Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Yan Yu, hugging Li Minghu with a satisfied grin, followed the dragon-headed monster for half a day until they finally reached the fourth cell.

In the water cell floated a blond man who appeared to be one of Miti's superheroes, but Yan Yu didn't recognize his face—he guessed that in his previous life, the man must have been just an unknown figure.

The blond man, upon seeing the dragon-headed monster, was instantly ready for battle. Then, seeing Yan Yu beside him, strolling leisurely with a beauty in tow, he was dumbstruck.

What the hell? What's going on?

The dragon-headed monster didn't speak, but instead turned its head to look at Yan Yu.

Yan Yu glanced at the camera on the chest of the blond man and gave a slight smile:

"Kill him."

Without a moment's hesitation, the dragon-headed monster thrust its iron pick quickly, still aiming for the blond man's throat with deadly precision!

The blond man let out a furious roar as his muscles swelled rapidly, reaching out with both hands to grab the iron pick.

His Berserker ability could stimulate a fighting spirit and killing intent at critical moments, causing his strength to increase several times over.

But even the strength boost of a Berserker couldn't fend off the dragon-headed monster's terrifying iron pick.

The pick brutally tore through his grip, the friction ripping the skin of his palms, and then, under the disbelieving gaze of the blond man, it plunged directly into his neck.

Blood gushed forth like a fountain.

The water cell quickly turned a crimson red with blood, and the dragon-headed monster stared for a while before expressing disappointment:

"Really boring."

"Let's go," Yan Yu said with a smile.

The two of them, along with the beast, left the water cell and continued onwards. Li Minghu transmitted a message again:

"That thing on his chest, the shirt collar—is that a camera?"

"Most likely," Yan Yu responded nonchalantly, "Just don't know if it's for recording or something else."

In fact, although Miti's transcendent powers were nothing special, their world-leading scientific and technological capabilities were undeniable. In cooperation with Europe, they had indeed developed several pieces of cutting-edge spy tech.

For instance, "phase mapping technology" could allow Transcendents within the Mysterious Realm to unidirectionally transmit visual and auditory data from inside to the outside world, thus keeping the outside world updated about the situation within the Mysterious Realm in real-time.

But using such technology for live broadcasting did seem a bit odd. Okay, considering that communication data could only be transmitted from the inside to the outside world and not allow the outside world to interfere with the inside, it seemed the technology had no other use than live broadcasting.

After all, no matter how the situation inside the Mysterious Realm changed, the outside world could only watch anxiously, unable to do anything.

Yan Yu and Li Minghu, while communicating telepathically, didn't take the blond man's camera seriously.

However, the outside world had already exploded into chaos.

The phase mapping technology made its debut because the Superhero Alliance planned to make a splash with a big news story by having all superheroes enter the Mysterious Realm equipped with cameras to broadcast the contention for the treasure of the Three Isles live to the outside world.

And the fact proved that this business gamble was tremendously successful: By four o'clock in the afternoon, the number of domestic TV viewers in Miti Country had surpassed forty million, and this didn't even include online channels and international broadcasts—the webcast had crashed twice due to too many incoming users.

Although the viewership wasn't publicly disclosed, it was estimated that the numbers had already far exceeded TV viewers.

The live broadcast format also took inspiration from traditional sporting events, with TV directors responsible for selecting and switching between cameras, while hosts and technical guests provided commentary.

At this moment, Phoenix and Thunderbird, two superhero foes, had already escaped the water cell, deceived the dragon-headed monster into opening the door, and then brazenly struck it down, while Thornbird chose to follow the guards and bide his time, waiting for the right moment to make a move, as Wizards weren't that effective in direct confrontations.

Just when all three heroes had left the water cell, the broadcast switched to another camera, and the host George Hanson began his explanatory commentary:

"... Okay, let's see how the seventh-ranked superhero, the 'Roarer,' is doing—huh?"

In the frame, Yan Yu, with one arm wrapped around Li Minghu, appeared on screen alongside the dragon-headed monster, entering the Superhero Alliance live broadcast and into the view of the global audience watching the stream.

Then, his gaze turned to the camera, to the tens of thousands of viewers across the world, and he offered a slight smile:

"Kill him."

Upon the command, the dragon-headed monster thrust out its iron pick and the superhero "Roarer" was unable to resist and died. The camera, along with the body, tilted towards the ceiling...

At that moment, even the broadcast director forgot to switch the camera, the host covered his mouth with both hands, and the technical guest stood up in disbelief, the entire commentary booth too shocked to speak.

As for the live chat room, it began to explode with frenzied activity, with one Western phrase standing out amidst the barrage:

OMG (Oh My God) Explore stories at empire

"This is cheating!" the host George finally recovered his senses and shouted, "This is cheating!"

And so, another high-frequency word was added to the frenetic sea of chatroom messages:

Cheater

At the other end of the Earth, inside the principal's office of the Zhendong National Defense Academy, Li Weiguo had already slammed his hand on the table and exclaimed in anger,

"Cheating? Do they really think this is some sort of game?"

"It's just the same old rhetoric," Chen Tianming said with a smile beside him.

Li Weiguo was, of course, no stranger to this kind of Western rhetoric—first label you "evil," and then they can freely criticize you from a moral high ground. The main reason for his outburst was that he considered Yan Yu as his own junior, and his protective instinct as an elder kicked in.

"This kid..." Li Weiguo sat back down sheepishly, his expression one of bafflement as he wondered aloud, "How did he manage it? How could he fool that kind of creature completely?"

Lu Country didn't have cross-Mysterious Realm communication technology, only being able to watch the livestream from the Superheroes' side. Naturally, the viewpoint was primarily from the perspective of the Western Transcendents.

The dragon-head creature spoke in Lu Country's language, which most of the Western superheroes couldn't understand, relying on body gestures to guess its meaning. Only the three from Mitchi Country could speak Lu Country's language, which is why they were among the first to free themselves from captivity.

However, precisely because they could roughly understand, knowing that the guard intended to take them out and kill them, they unanimously chose to attack.

But what about Yan Yu... How on earth did he manage to deceive the dragon-head creature into helping him kill the enemy Transcendents?

At this moment, Li Weiguo wished he could rush into the Mysterious Realm right away, grab a camera, and stick it on Yan Yu, just to see what kind of miraculous maneuver he would perform next.

Apart from the official channels, there were many people in Lu Country illegally streaming—taking the live content from the Superhero Alliance and broadcasting it in real time in their own streams using some of the less policy-sensitive small platforms.

Unlike foreign livestreams flooded with comments like "OMG" and "Cheater," the local audience's messages were a bit longer, such as "hhhhhhhh" or "a bustling flurry of activity," creating an even more pronounced effect.

In the major forums, a few outspoken individuals finally couldn't help but jump out, attempting to argue the possibility that Yan Yu had "betrayed humanity to side with the creatures," only to be faced with a barrage of insults aimed at their families by the collective netizens.

Of course, aside from the mainstream voices mocking "our hero killing the opposing heroes with the help of wild monsters," some clueless viewers asked some rather dissonant questions:

Why was Captain Yan from Zhenhai Team, hugging Vice-Captain Li from Qing'an Team?

The initial impression the public had of these two stayed within the interview footage on the tailfire tiger aircraft carrier with Lu Zhiyu. One was the smiling Lingnan girl Li Minghu, who spoke in clichés to the camera, and the other was Yan Yu, the expression pack hero who said, "Do we even need to prepare to fight Sulu?"

Now that they were publicly hugging each other in a Superhero livestream, one could imagine the torrent of new gossip, rumors, and CP allegations this would unleash amongst the public.

At Yan Yu's home, Father Yan and Mother Yan sat on the sofa, silently watching their son holding a beautiful girl they didn't recognize, smiling faintly at the camera.

The one responsible for casting the online foreign pirate broadcast to the living room TV was his sister Yan Jing, but at that moment, she wished she could travel back in time to tell her parents "I don't know how to do this."

"This..." Mother Yan finally spoke up slowly, asking her daughter, "Is this the Zhao Jiuzhen you mentioned? Or is it Chen Lingyun?"

"Neither of them," Yan Jing said with a resigned chuckle, stiffly adding, "It must be from another team. That… the one who was interviewed on TV before, the Lingnan girl Li Minghu."

Father Yan, without missing a beat, took out his phone and started searching the name "Li Minghu" at a leisurely pace, while Mother Yan was silent for a moment before turning to her husband and saying,

"I remember the bride price is not really a thing in Lingnan, right?"

Meanwhile, in Lingnan Province, where the average bride price is the lowest, Li Minghu and Li Zhaojiang's family also had a large group of people watching the livestream.

The elderly didn't use the internet, so the grandparents and great-grandparents of the two siblings all came to Li family's parents' home, six people crowding around the computer, staring anxiously at the overseas livestream.

Seeing Li Minghu safe and intact, intimately hugged by Yan Yu on the screen and apparently without any sign of embarrassment or coercion, the elders were unanimously silent.

After a long while, Grandfather Li finally showed an impatient look and waved his hand as he said elongatedly,

"Aye, just let Ah Hu choose what she likes~"

Shifting the focus back to the Mysterious Realm, Yan Yu and Li Minghu continued their embrace disguise, following the dragon-head creature—facing a crisis, they had no time to worry about being captured on camera!

The two could now see the exit of the water prison passage ahead, a spiral staircase disappearing into the shadows.

"Minghu, think carefully. If there are more creatures up there, what will we do?" Yan Yu once again communicated secretly, "If you're going to make a move on this creature, now is the last chance."

"What do you think?" Li Minghu was indecisive, tossing the decision back to him.

"All I can say is," Yan Yu replied calmly, "I trust my teammates wouldn't just foolishly wait in the water prison for someone to rescue them."

Li Minghu was silent for a moment before finally making up her mind:

"Alright, let's do it!"