Stepping on the demon door, the witch becomes the strongest

Chapter 765: The Witch's Surprise

Yan Yu yawned.

After helping others many times, he has now been able to accurately control the amount of true yang to be extracted so as not to cause serious damage to his vitality.

But this time, the damage was mostly mental, because Tang Xiaolian was so good at vocalizing, and her voice was the most penetrating... so much so that Yan Yu could still feel her screams echoing in his ears.

Am I really that violent?
In terms of combat power, Tang Xiaolian and Xie Ruoxi were in the same league: both were super soft types that would fall down with just a push, which was extremely different from the others.

The difference is that when facing Yan Yu's overwhelming force, Xie Ruoxi will quickly choose to give in, "Either you kill me or spare me"; Tang Xiaolian's is "Although I can't beat you, I will let the whole world know that you are bullying me."

Furthermore, Xie Ruoxi was practically made of clay. Just when you thought she was completely exhausted and unable to move, she would suddenly start wriggling in strange ways.

Tang Xiaolian seems to be made of water...I won't explain the details.

Of course, Yan Yu didn't care about any of this. He was simply helping others for the pleasure of it all, wanting to train more powerful Jindan Zhenren for the Lu Kingdom. So, no matter if it was made of water, mud, or cement, he would do it without hesitation, risking his life, and willingly doing it!
Yan Yu came to the door of Teacher Mei's laboratory and suddenly heard Zhao Yuanzhen's impatient voice coming from inside:
"No, absolutely not! This is our sect's secret method, never to be passed on to outsiders. Don't even think about getting your hands on it!"

"You've already passed it on to Yan Yu, why can't you let me know?" Mei Yingxue said patiently, "How about this? I'll trade you the secrets of the Emei Sword Sect..."

"Don't mention it, don't mention it!" Zhao Yuanzhen shouted. "Your so-called secret techniques of the Emei Sword Sect are already written down in the textbooks you compiled and distributed to every cultivator in the Lu Kingdom Military Mansion. How can you be worthy of exchanging them for my puppetry technique?"

The two were arguing when Yan Yu pushed the door open. Zhao Yuanzhen immediately took two steps forward, grabbed Yan Yu's arm, and shouted confidently:
"Yan Yu, she wants to ask for my puppet technique, help me beat her up."

Of course Yan Yu would not hit Teacher Mei, but with his arm tightly held by the witch, even the hardest heart would soften, so he asked Mei Yingxue:

"What exactly happened?"

"I want to learn her Golden Cicada Escape Method," Mei Yingxue said seriously. "If this is promoted among the monks in the military academy, it might greatly reduce their casualties in battle."

"Escape plan, that's the method she used to escape from you when you first traveled to Earth, right?" Yan Yu pondered, "Doesn't that mean she uses a puppet to die in her place?"

"Yes, yes!" Zhao Yuanzhen immediately agreed, "The art of puppet manipulation is very complicated. Even a sword immortal like you can't use it. Just give up on this idea."

"It's not for me, it's for the monks in the military monastery." Mei Yingxue explained, "And I don't need the entire chapter of your puppetry technique. I just want the secret method of escaping from the shell. This way, the monks in the military monastery don't need to master the puppetry technique. They can just use it at the critical moment to block fatal attacks."

"Then every monk in the military office must have a puppet." Yan Yu said.

"The lowest-level puppets should be no problem," Mei Yingxue replied. "Through our research into mass-producing the Xiaoxuan Light Ruler, we've already acquired the ability to industrially produce some low-level magical weapons."

"My puppet is not a low-level magic weapon!" Zhao Yuanzhen shouted angrily.

"Because it's only used as a substitute for death, there's no need to produce a very good puppet." Mei Yingxue insisted, "It can be used to escape."

"You mean, similar to Shenyuan Shimie's method of using paper dolls to take his place in death?" Yan Yu said, "Make the puppet as small and light as possible, carry it on your body, and only use it to escape."

"That's right." Mei Yingxue nodded, "It can reduce the casualties of the monks in the military mansion."

"But there is a problem with this," Yan Yu said.

"what is the problem?"

"Once the secret method is leaked and falls into the hands of evil folk cultivators, it will be difficult for them to kill them," said Yan Yu.

Mei Yingxue was silent for a moment and asked:

"What if it's kept strictly confidential?"

"Can the things that every monk in the military office has be kept strictly confidential?" Yan Yu asked with a sneer.

The answer is, of course, no. For example, the sword-controlling textbook compiled by Teacher Mei could theoretically only be circulated within the Four Armies, but in reality, almost every civilian cultivator could do it these days... No matter how strict the confidentiality, once more people knew it, it would be impossible to keep it secret.

"Foundation Establishment cultivators who haven't yet reached the Core Formation stage are generally strong on offense but weak on defense," Yan Yu continued his analysis. "If you hit me first, I die; if I hit you first, you die. The strength of military cultivators over civilian cultivators lies in their systematic training, which gives them greater abilities to seize the initiative and concentrate fire."

"If the secret life-saving technique of escaping from the Golden Cicada's Shell spreads uncontrollably, then when the military monks confront illegal civilian monks, they might find themselves winning the fight but failing to kill them. Once they realize they're no match, they'll throw out a puppet and run away. How can you stop them from committing evil?"

Mei Yingxue struggled for a moment, then said unwillingly:

"What if we control the puppet production technology and strictly prohibit its leakage?"

"It's impossible to control it." Yan Yu shook his head and said, "Alchemy is also a strictly controlled state monopoly, and the black market trade in elixirs is still rampant. There are always lucky people who find special secret realms and have the source of elixirs. How can you ensure that no one can provide puppets? What is scarce is not the materials, but the methods."

Mei Yingxue stopped talking and began to weigh the pros and cons carefully.

Although she had a pragmatic mindset, she wasn't completely clueless in other areas. If the secret technique of escaping from its shell could simultaneously enhance the survival abilities of both military and civilian cultivators, what would the higher-ups think?

Definitely not. Because the deterrent power of the violent machine is an important weapon to curb the illegal and criminal activities of civilian monks. Once civilian monks become difficult to kill, the deterrent power will be severely weakened, and no one can bear the consequences.

In comparison, the death rate of the military monks was a much easier problem to solve. Mei Yingxue sighed and gave up the idea of exchanging the secret technique from Zhao Yuanzhen.

Zhao Yuanzhen was feeling very proud and was about to mock the other party when he heard Mei Yingxue suddenly ask:
"Xie Ruoxi is fine. You, Zhao Yuanzhen, Su Yunjin, and Zhou Hongyu, all achieved zhenyuan qualities after condensing their cores that far exceeded the original theoretical calculations and estimates. Liu Longtao and Yang Linhui, on the other hand, matched the simulation results very well. Do you have any idea?"

Zhao Yuanzhen's expression froze. With her smooth, mirror-like mind, she certainly hadn't imagined someone could detect something amiss through quantifying one's cultivation qualifications and monitoring one's true essence, and thus suspect the "Pulling Silk Method"!
Damn it! If I had known this would happen, I shouldn't have cooperated with the research team on the experiment after I reached Dan Jin. They've taken all the data for analysis! Now they've really found something wrong, right?!
When Zhao Yuanzhen thought of this, he immediately became malicious and sent a message to Yan Yu:
"How about killing her to silence her?"

Yan Yu ignored her and just said to Mei Yingxue:
"Maybe it's just a matter of statistical caliber."

"The difference is too big. It's unlikely to be a problem of statistical caliber." Mei Yingxue shook her head.

"What I mean is that natural errors may look like some kind of data pattern in statistics." Yan Yu said calmly, "How many data samples do you have?"

"Indeed." Mei Yingxue pondered, "The sample size is still too small."

"We should at least collect samples from a few thousand people first, and then analyze the patterns from them," Yan Yu suggested. "There are too many factors affecting a single-digit sample. Besides cultivation aptitude, wouldn't the scale and difficulty of the day's tribulation, the individual's own state of performance, and the proportion of external forces used during the tribulation all potentially have an impact on the Jindan grade?"

"Generally speaking, cultivation aptitude is the primary factor in determining the grade of a golden elixir," Mei Yingxue corrected. "For the same number of years of breathing exercises, the better the aptitude, the purer the true essence, the greater the corresponding difficulty of the heavenly tribulation, and the higher the grade of the final golden elixir. It has nothing to do with performance or whether or not external forces are used during the tribulation."

"Did you read this from the classics?" Yan Yu asked.

"Yes." Mei Yingxue said.

"Is what's recorded in the classics necessarily correct?" Yan Yu said, spreading his hands. "Look at my cultivation aptitude. According to the standards in the classics, even my daily breathing of spiritual energy would be problematic, let alone forming a pill. Right? I shouldn't be qualified to be a cultivator."

"Indeed..." Mei Yingxue was stuck again. Faced with Yan Yu's unique case, which was a living and unconventional case, she could only nod and say with certainty:

"The cultivation theories of the cultivation world may not be completely compatible with those on Earth. I should collect more data samples before analyzing them."

After leaving Mei Yingxue's laboratory, Zhao Yuanzhen still maintained his stunned expression. After a while, he asked in a voice transmission:

"She was fooled by you like that, and she got away with it without even a suspicion?"

"Of course," Yan Yu replied smugly. "Have you heard the saying, 'A gentleman can be deceived by tricks?' Teacher Mei's thinking is straightforward. It's very easy to predict her thoughts."

Zhao Yuanzhen thought for a moment and suddenly asked:

"So in your mind, am I also very predictable? And easy to fool?"

Yan Yu was shocked. Good boy, when did you develop such a brain? Actually, you and Teacher Mei are the same type of people, you know that, right?
He said very tactfully:

"Of course not. Although I often bully you, it's all because I take advantage of your trust in me. If you just use your brain a little, my tricks will be nothing to you."

"Hmph." Zhao Yuanzhen said proudly, "You're not afraid that I'll fight you, so you're just saying these nice words to trick me, right?"

"Of course not, these are sincere words from my heart." Yan Yu said with a serious expression.

There was no way he could do it. He really wasn't in good shape right now. He had just helped Tang Xiaolian reach the Golden Core realm, and his body and mind weren't in top shape. And the demon woman was known for her willingness to "hurt eight hundred of her own wounds"—fighting her again would probably lead to dehydration.

"Very good." Zhao Yuanzhen took his hand and said, "Come with me. I have something to show you."

She took Yan Yu and went through the wall back to her room, then asked him to sit outside while she went into the bathroom to tinker with it.

Yan Yu sat beside her bed, wondering what this witch was going to do.
It's not like he would trick me here first, then bring out a bunch of girls' heads and throw them on the ground, and finally say with a smile, "Now they belong to me alone", right?

He was lost in thought for a long time when he saw Zhao Yuanzhen coming out of the bathroom.

She was wearing a bright red dress with a low neckline, bare shoulders and a fitted waist. While showing off her figure, she also had slits in the right places, revealing large areas of fair and delicate skin. This reminded Yan Yu of the happy times he had with Anna in the North. She also liked to change into various clothes to attract Yan Yu's attention.

Although in the end, no matter how beautiful the clothes are, they will be torn to pieces.

Zhao Yuanzhen came over gracefully and sat on Yan Yu's thighs. She lifted his chin with her delicate fingers and smiled seductively. Yan Yu was about to speak when his face suddenly changed and he asked in surprise:

"Is this your puppet?"

"Tsk." The demon girl came out of the bathroom and said dissatisfiedly, "I thought you wouldn't find out until the actual combat stage."

"Your puppetry skills have improved again," Yan Yu exclaimed. "After entering the Golden Core realm, your expressions, demeanor, and every detail of your movements are almost the same as those of a normal human."

"Of course." Zhao Yuanzhen puffed out his chest proudly. "And I also modified the puppet itself so that it can use my Jindan realm essence more efficiently. Oh, and I also added new organs to it."

"What organ?" Yan Yu guessed, "An extra heart?"

"Guess." Zhao Yuanzhen smiled cunningly.

(End of this chapter)