Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Chapter 321: Chapter 17 Zhao Yuanzhen: I Understand Everything Now
 

The other three girls had secretly agreed to cooperate. Zhao Yuanzhen, who knew nothing about this, was trailing behind Yan Yu, while trying to interrogate him through a whisper transmission:

“So what exactly is your relationship with them?”

“Comrades-in-arms, of course,” said Yan Yu.

Zhao Yuanzhen didn’t believe him; she just glared at him suspiciously.

Glare.

“Even if you manage to find flowers on my face from staring, we are still just comrades-in-arms,” Yan Yu continued.

“So why do they all seem to like you?” Zhao Yuanzhen persisted.

“How would I know?” Yan Yu retorted, “First off, I don’t even know if the ‘true feelings’ spoken by their replicas are real or fake; secondly, even if what they said is all true, what’s that got to do with me? Should I go around slapping each of them twice on the cheeks, saying ‘You think you’re worthy of liking me’?”

“It’s not like you can’t do that,” said Zhao Yuanzhen angrily, “Such nauseating talk seems to give you no pressure at all. Why not just directly cut off their hopes? In the end, you’re just enjoying the feeling of being secretly loved.”@@novelbin@@

“Get real,” Yan Yu sighed helplessly, “Not to mention whatever misconceptions you have about me. All the evidence so far comes from one-sided accounts by the replicas. Who breaks off relations with teammates over such baseless allegations? I’m not you!”

“Hmph!” Zhao Yuanzhen snorted coldly, “Once I see my replica, I’ll be able to verify the truth.”

“Just don’t lose your composure when you see your replica,” teased Yan Yu.

“Ridiculous, what ‘black history’ could I possibly have?”

In your past life, there was a ton of ‘black history’, all leading up to being trolled until you broke down and tracked people down offline… Yan Yu really wanted to mock this Demonic Sect Enchantress but he just barely held back.

The group passed through the long corridor with the atmosphere slightly tense.

Partly because of the ‘black history’, and partly because the strength of the replicas was indeed getting stronger and stronger.

Having battled only the third replica, it already managed to use area-wide Thunder Method attacks to push everyone to the brink of defeat right there and then; one could hardly bear to consider, dare not even think about, just how monstrously powerful the next two would be.

Yan Yu, however, was not worried at all.

Empress Yuanzhen? He had seen her in his last life.

Sword Immortal of the Eight Min? He had seen them in his last life, too.

Immortal Venerate of Lightning? He had seen them as well in his last life.

Chen Lingyun, who plays with ghosts? He hadn’t seen her in his previous life, but in this life, it was Yan Yu’s own proposed cultivation path. Besides, he knew Chen Lingyun too well, so he could fully imagine it.

They say fear comes from the unknown; if something is anticipated, there’s not much left to fear.

The only wild card was likely to come from his own replica—his past self who relied on an external Spiritual Energy storage device to fight. In this life, he didn’t know how formidable a person he might be now that he had become a Cultivator.

Ha ha, looking forward to it.

The group reached the fourth combat hall. Ready for action, they soon saw Zhao Yuanzhen emerge from the mirror.

No, that wasn’t Zhao Yuanzhen, it was Empress Yuanzhen.

They were identical in appearance and beauty, but the demeanor of the Empress was slightly less innocent and pure compared to Zhao Yuanzhen and a bit more enchanting and captivating.

She wore a deep red dress with wide sleeves, looking like a high-ranking female authority from an ancient painting, such as an empress or a queen. Deep red isn’t easy for most to pull off, being too bright, too garish, but on her it seemed tailor-made, her entire presence like a blazing flame, mercilessly scorching everyone around her without restraint.

The Zhenhai Team adopted the Five Elements Formation as usual, with Yan Yu taking the position as the main striker, directly confronting the Empress Yuanzhen.

Zhao Yuanzhen, observing her replica from the side, muttered to herself just before the fight began:

“What kind of clothes is this woman wearing, what kind of makeup is that? Pretty nice looking, I’ll have to remember that, find a tailor to make it for me later.”

No sooner had that thought crossed her mind than she heard Empress Yuanzhen lift her sleeve, cover her mouth and laugh:

“My Lord, have you come to see me? And brought so many sisters with you, what is it that you intend to do?”

Everyone went silent at that, only Zhao Yuanzhen remained composed.

That’s right, isn’t my relationship with the thief that of martial companions? If I don’t call him my Lord, what should I call him? This imposter, leaving aside other things, got at least this term right without any doubt… Sisters? What sisters?

“But you know,” the Empress continued with her charming smile, “Taking concubines requires the main wife’s consent. I haven’t agreed yet, so how did you put them in the chambers already? That’s not right; it deserves a punishment~”

All present immediately erupted into commotion. Chen Lingyun smiled faintly, Xie Ruoxi opened her mouth halfway, Lin Ning wore a completely disgusted expression, and Zhao Yuanzhen felt her mind buzz at that moment, followed by a surge of rage, and then she shouted:

“What taking concubines? No way! Not allowed!”

“Hehe,” The Empress Yuanzhen cuddled her cheek with her sleeve and her eyes rippled with laughter as she looked at Zhao Yuanzhen, but she kept talking to Yan Yu, “My Lord, do you know? Actually, I don’t mind you being with them as long as you let me be the chief consort…”

“Pfft!” Xie Ruoxi burst out, “What kind of outdated male-lead novel plot twist is this! That’s how people wrote back when I was in grade school, we don’t write like this anymore, come on!”

Zhao Yuanzhen was also overcome with furious urgency and without waiting for Chen Lingyun’s orders, she charged out ahead. Her Yin Wind Sword took the lead in attacking Empress Yuanzhen as she roared:

“Shut up! Shut up!”

Are these the words you are allowed to say? And by saying this, how will my sisters look at me afterward? Will they all think that I allowed a young thief to take concubines and share what I have?

Thinking this way, the more she thought, the angrier she became, until the rage went straight to her head and her blood seemed to boil over, wishing she could immediately rush over and chop that Empress Yuanzhen into ten or eight pieces.

With a loud bang, Empress Yuanzhen remained motionless, a deep purple sword light already thrusting sideways, knocking the Yin Wind Sword flying.

Seeing that the Demonic Sect Enchantress was no match, Yan Yu also executed the Cloud Dividing Eight Trigrams Step. His figure flickered, leaping more than ten meters away, slashing down with his Huang Tingjian overhead.

Empress Yuanzhen executed a sword technique, and the deep purple sword light instantly returned to her side, blocking the slicing strike of the Huang Tingjian. The latter, being a heavy sword, surprisingly, did not gain the upper hand in a direct confrontation, indicating that the true yuan strength of this duplicate was already far superior to everyone present at the scene.

Taking advantage of the deep purple sword light clashing with the Huang Tingjian, Zhao Yuanzhen took the opportunity to throw her White Bone Heart-locking Hairpin. With a clang, the hairpin pierced the body, but Empress Yuanzhen remained unscathed—before her stood another “Zhao Yuanzhen,” who took the blow from the White Bone Heart-locking Hairpin, yet her face showed no sign of abnormality.

Puppet.

If the duplicate is using puppets, then I won’t hold back either!

From Zhao Yuanzhen’s sleeve rolled out a Silver Pellet; her String-Pulling Technique sprang into action, instantly transforming her into an equally slim and attractive enchantress. Blade mechanisms shot out from her wrists, and she rushed forward at high speed.

Puppet Ami!

The two puppets battled each other, as the Huang Tingjian clashed head-on with the deep purple sword light. Lin Ning seized the opportunity to perform a sword technique with her hands. The Green Bamboo Sword, taking advantage of Yan Yu’s cover, moved closer, suddenly flying out from under his armpit, aiming for Empress Yuanzhen!

Empress Yuanzhen let out a light chuckle, her cherry lips parted slightly, spewing out a large expanse of pitch-black fog, instantly enveloping her surroundings.

The Green Bamboo Sword shot towards where she originally stood but struck nothing. Lin Ning scanned with her Divine Sense and before she could find Empress Yuanzhen, she suddenly heard Chen Lingyun urgently cry out:

“Ruoxi, be careful!”

Xie Ruoxi immediately retreated, but her reaction was ultimately half a step too slow. Empress Yuanzhen’s hairpin had already pierced her chest, causing her to cry out in pain as she fell backward.

The five ghosts rushed to her back, transforming into a soft cushion to catch her body, only to see her eyes tightly shut, teeth clenched, having completely fainted.

“Sister Zhao, come back and help, Ningning, go replace her,” Chen Lingyun quickly commanded, her thoughts racing like lightning in her mind.

The purpose of the Five Elements Formation is to ensure the main assaulter always stands at the forefront, obstructing the opponent’s line of sight, thereby covering the other teammates and ensuring that the firepower delivery is not affected.

Empress Yuanzhen belched out a black fog, hiding her figure such that everyone couldn’t clearly see her position, let alone judge who she was facing and at whom she was striking next… In this way, the Five Elements Formation lost its meaning.

That’s why she called Zhao Yuanzhen back, partly to have her remove the hairpin from Xie Ruoxi, and partly to have her cover for herself and Xie Ruoxi, since both of their frontline capabilities were not all that great. They could manage against ordinary Transcendents, but were completely outclassed by Zhao’s clones.

Although Zhao Yuanzhen was furious, she luckily retained her rationality, knowing that Xie Ruoxi’s Thunder Method was also a powerful output tool and indispensable to the team. She swiftly returned to their side and used the technique for activating the White Bone Heart-locking Hairpin, trying to extract the hairpin from within Xie Ruoxi.

If it were anyone else, even if they knew the techniques for manipulating the magical artifact, they wouldn’t be able to move one that had been refined by someone else. But there was no difference between the original and the clone; Xie Ruoxi had already previously forcibly seized control of the clone’s lightning, and Chen Lingyun took note of this, the mechanism immediately becoming clear to her.

Indeed, as she expected, the hairpin began to slowly extract itself with only a slight tug from Zhao Yuanzhen, and Xie Ruoxi’s breathing became more rapid.

While she focused on the rescue, Ami’s performance immediately became erratic, but Chen Lingyun had made preparations. Lin Ning’s Green Bamboo Sword light swiftly took over, helping to hold off Empress Yuanzhen’s puppet enemy, so the battle didn’t completely spiral out of control.

“Ling Yun is really impressive, managing to salvage such a disadvantageous situation,” Empress Yuanzhen’s laughter rang out from within the mist. “If I were the queen, I’d appoint you the honored imperial concubine of the Eastern Palace, in charge of the many concubines…”

“Shut your nonsense!” Zhao Yuanzhen roared.

This position of honored concubine in charge of the harem—Ningning could do it, Yun Jin could do it, but I absolutely can’t stand the thought of Chen Lingyun taking up the role! Eh? No… Where are these ludicrous thoughts coming from?

He’s mine, and nobody can take him! Where did this thought come from? It must be the clone casting a spell, subtly influencing my mind, causing strange thoughts that I would never have!

In that instant, enlightenment struck Zhao Yuanzhen.

It wasn’t that the clone could read our thoughts, but that while the clone was fabricating baseless rumors, it was also secretly employing the String-Pulling Technique, making us mistakenly believe that these were our own unspeakable true desires, thus causing our reason to waver, our state to deteriorate, or even to become utterly unhinged with confusion!

The best evidence was that I never entertained the idea of them laying hands on my man, but then, influenced by the clone’s String-Pulling Technique, the idea of being the chief wife and living a life of luxury while managing my sisters seemed not half bad… Damn it, you deserve to die! How dare you influence my mind; you deserve to be minced and ground to dust by me!

Lost in erratic thoughts, Zhao Yuanzhen’s mind raced wild. Distracted, the White Bone Heart-locking Hairpin slowly started to retreat back in, causing Xie Ruoxi intense pain as she coughed up blood and, regaining consciousness, quickly grabbed Zhao Yuanzhen’s hand and pleaded:

“Sister, spare my life…”

Seeing her in such a pitiful state, Zhao Yuanzhen was reminded of the happy times they had shared as close friends, eating and drinking together, and her heart softened.

But then she thought, I actually misunderstood my sister earlier, manipulated by her clone into discord, and her anger flared again. Her True Yuan surged as she exerted all her strength, pulling out the White Bone Heart-locking Hairpin with one determined effort, and then turned to say:

“Ling Yun, have Ningning come back to cover for you. My clone has too many tricks up her sleeve, beyond your current ability to handle.”

“And what about you?” Chen Lingyun asked knowingly.

“Of course, I’m going to finish her off myself,” Zhao Yuanzhen said with a ghostly smile, revealing her eerie white teeth.