Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Zhao Yuanzhen stormed into the woods, looking left and right.

In her field of vision, there was no one to be seen.

But the forest here was dense, with the wind and snow howling, the visibility was indeed low; it was very possible someone was hiding somewhere.

She brandished her sword and circled around for a moment, but still found nothing. She could only press the button on her earpiece and said:

"Yan Yu, save me!"

"…What happened?"

"I can't find anyone," Zhao Yuanzhen said with frustration.

"Fine then," Yan Yu chuckled, unable to help himself, "Let me take a look."

"Don't you dare come over!" Zhao Yuanzhen quickly stopped him, "I just put on a big show in front of so many people, charging in here, and now I can't handle it and need your help. It's so embarrassing! You are not allowed to come over, just give me some ideas to help me find him!"

"You're nuts!" Yan Yu laughed and scolded her, "How can I help you if I don't come in? With this kind of snowstorm, even if a drone could fly, it wouldn't be able to film anything, right? Just wait there, I'm coming over."

Zhao Yuanzhen wanted to say something more, but the call was already hung up, making her so angry that she kicked viciously at a pine tree next to her.

Then, thump, a person fell down from the tree.

Zhao Yuanzhen: !

Her expression quickly changed from annoyance to astonishment, and then to an ecstatic "Haha, that's what I expected from you, grandma!"

——————

Turning back the clock for a bit, Park Changmin took advantage of another sudden snow soldier attack. The formation of his teammates got disrupted again, and in that instant, he shouted, "There's an enemy over there," before activating his Shifting Technique and dashing out.

The cultivator companions around him were caught off guard. They called out "Park Changmin" a few times, but only saw him not even looking back, vanishing in a flash.

"What happened?" Jin Taishan turned around again.

"Park Changmin ran off," someone said.

"It's not necessarily running away; I heard him shouting 'there's an enemy over there,'" someone else added.

"Bullshit, if there's an enemy, why not hold the line instead of charging out?!" Jin Taishan was immediately enraged, but under the current circumstances, it wasn't possible to split forces and chase after him. With a grim face, he ordered, "Next time anyone dares to leave the line rashly, treat them as deserters and execute them on the spot!"

"Yes!" The cultivators quickly complied, afraid that Jin Taishan would continue to lose his temper. A few who had also thought about fleeing, seeing that most had agreed, had to suppress their impulse to take a risk and venture out.

Having sprinted madly for a while, Park Changmin saw there were no pursuers behind him and quickly stopped his Shifting Technique. Then he started to run with his legs through the snow.

He had also roughly figured out some patterns, like the snow demons tended to attack those in larger groups or those casting spells... so he needed to use the Shifting Technique as little as possible and sneak his way back quietly.

Leaving the platform of the mountain gate behind, there was a vast expanse of gentle slopes and woods. Park Changmin quickly moved through the trees, while anxiously watching his surroundings.

If one or two snow demons came after him, he still had confidence in dealing with them; but if five or six came at once, then he could only fight desperately for his life.

However, after walking for nearly ten minutes, he hadn't encountered a single snow demon.

Park Changmin didn't let his guard down; on the contrary, he became even more nervous.

Because the snow demons weren't attacking him, there was a very frightening possibility that there was a large group of cultivators nearby, attracting all of them away...

After a moment's hesitation, Park Changmin decided to stop advancing and climb up to observe his surroundings first.

He chose a tree nearby, climbed up swiftly with hands and feet, then picked a spot where the branches had a thick accumulation of snow to use as cover, watching carefully.

Although the snowstorm made it difficult to see clearly, Park Changmin could still vaguely spot the light possibly produced by magic artifacts not far away...

This is bad; surely a large group of Rikoku Cultivators is coming this way!

From this distance, they would soon cross the forest path slope and reach the mountain gate where senior Jin Taishan stood guard—so that's why I said, staying there is like waiting to die!

Of course, if he was discovered by these Rikoku Cultivators, it's highly likely he would be stabbed to death.

At this point, Park Changmin had no choice but to cower in the tree, not even daring to let out a loud breath, and hugged the trunk, shivering.

He dared not use spells, as he was afraid spells would attract snow demons, exposing his location; but not using spells and just hugging the trunk was too tiring, and there was nowhere to step around... If he tried to find another branch to step on, he was afraid that the movement would shake the accumulated snow off the tree.

On one hand, he feared alerting the Rikoku Cultivators; on the other hand, he was afraid of losing his cover.

Therefore, Park Changmin remained utterly still, hugging the tree trunk like a koala, his face nearly turning purple from the cold wind.

.........

Then, it was Zhao the Demonic Sect Enchantress who angrily kicked the tree, causing Park the deserter to fall by accident, coincidentally from the same tree.

Zhao Yuanzhen, upon witnessing this unexpected delight, instantly perked up, laughing maniacally as he moved to grab Park Changmin.

Park Changmin, realizing his grim prospects, quickly rolled over and half rose, shooting his Flying Sword straight at Zhao Yuanzhen's face.

But the Demonic Sect Enchantress, having been tormented by Yan Yu far too many times, had developed a strong resistance to such sudden attacks.

She merely activated her Curved Curse and, with quick reflexes, caught the Flying Sword, snarling viciously:

"How dare you resist!"

Park Changmin tried to channel his True Yuan, but with the sword hilt held by the opponent's Curved Curse, how could he break free? Experience new tales on empire

Zhao Yuanzhen, holding the struggling Flying Sword, jabbed it wildly at Park Changmin, taunting as he did so:

"Run then! Go on and run! Show me a run!"

"That's enough." Yan Yu quickly used his Shifting Technique to get to her side, first stopping the Demonic Sect Enchantress's violent hand, then sealing Park Changmin's Dantian with Runescript — though it was also superfluous, as Park Changmin's body was riddled with sword holes, nearly turning him into a bloody mess, already gasping for air.

"Medical team, come treat him." Yan Yu instructed through his headset and then, looking at Liu Longtao who had hurried over as well, he smiled and said, "We're lucky this time, caught a live one."

"Mhm." Liu Longtao nodded.

If they could extract information about the Goryeo Cultivators from the prisoner's mouth, the subsequent battles would be much easier;

Of course, if this man were ungrateful, they could simply run him through with a sword, putting an end to it — they held no old Pingjing etiquette towards enemies.

The medical team acted swiftly, first stopping the blood loss for Park Changmin, then forcing him to drink some hot saltwater and administering an Elixir Medicine. Eventually, they forcefully awoke him.

With the blood washed from his face, Yan Yu finally recognized him:

Well, if it isn't the Goryeo Sword God, Park the Fifth!

"Does anyone speak Goryeo here?" In preparation for an impromptu interrogation, Liu Longtao again confirmed with the team, "Ye Jun, can you?"

"I studied it a bit in college." Ye Jun said uneasily, "I don't speak it well. To them, it might sound as basic as 'what's your job' or something."

"No need." Yan Yu came back and said, "He speaks the language of Lu Country. Let Chen Lingyun do the interrogation."

Park Changmin could speak not only the language of Lu Country but also the language of Chonhon, both very fluently. The reason was that from a young age, he had set himself the ambition of not marrying women from the extremely conservative Goryeo but longing instead for a wife from Lu Country or Chonhon.

Of course, after he was titled Goryeo Sword God and became a national heartthrob, he had no choice but to settle down with a celebrity from a popular girl group in his own country — Yan Yu couldn't remember who it was, but having seen her photos in the media, he had to admit Goryeo's medical aesthetic technology was indeed quite advanced.

Dantian sealed and groggily awakening, Park Changmin was quite a tough guy, not only spilling all the intel explicitly but also highlighting the fact that Jin Taishan treated his juniors as expendables. The underlying message was clear: Hurry up and finish off Jin Taishan for me!

Having obtained the intel, Liu Longtao didn't share it with the others, only discussing it privately with Ye Jun, Yan Yu, and Chen Lingyun, the four of them deliberating together.

"So, eliminating Jin Taishan will cause their will to fight to collapse by half." Ye Jun said thoughtfully.

"That's right," Chen Lingyun replied cheerfully. "Such power-driven teams have the advantage of maintaining unity while the strong power exists, but the downside is that once that power collapses, the lower ranks fall apart easily."

"It's not always the case," Liu Longtao countered, "The other side may rely on the rule of the strong, but look, there was still a traitor among them. In the end, it doesn't matter how you lead; the key is to have reliable people underneath who respect the law and aren't thinking about causing trouble all the time."

Ye Jun gave them both a suspicious glance: Are you discussing serious matters or taking the chance to make snide remarks at each other?

"Anyway." She tried to steer the conversation back on track, "What should we do with this prisoner?"

"Let's keep him," Yan Yu suddenly said. "A live captor has a different value from a corpse. If we hand him over to the state, we might even negotiate terms with Goryeo."

Of course, Park Changmin's real value was not in his swordsmanship prowess, but in his self-promotion and marketing skill that perfectly matched Goryeo's hero-worshipping trend.

If they killed him here, it would not stop Goryeo's hero-making project; another Goryeo Sword God would simply emerge. What if the next one was a true Sword God? Why bring trouble upon themselves?

Letting Park Changmin become the Goryeo Sword God as per the original timeline, to receive the full support of the national resources, and to boast about "going toe-to-toe with Liu Longtao" was undoubtedly the best outcome for Lu Country. There was no need to interfere and change that this life.

Although Liu Longtao did not know what Yan Yu was thinking, whether to kill a mere prisoner or not was inconsequential — it was better to give Yan Yu face.

"Alright," he said, nodding, "I'll have Captain Jung keep an eye on him."