Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

After arriving at the Pingxi Army's main base, Yan Yu chatted with the Military Manor leaders for a while.

The proportion of cultivators in the Military Manor within the country is 3:4:3 for the Qi Refinement, Marrow Cleansing, and Hua Fu stages, respectively. In other words, seventy percent of the Military Manor cultivators haven't even reached the Hua Fu stage.

This is a bad phenomenon, indicating that the mysterious realm resources in the hands of the officials are not enough to support the cultivation needs of so many Military Manor cultivators.

The appearance of mysterious realms is completely unpredictable. Famous mountains and ancient battlefields account for only a small part, with more appearances occurring in bizarre ways. For example, in one case in Jia Ding County, a villager was playing underwater in a river when the current swept him to the riverbed, and in the blink of an eye, he arrived at a mysterious realm.

This villager was rather honest and directly reported the mysterious realm upon swimming out. If it were someone less honest, they might have explored it on their own, taken the cultivation resources, and turned into a civilian cultivator. The officials would never know that a mysterious realm existed there—even if they knew, they wouldn't realistically search the mountains and seas.

In the end, luck plays too much of a role, and relying on luck means it is uncontrollable.

There is no way for Lu Country to solve this issue. Whether it is incentivizing people to report mysterious realms (starting at several million) or recruiting civilian cultivators, these measures essentially only delay the trend of the weak weakening and the strong growing stronger.

At the end of the talk, the Military Manor leader clasped Yan Yu's hands tightly and, with excitement, said:

"In the final analysis, we still owe it to top cultivators like you. You provide strong enough deterrence. You are the stabilizers of Lu Country!"

Yan Yu was somewhat embarrassed and awkward. Although it sounded like flattery, the leader was quite old, and in his era, such genuine expression of emotions was commonplace. Yan Yu didn't know how to respond and could only say a few perfunctory words.

After meeting with the leaders, it was time to visit the Military Manor cultivators in the barracks.

This part was relatively simple since the status gap was too large. The Military Manor cultivators barely had any chance to chat idly with Yan Yu. Yan Yu expressed his greetings, and the cultivators responded and expressed their thanks. Considering these cultivators were prearranged and instructed on how to speak, the whole process felt like acting according to a script.

On the other side, Xie Ruoxi's crossing tribulation finally reached its climax.

The entire process was not without danger. As everyone had guessed, the heavenly tribulation adjusts according to the weaknesses of the tribulation crosser. Xie Ruoxi had many flaws: slow reactions, easily panicked, and not very sharp… Therefore, the trajectory of the tribulation thunder quickly became extremely complicated, frequently splitting, turning invisible, and even teleporting.

Then, the thunder net shattered them completely.

Ye Jun's scatter bomb formation essentially split Xie Ruoxi's thunder method. The energy contained within the thunder method was extremely abundant, so even after being massively split into a thunder net, it still maintained enough destructive capability.

High attack naturally equates to high consumption. For other magic cultivators, after dozens of thunder methods, their True Yuan would be exhausted, and not even elixir medicine would help.

But Xie Ruoxi was a different story. After casting over a hundred thunder methods, she only consumed three elixir medicines. The speed at which her True Yuan was depleted was possibly slower than her rate of refining the medicinal power. Looking at the unmoved Ten Thousand Bamboo Sword and the Xuan Guang Ruler nearby, it was clear her True Yuan never dipped below the danger line.

Under such overwhelming suppression of True Yuan, the heavenly tribulation seemed enraged, with the last wave containing an incredible eighteen thousand bolts of tribulation thunder, each falling at 1200 meters per second.

Xie Ruoxi finally turned pale with fright, furiously channeling her thunder method and crazily looping and throwing thunders. Countless thunder nets soared into the sky, clashing with the dense tribulation thunder. The instantaneous burst of light reached millions of lumens, crashing the monitoring screens in the rear.

At the Wudang Mountain base, cultivators promptly rushed to the top of Sky Pillar Peak, only to find Xie Ruoxi standing there unharmed, completely still and with an immensely calm expression.

"Ruoxi!" Zhao Yuanzhen was the first to rush up, hugging her tightly from the front, both transforming into their true forms, "Congratulations on your Core Formation success!"

"Sister Zhao…" Xie Ruoxi's voice was barely audible.

"What's wrong?" Zhao Yuanzhen asked, puzzled.

"I... leaked," Xie Ruoxi's face flushed with redness, her voice quivering with a hint of tears, "Just a little bit... Please take me back, don't let anyone else know!"

Zhao Yuanzhen: ...

The terror of the heavenly tribulation is truly formidable. Accidents in tribulation are quite common.

The medical team soon arrived to check on Xie Ruoxi. But the little Ruoxi would never agree. She refused vehemently, pulling the team back to the base and rushing into her room for a shower.

After about ten minutes, she emerged with a pleased and self-satisfied expression, heading to the team meeting room to join everyone:

"Alright, everyone can congratulate me now."

"Congratulations, congratulations." Lin Ning and Su Yunjin were somewhat speechless. But Ruoxi's Core Formation was in the end a good thing, so everyone sat together, chatting and laughing while snacking.

"By the way, where are Ling Yun and the captain?" Xie Ruoxi asked suddenly.

Her successful tribulation was seen due to her immense True Yuan. But Xie Ruoxi credited her success entirely to her captain, who gave her immeasurable courage before her departure, allowing her to face the life-or-death tribulation calmly!