Chapter 1942: Ice Heart Resolute

Nan Zhaoming said unhurriedly, "We come from the Abyss and are soon to become Abyssal Knights, serving the Abyssal Emperor and the Divine Envoy. We are here now, by order of the Abyssal Emperor, to take preliminary control of this world."

"Those who willingly submit shall live; those who dare resist shall die!"

His voice gradually deepened: "Do you choose to live, or to die!"

With Mu Xuanyin's cultivation, she could clearly sense the terrifying aura emanating from these six individuals. Though they all bore injuries of varying degrees, the perilous aura they exuded was... second only to the Heaven Smiting Devil Emperor, who returned from the Crimson Fissure years ago.

"The Abyss?" Mu Xuanyin's icy brows furrowed.

Nan Zhaoguang, however, raised a hand. "She must be the emperor of this Divine Realm, so she's not among those we 'slaughter indiscriminately.' No need for idle talk; just kill her. It will be much easier to deal with this Divine Realm that way."

Nan Zhaoming showed no objection. Their methods were clearly very different from Mo Beichen's.

"But before that," Nan Zhaoguang said with a playful smirk, "I'm quite interested to see how much the strongest person in this world can struggle, aren't you?"

"I'm afraid she won't give you any surprises," Nan Zhaoming said with a faint smile, then curled his lips. "Yinfeng, go discipline this woman. She's an emperor-level figure in this world, hahahaha."

Nan Zhaoguang also burst into laughter.

Before the Abyssal Emperor's arrival, they were the absolute rulers of this world, so why wouldn't they seek some amusement first?

"Yes."

After Nan Zhaoming and Nan Zhaoguang's wild laughter, one of the four individuals behind them stepped forward, while the other three visibly showed disappointment.

The attendant knight named Yinfeng had been respectful before Mo Beichen, and orderly before Nan Zhaoming and Nan Zhaoguang. But facing Mu Xuanyin, his features seemed suddenly distorted by an external force, becoming lewd and wild. He slowly crooked a finger at Mu Xuanyin: "Divine Master Realm Level Ten... tsk tsk, I'll give you five moves first, so no one can say I bully women. Or you could just choose to kneel with your limbs on the ground. Perhaps the two Lord Provisional Knights might take pity on you and take you in."

"Hahahaha." The three attendant knights behind him burst into boisterous laughter.

Mu Xuanyin's palm silently condensed cold energy.

In this current age, who dared to disrespect her!?

The six individuals before her all had completely unfamiliar faces and auras. The two leaders, even without overtly releasing their power, exerted an invisible pressure that surpassed even Long Bai's.

Yinfeng's profound cultivation was also Divine Master Realm Level Ten, same as hers, but his aura was extremely alien and strange, like a power that had never existed in this world.

Without a word, a flash of icy light appeared in Mu Xuanyin's hand, and she suddenly struck.

A point of ice-blue radiance pierced directly towards Yinfeng's eyes, then straight through his soul from his eyes.

Yinfeng maintained his playful expression, unhurriedly raising his hand to grasp at the oncoming icy light with his five fingers.

Though both were at Divine Master Realm Level Ten, his origin from the Abyss clearly imbued him with deep arrogance towards the people of this world.

The icy light shimmered, and instantly, an ice blast filled the sky, transforming the surrounding space into an endless frozen prison.

Yinfeng, however, remained motionless, a sneer curling at his lips. His aura surged, and with a wave of his arm, the ice curtain before him was instantly torn apart with ease.

His mouth was half-open, about to mock that the strongest individual in this Divine Realm was only capable of this much, but before the first syllable escaped, his expression suddenly changed.

Just as the first ice prison formed, another bone-chilling surge of ice profound energy erupted before him, unfurling a sky-filling ice curtain anew, creating a double ice prison.

With a slight chill in his eyes, Yinfeng let out a low roar, profound light swirling around him, effortlessly shattering the double ice prison. However, at that very instant, a third wave of ice divine power erupted with completely unexpected speed, forming a third ice prison.

Followed by the fourth, fifth... tenth... thirtieth... fiftieth layers!

During the battle with the Western Region years ago, Mu Xuanyin's synchronization with the Ice Phoenix Divine Soul had not yet reached perfection.

In the years since, her harmonious union with Yun Che, combined with his assistance, had naturally caused her synchronization with the Ice Phoenix Divine Soul to grow day by day. Although her profound cultivation had not advanced, her mastery over the Ice Phoenix's divine power far surpassed what it had been back then.

A single point of cold light, ten thousand miles of ice disaster!

Yinfeng went from being confidently at ease, to proceeding cautiously, and then to being completely flustered. He had initially underestimated his opponent and not used his full power. By the time he wished to unleash his full strength, the continuous, seemingly endless Ice Phoenix divine power left him with no further opportunity.

The cold energy corroded through his profound energy, invading his body, penetrating his bones, and piercing his soul... The surging power couldn't even erupt before it was largely sealed away. By the end, his limbs were half-numb, and his body had become incredibly stiff and cold.

Bang!!

The final ice eruption was immediately followed by an even more dazzling point of cold light, stabbing directly forward, like the sole shining star in an endless dark night.

The Snow Princess Sword plunged into Yinfeng's stiff, cold chest, piercing through his body and emerging from his back.

"Hahahahaha!" Facing Yinfeng, who had been impaled by a sword, Nan Zhaoming showed no alarm or anger. Instead, he burst into wild laughter: "See, here's the surprise!"

"This woman..." Nan Zhaoguang said, his face filled with curiosity: "She really is a divine inheritor, and her 'component' isn't low at all. She's certainly worth keeping."

"Indeed," Nan Zhaoming agreed.

Shock, rage, and extreme cold turned Yinfeng's face completely livid. He stared intently at Mu Xuanyin, and the power that had been suppressed by the ice for so long finally managed to erupt.

Boom!!

The layers of ice curtain shattered, and countless cracks spread through space like fractured ice.

Even though nearly half of his body and profound energy had been sealed by the Ice Phoenix's divine power, the force emanating from Yinfeng was still terrifyingly formidable. Mu Xuanyin's upper body arched back, then she abruptly withdrew her sword, her ethereal form drifting far away with the swirling ice storm.

Yinfeng tumbled backward, rolling horizontally. As he stabilized himself, the chill on his body was finally dispelled, and the previously frozen wound now gushed a horrifying pillar of blood, which flowed for a full three breaths before barely stopping.

Mu Xuanyin did not seize the opportunity to strike. Her jade fingers, gripping the Snow Princess Sword, silently tightened.

With the full eruption of her Ice Phoenix divine power, she had suppressed her opponent into a state of utter disarray. However, the counterattack he managed to unleash, even when suppressed to that extent, was terrifyingly powerful... far exceeding her expectations.

This made her realize a terrifying truth. If her opponent hadn't underestimated her and acted arrogantly from the start, her chances of victory in a direct confrontation might have been less than fifty percent!

In the current world, in terms of overall strength, she was second only to Yun Che in his Yama Emperor state; even the Devil Queen and the three Yama Ancestors ranked below her.

And in terms of cultivation alone, she was undeniably the strongest in the Primal Chaos.

Yet, her opponent...

"Ugh... cough... cough, cough, cough!"

Foaming blood spurted from his mouth, followed by a dozen violent gasps that almost tore through his chest, before Yinfeng finally recovered his breath.

Mu Xuanyin's power had also far exceeded his expectations. But compared to his shock, his humiliation and rage were undoubtedly dozens of times greater.

As a pioneer from the Abyss, he disdained all beings in this world. Yet, in his very first battle in this world, he had been utterly disgraced and disheveled.

When the Abyss eventually descended, if word of this spread, wouldn't he become a laughingstock for all time?

"Just now... it was merely carelessness!" He struggled to straighten up, his voice and limbs trembling violently, whether from lingering cold or overwhelming humiliation: "Again! Watch me tear her apart!!"

"Stand down," Nan Zhaoming said indifferently.

Yinfeng abruptly turned his head, panicked: "Lord... Lord Provisional Knight, this... this subordinate was truly just careless for a moment. Please give this subordinate another chance, this subordinate will certainly..."

"No need to panic; no one will speak of this matter," Nan Zhaoming said, slowly stepping forward and casually flicking his wrist. "It's just that this woman's power is somewhat special, so I intend to keep her intact. The Divine Envoy might be quite interested in her. If you were to act, it would be a pity if she were accidentally damaged."

Yinfeng let out a long sigh of relief, then hastily bowed his head: "Yes, thank you, Lord Provisional Knight."

"Who exactly are you people?!" Mu Xuanyin's Snow Princess Sword pointed remotely, her every word carrying heavenly might and chilling aura, yet failing to intimidate the person before her in the slightest: "And what is this Abyss you speak of!"

Could it be... the Abyss of Nothingness!?

"Heh heh," Nan Zhaoming said, his eyes half-closed, speaking leisurely: "The weak have no right to ask questions."

"Now, obediently... kneel!"

He suddenly struck, and a terrifying wave of energy surged across the distant void, enveloping Mu Xuanyin.

Before the power even reached her, in the mere instant he raised his hand, Mu Xuanyin's chest tightened. Then, the terrifying profound energy that suddenly assaulted her felt as if the entire world's space was pressing down upon her.

That Yinfeng's strength had already been astonishing.

But this person's strength was not just a few times, but many times more terrifying than Yinfeng's!

Facing the terrifying immense pressure, Mu Xuanyin forcefully took a step forward. But it was only a single step before she knew she had absolutely no chance of being her opponent's match. She quickly shifted from offense to defense, spreading countless slowly drifting ice crystals around herself.

This was the Ice Yi Star Formation, a defense-maximizing technique she had only created last year. She had been preparing to fully impart it to her Ice Phoenix disciples to enhance the Ice Phoenix lineage's self-preservation capabilities.

She had never imagined that she, who was practically invincible under heaven, would one day have to unleash this Ice Star Formation with all her might upon herself.

The star-domain was mercilessly breached, and Nan Zhaoming's power enveloped Mu Xuanyin.

In an instant, all the Ice Yi Star Formation crystals around Mu Xuanyin shattered, and even the lingering light from their destruction vanished instantly.

Mu Xuanyin's Snow Princess Sword thrust out with a piercing shriek. The sword instantly bent severely, almost breaking. Mu Xuanyin's face paled, and she quickly used the force to escape, rapidly retreating with consecutive Flashing Moon Dispersing Shadows, covering a hundred miles in an instant.

Crack...

An abnormal faint sound came from the sword. Mu Xuanyin lowered her gaze and raised her wrist; on the Snow Princess Sword, which had accompanied her for ten thousand years, three cracks slowly spread until they barely stopped at her touch.

Meanwhile, a crimson line of blood silently trickled from her palm, directly staining the sword's body.

Her jade-white hand and the jade-white sword's body... made the crimson bloodstain appear exceptionally tragic and glaring.

Nan Zhaoming's eyebrows twitched. He didn't find Yinfeng's disheveled state, brought on by his arrogance and underestimation of the enemy, to be significant. However, the fact that the woman before him could break free from his power completely exceeded his expectations.

"Quite an exquisite movement technique; even in the Abyss, I've never seen such a technique from a profound practitioner at this level," Nan Zhaoguang's gaze also grew somewhat fervent: "It seems this world isn't entirely useless after all."

"Hmph! What does that matter?" Nan Zhaoming snorted coldly, black light suddenly appearing in his eyes. He thrust out his hands, and two dark palm shadows abruptly appeared above Mu Xuanyin, rapidly expanding until they were several miles in size.

It was clearly dark profound energy!

Nan Zhaoming was clearly enraged. The dark pressure now enveloping Mu Xuanyin was far heavier than before.

Mu Xuanyin was intimately familiar with dark profound energy. The dark profound energy before her was far less pure than Yun Che's, but its excessively high power level brought with it a suffocating, hopeless pressure of absolute despair.

With a quiet thought, her ice-blue hair violently danced, each strand radiating dazzling, pristine icy light. Behind her, a nearly substantial phantom of the Ice Phoenix let out a long cry that reverberated throughout the entire Eastern Divine Region.

She knew Yun Che would surely hear it, and would clearly understand the commanding soul-voice contained within:

"Yun Che, do not appear!"