Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

Anna suddenly fell into the water, almost scaring Yan Yu out of his wits.

He had no desire to deal with Siberia's werewolves or blood clans. Those Rakshasa Spirit Communicators, to put it nicely, were part of the Fighting Nation; to put it unkindly, they were no different from bandits.

If the Eclipse Queen were to meet her unfortunate end here, the future situation in the north would spiral completely out of control, becoming chaotic and unmanageable.

Without hesitation, Yan Yu activated the Shifting Technique and in an instant reached the riverbank, only to see Anna frantically struggling in the water—clearly, the girl couldn't swim. Her arms were vainly flapping and slapping as she had already swallowed several mouthfuls of river water.

Yan Yu had no choice but to jump into the river and then swiftly flew to the shore with her in his arms, using the Cloud Ascension Technique.

Having reached the shore, Anna awkwardly propped herself up on her arms, spitting out a lot of dirty water and gasping for air.

Before she could speak, Yan Yu roughly dragged her up from the ground and said, unable to restrain his anger,

"Are you fucking crazy? Thinking of ending it all by jumping into the river, huh? Polluting the water resources, huh?!"

Stupid woman! Nearly letting you succeed in your suicide and ruining my plan!

Anna suddenly got agitated as well and shook off his hand, saying,

"I didn't ask you to save me!"

...At this point, she certainly couldn't admit that she had slipped and fallen into the water, as that would surely make her a laughing stock.

"Alright, alright." Yan Yu pointed at the river and said sarcastically, "Then do me a favor and jump again. This time, I'll stand on the bank and pop open a champagne bottle for you, wishing you a swift death and reincarnation."

Anna silently got up, tightened her soaking wet clothes around her, and walked away without a word.

Yan Yu followed her quietly, silently stimulating his True Yuan.

The Runescript of water, although mediocre in offensive capabilities, was actually best used for support.

If one were unfortunate enough to be injured, one could apply the Runescript to themselves, cover the injury with water-aligned True Yuan to prevent further deterioration and hasten healing, or cover the body to maintain a constant body temperature... In a sense, healing support was the real strength of the Runescript.

Seeing the two walking away one after the other, Zhao Yuanzhen quickly wanted to follow them, but was stopped by Chen Lingyun:

"Do you have any method of concealment?"

"Invisibility Technique." Zhao Yuanzhen suddenly realized and immediately applied the spell on both himself and her, causing their figures to swiftly disappear.

They then stealthily followed behind.

Yan Yu walked behind Anna for a while, and because he maintained the Runescript, he didn't feel much cold, yet the drenched Anna was appearing to suffer, sneezing continuously.

As if she sensed the embarrassment, she angrily turned around and glared at him.

"Tsk tsk tsk," Yan Yu said mockingly without any sympathy, "True to the Fighting Nation, walking on the road soaked and braving the cold wind, the bodies of the Rakshasa people are truly robust!"

"How many times do I have to tell you I am from Lu Country... Achoo!" Anna wanted to retort, but her body was already shivering.

Yan Yu placed his hand on her shoulder from behind, letting the Runescript seep into her body and dispelling the chill from within.

Anna also noticed the change in her body and looked back at him in surprise:

"What's this?"

"You don't understand," Yan Yu chuckled, "This is the spell of a Cultivator."

"Hmph." Anna's face visibly fell as she murmured, "So you're a Cultivator... pretty capable, huh."

"I see you also have some talent for cultivation," Yan Yu asked knowingly, "Didn't the Dingbei Army send you an invitation to enlist?"

"They did," Anna said glumly, "but I rejected it."

"Why?" Yan Yu asked.

"No reason," Anna said dismissively, "My dad wants to take me abroad; I'm not planning to stick around here."

"I see," Yan Yu said with a tone of admiration, "That's pretty amazing, actually being able to go abroad! You must be able to attend a great university there, right?"

Anna shuddered and almost bumped into the edge of a flower bed.

Rakshasa Country's academia is not well-known internationally, and the quality universities are all located in cities like Moska, Saint Petersburg—places close to Europe.

Yet, she couldn't get in.

Her mother was now settled in Amur, located in the so-called "Far Eastern Federal District" of Rakshasa Country. The word "Far Eastern" implied its remoteness from the political and economic center of Rakshasa Country, where conditions in all aspects were relatively poor. If it weren't for the fact that her mother and grandfather lived there...

Anna actually had no desire to go abroad, but her father, having had little success at home, had wilfully clung to the idea of "going abroad" as a life-saving straw. This, through a series of unfortunate events, had also affected her background check, squandering her chance to become a government-sponsored cultivator.

So miserable, she didn't want to talk at all. Couldn't this person stop following me?

She turned her head and once again glared fiercely at Yan Yu.

"Is glaring all you can do?" Yan Yu looked puzzled, "Is this some sort of special Curse Technique of the Rakshasa? The 'Death Glare' Technique?"

"I told you, I'm from Lu Country," Anna said through gritted teeth, "Are you sick, huh? Are you? Are you?"

"Maybe," Yan Yu also pondered, "We are complete strangers, but seeing you fall into the water, I jumped in to save you. I must have caught the 'savior complex'."

Anna was speechless with anger and only after a long pause did she say:

"Follow me."

"Where to?"

"Don't ask stupid questions."

The two crossed the street and entered a nearby hotel, where Anna fished out her phone from her soaked pocket and shakily unlocked it.

Good, it still worked.

She pulled out her electronic ID, registered for a room at the front desk, and then dragged Yan Yu into the elevator.

"You're not planning to repay me with your body, are you?" Yan Yu suddenly asked warily, "Sorry, I don't accept one-night stands with strange women..."

"Shut your damn mouth!" Anna held back her anger, "We're getting a room just to change out of these wet clothes, so we don't catch a cold."

"Oh, you should have said so earlier," Yan Yu clearly relaxed.

"You never asked!"

Once in the hotel room, they closed the door, and Anna spoke up again:

"Take off your clothes, I'll blow dry them for you."

"No need." Yan Yu, without any shyness, just took off his shirt and trousers and hung them on a nearby rack, casually casting a Flame Curse.

Flame erupted out of nowhere, steadily drying the wet clothes without burning even a corner of the fabric or the floor. If Shu Weijun, the instructor responsible for teaching the Flame Curse at the academy, were here, he would surely pester him with questions on "how to achieve such millimeter-level precision casting of the Flame Curse."

Anna watched the leaping flames in silence and asked:

"Is this something a cultivator can use, too?"

"Yes."

"So, who are you?"

"Yan Yu."

"What kind of encounter?" Anna paused, "Oh, your surname is Yan, right?"

"What else?" Yan Yu retorted, "You held back all this time just to ask me that?"

Anna's anger surged again. This man... even though they had only just met, why did his words feel like knives stabbing directly into my heart?

So infuriating!

"Why did you save me?" she asked through her anger.

"I should go," Yan Yu didn't answer her question but simply extinguished the Flame Curse and straightened his half-dry clothes, "Let's add each other as friends. I'll inquire about the cultivator inspection for you later."

"...Oh."

Once he was dressed, Yan Yu and Anna added each other as friends. Her profile picture was Marvel's Harley Quinn, and her nickname was [Anna].

The scourge of Western pop culture! No wonder her background check didn't pass. You asked for it!

"I'm leaving," Yan Yu waved at her.

"Wait!" Anna quickly stopped him.

Are you just going to leave? I mean, we've met now, why not sit down and have a chat? I haven't even discussed how to repay you for saving me...

The words to ask him to stay were on the tip of her tongue, but they remained unspoken, as they were still, in truth, not very familiar. But his abrupt goodbye still made Anna feel somewhat lost.

"Anything else?" Yan Yu turned back to ask.

Seeing Anna opening her mouth but unable to speak, he casually nodded:

"We'll be in touch."

Then he decisively pushed the door open and left.

It wasn't that he didn't want to get to know Anna better, but Yan Yu hadn't forgotten that two little firecrackers were still following him.

His main purpose for this trip was actually just to get hold of her contact information. Now that had been achieved, there was no need to linger any longer; spending an extra hour wasn't going to bring them any closer.

Indeed, just as he arrived at the elevator, the coughing of Zhao Yuanzhen and the mocking voice of Chen Lingyun could be heard from behind:

"You've finished already? My, that was quick~ That's boys for you..."

"Shut your mouth," Yan Yu scolded her.