Jiang Chen made no reply. He was perfectly happy to let the Asura Great Emperor keep talking. He knew the Great Emperor was trying to break down his defenses mentally.
But Jiang Chen couldn't have cared less. In fact, he wanted the Asura Great Emperor to speak for as long as possible, because he, too, was quietly making his preparations.
The eight stone sculptures were only his first line of defense.
The Emperor's Descent Armor Talisman formed the second.
There was a third. Jiang Chen silently formed hand seals in his mind, secretly activating the Danxiao Formation Disk. Wave after wave of formation patterns suddenly spread rapidly beneath his feet.
"Oh?" The Asura Great Emperor's brow creased as he sensed the sudden change in the battlefield.
The formation activated!
The Danxiao Formation Disk could replicate the ten great formations of the ancient Danxiao School.
The Eight Desolations Bedrock Formation.
This was a purely defensive formation. As its name implied, once activated, every direction became as unyielding as bedrock—impervious to assault.
The formation offered no offensive capability whatsoever, but its defensive power was nothing short of astonishing. Once deployed, even an opponent several times stronger would find it exceedingly difficult to break through.
However, the Eight Desolations Bedrock Formation demanded enormous energy to maintain precisely because of its formidable defense.
Before stepping into battle, Jiang Chen had already simulated this formation several times within his spiritual consciousness. Among the ten great formations of the Danxiao Formation Disk, the Eight Desolations Bedrock Formation was by no means the most powerful, but it was unquestionably the most energy-intensive.
This was an earth-attribute formation, and it consumed earth-attribute Ling Shi at an astonishing rate.