The Asura Great Emperor's frenzied blade strike, infused with the full power of his cultivation, finally shattered the formation patterns of the Eight Desolations Rock Formation, destroying its core structure entirely.
To restore the formation now, one would need to restart it through the formation disc. There was absolutely no way to recover it in the span of a single breath.
The formation had been decisively destroyed by that overwhelming blow. The Asura Great Emperor's eyes blazed with killing intent as they shot toward Jiang Chen, locking onto him.
Broken — at last, broken!
When enemies meet, their eyes burn with hatred!
The Asura Great Emperor let out a savage grin and surged forward, his blade slashing down once more. Rampaging blade-light arced downward, cleaving toward Jiang Chen's waist.
In that instant, every spectator on the scene cried out in alarm.
BOOM!
The blade struck Jiang Chen's midsection. Blade-light flashed, and a blinding radiance erupted. In the next moment, Jiang Chen's body — split cleanly into upper and lower halves — was sent hurtling skyward by the force of the strike, then came crashing down miserably to the ground.
Cleft in two with a single blow!
In that moment, cries of shock erupted across the venue.
Some spectators couldn't bear to watch and shut their eyes, unable to stomach the ghastly sight any longer. Over on the Peacock Sacred Mountain side, both the Nirvana Great Emperor and the Panlong Great Emperor nearly surged onto the stage simultaneously to intervene, but the Matchless Great Emperor pressed them both down with a hand.
The Matchless Great Emperor furrowed his brow and shook his head. "Keep your composure!"
The four sovereign lords were pale-faced, their entire bodies trembling almost beyond control. Such a bloody spectacle had nearly shattered their nerves and broken through their psychological defenses.
Young Lord Zhen had been cut down?
The peerlessly talented Young Lord Zhen — sliced in two by the Asura Great Emperor's blade just like that?
In the vassal districts, those lords who supported Peacock Sacred Mountain raised an uproar: "Shameless! A great emperor, and he resorts to such brutality against a young prodigy?"
"Such a tyrant — how could he ever become the master of our Glazed King City?"
Even the top-tier great emperor powerhouses in the guest area were visibly stunned by the scene. Danji Great Emperor's throat bobbed as he stared at the stage, his expression one of skepticism mixed with disbelief.
The Han brothers from the Xiayu Heavenly Sword Sect also fixed their gazes on the stage, their sharp eyes brimming with keen interest.
Su Zhenhuan, however, swayed slightly before shaking her head. "Impossible! With Young Lord Zhen's cunning, there's no way he'd be cut down by a single blade. This is an illusion!"
Something stirred in Danji Great Emperor's mind, and he suddenly seemed to sense something. His eyes bore down on the stage, clearly intent on seeing what would happen next.
Truthfully, he didn't want Young Lord Zhen to be cut down just like that. He hadn't obtained the Pine Crane Pill yet — if this brat was killed, where would he get it?
He certainly didn't believe that such a peerless pill would be handed over to the people of Peacock Sacred Mountain. And even if it were, obtaining it as Danji Great Emperor would be no easy matter.
Over on the Asura Colosseum side, when the Asura Great Emperor's blade cut down Jiang Chen, a wave of cheers erupted — especially from Li Jiancheng, who pumped his fist with savage satisfaction, feeling all his rage and pent-up frustration released in the catharsis of that single devastating slash.
The Asura Great Emperor's heart swelled with joy at having severed Jiang Chen in one blow, but in the very next instant, something felt wrong. After this strike, not a single drop of blood had sprayed?
That defied all reason.
In the next moment, when the Asura Great Emperor focused his eyes to examine the scene, he found absolutely no blood on the ground, and the severed dharma body seemed to have vanished into thin air.
The surroundings had turned a murky gray, as though he were standing in the midst of a primordial chaos.
"Hmm? What is this?" The Asura Great Emperor's emotions swung wildly — for a moment, his thoughts couldn't quite catch up.
After steadying himself, the Asura Great Emperor abruptly realized that he had been trapped inside a formation.
"Another formation!?" The Asura Great Emperor laughed in his rage, on the verge of losing his mind entirely. Another formation — it was formations all the way, one after another without end.
How far was this brat going to take his little games?
"Cleave it all! Everything false — cut it all apart!" The Asura Great Emperor roared again and again, his blade-light crisscrossing as he slashed wildly in every direction.
With a series of sharp hissing sounds, the illusory void was cleaved apart. The murky fog was slashed away entirely, revealing the clear sky above. But now the Asura Great Emperor discovered that the Young Lord Zhen he had supposedly cut down in a single blow was standing at the far end of the stage, watching him with a cold smirk.
Seeing that mocking smile, the Asura Great Emperor was suddenly struck by the feeling that he had been played for a fool.
Jiang Chen swept his sleeve, and several bizarre trees materialized before him.
"Asura, you're in such a pathetic state — hurting yourself, mutilating yourself — and it's all for nothing. I've laid down another formation. Do you dare try to break through it?"
Jiang Chen's entire body blazed with golden radiance. The Astral Magnetic Dao Armor, forged from condensed astral magnetic force, shimmered around him with blinding brilliance.
Moreover, he had activated his Divine Demon Golden Body, inflating his dharma body to a height of a full ten meters, standing on equal footing with the Asura Great Emperor.
For a moment, it was as though two titans were dueling upon the stage.
Fortunately, arenas of this caliber were exceedingly spacious — even with both fighters' dharma bodies expanded several times over, it did nothing to impede their battle.
Those bizarre trees had been conjured by the Ice Fire Demon Lotus. As the Ice Fire Demon Lotus continued to evolve, Jiang Chen's control over them only grew ever more refined.