Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

The number of people rushing up to the deck from below was not small, already close to a hundred, most of them being Southeast Asian practitioners. Each one had tattooed faces, ear and nose piercings, and various Buddhist amulets and magic artifacts clinking at their waists.

A small part of them were Miti's superheroes, mostly with high noses and deep-set eyes of Western faces, led by two old acquaintances of Yan Yu—Phoenix and Thunderbird. They also stood tightly grouped together, clearly on guard against the surrounding Southeast Asian practitioners.

After everyone boarded the deck, most of their attention focused on the Flood Dragon, with only a few glancing around, searching for any traces of the Rikoku Cultivators.

None found.

But they didn't have time to deploy search spells because an eerie and loud chewing noise once again came from within the corpse of the Flood Dragon.

The crowd immediately became alert.

"Wait a moment," Phoenix said in a low voice, signaling to Thunderbird to hold off on taking action.

This Rikoku dragon was too enormous and, although motionless, who knew whether it was dead or alive?

More importantly, these Asian Transcendents had no organization among themselves; they were basically fighting independently, and surely someone would not be able to hold back from going forward to investigate.

Just let them test the waters!

Sure enough, it wasn't long before a Siam Curse Technique practitioner pushed through the crowd, quickly casting spells at the Flood Dragon.

Ghost Downfall!

The Curse Technique transformed into a black light that instantly entered the corpse of the Flood Dragon, vanishing without a trace.

"Gibberish," he turned back and spoke to his companion, "Blah blah blah."

Although the meaning was unclear, the Transcendents from other nations could guess roughly:

Indeed, the Flood Dragon must be dead, otherwise it wouldn't be unresponsive after being hit by the spells.

Thus, the Southeast Asian practitioners no longer hesitated, swiftly closing in on the corpse of the Flood Dragon en masse.

"So, what now?" Thunderbird, with arms crossed, asked impatiently within the lineup of superheroes.

When facing a giant monster, being cautious about not knowing whether the enemy was dead or alive was understandable; but now that the allies had tested it and the monster was indeed dead, continuing to be timid was indefensible.

Don't forget we're live right now! Using cowardly tactics is going to cost us followers!

If it were Thornbird here, with his cautious approach to survival, he might continue to observe even at the risk of losing followers. But Phoenix did care about his commercial value and nodded in response:

"Go!"

With the two leaders taking action, the other superheroes naturally hesitated no longer and hurriedly rushed forward.

With over a hundred Transcendents surrounding the body of the Flood Dragon, some began to search for the source of the strange chewing noise while others tried to cut pieces from the corpse, such as prying off dragon scales, snapping dragon horns, or climbing atop the dragon's head to flex their muscles in front of their companion's cameras.

Meanwhile, in the Lu Country broadcast room streaming the superhero league, angry comments gradually took over the entire screen.

It wasn't that everyone was very fond of the Flood Dragon; even if Lu Country cultivators were the ones taking photos with the Flood Dragon, the public might not have said anything. But seeing a group of foreigners standing on the corpse of a Lu Country dragon and showing off was indeed quite displeasing.

Where are the Lu Country cultivators?

Come on, cultivators of our Lu Country, hurry up and erase them all!

Near the stern of the ship, the invisible Li Zhaojiang furrowed his brows and transmitted his voice to ask Yan Yu:

"Are we just going to stand by and watch?"

He wasn't upset about the Lu Country dragon being desecrated, it was simply that he didn't want the dragon material to fall into the opponents' hands.

"Don't rush," Yan Yu said indifferently, "wait and see."

According to the records on the Jade Slip, human Cultivators who had eradicated the Worship Dragon Cult were looking for a method to acquire the Long Race bloodline.

Although the exact method wasn't clearly stated, when Yan Yu saw the giant devouring the corpse of the Flood Dragon, he had more or less guessed the answer—it was probably some flesh and blood secret method, where consuming the shape supplements the shape, you are what you eat!

Indeed, after a while, the chewing noise finally stopped.

The Transcendents surrounding the Flood Dragon corpse sensed something was wrong, but before they could react, the huge corpse of the Flood Dragon suddenly began to move.

It started by violently coiling around itself, with claws tearing through the chests and bellies of seven or eight Transcendents who were too slow to dodge, splattering blood, flesh, and broken limbs all over the place.

Following that, the Flood Dragon lifted its head, its cold, merciless golden eyes opening as it surveyed the many Transcendents on the deck.

Hidden at the stern, the invisible Cultivators saw it all too clearly. The giant with the dragon head that had previously been gnawing on corpses, its upper body was now embedded in the wound on the Flood Dragon's abdomen, only its lower half and two legs dangled in mid-air, shaking and gradually burrowing deeper.

"Ah…" The Flood Dragon parted its long-snouted jaws, emitting a long, hoarse sigh, its tone exactly the same as the dragon-headed giant's from before, "I understand now… I have not taken the wrong path, but simply walked too far…"

"Thank you for your invasion… and disturbance… Awakening me from a millennium of bewilderment…"

"As recompense, I shall…"

"…eat you all!!!"

The Flood Dragon let out a thunderous roar, and as soon as it finished speaking, it twisted its body and charged forward!

The Transcendents quickly scattered, but three or four who were half a beat too slow were caught in the onrushing Flood Dragon's jaws and were ruthlessly crushed to pieces!

The Flood Dragon circled back again, tilting its head to swallow the flesh in its mouth. Only then did the remaining people snap out of their shock. Some cast Curse Techniques, some directed apparitions, while others launched various magical and weapon attacks, all targeting the massive body of the dragon.

Dragon scales flew and blood splattered; the wounds seemed to be only skin-deep, but the Flood Dragon still roared in pain, suddenly opening its mouth to expel a beam of white light.

That was a dart-like white light, striking one of the slower Transcendents, who instantly turned into an ice sculpture before shattering into pieces, falling dead on the spot.

The Rikoku Cultivators remained invisible and shrunk at the stern. Their rigorous training proved greatly beneficial as not a soul panicked or cried out, even when the aftershocks of the battlefield's attacks struck just in front of them, a mere shift away from being fatal.

"If only Ye Jun were here," Li Zhaojiang transmitted his wistful sentiment.

Ye Jun, the deputy captain of the Dragon Soar Team, with a Xuan Guang Ruler in hand, could provide a protective shield with its light, rendering them undaunted by the battlefield's "stray bullets," so they could comfortably attack from within the protection of the light.

Unfortunately, the Assistant Officers of the Zhenhai Team and the Qingan Team, Zhao Yuanzhen with a White Bone Heart-locking Hairpin and Wang Haoran wielding a historical Jade Slip, were not focused on defensive coverage.

"Stop the nonsense," Li Minghu chided his younger brother in habit, before discussing with Yan Yu and Chen Lingyun, "Maintaining the Invisibility Technique consumes a lot, and if the Flood Dragon can eliminate the enemies for us, that would be ideal. But I'm afraid it's not going to be that simple."

She had already approximated in her mind that, given the current killing pace of the Flood Dragon and the rate of True Yuan consumption for maintaining the Invisibility Technique, when everyone had about one-third of their True Yuan left, the Flood Dragon might just be able to wipe out all the enemies on the field.

Of course, the rate of True Yuan consumption is constant, but the speed of killing would change with the battle situation. Usually, the Flood Dragon would start by killing the softer targets, leaving the tough ones for later, making it increasingly difficult to kill, so choosing when to deactivate their invisibility was a tricky decision that required sharp battlefield judgment.

"Exactly," Yan Yu agreed, "so we find an opportunity to retrace our steps and go back downstairs."

All: ???

Then everyone finally caught on, and admiration secretly filled their hearts.
Experience tales with empire

As long as they hid downstairs, they wouldn't need the Invisibility Technique anymore, and could even calmly take Elixir Medicines to recover their True Yuan… Brilliant!

Yan Yu's mind works fast!

Thus, under Yan Yu's lead and the protection of invisibility, they began to stealthily retreat toward the staircase from the rear of the ship.

The hardest part of the retreat was not to be discovered by the enemy, and also not to get hit by the aftershocks of the battle; after all, as corpses, they couldn't use the Invisibility Technique.

When it came to judging the situation, Yan Yu's eyesight was naturally top-notch. At his signal to move, everyone swiftly followed closely behind him, stepping quickly forward; at his signal to stop, everyone immediately halted, and then various attacks whooshed by in front, which would have hit them had they continued moving.

Li Minghu suppressed the urge to cough, her mind racing.

She could guess how Yan Yu managed it: using Divine Sense and vision to lock onto the relative positioning of every Transcendent and the Flood Dragon on the field, thereby predicting their long-distance attacks on each other and whether their trajectory would intersect with their path.

Taking into account the constantly changing battle conditions and everyone's shifting positions, Yan Yu's on-the-fly decision-making ability seemed even more terrifying… Did his brain have some sort of multi-core CPU embedded in it?

While pondering internally, she followed Yan Yu, only to be suddenly yanked by the arm and pulled close to his side.

In the very next second, some Spell exploded two meters from her previous spot, releasing a dark green poisonous fog — the fog perfectly engulfed the spot where Li Minghu had been standing.

"Sorry," Li Minghu quickly said.

"Stay focused," Yan Yu admonished her.

However, the girls of the Zhenhai Team saw it all too clearly: Yan Yu might have chosen a somewhat circuitous path, but he had avoided the main battlefield as much as possible. It was Li Minghu who had been distracted and slightly veered off course, almost walking into the range of the Spell's aftershock by accident.

Wait! She had been following closely behind Yan Yu since the beginning. Could it have been a deliberate mistake?

Wow, how crafty! Pretending to be careless and risking peril to prompt our team leader to play the hero and save the damsel, right?

Li Minghu realized she had been lost in thought, and with her Divine Sense picking up the piercing looks from behind, as if they were daggers in her back, she mistook the stares as everyone's concern for her well-being. She quickly rallied her spirits and squeezed closer to Yan Yu in an effort not to cause him any more trouble.