With how powerful Jiang Chen’s consciousnesses was now, he could scan the enemy forces with a single glance. Even the most minute change in their expressions didn’t escape his attention.He looked up to mentally hone in on the one who insulted him.
Two more golden rays of light streaked through the air and into the man’s eyes.The man cut off in mid-word like his throat had been slit. His body spasmed slightly, and he froze like he’d been hit in an acupoint. His expression was permanently stuck in one of shock.It painted an eerie picture.When the Tritalent crowd recovered from their shock, they realized that the man had been turned into a statue in the span of a breath. His blood seemed to have congealed and it was as if countless pails of molten iron had been poured over him. The new statue seemed to have stood there for thousands of years!
How...
The cultivators nearby moved away from the newly formed statue like the plague, afraid that they’d be the next to turn.“What… what happened to him?” stammered someone closer to him.
“This is a trick of the demons! That man knows demonic techniques!”“Nonsense! That must be a petrifying technique that can turn a person into a stone statue!”
“That’s no petrifying technique. He would’ve turned into stone, not a statue looking like it’s made out of copper or gold.” Some of them were observant enough to identify the key issues.
What they were more eager for was to learn how everything had happened. The man from Rejuvenation had done nothing, but suddenly their companion had transformed into a statue. What a terrifying attack!Jiang Chen didn’t want to kill needlessly. He simply wanted to knock Tritalent down a peg and deter them. However, that one had been ludicrously arrogant in running off his mouth like that.
There would be no mercy shown to people like him. He’d serve as a warning to the others.
“I’m waiting for your response, Your Majesty,” continued Jiang Chen solemnly, ignoring the man who’d been turned into a statue.
The emperor was caught off guard by the bizarrely unpredictable and difficult to avoid attack.
“Your Majesty, that man is very strange. Can he be the help that Imperial Prince Huo recruited?”
“If he’s the one who killed Gao Kui and his people, we have to be wary of him.”
“He might really be a master in demonic techniques. I didn’t even see him do anything! Your Majesty, just who is this man?”
Jiang Chen’s actions had cast a pall over the Tritalent crowd.
Zhao Situ suddenly broke his silence. “That’s an eye technique. Haven’t you all figured it out? That’s a masterful eye technique!”
“Eye technique? From someone so young? Who is this man? Since when has there been such a young genius from Rejuvenation?”
“He can’t be from Rejuvenation! Imperial Prince Huo is the second most important person in their isles, yet he defers to the young man. He must be foreign help!”
Zhao Situ paled when realization dawned on him. He turned to the emperor with a tragic look. “Your Majesty, this old official has figured out his ident.i.ty. He… he...”
Suddenly overcome with uncontrollable fear, his teeth chattered incessantly. Heretofore unfelt terror drained all body heat from him.
“Old Situ, what are you trying to say?”
Zhao Situ took a deep breath to calm himself. “Your Majesty, if you value my opinions at all, give up. It’s better to surrender. If we give up on fighting Rejuvenation, we may have a chance to live...”
“Old Situ, have you gone senile? He’s just an immature kid! Why are you so fearful? We’ll just charge in and cut him down!”
There were still some defiant hotheads on Tritalent’s side.
The emperor asked gravely, “Old Situ, who are you referring to? Do you know this young man?”
“This old official doesn’t know him personally, but I can guess at his ident.i.ty,” Zhao Situ said gravely. “He’s very likely to be the Eternal Sacred Land’s genius who recently shot to fame - young lord Jiang Chen!”
What?!Young lord Jiang Chen?Even the fiercest amongst them instantly lost their will to fight.
How could that be? Young lord Jiang Chen was the future ruler of the Eternal Sacred Land. Why would someone like him be interested in a conflict between two minor factions?
However, if it wasn’t the young lord, was there anyone else his age who could do what he’d done?
The emperor burned with anxiety.
“We don’t know if he’s the young lord, Your Majesty. Even if he is, he hasn’t told us his ident.i.ty. Why not finish what we’ve started and kill him? If he’s an imposter, we’ll become a laughingstock for being intimidated by his words!”
“You mustn’t, Your Majesty! If we start a fight, we’ll essentially be declaring war against young lord Jiang Chen and the Eternal Sacred Land behind him! Tritalent is only so big. If the young lord is hurt or killed, we won’t be able to take the sacred land’s ire.”
“Hmph, you sure are confident. Do you really think you’ll be able to hurt him? With what?”
A hot debate broke out.
Jiang Chen crossed his arms idly. He was in no hurry. If he really was here to kill, he’d have made a move already instead of wasting his breath. In fact, he wouldn’t have killed anyone at all if that man hadn’t insulted him.
Tritalent’s forces were composed of desperados who lived on the edge. In the end, the majority decided to pretend not to know Jiang Chen’s ident.i.ty as long as it wasn’t explicitly revealed. They would stop at nothing to obtain the wealth of stones from the islands!
“Your Majesty, we are willing to take matters into our own hands and test him.”
“Your Majesty, they’re in our territory. Even if we kill them, it’s simply an act of self-defense. No one can fault us for that.”