"A contest of speed?" Jiang Chen activated the Golden Cicada Wings and shot into the void, concealing the Flying Feather Mirror within his sleeve and waving it wildly into the empty air.
The power of the Flying Feather Mirror was truly astonishing. Even Zhuang Min, who possessed the Wind-Riding Wings, saw his speed drastically reduced under the mirror's glow.
"How can this be?" At maximum velocity, Zhuang Min's body suddenly sank, as though an invisible force had seized him. His speed plummeted in an instant.
His expression darkened as he looked toward Jiang Chen. He wanted to see — just how was the other man accomplishing this?
The Wind-Riding Wings' greatest advantage was speed. Through sheer velocity, one could tear through the void and summon chaotic spatial currents.
This was Zhuang Min's ultimate technique, his trump-card Divine Ability.
But if his speed kept getting suppressed and he couldn't push it to the limit, the Wind-Riding Wings' true power could never be fully unleashed.
After all, tearing through the void relied entirely on absolute speed to drive the process. If the speed couldn't ramp up enough, the threshold for tearing the void couldn't be reached — to say nothing of drawing out spatial chaos.
Jiang Chen clearly understood what Zhuang Min was trying to do, and he knew full well how terrifying the Wind-Riding Wings could be.
If his opponent actually succeeded in slicing open the void and unleashing spatial turbulence, the outcome of this battle would be anyone's guess.
"I have to suppress his speed — under no circumstances can I let him summon spatial chaos!" Jiang Chen's resolve was ironclad. He understood the gravity of the situation.
The formation disc activated once more, and the encirclement of eight statue puppets spread outward. Jiang Chen's Golden Cicada Wings were also pushed to their absolute limit, barely keeping pace with the Wind-Riding Wings' speed, while the Flying Feather Mirror swept its light across the field again and again.
Zhuang Min was utterly exasperated — so frustrated he felt like his insides were on fire.
"What kind of means does this bastard have that can keep slowing me down and prevent me from reaching my top speed?"
He was genuinely frustrated, frustrated to the point of vomiting blood.
And this exact frustration was precisely what Jiang Chen had hoped for.
The moment Zhuang Min's speed dipped even slightly, the eight statue puppets swarmed inward like madmen. This pattern repeated over and over — Zhuang Min burned through his origin energy again and again, yet could never accelerate back to his maximum velocity.
This style of combat was an enormous drain on Zhuang Min.
He knew that continuing like this would be disastrous for him. Yet no matter what tricks he employed, he simply couldn't shake off the other's suppression.
The Flying Feather Mirror was, after all, a relic of the Flying Feather Great Emperor. If Jiang Chen had fully unlocked its potential — forget Zhuang Min, even a peak Emperor-realm expert would find it far more formidable.
However, this situation had already placed Zhuang Min on the defensive.
The consequences of frantically burning origin energy became obvious after roughly half an hour — Zhuang Min's momentum finally began to wane.
And this half-hour of clash had been the most grueling battle Jiang Chen had ever fought. To keep up with Zhuang Min's speed and to let the Flying Feather Mirror unleash greater power, Jiang Chen had given everything he had.
Fortunately, Jiang Chen's reserves of origin energy were abundant, and Dragon Xiao Xuan was secretly lending him assistance from the shadows.
By the time Zhuang Min's energy was depleted, Jiang Chen still looked fresh and completely unburdened — not a trace of overexertion on him.
The eight statue puppets, controlled through the formation disc, coordinated with increasing proficiency. The might of the Eight Desolations Spirit-Gathering Formation grew more apparent by the minute.
Zhuang Min's defeat cascaded like a landslide. Once his momentum was crushed and his energy drained, unless he was willing to burn his life essence to keep fighting, this battle was already without suspense.
"Zhuang Min has lost." Ye Piaoling sighed softly, shaking his head. "This Pill King Zhen really is a monster. Does the Peacock Sacred Mountain bloodline specialize in producing such freaks? First Young Lord Fan back in the day, and now Pill King Zhen. The fortune of Peacock Sacred Mountain truly is unmatched among the seven lineages?"
Ye Piaoling's lament left Emperor Canghai with a mouth full of bitterness. He certainly didn't want Peacock Sacred Mountain to enjoy such good fortune.
Emperor Canghai was a die-hard ally of the Shura Great Emperor. He would far rather see the Shura Great Emperor take control of the Glazed Royal City than allow Peacock Sacred Mountain to continue ruling it.
If this Pill King Zhen were named Young Lord, then after the Peacock Great Emperor completed his cultivation, wouldn't Pill King Zhen be the rightful successor?
If that happened, wouldn't all the years the Shura Great Emperor had spent waiting have been for nothing?
Zhuang Jie, meanwhile, looked ashen-faced, still unable to crawl out of his personal grudge. He muttered under his breath, "That little beast, that little beast… even the Wind-Riding Wings can't do anything to him? No… Brother couldn't even push the Wind-Riding Wings to their limit! I wish this were a nightmare — that when I wake up, I'm still twentieth on the Young Lord Ranking, and my brother is still eleventh…"
When Zhuang Min's body was unceremoniously hurled off the arena by the statue puppets, the entire arena fell deathly silent. Clearly, everyone was stunned by this outcome.
Pill King Zhen had once again delivered a dark-horse performance. Ranked seventeenth, he had successfully challenged the eleventh!
From now on, Pill King Zhen would hold the eleventh position on the Young Lord Ranking. And Zhuang Min had been mercilessly knocked down to seventeenth. Most critically, having been defeated by a lower-ranked challenger, he had no right to issue a challenge of his own. He could only sit quietly in his new position.
The moment this battle's result was announced, it sent shockwaves through the city. News spread as if it had sprouted legs, reaching every corner of the Glazed Royal City in an instant.
Nearly everyone now knew that Pill King Zhen had just created another miracle — a miracle that the history of the Glazed Royal City had seen only once in a thousand years.