Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest
Chapter 965: 22 Mei Meets Zhao

Chapter 965: Chapter 22 Mei Meets Zhao

Among the top cultivators, Yan Yu is quite familiar with Liu Longtao, Li Zhaojiang, and others. They often joked and teased each other in the group chat. Since they all were team leaders and had similar status, they were once jokingly referred to as the “Trio of Harmful Friends.”

Now, the gap between the three of them has been completely widened.

Li Zhaojiang remains a team leader, with no change in status, but that’s pretty much it. When the Annan Army needs to consult with a representative of the Qing’an Team on matters related to cultivators, they tend to prefer talking to the vice-captain, Li Minghu.

Liu Longtao, on the other hand, has become the number one cultivator of the Dingbei Army, sitting on an equal footing with the Army’s leaders (or even actually a notch above). The difference from Li Zhaojiang is that Dragon Soar Team needs him as their captain, rather than him needing a Dragon Soar Team in his hands.

Yan Yu is the most badass among the three, and is now genuinely regarded as Lu Country’s number one cultivator. His difference from Liu Longtao is that while Liu still serves as the captain of a team, Yan Yu hasn’t done so for a while—his strength is so overwhelming that handling five at once would be a burden, wasting the potential of a Lu Country Sword Holder like him.

Although their status and power have clearly diverged, their relationship with each other has not changed at all. Liu Longtao prides himself as the brother who played matchmaker for Yan Yu and Ye Jun, while Li Zhaojiang, bolstered by his sister Li Minghu’s presence, is boisterous and unafraid of Yan Yu… This goes to show that having too many women around isn’t necessarily a good thing, as it invites a bunch of inexplicable relationships.

In the laboratory, Mei Yingxue also fell silent upon seeing the huge pile of items that Yan Yu had brought back.

The items were varied, mostly Magic Treasures and then Flying Swords. There were those that could calculate the timing and batches of heavenly tribulations, those that could shoot out a large amount of Sword Qi over extremely long distances, and even some that could automatically evade danger when activated… Though diverse, what they had in common was that they all conserved True Yuan, and their owners did not need to enter the fray, which makes them quite suitable for handling Tribulation Thunder.

Passing a tribulation is different from magical combat. In combat against others, what matters is ferocity and intensity—killing your opponent with an unstoppable and powerful force, so the ideal Magic Treasure Flying Swords usually consume a lot of True Yuan, as greater power equates to higher consumption of True Yuan, an eternal truth.

Crossing tribulations, however, is a different story. Tribulation Thunder does not dodge or evade and doesn’t cast Defensive Magic to block, so even the most ordinary Flying Sword can easily blast it apart. The problem lies in the vast number of thunder strikes and their explosive power which is so formidable that it can often destroy the Magic Treasure Flying Swords themselves.

Thus, items like the Enchantress’ White Bone Heart-Locking Hammer are perfect for striking down Transcendents but are a waste for crossing tribulations—destroying one Tribulation Thunder blast, and the Heart-locking Hammer explodes, such a loss for the crafter.

Cultivators judge the quality of a Magic Treasure Flying Sword based on its suitability for combat with others, and the “treasures” selected through this process aren’t necessarily fit for crossing tribulations.

In other words, the fact that Yan Yu managed to find such a varied collection of items suitable for passing tribulations from all over the place is truly puzzling—how did he manage to do it?

“Hmm.” Regardless, now that the items have been laid out, Mei Yingxue, as the head of the cultivation research department, still had to give an overall evaluation, “These items, when looked at individually, are basically useful for crossing tribulations…”

“But to construct the most effective tactical system against a heavenly tribulation for a cultivator about to pass one, we still need to study it carefully,” Li Minghu agreed.

Of course, these were wise words, and the girls all nodded in agreement.

There were a dozen Magic Treasure Flying Swords, all unfamiliar and unseen before. Suddenly handing them to you to use while crossing a tribulation, and when the Tribulation Thunder comes, you wouldn’t know which one to use in the chaos, turning into “Doraemon.”

“Let all Magic Treasures and Flying Swords be used by cultivators who are about to cross tribulations. They need to personally familiarize themselves with the attributes and True Yuan consumption of each one,” Su Yunjin added.

Secretary Su’s mind is also sharp, but she has a too laid-back personality. In the past, unless Yan Yu asked her a question directly, she would generally not speak up on her own initiative.

Now as Yan Yu’s woman, with the idea of competing for her husband, she naturally needed to change her previously low-profile style and firmly establish her presence.

“Indeed,” Ye Jun said in agreement, “all these Magic Treasure Flying Swords have owners. Although they are only on loan, treasures have spirituality. The longer you hold them, the less they obey, so the owners must sort them out again before crossing tribulation.”

This is yet another headache. Magic Treasure Flying Swords are particular about their owners: when controlled by their owner, they operate as easily as their own limbs. When activated by others, they become uncooperative. Yan Yu would request to borrow them, and their owners would order them to behave, temporarily suppressing their spirituality, but over time they would gradually revert to their old ways.

The safest course of action would be to kill their original owners, and completely sever the Qi Mechanism connection with the Magic Treasure Flying Swords—of course, that would lead to another consequence: cultivators in the wild would then tightly guard their own treasures, refusing to acknowledge them even when discovered, and would never dare to lend them to officials again.

Yan Yu is someone who tends to be reasonable. He didn’t opt for murder and looting, so the cost was that these Magic Treasure Flying Swords had to have their original owners command them every so often, refreshing the Divine Sense order like flashing a smartphone.

This is actually quite troublesome because the time and location of a cultivator’s tribulation are theoretically supposed to be strictly confidential, so original owners cannot be allowed to refresh, and instead, each Magic Treasure Flying Sword must be returned to its owner for flashing…