Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

When Yan Jing was about to come over, Yan Yu once worried whether she could get along well with the team members.

After all, the emotions among girls can be far more complicated than those among boys. What's more, many women might take an instant dislike to each other even upon a single meeting without exchanging a word.

Fortunately, it turned out that her sister's charisma was not only effective at home but also worked its charm on outsiders.

Just after one day, all the girls were already affectionately calling her Jingjing and even treating her like their own little sister.

However, thinking about it, Chen Lingyun and Su Yunjin were only daughters in their families, and Lin Ning seemed to only have a brother and a sister. As for the Demonic Sect Enchantress in this world, she was all alone—indeed, none of them had a younger sister, which explained why they all tapped into their sisterly instincts with Yan Jing. This explanation did seem reasonable.

"Jingjing, do you want to eat this?" Zhao Yuanzhen offered her some snacks.

"Thank you, sister," Yan Jing sweetly replied.

Yan Yu watched with a frown from the side. He was well aware of the cunning nature of the Demonic Sect Enchantress, who would never offer favors without an ulterior motive—her kindness was either a ruse or theft. But he was also clear that his own sister was no pushover, so it was hard to say who would end up on the losing side of this contest of mischief.

"Jingjing, I took the clothes you changed out of last night to the washing machine," Su Yunjin reminded her.

"Okay, thank you Sister Su," Yan Jing replied with a smile.

"Jingjing," Lin Ning asked curiously, "are you and Yan Yu really blood siblings?"

"Yes," Yan Jing answered. "Even though my brother is narcissistic, reclusive, and somewhat morally flexible, he is indeed my blood-related brother."

"It's a shame to be Yan Yu's sister," Chen Lingyun said with a laugh. "Why not come and be my sister?"

"Since I've already called Sister Ling Yun, we are of course sisters now," Yan Jing said with a smile, hugging Chen Lingyun. The two were about the same height, standing together made it difficult to tell who looked more like the older sister.

Yan Yu observed from behind with a cold eye, the more he watched, the more his scalp tingled.

He was all too familiar with his sister's ability to climb up the social ladder. Back when they were young and got into trouble in their previous lives, Yan Yu was always the only one who got punished...

because as soon as Father Yan picked up a stick, Yan Jing would immediately burst into crocodile tears and act pitiful, so convincingly that even Yan Yu, who knew the truth, couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

Having lived two lives, this life's Yan Yu would not be so despicable and loathed, but it was probably because he was constantly imitating and learning from his mature older brother that Yan Jing's EQ had soared.

At a young age, she had already mastered the skill of "talking to people in their own language," and there wasn't anyone, whether relatives or teachers and classmates at school, who didn't like her.

Hmph, the only one immune to her tricks was her brilliantly intelligent older brother. You may be as cunning as an old ghost, Chen Lingyun, but aren't you still bewitched by her?

Yan Yu got up and stretched, and suddenly his phone rang.

"Hello?" Li Weiguo's voice came through on the other end, "Are you at school? Come to my office."

"Sure," Yan Yu promptly accepted.

Ah, so Old Li is finally back.

"If Chen Lingyun is there, bring her with you," Li Weiguo continued.

"Got it," Yan Yu hung up the phone and said to Chen Lingyun:

"Let's go."

"Where are you going, big brother?" Yan Jing asked in surprise.

"Off to work," Yan Yu replied succinctly.

Leaving his sister in the care of the other three girls, Yan Yu and Chen Lingyun rushed to school and entered the principal's office, where they saw Li Weiguo on the phone and Chen Tianming standing with his hands behind his back, staring at the wall.

The wall, which was once cluttered with many things, had now been cleaned up and fitted with large tactical display screens.

The screen showed a dynamic shipping map with many arrow symbols representing ships moving in real-time. Judging by the contour of the coastline, it seemed to be... eh, the South Sea?

Li Weiguo hung up the phone, looked up at Yan Yu, and said:

"You arrived just in time, there's something I need to tell you."

He picked up something resembling a remote control and pressed a few buttons aimed at the display screen. Soon a video window popped up with the progress bar already advanced to the middle. From the sound of it, it seemed to be a military report:

"At 2:07 PM on August 25, our unit detected an unidentified fleet appearing in the direction of the South Sea, at coordinates 118 degrees east longitude and 14 degrees north latitude, heading north-northeast at a speed of 22 knots..."

The video zoomed in quickly to show a fleet of ships cutting through the waves in the distance. The ships had an ancient look, resembling the treasure ships of the Lu Country from antiquity, with wooden hull structures and huge sails, towering and majestic.

Li Weiguo paused the video and asked Yan Yu:

"What do you think?"

What does he mean, what do I think? Are you the Commander in Chief of the Zhendong Army, or am I?

Yan Yu was left speechless as well and asked:

"Have we sent any landing craft over to check it out?"
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Li Weiguo did not reply, but instead said:

"The Miti CVN-144 carrier strike group, originally patrolling near the Strait of Malacca, has arrived at the target area and dispatched military aircraft to conduct a probing bombardment on the fleet."

"Oh," Yan Yu said with a chuckle, "I suppose the fleet must be completely unscathed, otherwise we wouldn't be standing here discussing it."

"That's right," Li Weiguo nodded, "The target is less than 160 kilometers from the Sulu coast, and given that the fleet's hull is of an ancient Lu Country model, Sulu mistook it for an invasion by our secret fleet and sought assistance from Miti that same day.

Miti, under the guise of defending an ally, intervened and launched an unauthorised attack on the target fleet after confirming the situation with us."

Hearing this, Yan Yu was also at a loss for words, but it was undeniably Miti's brash style.

The South Sea is an absolute Lu Country sphere of influence. Miti keeps instigating Sulu to cause trouble, but knows that it's impossible to win here, hence they harbour the mindset of "If I can't have it, neither can you" trying to conduct a destructive bombardment on the mysterious fleet.

"The result was that the bombs detonated at an altitude of 300 meters right above the fleet," continued Li Weiguo as he manipulated the remote, and a 3D modeling diagram popped up on the screen, "We have confirmed that there's an invisible force field surrounding the fleet, blocking all matter and energy that approaches it."

"Even the sea water beneath the fleet is completely isolated from the water outside the force field. Penetrating this force field is very difficult, but we have observed that the speed of the target fleet is decreasing, and it is expected to come to a halt by the afternoon of September 1st."

"The mechanism seems quite simple," Chen Lingyun said with a smile, "If we consider the fleet to be a secret realm, then while the fleet is still sailing, the secret realm does not allow outsiders to enter.

Hence, we can speculate that when the fleet comes to a complete stop, the situation may change—perhaps the invisible force field will disappear, or perhaps an entrance will appear, allowing external powers to board and explore?"

"We can only say that these possibilities are not ruled out," Li Weiguo said solemnly, "Considering that the situation is quite complex, the Privy Council has decided to dispatch you and the Qing'an squad to go there to assist the Annan Navy in taking over. If the secret realm opens, we must seize the opportunity to land first. The code name for this operation is 'Three Isles Treasure Ship'.

Do you have any questions?"

"Yes," Yan Yu asked seriously, "Who are we up against this time?"

"Currently, it's not certain," Li Weiguo slowly said, "Sulu has publicly claimed ownership of the Three Isles Treasure Ship, so they will definitely send Transcendents to battle. But their military strength is so weak, we can disregard them."

"Aside from Sulu, there are three other potential forces."

"First is Miti. Sulu has requested that Miti send Transcendent forces from their homeland to assist; Miti has not yet responded to this. It is currently believed that Miti is highly likely to join this competition, but they may not send their elite forces."

Yan Yu silently recalled for a moment, remembering that in his previous life, Miti had signed the so-called "Long-Arm Statute," empowering the Homeland Strategic Bureau's "superheroes" the right to intervene in any secret realm located in international waters or within a country's borders.

After all, unlike Lu Country, who raises its own, Miti's "superheroes" are all brought in from around the world with money—they wouldn't be heartbroken if these recruits died, as they could just crank up the money printer and buy new ones.

"Second is Southeast Asia. Sulu has already extended invitations to neighboring countries to jointly develop the Three Isles Treasure Ship secret realm," Li Weiguo said with a grave expression, "It's the old ruse of setting a tiger to fight a wolf, but it's effective. Luo Yue and Java have already responded, and we are still persuading the other countries.

However, just to be safe, we will assume they all will join the battle."

Yan Yu had no doubt about that. These guys were like sharks in his past life, rushing to take a bite at the scent of blood—their motives were completely different from Miti's.

Their main issue was that the number of Transcendents within their countries was increasing too rapidly, and the per capita cultivation resources were severely lacking, pushing them to expand outward due to internal pressure. Trying to persuade their ruling classes was futile, as they couldn't control the massive number of grassroots cultivators who were nearly unable to fend for themselves.

"Finally, there's Chongying," Li Weiguo paused for a moment before continuing, "Chongying had originally responded to Sulu's call for support, but due to the recent emergence of a secret realm on Ezo Island, Chongying will naturally shift their focus northward, and we can consider them out of the race for the Three Isles Treasure Ship."

Ezo Archipelago, controlled by Rashas and disputed with Chongying, has always been a thorn in the side for Chongying. With Siberia in turmoil cutting off Rashas in the middle, Chongying's strategic goal will definitely be to seize Ezo—failure to do so would lead to the entire cabinet committing ritual suicide, so its importance is not overstated.

"Understood," Yan Yu began to make his calculations, "This time we're up against Miti and Southeast Asia... Alright. When do we need to depart?"

"Tomorrow afternoon," Li Weiguo asked with a smile, "I've given you a whole day to prepare, is that enough?"

"That's more than enough," Yan Yu nodded calmly.

He initially wanted to say, "There's no need to prepare; I can leave right now." But then he remembered he had a sister at home! It surely wasn't proper to rush to Jinling Prefecture just yesterday, only to leave her alone at home today.

Departing tomorrow was also fine; at least he could spend the day with his sister.

Once Yan Yu and Chen Lingyun left, Li Weiguo's smile faded and his brows furrowed instead.

"What's wrong, Old Li?" Chen Tianming asked with a smile, "I see Yan Yu isn't worried, so why are you getting anxious?"

"This kid, every time I ask him, he's got to show off on the spot," Li Weiguo said with a wry smile, "Now that he's suddenly stopped showing off, I'm actually a bit unaccustomed to it."

"Mmm," Chen Tianming expressed his understanding, "It's about keeping the troops for a thousand days, and using them at the crucial moment."

"No matter how rugged and dangerous their path, in the end, they have to walk it themselves."