Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

"How did you know?"

"She communicated with me telepathically when we first met," Su Yunjin responded, "and asked me to play along with her act."

"Then why wouldn't she communicate with me?" Zhao Yuanzhen huffed indignantly.

"It's probably because you're a bit slow to react, Sister Zhao," Su Yunjin sighed, "Just now, when I told you the truth, didn't you look astonished? At that moment, countless evil ghosts were present. If your expression was even slightly off, it would have been seen through immediately, which would have been bad."

"Even so, you shouldn't have kept it from me!" Zhao Yuanzhen argued weakly, defensively adding, "If it was a feigned surrender, you could have just thrown a note to me, and I'd have known afterwards, right?"

Su Yunjin saw that she was just trying to save face; therefore, she continued telepathically in a calm tone:

"The situation was complex at that time, Ling Yun could not have done much better. Anyway, according to her plan, we just needed to act ignorant and cooperate with Yin Rou in resisting the Ghost King. The stronger Yin Rou's resistance, the more the Ghost King would rely on Ling Yun, giving her the opportunity to make more plans."

"Hmph." Zhao Yuanzhen was still somewhat fuming, gritting her teeth, "She likes to play with conspiracies and tricks. This time she deceived even me, next time she might deceive you too, Yun Jin. You must be very careful."

Su Yunjin just gave a slight smile, staying silent.

Both of them were telepathically communicating in the courtyard, naturally not leaking a word, but their facial expressions were clearly observed by a paperman peering through a hole in the wall outside.

The information went back to Yin Rou, and she found nothing unusual with it. After all, feeling resentful after a defeat was natural; calmness might just indicate a deep strategic mind, not easily swayed by emotions.

Quietly elevating her assessment of Su Yunjin and diminishing that of Zhao Yuanzhen, Yin Rou then officially began to move troops, preparing for a full-scale assault on Evil Ghost Street!

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Yan Yu and Li Minghu activated their Invisibility Technique, infiltrating Evil Ghost Street from the southwest direction, only to find that the patrol force here was not as strong as before, completely different from the swarms of evil ghosts they had seen previously.

Naturally, they did not know it was Chen Lingyun, that wretched woman, who had stirred the Ghost King and Ghost Mother into full-scale war, and now the main forces had already attacked the Paperman foundry, leaving far fewer troops here... However, fewer enemies were, of course, a welcomed relief, so they sped up, heading toward taller buildings in the distance.

Li Minghu's body was eroded by yin energy, increasingly weakening, occasionally stepping aside from surrounding evil ghosts to cover her mouth and cough lightly, with traces of blood in her sputum.

She dared not let Yan Yu know but continued forward as if nothing happened.

But with past life experience, Yan Yu, knowing Li Minghu's stubborn character of pretending nothing was wrong, wasn't fooled by her act. Whenever Li Minghu seemed tired, he would silently offer her an Elixir Medicine to take.

Initially, Li Minghu tried to refuse, since Elixir Medicine meant sustaining her longer, but Yan Yu insisted, and not wanting to waste too much time, she eventually let herself be persuaded.

After taking the Elixir Medicine, her body would warm up considerably. However, as it was eroded by the surrounding yin energy, it would slowly become cold and weak again.

Over time, she gradually developed a sort of dependency and compliance toward Yan Yu, taking the Elixir Medicine without concern about "whether she would burden him".

Using their Art of Invisibility, they avoided the main patrols and finally made it deep into Evil Ghost Street.

This area was essentially the strongholds of the Ghost King Xue Ren, thus quite a number of troops were stationed here, different from the thinned presence in the periphery.

Yan Yu observed carefully for a moment, realizing there was likely no route that could bypass this area, they had to break through.

Just as he was about to remind Li Minghu to prepare for battle, a thunderous boom suddenly reverberated from a distance.

The boom startled the evil ghosts here, and soon, about a third of the evil ghosts departed, rushing towards the direction of the sound to reinforce them.

Someone was causing trouble at the periphery of Evil Ghost Street! Yan Yu was immediately overjoyed, thinking, although he didn't know who it was, this attack came at just the right moment.

With the forces drawn away, breaches finally appeared in their defenses, Yan Yu led Li Minghu quietly through the gaps, avoiding several patrol squads of fierce ghosts, and finally approached the outer structures.

This was a typical Taoist area, consisting of the Reception Hall, several rows of chambers, an incense burner square, and the temple at the furthest end. A circle of walls over three meters tall surrounded the area, with only the Reception Hall at the front serving as the sole entrance.

Yan Yu tentatively tried but found indeed, he couldn't penetrate the walls or fly over them using clouds, a typical cross-over ban—many cultivator capabilities would set such restrictions in their personal domains or sect realms, sometimes extending to the entire Mysterious Realm, with regulations like "Wall-Penetration Ban, Flight." Inversely, encountering such regulations indicated that the location inside was surely significant.

This place must be what the old cultivator referred to as "Yin God's Residence!"

Yan Yu led Li Minghu through the Reception Hall and had just entered the central square when suddenly, Li Minghu said:

"Something's not right. If this place is truly important, why is there no one guarding the door of the Reception Hall?"

"Indeed," Yan Yu pondered for a moment before saying, "No guards imply that there's no fear of lone souls or stray ghosts sneaking in. This means there might be some Formation or a powerful adversary here, so there's no need for any guards..."

He suddenly felt a chill, turned around, and saw that the Reception Hall behind them had vanished without a trace.