Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

But everyone had escaped from the Sea of the Dead and continued to move south along the road by Sword Flight, searching for nearby human settlements.

This cross-border beheading was a high-risk mission, and if there were any leaks that allowed the Witch King to become aware of the team's whereabouts, it would pose a serious threat to the cultivators. That's why no one wore cameras.

Without the surveillance of cameras, Yan Yu could confidently teach everyone some techniques without worrying that they would be recorded and studied in great detail.

"Sword Flight is you using True Yuan to stimulate the sword's light, which then envelops your body and drags you along as it flies, right?" Yan Yu asked telepathically.

"Right," Lin Ning responded immediately.

"Don't you find it strange?" Yan Yu asked persuasively, "Following this logic, the True Yuan for flight is provided by yourself, so why do you need to transfer True Yuan to the Flying Sword first?"

"Because I am very slow when flying with the Cloud Ascension Technique on my own," Lin Ning replied instinctively, but soon she realized that wasn't quite right.

If Yan Yu asked her this, it meant there must be "a better way of Sword Control Flight."

"Ultimately, it is because you subconsciously see yourself and the Flying Sword as separate entities," Yan Yu attempted to inspire her insight, "Since they are different, the sword can fly fast while you are slow, which is why you need the Flying Sword to drag you."

"And with the added burden of your weight, even the Flying Sword's speed and power will be affected, causing the True Yuan you utilize for Sword Flight to not be fully applied to attack. Some of it gets internally dissipated."

Lin Ning pondered silently for a moment, and then she thought of using her physics knowledge to understand the concept: if she was the power source and the Flying Sword was the electrical appliance, connecting the power source and the appliance with a wire would definitely result in some energy loss along the wire.

So how could this energy loss be reduced?

The answer, of course, is to make the wire as short as possible or even better, to directly interface the power source with the appliance, minimizing the resistance in the process!

"Are you saying..." She suddenly had a flash of inspiration and cleverly said, "If I could fully merge with the sword's light, becoming one with the sword and the sword one with me, then there would be no 'dragging me along' loss!

Previously, learning Sword Flight was about drawing the sword's light closer until it could envelop me; but if I could get even closer, couldn't it evolve from 'envelopment' to 'fusion,' thereby maximizing the efficiency of the True Yuan driving the Flying Sword?"

Yan Yu was astonished, because Sister Lin's deductive result was entirely correct.

When a Sword Immortal provides True Yuan to a Flying Sword, there's bound to be some loss. The Sword Control Technique, since it is transmitted by the mind across a distance, results in the greatest loss; while the Sword-Human Unity inside the sword's light reduces the loss significantly, and its attack power is naturally far stronger than the Sword Control Technique.

As for the strongest form, Sword-Human Unity, there is no distinction between the cultivator and the Flying Sword, with almost zero loss of True Yuan. When outputting True Yuan at its maximum, the speed and force of the sword's light are also elevated to an indestructible level.

This is the best move of the Sword Immortal—Sword-Human Unity! Even in the late period of the Spiritual Energy Resurgence, Yan Yu frequently chose Sword-Human Unity as his killer move to neatly reap the lives of his opponents.

Of course, the method of training for Sword-Human Unity had not yet appeared in Teacher Mei's mandatory Sword Immortal course materials, so Yan Yu could not explain the principles in too much detail to avoid arousing suspicion for no reason.

But Lin Ning's sudden burst of intelligence was a huge success, and based on Yan Yu's verbal hints, she invented the theory of Sword-Human Unity on her own... That's not my business! She figured it out herself—if there is an investigation, they should look for her!

Seeing Yan Yu did not rebut but acknowledged her theory, Lin Ning was instantly thrilled.

Currently, she could only manage to have the sword's light envelop her; she was far from achieving "fusion with the sword's light," but since this path was viable, she could, of course, persistently try to bring the sword's light closer to herself each time until she fully mastered this powerful technique!

It was like memorizing an English dictionary—learn a few words every day, and just keep at it!

Abandon!

Seeing Lin Ning easily handled, Yan Yu too was reassured.

Having been a Sword Immortal for nearly a lifetime in his previous life, his memory was packed with plenty of swordsmanship skills that could be imparted to Ningning gradually, so he wasn't worried about running out of things to teach.

But what about Yun Jin? I don't understand Taoism Method at all!

After careful thought, Yan Yu did come up with an idea:

Although I don't understand Taoist methods, my extensive experience in fighting allows me to teach Yun Jin how to fight flexibly!

"Yun Jin, I remember you mentioned last time," he sent a message to Su Yunjin, asking, "You don't know how to combine Taoist methods with your Sword Control Technique?"

"Mhm," Su Yunjin felt a subtle joy, surprised that the captain still had her concerns in mind, "it's just that once my Southern Dipper Galaxy Secret Art traps the enemy, the chaotic flows around them also impede my sword, making it inconvenient for me to assassinate or deal the finishing blow. Do you have any good ideas, Captain?"

"To trap your enemy with your Taoist methods, a sufficient amount of chaotic flows is definitely necessary," Yan Yu analyzed, "If the water flows aren't chaotic enough, the enemy will find a direction to break free. Therefore, to coordinate with the Sword Control Technique, I can think of two solutions."

"One is to suddenly cease the Taoist method and at the same time control the Flying Sword to execute a killing strike at the very moment the water prison collapses. Since you control the timing of the cessation of the Taoist method, the operation should be relatively easy.

But the downside is if you encounter an extremely powerful master, voluntarily dispersing your Taoist method will still provide an opportunity for a counterattack."

"The second is to deepen your control of the Taoist method. You need to not only master the overall direction of the water flow but also be able to precisely predict the course of a particular undercurrent at a given moment, so that you can time it right and manipulate the sword to follow this undercurrent to execute the assassination...

Without a doubt, this is very difficult, but if you can truly achieve this, then there won't be any glaring weaknesses in your tactical system."

Su Yunjin fell into contemplation. If it were the more laid-back previous self, after weighing the input against the output, she probably would have chosen the former option.

After all, the latter is like tossing a box of ping pong balls into the air, then needing to at least grasp one ping pong ball's falling trajectory... ordinary people, even just being able to pick out one specific ball from so many, would already require a lot of effort and practice.

But...

"I choose the second option," Su Yunjin said calmly.

If the captain really becomes the strongest in this world in the future, then I at least have to be a cultivator who can "keep up with the strongest in this world." Otherwise, even if the captain still wishes to keep me in the team by then, how could I have the face to shamelessly be a drag?

I must stay by the captain's side to have a chance...

Yan Yu, although vaguely feeling some sourceless heaviness, simply thought that Su Yunjin's determination to become stronger was very strong, so far from being scared, he actually quite appreciated it and encouraged her with a smile:

"It's actually not difficult to practice this. When you cast your Taoist method to trap the target, just pay attention to the direction of the water flow. The more you observe, the more techniques you'll grasp. However, how long it specifically takes and how much you can understand depends on your visual acuity, comprehension, and luck; specifically, I can't say for sure."

Su Yunjin also understood that the captain was saying: I don't know, you just go ahead and try.

However, the captain isn't a professional in magical laws, so not knowing is normal. That he's willing to help is already quite rare...

She silently made excuses for Yan Yu in her heart, then suddenly heard Yan Yu say:

"We're here."

In the current Southern Border, there no longer exists any serious secular authority, nor can one expect that just as you cross the border, the other side can quickly detect and deploy troops to intercept.

The territories of the sorcerers are fragmented; most are only willing to manage their own land, a few not even willing to manage theirs, preferring to find a place to seclude themselves for cultivation. So even if you've resolved to thoroughly defeat them, it's not necessarily easy to find them.

But Yan Yu's experience from his former life is too rich; how could such a matter stump him? First, he led the team along the dirt road, finding a village where not everyone had died yet, then went directly to the largest house in the town.

To barge in forcefully.

As sorcerers are not civil servants, lacking both the ability and the intention to manage commoners, they'd surely find a trustworthy commoner to manage their territory—for previous lifetimes in actual practice, these people usually arranged their relatives to act as the village or town leaders, most commonly their fathers or biological brothers.

With his careless demeanor, Yan Yu barged in, in front of the other cultivators, gave the town leader residing there a chaotic beating, leaving him with a bruised nose and swollen face, several teeth knocked out, then strutted out of the door and said:

"Wait here for them to come and meet their death."

Listening to the miserable wails inside the house, along with the foreign language rattling away, everyone's expressions ranged from confused to suddenly enlightened to thoughtful.

After a moment, indeed, a large number of dark clouds could be seen coming from far away, quickly rushing towards the group!