Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Su Yunjin finished cleaning the second floor and came down, only to see Lin Ning chasing Yan Yu around the house with a soup spoon.

"Don't run!"

"Don't chase me!"

"Explain yourself before you leave!"

"You're one to talk!"

"What's going on with you two?" Su Yunjin saw the two of them shouting joyously and, without changing her expression, sent a telepathic message.

Although her tone was calm, it seemed to carry an inherent gravitation that immediately quieted the two who were still in pursuit.

"It's nothing." Lin Ning concealed the unusual color on her face and said, "The captain irritates me every day, and I need to teach him a lesson."

"If there's anything to discuss, sit down and talk it through," Su Yunjin said with a smile. "Fighting won't solve your problems."

"...Though there isn't really any problem to solve," Lin Ning muttered before turning back to the kitchen.

Su Yunjin watched her leave the living room and then turned back to Yan Yu with a smile:

"Can the captain stop bullying Ningning?"

"Don't listen to her nonsense, I did not bully her," Yan Yu immediately defended himself.

That Sister Lin suddenly became tsundere in the kitchen, saying something like "I am certainly not jealous for you," and how come I'm wrong when I point it out? It becomes bullying her?

"You didn't bully her?" Su Yunjin raised her eyebrows slightly and continued with a smile, "So, is the captain accusing Ningning of lying?"

Even though her voice was very gentle, an indescribable, heavy pressure still transmitted through the atmosphere.

Yan Yu stubbornly resisted this pressure, asking with an unchanged expression:

"Is the second floor cleaned up?"

"Is the captain trying to divert my question with a different topic?"

"Answer my question first."

"But I asked first."

"True, but I'm the captain."

"It's been cleaned," Su Yunjin said, somewhat annoyed. "I even changed your pillowcase and quilt cover."

"Then, thank you, Yun Jin," Yan Yu deftly changed the subject. "Since that's the case, how about I teach you the cultivation method for the Tao Transformation?"

Su Yunjin was silent for a moment, then said:

"Teach me in my room."

The second floor of the villa was the living area, with the room at the very end marked with a "Yan" sign. To the right were "Chen" and "Su," to the left were "Zhao" and "Lin," and Xie Ruoxi's study was next to the stairwell, also given a "Xie" sign.

There were also five vacant rooms with no signs on the doors, and their interiors were decorated as they were when the villa was purchased, temporarily serving as guest rooms.

Entering Su Yunjin's room, the first thing one smelled was a faint, almost imperceptible scent of flowers wafting slowly in from the direction of the balcony, lingering around the nose and not leaving for a long time.

She still loved flowers as much.

Su Yunjin made Yan Yu sit by the desk and poured him steaming hot tea. He accepted it, a thought suddenly leaping in his mind:

Could it be dosed with sleeping pills...

No, no, Yun Jin wouldn't do something like that! Right now, Yun Jin's love for me should still be at a normal level; she wouldn't go yandere to that extent...

While Yan Yu was lost in wild thoughts, he saw Su Yunjin stand in front of a towering bookshelf against the wall, take down a book, and hand it over to him:

"Here."

Yan Yu looked at the cover title, "Letter from an Unknown Woman," and scratched his head, asking:

"Are you lending it to me?"

"I could also give it to the captain," Su Yunjin replied. "I finished reading it in middle school."

Yan Yu quietly picked up his phone and searched for the book title.

Ah, it's about unrequited love...

"Let's discuss the Tao Transformation," Yan Yu placed the book on his lap and calmly said.

The Tao Transformation was unique to the way of spell cultivation.

Taking Su Yunjin's practice of the Water Taoism Method as an example, she would first need to cultivate the Gui Water Essence, then the Ren Water Essence, and finally combine them to refine the True Yuan of the Heavenly Water, thus forming the Acquired Water Tao Body where True Yuan could be considered inexhaustible—three stages in total.

To refine the Gui Water Essence, one must first collect Rootless Water, meaning rainwater, dew, and melted snow. The rainwater should come from a drizzle blown by a slanting wind, the dew should be the fresh morning dew, and the snow should be from the first snowfall.

Every day, a drop from each should be gathered and dripped onto the palm to be refined with True Yuan until the Gui Water Essence is formed.

"The fresh morning dew isn't too hard to manage," Su Yunjin pondered after listening to Yan Yu's description. "But this drizzle and water from the first snowfall, we need to wait for specific weather and timing, right?"

"No need," Yan Yu waved his hand. "Check the weather forecast in advance and then fly over to collect the water. Rain in the east while the sun is in the west, snow in the north with none in the south, running all over the country; you should be able to get it all done within a week. The difficulty mainly lies in the refinement process."

"Hmm," Su Yunjin fell silent for a moment, then forced a smile. "So, will the captain accompany me to collect the water? I'm worried I might make a mistake on my own and hinder the cultivation."

Although she spoke in a weak and pitiful tone, Yan Yu was far from succumbing to it and replied immediately:

"Actually, if it's just about collecting water, the people from the Environment Department can do it as well. However, the process of collecting it is part of the ritual; if you skip this step, you might face many unnecessary trials in heart refining later on..."

"Does this ritual require that I go alone?" Su Yunjin wasn't fooled by his explanation; instead, she keenly seized upon the key issue.

"…No, not necessarily."

"Can the captain accompany me?" Su Yunjin asked again.

"Uh, alright then." Yan Yu had no way out and thought that accompanying her to fetch some water was trivial.

Quack, I am the strongest in this world!

Of course, fetching water wasn't as simple as just deciding to do it; morning dew was easy enough, but for rain or snow involving celestial phenomena, it was necessary to go to Pingjing to consult with the Imperial Astronomical Bureau to confirm the weather conditions across the country.

"I'll go with you when the time is right," Yan Yu stood up.

"Okay." Su Yunjin picked up "A Letter from an Unknown Woman" and handed it over, "Don't forget your book."

Yan Yu took the book and decided that once he was back home, he would place it in a cabinet as a sacred object, only to be consulted during critical moments—sorry, I don't like stories with bad endings.

Back in his room, Yan Yu looked at the empty compartment in his cabinet and wondered if it might be better to fill it with something.

There were ten compartments in total; filling them all with books seemed odd, as he wasn't some great author.

Forget it, let's talk about this later.

He looked at the book in his hand, on the bottom right corner of the cover was signed "Su Yunjin" in three characters, written with the naive penmanship of her middle school days, each stroke was written with sincerity, the handwriting was neat and elegant.

Hmm?

Yan Yu noticed there seemed to be a bookmark enclosed within the book.

Pulling the bookmark out from between the pages, he saw a line written in the same naive script:

"The one she truly loved wasn't that man, but the reflection he left in the lake of her heart. Therefore, she never dared to reveal her true feelings to him, because once the man truly entered her lake of heart, the first thing to shatter would be the perfect yet illusory reflection she cherished so deeply."

Yan Yu was momentarily stunned, looking over the handwriting on the bookmark again to confirm that it was indeed from her middle school days and not something she had added recently to hint at something—Secretary Su likely forgot that the bookmark was even there; otherwise, she would have surely taken it out beforehand.

Heh, a literary girl.

In one of the ten compartments of the cabinet, he carelessly chose one and placed the book given by Su Yunjin with its cover facing outward.

Then he tucked the bookmark back into the pages.

But after thinking for a moment, he deliberately left a small portion of the bookmark sticking out—just enough so you had to look closely to notice it.

Hehehe~

Pleased with his clever scheme, Yan Yu suddenly heard Chen Lingyun's voice from outside:

"Yan Yu, are you in your room?"

"What's up?" He went over and opened the door.

Chen Lingyun stood outside, holding the Nine Heavens Yin Demon Prison Banner he had given her, smiling:

"Going down to the training ground, could you guide me a bit on how to use this?"

"Sure." Yan Yu held out one hand, palm facing up, "Tuition fee?"

Chen Lingyun paused, then took out her phone:

"Is transferring 200,000 enough?"

"That'll do, money means nothing to you and me," Yan Yu stroked his chin, "What I want is the most precious thing you have."

"Hmm~" Chen Lingyun tilted her head, thinking for a moment, "Do you want my first time?"

"Young lady, I ask you to have some self-respect." Yan Yu immediately became serious, "Stop thinking about taking advantage of the strong around you all day long; can you make a genuine effort to become stronger?"

"Then what do you want?"

"I've told you, your most precious thing."

After thinking, Chen Lingyun stretched her hands to her neck and untied a jade pendant strung on a red thread, upon which was carved the figure of Guanyin:

"Here, take it."

"What is this?" Yan Yu frowned.
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"It's a protective amulet my mother got for me from the temple when I was a child," Chen Lingyun explained, "It was supposedly blessed by a high-ranking Buddhist monk; wearing it is said to ward off disasters. I've worn it up to now, never taking it off even when showering; it's been almost 20 years."

"Uh…" Yan Yu suddenly felt stuck and didn't immediately reach for it, hinting at her to reconsider, "This really is precious, why are you willing to give it to me?"

"Hmm~" Chen Lingyun wasn't planning to retract her offer, she simply smiled sweetly, "If we are talking about warding off disasters, I think Immortal Venerate Yan is more reliable."

Yan Yu was silent for a moment, took the jade pendant from her hand, went back into his room, found a shelf to place it on, and then carried the shelf to another compartment of the cabinet.

"Is that from Yun Jin?" Chen Lingyun stood next to him, eyeing the paper book in the cabinet.

"Yes," Yan Yu replied.

"Yun Jin is really endearing~" Chen Lingyun's eyes curved into a smile, "So are you collecting something like a token of bond from everyone?"

"Just finding something to fill the space and decorate, that's all."

"Oh." Chen Lingyun blinked, hiding whatever thoughts were crossing her mind, her smile growing even more joyful and sweet.