Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

The night retreated, and daylight descended.

The surrounding Yin Soldiers faded into ash in the strengthening sunlight.

The Ghost General, though not disappearing, had its purple-black Yin energy dissipated by nearly half. It was clearly becoming languid.

Yan Yu halted his sprinting pace, turning around leisurely with his hands carefree in his coat pockets, showing no sign of fatigue on his face.

The live stream opportunistically zoomed in—the production team gave him a full-body high-definition close-up.

"It's daytime now!" Xu Dongming shouted, "The Ghost General is weakened! It's Yan Zhanlong's turn! Yan Zhanlong is about to unleash divine power! Annihilating! Obliterating! He's about to..."

Before the professional commentator could finish, Yan Yu casually withdrew a pill, an Elixir Medicine, from his pocket and silently popped it into his mouth.

"Hey, no need to rush," Zhou Erhe said facetiously next to him, providing cover for him, "although Yan Zhanlong is divine, he also needs to replenish his True Yuan and rest."

"Yes," Xu Dongming also calmed his excitement, speaking steadily, "everyone, don't rush, let Yan Zhanlong recover first; his spectacular performance just now exhausted a lot of True Yuan... Eh? Zhenhai Team is coming out!"

Behind Yan Yu, several figures flickered by—the girls who had left the inn sprang onto the rooftop and positioned themselves on either side of him.

The unmanned aerial camera adjusted focus once more, slightly narrowing the frame so that all five people were perfectly captured: Yan Yu stood nonchalantly in the center with one hand in his pocket, Chen Lingyun smiling sweetly at the camera while holding the Soul Summoning Banner, Su Yunjin calmly looking forward at the Ghost General, Lin Ning ready to attack with a Sword technique at hand, and Zhao Yuanzhen crossing her arms with a cool demeanor as if finally allowed a breath of fresh air.

"All set?" Yan Yu asked, tilting his head.

Seeing them start to converse, the director quickly switched to the team's cameras to capture the dialogue—Yan Yu's chest camera was damaged in the previous explosion, so it switched to Chen Lingyun's perspective.
Your journey continues at empire

"All set," Chen Lingyun confirmed, "the night lasted 12 minutes and 11 seconds; we entered the Mysterious Realm about 9 minutes and 20 seconds before nightfall."

"Daytime should be the same length as night," Yan Yu said, "no matter, you guys take care of Flying Dragon Battle Team."

"What about you, Captain?" Lin Ning asked in surprise.

"I'll deal with this gatekeeper," Yan Yu said, looking at the Ghost General regaining strength before him, "if you can't beat them, then call me."

"Don't worry," Zhao Yuanzhen said impatiently, "we definitely won't call you, just take care not to capsize yourself."

"Did you find their location?" Yan Yu inquired.

"Of course," Chen Lingyun replied with a smile, "while you were playing cat and mouse with them, I wasn't slacking off."

The audience in the live stream laughed along. The scene of a hundred thousand Yin Soldiers besieging Yan Zhanlong was so grand and perilous, making people believe several times that Yan Yu couldn't hold on.

But now Chen Lingyun referred to it as "cat and mouse"—indicating that the deputy captain, despite her small and sweet southern appearance, was just as adept at showing off and stirring up trouble as Yan Yu.

This also explained why Yan Yu led the Yin Soldiers around in circles—to draw fire and assist the five spirits in completing their reconnaissance mission.

On the other hand, Flying Dragon Battle Team also swiftly left their hiding place and gathered at a nearby rooftop vantage point.

They had already spotted Chen Lingyun's deployed spirits, and naturally knew that Zhenhai Team had confirmed their location. Now that it was daytime, there was no need to hide, and they could have a fair and square battle!

"Two o'clock position, they're coming," Deputy Captain Shen Rui alerted the team, with Zhenhai Team approaching them.

"Charge!" Cai Qianlong roared, "Give it your all!"

"Right!" the team responded.

To acknowledge inferiority to Zhenhai Team is self-awareness; to fight with all one's might against an overpowering foe is self-transcendence! Even if defeated, it would be in the final moment striving for victory!

Lin Ning, who was leaping across rooftops, heard the shouts ahead and said to her teammates via a secret vocal transmission:

"Their fighting spirit is quite high."

"They probably think that without Yan Yu, the four of us girls are easy to bully," Chen Lingyun said with a smile.

Easy to bully? The girls were taken aback for a moment, then each became furiously indignant.

Just wait, we'll crush you soon!

"Sister Zhao, focus on Cai Qianlong; Ningning, suppress the other four," Chen Lingyun commanded.

"Okay!" Lin Ning responded through the transmission, her Shifting Technique suddenly accelerating!

The ultimate acceleration of the Shifting Technique is around sixteen meters per second. Exceeding this limit could easily lead to a stumble. To avoid being distracted by controlling speed, they usually wouldn't cruise at full throttle.

Now, Lin Ning pushed to full speed in a burst, quickly leaving her teammates behind. With a flick of her hand, the Green Bamboo Sword performed a "White Rainbow Through The Sun," directly attacking Shen Rui on the right flank.

Cai Qianlong, positioned at the vanguard of the Charging Arrow Formation, had an excellent overall view of the battlefield and immediately launched the True Yang Sword to intercept.

Before he could intercept the Green Bamboo Sword, it was cut off halfway by the Yin Wind Sword. Cai Qianlong furrowed his brow, only to hear Zhao Yuanzhen's voice transmitting to him in secret, sounding as if it were right next to his ear:

"Your opponent is me! Come and meet your fate!"

With Cai Qianlong's temperament, of course, he couldn't stand such provocation. Hearing this, his fighting spirit instantly ignited, and he swiftly recalled the True Yang Sword, preparing to engage Zhao Yuanzhen in swordsmanship combat.

Without Cai Qianlong's interception, Lin Ning's Green Bamboo Sword directly attacked the approaching Shen Rui, who parried it with the Profound Iron Sword. Using the force of the rebound, Lin Ning redirected the sword and swiftly stabbed towards Ma Dawei, who was behind.

This sword technique of "offering a flower in another's name" was a move Yan Yu often liked to play with during routine sparring: pretending to feign an attack at one girl while calculating the entry angle of the flying sword, then switching targets to another girl using the rebound — everyone subconsciously assumes that the flying sword would be temporarily out of control after being repelled, so their vigilance would inevitably relax at that moment, only to be hit hard as a result.

Ma Dawei had never encountered such a situation and was in the midst of jumping to another rooftop, so when he was surprised mid-air by the Green Bamboo Sword, he instinctively activated the Barrier Charm to block.

With a "ding," the Green Bamboo Sword failed to break through the Barrier Charm, but Ma Dawei's speed was slowed by the force of the sword, and without support in mid-air, he fell straight down.

Shen Rui scanned the surroundings with his Divine Sense, confirming that team leader Cai Qianlong was entangled by Zhao Yuanzhen (he recognized him as Zhao Jiuzhen, but from now on for the sake of consistency, he will be referred to as Zhao Yuanzhen outside of dialogue, and it won't be mentioned again).

Ma Dawei had temporarily broken ranks due to the ambush, so Lin Ning's Green Bamboo Sword would likely next target Peng Yifan and Zhong Ming, who were weaker than himself.

Peng Yifan was a spell cultivator, and Zhong Ming was an envoy; both had decent swordsmanship amongst their fellow cultivators, but even if they joined forces against Lin Ning and the Green Bamboo Sword, it was hard to say, so Shen Rui hurriedly directed his Profound Iron Sword to the rescue.

Just as the Profound Iron Sword intercepted the Green Bamboo Sword, a flash of purple light streaked by, and it was Chen Lingyun seizing the moment his flying sword was far from him, propelling the Purple Extreme Sword to slice at him.

Without his flying sword at his side, Shen Rui had to quickly dodge using the Shifting Technique, but as he stepped away, he found himself immobilized on the rooftop as if rooted to the ground — Chen Lingyun's Ghoul had stretched its ghostly hand from under the rooftop and tightly wound around his ankle.

Shen Rui, who had intended to save others, ended up in a crisis himself, with Peng Yifan and Zhong Ming rushing to his aid.

The former cast a spell, launching three rays of golden light, while the latter shook his sleeves vigorously, dropping a six-armed demon with wings on its back, flapping quickly like a dragonfly. In an instant, it sped through tens of meters, about to grab the Purple Extreme Sword, when suddenly the floodwaters surged around them!

Su Yunjin's Southern Dipper Galaxy Secret Art had trapped the six-armed demon!

The falling Ma Dawei stabilized his body, used the Cloud Ascension Technique to fly back onto the rooftop, and upon looking closely, was immediately stunned.

At that moment, team leader Cai Qianlong was still engaged in fierce flying sword combat with Zhao Yuanzhen, as if a life-and-death struggle, unable to extricate himself to help his teammates; deputy leader Shen Rui forcibly broke free of the ghoul's grasp with the Wood Bending Charm, narrowly avoiding the Purple Extreme Sword's stab, only to be slashed in the back by Lin Ning with the Green Bamboo Sword.

Wounded and bloodied, he rolled off the rooftop and fell down... Considering he was actually fighting three against one including the five ghosts, it was no surprise he was defeated given insufficient strength.

Zhong Ming's demon was trapped by the opposing Taoist method, forcing him to use his flying sword to attack Su Yunjin from a distance in an attempt to free his own demon, only for Su Yunjin to easily block and restrain it with Coral Tears.

Peng Yifan was now the only one not being closely watched. However, with Deputy Captain Shen Rui down and Captain Cai Qianlong unable to divert his attention to command the battle (not that he would be effective if he could), Peng Yifan had no choice but to make his own judgments of the situation.

He first shot golden Taoism Method light at Zhao Yuanzhen, who deftly avoided it with a lateral shift, nearly hitting Captain Cai Qianlong instead. So, he turned his attack towards Lin Ning, who sliced through the golden light with the Green Bamboo Sword and then turned to attack him.

We need to help Peng Yifan first!

Ma Dawei made a swift decision and directly maneuvered his magical artifact towards Lin Ning, but he heard Peng Yifan's voice transmission coming through:

"Help Zhong."

Peng Yifan saw the situation more clearly than he did. Lin Ning's swordsmanship was incredibly formidable, and even together with Ma Dawei, it might not be possible to defeat her. On the other hand, Su Yunjin had to maintain the Taoism Method that trapped the demons and also fend off Zhong Ming's swordsmanship attacks.

She was currently multitasking—she was the most vulnerable link in the Zhenhai Team!

Ma Dawei quickly turned his attack towards Su Yunjin, but as soon as he launched his magical artifact, it was intercepted by the Purple Extreme Sword. Moreover, five ghosts transformed into ferocious dogs and surrounded him from all sides, forcing him to switch to defense for his own protection.

With that, the entire tactical system of the Flying Dragon Battle Team was decimated due to Deputy Captain Shen Rui being targeted and taken down from the beginning. Now, completely fragmented, every team member was fighting on their own, with no possibility of mutual support, and there was an overwhelming tendency to be completely crushed by the Zhenhai Team under Chen Lingyun's command.

"The Flying Dragon Battle Team has lost," concluded Zhang Huaide, in front of the big screen at the Huofeng Team training ground.

"Didn't we know that already?" Qin Meng asked in surprise, "How could they possibly defeat the Zhenhai Team?"

"No," Zhang Huaide shook his head, "strictly speaking, with Yan Yu not participating in the battle, they actually had a chance of winning at the beginning when it was five against four."

"The problem lies with Cai Qianlong," Zhou Hongyu hit the nail on the head.

"Exactly. From the moment Cai Qianlong began swordsmanship combat with Zhao Jiuzhen, they stood no chance," Zhang Huaide said, shaking his head. "As the deputy captain and the core of command, he was definitely the main target for the enemy team.

Within the Flying Dragon Battle Team, only Cai Qianlong had the power to match Zhao Jiuzhen and Lin Ning, so he should have stayed close to Shen Rui to ensure the deputy captain's safety and keep the command structure operational."

"But Shen Rui failed to realize this as well, didn't he?" Meng Qingxi raised the question.

"Yes, or it's possible that Cai Qianlong wouldn't listen," Zhang Huaide said nonchalantly, "after all, it was their team's first battle, and Cai Qianlong might not have completely trusted him, especially since they had a dispute during the press conference... In any case, they should recognize this problem after this defeat."

"Let's not worry about them," Zhou Hongyu, suddenly introspective, said to Zhang Huaide, "In our Huofeng Team, everything is for the sake of victory. If I ever run into trouble, you must remind me right away, without worrying about my thoughts."

"Of course," Zhang Huaide nodded, calmly raised a finger to adjust the frame on the bridge of his nose, and said solemnly, "After all, that is the deputy captain's responsibility."

"The director has switched the view," Tang Xiaolian remarked after a moment, "The Flying Dragon Battle Team is undoubtedly doomed, so let's watch Yan Yu's performance. Deputy Captain Zhang, do you think Yan Yu can take on the goalkeeper on his own?"

"Of course," Zhang Huaide said with a slight smile, "If Yan Yu can slay the Flood Dragon, how could the Ghost General, whose strength is not even comparable to the previous Flood Dragon, possibly be a match for him?"