Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Yan Yu found the dialogue spoken by the Zhenhai Team members on the television utterly ridiculous.

Diligent Lord Master Xie Ruoxi? Others might not know, but isn't it common knowledge within the Zhendong Army what kind of person she is?

Initially, this good-for-nothing was so terrible that she even alarmed Li Weiguo, and in the end, they had no choice but to resort to the "call the parents strategy," summoning her brother, Xie Rushan, all the way from Jingbei to shame her harshly, finally putting an end to her pretty but useless act—though that just meant she wouldn't slack off openly anymore; she still continued to slack off behind the scenes.

As for when she started training like a normal person, it seemed to be after some night when she, for some inexplicable reason, came to my room, tears streaming down her face, saying she wanted to repay the kindness I had shown her...

I nearly died laughing, you should never try to figure out the thought process of a girl who's into 2D characters, or you'll end up weird yourself.

While watching the TV program and glancing at his phone, Yan Yu realized that many Cultivator classmates had sent messages, congratulating him on Xie Ruoxi's successful advancement to the Hua Mansion Stage.

[Sunshine Pearl River]: Old Yan, I heard that Xie Ruoxi from your team has advanced to the Hua Mansion Stage? How come you're getting outpaced by your little sister in terms of cultivation speed?

[Win Over with Virtue]: How's your sister doing?

[Sunshine Pearl River]: Why do you always bring up my sister whenever I tease you?

[Win Over with Virtue]: I miss her.

[Sunshine Pearl River]: Cut it out, I've run into something weird over here.

[Win Over with Virtue]: Spill it.

[Sunshine Pearl River]: In a village on this side of Lingyou, all the villagers have mysteriously disappeared.

[Win Over with Virtue]: The work of a rogue Cultivator?

[Sunshine Pearl River]: If only it were that simple. The problem is we haven't found that rogue Cultivator.

[Win Over with Virtue]: They must have fled.

[Sunshine Pearl River]: Who knows? The provincial governor is taking it very seriously and asked us for assistance, but the problem is we don't have any Necromancers in our team.

[Win Over with Virtue]: Have the Annan Army send over a Necromancer to help out.

[Sunshine Pearl River]: Why is it so hard to ask you to bring your team over to help?

[Win Over with Virtue]: Get your sister to come talk to me about it.

After a while, Li Minghu also sent a message.

[Yuegua Donghu]: Congratulations.

[Win Over with Virtue]: Thanks.

[Yuegua Donghu]: Things are a bit complicated over here. The criminal investigation team said they haven't found any signs of fighting or slaughter. For ten-plus households with around twenty people, if something really happened, you'd expect someone would have called the cops, but there was nothing. Later, tech even checked the cell tower logs and found that their signals all disappeared at the same time, that is, around 12:03 a.m. yesterday.

[Win Over with Virtue]: Oh, now that's kind of interesting.

[Yuegua Donghu]: Yan Yu, I feel like you know a lot more about this. What do you think happened?

[Win Over with Virtue]: It was the middle of the night; there wouldn't have been any village-wide activities, so most people should have been asleep at home. No bodies, and no signs of a struggle means they were probably teleported away from their own homes. Check for any strange ritual traces near the village.

[Yuegua Donghu]: Okay, I'll contact you again if we find anything.

With the conversation over, Yan Yu fell into deep thought.

During the mid-period of the Spiritual Energy Resurgence, entire villages disappearing like this wasn't uncommon. For example, in his previous life, there were cases where three or four nearby villages ended up completely empty, and later investigations revealed that a bird-like demon was loitering nearby. Every night, it would approach human settlements, call out a few times, and all the sleeping villagers would unconsciously get up and walk over to the Bird Demon, allowing it to devour them.

There were just too many similar bizarre possibilities, and without visiting the site personally, Yan Yu couldn't make a judgment. If Li Minghu's side managed to resolve it, well and good, but if they couldn't... it was quite possible that the Annan Army would still have to turn to the Zhendong Army for help, and have the Zhenhai Team investigate.

After all, as detestable as Chen Lingyun might be, her prowess as a Necromancer was still top-notch, making her perfect for investigating such scenes.

By 4:30 in the afternoon, Yan Yu heard women's voices laughing outside, followed by the sound of a key being inserted into a lock.

"I'm back." Lin Ning was the first to change into slippers, entering the living room and looking towards Yan Yu on the sofa, "Are you hungry? I'll go cook."

Yan Yu thought she would ask about Anna and Ye Jun's matter, but since Sister Lin was only concerned with cooking, that was of course the best outcome, so he nodded and said:

"I've missed Ningning's cooking."

"Just buttering me up." Lin Ning happily went to the kitchen. Following her in, Su Yunjin curiously asked Yan Yu:

"Is the food not good in the Northern Border?"

"It's terrible," Yan Yu said, "Transcendents don't worry about getting fat, and then the witches are mostly Rakshasa, they like eating barbecued fatty meat the most, too greasy."

"But Anna is from Lu Country, her taste shouldn't be that heavy, right?" Su Yunjin said with a smile.

A subtle aura of heaviness descended, yet Yan Yu's expression remained unchanged, and he laughed:

"We only had one meal together. At that time, there was a bit of a time crunch. Emperor Peter could arrive at any moment, so we spent the entire night studying intelligence materials, fought Emperor Peter the next day, and then came back after that."

After musing for a moment, Su Yunjin subtly reassured herself and laughed:

"I'll go clean up your room."

She slowly went upstairs. The third person to come in was Zhao Yuanzhen, who directly asked Yan Yu:

"Did you bring back any local specialties?"

"What local specialties do you want?" Yan Yu asked with a sidelong glance.

"Red sausages, Rakshasa barbecued meat, dark chocolate..." Zhao Yuanzhen counted on her fingers, and was tapped on the head by Yan Yu:

"Are you listing dishes here? I was there to fight, didn't have time to bring back any local specialties, if you want to eat, you can buy them online yourself."

"Humph." Zhao Yuanzhen stomped off to her room to remove her makeup.

Xie Ruoxi came in afterward, seeing Yan Yu, she immediately showed a cute smile, trying to say something, only to hear Yan Yu ask with ill intent:

"I heard you have to train for 19 hours every day?"

Xie Ruoxi was half-opening her mouth, her expression quickly turned ashen, and after a long while, she stuttered:

"It's not me! It's them, it was their script for me! I just, just read it as is!"

"I had no idea you were so diligent." Yan Yu pretended to misunderstand and laughed, "Don't worry, from now on I will also supervise you, to make sure you have endless motivation to cultivate."

"Ahhhhh!" Xie Ruoxi wailed as she rushed upstairs, only to hear Chen Lingyun ask:

"Is it that funny?"

"Of course," Yan Yu said, "What about you? How was the interview at the TV station?"

"Boring," Chen Lingyun smiled, "The script was pre-arranged, just like acting. How was it in the Northern Border? Did you sleep with any witches? How many?"

"0," Yan Yu said seriously, "Why would you ask such a question? How could such a clean-living man like me get involved with witches? Are they even worthy?"

"Hmm-hmm." Chen Lingyun's smile didn't falter, "But I heard that when you came back, you spent half a day at Lord Master's place and even pretended to be a couple with Ye Jun, hugging and cuddling."

"How do you know?" Yan Yu quickly looked around, seeing that the closest Ningning was also in the kitchen cooking, then he transmitted his voice to Chen Lingyun:

"How do you know that?"

Liu Longtao and Ye Jun would definitely not talk, and if Cai Qianlong had said it, probably everyone would know by now, which means... Song Jia! This young miss knows Chen Lingyun!

"I have my ways," Chen Lingyun said with a gleaming smile, "But you seem very nervous, so..."

"My dear, you wouldn't want the girls in the team to know about your close interactions with Ye Jun, would you?"