Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

As they talked, Liu Longtao and his men had caught up from behind.

"Soldiers formed by snow and holding sabers?" Liu Longtao furrowed his brows in thought after Yan Yu gave a brief explanation.

"After blocking the attack, it shattered by itself," Yan Yu stated directly, "If it was a restriction of the Mysterious Realm, there wouldn't be just one attack."

"Hmm," Liu Longtao turned his head and spoke, "Everyone needs to be careful, not just focused on hurrying along! Captain Zheng, please pass the message along and have the soldiers be alert."

"Understood." Captain Zheng started to relay the message through the channel.

Everyone took a moment to prepare themselves and digest the information regarding the Mysterious Realm's restrictions before resuming their journey.

"So," Ye Jun said, walking between Liu Longtao and Yan Yu, "our enemies entered earlier than we did, and they must have faced the Mysterious Realm's attacks too."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Even more so if we reasonably speculate," Yan Yu nodded, "That the closer one gets to the core of the Mysterious Realm, the more ferocious its defense mechanisms become. Then, they would have encountered more severe obstacles than us."

"That would be ideal," Liu Longtao said coldly.

"However, there's another possibility," Chen Lingyun said with a sly smile, "The deeper one goes, the harder it is to proceed. In such a setup, those who come later can quickly close the gap with the forerunners. If they find the task too challenging, they might not be singly focused on seizing control of the core.

Perhaps they're hiding somewhere right now, waiting to use the Mysterious Realm's mechanisms to ambush us!"

"Hey, even better," Liu Longtao sneered, "That saves us some time."

"Let's not underestimate them too much," Ye Jun said worriedly from the side, "Silla and Goryeo may have similar cultivation systems to ours, but they mainly focus on Sword Immortals and are best at ambushes in these types of environments..."

Before she could finish, everyone saw a lump in the snow ahead.

Upon closer inspection, they found it was a frozen corpse pierced by a sharp object in the abdomen—the victim had crawled for a while in the snowy wilderness without treatment (behind him was a deep, yet fully uncovered track in the snow), and ultimately succumbed to the extreme cold and blood loss.

"If we discount internal strife on the enemy's side, then it's highly likely that this person was killed by the Mysterious Realm's restrictions," Liu Longtao mused.

"And he was abandoned by his companions," Yan Yu remarked with a click of his tongue, "Even if his Dantian was damaged and he couldn't use spells for a while, he could have survived easily if his companions had used Runescript to stop his bleeding."

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"So their team isn't all on the same page either," Ye Jun realized immediately.

"Greedy for quick success," Chen Lingyun narrowed her eyes, observing the expression of the dead, "Or to put it another way, the leader of their team must think it's most important to get control of the Mysterious Realm as soon as possible, and doesn't want to waste time saving a companion...

These cultivators probably don't know each other and lack rapport and affection, being hastily assembled just for this mission."

"That sounds very plausible," Ye Jun nodded in agreement, "Thinking about it carefully, the Mysterious Realm opened within the territory of Lu Country— even if they manage to take control by deceit, wouldn't they just end up captured by us after they exit the Realm?

Considering the worst-case scenario, they are essentially trading the lives of these cultivators for control over this Mysterious Realm, so it's likely these aren't the most elite cultivators being groomed as they wouldn't be too great a loss if abandoned."

"Hmm," Liu Longtao agreed with this judgment, "For them, Changbai Mountain is more of a spiritual symbol than a practical one. As long as they can take control of the Mysterious Realm, even if they can't exploit it afterwards, they would be satisfied."

After discussing for a while, everyone noticed that Yan Yu had been silent, and they naturally quieted down.

Yan Yu wasn't distracted, but rather reorganizing his memories.

In his previous life, the Changbai Mountain Mysterious Realm appeared before the loosening of media control, and no information disclosure followed, so he didn't know what role Silla or Goryeo had played in it, or how Liu Longtao's team resolved it.

But he knew that Silla took a secluded and closed-off approach, with cultivators rarely leaving the country or seeking publicity, so there were no internationally famous and formidable cultivators.

As for Goryeo, there was Park Changmin—if one must mention him—who, though was cultivated with the nation's full support, only had the strength to "survive three strikes from Liu Longtao without dying"… but Goryeo media hailed him as the "National Sword God", and nearly every citizen believed it without doubt.

Park Changmin was also very good at self-promotion and marketing, at his most audacious even claiming, "I am evenly matched with Liu (referring to Lord Master), and we hold each other in high regard."

Although Lu Country's side made a judgment that the cultivators who stormed into the mysterious realm definitely couldn't escape, indicating they were being used as expendable troops by Goryeo, hence certainly not the top elite—this was a reasonable guess based on facts, provided that the decision-makers from Goryeo had common sense.

However, based on experiences from his past life, Yan Yu expressed strong doubts about this.

After all, in their way of thinking, Yang Wanchun could shoot and blind Li Shimin's left eye with a single arrow, Park Changmin could fight Liu Longtao to an indistinguishable outcome, and thus a small squad of cultivators seizing control of the Changbai Mountain Mystical Realm, and then smoothly breaking through the encirclement of Lu Country's military forces... was also not an impossibility!

"Since they're not even rescuing their wounded companions or dealing with the bodies, it means they must be advancing against the clock," Yan Yu finally snapped back to reality, reminding everyone, "If they wanted to lay an ambush ahead of us, the more people they have, the better—it wouldn't make sense to be so resolute otherwise."

"Mm-hmm," Liu Longtao said seriously, "If we don't consider dealing with an ambush, we could also march rapidly."

The entire team used the Shifting Technique to charge forward, their speed would be several times faster than now, but the cost was that if they encountered the Wind Blade Frost Sword Formation or an ambush from enemy cultivators, the likelihood of being caught off guard and struck would greatly increase.

"Let's march rapidly," Yan Yu quickly decided, "Everyone, stay closer while marching, and let Ye Jun protect the main force with her magic artifact."

Ye Jun's Xuan Guang Ruler could create a barrier of light, shielding those within from external attacks, at the cost of a large consumption of True Yuan to maintain it over a long period; however, considering that the enemy might be advancing rapidly into the mysterious realm, and Liu Longtao was not one to hesitate, he immediately nodded:

"Okay, Ye Jun?"

"Leave it to me," Ye Jun nodded.

Therefore, the group activated the Shifting Technique and hurriedly surged up the mountain through the snowstorm.

Perhaps it was because their formation was too impressive, or perhaps it was because they were beginning to advance deeper into the formation, the surrounding snowstorm became increasingly fierce and relentless. About a dozen flying snow soldiers suddenly appeared from within it, swooping down with a howl, wielding their blades in an attack on the group.

With the protection of Ye Jun's Xuan Guang Ruler, there was no excessive tension; they merely watched these snow soldiers with fierce expressions and aggressive demeanor swing their swords, only to be shattered by the repelling force of the barrier of light—Su Yunjin, standing on the periphery, could even see the ghastly looks of these snow soldiers intent on devouring souls, with snowflake-constructed hair bristling, lifelike and terrifying.

If I were to use the Southern Dipper Galaxy Secret Art...

No, my True Yuan couldn't sustain it.

These snow soldiers were created by the formation, minor pawns that crumbled upon touch, it was too extravagant to use Taoism Method on them. But the light barrier created by this Xuan Guang Ruler, covering three hundred and sixty degrees, wouldn't really save much True Yuan, would it?

She asked Yan Yu through the channel, and Yan Yu turned to confirm with Ye Jun:

"Is your True Yuan endurance okay?"

"It's a bit difficult," Ye Jun admitted, "Like this, I can maintain it for a while, but it will be hard to say if more snow soldiers keep coming."

Liu Longtao listened silently, knowing that activating Ye Jun's Xuan Guang Ruler was like carrying a shield on a battlefield, inherently consuming strength (True Yuan); but if a few enemies attacked, hammering their weapons on your shield (the magic artifact's protection), naturally, the strength (True Yuan) would be expended even more.

"This won't do," he discussed with Yan Yu, "We need someone to help her clear out the snow soldiers, to reduce the consumption."

Yan Yu nodded and turned to instruct:

"Lin Ning, you go help."

"Okay," Lin Ning didn't say much, just quickly burst out from the cover of the light barrier, with her Green Bamboo Sword ringing out, heading straight for the flying snow soldiers.

Her sword light was cold and ruthless, even more piercing than the chill in the wind!