Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

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Chen Lingyun, Su Yunjin, Lin Ning, and Zhao Yuanzhen stood at the front of the Cloud Ascension Technique training ground—the area behind was scattered with an assortment of low walls, rooftops, and obstacles simulating an urban environment.

Yan Yu casually strolled past the girls with his hands clasped behind his back, as if he were a general inspecting his troops.

"Since everyone is already acquainted with one another, we'll skip the round of introductions this time." Finally, he came to a stop in front of everyone and asked in a deep voice, "Does anyone know the original purpose of establishing our war team?"

"Is it to open your harem?" Chen Lingyun asked with a smile.

"Shut up!" Yan Yu quickly pointed and ordered coldly, "Cause any more trouble, and you're out of the team! Lin Ning, you speak."

"Yes." Lin Ning immediately answered earnestly, "As military professionals, cultivators have limited ability when fighting alone. The original purpose of our war team was to complete those more difficult, teamwork-requiring, and arduous combat missions. This is my personal understanding."

"The meaning is more or less the same." Yan Yu nodded slightly and said, "We are the first tactical squad sanctioned by the Zhendong Army to investigate how to more effectively employ organized supernatural force, to defeat, crush, and kill our enemies."

"To put it bluntly, it's about winning! Victory alone is the goal we pursue!"

The girls did not speak, merely looking at him quietly.

Yan Yu paused for a moment before continuing:

"There's no feminism on the battlefield, and the enemy won't go easy on you just because you are women. The higher-ups also won't adopt more lenient evaluation standards due to your gender."

"If we win, it's 'women are as good as men, and the girls are all capable'; if we lose, it's 'those women really aren't cut out for war, and the place for women in battle is in the maternity ward.'... Sorry, I'm just that blunt.

But if you lose, there will undoubtedly be those who come to question me, saying I recruited beautiful women into the team 'to open a harem.' That kind of vile remark, I can tolerate, can you?"

"Absolutely not!" Zhao Yuanzhen said loudly, glancing sideways at Chen Lingyun, who was still smiling, and threatening ominously, "If anyone dares to mention harems again, you don't need to act; I'll deal with her myself!"

"You shut up too!" Yan Yu pointed again and scolded Zhao Yuanzhen, "Who asked you?"

Zhao Yuanzhen sulked privately, holding a silent grudge:

"This scoundrel dared to scold and chastise me in front of everyone today; I shall have my revenge! If a day comes when I call the shots, I too shall humiliate him severely in front of everyone. I'll make him weep bitterly beneath my pomegranate skirt and be unable to lift his head!"

Seeing the Demonic Sect Enchantress bow her head in submission, Yan Yu didn't continue to berate her to stir up enmity, but casually spoke:

"Starting today, you won't need to attend the usual afternoon training sessions. As team leader, I've been given the authority to design and organize the team's training exercises."

"Considering your current level of strength, I've decided to skip actual combat training for the first session, and we'll start from the simplest exercises."

Yan Yu turned towards the Cloud Ascension Technique training ground and pointed to a low wall erected there, saying:

"From this position, initiate Shifting Technique at full sprint towards the low wall, then interrupt the Shifting Technique and come to a stop using the Cloud Ascension Technique."

"My requirement is that when you come to a stop with the Cloud Ascension Technique, your position must be as close to the low wall as possible—close enough that with an arm's length, you could touch the wall. Once you can do that, this training is considered complete."

Everyone started to ponder the task.

Once Shifting Technique is initiated, the sprinting speed can reach around 60 yards. Charging towards an obstacle at that speed is extremely risky because even a slight delay in decelerating could result in a direct collision, resulting in a bloody injury.

Not to mention, the "deceleration" Yan Yu referred to is actually two consecutive actions: first, interrupting the Shifting Technique, then activating the Cloud Ascension Technique, instantly making the operation much more difficult.

However, the girls harbored no complaints.

Chen Lingyun considered herself extremely clever, and of course, she could see that Yan Yu's arrangement was meant to train their reaction ability and speed in switching spells.

Su Yunjin was also smart, thinking that if they really mastered this, it would afford them a considerable advantage in actual combat, as moving at high speed while maintaining precise positioning would be unmatched.

Your journey continues with empire

And Lin Ning was even simpler. With a typical problem-solver mentality, she thought, "You tell me how to train, I train, and that's it. If I perform poorly in the end, it's because I didn't train enough."

```

Everyone had their first try and then looked at each other's scores: Su Yunjin 2.3 meters, Lin Ning 2.2 meters, Chen Lingyun 1.4 meters... This woman, as Yan Yu knew from his past life, had nearly perfect timing, barely missing touching the wall's surface with more proficiency.

However, the most surprising to the three girls was Zhao Yuanzhen.

She stopped exactly an arm's length away from the short wall, stretching out her right hand to touch it, and calmly turned her head towards Yan Yu, displaying a disdainful expression:

"Is this good enough?"

Yan Yu was not surprised by her performance, since Zhao Yuanzhen was, after all, a cultivator who had traveled through from another world and was accustomed to using sword flight for long journeys.

Because it was sword flight, the grasp of timing and distance had to be perfect; otherwise, one might not be able to stop in time when landing and would end up face-planting into the dirt, completely losing their immortal dignity.

"Very good," Yan Yu said with his arms crossed over his chest, "You've passed the first training exercise."

Chen Lingyun wasn't surprised by this, and Su Yunjin appeared indifferent, but Lin Ning felt as if she'd been struck by lightning.

Not being able to surpass Yan Yu and take first place was one thing, but now Zhao Yuanzhen could leave her far behind?

Lin Ning looked at the short wall again, her heart now filled with the motivation to continue training, wishing she could treat this exercise like the annual university entrance exam papers of all provinces, brushing through a hundred sets of them first.

"So what?" As expected of the Demonic Sect Enchantress, as Yan Yu predicted, Zhao Yuanzhen started getting carried away. She lifted her delicate chin flirtatiously and asked contemptuously, "What other training is there? Bring it on for me to savor."

"Easy to say, the second exercise is very simple," Yan Yu sneered, "Fight me."

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On the 10th defeat, Zhao Yuanzhen was struck in the back by Yan Yu's palm and immediately lost control of her body, staggering forward and almost tumbling to the ground.

She barely managed to stabilize herself and struggled to regulate her breathing, feeling pain all over her body.

Yan Yu hadn't even used the Flame Curse or the Curved Curse, just the Shifting Technique and the Cloud Ascension Technique to control the distance and move laterally, easily confusing and overwhelming Zhao Yuanzhen.

Of course, the Demonic Sect Enchantress didn't think it was her fault – she blamed the slow resurgence of spiritual energy in this world!

Zhao Yuanzhen glared at Yan Yu hatefully, not having time to accumulate more resentment toward him in her heart, as her mind instantly conjured up seven or eight cunning spells that could ignore his agile movements and defeat him easily.

However, she couldn't use any of them.

Not only because the current concentration of spiritual energy in the environment was insufficient for their normal potency, but also because even if she cast them, she would have no way to explain to her teammates "where she had learned these spells from."

The only ones she could use openly were the Three Arts and Five Spells.

Both the Three Arts and Five Spells were considered basic spells in Zhao Yuanzhen's world of cultivation, consuming very little True Yuan and having mediocre power; usually, only Taoists in rural Taoist temples would practice them to deceive the nearby villagers.

How maddening! What proper cultivator would specialize in these? And yet I still can't beat him!

Wait, could it be that his master taught him some kind of divination skills? Like, predicting my moves in advance… something like that?

Zhao Yuanzhen was shocked, thinking about the promised fair fight, but this was like cheating with divination!

With the Five Elemental True Character Curse's inter-promoting and inter-restricting nature, if you predict my moves in advance, how could I possibly defeat you?

"No more fighting!" she said huffily, "Keep being shameless! Hmph, so what if you win, I still look down on you!"

Yan Yu: ???

Though he wasn't sure what the Demonic Sect Enchantress had misunderstood, it seemed best to beat her up first and then inquire what was confused in her mind.