Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest-Chapter 274 - 72: Yun Jin Returns, War is on the Horizon!

October finally arrived.

For cultivators, there were two major events.

First, Yan Yu of the Zhenhai Team appeared on TV again.

With his award ceremony "broadcasted" live, he once more pushed his fame to a new peak, becoming known to more households—though certainly there would still be those who didn’t watch TV, but ultimately, the number of those "unfamiliar with his name" was dwindling.

The title "Yan Zhanlong" had become outdated; his new title was called "Longcheng Flying General," which naturally served as a tremendous inspiration and role model for the vast majority of cultivators.

Second, Zhou Hongyu of the Huofeng—Pingxi Army’s top cultivator—was discharged from the hospital.

The reinstatement of the Pingxi Army’s foremost cultivator was a great boost to the spirits of his fellow soldiers, to the point where some were saying, "If Captain Zhou also goes abroad to conquer a Mysterious Realm, maybe he could earn himself a title like Supreme Phoenix or something."

Then, the cultivators from the Zhendong Army ridiculed this by saying, "Trying to pair up with Commander Yan to form an auspicious dragon and phoenix pairing, huh?" And so that topic was quickly dropped.

Yan Yu, however, temporarily had no time to care about external praises and fame, because Lin Ning ran into problems while learning the essentials of the Kunlun Imperial Sword Technique—it was all problems.

"You’re doing it wrong." After knocking Lin Ning’s Green Bamboo Sword out of her hands again, Yan Yu reminded her, "Pay attention to the details!"

"I’ve been paying attention to the details!" Lin Ning said, frustrated.

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If introductory Sword Control was likened to Mandarin Chinese, then Kunlun Imperial Sword Technique would be equivalent to a dialect. Some aspects overlapped, others were slightly different, and some were completely distinct.

The problem Lin Ning currently faced was that her good habits as a diligent student had ingrained the introductory Sword Control Technique deep into her instincts, much like a young person who had spoken Mandarin for over twenty years being told to learn a dialect from scratch—all too naturally, her speech would become a jumble of dialect and Mandarin, an indistinct mishmash.

Yan Yu, with great patience, pointed out and corrected every detail of her errors one by one, and Lin Ning earnestly took note, saying "mm-hmm" continuously. Then, during the next practice session, she reverted to her memorized habits and used the technique incorrectly again… Enraging her to the point of stomping her feet and grinding her teeth in anger.

"It’s all your fault!" she said in a fit of rage, "Constant extra practice, making me get the introductory Sword Control Technique so ingrained, now I can’t even change it anymore!"

"How is this my fault?" Yan Yu was bewildered, "Then you might as well stop practicing the Kunlun Imperial Sword Technique now. Otherwise, if you get an even more powerful sword technique later on and can’t switch over again, it will turn into my fault."

Lin Ning, of course, knew in her heart that she couldn’t blame the captain—after all, who knew when a new sword technique might come in the future? The real issue was naturally her own thinking, sticking to habit and not adept at adapting.

If it were someone else, she wouldn’t have easily vented her anger on them, but the captain... hmph, he deserved to be scolded a bit more!

"Let’s go again!" she said huffily, forming the sword technique with her hands once more.

With the technique "Thousand Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix," she feinted a forward thrust assuming the enemy would parry with a Flying Sword, and then seamlessly transitioned into "Phoenix Gracing the Presence" for a block, followed by "Phoenix Dancing to the Heavens" to circle around the defense…

"You’re wrong again." Yan Yu reminded her once more, "For ’Phoenix Dancing to the Heavens’, you need to swish the tail of the sword, and you forgot to do that again."

"Uh uh uh ah ah ah ah ah wuuuh!" Lin Ning let out a disheartened, bewildered yelp, then argued defiantly, "The sword path is supposed to veer left; the sword’s tail should naturally swing to the right, how could I possibly make it swing left?!"

"Like this, watch closely." Yan Yu formed the sword technique, and the Huang Tingjian, with agility that belied its heavy blade, executed an extremely elegant diagonal shift to the left. To Lin Ning, it looked like a nimble fat man performing a ballet.

Compared to this, her Green Bamboo Sword looked as sluggish and lumbering as a turtle, no match for Yan Yu’s Sword Control Technique.

Lin Ning, feeling unconvinced, continued to maneuver through the sword technique, attempting to replicate those moves.

Yan Yu let her try gradually and then went to inspect the progress of others.

Zhao Yuanzhen remained consistent, driving Xie Ruoxi to flee in all directions with her head in her hands.

Although Zhao didn’t have the same level of talent as Xie Ruoxi, the Demonic Sect Enchantress was after all the one who started cultivating earlier than any of them, and her True Yuan was far more robust, managing to suppress the other in a head-on swordsmanship duel.

Maybe it was her elder cousin’s warning that had an effect. The beautiful but previously incompetent Xie Ruoxi, who would have resorted to a lackadaisical effort by now, was actually persisting and hadn’t whined, complained, or pretended to faint.

Good, as long as Xie Ruoxi can train with dedication, with her inhuman learning speed, her rate of progress should be quite noticeable.

After inspecting everyone’s condition, Yan Yu came to Chen Lingyun’s side, just in time to hear her, watching Lin Ning’s practice, say with a smile:

"Yun Jin’s Tao Transformation, Ningning’s sword techniques and footwork, and Ruoxi’s Thunder Method... How many more treasures are you hiding?"

"Far more than you could imagine." Yan Yu answered calmly.

"Oh." Chen Lingyun’s smile grew sweeter, "So what have you prepared for me?"

"Where do you get the confidence to think I would have something prepared for you?" Yan Yu raised an eyebrow and retorted.

"Because you like me." Chen Lingyun’s smile remained sweet.

"Delusions of grandeur, huh?" Yan Yu mocked her.

"Not at all." Chen Lingyun said with a smile, "Shall we test it out?"

"How would you test that?"

"I’ll kiss you, and if you get excited, it’ll prove you like me."

Yan Yu: .........

Let’s not even talk about whether I’m emotionally moved or not, if that trashy princess publicly kissed me, Sister Lin and the Demonic Sect Enchantress would probably fly into a rage and blood would flow like a river right here in the school!

As the captain of the Zhenhai Team, it’s my duty to maintain a united atmosphere within the team—it’s not like I’m at the mercy of Chen Lingyun!

"The fact that you were ambushed last time proves there’s a flaw in your Five Ghosts Reconnaissance System," Yan Yu pondered for a moment before saying, "You must have noticed it yourself, right?"

"The real problem is that the information detected by the Five Ghosts isn’t conveyed to you timely and accurately."

"If an Envoy relies on Servant Envoys for battle, it’s essential to solve the issue of information transmission. Hence, the cultivation method of ’Heavenly Vision and Hearing’ came about, which fundamentally involves cultivating the Heavenly Ear Technique, Heavenly Vision, and Telepathy."

"Once you master Heavenly Vision, you can share the field of view with the servicing ghosts; master the Heavenly Ear Technique, and you can listen through them; master Telepathy, and no matter when and where the ghosts are, you can issue them orders, nimble as if moving your own arm."

"These three divine techniques, I’ve heard similar concepts before," said Chen Lingyun thoughtfully, "Are they the lesser divine techniques of Heavenly Vision, Heavenly Ear Technique, and Telepathy?"

"Right," Yan Yu nodded, "The three divine techniques you mentioned, although powerful, typically require seventy to a hundred years of cultivation, which I personally think is unnecessary."

"An Envoy’s Heavenly Vision and Hearing can easily achieve the effects of divine techniques that others need a lifetime to cultivate with a sufficient number of Servant Envoys."

"Then, how exactly should I cultivate these?" Chen Lingyun pondered and asked.

"I don’t know," Yan Yu answered.

"You don’t know?"

"But I know someone who does," Yan Yu said indifferently, "Over at Mount Wutai."

"Mount Wutai?" Chen Lingyun pondered, "Are they lay cultivators?"

"We’ll go there after you reach the Marrow Cleansing Stage," said Yan Yu, "Marrow Cleansing improves the constitution and makes it easier to cultivate these divine techniques."

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"Hmm..." Chen Lingyun mused.

Among the team, her cultivation progressed the slowest. Even after obtaining the high-grade Nine Heavens Yin Demon Prison Banner, besides refining ghosts, she hadn’t discovered any other uses thus far.

Now knowing that she had to wait until the Marrow Cleansing Stage to cultivate Heavenly Vision and Hearing, Chen Lingyun, although fairly resolute, felt somewhat downhearted for the moment.

Yan Yu saw her expression and was about to say something like "Haha, don’t rush" to comfort her when his phone suddenly rang.

It was a call from Yun Jin.

"Yan Yu," said the voice on the other end, "The cold front has already reached the Tianshan Mountains, and we can’t collect the early thawing snowmelt here for the time being. Can I come back now?"

"Then come back, and we’ll talk about the rest after it starts snowing in other places," replied Yan Yu, "When will you approximately arrive?"

"Around four or five in the afternoon."

"Okay," Yan Yu hung up and told the girls, "Keep practicing. Yun Jin will be back tonight, and we’ll go out to eat. Ling Yun, help book a private room."

"Yay!" The girls cheered, some happy about Yun Jin’s return, others excited about dining out. Regardless of the reason, at least at this moment, the smiles on their faces were genuine, stemming from deep within their hearts.

That evening, Yun Jin indeed arrived by Flying Sword, landing within the school grounds.

She had been in the Western Regions for quite a long time, yet she had collected only about one-fifth of the early thawing snowmelt. There was still misty rain and morning dew to collect, and that was just part of the Water Essence... This highlighted how tedious collecting the Essence of the Five Elements was, a process that absolutely could not be rushed.

With the Zhenhai Team fully assembled again, Jinling’s Culinary God Zhao Yuanzhen personally led the way, and the team strode majestically to the restaurant.

By now, everyone was somewhat famous. Dining in an open area would definitely draw a crowd, so Chen Lingyun had gotten ahead of things by arranging a private room with the restaurant.

Everyone took their seats in the room; Yun Jin had just sat down to Yan Yu’s left when she saw Lin Ning quickly secure the spot on his right.

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she thought to herself that Ningning usually preferred to sit next to Chen Lingyun, so why had she squeezed between the captain and Xie Ruoxi?

Chen Lingyun’s seat was taken by Lin Ning, but she didn’t seem upset, and with a cheerful smile, she pulled up a chair between Yun Jin and Zhao Yuanzhen and nonchalantly said:

"Yun Jin, your skin seems a bit off."

"Ah?" Yun Jin was startled and quickly pulled out her phone to check her skin closely using the camera, "It does look a bit... the air in the Western Regions is too dry, I’ll need to hydrate properly when I get home."

"Speaking of hydration and moisturizing, I have a brand of face mask that I can recommend to you, it’s really good," Chen Lingyun said with a beaming smile.

"Send me the link," said Yun Jin right away. She had sent half of her prize money home and still had tens of millions left, so she could afford even the most expensive skincare products.

Secretary Su, who was young and beautiful, never used to think about skin care and maintenance, but now, seeing Lin Ning sitting next to Yan Yu and hearing Chen Lingyun comment about her "deteriorating skin," she instantly felt an inexplicable sense of urgency.

Chen Lingyun pulled out her phone, found the link in her shopping cart, and just after sending it to Yun Jin, she saw a new message pop up.

[Ningning]: Send me one too.

Chen Lingyun looked up and saw Lin Ning intently picking her dishes as if nothing had happened.

"Sure," she replied with her head down and typed the message, hiding her pleased smile.