Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

But the girls on the second floor of the inn noticed the shift from day to night in the mysterious realm in an instant.

"Lock the door," Chen Lingyun said quickly.

Lin Ning rushed to close the door. The next second, a muffled noise came from downstairs, as if it was the clanking sound of armor worn by marching soldiers.

The four girls exchanged silent looks. Chen Lingyun wore a faint smile, Lin Ning's face was grave, Su Yunjin appeared calm, and Zhao Yuanzhen paced restlessly back and forth like an impatient hound yearning to hunt.

"How long do we have to wait?" she finally couldn't help asking.

"Wait for the reconnaissance to return," Chen Lingyun responded.

Before long, a dog leaped in through the window, materializing the instant it entered the room.

Chen Lingyun communicated telepathically with it for a moment before saying to the girls:

"The intelligence we have so far indicates that the mysterious realm alternates between day and night at set intervals. By day it is eerily quiet, but come nightfall, hundreds of ghosts roam the streets, and Yin Soldiers and ghosts are everywhere, attacking any living creature they see, so it's best to stay indoors at night to avoid being discovered by the Yin Soldiers."

"The Flying Dragon Battle Team has not shown up; they're probably hiding somewhere. As for our captain, he has attracted the attention of many Yin Soldiers and is currently leading them on a wild chase throughout the city!"

"Should we go support him?" Lin Ning asked in a hurry, upon hearing that Yan Yu was being pursued by the Yin Soldiers.

"Not for now," Chen Lingyun said with a smiling eye, "The pressing matter at hand is to ascertain the duration of day and night."

Su Yunjin listened quietly, pondering to herself.

Rather than saying "leading them on a wild chase," it would be more accurate to say that the sheer number of enemies was so overwhelming that even the captain had to avoid their sharp edge, right? If that's the case, whether it's defeating the Flying Dragon Battle Team or besieging the gatekeepers, it would all have to be done during the daytime...

Ling Yun was right, understanding the mysterious realm's day and night restrictions is essential and must be clarified immediately.

But… can Yan Yu hold out?

————————

Yan Yu raced across the rooftops, trailing a near tidal wave of arrow barrages behind him.

Beneath him, the streets were so choked with Yin Soldiers that not a drop could leak through, constantly drawing bows, nocking arrows, and loosing shots, with an incessant howl filling the air.

Even Yan Yu, with his near-divine agility, had to frequently seek cover to shield himself; otherwise, he would inevitably end up as a porcupine bristling with arrows.

In the external broadcast room, the viewer count continued to surge. The incoming audience could hardly bear to leave, all waiting to see how Yan Yu would deal with so many pursuers—or how he might die.

The Zhenhai Team and the Flying Dragon Battle Team had both taken refuge inside buildings, not daring to provoke the masses of Yin Soldiers outside. Only Yan Yu was dodging and weaving through layers of pursuit, breaking free from encirclement in unexpected places—only to be trapped again in the very next second.

Because the surrounding Yin Soldiers were simply too many.

"He's definitely been surrounded to death!" Xu Dongming didn't know how many times he had said this, but Yan Yu's situation was indeed becoming more perilous, leaving almost no room to maneuver. He pressed down his anxiety and offered words of comfort to reassure his chat audience, "I'm guessing the Dingbei Army will definitely make a move.

They can't possibly just watch Yan Yu be surrounded and killed by these Yin Soldiers. Our country will certainly intervene. Everyone, don't worry, Yan Zhanlong isn't going to have any trouble..."

However, the chat audience was not worried; they were urging him to "keep jinxing."

"That's true," Zhou Erhe couldn't help wanting to laugh at the comments, but the current situation was hardly suitable for laughter, so he maintained a serious demeanor and said, "Okay, we see Yan Yu jumping down from the rooftop into a courtyard! Is he about to use the Wall-Penetration Technique?

No, wait, he's surrounded by Yin Soldiers on all sides; maybe he can break through from the low wall on the eastern side, but it's risky... Eh! He's stopped!"

Yan Yu came to a halt in the middle of the courtyard, his hands deftly forming Sword Technique gestures.

From the drone's aerial view, the courtyard around Yan Yu was encircled by Yin Soldiers, with the only entrance being the main gate.

Behind the main gate stood a screen wall, a high barrier placed behind the entryway in ancient residences to prevent passersby from peering directly into inner quarters.

In his recent evasive maneuvers, Yan Yu had noticed that the ancient city's architecture seemed to possess a certain quality that prevented it from being damaged by the arrows of the Yin Soldiers.

This meant that they should also be unable to destroy the screen wall and would have to go around it to attack him.

On the right of the screen wall was a collapsed stable, impassable; the left side became their only path through. But the passageway was comparatively narrow, allowing only two to pass at a time, ensuring that Yan Yu would not be attacked from all directions by the Yin Soldiers at once.

As the clanging sound of armor grew nearer, Yan Yu's Divine Sense detected a large number of Yin Soldiers stepping over the mansion's main gate, trying to pass through the screen wall passage to enter the courtyard!

Huang Tingjian, unsheathed!

The Huang Tingjian was a heavy sword that Yan Yu carried on his back, and it resided in no scabbard.

But as he pinched the sword technique, the blade flew out, someone in the chat curtain had no idea who brushed a "Dragon-Slaying Sword unsheathed!", and immediately numerous netizens repeated the phrase, flooding the screen.

Brother Yan Zhanlong's sword, that's the one that has slain the Flood Dragon!

The first two Yin Soldiers had already circled around the shadow wall, and the Huang Tingjian arrived just in time to deliver a powerful horizontal sweep close to the ground.

Sword Technique·White Crane Spreads Its Wings.

The feature of White Crane Spreads Its Wings lies in the slash containing a stab, which appears to be a wide-area horizontal cut but at any time can be converted into a thrust. However, Yan Yu here had no intention of changing his moves, as what he needed was the sweeping effect of this sword technique.

The two Yin Soldiers quickly drew their sabers in an attempt to block, but Yan Yu's swordsmanship combat experience was so rich. He intentionally sliced close to the ground with this White Crane Spreads Its Wings move, which made the opponent's saber too short to block the lower section of the attack without bending down...

The result was that they were too late to block and were both swept off by the Huang Tingjian, knocking down a large number of chasing Yin Soldiers in the process.
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The live broadcast room exploded once again!

Inside the Annan National Defense Academy, Li Minghu pinched the mouse and lightly clicked to turn off those annoying rainbow-fart chats like "Yan Zhanlong is so badass", so as not to block everyone from continuing to watch and study Yan Yu's swordsmanship.

From the aerial drone's perspective, it was hard to notice that the move White Crane Spreads Its Wings was actually a lower section attack close to the ground, but Li Minghu's thoughts were so sharp that he still noticed something amiss from the subtle motion of the two Yin Soldiers bending slightly before being struck by the sword.

So he was not only stepping on points earlier, but also collecting information on the equipment of these Yin Soldiers?

While she was pondering carefully, Yan Yu on the other side had already continuously taken down several waves of Yin Soldiers, and a spirited commentary finally rang out in the live broadcast room.

"Damn, Yan Zhanlong is so badass! The position he chose is really good!" Seeing Yan Yu turn danger into safety and the situation becoming clear, Zhou Erhe was the first to change his tune and praise, "Using this narrow terrain to block all the Yin Soldiers outside! Whoever comes will be killed, so many! This is the astonishing wisdom of Yan Zhanlong!"

"What's called 'one man holds the pass, ten thousand cannot break through'?" Xu Dongming also would not show weakness, puffing up equally, "This is 'one man holds the pass, ten thousand cannot break through'! In this position, Yan Zhanlong is like the God Lu Bu at Tiger Prison Pass!

No matter if you are the numerous heroes from the east with thousands upon thousands of soldiers, he alone can block them all! As long as he is at Tiger Prison Pass, Yan Zhanlong is invincible!"

"Hold on, don't jinx it." Zhou Erhe suddenly felt uneasy and quickly spoke up, "He is not invincible. He still has limits on his True Yuan endurance, okay? Although the Sword Control Technique doesn't consume much True Yuan, there is still consumption.

Back in the day, when Lu Bu defended Tiger Prison Pass, he alone fought against Liu, Guan, and Zhang, and even he couldn't sustain his physical strength."

"Yes, yes, I'll correct that," Xu Dongming relented smoothly, "As long as Yan Zhanlong has True Yuan, he temporarily descends like a god, the warring spirit of Lu Bu incarnate..."

Within the Mysterious Realm, Yan Yu continued to unleash his sword techniques, with the Huang Tingjian striking with wide and powerful swings, using the terrain to rout the Yin Soldiers invading the mansion.

Outside the Mysterious Realm, the two commentators sang each other's praises, having to switch from doomsaying to flattering to cover up the awkwardness of their earlier misjudgment (they were already surrounded).

At the training ground of Shuzhong Prefecture's school, the Huofeng Team was also watching the live broadcast as a group.

Probably tired of listening to the commentators boast, Tang Xiaolian couldn't help saying:

"Team Yan is indeed formidable, but saying he is invincible is an exaggeration. His weakness is that he does not know the Taoism Method. If our captain went into action, with a single cast of Great Bright Fire, these Yin Soldiers would be pulverized right away, there would be no need to cut them down one by one."

The vice-captain Zhang Huaide shook his head and said:

"No. Look at the Yin Soldiers that were knocked down, turning into a puff of gray smoke and disappearing, which shows that they may not have been truly killed. It's unwise to waste True Yuan on them."

"Observing Yan Yu's swordsmanship, which mostly consists of straight chops and horizontal cuts, you know that he did not intend to spend True Yuan to kill them but aimed to block and delay. As for the commentator's 'kills as many as come', it's just for show."

"Even if it's just blocking and delaying, our captain's level would not be worse," Tang Xiaolian persisted in her opinion.

"No." Zhou Hongyu said slowly, "If it was me there, I wouldn't be able to do what he does."

She didn't say this in a spirit of admitting defeat, but rather acknowledged Yan Yu's mastery in swordsmanship—every strike could attack where the enemies couldn't defend, and each hit could knock down a large group of Yin Soldiers. Such efficient and True Yuan-conserving sharp swordsmanship was something Zhou Hongyu, who was accustomed to going all out in attacks, could not achieve.

With Zhou Hongyu admitting the gap in strengths, Tang Xiaolian could no longer defend her position, only secretly thinking how great it would be if she also had such power. If she could defeat Team Yan in a one-on-one battle, it would certainly make the captain look at her in a new light!

Before she could even fantasize about herself becoming strong, the situation in the live broadcast suddenly changed drastically!

From a distance down the street, an uninvited guest hurriedly approached. It was a tall Ghost General sitting atop a deathly warhorse, holding the reins in his left hand and a long halberd in his right, with a banner on his back, dashing at high speed into the crowd of Yin Soldiers, mercilessly cutting down all the obstructing soldiers in his way!

The obstructing soldiers were deterred by his murderous aura, throwing away their weapons and kneeling on the ground. The Ghost General paid no heed to them and ruthlessly charged through, breaking into the mansion's main entrance. The deathly warhorse stood up on its hind legs, and with its armored front legs, it forcefully stomped onto the shadow wall!

The shadow wall exploded and crumbled with a loud bang; the Ghost General leaped into the yard amidst the dust, taking advantage of the horse's momentum to fiercely thrust the halberd at Yan Yu.

Despite the unexpected thrust, Yan Yu still reacted on time. He retreated with lightning speed, dodging the halberd's thrust, and at the same time, his gaze fell on the banner the opponent was carrying on his back.

On the banner, as on a flag, there were all kinds of Mysterious Seal Script written, surrounded by numerous purple-black glows. It radiated a terrorizing authority like that of a prison, causing all the surrounding Yin Soldiers to prostrate and tremble, daring not to make any rash moves.

Nine Heavens Yin Demon Prison Banner!

The thought flashed through Yan Yu's mind when the Ghost General took the banner at his back in his left hand and slammed it into the ground. Amidst the flowing banner glow, a Yin Seal suddenly floated out of the banner's surface and shot straight at Yan Yu!