Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest-Chapter 482 - 78: Xiao Zhou Has Been Tricked Again
Chapter 482: Chapter 78: Xiao Zhou Has Been Tricked Again
The lowest grade Heavenly Demon, also the most common demon head, is named “Heart Demon”.
Among the Heart Demons, the lowest grade demon head is the “Seven Emotions Demon”. As its name implies, it can stir up the host’s happiness, anger, sorrow, joy, love, disgust, and desire, and then feed on these abundant emotions to gradually grow stronger, and ultimately devour the host’s soul, taking away all their energy, leaving behind just an empty shell without a soul.
At this moment, although Zhou Hongyu was extremely angry, she couldn’t help but reveal a pleased smile, indicating that the “Joy Demon” among the Seven Emotions Demons was residing in her Sea of Consciousness.
To expel the Joy Demon, one must first prevent her from feeling pleasure. The more intense her emotion, the more spiritual sustenance the Joy Demon gets, and the faster it grows stronger, increasing the speed at which it takes over her Sea of Consciousness.
This was also the reason why Yan Yu deliberately provoked Zhou Hongyu with his words. Low-level demon heads can only consume one type of emotion, and without anything to feed on, they will naturally leave the host, much like leeches. Of course, if the demon residing in Zhou Hongyu were not the Joy Demon, but instead something like the Anger Demon, then he would naturally resort to other methods to save her…
Wait, if little Zhou had been afflicted by the Anger Demon, she would probably be beyond help, might as well wait for death!
...
Zhou Hongyu chased after him in rage, unleashing the fourth move of the Great Bright Fire, called “Burning Mountains Boiling Seas,” instantly covering the expanse of half the cave, transforming it into an intense and chaotic Red Lotus inferno!
But still, she did not hit Yan Yu.
“Wow, so amazing, so amazing!” Yan Yu flew backwards to the top of the cave’s wall, looking down at Zhou Hongyu, whose face was full of anger with no hint of a smile, and clapped his hands, saying, “To be able to use such powerful Taoism Method, I acknowledge that you qualify to have a crush on me!”
What responded to him was a Flame Spear.
The range of Burning Mountains Boiling Seas was immense, and the consumption of True Yuan was extremely exaggerated, so much so that when Zhou Hongyu cast it resentfully, she immediately realized something was off—she quickly switched to the less consuming Flame Spear.
Yan Yu dispelled his Cloud Ascension Technique, falling to dodge the Flame Spear attack, and said,
“Well played! But still, you did not hit me. How much more True Yuan do you have to squander?”
“Plenty!” Zhou Hongyu shouted furiously, “Enough to kill you!”
“Squandering True Yuan so recklessly, you’re definitely not cut out to be a good wife and mother!” Yan Yu executed the Cloud Dividing Eight Trigrams Step, closing in on Zhou Hongyu quickly, “Didn’t your parents teach you to be frugal when you were a child? Oh, or could it be that you have no parents?”
Zhou Hongyu drew in a breath of anger because Yan Yu’s latter comment had directly hit her sore spot, making her so angry that she couldn’t control her own rationale. As her True Yuan whirled around hastily, she was about to unleash the Crimson Feather Nine Phoenix Fire, but suddenly she heard a buzzing sound in her head, as if something was being withdrawn from her body.
However, from Yan Yu’s perspective, he could see clearly, as a wisp of black smoke rising from Zhou Hongyu’s ear turned into the shape of a demon head in the air, brandishing its claws as it turned to pounce at him!
And then it was shattered by a Flame Spear.
The Great Bright Fire, which vanquishes evil and eradicates devils. Though the Heavenly Demon can resurrect and is not truly dead, a low-grade demon head like the Seven Emotions Demon would need at least a hundred years to re-form its body, so it could be considered as having been slain by Zhou Hongyu for the time being.
Yan Yu inwardly relaxed, only to see Zhou Hongyu standing opposite the sea of fire, looking over with an icy expression.
She was hot-tempered, but not completely irrational. Seeing the intangible black smoke fly out of her own ear, and connecting it to her sudden surge of anger and the strange sensation of something being pulled out, she vaguely realized that Yan Yu was deliberately being offensive because he had likely sensed something parasitizing her mind, and that was the reason for his harsh words.
After all, when he teased her over the phone chats, he was always careful with the degree of his banter, and it was unlikely for him to say something like “You have no parents” – a comment heavy enough to create enmity… You bastard, always flirting with me! Even if it was well-intended this time, I still want to beat you to death!
Seeing the anger on Zhou Hongyu’s face growing more terrifying, her eyes nearly shooting out flames, Yan Yu just laughed and asked gently,
“Hey, can we reconcile?”
“I don’t make peace with corpses,” Zhou Hongyu revealed a fierce smile.
It wasn’t the eerie smile that came after the Joy Demon twisted her emotions, but rather a murderous smile born of extreme rage, typifying Zhou Hongyu perfectly.
“It’s over, she’s started to act like a yandere,” Yan Yu was not in the least bit intimidated, but somewhat amused, “You plan to kill me by mistake and then live the rest of your life in regret, right?”
“If you die, I’ll set up a dragon gate array on your grave!” Zhou Hongyu cursed loudly, “And pour spicy hot pot broth over your grave mound!”
“Such a unique widow-consoling custom you Nanchuan girls have,” Yan Yu chuckled.
Although Yan Yu was smiling at this moment, in a hospital outside the Mysterious Realm, where Li Minghu was sitting in bed watching the livestream, the gentle smile was gone from his face, and he was silently staring at the screen.
“Big sis, I told you Yan Yu can’t be counted on!” Li Zhaojiang hadn’t noticed his sister’s facial expression and rattled on, “There are so many pretty girls in the Zhenhai Team, but he’s not satisfied and has to come woo you. Now he’s flirting with Captain Zhou, proving that Yan Yu is the world’s top philanderer… What’s wrong, sis?”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Li Minghu quickly recovered her composure and smiled, “They really have quite a good relationship, don’t they?”
“A good relationship?” Li Zhaojiang watched the livestream where both were engaged in a fierce battle, the exchange of strikes and defenses was extremely intense. While constantly moving their hands, they also kept bantering with each other, which hardly seemed indicative of a good relationship.
Zhou Hongyu cursed heartily with her mouth, but no matter what she said, Yan Yu wasn’t offended and just cheerfully teased her back.
Her hands ceaselessly formed Taoist Incantations. Alternating between the Flame Spear and Starfall, she launched aggressive attacks. Flames burned everywhere, continuously shrinking the space Yan Yu had to maneuver, forcing him to frequently slow down his assault pace and take long detours to break out of the encirclement of the Great Bright Fire, to avoid being enveloped by the sea of flames coming from all directions.
Good, we can win this way!
Yan Yu, appearing completely at ease, applied pressure on Zhou Hongyu while also calculating the time in his mind.
Hmm, Li Zhaojiang and the others should be close now.
Yan Yu’s thoughts slightly shifted as he finally saw people from the Huofeng Team appear at the entrance where Zhou Hongyu had come from.
Alright, time to slip away!
Yan Yu turned and bolted, Zhou Hongyu immediately shouted, “Don’t run,” and also activated the Art of Godly Movement to pursue him.
Huofeng Team members: ……
Wait, what about regrouping? Captain Zhou, at least meet up with us before chasing together!
Both using the Art of Godly Movement to travel, it was hard to quickly increase or decrease the distance. Everyone could only look to Zhang Huaide, wondering whether to ask Captain Zhou to stop and wait for them.
Zhang Huaide, however, fell into deep thought. Although Zhou Hongyu hadn’t communicated with him, he had sensed something strange and awry from the captain’s demeanor.
A relentless pursuit usually results when one has the upper hand.
But if Yan Yu were to use his full strength, how could Zhou Hongyu gain the upper hand?
It is known that Sword Immortals excel in one-on-one battles. Even a combat-oriented Magic Cultivator like Zhou Hongyu, faced with the full power of Yan Yu, could at best barely defend herself until her team arrived and never could she turn the tables and gain the upper hand in the duel.
Unless Yan Yu was deliberately holding back.
But why would he hold back… Zhang Huaide suddenly realized something and hurriedly sent a message to Zhou Hongyu ahead:
“Captain Zhou! How much True Yuan is left?!”
Zhou Hongyu felt as if she was struck by lightning and abruptly stopped in her tracks, remaining in place.
It wasn’t until Zhang Huaide and the others caught up that she said with a grim expression:
“Less than forty percent.”
Zhang Huaide also caught his breath abruptly. The True Yuan left was much less than he had estimated, a little more than thirty percent only.
Realizing this, he fully understood Yan Yu’s tactical intention:
If the opponent had launched a full-blown attack from the start, Zhou Hongyu would have been forced to use full force in deploying her swordsmanship for defense. Only when her defenses were breached by the swordsmanship would she use Taoism Method to blast away Yan Yu’s Flying Sword—this way, Zhou Hongyu’s counterattack would primarily involve Sword Control Technique, and the True Yuan consumption wouldn’t be so severe.
It was clear Yan Yu anticipated this, so he intentionally held back in his attacks, maintaining enough pressure to push Zhou Hongyu, yet not enough to leave her in despair and unable to counterattack.
Knowing Zhou Hongyu’s temperament, as long as there was a glimmer of hope in turning defeat into victory, she would go all out in a frenzied attack… and that’s exactly what Yan Yu wanted from her.
Her hot-tempered nature was being played by Captain Yan thoroughly!
Zhou Hongyu also finally understood at this point and remembered Yan Yu had mocked her about “how much True Yuan she could afford to squander” and “spending lavishly won’t make a good wife and mother,” she felt as if hit by a boomerang, infuriated to her core.
But now that she had fallen into the trap, throwing a tantrum was futile, so she could only grit her teeth, suppress her anger, and ask Zhang Huaide:
Follow curr𝒆nt nov𝒆ls on fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com.
“Is there enough time to take medicine to recover True Yuan now?”
“No!” In the blink of an eye, Zhang Huaide made a decision, “Chase and aim to kill!”
Zhou Hongyu took the lead in the fight, successfully stalling until her team arrived; Yan Yu took the opportunity to deplete her True Yuan. Therefore, there wasn’t a straightforward win or loss for either side, but merely a change of pace in the chess game.
As long as up next, the Huofeng Team could take advantage of their strongest formation when the whole team was gathered, seizing the window of opportunity before the remaining five members of the Zhenhai Team arrived to forcefully eliminate Yan Yu—who was alone—they would greatly benefit from this exchange.
Even Zhou Hongyu with less than forty percent of True Yuan left was stronger than Yan Yu who would be out of the battle!
