Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Chapter 380: Chapter 76: The Answer is to Fight With All One’s Might
 

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The Onmyoji’s actions clearly intended to drag the other two parties into the fray.

Park Changmin cut off communication between allies and concealed himself with his followers, thus, all the pressure was passed on to the superheroes.

“Sabertooth” Langferro didn’t believe in curses and took four teammates to ambush Yan Yu, but they were all brutally crushed by Mei Yingxue; he himself narrowly escaped death at the cost of his left arm—becoming the first lucky bastard among the tripartite alliance to confront Mei Yingxue and survive.

After stopping the blood from his severed left arm and with his face pale, Langferro spoke to the other superheroes about the situation:

“The white sword light was constantly chasing after Yan, and it never showed any intention to attack us from beginning to end. But it has no capacity for thought and only follows the shortest direct path in pursuit. Yan exploited this by quickly moving behind our members, coercing the white sword light to charge and slash at them.”

“If you can be outflanked by Yan, then even without exploiting that sword light, he could easily kill you,” “White Lion” Hamilton said disdainfully, insinuating that Langferro was exaggerating.

“Idiot,” Langferro snorted, not bothering to argue, but continued to the others, “I paid the price for my reckless probing, and those who don’t believe can go and try for themselves.”

Everyone looked at each other, but no one dared to take up the challenge.

In the inner circle, it was well known that Langferro, as the current top Berserker, had incredible physical strength and should not be defenseless even when someone got the drop on him.

According to his explanation, the reason the team was wiped out so quickly was not due to the Rikoku Cultivator Yan Yu, but rather the white sword light.

Longcheng Flying General Yan Yu could be as highly-praised by Lu Country as they wanted, but after all, his body was still made of flesh; if you attacked, he had to guard or dodge. The two sides would vie for the rhythm of offense and defense and, based on skill, either could win or lose, with chances to turn the tables even if at a disadvantage.

But that white sword light was different; it was an existence that the Transcendents at the present stage could not contend with. Too fast to dodge; its defense too solid, unflinching in the face of an assault, it would keep coming at you through the barrage of gunfire to cut you down… How could anyone fight against that?

The reason Langferro survived in the end, whether he used his teammates as bait and abandoned them, or employed some trick to slip through the crisis, no one inquired too closely. They just exchanged looks for a moment, each recognizing the intention to retreat in the other’s eyes.

“We should retreat for now,” finally, someone made a statement, “If it were fighting against Rikoku Cultivators, I’d be the first to charge in; but facing this kind of deadly, unbeatable NPC, I have no interest in giving up my life for nothing.”

Once he said this, many people immediately agreed.

The Superhero Alliance is not an authoritarian institution like the Yin Yang Bureau or Pear Blossom Courtyard with a nation standing behind it. “Judge” Stevenson was the leader of this mission in name, but he couldn’t dictate orders in the team. Seeing that most people were not keen to fight, he decided:

“Retreat! Everyone find a place to hide on your own; do not clump together. If you get caught by Yan Yu with the white sword light, handle it yourself, and you’re absolutely not allowed to deliberately lead it to other teammates!”

That’s exactly what they were waiting to hear! So the superheroes dispersed, each employing their powers to find a place to hide.

This Mysterious Realm challenge area is a volcanic environment, full of volcanic caves made from lava rock, making it easy to find hiding spots, but a time-consuming task to search them out.

Yan Yu, accompanied by Mei Yingxue, wandered around for a long while without encountering a single foreign Transcendent, and guessed that they must have found themselves unable to cope and had been forced to temporarily avoid the sharp edge.

Sigh, what a pity… too few are headstrong, and I haven’t had my fill of killing!

Now, how should I deal with my persistent pursuer, Teacher Mei?

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Turn back the clock five minutes. In the main control room of the Privy Council, a new, unfamiliar visitor arrives.

Although she was wearing a mask and a white lab coat like an ordinary scientific worker, the leader was extremely polite to her, asking softly:

“What do you think?”

She observed the screen for a long time before saying:

“This is a transformation of the Mysterious Realm; the strength and cultivation realm are designed according to the Golden Core Realm, but the quality of True Yuan is constrained by the limit of the external Spiritual Energy.”@@novelbin@@

“Hmm,” the leader agreed, which the experts had already pointed out.

“To be honest about this level of opponent,” she continued her analysis, “not one of the superheroes on the scene could beat her, not even Yan Yu.”

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“Is it because of the gap in cultivation realm?” the leader asked.

“That’s right.” She gave an affirmative answer, “So the condition to clear this level is definitely not to defeat her.”

“What is your view?” the leader asked again.

She continued to stare at the screen, and after watching for nearly two and a half minutes, she replied:

“I think it should be a desperate struggle.”

“A desperate struggle?” the leader raised an eyebrow.

“Faced with a formidable enemy that cannot be opposed, at the very brink of life and death, it’s about whether one dares to stake their life in a fight to the death, instead of turning around to flee or treasuring their own life cautiously.” she said, “If one can have such a great will and determination on a mental level, one should be able to clear the level — it certainly won’t require you to actually defeat her.”

“Then why hasn’t Yan Yu been able to clear the level?” the leader furrowed his brows and inquired, “It’s been almost half an hour, and he has never even taken half a step back in retreat.”

“Because he hasn’t reached the brink of life and death,” she responded.

Leader: ………

Umm, well, oh…

Finally understanding, damn! The Longcheng Flying General is kind of horrifically strong!

In the eyes of the average person, Yan Yu being attacked three or four times a second by that white sword light, each time sent flying without the ability to retaliate, clearly appeared to be at a severe disadvantage. It wouldn’t be surprising if he were to be broken through and beheaded in the next second.

But according to her, despite Yan Yu seeming powerless to retaliate, he was actually still able to protect himself with ease.

The best proof of this was that he had managed to hold out for nearly half an hour under her relentless attacks and was still unharmed to this point.

The leader, belatedly realizing this, was immersed in his own shock when he heard her say again:

“Against such insurmountable enemies, normal Transcendents are often completely overwhelmed within a few exchanges, pushed to the brink of life and death. What follows is either clearing the level or being killed, all within an extremely short time, after which she would turn around to find other contenders to test their mentality.”

“So, in actuality, it’s enough just to generate such a powerful enemy for this level.”

“But the sticking point here is that: the creator of the Mysterious Realm believed her strength could crush all contenders, without foreseeing someone like Yan Yu, who could hold his ground entirely through skill and awareness.”

“That is to say,” the leader quickly grasped her meaning, “we’re dealing with a BUG.”

“That’s correct,” she nodded, “She can’t push Yan Yu to the brink of life and death, and thus can’t verify whether his mentality reaches the conditions for clearing the level, nor will she switch to other test subjects. On the contrary, Yan Yu can use this to lure her into killing foreign Transcendents… These people are not her test subjects, so even if they fight with the determination to face death, she won’t hold back at all.”

“Hmm,” the leader nodded seriously, “So theoretically, Yan Yu could use her to eliminate all his opponents, just like we’ve seen happen before.”

“But that’s not actually possible,” she negated the idea.

“Because Yan Yu won’t be able to hold out for too long?”

“That’s right. Whether it’s the remaining capacity of his True Yuan or the highly strained state of his mind.”

“Once Yan Yu can hold out no longer, then he will reach what is called ‘the brink of life and death’.” the leader had a sudden realization, “And then he will be able to clear the level.”

“After Yan Yu clears the level, she will switch to a different test subject, so the others won’t be stuck here either.”

The two returned their gaze to the large screen, where Yan Yu’s perspective was still rapidly shifting, fast enough to make any 3D motion sickness sufferer vomit last night’s dinner.

So the question was, when would he be pressured to his limit?