Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Seeing Yan Yu missing, the opponents managed to keep their composure and dispatched someone to scout behind the house, which inevitably caused some panic among the girls.

Fortunately, the distance was quite far, so there was no need to worry about their facial expressions being discovered; they all just waited for Chen Lingyun to adjust their tactics.

Chen Lingyun, however, was composed as she asked over the channel:

"Tao Xingyuan is circling from the right for reconnaissance. Yan Yu, can you hide?"

Without any hesitation, Yan Yu replied, "I can."

Similarly, there were no trees behind the thatched cottage, but there was a small sword-casting workshop with a forge for melting metal, an anvil for shaping sword blanks, and a water trough for quenching.

The water trough was low and shallow, and the anvil was small, neither large enough to conceal a grown man,

The forge was built against the wall, offering few blind spots to hide in. The interior space was estimated to be sufficient, but the entrance was also narrow, at most allowing an adult to fit an arm through.

After observing the inside of the forge from the entrance for a moment, Yan Yu then moved to the outer wall and quickly cast the Wall-Penetration Technique, his entire body swiftly "melding" into the furnace wall.

Su Yunjin, who was watching from the rooftop, was secretly shocked but then breathed a sigh of relief.

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How could I forget the Wall-Penetration Technique!

"Yun Jin, Impact Curse," Chen Lingyun suddenly commanded.

Tao Xingyuan had already circled to the side of the cottage and saw the anvil, water trough, and forge there.

From the side, Tao Xingyuan couldn't see behind the forge due to the blind spot, so he continued to approach using the Shifting Technique, while Chen Lingyun and Su Yunjin aimed their Impact Curse from the rooftop, attempting to hit him.

Seeing the two girls raise their hands, Tao Xingyuan was already on guard. He quickly dispelled the Shifting Technique and switched to the Earth-Element Sturdiness Curse, starting to run physically with his legs apart.

The Impact Curse hit his body, utterly failing to break through his defenses, but the consumption of True Yuan by the Barrier Charm wasn't small either. Exchanging in such a way was definitely advantageous for the girls.

Enduring the shooting of the Impact Curse and the consumption of the Barrier Charm, Tao Xingyuan ran diagonally to the direct back of the thatched cottage at high speed. Confirming that no one was hiding on the other side of the forge, he didn't hesitate to turn around and leave, while reporting the reconnaissance situation in the team channel.

"Could he be hiding in the water trough?" Li Minghu asked.

"The water trough isn't tall enough to hide a person." Tao Xingyuan quickly replied, "The forge entry is small, not even a child could crawl through, and I've checked the blind spots on both sides too."

"It looks like he must have really gone into the thatched cottage," Li Zhaojiang quickly inferred, "Sister, shall we attack now?"

Attacking now had two meanings: one was to make use of their numerical advantage to deal with the four girls outside; the other was to send people to rush in and cooperate with the goalkeeper to pincer Yan Yu, or to prevent Yan Yu from refining the core.

Li Minghu pondered, still feeling something was off: what if they recklessly entered and got entangled with an unknown goalkeeper inside the cottage? The four teammates left outside might not withstand the assaults of the Annan Army cultivators—if I were Yan Yu, I certainly wouldn't make such a foolish move.

But since the Wall-Penetration Technique was used so infrequently, she hadn't actually seen the forge, and she couldn't think of that at the moment. She simply decided:

"I will go back and have another look. Zhaojiang, you lead the team to attack the front."

"Alright," Li Zhaojiang nodded and said, "Jiang Hong, Haoran, you two go attack Lin Ning; Xingyuan, follow me against Zhao Jiuzhen."

Following Li Zhaojiang's command, the team quickly split into three.

Li Minghu circled to the back, Jiang Hong took Wang Haoran on a diagonal path from the right, aiming for Lin Ning near the stele; Li Zhaojiang, on the other hand, charged directly at Zhao Yuanzhen on the left with Tao Xingyuan using the Shifting Technique.

From the rooftop, Chen Lingyun and Su Yunjin once again fired the Impact Curse, only to see the opposing forces suddenly come to a screeching halt to dodge, and then, with the Shifting Technique, accelerate once more towards them.

Switching between two spells so quickly, although not as skillfully as Yan Yu's Team, clearly showed they had practiced this—they were much more advanced than the world line in the previous life. So to whom should this be credited?

"Lin, move left, Sister Zhao, to the right, lead them away," Chen Lingyun continued to direct.

Without a thought, Lin Ning immediately activated Shifting and dashed to the left; Zhao Yuanzhen, although inwardly cynical, did not voice any complaints and obeyed the command, rushing to the right.

With their movements to the left and the right, the unguarded front door of the thatched cottage was directly exposed.

Li Zhaojiang hesitated for a moment, a sudden impulse arising to have all four of us disregard everything and charge into the cottage to overpower Yan Yu.

But Sister was still outside the house!

Remembering this, he quickly suppressed the impulse and ordered:

"Haoran and Xingyuan, get to the rooftop. Jiang Hong, keep up the chase!"

Thus, the Annan Army's four men divided their forces again, with Jiang Hong and Li Zhaojiang remaining on the ground, continuing to pursue Lin Ning and Zhao Yuanzhen, who were using hit-and-run tactics.

Wang Haoran and Tao Xingyuan, however, used the Cloud Ascension Technique to head for Chen Lingyun and Su Yunjin on the rooftop.

Hitting halfway up, the oncoming Impact Curse was already shooting towards the two men from the rooftop.

Seeing the situation was bad, both Wang and Tao tried to dodge, as the Impact Curse was aimed at their chests, and without any True Yuan suppression bracelets, getting hit would not be a question of whether they could withstand it but more of how many ribs would break.

They urgently interrupted the Cloud Ascension Technique and immediately switched to the Earth-Element Sturdiness Curse, barely blocking two Impact Curses aimed at their chests.

But without the support of the Cloud Ascension Technique, their bodies were soon pulled down by gravity again.

"This won't do," Wang Haoran landed on the ground and immediately said.

There's no way we can get up on the roof now. The moment you activate the Cloud Ascension Technique, they'll hit you with the Impact Curse. If you get hit, you'll cough up blood. What can you do when you're in midair?

You can't just keep the Barrier Charm on the whole time and climb up with your body alone, can you? Even if you have the skills to climb, when you're about to reach the roof, they'll activate the Curved Curse and kick you. How are you going to dodge that?

Tao Xingyuan also had quick wits, reminding him:

"Impact Curse!"

If we can't get up there, then let's exchange Impact Curses on the ground, competing with them in reaction speed and accuracy!

Wang Haoran also realized this, and both of them waited for the right moment to suddenly switch from the Barrier Charm to the Impact Curse. The metallic sharpness of the curse tore through the air, hurtling towards Chen Lingyun and Su Yunjin.

But Chen Lingyun was already prepared, and with a slight smile, pulled Su Yunjin down to crouch.

The thatched cottage roof bulged in the center, sloping on both sides, with eaves at the edges. By crouching down like that, they perfectly avoided being hit by ducking behind the sloped surface of the roof.

Now Tao Xingyuan was also at a loss. He couldn't get close to the roof to fight, and Impact Curse exchanges were useless since the enemy had cover. It seemed the only option might be to use the Flame Curse to blast them.

However, the Flame Curse had a delay, about half a second. Directly casting the Flame Curse wouldn't work unless the opponent couldn't see or dodge, so hitting them was still difficult.

As the two hesitated, they heard Li Zhaojiang speak through the channel:

"Xingyuan, Haoran, come back."

Although Li Zhaojiang was chasing Zhao Yuanzhen, he could still hear the conversation between the two in the channel. Confronting someone with a high ground advantage was indeed tricky, so it was better to quickly come over and surround and kill the two who were running wild.

Receiving the message, Tao Xingyuan and Wang Haoran immediately dropped the issue of the roof and split up to encircle Lin Ning and Zhao Yuanzhen, occasionally using the Impact Curse to force their opponents to change direction.

Just then, a pained cry suddenly came from behind the house.

When the cry reached him, Li Zhaojiang was instantly alarmed:

Oh no! My sister is still over there!

Going back a short while, let's talk about Li Minghu, who had initially broken away from the group, taking a detour to circle around to the back of the house.

She was very astute, always keeping a safe distance from the roof—enough to comfortably dodge an Impact Curse on the side.

Chen Lingyun didn't switch her fire to her, simply keeping a watchful eye on her using her peripheral vision.

Li Minghu wandered in the distance, observing, and found that as Tao Xingyuan had said, the anvil was too small, and the trough was short and shallow; it was impossible for anyone to be hiding inside.

The furnace stood against the wall, equally without any hiding spots, and the entrance was very narrow; sword molds could be sent in, but it was impossible for a person to fit through.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Could it be that I was wrong? Did he already rush into the thatched cottage?

At that moment, Wang and Tao had started their attack on the roof, and Chen Lingyun pulled Su Yunjin down to crouch. Li Minghu no longer hesitated, and using the Shifting Technique, she dashed to the furnace side, then activated the Cloud Ascension Technique to fly towards the roof, planning to coordinate with her teammates on the other side for a pincer attack.

Halfway through her Cloud Ascension Technique ascent, Chen Lingyun still didn't turn around. Li Minghu had a bad feeling, and from the corner of her eye, she saw the furnace below. She instantly interrupted her ascent and switched to the Curved Curse, twisting her body in midair to deliver a forceful downward chop with her leg, like a battle-ax slamming down.

Right below her, Yan Yu quietly emerged from the furnace using the Wall-Penetration Technique and switched to the Cloud Ascension Technique, hoping to sneak attack her. He didn't expect Li Minghu to react so suddenly, nor did he anticipate her counterattack.

Ouch, not bad, huh?

Yan Yu immediately switched to the Wood Bending Charm, with quick reflexes, his right hand shot out like a striking snake, and caught Li Minghu's descending ankle, forcefully tugging downward.

Caught by the ankle midair, and with the added force from the Curved Curse, even Li Minghu with all her skills couldn't react in time. Her body was violently thrown to the ground, causing her to cry out in pain.

Yan Yu landed steadily not far away, crossing his arms but not rushing to attack, instead, he asked with concern:

"How's your body? If you can't take it, you can surrender, and I'll call the medical team over."

"Thank you, but I can still fight," Li Minghu struggled to stand up, coughed painfully a couple of times, and grabbed the sword hilt nearby. She gritted her teeth and pulled the broken sword from the ground.

Yan Yu was immediately filled with respect.

Li Minghu held the sword with both hands, assuming a stance ready to charge.

Although her actions showed no sign of swordsmanship experience,

her silent, resolute demeanor, unwavering in the face of battle, seemed to overlap subtly in Yan Yu's memory with that of the Valkyrie from his past life, the one who alone, with sword in hand, stood before the Cultivators' Allied Forces of the Indochina Peninsula.