Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Chapter 398: Chapter 94 Chen Lingyun’s Strategy
 

Since Chen Lingyun wasn’t commanding, Yan Yu took an Elixir Medicine, both to breathe and recover his True Yuan and to watch the frontline battle.

Yang Linhui was defending the right flank, Liu Longtao the center, with Ai Lu and Guo Feiyun simultaneously reinforcing both flanks—a dual Sword Immortal configuration, stable as can be.

On the left flank, it was Su Yunjin and Lin Ning on defense. Although the two coordinated seamlessly, they were ultimately short on hands, showing signs of weariness and just managing to hold on. Therefore, Chen Lingyun sent Zhao Yuanzhen to their flank for reinforcement.

Xie Ruoxi seemed more like a fire-fighting squad member, at one moment Chen Lingyun dispatched her to the left flank, then sent her rushing to the right, back and forth.

But her repeated running back and forth wasn’t meaningless. The opposing samurai had high offense and defense, and with no room to maneuver on the roadways of Lígōng, their power when charging formations was simply too strong.

As a result, whenever Immortal Venerate Xie arrived, the enemy would quickly shift their samurai to another flank. Although it didn’t allow her to reap any heads, at least the strategic value of delaying the enemy’s assault rhythm was perfectly achieved.

It was just tiring for Immortal Venerate Xie.

Chen Lingyun wasn’t feeling any guilt about making Immortal Venerate Xie run around and was even humming something about “pushing and pulling” to themselves, seemingly proud of their command over the deployment of forces.

Well, as long as it doesn’t come down to me, let her be.

Yan Yu yawned, only to hear Chen Lingyun’s voice transmission:

“You look quite idle.”

“A secret weapon must look like a secret weapon,” Yan Yu said indifferently with his hands behind his back, “As long as I don’t take action, the opposition will definitely be wary.”

“But you have already made your move just now,” Chen Lingyun pointed out leisurely.

Yan Yu: ……

“My move just now was to save someone,” he argued vehemently, “To save, not to kill—do I need to use my full strength for that? Let me tell you, if I put forth all my strength, even I would be scared. Why wouldn’t the other side be wary of the secret ace I might be hiding?”

“That makes a little bit of sense,” Chen Lingyun said with a smile.

After all, everyone had seen how Yan Yu dealt with Mei Yingxue at Inferno Pass—blocking three times per second for nearly half an hour without a single mistake.

Compared to that, this current situation was indeed a small scene for him. The pressure he had to endure on the battlefield was nowhere near what Mei Yingxue applied, but…

“Are you tired?” Chen Lingyun asked abruptly.

“Tired? Why would I be tired?” Yan Yu countered.

“You withstood the onslaught from Immortal Venerate Jinghong for almost half an hour. Aren’t you tired?” Chen Lingyun continued.

“It was just Sword Control blocking,” Yan Yu responded, “It doesn’t use up much True Yuan.”

“I’m talking about your mental state,” Chen Lingyun said gravely, “Can you still concentrate your attention?”

“I can’t maintain peak performance,” Yan Yu admitted after a pause, “But executing at sixty percent is no problem.”

“Not enough,” Chen Lingyun said flatly, “You go rest inside Lígōng. If there’s a need, I’ll call you.”

“That doesn’t seem right,” Yan Yu chuckled, “While you’re all fighting desperately at the front, it’s not appropriate for me to be blatantly slacking in the back, right?”

“Don’t worry,” Chen Lingyun reassured, returning to a smile, “Everyone saw your performance earlier. Even if we now say you should rest, everyone in the live stream will only comment saying ‘Yan God, have a good rest’.”

After finishing her sentence, indeed, the live broadcast room outside began to flood with the message “Yan God, have a good rest,” causing both commentators to sigh internally, “The deputy captain really knows how to play up the show.”

“Alright then,” Yan Yu stretched lazily, and transmitted to everyone around, “You guys keep fighting. Call me if you can’t hold on any longer.”

The crowd immediately responded, some sarcastically and others sincerely:

“Tsk!”

“Captain, rest well.”

“Old Yan, you just go to sleep. By the time you wake up, we’ll have finished the battle.”

Yan Yu returned to the inside of Lígōng, dragged the meditation cushion to use as a pillow, lay down on the spot, and closed his eyes to doze off.

“Would you like to be transported out now?” the female voice from Lígōng suddenly asked.

“No,” Yan Yu said.

After about half an hour, the voice of the Departure Palace suddenly asked:

“Would you like to be teleported away now?”

“No, not leaving,” Yan Yu said. “I’ll find you when I need to leave.”

“Why not leave?” the female voice suddenly asked.

“What, you’re interested in this?” Yan Yu was immediately surprised.

“Though I have no soul, I possess a certain spiritual intelligence,” the female voice said. “Can’t I ask?”

“It’s not that you can’t ask,” Yan Yu realized suddenly. “Since you have spiritual intelligence, does that mean you’re not a divine remnant left by a mighty one, but an artifact spirit?”

The female voice did not confirm nor deny, and asked again:

“What is the situation outside?”

“Foreign Transcendents are trying to enter the Departure Palace to take treasures,” Yan Yu replied. “We’re trying to stop them from getting in, so there’s a magical battle happening outside.”

“Only the top ten may obtain treasures within the Secret Realm of Lígōng,” the voice of the Departure Palace said somberly. “It wasn’t like this before, but… since the Era of Dharma Extinction, many treasures here have lost their spiritual nature, so I can no longer lavish rewards as before.”

“I know,” Yan Yu replied. “But they don’t. So, we’re going to use this opportunity to wipe them out as much as we can.”

“I see,” the voice of the Departure Palace understood at once. “My physical form is the painting on the wall; other than speaking and distributing treasures, I can’t help with anything else.”

“Hmm…” Yan Yu pondered for a moment, then inspiration struck. “Since you can communicate, could you do me a favor?”

“What kind of favor?” the female voice from the Departure Palace asked.

Her not refusing outright meant there was room for negotiation. Yan Yu’s spirits lifted, and he said:

“Listen, if any foreign Transcendents enter later, you say this…”

————————

After reaching an agreement with the painting’s artifact spirit, Yan Yu continued to close his eyes and feign sleep, eventually really drifting off.

Within the Mysterious Realm, day and night made no difference; when he slowly awoke from his sleep, he had no idea how many hours he had been out for.

The sounds of clashing metal and exploding spells were still coming from outside, but they were now louder and more frequent than before.

Yan Yu stepped out calmly, only to see chaos unfolding outside.

Enemies repeatedly breached the defenses on the left, right, and central stairs, rushing forward, only to be desperately repelled by the combined efforts of the Cultivators. Even Chen Lingyun couldn’t sit back and direct any longer; she took up the Soul Summoning Banner and prayer beads to join the fray, patching gaps wherever needed.

Looking at the state of the Cultivators, nearly everyone bore injuries, and their morale was far from the spirited vigor they had started with—marked by severe depletion of True Yuan, causing them to hesitate to go all out in their attacks.

“Why have you come out?” Chen Lingyun, surveying the whole scene, was the first to spot Yan Yu emerging from the Departure Palace. “Never mind, I was about to call for you.”

“How much time is left in the Departure Palace?” Yan Yu asked. “I didn’t bring my phone.”

“Soon, less than twenty minutes left,” Chen Lingyun replied. “I pretended to expose a weak point on purpose, allowing Shenyuan Simie to be snatched up and killed by them in a decoy move. They probably all think we’re about to collapse, so they’ve started a full-on assault.”

Yan Yu extended his Divine Sense to scan the area and indeed saw the Onmyoji at the front, followed by the super-heroes, and then the Lihuayuan Swordsmen, all attacking the three sets of stairs in waves, aiming to prevent the Rikoku Cultivators from having time to recover their True Yuan.

“They’re planning to let the Onmyoji enter the Departure Palace first to claim treasures?” Yan Yu continued to speak through a spiritual link.

“Yes,” Chen Lingyun replied. “They want to distribute the treasures after leaving the Mysterious Realm.”

“If the Onmyoji enter the Departure Palace in full view of everyone, and then emerge with no treasures to redistribute…” Yan Yu said slowly. “Then the other two factions would surely think the Onmyoji have turned their backs on the agreement, intending to monopolize the trove.”

“Exactly,” Chen Lingyun said with a hint of surprise. “Isn’t that the plan we initially agreed upon?”

“I just had a chat with the artifact spirit of the Departure Palace… the female voice,” Yan Yu smiled. “Through my personal charm, I have persuaded her to cooperate with us to make this plan even more foolproof.”

“Hmm?” Chen Lingyun was first stunned, then immediately overjoyed.

If the artifact spirit from the Departure Palace joined in, the success rate of the plan would reach ninety percent… no, a full hundred percent!

“Remember this,” she said quickly. “We need to adjust the original plan like this. When the Onmyoji rush into the Departure Palace later, you have the artifact spirit say this…”