Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

In the evening, a group of people arrived at Shengjing Prefecture in Liaoyang Province.

Representatives of the Zhendong Army, led by Li Weiguo, were invited by the Dingbei Army for dinner. After all, it was a high-level meeting, and etiquette was paramount.

Of course, everyone else was also invited, but whether to go or not was voluntary.

The civilian staff and military cultivators, upholding their usual spirit of collectivism, thought: If the boss goes, I go too,

but Chen Lingyun had no plans to attend.

"That's because Lord Master will definitely be at the banquet," she said with a grin. "We've just arrived in Shengjing, and we can't spoil our appetites at the sight of that face."

"You make some sense," Yan Yu said, stroking his chin. "One Chen Lingyun is enough; another one would indeed be too much to handle."

Thinking of another "male version" of Chen Lingyun, with a forced smile standing in front of him, Zhao Yuanzhen couldn't help but shiver and exclaimed with crossed arms:

"Stop it, that's literally a nightmare!"

Chen Lingyun's smile faltered a bit. She raised her eyebrows slightly and stared at Yan Yu:

"Don't compare me to him. Although I like to joke around, have fun, and occasionally bully people on purpose, I never go too far. There's a fundamental difference between me and that boorish guy from the capital, you know?"

Yan Yu and Zhao Yuanzhen both looked at her silently.

So you actually know you have a terrible personality!!!

"Could you do that act again?" Yan Yu asked in her tone, "The one about 'I never go too far'..."

"I never go too far," Chen Lingyun emphasized with a smile. "Isn't that right? When have I ever bullied someone to the point of collapse? Don't I always stop when it's appropriate?"

"Isn't there a possibility that the problem lies precisely there?" Yan Yu said with an exasperated expression, criticizing, "You always tease around the boundaries of someone's tolerance, and it seems you stop just before they lose it, which actually feels even worse?"

Chen Lingyun pondered for a moment.

"Indeed," she said, lightly supporting her elbow and slowly tapping her cheek with her index finger, "but isn't that what makes it interesting?"

"Not interesting at all!" Zhao Yuanzhen exclaimed angrily.

The three hailed a cab and headed to the local Fumin Road, intending to find some Shengjing specialties like stretched noodles and chicken racks for dinner. Due to the fame of certain eateries and celebrity endorsements, almost every establishment along this road was selling stretched noodles, chicken racks, and marinated goods, making it nearly a gourmet food street.

Naturally, the street was filled with tourists and foodies, with a line waiting for their number to be called at the entrance of every shop.

"Trouble ahead," Yan Yu chuckled. "Looks like we're going to have to queue."

He knew that if there was one thing the annoying woman hated most, it was queuing. In many famous establishments in Jianghai Prefecture, Chen Lingyun could skip the queue and have the staff secretly usher her in and arrange a seat... but in Shengjing where she was unfamiliar, just the money might not suffice without the shop owner's goodwill.

Chen Lingyun absentmindedly fiddled with her phone, her face devoid of its usual smile, and it wasn't clear what ace she was playing.

However, both Yan Yu and Zhao Yuanzhen weren't bothered, the latter due to laziness, the former out of carefreeness, or maybe seeing the annoying woman get frustrated was more interesting than any stretched noodles or chicken racks.

However, Yan Yu was ultimately disappointed. It only took a few short minutes before Chen Lingyun's sweet smile returned as she said:

"Let's go."

Sorted it out already?

Yan Yu sighed internally, guessing that in Chen Lingyun's circle of second-generation friends, there must be some local heavyweights from Shengjing...

So frustrating, can't see her get flustered now!

Damn it, why has society become like this, where cutting in line could be so blatantly done!

The two followed Chen Lingyun to a nearby store with a fairly long queue. A staff member had already been waiting at the entrance and welcomed the trio into the store, leading them to an empty table.

"How's that?" Chen Lingyun said with a smile, "If it weren't for me, you guys would have had to line up for an hour, right?"

"Not too bad," Zhao Yuanzhen said reservedly.

Yan Yu didn't make a sound. He couldn't really blame her for breaking the order after all since the order was determined by the store, and he had benefited from it.

But he didn't want to feed into this despicable woman's arrogance, so he pretended not to hear and looked around... Huh?

Isn't that the Li siblings?

At a table not far away, a young man and woman were seated. It was clear they were siblings, as their features were quite similar—their hair slightly curly, their skin fair, and the lines of their faces soft. The brother was quite handsome, while the sister was even more gentle and beautiful, her appearance could be considered top-notch.

But Yan Yu knew better than to judge a book by its cover—both siblings were actually quite formidable.

The sister, Li Minghu, would later fall ill yet lead troops into battle at the South Sea where she would single-handedly decimate two-thirds of the invading Allied Forces, causing "every household on the Indochina Peninsula to weep blood," preventing them from daring to invade Lingnan for over ten years.

So much so, that whenever the people of Lingnan spoke of her, they had to refer to her as "Valkyrie" in awe.

Her younger brother, Li Zhaojiang, was even more remarkable; following his sister's death, he launched a vengeful rebellion... Without going into details, let's just say that the Cultivator factions of the Annan Army suffered a severe blow and this directly led to a worsening of a series of subsequent events.

Of course, at this point in time, Li Minghu was not yet the Valkyrie on her deathbed, and Li Zhaojiang was just an ordinary brother with a sister complex, not yet worthy of attention.

"What is it?" Chen Lingyun noticed where his gaze was directed and followed his line of sight, "Aren't those the Li siblings?"

"You know them?" Yan Yu asked in surprise.

"After you mentioned them last time, I did a little background check," Chen Lingyun said with a smile. "They are from a pretty ordinary middle-class family in Lingnan Province with both parents being middle school teachers. The sister was born with a lung disease, the incurable kind, which set a limit on her strength.

But the brother has quite a gift for cultivation, standing out among the first group of cultivators, so this time he was selected to represent the Annan Army in battle."

"Appearances can be deceiving, you know?" Yan Yu said, pointing at them from a distance with his chopsticks, "The brother does indeed have good strength, but it is just 'good.' His sister's talent is what you call 'monstrous.' I'm not talking about cultivation talent, but rather her talent in combat."

"Combat talent?" Chen Lingyun pondered, "But her cardiopulmonary function is limited, she can't sustain prolonged intense activities. No matter how strong her combat talent is, how much can she actually make use of?"

"If it weren't for her physical limitations, she would be even more formidable," Yan Yu said.

"Hmph," Chen Lingyun stopped questioning and kept staring at Li Minghu across the way, as if she had found some sort of new amusement.

Zhao Yuanzhen was also paying close attention. Since this rascal could so accurately describe their abilities, it must have been deduced by his powerful master through some divination.

The fact that a powerhouse had taken special care to calculate this indicated that these two were not to be underestimated. I should also take care to remember them.

As the two beautiful girls stared intently over, the Li siblings also sensed something was off.

"Sis, those two girls are looking at you," Li Zhaojiang said with a frown.

"It's okay, maybe it's because I keep coughing..." Li Minghu said quietly, covering her mouth with a tissue and coughing a bit, then commented, "This soup tastes quite good."

"The chicken cartilage is no good, though," Li Zhaojiang shook his head, "It lacks chicken flavor, reliant totally on spices for seasoning."

"Chicken cartilage has little meat to begin with; we eat it for the taste of the spices," Li Minghu shook her head, not bothering with disposable gloves, and started gnawing on the cartilage with her hands.

After eating half of it, she stopped and covered her mouth with a napkin again, coughing weakly a few times.

Li Zhaojiang sighed. If it weren't for her lung disease, the position representing the Annan Army in battle should have been his sister's.

Hopefully, once Spiritual Energy fully revived, they would find a way to cure her lung disease.

After coughing for a while, and perhaps feeling a bit apologetic for disturbing the meals of others, Li Minghu turned her head and cast an apologetic glance their way.

She met Yan Yu's sympathetic gaze head-on.

She was long accustomed to such pity, so she merely responded with a resigned smile.