Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

"I originally thought you had social anxiety, but it turns out you're a social terrorist!"

In all his years from childhood to adulthood, Qiu Ze had met countless male peers, but he had never encountered such a peculiar person who would take classmates in front of girls to blow their own cover without any agreement. This was a first for him.

As for the two boys beside him, they didn't want to interact with him anymore... They were thinking about getting out of singlehood during their college days, of course, they didn't dare to offend this brave man easily.

Therefore, until the practical class in the afternoon, there were no other boys coming to chat with Yan Yu.

—————

As Yan Yu had told Lin Ning before, being a cultivator is fundamentally a military occupation, which is why practice is far more important than theory.

The theoretical classes in the morning were managed by a single instructor, but the first practical class in the afternoon had ten instructors present at the same time.

All the instructors had uniform crew cuts, camouflage outfits, and military boots. They stood up straight in a row on the drill field, and the atmosphere was extremely serious and formal. So much so that even the most mischievous students did not dare to continue joking around with their classmates.

Leading the instructors was Qi Changping, the very teacher who had recruited Yan Yu back in Lin'an Prefecture. Standing in front of everyone with his hands behind his back, he said:

"My name is Qi, the same 'Qi' as in Qi Jiguang. You can call me Instructor Qi from now on."

"For the next four years, I will be in charge of your practical courses, so let me first lay out the rules here."

"In my class, I don't forbid playing with phones, I don't forbid eating snacks, I don't forbid whispering with classmates, you can do whatever you want to do as long as you stay at the class. Just one thing," he continued with a tone shift,

"Of course, there's a precondition: you must be able to defeat me."

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Everyone was at a loss for words: Defeat the instructor, my god!

If we had the strength to defeat the instructor, what would we be doing studying here!

"Of course," Qi Changping continued, "Even if you're unable to defeat the instructor, as long as you can beat all your classmates around you and get first place in the year's exams, we have special privileges for the chief."

"To put it simply, our practical classes are purely based on meritocracy! If you are strong, you call the shots! If you're not strong enough, just shut up quietly and follow the arrangements set by the stronger ones!"

No one spoke up. Anyone with a bit of intelligence knew this was a power move to intimidate them, who would be foolish enough to stick their neck out at this time?

"Is there no one who wants to challenge the instructor?" Qi Changping looked around the crowd, raising his voice, "If you want to speak, shout 'Reporting to the instructor,' and raise your hand!"

"Reporting to the instructor!" Qiu Ze was the first to raise his hand and shout.

"Step forward!"

"We've just started school and are not familiar with the various spells yet, we can't defeat the instructor!" Qiu Ze said loudly.

Seeing that the instructor was preparing to intimidate, this fellow directly gave him the microphone, which showed his ability to flatter all too clearly.

Qi Changping remained noncommittal, simply stating coldly:

"Not familiar? You got the textbooks just yesterday when you arrived at school, and you had all evening to study. Even the most foolish person should at least have learned one curse technique, right?"

The crowd remained silent. Which college freshman would start studying on their very first day?!

Qi Changping looked around at the students again, shouting:

"Those who have mastered at least one spell from the Three Arts and at least one curse technique from the Five Spells, step forward!"

Only Yan Yu and Chen Lingyun stood out.

Among the more than a hundred students, there were those who had looked over the textbooks beforehand, but except for Su Yunjin and Lin Ning, who knew the training ground, the other students didn't have a place to practice, so naturally, they couldn't master the Five Spells.

The only one who skipped this threshold in her past life was Chen Lingyun, who, upon confirmation of her Spirit Root, was immediately assigned to a military base and had advanced learning of the Three Arts and Five Spells.

But the students wouldn't know about this; they would just think Chen Lingyun was a cultivation genius who could master the Three Arts and Five Spells overnight... That's the power of information asymmetry.

Therefore, it was quite obvious that the academy was supporting Chen Lingyun from behind, trying to build her prestige among the cultivator classmates of her year, and to make her the "primordial model" and "representative of the new generation" for the Zhendong Army cultivators—laying the groundwork early for her to become the team leader later on.

It's a well-known fact that the representative of the new students of each college is inevitably the product of behind-the-scenes manipulation, so this case isn't really an exception.

However, Yan Yu was more concerned about, after stepping forward with Chen Lingyun, what kind of reaction would those who had intended to support Chen Lingyun have?

"Yan Yu and Chen Lingyun, follow me," Qi Changping instructed, "The rest of you, stay here and learn the Shifting Technique. In an hour, we will conduct a phase test."

So everyone quietly opened the textbooks they carried and started to study and research.

Yan Yu and Chen Lingyun followed the instructors to another training field next to the mountain's backside and put on specially made metal bracelets with mysterious and beautiful runes on them.

"These are True Yuan suppression bracelets," Qi Changping explained, "They can suppress the killing output of the Impact Curse, Flame Curse, and Curved Curse, so you won't cause instantly fatal wounds."

This was explained for Yan Yu, meaning he didn't need to hold back in what was to come, while Chen Lingyun obviously already knew what the bracelet was for.

"Next, you will fight each other here to test your standards," Qi Changping continued, "Don't worry about harming your opponent; we, the instructors, will watch the whole time, and the medical team will also be on standby... Any questions?"

"Yes," Yan Yu asked, "Is the purpose of this duel for us to compete, or simply to examine our strength levels?"

"Both to compete and to examine," Qi Changping answered, "You don't need to concern yourself with so much, just do your best."

"Well, what I mean is," Yan Yu continued, "if it's about winning or losing, then you won't be able to assess my strength level."

"What student Yan Yu means is," Chen Lingyun said with an eyebrow raised and a smile, "that my current strength level isn't enough to force him to use his full power."

Qi Changping remained silent, and the other instructors were also unanimously speechless.

What kind of arrogance is this?

There's no need to speak of Chen Lingyun's strength; after all, she had been studying with the military since April and has already mastered the Three Arts and Five Spells extremely proficiently. Her sheer spell-casting ability is even comparable to that of military cultivators—what right does a newcomer have to speak such big words?

Last night, the instructors hadn't accompanied the marshal to inspect the training field, so they hadn't seen Yan Yu's performance. But as veterans who had seen much, they had encountered many unruly individuals in the troops. Thus, they all managed to keep their expressions well hidden, only to hear Qi Changping laugh and say:

"If that's the case, you can fight a bit slower and let us see your strength,"

"Alright then," Yan Yu began to move his arms, "I'll just have to go easy."

He calmly walked onto the training field, looking at Chen Lingyun who stood opposite him, and asked:

"You going first?"

"Sure," Chen Lingyun said with a smile.

She turned nimbly and walked leisurely toward the rear, seemingly measuring how much distance to put between them.

In the eyes of the instructors, this was seen with much approval and satisfaction: evidently, the girl was very clear on where her weaknesses lay.

As a cultivator, Chen Lingyun's time undergoing military training was not long. Her advantage lay in her proficiency with spells, while her weaknesses were her close combat ability and her capacity to respond to sudden situations—this could be considered a gender disadvantage for women. Without training, they are naturally not as adept at fighting as men.

Once the distance was closed by an opponent, it could result in an inability to cast spells and being confounded by some undisciplined punches. Keeping the distance allows for calm deployment of various spells; that is the most suited combat approach for her.

Facing Chen Lingyun's openly displayed tactical intent, Yan Yu had no particular reaction and even yawned lazily.

Let's first see the quality of your strength, little Ling Yun.