Deep within a secluded valley somewhere in the human territories, Great Emperor Mozhe also received this news.
In Great Emperor Mozhe's eyes—brimming with wisdom and spiritual essence like the stars—a thoughtful look surfaced. "Fellow Daoist Wushuang's entry into the ranks of top-tier Great Emperors is truly no small feat. However, he only just broke through, and yet he was able to suppress someone of Emperor Jingzhong's caliber? Could it be that this Mo Wushuang truly intends to overturn the balance of power among the Six Titans of the rogue cultivator world?"
Great Emperor Mozhe pondered for a moment, then sighed softly to himself. "The Mo Wushuang of old was trapped by love—obsessed and infatuated to the point of straying from the Great Dao. Now it seems we were the ones with shortsighted vision, failing to understand that the thousand paths and ten thousand ways of the Dao may all lead to the same destination. It appears that Mo Wushuang's decision to join Peacock Sacred Mountain was an exceedingly wise choice. His previous life had entered a bottleneck… and now, in just a few short years, he has been completely reborn. Could it be that the young lord of Radiance Royal City, Jiang Chen, truly possesses some golden-touch brilliance?"
Unlike Great Emperor Ziyou's anxiety, Great Emperor Mozhe, while surprised, felt no real sense of loss—far less any restless unease.
…
Recently, Great Emperor Danji, who had been lying low in Alchemy Fire City after his youngest son fell into Jiang Chen's hands, was also utterly shaken.
This matter dealt a heavy blow to Great Emperor Danji. On one hand, Mo Wushuang was his old rival—one could even say his love rival.
All along, Mo Wushuang had been firmly suppressed under his heel. Had it not been for certain special circumstances, Great Emperor Danji would have eliminated Mo Wushuang long ago.
Now, hearing that Mo Wushuang's strength had advanced so dramatically, Great Emperor Danji naturally felt deeply unsettled.
Moreover, Mo Wushuang had gone and allied himself with Jiang Chen—with Peacock Sacred Mountain. This made Great Emperor Danji even more vexed.
At this point, Jiang Chen had essentially become Great Emperor Danji's bane.
Upon returning to Alchemy Fire City, Great Emperor Danji conducted an investigation and discovered that Pure Flame Hall and the several personal guards and attendants of Young Master Tianlin had all been played for fools by Jiang Chen.
What shocked Great Emperor Danji most of all was this: Jiang Chen had clearly been trapped within the domain of Indestructible Heavenly Capital—so how had he managed to reach Alchemy Fire City and abduct Young Master Tianlin?
The battle between the Peerless Great Emperor and Emperor Jingzhong, while appearing to be nothing more than an ordinary sparring match, produced an inexplicable impact on the balance of power across the human territories.
Nearly all cultivators believed that the Peerless Great Emperor's ability to make such tremendous progress in such a short time must have been due to benefits received from Jiang Chen.
And the only thing anyone could think of was the Emperor Ascension Pill that young lord Jiang Chen had once mentioned.
No one had actually seen the Emperor Ascension Pill with their own eyes before. They had only heard Jiang Chen speak of this miraculous pill at the Dragon Tiger Gathering.
Now, the martial cultivators of the world finally believed that this young lord Jiang Chen truly did not merely know the Pine Crane Pill—the Emperor Ascension Pill was real as well!
This kind of subtle, cumulative momentum was extraordinarily powerful.
In the ten days to half a month following that battle, the number of rogue cultivators streaming into Radiance Royal City once again surged.
These rogue cultivators all harbored the same thought: they wished to join Jiang Chen, to join Peacock Sacred Mountain, to join Radiance Royal City!
This was precisely the situation Jiang Chen wanted to see.
All his previous hard work and the countless things he had done were aimed at achieving this very effect.
When Jiang Chen first conceived this plan, the Emperor-realm powerhouses of Radiance Royal City had not been particularly optimistic about his efforts.
Even Mo Wushuang had felt that Jiang Chen's thinking was somewhat overly optimistic.
But now it was clear that Jiang Chen was approaching his goal, step by step.
Since ancient times, no one had ever been able to unite the rogue cultivator world, no one had ever managed to bring the rogue cultivators under one banner.
Yet young lord Jiang Chen had undoubtedly already taken a very solid step in that direction.
Present-day Radiance Royal City not only boasted rogue cultivator Great Emperors like the Peerless Great Emperor and the two Jiao of Huai Mountain, but also Emperor Jingzhong, Emperor Huoyan, Emperor Ruoyi, and other formidable Great Emperor powerhouses.
Most remarkably, more and more rogue cultivators were developing a keen interest in Radiance Royal City, and the city's vitality was clearly on the rise.
This shift in the situation was gradually reshaping the landscape of the human territories.
Originally, while Radiance Royal City had indeed been a core hub of the human territories, its influence had been largely confined to the surrounding domains in the south.
For rogue cultivators, Alchemy Fire City had, in the past, been the undisputed center.
However, as the balance of power continued to shift and Radiance Royal City grew ever stronger, the city had gradually become the focal point of the rogue cultivator world—showing clear signs of supplanting Alchemy Fire City.
Previously, everyone had felt that no matter how powerful or how brilliantly talented young lord Jiang Chen might be, before he had grown enough, challenging Alchemy Fire City's established order was virtually impossible.
Yet current trends and facts all indicated that Radiance Royal City replacing Alchemy Fire City was not only possible, but had nearly become an inevitable trend.
The sway of public sentiment was a terrifying thing. As more and more people began to change their thinking and the scales in their hearts tilted toward Radiance Royal City, the greater momentum would shift along with them.
Unless Alchemy Fire City could generate a new wave of prestige and once again overshadow Radiance Royal City in reputation, it would have little hope of winning back the people's loyalty.
To that end, Alchemy Fire City was making every effort and trying every approach—and had indeed managed to attract some attention.