Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

After Chen Lingyun successfully crossed the tribulation, the next one was Li Zhaojiang.

Although this brother-in-law was in the profession of a Magic Cultivator, he had to wait until all the other Magic Cultivators had crossed their tribulations before it was his turn, indicating his level of talent was evident.

However, crossing the Core Formation stage late also has its advantages. With the explosive increase in industrialized production now, the supply of Ten Thousand Bamboo Swords and Xuan Guang Rulers was sufficient, making the difficulty of undergoing tribulation incomparable to when Yan Yu did it.

Li Zhaojiang himself was not nervous at all and still stayed up late playing games every night. Li Minghu couldn't do anything about it, so he could only complain to Yan Yu:

"Does he think undergoing tribulation is like playing a game, where as long as the stats are up, he can just lie down and win? What if something goes wrong during the tribulation? Yan Yu, can you help me persuade him?"

"I'm afraid my persuasion would have the opposite effect," Yan Yu said, "You know his attitude towards me."

"No," Li Minghu said, "Although he usually likes to bicker with you, the ones he respects the most are you and Liu Longtao. He will definitely take your words seriously."

"Hmm, I understand." Yan Yu asked casually, "What's the game he's been playing recently?"

After getting the answer, Yan Yu went to find Xie Ruoxi and told her about it.

"He's about to undergo a tribulation, and he's still playing games?" Xie Ruoxi was shocked, "Is he crazy? When I was undergoing tribulation, I even abandoned my favorite anime completely and spent every day researching how to undergo tribulation! His heart is too big!"

"You didn't seem to research that much at the time either," Yan Yu chuckled, "I prepared the plans for you, and you kept forgetting them after memorizing, making all the efforts in vain."

"Well..." Xie Ruoxi's eyes widened immediately, "I was preparing for tribulation! How could it be in vain? Forgetting and then memorizing again, isn't that normal! Zhang Wuji also first learned and forgot when learning Tai Chi boxing from Zhang Sanfeng..."

"Okay, stop it." Yan Yu made a stop gesture, "I'm not mocking you, I'm just asking you: How can we effectively help a gaming addict like him quit his addiction?"

"Electric therapy." Xie Ruoxi extended her right hand, conjuring a ball of Thunder Light, "Give him a few full courses, not only will he quit his gaming addiction, but he might even report his parents' crimes."

"Stop fooling around." Yan Yu knocked on her head, "I'm not joking; I need a genuinely effective method."

"Oh." Xie Ruoxi hugged her head and thought, Captain, you are so concerned about Li Zhaojiang just to please his sister Li Minghu? You have no shame asking me to help you woo her. "That's simple, just find some professional gamers to ambush and kill him in the game every day. Once he's pissed off and starts cursing the game, his addiction will be cured, right?"

"Wouldn't he get suspicious?" Yan Yu began to consider the feasibility, "If it's the same batch of IDs, he might think something's wrong, right?"

"Then contact the game company." Xie Ruoxi said, "Disguise the game IDs and modify the matching mechanism so that he only matches with those people, repeatedly crushing him until he doubts his life."

"You..." Yan Yu looked at her with a sidelong glance, "Even though you seem harmless normally, you have a stomach full of bad ideas when it comes to things like this."

"Ehehe~" Xie Ruoxi giggled foolishly, "What are you saying? I don't understand. I just know more about games. Captain, if you trust me, just leave this to me."

"Alright, I'll leave it to you then." Yan Yu gladly let go, "If you need to liaise with the game company, just do it in the name of the Zhendong Army and ask your new assistant."

The assistant system, currently being piloted by the Privy Council, aims to replace the team system to serve Golden Core True Men. Its specifics are simple: each Golden Core True Man gets a dedicated assistant to liaise with the Privy Council, somewhat similar to ancient confidants or strategists.

After all, cultivators only need to fight on the front lines, whereas the Privy Council has more complex considerations that might not naturally align with the cultivators' thinking.

In the past, cultivators didn't need to understand the decisions from above; they just executed them. But Golden Core True Men can't be handled this way. Any miscommunication might lead to disunity, which Lu Country can't afford, thus needing a "Golden Core True Man Assistant" role to facilitate communication and coordination.

In simple terms, it's about pampering the Golden Core True Men.

Zhendong Army assigned a new assistant to Xie Ruoxi named Wang. Yan Yu didn't know her full name, but she was a fairly young girl adept at reading manga, watching anime, gaming, and even drawing 2D characters with a graphics tablet. She spent all day gaming and discussing new releases with Xie Ruoxi, seemingly unprofessional... but Yan Yu didn't truly consider her an otaku girl.

"Assistant?" Xie Ruoxi hesitated, "Can she really do it?"

"Ask her first," Yan Yu said.

Xie Ruoxi took out her phone and sent a message to Assistant Wang.

"Got it, Sister Ruoxi." The other side immediately replied, "Leave it to me."

"See?" Yan Yu smiled, "These Golden Core True Man assistants have the military manor and the Privy Council backing them. Their power is immense. You think of her as a fellow otaku and drag her into gaming all day."

"Ahem." Xie Ruoxi blushed, "I thought... I thought she was specially found for me to play games with."

"That's not wrong," Yan Yu said, "To gain the recognition and trust of a Golden Core True Man, catering to their interests is the quickest way. But don't reverse the roles and actually use her just as a gaming buddy."

After chatting casually for a moment, Xie Ruoxi curiously asked:

"By the way, Yan Yu, who is your assigned assistant?"

"I don't have one," Yan Yu replied.

"Huh, why?" Xie Ruoxi was puzzled.

The answer was self-evident. The assistant liaises between the Golden Core True Men and the Lu Country Privy Council. Does Yan Yu need such a liaison? No. He can directly contact Li Weiguo and Chen Tianming. He has the authority to talk directly to the Privy Council. Can other cultivators do that?

"Because Chen Lingyun is my assistant," Yan Yu replied.

"Oh," Xie Ruoxi didn't think further and innocently asked, "So the higher-ups assigning Lingyun was also to cater to your preferences?"

"What are you babbling on about?" Yan Yu's expression darkened, "Catering to my preferences? She applied to be my assistant on her own accord, insisting on following me around! What does that have to do with me?"

"Oh, I see." Xie Ruoxi realized, thinking Sister Lingyun moved quickly, I shouldn't lag behind, "Can I be your assistant too?"

"You?" Yan Yu frowned, "What can you do?"

"I can watch shows and play games with you," Xie Ruoxi listed, "I can wear different pretty clothes for you and provide you with ample emotional value..."

"Can you manage to stay still for half an hour?" Yan Yu impatiently interrupted.

Xie Ruoxi's face turned red with shame, she couldn't say anything and left covering her face.

"That was too harsh," Chen Lingyun's light and seemingly amused voice came from behind, "You're bullying little Ruoxi again. Aren't you afraid she'll team up with Sister Zhao to deal with you next time?"

"Ridiculous, even if both come at me, I'm not afraid," Yan Yu calmly turned around, "Lingyun, when did you arrive?"

"Since she sent the message to her assistant," Chen Lingyun deactivated the Invisibility Technique and said, "Now that I've formed my core, I can proceed with some of my plans."

"Come with me, I have something to show you."

Although she spoke mysteriously, Chen Lingyun often did this in their past life, so Yan Yu didn't pay much attention and just followed her, curious to see what she'd discovered.

They sword flew away from the Wudang Mountain base towards the west.

As the altitude of their sword light dropped, Yan Yu looked at the familiar scenery below and suddenly remembered.

This place was the Shuanggui Mountain secret realm, where the Zhenhai Team and Huofeng Team first conducted a simulated exercise. Before taking the secret realm core, many ghostly creatures had leaked and escaped, once impacting the transportation and shipping lines on both sides of the Yangtze River.

As a Necromancer, it was perfectly legitimate for Chen Lingyun to come to this secret realm to capture ghostly creatures. After submitting their higher-ups' approval note to the sentries at the entrance, they were granted seamless access into the secret realm.

Within the secret realm, it was still eerie and foggy as when they first entered. This place, a prison for ghosts, still didn't have a better use by Lu Country other than stationing troops to guard against ghostly creatures escaping.

After traversing a long mountain road, they arrived before the Yin Palace gates. The square that was once guarded by a Bull-headed Ghost had now become the Pingxi Army's frontline outpost. Deeper into the palace, the terrain wasn't open enough for effective ambush prevention, and communication signals were poor, so this was the furthest forward line.

Chen Lingyun presented the approval note, and they were granted passage again. As they went up the Yin Palace steps, Yan Yu suddenly asked:

"Have you been taking leave to investigate this secret realm?"

"Not just this one," Chen Lingyun smiled faintly, "I've explored every secret realm related to Yin Ghosts, both domestic and abroad."

"The so-called Ghost Prison Secret Realms are mostly created by Ghost Summoner sects or powerful beings who captured and confined large amounts of ghostly creatures to have them fight and devour each other, essentially using ghosts to nourish ghosts."

"Only two places are connected to the earth vein Yin mansion, thus there's no need to capture ghostly creatures from the outside, as ghosts come naturally from the Netherworld continuously."

"One was the southern underground secret realm where you obtained the Sun True Dullness Sword Intent. Pure Land Sect used the earth vein Yin mansion to cultivate a large number of high-level ghostly creatures to fend off the Infinite Sword Sect's sword puppets."

"The other is this Shuanggui Mountain secret realm."

"Hmm," Yan Yu reflected, "Ghostly creatures emerging from the earth vein Yin mansion might not be as strong as those cultivated through ghost-rearing practices, but having been nourished by pure Yin Qi, their potential would be higher. But given your current status, you could have someone stationed here to screen the ghostly creatures for you. There's no need to personally attend to this."

"Dear, have you truly forgotten or are you just pretending?" Chen Lingyun's smile grew brighter, with a touch of mild dissatisfaction and warning, "Since this secret realm is connected to the earth vein Yin mansion, we naturally can proceed to the earth vein Yin mansion from here."

"You still think of rebuilding the Yin Department?" Yan Yu was shocked, "But don't you know how difficult it is?"

"Of course I know." Chen Lingyun smiled serenely, "But so what?"