On the way, Chilian fed both Ye Liuyun and his clone a dose of power of bloodline.

The next wave of beasts already stood at the seventh level of Unity; some of the group began to falter. Clone One kept watch over everyone’s condition—anyone who couldn’t hold out was immediately swept into the spatial world to recover.

When late seventh-level Unity beasts appeared, only Ye Tiandao and the Demon Lion could still stand. Everyone else had reached their limit.

Ye Liuyun paired the Demon Lion with Ye Tiandao and, shielded by himself and his clone, drove them forward in a forced charge.

They opened with Heaven-and-Earth power and soul attacks; once eighth-level Unity beasts showed up, they finally brought out saber intent, layering it with spatial force and world energy in an all-out slaughter.

At the same time they released metal puppets, spatial puppets, and snow wolves to fight alongside them, accelerating their advance while letting the wolves devour extra soul power.

By the time the eighth-level beasts were nearly wiped out, the exit of the secret realm came into view—yet ninth-level Unity beasts now turned on them.

Ye Liuyun pulled Ye Tiandao and the Demon Lion back, refusing to let them risk more. Clone One stowed the Heaven Devourer, drew the Demon-Slayer Bow, and donned the Demon-Slayer Armor, blasting any ninth-level beast that dared approach.

While the clone held the line, Ye Liuyun recorded the coordinates inside the teleportation black tower.

The moment the Demon-Slayer Bow appeared, every beast he aimed at dropped to the ground, trembling, barely able to crawl away.

Clone One conserved divine essence: after shooting the few beasts blocking the path, they burst through. Ye Liuyun harvested souls and beast corpses along the way.

At the exit, the clone swept the Demon-Slayer Bow in a circle, cowing the encircling beasts, and they slipped out of that world unhindered.

The passage connecting that world to the outside could not be crossed by these beasts; only after evolving into demon beasts could they come and go freely.

From the Horned Serpent’s memories, the spirit treasures needed for such evolution were extremely scarce. By sheer luck it had swallowed a single pill and transformed; it had never seen another beast here manage the same.

Once outside, Ye Liuyun swept the surroundings with divine sense—no watchers. Yet the exit sat exactly where they had first entered.

“Odd design,” he muttered.

Then it struck him: the serpent had needed a pill to evolve, yet the Void Pill Sect’s disciples and elders—whom the serpent had betrayed—hadn’t pursued revenge. That felt wrong.

“There’s no one inside that beast world, so where did the pill come from? The Void Pill Sect set the array—only their people should be able to enter.”

Perhaps, he realized, the sect itself had opened this world, grooming an agent to supply them with beast materials for pill refinement.

With that thought, he decided to destroy the entrance outright. He had already locked the coordinates in the black tower; he could explore or seize the world later. No need to leave it for the Void Pill Sect.

Qiong Qi wasn’t here, but raw force might still suffice if he found the flaw. Golden pupils swept the array—its sole purpose was concealment; it didn’t affect the spatial tunnel itself.

Using spatial sense, he located several critical linkage nodes, each propped up by arrays—clearly man-made.

“Same as the Azurefire Secret Realm—opened by the Void Pill Sect.”

He released a spatial puppet to wreck the passage while Clone One, bow drawn, shot the supporting arrays and nodes to pieces. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

The entrance collapsed; the same method obliterated the exit, severing the two worlds completely. Spatial force and layered folds then shredded the site, erasing every trace so the sect could never reopen it.

After gathering everyone into his spatial world and wiping away all signs, he launched his flying boat and sped home.

The craft was swift; distance meant little. The battle had left him rich in soul power and condensed divine essence—after a short retreat he should break through to Unity Fifth before entering the Void Pill Sect.

Long after they left, three senior elders of the Void Pill Sect rushed over, finding nothing.

“Did the Horned Serpent discover something and destroy it?” one asked in surprise.

Another shook his head. “He hasn’t the strength. A formation master—or a spatial powerhouse—must have found us.”

“Let’s find that Soaring Serpent first—wild guesses are useless right now!” another elder snapped, then beckoned the rest to leave with him.

But they never found the Soaring Serpent again. All they could do was speculate that someone had targeted the Black Soaring Serpent and discovered the hidden entrance. Later, they learned that Hong Bo had taken a stranger to meet the serpent and even struck a deal.

After that, they lost all trace of both Hong Bo and the guise Ye Liuyun had assumed.

The second avatar began summoning every prisoner in his spatial world to spar with him, refining divine essence in preparation for a joint breakthrough. By the time Ye Liuyun returned, every one of those prisoners had already been killed during practice.

Ye Liuyun promptly sent over a fresh batch of captives—keeping only the two newly captured Unity Nine experts. Even Hong Bo wasn’t spared.

Hong Bo’s cultivation wasn’t high, but he knew far too much. To avoid future trouble, Ye Liuyun simply had the avatar kill him during training.

The second avatar fought a massive battle, slaughtering every last captive and devouring their souls, until his divine essence matched Ye Liuyun’s and the other avatars’.

They then spent the remaining days absorbing energy, refining divine essence, and readying themselves for the breakthrough.

Their divine essence now condensed and grew even without combat. Given its current density, a few days inside the avatar’s accelerated spatial world were more than enough to break through.

Every other aspect of their strength had recently improved; only their cultivation realm lagged behind.

After focused cultivation, Ye Liuyun and his avatars smoothly advanced to Unity Five. During the breakthrough, the quality of their divine essence surged again, rupturing many meridians—but the repairs were lightning-fast. Even the walls of their core pellets were reinforced. Everything proceeded flawlessly.