Stepping on the demon door, the witch becomes the strongest.

Chapter 668 Rice Cake
The three major projects for the revival of spiritual energy in the previous life were Europe’s "Shroud Barrier Project", Lu’s "Ordinary Warrior Project", and Sakura Empire’s "Yamata-no-Orochi Project".

The Shroud barrier can defend against external attacks and suppress non-holy transcendents within it, but its downside is that it's powerless against enemies outside the barrier. The Ordinary Warrior Project allows mortals to temporarily possess transcendent-level combat power through wearable devices, but both the number and quality of mortals are unlikely to rival transcendents relying solely on qualifications. The Yamata no Orochi Project attempted to create a "national guardian beast," but it was later discovered that the grown beast would eat more people each day than the enemy...

Overall, the three major engineering projects did not achieve the expected results, but it would not be wrong to say that they had no positive significance at all.

After dinner at Yan's house, the girls set off for the East China Sea of Lu State, planning a night fishing trip.

Li Weiguo waved his hand and asked the navy to dispatch a frigate to take the girls to go fishing at sea.

Yan Yu and Li Minghu were given a special mission, so they left the team alone and went to a nearby secret base.

The location of the secret base could not be revealed, except that it was somewhere deep in the mountains, underground. One had to fly a sword through the dense forest, trek about a kilometer, then enter a tunnel and continue walking for another 1 kilometers to reach it. On the way, Li Minghu was authorized to give Yan Yu a brief overview of the Mortal Warrior Plan.

Although he had already known the ins and outs of this plan in his previous life, Yan Yu still pretended to have just heard about it, and kept nodding to show that he understood.

"...In short, this project has encountered some problems." Li Minghu said concisely, "The higher-ups sent us two cultivators over. On the one hand, they have enough trust in us, and on the other hand, they want to hear our opinions."

"A stone from another mountain can be used to polish jade." Yan Yu nodded.

"You are the jade, and I am just the brick that throws bricks to attract jade." Li Minghu covered his mouth and laughed.

The two of them walked through a long corridor, passed at least a dozen checkpoints, and finally officially entered the ordinary warrior training base.

The director of the base was a lieutenant general named Zhang, who held a welcome party near the entrance with all the scientific researchers. He then led the two into the conference room, where the lieutenant general himself gave a personal explanation of the project.

Currently, there are over 400 mortals trained within the base, all of whom are proficient in using swordsmanship to kill enemies. However, their drawbacks are low energy utilization and bulky external storage equipment (roughly the size of a refrigerator), which severely restricts the mortal warriors' ability to improve.

Researchers have proposed two plans. One is to place the external storage device for true energy on a large mobile platform similar to a mothership. Ordinary warriors are like small planes on the mothership, flying out to fight, using up the true energy in their bodies, and then flying back to replenish the true energy.

The advantage of this solution is that it doesn't require the external storage equipment to be compacted, allowing it to be carried directly on the mothership. This allows ordinary warriors to travel light, without any weight burden. The disadvantage, of course, is that the ordinary warrior's range of movement is limited to a circle around the mothership. This is sufficient for fixed-point security operations, but not for long-distance pursuit of enemies.

The second approach is to miniaturize the external storage device so that ordinary warriors can carry it on their backs. The advantage is that the individual combat power of ordinary warriors can be closer to that of monks. The disadvantage is that reducing the size of the device requires long-term technical research and development, and it cannot be achieved overnight.

"I support the second option." Yan Yu said directly.

"Me too," Li Minghu echoed. "If ordinary warriors are restricted to the area surrounding the mothership, they will never be able to rival cultivators. What if hostile cultivators concentrate their attacks on the mothership? The mothership can't maneuver to dodge attacks like cultivators can. Such a large platform will only be a sitting duck on the battlefield."

"Hmm," General Zhang said thoughtfully. "Of course, the combat power of a Transcendent is the core indicator we're most concerned about. However, we currently can't shrink our external storage equipment to a size suitable for individual soldiers. The amount of True Essence stored per unit volume is also extremely limited, making it difficult to support professions other than Sword Immortals. The mothership solution can circumvent these problems."

Judging from past lives, it's possible to shrink external storage devices, ultimately reducing them to a jar weighing just over 20 kilograms, which could be carried without affecting actual combat. Increasing Zhen Yuan storage is more difficult to achieve, and ordinary warriors are still limited to becoming Sword Immortals. This is because both ghost servants and assistant officers require vast amounts of cultivation resources, while the Zhen Yuan requirements of a Mage Cultivator are simply too great. No matter how much the jar technology is improved, it's unlikely to reach the combat standards of a Mage Cultivator.

Of course, the Lu Kingdom currently lacks the advantage of foresight. If the second path is chosen and later discovered to be technically unworkable, the leadership would absolutely not accept it. In contrast, the first path presents fewer technical barriers. A mothership can be modified from heavy helicopter technology and is expected to be operational within a short period of time. Therefore, it is understandable that they would consider the mothership route.

"Personally, I think there's no point in trying the first option." Yan Yu bluntly concluded, "Let's put it this way. Currently, the mothership tactic is certainly feasible, but what about later? The enemy will definitely concentrate their attacks on the mothership, forcing you to focus on increasing its maneuverability as much as possible. Whether it's flight speed or turning flexibility, it can't be left behind too far by the cultivators' flying swords. Only then can it have true practical value."

"Then you'll discover that the most crucial indicator affecting a mothership's maneuverability is its mass... understand? In other words, the first approach is a major detour, ultimately returning to the path of minimizing the external storage of true essence. So, I don't think there's any point in even trying."

"I understand." General Zhang nodded.

Many of the surrounding researchers also expressed relief. In fact, there were quite a few experts who supported the second path. The problem was that research projects required regular reporting and results, and all the pressure fell on the leadership. Therefore, sometimes they inevitably chose quick-success solutions... But Yan Yu, as the Swordsman of Lu, had made his position clear. The leadership couldn't just say, "No, I'm going to go against you."

"Speaking of ordinary warriors, I'd like to invite you two to inspect the training of ordinary warriors at our base." General Zhang continued with a smile, "The soldiers were very excited when they heard that the Sword Master from Lu Country was coming."

"There's no rush for that," Yan Yu said politely. "It's getting late now. Let's set it up at 10 a.m. tomorrow so the soldiers can get some sleep."

"Okay." General Zhang immediately gave orders, asking the ordinary warriors on standby to rest first, and then asked his adjutant to lead the two to the guest room to rest.

Two guest rooms...

Yan Yu immediately cursed his leader in his heart for being so ignorant, then simply washed up and prepared to go to bed.

I had just laid down when I received a video invitation from Su Yunjin.

After clicking to receive, Yun Jin's pretty smile immediately appeared in the video, with the deep sea at night as the background. She first waved at Yan Yu, then picked up the iron bucket in her hand, pointed the camera at the full catch inside, and said proudly:
"Captain! How did you know I caught so many fish?"

Yan Yu was startled at first, then immediately shouted:

"Who asked you?"

Damn fisherman, give me back my gentle Yunjin!

"It's mainly flat fish and tofu." Su Yunjin smiled and continued, "I'll make you a seafood feast when I get back, okay?"

"It seems that you have gained a lot this time." Yan Yu said casually.

"I'm just very lucky." Su Yunjin moved the camera and aimed it at Chen Lingyun next to her. The bucket next to her was empty, and she was holding her fishing rod and staring blankly with a carefree look on her face.

"Hey, where did this little air force come from?" Yan Yu deliberately said loudly, "Why, don't fish like you?"

"The fish I like is not here." Chen Lingyun said with a smile.

Before Yan Yu could mock her further, Xie Ruoxi, who was standing next to her, immediately jumped into the camera and started crying:
"Captain! Except for Yunjin and Anna, none of us caught any fish! It was so hard!" "It's normal not to catch any fish," Yan Yu said. "The enjoyment of sea fishing is just admiring the sea view and feeling the breeze. If you really want to catch fish, why don't you just cast a net?"

"But the sea view isn't pretty at night!" Xie Ruoxi's eyes welled up with tears. "I could have spent the entire evening watching dramas, anime, and playing games like this!"

"It's okay." Anna came into the camera from the side, waved to Yan Yu, and said to Xie Ruoxi, "I caught three fish, I'll give you one."

Xie Ruoxi was absolutely utterly astonished. Was it that one fish I was missing? What I was missing was the joy and sense of accomplishment of catching one! What's the difference between this and a power leveler who simply maxed out and then declared their career over?
"I'm telling you, you're just too impatient." Lin Ning also came over and said, "Fishing is something you can't rush. Look at me, I've put my rod there, and no fish has taken a bite for a long time, but I'm not anxious at all..."

"Ningning, your fishing rod is moving!" Zhao Yuanzhen suddenly shouted.

"Ah? Where, where?" Lin Ning immediately jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on.

The girls quickly gathered around to help Lin Ning hold the fishing rod. Judging from the tightness of the fishing line, it seemed to be a big catch.

In a panic, Su Yunjin also threw the phone on the small folding stool. Yan Yu saw that the screen was pitch black, mixed with the girls' screams of surprise:

"Pull faster, pull faster!"

"You can't pull it too fast, or the string will break! You have to alternate between loosening and tightening it!"

"Then I'll loosen it first... Have you loosened it enough?"

"That's enough, you've let out all the lines, pull them back!"

The fish was clearly on the hook, but for some reason it sounded like it would take a long time to catch. Yan Yu hung up the video first and would ask them later if they had caught anything.

On the other side, Li Minghu was lying on the bed in his room with a very conflicted expression.

There were so many people in the Zhenhai team's villa, Yan Yu would definitely be hesitant. This was probably his only chance to be alone, and if he didn't seize it, it would be gone once he and the others returned to Jinling!
Thinking of this, she also became furious. Her true energy suddenly surged, impacting the lung meridian, and she vomited blood.

The Valkyrie is a typical example of someone who has mastered skills to the extreme. Even the internal injuries she inflicted were just right. Her pulse was extremely chaotic and she was coughing non-stop, but what she vomited out was actually all the blood that had recently accumulated, and it did not damage the source of her own cultivation.

She rushed through the wall into Yan Yu's room and called for help:

"Cough! Cough cough! Yan Yu, medicine, medicine!"

Seeing that she was coughing so urgently, Yan Yu didn't care about anything else. He quickly took out the pill and gave it to her to take with some water.

After Li Minghu's expression calmed down a bit, he asked with concern:
"What's wrong? Didn't you just take the medicine?"

"I don't know." Li Minghu felt a little ashamed, but his expression was innocent. "Suddenly, my true energy became chaotic, and my throat couldn't stop itching..."

Yan Yu held her meridians and injected his true energy into her to explore. He found that although her breathing was disordered, she was not weak, which showed that her meridians were not seriously damaged. It was probably due to excessive physical or mental exhaustion.

After taking one pill, I quickly regained my composure, but the subsequent side effects were quite troublesome...

Yan Yu came to the door of the room, looked outside, and locked the door after confirming that there was no one. As soon as he turned around, Li Minghu pounced on him.

Huh? That's weird, the medicine shouldn't be working this fast!
Forget it, let’s get to work first.

The two of them soon rolled into a ball. Yan Yu struggled to withstand Li Minghu's attack, while at the same time injecting his true energy into her acupuncture points, quickly refining the remaining medicinal power in various parts of her body.

His phone suddenly rang again. He took a moment out of his busy schedule to check and saw that it was still a video invitation from Yunjin.

Switch to voice!
"Captain, why aren't you video chatting?" Lin Ning's dissatisfied voice came from the other end as soon as the call was connected. "I wanted to show you the fish I just caught!"

"We caught it!" someone nearby shouted.

"Okay, okay, I got it. Okay, hang up now." Yan Yu was about to hang up the phone when he heard Lin Ning say again:
"Wait a minute! I caught a wild yellow croaker! One ounce of yellow croaker is worth one ounce of gold!"

"Then sell it quickly so that you will have the three golds for your marriage!" Yan Yu thought to himself, I am doing serious work here, no matter what kind of fish you catch, even if it is a mermaid, we can talk about it later.

Li Minghu rushed over again, probably dissatisfied with Yan Yu for being too busy on the phone and ignoring her, so she slapped him hard on the face.

"What's that sound?" Lin Ning asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm opening the champagne to celebrate for you. That was the sound of the cork just now." Yan Yu finished speaking quickly, and his finger instantly tapped the "Mute" button on the screen.

Lin Ning immediately stopped hearing anything, but she kept saying:
"Haha, there's no need to open the champagne. I'm going to process the yellow croaker and freeze it. Do you want it braised or steamed tomorrow?"

Yan Yu barely managed to hold Li Minghu down, and while unmuting him, he said "It's all right", and then quickly put him back on mute - his hands were so fast that he finished it in a flash, without letting any of Li Minghu's voice leak to the other side.

"It doesn't matter which one it is!" Lin Ning felt a little aggrieved. I caught a wild yellow croaker but you reacted so coldly. You were not so perfunctory to Yun Jin just now. Where is the fairness?
"I think we should cook it at home and add some rice cakes." Zhao Yuanzhen said beside him, "Yan Yu, do you want to eat rice cakes?"

"I'm fine. Bye." Yan Yu said finally, without caring about dealing with Lin Ning's emotions. He quickly hung up the call to free up his hands.

Quack! Minghu, stop it! Don't touch my rice cake!
(End of this chapter)