Ye Tiandao even dispatched two top-tier martial cultivators to reinforce the Ancient Demon Legion and the Demon Race army.

The Ancient Demon Legion had taken heavy losses in one clash with a powerhouse; the enemy’s spatial force had obliterated more than one-hundred-and-fifty Ancient Demons, forcing them to beg Ye Tiandao for aid.

The Demon Race main force had also run into several strong foes, but every time the Tiger-Head Beast King had cleaved the opponent apart with that Void-grade war-blade. Once the two reinforcements arrived, the army became even safer; yet because their overall cultivation was lower, casualties on both sides remained roughly equal.

Ye Liuyun immediately replenished both legions with fresh troops and ordered them to continue training. The two newly arrived experts stayed on as permanent guardians.

Both Demon Race legions devoted themselves to raising their strength: corpses harvested in battle were devoured on the spot, resources seized were used at once.

Ye Liuyun had his first clone send another seven thousand soldiers each to Heiyan and Heishan as reserve manpower, distributing all surplus resources so these reserves could advance as well.

With the resources they had captured—one city’s merchant guild alone could fund the entire army—plus the loot from over a dozen city-lord mansions and trading houses, the two legions were more than supplied.

Ye Liuyun let them decide: fight while training, or rotate troops in a cycle, but never more than three thousand soldiers in any single engagement; their full strength must stay hidden.

He himself merged his demon beasts with Ye Tiandao and Tang Xinyao’s squad, using roaming bandits as whetstones.

Against these bandits the battles were far easier. The beasts and Tang Xinyao’s people focused on devouring souls to strengthen their own, so there was no need for the time-acceleration inside the clone’s spatial world. Most of the fighting was done by Ye Tiandao leading the women.

Ye Liuyun and his clones took turns entering the fray, tempering their divine essence. Only when they met foes wielding unusual powers did he deploy spatial force or the might of heaven and earth.

Each time Ye Tiandao led the women they fought with everything they had, gulping down souls to enhance their own, then dashing into the clone’s world to accelerate recovery; once restored, they plunged straight back into battle, never pausing for a full rest.

Ye Liuyun understood their intent: they wanted to grow strong quickly so they could stand beside him in future wars. He did not stop them; whenever he found premium resources he handed them over first, letting the women advance faster.

The Devil Vine quietly reaped its own profits: it slipped into cities ahead of time, never striking, simply scavenging corpses to devour.

Its spatial world served only as a corpse repository, never expanding; every so often it would drop in a demonic origin source, steadily thickening its own origin power until the demonic qi inside grew so dense nothing could be seen—though the space itself remained small.

Its mastery of spatial force and the power of heaven and earth rose automatically with its cultivation; no special training was required.

Yet at Return-to-One Eighth Level, further breakthroughs demanded vast resources, and the team’s current pace of advance could not yet satisfy its hunger.

Ye Liuyun and the beasts sorted through the beast resources from earlier battles, picking out special-attribute materials and beast cores for the women and the beasts. The beast meat was portioned: enough kept as rations for the demon beasts, the rest stockpiled. The devil flood-dragons were divided among Leiming, the Nine-Headed Devil Dragon, and the Devil Lion; after devouring and refining them, their physical bodies improved markedly.

Ye Liuyun himself absorbed a few devil-flood-dragon cores to replenish his own demonic qi, converting it into Buddha-Demon power.

Half of the soul power stored in the Soul-Sealing Bead he gave to Stone Ape, doubling the ape’s soul strength so Ye Liuyun would worry less about him in future fights; the remaining half went to his two clones.

Once everyone’s Storage Origin Stones were topped up and all resources absorbed, Ye Liuyun tucked Tang Xinyao’s squad into his spatial world, readying them to fight alongside the beasts.

The women were taken into the clone’s world for a complete rest, to refine the high-end resources they had gathered, tempering soul, bloodline, and physique; once their new strength was consolidated, they would emerge again.

With everyone settled, Ye Liuyun used the black teleportation pagoda to return to the beast realm. Their target remained the Dragon Clan tomb complex. The area had been swept clean before, yet in the short time since, countless beast hordes had returned—likely because beasts were so numerous that others had simply moved in.

Left with no choice, Ye Liuyun led the beasts and Tang Xinyao’s squad into frantic battle once more. He ordered Leiming, Dragon Girl, and Vermilion Bird to conserve true essence for the powerful devil flood-dragons; at the start they would focus on devouring souls to strengthen their own, letting the others shoulder the fighting.

Snow Wolf joined eagerly. While the early fights were still light, Ye Liuyun helped it devour numerous souls, nurturing a second soul—slightly weaker than the first, but now one soul could hide while the other attacked, making the wolf far safer.

He then sent it into the Soul Secret Realm to compress and refine its soul force. Afterward its primary soul could actively strike at any intruder within its sea of consciousness, no longer needing Ye Liuyun’s help to devour hostile souls.

Snow Wolf finally patched its long-standing soul weakness, becoming even more devoted to Ye Liuyun and fighting wholeheartedly at his side.

Ye Liuyun swept the battlefield with his golden pupils, locating beasts with special powers and using crimson pupils to draw them close for the kill.

Some of these beasts possessed unique abilities but lacked the strength to fully wield them. As Ye Liuyun slew them he silently counted himself lucky; had the beasts ever mastered those powers, killing them would have been far harder.

In short order he collected several origin sources of Yang fire and Yin-fire, plus two lightning-attribute beasts. Though these flames and lightning were still weak, if concentrated into one clone they could bring that clone’s fire and lightning up to par with Ye Liuyun’s main body.

Vermilion Bird itself captured a fire fox whose soul and flame power were formidable; after a long stalemate it finally slew the creature. Through this fight the bird gained deeper insight into illusion techniques, broadening its future methods, and its own flame power would rise sharply. It also seized a metal-attribute bull; after devouring its soul it planned to absorb the beast’s metallic force to reinforce its own physique.