Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Everyone rushed out of the training ground in a hurry; Lin Ning was still in disbelief:

"No way? She said she was going to buy some drinks..."

"You believe her just like that!" Yan Yu was also done with Sister Lin, "And you said you're not easily fooled?"

"Why would she want to sneak away?" Su Yunjin frowned, puzzled.

"Probably thought the training was too tiring." Yan Yu said coldly.

Everyone: ?

Wait a minute, was it really that tiring?

It's true it hurts, but not to the extent that it's your problem, Xie Ruoxi! From a timing perspective, it's from 9 in the morning to 11:30, 1:30 in the afternoon until 5, and even if you work from 7 in the evening to 9. All together, that's only 8 hours, while people are working at least 10 hours every day with the 996 schedule out there!

"Don't use your own thinking to judge her." Yan Yu didn't bother to search the campus but ran directly towards the school gate, explaining as he went, "It's like a stray cat; you think it won't run away because you feed it fish and meat, but you don't realize it isn't tamed and too wild to reason with!"

Chen Lingyun's eyebrows twitched, showing a playful expression as she sweetly said:

"So, you're saying we need to catch her and properly train her, huh?"

"Let's catch her first." Yan Yu arrived at the school gate, his mind quickly strategizing.

Jinling Airport... No, the beautiful waste doesn't have the guts to make such a clean break. She's most likely found a place to slack off in secret.

Where would she go?

Let me think, where would that waste go...

Fortunately, having past life memories related to Xie Ruoxi, Yan Yu quickly ordered:

"Chen Lingyun."

"Hmm?"

"Check all the internet cafes around the school, from the nearest to the furthest."

"Got it~" Chen Lingyun said with a smile.

"Lin Ning." Yan Yu continued to command.

"I'm here."

"The commercial complexes around here, look up online for those with arcades inside, and check them out."

"Okay!" Lin Ning hurriedly complied.

"Su Yunjin." Yan Yu said.

"Tell me."

"Call her, send messages, even though she's most likely too scared to reply," Yan Yu said quickly, "If she doesn't reply, go find Instructor Qi. Don't mention anything else, just say Xie Ruoxi has been out for a while and we can't get in touch with her, ask him to help find people."

"Got it." Su Yunjin knew there was a delicate balance to maintain: to ask Instructor Qi for help in finding someone while not letting him know that Ruoxi had "run away from school." She nodded, "Leave it to me."

"Zhao..." Yan Yu suddenly got stuck.

How could the Demonic Sect Enchantress be of any help? She's not as resourceful as Chen Lingyun, not as perceptive and responsive as Lin Ning, not as savvy and capable as Su Yunjin. Wouldn't involving her in the search backfire?

"What do you need me to do?" Zhao Yuanzhen, unaware of Yan Yu's thoughts, urged questioningly.

Seeing her eagerness, Yan Yu said warmly:

"You go back and guard our place. If she comes back, definitely don't let her leave."

"I've got this!" Zhao Yuanzhen patted her chest, completely unaware that she'd essentially been fobbed off—Xie Ruoxi was decidedly not daring to go back right now.

Everyone quickly dispersed to their tasks, while Yan Yu stood at the school gate, continuing to contemplate silently.

Internet cafes, arcades; those two were the most likely places she would go, followed by some maid cafes and anime merchandise stores… But those places are hard to find on maps, and since Xie Ruoxi is from out of town and unfamiliar with the area, she'd likely opt for those easily found, suitable spots to hide and kill time first.

And then there's…

Yan Yu suddenly had an epiphany and took out his phone to search.

Keyword: cosplay convention.

There! There's a Fleet Girls Carnival happening here!

Others might not know, but Yan Yu was well aware that Xie Ruoxi was a seasoned Fleet Girls player who had cosplayed many characters from the game.

The venue was quite a distance away when viewed on the map, but avid anime fans don't fear a long journey. Thus, Yan Yu quickly hailed a cab and headed straight for the cosplay convention site.

Upon arrival, Yan Yu saw various Fleet Girls standees on both sides of the venue entrance, with large "Battle Commencement" promotional banners hanging on the facade.

Upon entering the interior of the venue, the whole place was adorned with elements of ship girls, from the side of the turnstiles to the billboards on load-bearing columns, and the anime standees everywhere, all representing two-dimensional paper dolls with multicolored hair and exaggerated figures.

Yan Yu just glanced once and lost interest.

One look at the fake does not compare to the Demonic Sect Enchantress.

Apart from security, most of the passersby were male, many carrying backpacks, holding bags in their hands, and some even clutching rolled-up posters under their arms; of course, there were women too, but they usually dressed up as ship girls, with various colors of hair, browsing the booths or posing with visitors, making hearts and Vs with their fingers.

Even if Yan Yu wasn't well-versed in this area, he knew that cosplay costumes and wigs required preparation in advance and involved a lengthy makeup process, so Xie Ruoxi undoubtedly wouldn't have had time to perform her face-changing sorcery.

If she was here, she must have come as a visitor—so there was no need to pay attention to cosplayers, just scan the female visitors!

He activated his Divine Sense and scanned the surrounding area without restraint.

This one isn't her, that one isn't either, let's look further ahead…

Yan Yu quickly finished scanning the entrance and was about to move on when suddenly a cosplaying girl called out to him:

"Eh, aren't you that... Yan Zhanlong?"

Yan Yu: ?

Oh, I rushed out and forgot to put on sunglasses.

"Could you give me an autograph?" the girl came over enthusiastically, "I'm a big fan of yours haha, I've seen your battle videos before, you're really cool~"

Yan Yu was about to reject her sternly when a thought struck him. He took the marker pen from her hand and smiled:

"Where do you want me to sign?"

"Right here~" The girl pointed to her chest.

"Hm?" Yan Yu made a face that said "Are you kidding me?"

"Haha, just kidding," the girl quickly corrected herself, "Sign on the waist of my skirt, this is Atago's bride skin."

Yan Yu wasn't in the mood to listen to her explanations. He quickly signed his name, then asked urgently:

"You're a cosplayer here, right? I have a friend who might be in the venue. I can't reach her; have you seen her?" Discover more content at empire

"Hmm, let me check." The girl looked at the photo on his phone, then said with a puzzled expression, "The Magical Girl Ruoxi?"

"You know her?" Yan Yu was surprised.

"She's a cosplayer in our circle of enthusiasts," the girl said with a smile, "I remember she likes to cosplay Lexington and North House... I'll ask my friends if they've seen her."

She pulled out her phone from somewhere and, with dazzling speed, began furiously typing, shaking people down in the Cos enthusiasts group.

There were also a few photographers standing nearby, waiting for Yan Yu to leave to continue their shoot, and upon hearing the discussion, they curiously asked:

"Magical Girl Ruoxi is here too? She's not on the guest list."

"She might have just come to visit," Yan Yu said calmly.

"Found her," the girl suddenly announced, "She's at booth C playing games. I'll take you there."

"No, thank you," Yan Yu replied expressionlessly, anger already blazing within him, "I'll find her myself."

Fine, fine, fine, so you really are hiding here, you goddamn gorgeous waste!

I was just at Instructor Qi's arguing that I couldn't possibly hand you over to the Annan Army because they don't have the skills to tame you, and here you go pulling this stunt!

Isn't this a slap in my face?

Dare to provoke me, the strongest of this age, and even a dragon will be slain by me! How many guts do you have, Xie Ruoxi, to dare challenge me, Yan Zhanlong?

He turned and used the Shifting Technique, instantly dashing more than ten meters away, startling the surrounding photographers who hastily raised their cameras to shoot, but only caught a series of afterimages.

At booth C, Xie Ruoxi was standing in front of a machine wielding a hammer, immersed in a whack-a-mole game—except the moles had been replaced with models of "Cheshire Cats," and supposedly, scoring 20 points within a set time would win a standee.

Many tourists were gathered around her, watching her play the game and occasionally offering their comments:

"You're running out of time."

"One more mistake and it's over."

But Xie Ruoxi didn't believe in jinxes; her hands moved faster and faster, accuracy increasingly higher—don't underestimate the reflexes I've honed over a decade of playing bullet hell games!

Finally, with the last hammer blow, she hit the 20th Cheshire Cat, the machine rang out with a "grand prize" bell sound, and the surrounding tourists also gasped in amazement.

Xie Ruoxi beamed with joy, about to receive the Cheshire Cat standee from the stall worker, when suddenly an earth-shattering, roof-lifting roar sounded from afar:

"Die, damn you!!!!!!"

Before the words even reached her, Yan Yu had already charged behind her, slamming her head into the hole of the machine.