Chapter 834: Exterminating the Stronghold

Another three hours passed.

Mu Yanwan arrived fashionably late; Chen Yan finished his cultivation, walked out of the Divine Array Hall, and met with Mu Yanwan.

Inside the small courtyard, Mu Yanwan looked at Chen Yan, whose body was overflowing with malice:

"Honored Chen Yan, the malice on your body..."

"It is nothing."

Chen Yan replied:

"Is the Skiff Leaf prepared?"

"It is."

Mu Yanwan watched Chen Yan walk toward the outside of the courtyard and hurriedly followed:

"Honored Chen Yan, it seems the Wen family has canceled their plans to provide you with sponsorship."

"Sponsorship?" Chen Yan paused slightly:

"Why would there be a need for sponsorship?"

Mu Yanwan was stunned; she had not expected Chen Yan to ask such a question, but at this moment, Chen Yan gave her such a daunting aura that she could not help but lower her head and say:

"Miss Wen Jianjian originally told a maid to send you meals, but in the end, she did not have them sent, and instead repeatedly invited Jiang Guanxin to be a guest."

Chen Yan raised his eyebrows slightly and continued walking on his own:

"Cultivation has always been a solitary matter since ancient times."

Mu Yanwan's heart tightened slightly, and she hurriedly said:

"Yes."

She lowered her eyes; was Chen Yan pointing this out to her?

In Mu Yanwan's understanding, the rise of an individual is destined to require the accumulation of massive resources.

When she cultivated to the early stage of the Creation Realm, she first used a Realm Fruit to advance to the sixth rank.

Afterward, from the sixth rank to the Creation Realm, she cultivated entirely on her own, and for this, nearly fifty percent of the assets the Mu family had accumulated over several hundred years were completely consumed by her.

It was not just her; many people were like this.

Yet, no matter how many thoughts she had in her heart, Mu Yanwan ultimately did not say them out loud.

They arrived at the shore, where a Skiff Leaf was docked at the pier.

Mu Yanwan was slightly startled:

"Grandmother, why are you here too?"

On the Skiff Leaf, a gray-clad old woman was sitting cross-legged in silence; seeing Chen Yan arrive, she stood up and said:

"Little Friend Chen Yan, this old woman is the head of the Mu family, and also Yanwan's grandmother.

I heard that you, little friend, intend to perform an act of justice, so although I am old, I would like to lend a hand."

Chen Yan nodded with a calm expression, then leaped onto the Skiff Leaf.

Some time ago, Chen Yan had asked Mu Yanwan to search for settlements of law-breakers similar to the Black Ancient Stronghold for him.

On one hand, Chen Yan wanted to obtain more Realm Fruits.

On the other hand, Chen Yan held a hostile attitude toward the Ancient Gods, but he felt even more disgust for these human lackeys who had defected to the Ancient Gods.

Over these past ten-plus days, Mu Yanwan had already found quite a few law-breaker settlements, and Chen Yan planned to wipe them all out today.

Mu Yanwan flew onto the Skiff Leaf, glanced at her grandmother, and hesitated to speak.

She was worried that her grandmother coming without permission would make Chen Yan unhappy.

The Mu family head coming in person was certainly to see Chen Yan's potential; the help was minor, but the probing was major.

The old woman looked at Chen Yan, squinting her eyes with a half-smile on her lips, wanting to speak.

"Let's depart." Chen Yan spoke abruptly.

"Right... right!" Mu Yanwan hurriedly responded and drove the Skiff Leaf to drift toward a certain direction.

Chen Yan turned his head, smiled at the old woman to acknowledge her, and then sat cross-legged with his eyes closed.

The old woman was stunned and dismissed her intention to ask Chen Yan questions.

Mu Yanwan watched from the side and sent a voice transmission to the old woman:

"Grandmother, you shouldn't have come."

The old woman swept a glance at Mu Yanwan:

"What do you know, little girl? To use the entire family's strength to sponsor an outsider, one must look not only at their strength but also at their conduct.

How could I not come in person to see this Chen Yan whom you think so highly of?"

The old woman's tone was somewhat unpleasant.

Clearly, Chen Yan's attitude toward her was far too cold.

This made the old woman feel incredibly strange; her granddaughter had been clever since she was young, so how could she value a person like this?

Moreover, malice was indeed burning on Chen Yan's body.

The old woman examined him closely, and her expression gradually changed.

"This..." She accidentally spoke out loud, and seeing that Chen Yan was still sitting with his eyes closed, she restrained her expression.

She hurriedly sent a voice transmission to Mu Yanwan:

"I originally thought the Array Master wanted to manipulate this person, which is why he didn't clear the malice from his body.

But now that I examine him closely, his malice has indeed penetrated to the marrow."

The old woman shook her head slightly; having been eroded by malice to this extent, Chen Yan was likely finished.

She looked at Mu Yanwan, her expression carrying a trace of disappointment.

"Grandmother, you have to trust me." Mu Yanwan hurriedly sent a voice transmission.

"Trust him?" The old woman wore an expression of disbelief:

"I've already said this much, why do you still want to fund him?"

Mu Yanwan shook her head slightly, looking at the back of Chen Yan as he sat cross-legged; her vermilion lips parted slightly, but she could not speak.

The old woman glanced at Mu Yanwan:

"In his state, he still wants to go to the Penalizer settlement? I think he's going to his death. It's fortunate I came along, otherwise you would be in danger too."

Mu Yanwan wanted to send a voice transmission, but the old woman interrupted her directly:

"Enough. In a moment, I will make a move to help him wipe out one settlement; it can be considered accumulating a bit of good karma.

Once it's over, let's hurry back."

A hint of bitterness appeared in Mu Yanwan's eyes.

She had always felt that since she had promised Chen Yan, she had to do what she was supposed to do.

If it were truly as her grandmother said, that she had misjudged the person, Chen Yan did not owe Mu Yanwan anything.

And she, for her part, would have merely expended some energy.

After a while.

As the leaf-boat drifted in the Sea of Malice, shadows of giant objects began to break through the fog within the ink-black chaos.

Endless evil and the unknown became even more terrifying in the thick darkness.

The old woman and Mu Yanwan also became vigilant.

Even with the leaf-boat, traveling in the Sea of Malice inevitably causes panic and distortion to arise deep within the human heart.

Until a certain moment.

Above a vast piece of pure land, the stockade walls were like coiled evil ghosts, the broken walls covered in old vines like rotting corpse chains.

Low, distorted calls came from within the stockade.

Above the stockade gate, human bones were manually arranged to form the large characters "Fool-Extinguishing Stockade."

"We've arrived," Mu Yanwan said softly:

"There are one hundred and fifty Penalizers in the Fool-Extinguishing Stockade, five at the Creation Realm; what you must be careful of is that one of them is a self-cultivated Creation Realm, and also..."

Just as Mu Yanwan was speaking, Chen Yan stood up and nodded slightly at her:

"The two of you wait here for a moment, I will be back shortly."

The old woman, who was about to follow Chen Yan into the Fool-Extinguishing Stockade, was stunned:

"Young friend, this old woman will go with you."

Although she had many complaints about Chen Yan while sending voice transmissions to Mu Yanwan, she now spoke to Chen Yan with a gentle smile.

"No need," Chen Yan said gently.

"No need?" Shock appeared in the old woman's eyes; this Chen Yan still wanted to go alone to wipe out the Fool-Extinguishing Stockade in his current state.

Isn't this just courting death?

"Young friend, you should listen to this old woman tell you about the history of this Fool-Extinguishing Stockade..." the old woman said earnestly.

If an Array Pivot Envoy were to die after traveling with Mu Yanwan, it would have a great impact on the reputation of their Mu family.

"No need."

Chen Yan interrupted directly; he stepped onto the pure land where the Fool-Extinguishing Stockade was located, not caring about the old woman's stiff expression.

"If two people go together, it's a waste of time."

As Chen Yan spoke, he deployed concealment array patterns and walked toward the stockade.

Along the way, Chen Yan naturally did not know the content of the voice transmissions between Mu Yanwan and the old woman, but their constantly changing emotions were as clear as if they were playing their cards face up in front of him.

Chen Yan could not be bothered to pay attention to these.

Currently, the issue Chen Yan valued most had always been the Ancient Gods.

Ancient Gods, Ancient Gods, and still Ancient Gods.

Even more pressing was what the Sovereign of Records had said: in one hundred days, the Ancient Gods would awaken.

Even though the flow of time in the Evil Realm was ten times faster, Chen Yan felt that not a single second could be wasted.

Chen Yan deployed concealment array patterns and walked into the Fool-Extinguishing Stockade in this swaggering manner.

For Chen Yan, who was already a Divine Venerable of Arrays, deploying a concealment array pattern to block the perception of the Creation Realm was still too simple.

Inside the stockade, Penalizers wearing iron armor were still patrolling, and wild, coarse laughter erupted from one room after another.

Chen Yan stood in the middle of the stockade and pointed a finger.

Hiss, hiss, hiss...

The pitch-black True Martial Power was unleashed, black light exploded suddenly, turning into ring-shaped array patterns that spread rapidly, suspended in the void.

In an instant, a terrifying aura of annihilation overflowed.

The 【Annihilation】 Grand Array!

It was just that compared to a true 【Annihilation】 Grand Array, this array was only Morning Star grade, far too crude.

No, it was basically just a shadow.

But at least it was an 【Annihilation】 Grand Array imitated by Chen Yan, so its lethality was bound to be terrifying.

However, Chen Yan did not let this 【Annihilation】 Grand Array explode directly.

Instead, he unleashed 【Decay Control - Holy Will Bewilderment】.

With Li Zhiyi creating a new breakthrough, Chen Yan's Will-level strength had also surpassed his former peak; influencing the consciousness of everyone in this stockade was a trivial matter.

Very quickly.

All sound within the entire stockade vanished; everyone walked out of their rooms to stand before Chen Yan, taking all their treasures from their origin spaces and handing them over without leaving anything behind.

Chen Yan accepted these items and left immediately.

The end.

At the same time, on the leaf-boat outside the Fool-Extinguishing Stronghold.

Mu Yanwan and the old woman stood quietly, because Chen Yan had entered the Fool-Extinguishing Stronghold alone.

Mu Yanwan was fine, but the old woman simply could not figure it out.

"I have lived for a hundred years, yet I haven't understood at all what this kid is trying to do." The old woman shook her head slightly, then looked at Mu Yanwan and said:

"You stay here and keep watch, I will go in first; we can't let this kid really die here."

Mu Yanwan was stunned and hurriedly said:

"Then I will go in too."

The old woman paused, turned to look at Mu Yanwan, and was just about to speak when she saw her granddaughter staring blankly at a spot behind her.

The old woman was startled and hurriedly turned around, only to see a gaunt figure, their whole body burning with malice, already appearing at the bow of the leaf-boat and calmly sitting down in a cross-legged position.

"Chen Yan, you..." the old woman exclaimed in surprise.

"Go to the next settlement." Chen Yan spoke calmly and had already begun to meditate.

"Ah? Oh." Mu Yanwan replied, having no idea what Chen Yan was doing.

She looked again at the Fool-Extinguishing Stronghold standing quietly in the endless darkness; it seemed as if nothing had happened there at all.

"Let's go to the next one," the old woman said:

"Find a Penalizer settlement that doesn't have a martial artist who has created their own realm."

The old woman subconsciously assumed that after entering the Fool-Extinguishing Stronghold, Chen Yan had investigated its strength and subsequently abandoned this place.

Not bad.

A wise move.

The Fool-Extinguishing Stronghold could indeed be considered relatively strong.

Yet, it was also at this moment.

Boom!

It was as if ten thousand wild thunderbolts had suddenly roared, causing the bodies of the old woman and Mu Yanwan to tremble violently.

When they looked in horror toward the place from which the sound had come.