Fire Dragon Mountain.
Lava rolled down, sealing off all life.
A single figure was actually leaping up the mountain on foot.
Fire Dragon Mountain was incredibly steep, its cliffs almost vertical.
And with lava cascading like waterfalls, it should've been impossible for any human to climb it directly.
Yet this figure moved swiftly through the lava, leaping and weaving through it with ease.
To him, the steep cliffs were like flat ground.
At that moment, in everyone's eyes, the figure looked like an immortal walking through fire.
Qin Qiansheng stared blankly at the sight.
This was far beyond what she'd imagined. It hit her with a huge emotional shock.
She had imagined what her first meeting with Yang Cheng might look like.
But she had never imagined it would be this overwhelming.
Ding!
[Host has arrived at Fire Dragon Mountain, the base of the Dragon Spear Army.]
[The Dragon Spear Army was once the pillar of Great Zhou, its number one army.]
[But Heaven's Mandate Emperor's expulsion of the Crown Prince and imprisonment of the Retired Emperor angered the Dragon Spear Army, and they broke away from Great Zhou's command 400 years ago.]
[Since then, Heaven's Mandate Emperor has attempted many times to conquer Mozhou and destroy the Dragon Spear Army, but failed again and again.]
[Even as he was about to become the Eastern Wastes Alliance Leader, he still couldn't defeat them.]
[The Dragon Spear Army once had the War God Qin Xuanjia, and later the Dragon Queen Qin Qiansheng.]
[Now, they acknowledge Qin Qiansheng as the Queen of Mozhou. Though Mozhou appears under Great Zhou, it has long been outside its control.]
[The host has already defeated Heaven's Mandate Emperor and should reclaim Great Zhou. Winning over the Dragon Spear Army is the host's greatest unresolved regret.]
[Please resolve this regret. Conquer the Dragon Spear Army. Make Qin Xuanjia and Qin Qiansheng once again pledge loyalty to you.]
[Mission Reward: Command of Fire Dragon Mountain.]
Yang Cheng moved faster and faster.
In just half a cup of tea's time—
Boom!
The ground at the summit of Fire Dragon Mountain suddenly quaked.
A figure landed on the edge of the crowd.
Leftover flames still clawed at the air. The stone slabs were melting from the intense heat.
He walked through the sparks toward the crowd.
His young face still had traces of boyishness, but the blazing fire lit it up with awe-inspiring majesty. His sword-shaped brows glinted in the heatwaves with terrifying authority.
Barefoot, he stepped on the burning stone. His black gold-embroidered robe billowed in the wind. Flames behind him curled and surged, yet were held back by some invisible barrier, swirling three inches away from his body.
When those pitch-black eyes lifted, it felt to the several thousand Dragon Spear Army soldiers as if they'd heard a dragon roar.
"Am I dreaming?"
The thick-browed man stood frozen. "He didn't take the flying vessel... he actually leaped up from the foot of the mountain?"
"Lao Hu, you're not dreaming," the round-faced officer said with a trembling voice.
At that moment, no one could stay calm.
Even Zhao Fengyue had a look of disbelief all over his face.
"Is he even human? How can a person walk up sheer cliffs like flat ground, and leap across lava torrents thousands of feet long? Even a Martial Saint couldn't do that!"
The thick-browed man still couldn't believe it.
While they stared, stunned, the flames around that figure finally faded completely, revealing his full appearance.
It really was just a ten-year-old boy.
The Crown Prince of Great Zhou.
But at that moment, in the eyes of the Dragon Spear Army soldiers, he was like a fireborn immortal.
Smack!
The thick-browed man slapped himself hard across the face.
A show of dominance?
Try to teach him a lesson?
He had no idea where he got the courage to even think that.
Right then, Yang Cheng's godlike presence shattered all his earlier thoughts.
"Pick a fight with someone like that? You must be tired of living," similar thoughts echoed through the minds of the other soldiers.
They'd all spent years training on Fire Dragon Mountain.
No one knew better than they did how terrifying Fire Dragon Mountain was.
That really was 1,000-zhang of lava—no illusion, no trick of the eye.
Even a demon saint had once fallen in and been burned alive.
As for how Yang Cheng pulled it off, the answer was simple.
First, his own strength was overwhelming.
Second, he had perfected his alchemy, and he was best at manipulating fire.
This 1,000-zhang lava flow wasn't even close to the terror of his Samadhi True Fire. Why would he be afraid?
"You… you really are the Crown Prince?"
At that moment, the thick-browed man couldn't help but ask.
He still felt a bit like it was all a dream.
"One hundred percent real."
Yang Cheng smiled calmly.
"I, Zhao Yuefeng, pay respects to His Highness the Crown Prince."
Zhao Yuefeng dropped to one knee.
Qin Qiansheng couldn't keep hiding anymore. She stepped out and said, "Qin Qiansheng pays respects to His Highness the Crown Prince."
The rest of the soldiers didn't dare hesitate. All of them dropped to their knees in unison.
"Rise."
Yang Cheng's voice wasn't loud, but it carried across the entire mountaintop.
Whoosh!
Several thousand soldiers stood up in perfect sync.
Yang Cheng swept his eyes around.
Wherever his gaze passed, the Dragon Spear Army soldiers all tensed up. They felt overwhelming pressure.
But this pressure didn't come from his status—it came from his strength.
"General Meng told me you lot are just a bunch of roughnecks, wild and unruly, and that I should cut you some slack?"
Yang Cheng said slowly.
Here, he no longer referred to himself as "this prince."
This was Yun Jinghuai's method of commanding troops.
In the army, Yun Jinghuai never called himself "this marquis," but always just "I."
That way, it strengthened the sense of personal power, not rank.
That's how things worked in the military.
No matter how high your status was, it didn't mean the soldiers would respect you.
Only if you showed real ability would they truly obey from the heart.
The moment those words fell, the soldiers' expressions all changed.
"Nonsense!"
The thick-browed man was the first to shout, "We're soldiers of Great Zhou, not some street thugs! We follow orders to the letter and obey our superiors. How could we be wild and unruly?"
"Exactly! General Meng slandered us."
The round-faced officer spoke righteously. "Your Highness, when we learned you were coming, the entire Dragon Spear Army was filled with anticipation. We couldn't wait to serve you with our lives!"
The others quickly caught on and chimed in, one after another.
Watching this, Zhao Fengyue wanted to find a hole and crawl into it.
These sycophantic flatterers in front of him—were these the same prideful, hot-blooded warriors he knew?
Right then—
General Meng and Miao Shuangshuang descended from the sky in their flying vessel.
The scene below left them both speechless.
"We were wrong."
"We were shortsighted. We completely underestimated His Highness the Crown Prince."
Their eyes held the same kind of shock, and when they looked at Yang Cheng, there was already admiration in their gaze.
Miao Shuangshuang even lowered her head in shame. She felt embarrassed about everything she'd thought before.
She'd actually doubted the Crown Prince, grumbled about him countless times in her heart. She really had been ignorant.
"No need to act clever in front of me."
Yang Cheng's expression was flat. "You think, just because you call yourselves the so-called number one army of Great Zhou, it doesn't matter whether you work hard or not, so you can just indulge yourselves?"
The several thousand Dragon Spear Army soldiers went silent.
Clearly, Yang Cheng had hit the nail on the head.
Their arrogance came from exactly that mindset—'we're the best in the world.'
"Then let me ask you—how do you compare to the Greedy Wolf Army?"
Yang Cheng sneered.