Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

After changing into dry clothes, Li Minghu felt much lighter, and her coughing significantly reduced.

She looked up, the staircase winding upwards like a serpent, disappearing entirely into the darkness.

Yan Yu walked ahead of her, his demeanor calm as he ascended step by step, his gait steady and unwavering, giving Li Minghu a sense of security she hadn't felt in a long time.

Yes, it had indeed been a long time.

As the vice-captain of the Qing'an battle team, and with her brother only concerned with fighting and not planning, she often had to manage the whole team by herself, not daring to let her guard down for a moment—she was responsible for everyone's lives.

At some point, she had forgotten what it felt like to "rely on others."

Li Minghu took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the weakness that was creeping into her heart.

I can't always think about relying on him.

She strived to concentrate, her Divine Sense swiftly scanning the area ahead, then suddenly communicated with Yan Yu through a private transmission:

"The staircase ends up ahead, leading to a platform."

"Mm," Yan Yu had obviously noticed as well.

"Be careful of an ambush," Li Minghu continued. Enjoy new stories from empire

"Got it," Yan Yu responded, and then suddenly asked, "How do you say 'got it' in Lingnan dialect?"

"Ming la," Li Minghu answered. "Why do you suddenly ask this?"

"Because you're a little too tense," Yan Yu chuckled. "Relax a bit, nothing will happen."

Li Minghu smiled helplessly. Of course, she wanted to relax, but in such a perilous Mysterious Realm, where foreign Transcendents would not hesitate to kill, and attacks could come from the most unexpected places, how could she relax? How could she dare to relax?

Yan Yu did not really expect his words to immediately adjust Li Minghu's state of mind.

He just calmly finished climbing the stairs and entered the upper cabin, only to see three foreign Transcendents standing on the opposite side talking.

The moment their gazes met, Yan Yu recognized the trio as Miti's Three Hawks—the one with black curly hair was the "Phoenix" Phoenix, the straight-haired man with the hooked nose was "Thornbird" Roger, and the only blonde woman was "Thunderbird" Margaret.

Li Minghu stepped out from behind him and quickly summoned the Sky Flash Sword, taking up a battle-ready stance.

"Wow-wow-wow!" Phoenix raised his hands first to indicate no hostility, speaking in the language of Lu Country, albeit with a politically correct accent, "Hey, brother, don't start a fight! We're not planning to battle you guys right now!"

"That's right," Thunderbird joined in, much clearer in pronunciation than Phoenix, "With all these monsters around trying to kill us, shouldn't we humans unite? Or at least avoid killing each other?"

Thornbird did not speak, but he did not voice any opposition either, merely standing silently behind the other two without uttering a word.

Seeing the other side's non-hostile demeanor, Li Minghu narrowed her eyes behind Yan Yu, quickly weighing the pros and cons.

If it were up to her, she would definitely not trust these three "superheroes." However, she also believed that it wouldn't be wise to start a fight here... Of course, the decision was now up to Yan Yu.

Yan Yu's face was expressionless; he only looked at their chests and indeed saw that each of them was wearing a camera.

"How about this," Phoenix suggested in a negotiating tone, "we work together temporarily until we find the core? If that's okay with you, then just listen to what I'm saying."

Yan Yu suddenly burst into laughter. Then, his expression turned cold as he said:

"Cooperate? Do you think you are worthy?"

As soon as the words fell, Huang Tingjian transformed into a streak of light, attacking Phoenix who was standing on the left.

Although Li Minghu had not been warned in advance, her response was also extremely fast. Sky Flash Sword followed closely, striking towards Thunderbird next to Phoenix.

Fight!

The two of them attacked without a word, naturally shocking the live broadcast audience outside.

Indeed, both the local and international spectators, as well as the high-ranking members of Lu Country, had been following the camera and saw these three individuals were the first to reach the upper cabin.

Their stop here was not for rest but was meant to allow Thornbird to set up a magical trap, intending to ambush those who came after.

Phoenix and Thunderbird were both the type who preferred open confrontation with their adversaries. Moreover, with the global live broadcast ongoing, everyone wanted to see superheroes vanquishing villains, so of course, they wouldn't "temporarily cooperate with the opponents."

Those words were merely to buy time so that Thornbird could complete his spell.

Little did they expect Yan Yu to ignore the stalling tactic, directly replying with a haughty "Do you think you are worthy," and choosing to engage in battle, causing the foreign internet live chat to explode once again.

Of course, the three superheroes were too busy to care about the show's impact at the moment.

Phoenix snapped his fingers, and in an instant, his entire body was engulfed in flames, turning into a man of fire and charging towards the Huang Tingjian slashing at him.

Shifting Technique: Self-Combustion.

Thunderbird also let out a shout, leaping high into the air, her hands now gripping a golden lance made of thunder and lightning, hurling it ferociously towards Yan Yu and Li Minghu.

Thunder Lance!

Li Minghu was about to quickly retreat when she suddenly heard Yan Yu's voice in her head:

"Explode."

She instantly became alert. Initially, a single step back would have allowed her to avoid the landing spot of the Thunder Lance, but she hastily retreated three steps instead.

As expected, the moment the Thunder Lance hit the ground, it exploded into countless electric snakes that wildly and viciously danced around the area.

Li Minghu squinted, a thought flashing through her mind: This move is quite similar to Zhou Hongyu's Great Bright Fire Flame Spear, creating an explosion at the point of impact to increase the range of damage. Those unfamiliar with it or slow to react would easily fall prey to it.

The Phoenix, engulfed in flames, charged toward Yan Yu, attempting close-quarters combat while ignoring the approaching Huang Tingjian.

However, Yan Yu didn't confront her head-on but accelerated sideways with the Shifting Technique, as Huang Tingjian turned around to strike at the Phoenix.

Seeing that he wouldn't engage her in combat, the Phoenix twisted her body and rushed toward Li Minghu. Just as Li Minghu was about to control her sword to respond, she heard Yan Yu's voice transmission:

"Ignore her."

Ignore her? Li Minghu immediately understood, he's telling me not to get entangled in close combat with the Phoenix.

Thanks to Yan Yu, nearly all team members now knew the advantages of speeding up with the Shifting Technique and the sudden stop of the Cloud Ascension Technique. Plus, with this being a skill Li Minghu herself proposed in a past life, she was naturally well-practiced in it by now. She similarly accelerated with the Shifting Technique, quickly creating distance from the blazing Phoenix.

Seeing both opponents unwilling to engage, the burning Phoenix grew secretly frantic.

His Self-Combustion Divine Technique could provide powerful self-healing, sustained area damage, and physical enhancements. Though he claimed it was the power of the Sun God Helios, it was actually burning his own magical power. Once his magic power was nearly exhausted, the divine flames would instantly backfire and burn him to death.

Luckily, the divine fire could use his magic power as fuel but also the True Yuan of the enemy. As long as he could successfully burn a Rikoku Cultivator and devour their internal True Yuan, the duration of the Self-Combustion Divine Technique could be extended.

But with both opponents actively avoiding battle, it was like forcing him to burn himself the entire time... How could this be acceptable?

"Come and fight, you Rikoku cowards!" the Phoenix roared in anger, turning again to rush toward Yan Yu.

Yan Yu simply ignored her, continuing to widen the distance, while Huang Tingjian's sword struck down at the Phoenix who had just landed.

The Phoenix hurriedly propped her hands on the ground, causing a ring of electrical waves to burst forth, blasting away the Huang Tingjian sword coming at her.

Resistance Electrical Field!

She had barely heaved a sigh of relief when she saw the Sky Flash Sword attacking from another direction. It timed its assault perfectly as her electrical waves faded, transforming into a blade of light that rapidly closed in.

That was the last straw for the Phoenix. The opponents weren't just any ordinary cultivators; they were top-tier Sword Immortals from Rikoku. How could she fend off their pincer attack?

God damn it, where are my teammates to save me?!

"Fuck!" She had to attach lightning to her feet, hastily fleeing the reach of the Sky Flash Sword's attack, while yelling furiously at the Phoenix, "Fuck Squid Phoenix! What the hell are you doing?!"

The Phoenix was still pursuing Yan Yu, but being cursed by her teammate like that, she finally came to her senses.

What use is there in my doggedly chasing when the opponents clearly won't fall for it?

She quickly canceled the Self-Combustion Divine Technique, stomping her right foot onto the ground, and a giant Flame Spear nearly two meters long erupted from the ground, viciously slithering toward Li Minghu.

Li Minghu leaped up with the Shifting Technique and switched to using the Cloud Ascension Technique to hover in the air, neatly dodging the Flame Spear's strike; the Sky Flash Sword continued its relentless pursuit of the Phoenix.

The Phoenix couldn't retaliate at all. She was trapped in a pincer assault by the Huang Tingjian and Sky Flash Sword. One sword forced her back; another resumed the attack, leaving her with no choice but to focus purely on defense, turning to check on the Wizard's spell progress.

She almost had a heart attack from what she saw.

Because Yan Yu had been distancing himself from the Phoenix while directing Huang Tingjian to attack her, but his steps were quietly drawing closer to the Wizard.

It wasn't until the Phoenix chose to switch her attack to Li Minghu that he abruptly accelerated with the Shifting Technique, immediately going for the kill toward the Wizard who was still secretly preparing his spell.

The Wizard, aware of Yan Yu's approach, had no choice but to prematurely activate the trap he had set, his hands quickly forming a spell seal:

Demonic Trap!

As Yan Yu charged with the Shifting Technique, a ring of blue light suddenly appeared under his feet, then exploded violently upwards into a brilliant azure flame, as if it could burn even the air to ashes.

In the nick of time, Yan Yu had already stopped and side-stepped, narrowly avoiding the burst of azure fury—only the hem of his clothes was grazed by the flame, instantly vanishing.

However, the spot where he stepped next suddenly revealed a second ring of blue light.

As a classic move of a cunning wizard, the invisible Demonic Traps set by the Wizard at the start weren't solitary; they were part of a calculated chain of traps!

As the azure flames burst forth again, Yan Yu's figure didn't disappear within fire. In the instant before the flames surged, he once again stopped abruptly, turned, and accelerated with the Shifting Technique, taking a lightning-fast step forward, just in time to escape the second Demonic Trap's blast radius.

And in doing so, he triggered the third Demonic Trap.

The third... the fourth, the fifth! The sixth!!! Yan Yu, like a phantom, made his way rapidly across the battlefield, each step a precise "teleport" away, each time "just right" to leave the bursting azure flames behind him.

Until even the seventh Demonic Trap had exploded in vain, in the Wizard's disbelieving, ghost-seeing eyes of despair, within the lens of the small camera on his chest and the live broadcasts watched by audiences worldwide, one saw the consecutively teleporting Yan Yu suddenly appear in front of him, expressionlessly asking:

"Like playing hopscotch, do you?"

The Wizard had no chance to answer the question.

Because Yan Yu's Curved Curse Punch had already pierced through his chest, and the camera attached to it was blasted to smithereens.