Chapter 16 Sooner or Later
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With everyone attacking in unison, the ghost mansion's Judge also didn't reveal any hidden cards and finally, with a loud crash, fell to the ground.
It seemed that just as Yan Yu had said, at this point in time, the Mysterious Realms that could be opened basically couldn't contain any "unsolvable stages."
The biggest threat still came from the competing teams.
After the ghost mansion's Judge had fallen, Yan Yu and Zhou Hongyu exchanged glances briefly, without needing more words, Huang Tingjian and Chi Yu Sword, which had just been fighting side by side, instantly clashed again.
The ladies gathered around to watch, momentarily unsure whether to intervene.
Zhou Hongyu's eyes were both bloodshot, caught up in the thrill of the fight, she mobilized all her remaining True Yuan, with red light and heat almost spilling from her mouth and nose.
Phoenix spits fire! One! Two! Three! Three Flame Spears shot out one after another, sealing off all of Yan Yu's possible escape routes.
Yan Yu sidestepped calmly and stepped directly into the pillar beside him.
Didn't expect that, did you? I know the Wall-Penetration Technique!
Zhou Hongyu's expression stiffened, and the Flame Spears already exploded around her. Then Yan Yu stepped out safely from the pillar, easily avoiding the blazing great bright flames and laughed,
"You should admit defeat now, right?"
In response, she launched an attack with the Chi Yu Sword.
Yan Yu's expression remained unchanged as the Huang Tingjian sent it flying away, and then he attacked Zhou Hongyu once more.
The Chi Yu Sword quickly came to assist, clashing with the Huang Tingjian several times, but then Yan Yu suddenly charged with rapid strides, seemingly deciding not to engage in a swordsmanship duel.
Zhou Hongyu, not saying a word, poised herself for close combat, her muscles bulging under the empowerment of the Curved Curse, her teeth clenched, eyes wide, ready to fight to the death with him.
And then she was struck on the back by the Huang Tingjian from behind, falling face down to the ground.
Yan Yu rushed over to her side, slapped his hand on her lower back, and quickly sealed the Dantian with Runescript True Essence.
All done!
Unexpectedly, even with her Dantian sealed, Zhou Hongyu still managed to get up with the energy of a carp flipping over, and swung her fist at Yan Yu with all her might—without True Yuan, without spells, just pure mortal fistfighting.
Yan Yu calmly activated the Earth-Element Sturdiness Curse, taking the punch straight to the face, and said composedly,
"That's enough."
Zhou Hongyu still wouldn't listen and continued to punch and kick him. Her fierce expression locked in rage, her eyes filled with bloodshot lines, her face and neck turned beet red, with even her veins visibly bulging.
Using the words of the older generation, this is called "going berserk."
However, no matter how frenzied she was, relying merely on mortal fistfighting skills, let alone injuring Yan Yu who had activated the Barrier Charm, she couldn't even tickle him.
Yan Yu was getting somewhat impatient and seized the moment to grab her wrist, twist it, flip her over, and press her down on the ground, his knee forcefully pinned against her back.
Zhou Hongyu struggled wildly for a while until she finally ran out of energy and just lay on the ground, gasping for breath.
Yan Yu kneeled on Zhou Hongyu's back, raising his right fist high and declared,
"Haha, I win again!"
The ladies looked at him with disdainful eyes.
"What are you looking at?" Yan Yu said nonchalantly, "In a competition, you have to win!"
"Let me see how she is," Su Yunjin said as she went to check on Zhou Hongyu's condition.
"Don't be hasty," Yan Yu quickly stopped her, "Right now, she's like a possessed Zhou Zhiruo, she'll attack you if you come close. Better wait for the Pingxi Army medical team to take over."
"Alright then," Su Yunjin had no choice but to look for the medical team. Meanwhile, Chen Lingyun released the five ghosts to consume the Judge's corpse, and finally managed to find a token inside it.
"This should be the core of the Mysterious Realm," she turned and asked Yan Yu, who was still restraining Zhou Hongyu, "What do you say, should you refine it?"
"You do the refining," Yan Yu said, "After all, we have to hand it over afterward."
"Then I'll take it," Chen Lingyun said with a cheery smile.
"Play with it as you like," he replied.
No sooner had Chen Lingyun left than the Pingxi Army medical team arrived.
To their surprise, while Zhou Hongyu's appearance was quite humiliating, she actually wasn't injured apart from the exhaustion of her True Yuan, and was the only one among the five team members completely unscathed.
"It's done." After another ten minutes or so, Chen Lingyun came back and said, "There are six levels to this Mysterious Realm, we are on the first one, the rest aren't open yet."
"As expected," Yan Yu looked around, "Mission accomplished, let's go."
Chen Lingyun transported everyone out of the Mysterious Realm and back to the pavilion on Shuanggui Mountain.
After some basic medical treatment, all five members of Zhou Hongyu's team recovered their ability to move and were currently sitting on the bench recuperating, waiting for the cultivators from the army across the river to come and pick them up.
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Actually, this period was particularly tough because the girls from the Zhendong Army were sitting opposite them, chattering away about where to go for dinner and take pictures next, as if they hadn't felt any pressure from the recent battle.
But on second thought, not only did they not get injured throughout the fight, but they also had the upper hand during the combat, so what pressure could they possibly have? Did they win too quickly? Did we not provide them with enough of a challenge?
Consequently, the members of Pingxi Army became even more frustrated.
Deputy Captain Zhang huaide had already noticed that the team's morale was too low, and if it wasn't properly handled, it might develop into a psychological shadow.
At times like these, Captain Zhou Hongyu was the one who should have spoken up. As the team captain and spiritual leader, just a few battle cries, or trading a few harsh words with the opposition, could immediately revitalize the team's spirit.
But Zhou Hongyu did not seem to be aware of this. Instead, she was staring daggers at Yan Yu, who sat opposite her with a bored expression, playing with his phone—as if she wanted nothing more than to rush over and perish together with him right then and there.
I'm going to stare you to death!
In order to quickly break this silent atmosphere and negative mood, Deputy Captain Zhang stood up, smiled, and said to Yan Yu,
"Well played."
"You too," Yan Yu responded.
"This time... we can hardly be considered to have played well, can we?" Zhang Huaide sighed, "From the moment we fell into your ambush, our team was split into two parts, and then they were defeated one by one. Our original tactics didn't come into play at all—if it wasn't for that, we wouldn't have been defeated so quickly."
Tang Xiaolian, Qin Meng, and Meng Qingxi reflected for a moment, then suddenly felt as if they'd had an epiphany.
Throughout the whole team confrontation, they had all felt a frustrating inability to apply their strength. Now, hearing Deputy Captain Zhang's analysis, they immediately realized the cause of their defeat:
With Captain Zhou and Qin Meng, the two main attackers, tied up in the front by Yan Yu's gate-keeping generals; and Deputy Captain Zhang, Tang Xiaolian, and Meng Qingxi, none of whom had strong assault capabilities, were aggressively attacked by Chen Lingyun's four in a situation of outnumbering... wasn't it very normal to lose?
It wasn't that our strength was inadequate, but that the opponent's ambush strategy was too cunning!
"This time, your defeat really came from a tactical perspective," Yan Yu said with a smile, "But we had agreed beforehand that we would teach you about tactical planning, right? If we can't dominate you in this area, how can we teach you?"
"Did we?" Zhang Huaide asked in surprise.
"Yes, that time we ate hotpot."
Zhang Huaide silently recalled for a moment and finally remembered that indeed, the other side had said something like that at the hotpot restaurant.
"Video replays are available now," Yan Yu said nonchalantly, "You all better study them well when you go back."
"Of course," Zhang Huaide responded with a calm smile, "Once we learn, we won't be defeated next time."
"It's not about not being defeated," Zhou Hongyu suddenly said, her eyes still fixed on Yan Yu, but with a flame of combative desire reigniting in her otherwise lifeless pupils. Words squeezed through her clenched teeth,
"Next time, I'll beat you so bad you'll be picking up your teeth off the ground."
"Is that so?" Yan Yu was immediately amused by her, just what he wanted—you hate me, the more, the better, "Alright, alright. I'll buy a set of dentures in advance and look forward to your beating."
"Let's go!" Zhou Hongyu stood up and coldly said to the others, "We're leaving!"
Everyone immediately rose to their feet and said goodbye to Yan Yu and his group:
"See you next time."
"Practice well when you go back."
"We will take our victory back later!"
As the deputy captain, Chen Lingyun nodded farewell to everyone, her gaze finally resting on Zhang Huaide.
"I've learned a great deal from Deputy Captain Chen's superb commanding skills this time," Zhang Huaide said with a smile, "It has been extremely beneficial. I will definitely study the replays carefully when I get back."
"You're too kind," Chen Lingyun smiled lightly, "Deputy Captain Zhang might want to think about how to get Captain Zhou to follow commands during critical moments."
Zhang Huaide could only muster a wry smile.
While the direct cause of the defeat was the team being ambushed and split into two by Yan Yu's team. What if Zhou Hongyu hadn't been hot-headed in her pursuit of Yan Yu at the front, causing the rest of the team to become disjointed—how then could Chen Lingyun, lying in ambush, have seized the opportunity?
When Zhang Huaide noticed that the team was splintering, his first thought wasn't to call Captain Zhou back, but rather to order the rest of the team to move toward her. Why? Because Zhou Hongyu, caught up in the heat of battle, was unlikely to abandon her pursuit to retreat.
Zhou Hongyu was the tactical core of the team, while Zhang Huaide was the team's commanding core. Once the tactical core departed from the commanding core, the execution of tactics would immediately encounter problems—and being ambushed this time was just one of the outcomes resulting from the core's detachment.
"I can't refute that," Zhang Huaide shook his head, "But you all are not much different, right? With Yan Yu as a very dominant tactical core, you also need to find a way to work with him."
In both the previous battle with the Annan Army and this one with the Pingxi Army, Yan Yu had almost always acted alone, engaging the essential characters of the opposing side and drawing them away from their entire team's tactical system.
Though his actions had become the key to victory in both confrontations, Zhang Huaide also keenly noticed the underlying problem: that the Zhendong Army's others were currently unable to fight side-by-side with Yan Yu.
"There's no helping it," Chen Lingyun said with a beaming smile, "We're just not worthy to stand by his side yet."
Not worthy? Zhang Huaide pondered. Does it mean... they can't keep up in terms of strength?
"But no rush," Chen Lingyun continued with a smile, "there will come a day."