Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Chapter 313: Chapter 10: Slaying the Four Ghosts, Breaking the Formation with Ease
 

Although Chen Lingyun’s face was visibly flushed with warmth, Yan Yu did not get distracted because of that, still calmly observing the entire scene.

The four Yin Ghosts chosen by the opponent each held a different magic artifact. The white impermanent’s pipa sword melody was for long-range attacks, the black impermanent’s ghost-painted iron umbrella was for close-range defense, the horse-faced giant sword was for close-range attacks, and the ox-head’s pagoda could emit large swaths of spiritual light, which seemed more like a type of magic artifact similar to the Xuan Guang Ruler, capable of both defense and control.

This combination perfectly confirmed Yan Yu’s thinking: he believed that an Envoy Cultivator, especially one who played with ghosts, didn’t need to excel in any particular aspect, but had to be sufficiently versatile.

To specialize in one thing and to reach the apex was the path Sword Immortals needed to take. A variety of methods, making one impossible to guard against, was the greatest advantage of a Necromancer.

Judging by the array of Yin Ghosts led by this palace-dressed beauty, it undoubtedly took Yan Yu’s guiding principles to the utmost.

The only pity was that the strength of these Yin Ghosts seemed to be limited by the current environment’s level cap as well, with only Marrow Cleansing Stage capabilities.

Logically speaking, with so many ghosts and magic artifacts at Chen Lingyun’s disposal, the earliest time point should have been around the stage of forming the core… It’s a shame that even with the strength of the Hua Fu Stage fully realized, it wouldn’t be so easy to be killed. It would have allowed us to see much more.

“Kill slower,” Yan Yu sent a message to Chen Lingyun, “gather more intelligence.”

“Okay,” Chen Lingyun replied, yet her attacks continued to be full-force, seemingly determined to defy him in secret.

But she herself wasn’t great in output anyway, so whether she gave her all in direct combat or assisted in finishing off, the efficiency was pretty much the same… With Yan Yu slowing down the offensive, the overall speed of the strategy would slow down, and she couldn’t do anything about it.

This ox-headed being was holding up a delicate pagoda, emitting large pieces of spiritual light, fluctuating and vivid, like a dream.

When Zhao Yuanzhen attacked from the left with her Yin Wind Sword, the spiritual light drifted to the left, preventing the Flying Sword from progressing upon contact.

She recalled her Flying Sword and then attacked from the right, and the spiritual light drifted to the right again, once more holding off the Flying Sword, not allowing it any advance.

Zhao Yuanzhen simply made her Yin Wind Sword wander everywhere, attracting the pagoda’s spiritual light to drift all over the place. Suddenly, she launched the White Bone Heart-locking Hairpin and the ox-head simply raised the pagoda indifferently in front of it, with a click, the hairpin nailed into the pagoda and got stuck in the spiritual light, unable to be pulled out.

The Demonic Sect Enchantress was so furious she almost wished to release her puppet right away. Luckily, Chen Lingyun and Yan Yu jumped into battle right then, helping her keep her anger in check.

“This pagoda magic artifact has very good control effects,” Yan Yu said through message to Chen Lingyun, “Don’t you have a good memory? Take note of its characteristics; when we get out, look in the Fourth Army’s inventory to see if there’s a similar magic artifact.”

“Okay,” Chen Lingyun replied dully.

“The black impermanent and white impermanent, they look like those two from Fan Wentang,” Yan Yu continued, “Cajole your dad, use connections or swaps or something to get them together.”

“Okay,” Chen Lingyun responded again, without another word.

From afar, the palace-dressed beauty once again started to speak, her voice trailing softly, as if hanging from the clouds, yet seeming to whisper in the ear:

“Yan Yu, you are a special existence to me.”

“Pfft!” Yan Yu was just about to form a sword technique, letting the Huang Tingjian attack the ox-headed being from behind, but he stumbled upon hearing this and almost choked.

“Why are you spitting on me!” Zhao Yuanzhen burst out furiously, vigorously wiping the saliva off her face.

“Sorry, I couldn’t hold it in,” Yan Yu apologized to the Demonic Sect Enchantress, a rare occurrence, “It’s all Lingyun’s fault.”

“Blame me, will you?” Chen Lingyun started to sneer, continuing to drive the Divine Evil Prayer Beads against the pagoda.

When Suo Wen possessed these prayer beads, they contained thousands of Yin Ghosts, but since their rank was too low, they didn’t have much combat ability, so Chen Lingyun had released them to the research team for containment and study. Now, it was just the prayer beads magic artifact itself clashing with the pagoda.

If it were a Flying Sword on the other side, wrapping the beads around it would lock it down, preventing it from moving. However, the pagoda could remotely release spiritual light, keeping the prayer beads at bay, thus nullifying their effect.

The prayer beads attacked the ox-headed monster from the front, the Huang Tingjian sneaked to his backside, the Yin Wind Sword rushed from his right, and on his left was Chen Lingyun shaking the Prison Banner, releasing the mother and child vengeful ghosts who flew invisibly and silently towards the ox-head… In the end, the ox-head struck the delicate pagoda forcefully, its spiritual light whirled around, and incredibly blocked all attacks within 360 degrees.

Once again, the voice of the palace-dressed beauty spoke:

“You always deliberately provoke me, bully me, wanting to see me make a fool of myself, but I know you don’t really despise me. The barrier between us is not you, but me…”

Chen Lingyun didn’t say a word, suddenly turned her Purple Extreme Sword to kill the horse face.

“Follow me,” Yan Yu sent a message to Zhao Yuanzhen, likewise directing his sword light toward the black impermanent.

When the three of them suddenly divided their forces, the ox-headed being, losing its targets, looked around and then decided to move towards the horse face to assist, with the pagoda’s spiritual light rolling towards Lin Ning.

Lin Ning had been trading blows back and forth with Horseface, but the opponent’s huge sword was swung so densely that not a gust of wind could pass through, and with immense strength, no matter from which angle she attacked, he would counter with a ferocious slash, preventing her Green Bamboo Sword from getting through at all.

The radiant light on this side rolled towards Lin Ning, forcing her to dodge with her footwork, while the pressure from the Sword Control Technique suddenly decreased, allowing Horseface to break free and lift his giant sword to strike at Lin Ning.

The situation became two against one, and Lin Ning immediately fell into a disadvantage. However, she refused to call for help, quickly switching from offense to defense. She used the Cloud Dividing Eight Trigrams Step to circle around Ox-Head and Horseface, restraining them, yet her mind was a mix of different feelings, thinking about the various phrases spoken by the woman in palace attire earlier.

So… Ling Yun also…

No, no, no, the Huofeng Team said that whatever these clones say is fake, all lies to deceive us! The purpose is to affect our performance on the battlefield!

She tried hard to discard all distracting thoughts and not to listen to the faint words of the woman in palace attire, focusing all her attention on her footwork.

Perhaps subconsciously resisting those words, Lin Ning felt her concentration was unprecedentedly focused, as if she had entered a state where she was oblivious to everything else. Her proficiency with the Cloud Dividing Eight Trigrams Step was rapidly improving.

Very good.

I can do this!

While she was handling two opponents alone, Chen Lingyun saw that Lin Ning was more than capable and didn’t require assistance. She turned back once more to attack Black Impermanence.

“…I don’t dislike you,” the woman in palace attire said wistfully. “But I have already told you what I crave… is a completely pure affection. I don’t know how you see me, am I just Chen Lingyun to you? Is there a ‘shadow’ of another Chen Lingyun mixed in?”

“Pfft~ I’m dying of laughter,” Yan Yu was bombarding Black Impermanence’s iron umbrella with Flying Sword slashes. Hearing this, he couldn’t help but burst out laughing again and explained to Chen Lingyun through telepathy, “I’m not laughing at you, it’s about that fake; she really knows how to spin a tale.”

“You don’t have to cover up by laughing it off,” Chen Lingyun replied coldly through telepathy. “If you want to laugh, then laugh.”

“Let’s focus on the Mysterious Realm, focus on the Mysterious Realm,” Yan Yu chuckled awkwardly.

Xie Ruoxi launched another Jade Pivot Thunder, and Black Impermanence quickly turned the umbrella to block, but unexpectedly Yan Yu suddenly executed Sword-Human Unity, causing the sword light to surge and smash into the side of the iron umbrella, knocking it aside at an angle.

Just at that tilt, the Jade Pivot Thunder brushed past the edge and shot into Black Impermanence’s body. Its property of vanquishing evil and annihilating demons came into play, instantly blowing his body to smithereens.

The four of them didn’t stop for a moment and quickly turned to help Lin Ning, who was being attacked from both sides. Just then, Xie Ruoxi suddenly transmitted a message to Yan Yu:

“Captain, do you like Ling Yun?”

“Why ask this now?” Yan Yu initially didn’t want to reply. But on second thought, if he didn’t answer now and she harbored a grudge, it might affect their combat performance later, so he decided to give a brief response.

“Just because,” Xie Ruoxi fired another Jade Pivot Thunder at Horseface, which was intercepted by the radiant light of Ox-Head’s treasure pagoda, only to see the thunderbolt tear through the radiant light like a blade through fabric, piercing it straight through, “Yun Jin also likes you, doesn’t she…?”

Before she finished speaking, Yan Yu called out:

“Well done! Ruoxi, keep launching the thunder, don’t stop!”

The treasure pagoda’s radiant light seemed ethereal and elusive, posing difficulties for everyone. Surprisingly, it was of a demonic nature, countered by Xie Immortal Venerate’s Jade Pivot Thunder!

Feeling unusually upbeat after receiving praise from Yan Yu, Xie Ruoxi, spurred on subconsciously, stopped thinking about the messy problem of how Ling Yun, Yun Jin, and she herself—all liking the captain—would resolve things. Instead, she excitedly shouted:

“It’s my turn, yeah! Jade Pivot Thunder! Jade Pivot Thunder! Jade Pivot Thunder!”@@novelbin@@

Summoning her True Yuan with all her might, she cast thunder with both hands, left at Ox-Head, right at Horseface, no finesse, just sheer power.

Ox-Head tried to stave off the thunderbolts with the treasure pagoda’s radiant light, but Horseface was driven back step by step; with each block of the Jade Pivot Thunder, the terrifying force pushed it back several paces. By the time the third hit landed, it could no longer hold onto the giant sword, which flew out of its grip.

Lin Ning seized the opportunity to execute a Flying Sword slash, piercing through Horseface’s robust chest, then sheathed her sword and turned around, just in time to see Yan Yu’s Huang Tingjian’s light also surging, bursting through the hole torn in the treasure pagoda’s radiant light by the Jade Pivot Thunder, to finally cut down Ox-Head as well.

The treasure pagoda dissipated into nothingness, and the White Bone Heart-locking Hairpin stuck within it became disentangled. The surrounding formation silently collapsed, and the woman in palace attire standing atop the central imperial scepter got to her feet, smiling and saying:

“So, my wish for you to establish a harem was because I wanted to know…”

“Go open a harem on your mother’s grave!” Zhao Yuanzhen roared, launching the White Bone Heart-locking Hairpin ahead of everyone else, piercing the woman in palace attire’s head in an instant!

The imperial scepter crashed to the ground, the woman dissolving into a mirage, and lastly, the sound of the mirror shattering echoed clearly throughout the vast hall.