923: Chapter 912 is about Lord Qin Yan...

Seeing Huang Jiuli's teasing expression, Qin Yan couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity welling up in his heart.

This was what she looked like when he first met Huang Jiuli.

Lively, confident, and just a little bit silly.

Back then, she was full of high spirits in the East Courtyard, walking everywhere like a burning flame.

However, ever since his strength advanced by leaps and bounds and the gap between the two of them widened, coupled with her defeat in the match at Diluo Valley acting as a rude awakening,

this proud little Phoenix had gradually grown much more silent, her brows always concealing a trace of lingering depression.

But now it was fine. After absorbing the ancient Legacy within that Phoenix feather, this little Phoenix seemed to have reignited her confidence.

That familiar, unyielding light lit up once more in her Phoenix eyes.

In fact, what Qin Yan did not know was that the pressure Huang Jiuli had borne during this period was far heavier than it looked on the surface.

Having run away from home alone and traveled far to Taixuan Holy Land carrying the obsession to prove herself, she couldn't even pass the Heavenly Ladder at first, only managing to clear it later on.

Compared to the other prodigies of the East Courtyard, her strength never held an advantage, and the positions of Saint and Saintess were even further out of reach.

One matter after another piled up like layers of invisible shackles pressing down upon this proud little Phoenix, causing her to gradually grow somewhat depressed.

Now that she had finally found her own Opportunity in the underground sea of fire of Chihuang Valley, both her state of mind and strength had undergone a transformation.

"I didn't even know I had such a huge impact on you all?"

Qin Yan withdrew his gaze from Huang Jiuli and shifted it to the group of Chihuang Valley Disciples below who were already scared out of their wits, a faint smile playing at the corners of his lips.

Seeing Qin Yan's smile, the expressions of those Disciples changed drastically in an instant.

When the Grim Reaper smiles, life and death are uncertain.

Sure enough, the next moment Qin Yan spoke.

"I said—all of you, kneel."

The moment his words fell, that irresistible power of the rules, akin to a heavenly decree, descended once more.

The Chihuang Valley Disciples below had their knees heavily forced to bend once more by that invisible coercion.

They fell to their knees in unison on the crimson floor tiles.

Their Dao Heart shattered once again at this moment.

The sliver of confidence that they had managed to rebuild relying on the rhetoric of "establishing through destruction" was once again ground to powder by Qin Yan's casual remark.

"Someone, tell me what has happened in Cangwu Small World during this period."

Qin Yan instructed in a calm tone.

"Yes, Lord Qin Yan…"

A named Disciple spoke tremblingly, spilling everything he knew like pouring beans from a bamboo tube.

After a full half hour, Qin Yan finally sorted out all the changes across the various regions of Cangwu Small World during this period.

According to this Disciple, during this time, the major domains of Cangwu Small World had welcomed one foreign fiend after another from Taixuan Holy Land.

Headed by Su Qingwan, Lin Ruoxi, and Luo Qingli, they swept across the Northern Domain, exterminating one native faction of the Northern Domain after another.

It was a succession of crushing victories all the way, until the top faction of the Northern Domain, the Profound Ice Sect, personally took action and injured Lin Ruoxi with the power of a grand array, causing the foreign fiends of the Northern Domain to temporarily restrain their edge.

Headed by the two foreign fiends Yin Li and Chu Yun, who gathered nearly twenty Holy Land Disciples under their command, the group of foreign fiends expanded wildly in the Western Domain.

Now they had already reached the mountain gate of the Western Domain's top faction, the Pure World Lotus Sect. The two sides were locked in a fierce, inextricable battle, and the situation remained deadlocked.

As for the situation in the Southern Domain, it was the most terrifying.

Over a dozen Holy Land prodigies whose strength was not the least bit inferior to Lin Ruoxi and Luo Qingli had actually gathered there. Under the joint offensive of this group of prodigies, the resistance forces of the Southern Domain had long been completely crushed, and the entire Southern Domain had thoroughly fallen.

"This Southern Domain is truly unlucky."

After hearing this, Huang Jiuli couldn't help clicking her tongue.

Their Taixuan Holy Land only had twenty Heavenly Ladder Clearers in total this generation, yet the Southern Domain alone gathered more than a dozen in one breath.

It would be a wonder if this Southern Domain wasn't destroyed.

Hearing this, Qin Yan also nodded in deep agreement.

With more than a dozen Heavenly Ladder Clearers striking simultaneously, such a lineup could simply be described as a dimensional reduction strike in the present Cangwu Small World.

"Let's set off and take a trip to Penglai Island first."

Qin Yan said.

The upper echelons of Penglai Island had been thoroughly slaughtered by him in that battle at Chihuang Valley, and now only some remnant troops remained, turtled up on the island and making a last-ditch resistance.

Taking Penglai Island was just going through the motions, a matter of convenience.

The two of them then transformed into two streams of light, one black and one red, instantly vanishing into the sky above Chihuang Valley.

After they left, the hundreds of Chihuang Valley Disciples kneeling on the ground in the square finally dared to cautiously raise their heads, climbing up from the ground one by one.

"Elder, do we really have to listen to these two foreign fiends?"

A young Disciple asked cautiously.

Just before Qin Yan left, he had warned them not to spread the news that he was still alive.

Hearing this, the Elder raised his hand and slapped without hesitation. The force of this strike was immense, directly blasting the talkative Disciple to pieces on the spot, turning him into a ball of scarlet blood mist that bloomed silently in the square.

"What Lord Qin Yan said, we must obey like an imperial decree. Do you all understand? If you don't understand, it doesn't matter—you must have all seen the fate of that Disciple just now."

The Elder's cold eyes slowly swept across the remaining Disciples present, his voice leaving no room for negotiation.

"Understood, Elder!" All the Disciples trembled violently and answered in unison.

From now on, the two words "Qin Yan" were the heaven of Chihuang Valley.

They would never dare to disobey the orders of that white-robed god of slaughter by even a fraction.

"All of you, go Cultivate."

The Elder waved his hand, signaling the Disciples to disperse.

The Chihuang Valley Disciples sat cross-legged again as instructed, beginning their day-in and day-out cultivation.

However, for some reason, whenever they closed their eyes and tried to enter a meditative state of cultivation, Qin Yan's calm-looking face would always involuntarily surface in their minds.

Those eyes as deep as an abyss, that faint, elusive smile, and that irresistible majesty akin to a heavenly decree.

The face of the Grim Reaper had already been deeply etched into the depths of their Souls, and they would probably never be able to shake it off in this lifetime.