"Yin Peng, that beast Jiang Chen is full of tricks. Today, we seek only to serve the sect — to slay this villain. Status, scruples, rules — none of it matters. You and I join forces and cut him down together!" Though Grandmaster Shuiyue was seething with rage, she had not lost her reason.
Elder Longluo's bizarre fate had added a measure of wariness to her fury.
Looking back at every clash with Jiang Chen — no matter how meticulously Grandmaster Shuiyue had laid her plans, it always ended in disaster for her side.
In the fight against He Yan, her man had been crippled by Jiang Chen.
In the fight against Hai Tian — the arena had been carefully chosen, yet in the end, Hai Tian was slaughtered by Jiang Chen.
The battle against Long Juxue was supposed to be a guaranteed kill, yet Long Juxue was cut down with a single blade stroke.
Just moments ago, Elder Longluo had been brimming with confidence before stepping forth, and in the blink of an eye, he had been turned into a statue — and until now, they still hadn't figured out why.
The silver-robed elder's strength was roughly on par with Elder Longluo's.
He also knew that Jiang Chen was now the Purple Sun Sect's number one enemy — if this young man was not eliminated, the consequences would be endless!
And so, despite Elder Longluo's gruesome fate before him, he pressed forward without hesitation.
He flexed both hands, and a pair of sharp, silver claws materialized on each one — bristling and fanged, projecting an aura of extreme ferocity.
"Grandmaster, when fighting for the sect, nothing is too great a sacrifice. I, Yin Peng, am willing to fight to the death to slay this villain — to rid the Purple Sun Sect of this menace!"
Seeing Yin Peng's fierce battle intent, Grandmaster Shuiyue felt a surge of delight.
With the two of them joining the fight, she felt far more confident.
She sent a divine sense transmission: "All of you enforcement disciples, form a perimeter for Elder Yin Peng and me. If the enemy deploys spirit birds, move in immediately to provide cover!"
"Understood!" These enforcement disciples were death warriors raised by the sect — their loyalty was beyond question.
Seeing them whispering among themselves, Jiang Chen let out a hearty laugh. "Shuiyue, there's no need for whispered plots. If you're afraid, you're both welcome to come at me together. What does Jiang Chen have to fear?"
Did Jiang Chen not see through it? Grandmaster Shuiyue was undoubtedly plotting a group attack.
But at this moment, what did Jiang Chen have to fear from a group attack?
He reached out and produced a bone — the dragon bone of a Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard, the strongest and hardest part of its entire body.
After Jiang Chen's brief tempering, its durability had been elevated yet another tier.
The Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard had been a sacred beast; its body had already exceeded the durability of nine-refined spirit artifacts, approaching that of Nascent Spirit Artifacts.
After even a simple refinement, it could hold its own against mid-tier Nascent Spirit Artifacts with ease.
This time, facing a combined assault from two Spirit Realm ninth-level experts, Jiang Chen did not dare be careless — and so he brought forth the Scarlet-Scaled Fire Lizard's dragon bone.
This unremarkable weapon, however, was more than enough to give him the advantage in battle — like wings added to a tiger.
With the bone club in hand, Jiang Chen radiated an imposing aura. He issued his command: "Gouyu, hold the line for me and keep an eye on that thousand-man squad."
"Young master, fighting two of them at once — isn't that..." Though Gouyu was inwardly stunned by Jiang Chen's strength, he still didn't want his young master to face the combined assault of Master Shuiyue and Elder Yinpeng.
Jiang Chen laughed heartily. "No matter!"
With that, a Golden-Winged Sword Bird dove toward the ground, and Jiang Chen landed.
"Jiang Chen, you don't know the height of the sky or the depth of the earth! To dare stand against my Purple Sun Sect — you're courting death!" As Elder Yinpeng spoke, he swept his massive claw downward in a diving strike.
Master Shuiyue moved in perfect coordination. She opened her palm, and an ancient talisman dissolved into a sphere of white light that bore down across the sky.
The white light flashed and transformed into a small iceberg, crashing straight down from above.
In an instant, the temperature around Jiang Chen plummeted as if it had dropped by dozens of degrees.
Every blade of grass and every tree in the vicinity was instantly coated in a layer of white frost.
Jiang Chen was somewhat surprised — Master Shuiyue actually possessed such a powerful talisman. The force of this ice and snow was clearly far greater than Long Juxue's Azure Phoenix Frost Qi had been.
Master Shuiyue had been famous for a long time. She had clearly not earned her reputation for nothing.
Long Juxue had relied on her innate constitution, and her Azure Phoenix Frost Qi was indeed formidable, but she had only just entered the seventh level of the Spirit Realm.
Master Shuiyue, on the other hand, was at the ninth level of the Spirit Realm, with deep reserves of power — utterly beyond comparison with a young prodigy like Long Juxue.
The small iceberg descended, and under the glare of sunlight, it appeared blindingly bright.
If Jiang Chen's strength had still been where it was when he slew Long Juxue, then at this moment, he would have had no choice but to sit and await his doom.
But today's Jiang Chen was no longer the Jiang Chen of old.
The red light of his Heavenly Eye Divine Pupil blazed to life. Around his body, twelve ice lotus vines instantly surged forth, standing tall like twelve pillars as they caught the iceberg directly.
The enormous lotus blossoms unfurled — like twelve gaping maws of taotie, their grip as tenacious as the suction cups of leeches, clamping onto the iceberg for dear life.
The ice lotuses were beings of the highest celestial order, and encountering such powerful ice energy was naturally the most delectable feast they could ask for.
Those twelve ice lotus vines, like twelve meridians, gurgled and hummed as they rapidly absorbed the ice essence from the talisman.
And Jiang Chen — his body transformed into a blazing meteor, shooting straight ahead.
Clang!
The bone club met Elder Yinpeng's diving claw head-on, producing a deafening crash.
The violent shockwaves of the collision rippled outward in every direction.
Elder Yinpeng felt a numbing ache spread through the web of his thumb, and a stifling tightness clenched his chest. A wave of shock surged through his heart: "This beast—its strength is actually this domineering? With its level of cultivation, it can actually withstand my strike head-on, and it doesn't even look like it got the worse of the exchange?"
The bloodlust that had always lurked in Elder Yinpeng's bones was fully ignited by Jiang Chen's blow.