Stepping on the Demoness to become the strongest

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To become a cultivator in Lu Country, there are only two criteria:

First, refine True Qi.

Second, learn the Three Arts and Five Spells.

Refining True Qi isn't too difficult, especially with Lu Country's current "blood test selection" method, which screens for those who have a Spirit Root—a seedling for cultivation.

As long as one can clearly remember the pathways of the human meridians and various major acupoints, and tries following the specific routes about ten times, one can basically complete the Grand Circulation and refine True Qi.

However, those who haven't memorized any knowledge, don't know the route of qi circulation, and can still refine True Qi just by trying randomly are usually called "Innately talented cultivators."

Yan Yu asked Xie Ruoxi to continue her breathing exercises and Qi Refinement, then he began to scan her body with his Divine Sense.

Hmm, indeed there is a sensation of Qi.

The beautiful loser actually didn't lie and has truly managed to refine True Qi.

But on second thought, maybe it was her outstanding innate talent for cultivation that made her so nonchalant about her practice, ultimately degrading into a hermit cultivator in her previous life.

To prevent her from becoming complacent, I can't praise her; instead, I must push her hard!

Just like when I guided Zhao Yuanzhen to renounce evil and pursue good, helped Zhou Hongyu establish goals, and made agreements with Li Minghu... in any case, when it comes to helping others, Yan Yu is already quite experienced.

When to hoodwink and when to go for the kill— he's well versed in this and won't stop until he achieves his goals.

"Hmm, it seems you indeed have the talent to become a cultivator," Yan Yu said with a detached tone.

Xie Ruoxi had just started to smile sweetly when she heard Yan Yu continue:

"But your True Qi is too weak, which means your aptitude is poor! You'll need to train twice as much as others to catch up, so you can't afford to slack off and must diligently practice every day... Hey!"

Xie Ruoxi didn't bother listening to all that; she quickly wrapped her arms around the pile of cash in the corner and asked guardedly:

"Yan Yu, you keep your word, right? Is all this money mine now?"

"Uhh." Yan Yu fell silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yeah."

The beautiful loser from the past life with no motivation was truly a pity, but this person right in front of him, who was motivated by money and had eyes that lit up at the sight of it... Why does she not seem like any good either?

No, this method of using money cannot be used again; going from one extreme to the other is absolutely not okay.

Yan Yu's original plan was to first guide Xie Ruoxi to become a cultivator, then slowly let her get the hang of managing social communities, so he would have an assistant good for both intellectual management and martial action.

But Xie Ruoxi's talent in cultivation is indeed excellent. If I teach her the Three Arts and Five Spells too quickly, she will become overly reliant on martial strength, which is not conducive to a balanced development in both literature and martial arts.

Yan Yu thought carefully, thinking it wasn't because he was afraid that if her martial power grew too quickly, she would become difficult to control... How could he, the strongest in this world, be afraid of her modest cultivation talent?

Mainly, let's look at the past life, when Xie Ruoxi replaced the Li siblings and became the number one cultivator of the Annan Army. What came of that? No matter how good at fighting she was, wasn't she just a top-level fighter? When it came to having her say, she wasn't even as influential as Chen Lingyun.

Even trying to sneak in a game during free time would get her noticed by various gaming companies and result in a ban; how pitiful!

When Sun Quan persuaded Lu Meng to start learning, eventually Lu Meng went from illiterate to "none other than Lu Meng of Wu." Not only do I, Yan Yu, want to be Xie Ruoxi's Lu Su, but I also want to be her Sun Quan!

I'm doing this for her sake; she will understand this one day.

"That's enough for your cultivation training for now," Yan Yu instructed indifferently, "Find time every day to circulate your Qi and perform the Grand Circulation. I'll regularly check up on your progress."

"Ah?" Xie Ruoxi looked troubled, "I have to practice every day?"

"Nonsense," Yan Yu immediately scolded her, "Your talent is already worse than others, and you dare to be lazy? Don't you want to be a cultivator?"

Xie Ruoxi hung her head and said no more.

"Once your cultivation progresses to a satisfactory level, I'll teach you more," Yan Yu waved his hand and said, "Now let's go upstairs and talk about your living arrangements and work."

Upon reaching the second floor of the villa, Yan Yu pointed to the rooms on either side of the corridor and introduced:

"This is the study, that's the gym, over there is the movie room, and the rest of the rooms, apart from the bathroom and rooms with signs on the doors, are all empty. Pick one for yourself."

Xie Ruoxi peeked into the study and saw a computer, immediately her eyes lit up:

"I want to stay in the study!"

"The study is a study, not a bedroom," Yan Yu reminded her, "This study is smaller than the bedrooms, and the lighting isn't great, plus there's no balcony."

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"No problem, no problem," Xie Ruoxi hastened to say, "I just like small rooms that have a computer and don't get sunlight in the morning."

There were five vacant bedrooms, but she insisted on living in the study... Yan Yu couldn't be bothered to argue with her, after all, it was Xie Ruoxi, the Abstract King of Fans, not doing something bizarre would be the real surprise:

"Fine, I'll arrange for someone to come and set up a bed and wardrobe later."

"Can I start working now?" Xie Ruoxi sat in the office chair, rubbing her hands in anticipation in front of the new computer, her pretty face full of eagerness.

"Yeah, let me tell you about the work," Yan Yu said as he booted up the computer, speaking calmly, "Before August, the resurgence of spiritual energy was subject to information control and wasn't allowed to be discussed on domestic networks; most people were unaware."

"At the end of August, this information started to be massively declassified, followed by the Three Isles Treasure Ship incident, which marked the first time we cultivators officially entered into an event of widespread public fervor."

"This means that more and more citizens will start to recognize us cultivators. Therefore, the first public impression established in this window of time is incredibly important."

"You should start by setting up our team's official accounts on various platforms, get all the necessary verifications done, and then you decide how to manage them. Come to me for funding or materials you need."

"Sure." Xie Ruoxi didn't say another word and started fiddling with the mouse and keyboard immediately.

Yan Yu had little doubt about Xie Ruoxi's ability to manage a fan base. In her previous life, she had become a streamer with millions of fans, swindling money from them without even showing her face; her talent for manipulating people was clear.

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Several days later, the cleanup of the Three Isles Treasure Ship Secret Realm was finally drawing to a close.

The members of the Zhenhai Team and the Qing'an Team were about to finish their work and return to their respective homes.

Yan Yu called a cleaning service, asking the ladies to clean up the villa inside and out, so the girls could feel comfortable and happy upon their return.

Soon, a cleaner came downstairs and said:

"Young man! Go up and call your wife for a moment, she's squatting in the study not coming out, we can't clean up like this!"

Yan Yu: ?

When he reached the second-floor study, he saw Xie Ruoxi with messy hair and heavy dark circles under her eyes, rapidly typing on the computer keyboard.

"Stop working for now." Yan Yu snapped the monitor off, "Come downstairs with me and let the cleaners tidy up the study."

"Wait a second... Ah!" Xie Ruoxi stood up in annoyance, complaining, "I was just a few keystrokes away from posting that comment!"

"Is that comment really so important?" Yan Yu asked casually.

"Not important," Xie Ruoxi responded, "But posting it would have made me feel better."

"Young people shouldn't be so hot-tempered." Yan Yu chuckled disdainfully, "Internet arguments are pointless, getting angry means you've lost."

"That troll said that the essence of the Zhenhai Team is that of a financial conglomerate's dance troupe." Xie Ruoxi argued, "He also claimed that the female cultivators in the team are all for your selection as concubines, and that you roll dice every night to choose whose card to flip."

"Classic." Yan Yu chuckled coldly, not bothering to refute, and simply said, "Take a screenshot of the user ID and their comment and send it to me, I'll have someone up top take care of it."

"Damn!" Xie Ruoxi was stunned at first but quickly burst into a smug grin, nodding incessantly, "I'll take care of it after the study is cleaned. Also, take a look at this video... "

Yan Yu looked closely and saw that it was a re-uploaded video from a neighboring non-existent platform, featuring an interview with Thornbird—the superhero had already announced his presence in Northern Ai, relieving many of his compatriots who were concerned about him.

Last night, he was invited to "Tonight with Morgan," where the host asked about the performance of the Rikoku Cultivator. "Thornbird" Roger expressed high praise:

"...Hmm, I don't want to belittle Rikoku Cultivators due to some internationally popular stereotypes, because a loss is a loss, there's no need to find excuses to feel better, but... "

"...Yan Yu is a very strong, very strong, very strong Rikoku Cultivator, worth my repeating three times. You all saw the live broadcast, didn't you? Were there any audience members who haven't seen the live stream or the recording?

From the initiation to the explosion of the 'Demons' Trap' Spell, the reaction and action time left for anyone was less than 0.4 seconds, and he managed to dodge them all... all of them, a full seven Demons' Traps!"

"...No, I don't think if I had another chance and chose a different tactic I could turn defeat into victory. There's currently a gap in strength between me and him, you know? Of course, I don't think I'll always be behind, I just firmly believe that to surpass an opponent, the first thing to do is to acknowledge them..."

"Hmph," Xie Ruoxi dragged the video's progress bar to the end, saying with pride, "Not wanting to lose face in defeat, he has to forcefully praise you in order to minimize the shame of his loss, his intentions are too obvious."

"Of course, we have to take advantage of this popularity: I can use the footage of your previous battle with him and edit a highlight video. I've already thought of the title, it'll be called 'Intense! Yan Zhanlong Decimates Thornbird, the Ultimate Aesthetic of a Cultivator's Violence!' and release it across all major platforms on the internet."

"First, we get some hired commenters to hype it up, attracting the first wave of traffic. Then, we have a bunch of trolls claim the video is faked, followed by our rational fans disputing them. Lastly, we take screenshots of the intense debate and post them on major forums to attract a lot of smart bystanders to come over and pass judgment."

"Whether these bystanders support the fans or the trolls, they'll definitely have to watch the video to judge its authenticity, and that's how our video will capture a second wave of traffic.

Then, I can go anonymously to a few big content creators to buy promotional pieces, get them to help with a deep technical verification, and then have trolls stir trouble in their comment sections, provoking their fans to watch the original video... "

Her enthusiasm grew as she spoke, but she didn't notice that Yan Yu's look towards her was becoming increasingly strange.

Xie Ruoxi, are you really so adept at marketing and stirring up activity?

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