Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Yan Yu in action!

If an enemy that even Liu Longtao cannot handle, the Lu Contry will have to enlist him to solve the problem.

Before setting out, Yan Yu went to the Privy Council to retrieve the relevant satellite records and discovered that at the time of the incident, Liu Longtao was moving eastward along Rikugawa with great speed, occasionally turning back to cast Taoism Methods towards... empty spaces.

It was clear that the enemy was optically invisible.

Although invisible in the surveillance footage, one could infer some data about this invisible enemy through Liu Longtao's counterattacks.

Speed: Extremely fast. It could catch up with the speed of Sword Control and fly, turning swiftly.

Size: Large. It forced Lord Master to continuously use large-area Taoism attacks.

Attack methods: Unknown. Also invisible, but judging by Liu Longtao's frequent sharp turns, it was definitely not something that could be easily ignored.

Liu Longtao finally entered a nearby house, which then collapsed, and no one ever came out again—that was the place Yan Yu was going to investigate this time.

Yan Yu didn't conceal his whereabouts along the way, brazenly flying in the air with Sword Control. The plains below were filled with city streets, but few pedestrians or cars passed by, giving the area a lifeless appearance.

According to the intelligence provided by the Lord Master, it was said that Orochi could create avatars and camouflage itself, which was much more daunting than any "100-meter-tall Godzilla."

Godzilla simply stood in place, causing all attack firepowers to automatically lock onto it. If a monster disguised as a human mixed into a crowd, even the cultivators from Lu Contry would have to scan each individual with Divine Sense, and prohibit anyone from leaving the scene.

Upon reaching the destination, he didn't see a single person. It seemed the Yin Yang Bureau had already met its doom.

Yan Yu landed in front of the house. There was no need for Divine Sense to recognize something amiss—the house appeared to have been sliced in half from above, taking everyone inside with it.

Mourning for Lord Master for a moment, Yan Yu was about to step into the house when he suddenly heard someone say:

"Who are you looking for?"

Yan Yu turned his head to find a middle-aged man standing in front of him, dressed like a businessperson in a suit and tie, with hair slicked back with hair oil. His originally spirited demeanor was entirely disrupted by his vacant eyes.

Huh?

He immediately sensed something was off.

For normal people, vision accounts for more than 80% of the brain's information intake. However, cultivators relied on their eyes and Divine Sense. For someone of Yan Yu's level, sweeping with Divine Sense was as normal as eating, drinking, or breathing.

The man in front of him was strange because, within the range of his eyesight, he didn't exist; yet, under the Divine Sense scan, he was clearly standing there.

In Lu Contry, many invisible Yin Ghosts exhibited similar traits, so this alone wasn't particularly odd. The real concern was that Yan Yu had no idea when this man had approached him.

Even if you emerged from the ground, there should have been some process of emerging, right? How could I not have observed anything?

Yan Yu's mind raced with countless thoughts in a flash, but then he heard a woman's voice ask from his side:

"Who are you looking for?"

The speaker was similarly using Lu Contry's language but with a slightly hoarse female voice. Though there was no human figure within his peripheral vision, Divine Sense revealed a middle-aged woman holding a basket of groceries. She wore heavy makeup, her eyes vacant and lifeless.

It was as if she had materialized out of thin air.

Yan Yu scanned the surroundings with Divine Sense. Within five or six seconds, the area around him filled with manifested people: students, young adults, elderly, children... all of different ages, occupations, and genders, staring straight at him, repeatedly mouthing the same question:

"Who are you looking for?"

His response was countless razor-sharp blasts of Sword Qi.

Although these ghost-like beings hadn't attacked, he couldn't wait for them to set up formations or barriers. With a subtle hand gesture forming a Sword technique, the Liangyi Micro Dust Sword Array manifested, and within moments, the thousands of ghostly creatures around him were completely slaughtered.

Bodies were severed, flesh scattering, but quickly dissolving into ichor, staining the ground crimson.

Before Yan Yu could sigh in relief, a multitude of fresh humanoid ghosts began "refreshing" nearby, men and women of all ages charging at him furiously and wordlessly!

Yan Yu ascended with Sword Control, escaping from the crowd, then swiftly turned around after flying several hundred meters, holding the Huangting Kunwu Sword poised in front of his chest.

He slashed.

After Core Formation, a Sword Immortal's True Yuan exponentially increased. If they fully unleashed the Sword Control Technique, they could readily command Sword Gang, or Sword Qi.

In the past, when Li Minghu faced the Witch King Allied Forces, one sword strike killed the Witch King and another split the sea, annihilating the army. Although he ultimately fell, he earned the title of Valkyrie, demonstrating the immense power of Sword Gang in decimating vast numbers of low-level enemies!

The Sword Gang cleaved through the air, effortlessly tearing through numerous humanoid ghosts, whose bodies exploded and rained blood, drenching the surrounding streets in crimson. Yan Yu didn't hesitate further, turning and speeding away with Sword Control. More humanoid ghosts continuously refreshed around him, but he left them all behind, even though they couldn't keep up, they still pursued relentlessly.

In past lifetimes, Orochi was never known to possess such bizarre and insidious techniques!

Yan Yu scanned the rear with Divine Sense and saw a massive dark red shadow rising from the blood-soaked town.

Something was emerging from the blood.

————————————

Meanwhile, Lu Contry's Privy Council had already fallen into an extraordinary state of emergency.

Because as Yan Yu approached Liu Longtao's last known location, he too suddenly vanished where he stood.

Examining the satellite footage in slow motion, one could see Yan Yu's scalp disappearing first, followed by his head, then his upper and lower body, and lastly, his feet, completely wiped away.

There was no evidence of a fight or wreckage at the scene. Rather than saying Yan Yu had died, it seemed more like he had fallen into some sort of "invisible" state.

Or, in Onmyoji terms: Divine Concealment.

The disappearance of Lu Contry's top Divine General swiftly incited great alarm at the highest levels. Someone proposed sending a third wave of Golden Core Cultivator for support, but this was quickly and unanimously rejected by vote.

The reason was simple: without understanding the plight of Yan Yu and Liu Longtao, it made no sense to send in more Golden Core True Men just to "save Grandpa" like a Gourd Boy tale.

Ichiro Wei was urgently re-interrogated, but unfortunately, his knowledge was too limited, he knew practically nothing.

As the Lord Master's last contact, Chen Lingyun was also required to attend the emergency meeting. After watching the slowed-down satellite footage and listening to the experts' analyses and speculations, she suddenly said:

"I think they're all wrong. If they had been suddenly dragged into a Mysterious Realm, their whole bodies should have been teleported in at once, not disappearing from top to bottom sequentially."

"But we don't fully understand the teleportation mechanics of a Mysterious Realm." An attending expert said, "Is Chongying's teleportation mechanism the same as ours? With too little intelligence, this possibility must still be considered."

"Even so, at best it adds 'being drawn into a Mysterious Realm' as a possibility." Chen Lingyun calmly stated, "We should guess the most likely scenario, for example..."

"Were they swallowed by an invisible Orochi?"

The meeting fell silent. After a moment, Chen Tianming asked:

"Did you possess him with a Yin Ghost, and witness this yourself?"

"No." Chen Lingyun shook her head. "I haven't cultivated Ear and Eye Communication to that depth; the monitoring distance is too far."

The room remained quiet, so you really possessed him with a Yin Ghost, huh?

"Orochi has eight heads and eight tails," Chen Lingyun said indifferently, "The snake surrounds itself, creating the boundary of infinity, forming a small world. Yan Yu and Liu Longtao were swallowed by Orochi, entering a world within its belly. That's my hypothesis."

"Hypotheses can be bold," Chen Tianming looked around and discussed with everyone, "but verification must be cautious."

"Then one more exploration," consensus was quickly reached.

"I'll go." Chen Lingyun volunteered, "I'll bring cross-realm transmission cameras and leave a Yin Ghost outside."

"If I disappear, but can send signals out, it confirms a Mysterious Realm."

"If totally out of contact, don't bother investigating further, just wait for us to break out from inside."