Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

After defeating the puppet, the path to the thatched cottage was completely safe.

Yan Yu found the control mechanism of the Mysterious Realm inside the cottage, which looked like a delicate incense burner, and started to refine it.

The so-called refinement was simple, involving just infusing True Yuan into it, and infusing it fiercely.

The amount of True Yuan needed wasn't much, but the main issue was that refinement took time. Yan Yu roughly estimated that it would take about ten minutes or so to refine the incense burner.

As the pace of the Spiritual Energy Resurgence increased, the difficulty of the Mysterious Realm would also increase, and the time required to refine the control mechanism would extend, possibly even requiring a few hours of work—if there were enemy cultivator teams present in the Mysterious Realm, one would either have to eliminate all the opponents or carry the control mechanism around aimlessly, delaying until it was completely refined.

After finishing the refinement of the incense burner, Yan Yu left the cottage and looked at the eagerly waiting crowd, and said:

"I checked, the missing soldiers from the military haven't died. 2.2 kilometers to the east of here, deep in the forest, they're all hung up on trees by those vine monsters."

"Can you give a more detailed description of their position?" Jiang Weiming let out a sigh of relief and quickly followed up with a question.

"Wait a moment." Yan Yu held the incense burner in his hands and poured True Yuan into it, "I'll send everyone out first."

No sooner had he finished speaking than everyone's vision started whirling. When they regained focus, they found themselves back in the depths of the Wuyi Mountains.

Yan Yu tossed the incense burner into Jiang Weiming's arms, who clumsily caught it, and heard him continue to say:

Stay connected with empire

"I've loosened the control authority, as long as you hold it, you can control the entry and exit of the Mysterious Realm, manipulate the restrictions, command the creatures and monitor the interior of the Mysterious Realm, etc.… The specific functions, you can study slowly, there should be nothing for us here anymore."

If comparing it to a chat group, Yan Yu was the group owner, and after he loosened the permissions, anyone holding this control mechanism would become an administrator.

An administrator can do anything in the group except for kicking out the group owner, but the group owner can dismiss the administrator at any time.

Of course, Yan Yu couldn't possibly stay near the Wuyi Mountains to cooperate with the local military in developing the Mysterious Realm for a long time, so it was very necessary to loosen the control rights.

But Zhao Yuanzhen couldn't understand this matter, after everyone left the valley, she ran to Yan Yu's side and asked with suspicion:

"Why did you give the control mechanism to him?"

"Otherwise?" Yan Yu asked back, "What use is it to keep it with us?"

"We could sneak in and scavenge all the treasures inside." Zhao Yuanzhen still thought like a traditional cultivator, revealing a somewhat greedy little expression, laughing hehe, "It would all be ours."

"Shift your perspective a bit." Yan Yu said persuasively, "Imagine you're the personal disciple of a major sect leader, and the sect leader asks you to hand over all the treasures you obtain from the Mysterious Realm. Then he rewards you in the name of sect contributions. After the treasures are stored in the inner treasury, you apply to the sect leader to use the treasures again… You get it?"

Zhao Yuanzhen was silent for a moment, uncertain:

"So the treasures go around once, and still end up in our hands, but the sect rewards are free gains."Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Pretty much." Yan Yu calmly explained, "In cultivation, there are wealth, companions, Dharma, and land; among them, 'wealth' isn't about having the most, but about having the best. Whether you get three or five Flying Swords in the Mysterious Realm really makes no difference, because eventually, you'll only use the strongest one among them; the rest will just gather dust in a corner...

What we need to ensure is that we can 100% take back that strongest Flying Sword after we submit it."

"Can this be guaranteed?" Zhao Yuanzhen asked doubtfully.

"Definitely." Yan Yu smiled, "After the scientific registration is complete, all proceeds from this Mysterious Realm will belong to the Zhendong Army, which will be responsible for allocation. Our team is the strongest in the Zhendong Army, and we can even speak with the principal, so if it's really something that can increase our combat power, how could we possibly not get it?

If you're really not reassured, I'll go speak with Old Li, we can reserve it internally in advance, and then it's all settled."

"Speaking of which, isn't it too early to go back to Jinling now?" Lin Ning suggested, "Maybe we can tour around the Wuyi Mountains?"

"I support that." Su Yunjin said excitedly, "What's fun around here?"

"There are plenty of places to have fun." Lin Ning, being a local from Minhai Province, stood up to introduce, "You can take a bamboo raft at the Nine-bend River, or climb Tianyou Peak. My dad orders tea from here every year; if you guys want some, I can arrange it with a phone call home."

"Then let's enjoy ourselves here for a day." Yan Yu quickly responded to the will of the people, waving his hand grandly, "We'll go back to Jinling tomorrow."

————————

When it came to traveling, Yan Yu remembered times in his past life when he and Chen Lingyun had traveled together on many occasions.

The two were not boyfriend and girlfriend, although they had slept together a few times, it was Chen Lingyun who initiated it—back then, she was just over thirty with no dating experience, and doing such things was probably just out of curiosity, or simply a hormonal impulse. Later, she said it didn't feel meaningful, so it naturally didn't continue.

Yan Yu had to admit that in his past life, he indeed harbored some latent, unspeakable affection for her.

They say a woman remembers the first man she's with, this theorem actually applies to men as well, but whether it applied to Chen Lingyun or not was uncertain.

Over time, this affection gradually faded away... but perhaps there was also a possibility, that it was hidden away?

What exactly was the relationship between his past self and Chen Lingyun, even Yan Yu himself couldn't clarify.

Sometimes he would feel an intense urge to confess to her, other times he loathed her for her ambiguous and evasive ways. His parents would occasionally complain that his matrimonial prospects were delayed because of her, and Yan Yu had no retorts, but until the very end, he had no feelings for any woman other than Chen Lingyun.

There is an old saying: it's hard to find water like the ocean once you've seen it; with Chen Lingyun's exceptional beauty and family background, it was indeed tough to find a match. But if he were to lower his standards and look elsewhere, he still felt dissatisfied.

So should this contemptible woman be considered his white moonlight or his cinnabar mole?

For now, let's just assume she's the white moonlight.

Then in this life, Yan Yu found it even stranger that he no longer yearned for his white moonlight.

When he said to her at school, "Little Ling Yun, you have been dumped by me," he actually meant the Chen Lingyun from his past life.

As for why... maybe it was because he couldn't stand her trashiness any longer, so after being reborn, he suddenly saw through it all?

"Yan Yu, come here." Standing by the scenic spot Xian Yu Pool, Chen Lingyun called him over with her phone, "Take a photo for me."

"Ask Secretary Su to take it for you," Yan Yu said.

Chen Lingyun glanced to the side, and Yan Yu saw Lin Ning standing at the edge of the mountain railing, smiling brilliantly, embracing and taking pictures with Su Yunjin and Zhao Yuanzhen.

Seeing the Demonic Sect Enchantress in such high spirits, she seemed not to be forcibly dragged there... No matter, assimilation of ideas, there is no need for alarm.

"Fine." Yan Yu took Chen Lingyun's phone and crouched down to find the best angle for the shot.

The princess's appearance was indeed both exquisite and perfect, her smile so sweet, it almost overflowed from the screen, like a mix of honey and maple syrup.

In his past life, he had taken countless pictures of her, and Yan Yu knew her photo preferences like the back of his hand.

"Done," he said, returning the phone to her.

Chen Lingyun looked at the photo, pleased with it from every angle and thought to herself, not without reason, he is my "dear" from a former life, then suddenly smiled and asked:

"Do you want to take a few pictures with me here?"

"Let's not," Yan Yu shook his head, "If you were bathing in Xian Yu Pool, I would be willing to take a group photo with you."

"Aren't you afraid someone else might see my body?" Chen Lingyun asked with a beaming smile.

Before Yan Yu could respond, he was interrupted by Lin Ning's shout:

"Yan Yu! Ling Yun! Come over for a group photo!"

.........

Click!

.........

As they descended the mountain, Yan Yu pulled out his phone again, looking at the photo Lin Ning posted in the group chat.

In the center stood the tallest himself, on the left second was Zhao Yuanzhen, confidently smiling with arms crossed, left first was Lin Ning attempting to make a heart gesture and failing, on the right second Chen Lingyun leaned against the railing, lazily smiling, and on the right first Su Yunjin with her arm linked in Chen's, shyly smiling.

Hmph.

This group photo, isn't it better looking than a couple's photo?