ACSP: Chapter 226: He is that Jiang Chen!
"Mere trashy Dojutsu, and you dare to show off in front of me?"
Jiang Chen stood calmly at the absolute center of his towering Susanoo, watching the endless torrent of self-guided metal crash violently against his absolute defense. His eyes were cold, swirling with a dark, churning torrent of raw killing intent.
"Since the elders of the Zhao family have finally decided to show their faces, I might as well cut loose and fight you all properly. It saves me the administrative hassle of having the old generation crawl out of the woodwork to seek revenge every time I put down one of your entitled brats. It's a waste of my time."
When he had first arrived in the Magic City, his strategy was to use amicable, diplomatic means to open a dialogue with the region's dominant clan. He had zero desire to incite a localized civil war, nor did he want to wantonly slaughter his own compatriots of the Great Xia Kingdom when external global threats still loomed.
But unfortunately... his diplomatic intentions meant absolutely nothing in the face of reality.
The ruling class of the Zhao family had spent far too long reigning supreme over this territory. Their high-and-mighty, toxic posture made it glaringly obvious that they viewed themselves as the absolute masters of the Magic City, treating everyone else as insignificant ants beneath their corporate boots.
Since that was the baseline of their logic, he would gladly play the part of the ancient conquerors. He would draw his blade and systematically execute every single aristocratic clan that thought they were above the natural law.
"Arrogant brat! Don't think that just because you've optimized a few high-tier parameters, you're untouchable in this city!"
Zhao Dingtian's eyes widened in sheer fury, the thick veins on his forehead bulging aggressively. His voice boomed across the ruined arena like a massive copper bell, thick with endless, suffocating rage: "You must understand a universal truth of the trial zones—throughout history, only the geniuses who actually survive long enough to grow up are remembered!"
"And those foolish prodigies who die halfway? They merely become a forgotten wisp of smoke in the dust of history, buried and erased within a matter of days!"
Jiang Chen's casual dismissal had thoroughly enraged the Great Elder of the Zhao family. Decisively abandoning his original plan to systematically break Ronan, Zhao Dingtian fixed his gaze entirely onto the purple titan.
With a violent wave of his hand, the telekinetic vector inverted. The entire omnidirectional storm of floating weapons snapped around, locking onto Jiang Chen's coordinates before launching forward like a catastrophic, metallic hurricane. The blades whistled sharply through the vacuum, screaming with a high-pitched, deafening roar as they sought to shred the boy to pieces.
Facing the apocalyptic hail, a cold, razor-sharp smile finally touched Jiang Chen's lips.
"I already told you... tricks of this level cannot breach my parameters. You aren't the only one wielding a Mangekyo Sharingan Dojutsu here, old man. Except mine... exists on a completely different existential plane."
The exact microsecond his voice dropped, a thin line of crimson blood tears slowly traced its way down his left cheek.
"—Amaterasu!"
Foom!
In a single, unreactable frame of reality, a localized wall of pitch-black, inextinguishable flames erupted out of thin air, coating the entire airspace. The moment the incoming supersonic weapon swarm made contact with the dark fire, they didn't just break—they were instantaneously incinerated into nothingness, leaving behind nothing but a scattering of black ash drifting through the wind.
Zhao Dingtian's specific Mangekyo Sharingan Dojutsu granted him absolute telekinetic mastery over all iron and metallic armaments, transforming any battlefield debris into lethal, tracking projectiles.
In terms of raw mechanical application, this signature technique functioned almost identically to the legendary [Magnet Release Bloodline Limit]. When deployed strategically, it was an incredibly high-tier offensive tool. In the canonical records of his past life's knowledge, even the Seventh Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, had once been caught off guard and severely injured by a flawless ambush utilizing this exact visual power from Uchiha Shin.
But unfortunately for the old man, Zhao Dingtian had completely failed to grasp the true tactical essence of this Dojutsu.
The primary strength of a weapon-manipulation ocular skill lay in its capacity for absolute secrecy and subversion. It was meant to be executed as a silent, lethal backstab when the target's psychological guard was entirely down—such as suddenly weaponizing the blade strapped to an ally's hip, or instantly turning the target's own defensive kunai against their throat.
Instead, Zhao Dingtian had played his cards like a crude Magnet Release user from the very opening frame. By aggressively gathering a massive, screaming mass of iron into a giant storm, he had effectively broadcasted the precise parameters and limitations of his ability right in front of his opponent.
Against any standard Class-Holder or regional Contractor, this overwhelming display of brute force would have easily carried the day. But standing across from him was Jiang Chen.
And that changed the math entirely.
Jiang Chen wasn't just another target; he was a premier wielder of the [Mangekyo Sharingan] whose raw genetic constitution and bloodline purity granted him an ocular potency level that vastly eclipsed Zhao Dingtian's sub-optimal metrics. The second the metal flood surged forward, Jiang Chen's active vision had instantly mapped the faint, pulsing network of ocular chakra tethered to each kunai and shuriken. He saw through the trick before it even reached mid-court.
Furthermore, his newly awakened [Amaterasu] was the definitive, hard-counter for any technique reliant on external physical vectors. The moment the black flames materialized, they didn't just burn the iron—they utterly incinerated the medium carrying the elder's chakra network, breaking the telekinetic loop entirely.
Right at that moment, the remaining columns of boiling dust and thick steam lingering around the perimeter finally dissipated into the atmosphere.
As the ambient air snapped back into clear focus, the surrounding crowd of onlookers got a pristine view of the newly arrived titan's face. Instantly, waves of utter shock and terror rippled through the spectators.
"Holy crap... look at the crest on the armor! Isn't that the supreme authority of the Zhao Family, Great Elder Zhao Dingtian?! I never would have dreamed the one staging this ambush would be him!"
"We should have deduced it the second the silhouette broke through the canopy! Aside from the Great Elder himself, who else in the entire Magic City registry has the optimized pool to manifest a full Fourth-Stage Susanoo?"
"Zhao Quan is his direct biological grandson and primary line successor. For the old man to deploy his avatar to shield him makes total sense..."
"The forums state that Zhao Dingtian's character sheet hit Level 98 months ago! With a peak apex powerhouse like him actively engaging, who in this entire territory can possibly match his output?"
"Wait a localized minute... look across the clearing! How can that nameless kid standing with the Nangong Sisters also manifest a Susanoo?! And it's also stabilized in the exact same Fourth Form?!"
"Who exactly is that hidden monster? Since when did a bottom-tier faction like the Nangong Family harbor a high-tier trump card capable of matching a Level 98 Elder frame-for-frame?!"
"Damn it, could he really be a legendary, unindexed ancestor of the Nangong bloodline?!"
The crowd erupted into a chaotic, fervent discussion, every single face pale with a mix of awe and profound bewilderment. Zhao Dingtian's sudden, violent intervention forced everyone to realize that the geopolitical landscape of the Magic City had just hit a historical turning point.
After all, the old man represented the absolute peak of the Zhao Family's military deterrence. Under standard operating protocols, unless the clan itself was facing an existential threat of total annihilation, a powerhouse of his status would never personally take the field.
Yet here he was—and the very first move he opened with was a city-level, fully armored Fourth-Stage [Susanoo].
The purple and black titans stood locked in a silent, terrifying staredown, their massive chakra footprints crushing the surrounding environment until the lower-level Class-Holders in the crowd could barely stand upright.
Of course, the absolute center of everyone's shock wasn't just Zhao Dingtian's sudden, violent arrival. It was the nameless young man who was clashing head-on with the apex powerhouse frame-for-frame, completely matching his mechanical output without showing even a microsecond of disadvantage.
Initially, the consensus among the spectators was that this kid had to be some mythical, hidden legacy heir carefully hidden away by the Nangong Family for generations.
But as the pressure waves continued to ripple across the arena, a profound doubt began to fracture that theory. The Nangong Family was, by all public metrics, a thoroughly third-rate faction within the Magic City's geopolitical hierarchy. Even if they had systematically liquidated every single asset, storehouse, and resource scroll in their possession to fund a single prodigy, it was mathematically impossible to produce a monster of this caliber.
After all, Zhao Dingtian wasn't just a regular elite; his Level 98 parameter sheet placed him at the absolute peak of the regional meta. If the Nangong Family genuinely possessed a junior with the raw capacity to suppress a top-tier clan ancestor, how on earth could they have ever been reduced to a struggling, minor faction?
The onlookers looked at one another, their faces pale with pure disbelief as they desperately tried to decode the boy's identity.
"Holy crap...! I know who he is! Look at the sword posture and the purple chakra footprint! He's Jiang Chen—that legendary Super Kage-level Contractor!"
Suddenly, a sharp, frantic scream tore through the crowd, instantly causing the entire staging ground to erupt into absolute chaos.
"No way?! That Jiang Chen? The one who practically rewrote the regional power rankings overnight?!"
"No wonder his baseline parameters are so abnormal... it all makes sense now!"
"Damn it, I just pulled up the viral combat logs on the database to verify the frame data—it really is him! The facial recognition matches perfectly!"
"The Nangong twins actually managed to secure a slot on a vanguard squad with a global powerhouse like that? Talk about hitting the absolute cosmic lottery!"
"What's there to be surprised about? Jiang Chen is a young man at the absolute peak of his vitality. Standing across from high-tier twin beauties like the Nangong Sisters, who could blame him for stepping in to lock down their defense?"
"Honestly, I wouldn't even care about that! Look at how incredibly handsome he is. If a god-tier powerhouse like Jiang Chen offered to take me under his wing, I'd run straight back to my apartment, dump my boyfriend on the spot, terminate whatever's currently occupying my womb, and book a full medical reconstruction surgery the next morning just to qualify as a follower!"
"Lady upstairs, for the love of the Great Xia Kingdom, I beg of you... please leave Jiang Chen alone!"
As the spectators gossiped fervently, the atmosphere shifted from standard corporate bullying into a state of sheer, high-stakes adrenaline. The realization of exactly who was standing in the center of the purple Susanoo sent shockwaves through the crowd, leaving everyone eager to see if the reigning titan of the Magic City could actually withstand the unbridled force of the country's most terrifying rising star.