285: Identity, strength, apology

Three people against three people, their momentum collided, causing the turbulent sea of clouds to churn and sink, and the elements to tremble and become chaotic.

The six people stood on the sky, behind them was Shen Tai Mountain, towering into the clouds, its roots stretching continuously, standing tall and straight like an iron wall supporting the sky.

It stood there like a giant object, appearing and disappearing, mysterious and vast.

With the towering divine mountain as the backdrop, several top powerhouses stood in the air like great suns, confronting each other.

This scene, falling into the eyes of the people below, made even them, who were Prefecture Lords, feel their hearts waver and their wills tremble.

"Brat! Give back the [soul-devouring flower]!" The Zhao Family Third Patriarch wore a fiery battle armor, his entire body wrapped in purplish-red flames, continuously spewing out astonishing heat waves.

Even the Zhao Family only possessed two relic items, and they could not afford to lose them.

Not to mention being directly robbed in their own home, if this spread, they would lose all Face!

Jiang Yuan, however, ignored his words, smiled, and summoned the small blue fish with a backhand, throwing the already suppressed [soul-devouring flower] into its mouth.

"This is the interest. What should be compensated still has to be compensated."

This action completely enraged the Zhao Family Third Patriarch.

He stared intently at Jiang Yuan, his tone fiery and cold, filled with intense anger, "You're presumptuous!"

Intense and violent purplish-red flames continuously gushed out, turning the area he was in into a sea of fire with explosive properties, vast and powerful.

Jiang Yuan's eyes flickered with divine light, seeing through the true nature of this flame.

SS-level Fire Element Talent - Purple Sun Heavenly Flame, possessing the ultimate attack attributes of explosion + high temperature, providing immense damage amplification, as well as effects like severe injury and armor penetration. It is considered a top-tier rare offensive talent.

What a pity...

Jiang Yuan's lips curled slightly, and the depths of his eyes, which flowed with a golden light like molten lava, were full of mockery and disdain.

Competing with fire?

Are you worthy?

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch extended his hand, and a giant purple flame hand appeared in the air, grasping a fiery long spear.

"Third Uncle, wait."

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch's attack was, however, blocked by Zhao Tiansong's outstretched hand.

Zhao Tiansong shook his head at him with a solemn expression.

"Tiansong, what do you mean?"

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch frowned and immediately cursed, "When did you become so cowardly? Is there ever a time when our Zhao Family gets beaten without fighting back or cursed without retorting?! It has always been our Zhao Family robbing others, and no one has ever dared to rob something from our Zhao Family."

He ignored Zhao Tiansong and was about to continue his attack.

This time, two iron swords blocked his path.

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch looked at Zhao Tiansong with an icy expression.

"What do you mean?! You dare to block me, have you eaten a bear's heart and leopard's guts?!"

Zhao Tiansong said with a bitter smile, "Third Uncle, we really can't fight."

"Get out of my way, you spineless thing! I really don't know if I was right or wrong to choose you as the head of the Family back then!"

He slapped the iron swords away.

Suddenly.

An old man in white robes with a stout figure spoke from the side.

"Third Brother, stop."

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch's body stiffened, and he looked at the other party in disbelief.

"Big Brother? Even you...?"

Zhao Tiansong let out a sigh of relief.

The stout old man looked at Cold Crow and the other person, his eyes deep and weathered, and said, "Are you people from the Patrol Division?"

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch was startled upon hearing this, and he looked closely. When he saw the badges on the two people, a hint of surprise, astonishment, and apprehension flashed in his eyes.

He said with a tone full of disgust, "What does today's matter have to do with your Patrol Division? Don't meddle in other people's business."

Cold Crow calmly said, "I'm afraid that won't work, Elder Zhao. Our Patrol Division has always acted according to orders. If the Captain is not here, the Vice Captain's words are orders."

He gestured with his hand for everyone to look at Jiang Yuan, "And this person is our new Vice Captain."

As soon as these words came out.

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch's expression immediately changed slightly.

Even his teammates were Grandmaster level, coupled with the unique number on the other party's badge, it was not difficult to guess that the other party belonged to that special organization, Patrol Division Zero Team.

An existence that even the ten great families of the Emperor Capital had to be wary of and handle carefully.

And that brat who came to provoke trouble was actually the Vice Captain of the Zero Team?!

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch's gaze towards Jiang Yuan changed slightly.

"Heroes truly emerge from the young."

The stout old man, who was the strongest in terms of Rank and power in the Zhao Family, stroked his beard and looked at Jiang Yuan with eyes full of admiration,

"Are the young people nowadays all this formidable?"

Jiang Yuan smiled and said, "It's alright. I'm a bit more formidable than some old fossils who are about to kick the bucket."

Gulp...

Zhao Xu couldn't help but swallow.

That stout old man was the Zhao Family First Patriarch, the highest-ranking living member of the Zhao Family, one generation higher than Second Master Zhao and the Zhao Family Third Patriarch. He was an old fossil who had survived the most difficult and turbulent dark period of the God-Forsaken Era. In the entire Emperor Capital, such existences were few and far between, and his strength was imaginable.

Zhao Xu had never seen anyone dare to speak to him like that.

"Hehehehe, you are right, I am indeed an old man who is about to kick the bucket, and my body is getting worse year by year. I can only hide and survive in the ruins; time spares no one," the stout old man said with emotion.

"I say, old Senior."

Frenzy Pheasant picked his ear, his black coat fluttering in the wind like a battle flag.

He spread his hands and said, "It was your Zhao Family's fault first. You should compensate and apologize. Just for the sake of Family Face, you've put yourselves in a dilemma, unable to back down, and being mocked and watched by other families. Why bother?"

"Our Vice Captain is not an unreasonable person either. Besides that relic item, if your Zhao Family just takes out some more things to compensate and apologize, wouldn't this matter be over?"

"Oh? Is that so?"

The stout old man looked at Zhao Tiansong.

Zhao Tiansong approached and said a few words to him.

The stout old man nodded and then looked at Jiang Yuan, "Judging from that strike just now, you should have retained quite a bit of strength. You are indeed qualified to fight at our level, and it's not surprising that you can be the Vice Captain of the Zero Team. Coupled with the General badge on your chest, and I heard you also received a purple dragon medal... In terms of strength and status, you are enough to be on equal footing with us old folks."

"These juniors of ours rashly offended an existence like you. Whether it was due to poor judgment or habitual arrogance and disregard for others, in short, our Zhao Family was at fault first. We should compensate, apologize, and be punished."

After speaking.

He raised his hand and took out a long object wrapped in blood-red cursed cloth strips, which exuded terrifying malevolent energy, and threw it towards Jiang Yuan.

"This Sky Curse Blood Banner is a legendary-grade equipment I obtained in my early years. Consider it, along with that soul-devouring flower, as compensation."

Jiang Yuan was slightly surprised, not expecting the other party to actually be willing to compensate with a legendary-grade equipment.

He used Psychokinesis to grab it and brought it in front of him, his Eyes of Seeing Through All Things piercing through its true nature.

The Zhao Family side was even more in an uproar because of the stout old man's actions.

"Great Elder, you can't!"

"How can you compensate with something from the ancestors!"

"There is no such logic, the Zhao Family cannot bow its head!"

"This compensation is too great!"

"At worst, we fight..."

Zhao Lingcheng, Zhao Xu, and Zhao Meilan did not speak.

Especially Zhao Meilan, her eyes looking at the handsome young man in the air still held a trace of fear at this moment.

All three of them had personally experienced the other party's power. It was a kind of absolute power where they had already used their full strength but the other party had only revealed the tip of the iceberg, yet it was enough to suppress them, leaving them unable to move and with no chance of winning!

Compared to paying out a legendary-grade equipment and a relic item.

It seemed that completely falling out with him would come at a greater cost!

After the Zhao Family members stopped their uproar.

The stout old man looked at the young man opposite who had already put away the Sky Curse Blood Banner, and smiled, "How about it?"

"Since the Zhao Family has the sincerity to compensate and apologize, this matter ends here," Jiang Yuan said. "In the future, we will mind our own business. As long as the Zhao Family no longer provokes me and the people around me, does not betray Great Xia, and does not do things in front of me that I cannot stand, I will not do anything to the Zhao Family."

"Well said, well said," the stout old man smiled. "The future of Great Xia still depends on young people with unlimited potential like you, Vice Captain Jiang."

The extremely stifled Zhao Family Third Patriarch beside him couldn't hold back any longer. He took a step forward, and majestic purple flames soared into the sky, "The compensation has been paid, and the apology has been made. But you intruded into my Zhao Family, shattered my Zhao Family's barrier, caused mental damage to my Family's juniors, and ruined my seclusion. How do you account for that?!"

Jiang Yuan smiled, "How do you want to account for it?"

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch was also straightforward, "The strong are respected. I don't believe you are really that strong at such a young age. Let's fight. If you win, I won't say anything more. If you lose, leave that soul-devouring flower behind!"

"Alright," Jiang Yuan nodded.

Jiang Yuan raised his left hand, and a pure, bright red flame appeared on his fingertip. The surrounding temperature instantly soared, as if everything approaching him would be melted.

Cold Crow and Frenzy Pheasant beside him instinctively glanced at Jiang Yuan, and were horrified to discover the distorted space around him. With their hearts trembling violently, the two of them quickly distanced themselves at the fastest speed.

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch sneered, "Playing with fire? Interesting!"

"Hiss hiss hiss!"

Explosive purple flames erupted from him, compressing and condensing into a flowing liquid like molten lava.

"I heard your fire-element talent is top-tier SSS-Rank, which is indeed formidable, but unfortunately..." The Zhao Family Third Patriarch clapped his hands together, and a hundred-zhang-tall purple flame demon-subduing image appeared behind him, seated on a purple lotus throne like a sea of fire, the temperature incredibly high.

"The development of talent at the King-level and Prefecture Lord level is like a chasm! In terms of development, you are inferior to me!"

Dazzling purple flame light lit up from high in the sky, like a purple sun. The trees on the ground instantly withered under the high temperature, and the Prefecture Lords also felt their mouths dry and tongues parched, as if the moisture in the air had been instantly evaporated.

"Is that so?" Jiang Yuan's tone was calm.

A circle of red scorching heat waves rippled out from Jiang Yuan.

Terrifying heat waves boiled, and the air twisted and deformed.

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch's expression changed, and he was shocked to feel his Purple Sun Heavenly Fire being completely suppressed.

Along with it, there was an invisible barrier Domain—

Absolute Hit Domain.

Jiang Yuan flicked his finger, and the bright red flame turned into a tiny arrow that shot out explosively.

The Zhao Family Third Patriarch roared, "Heavenly Fire Subduing Demons!"

Instantly, more than a dozen arms appeared behind the demon-subduing image. Purple light exploded from their palms, and more than a dozen powerful purple flame beams shot out, converging at the center to form a huge and astonishing explosive purple flame!

It was like an ant facing a giant elephant.

But the giant elephant surrendered before the ant.

Like submitting to a monarch.

Ten thousand fires paid homage.

Under the disbelieving gaze of the Zhao Family Third Patriarch.

That bright red arrow pierced through and crushed the immensely powerful purple flame in an instant, arriving before him.

All the flowers, grass, and trees on the ground also ignited at the same instant, turning into countless upward-burning torches, paying homage to the Emperor within the fire.