Leiming caught two black serpents imbued with lightning and went back to devour their thunder essence. Little Blue Ice, whenever she ran into vicious beasts with ice attributes, would freeze their souls with the Soul-Fixing Pearl, swallow the soul, and stash the body for later refinement.

The other demonic beasts were too busy to bother; they simply killed first and planned to sort things out later. Some beasts’ special attributes were too faint to spot, so they’d have to hunt them down carefully afterward.

Chilian kept absorbing power of bloodline, then returned to her clone’s pocket world and transferred half of it to the women, keeping the rest for herself. Ye Liuyun figured that after this battle Chilian would break through again.

Although she always gave away half, the sheer number of battles Ele Liuyun’s group fought meant her cultivation rose far faster than if she scoured for resources alone.

Seeing the beasts handling the fight with ease, Ye Liuyun stopped babysitting them. He drew the Demon-Slayer Saber and sank into saber-intent comprehension. One slash from him now could cleave nearly any beast in half.

His first clone focused solely on spatial power, the second on the might of heaven and earth; the three of them split duties and plunged back into combat.

Ye Liuyun swung again and again. Facing an early-stage Ninth Heaven beast, he envisioned the saber intent of heavenly will—and split the creature in two with a single stroke.

Both clones, relying on spatial force and worldly power, could battle Eighth Heaven beasts on equal footing. With Leiming, Vermilion Bird, and Chilian cultivating inside the pocket world, the trio became the strongest on the field.

Just as they fought with single-minded focus, a golden lance of light shot from the void, aiming straight at Ye Liuyun’s heart.

A fist-sized toad burst from beneath a corpse and spat a cloud of venom at the first clone. Simultaneously, a mass of demonic qi erupted from nowhere, swallowing the second clone whole, while a fiendish flood-dragon soul charged into his sea of consciousness.

Bang! Ye Liuyun’s War-God armor flared to life, blocking the golden lance. The strike had been too fast for him to react; he was shoved several steps back yet felt no pain. The golden light writhed, coiling into a small golden serpent whose vicious eyes locked on Ye Liuyun.

Startled, he slashed, but the snake didn’t dodge—it met the Demon-Slayer head-on. Clang! The saber failed to cut the serpent.

The snake itself froze, glancing at the blade as though surprised it hadn’t shattered.

The first clone instantly locked the toad in a spatial cage, launched a soul attack, devoured its spirit, and tossed the body into the pocket world.

Ye Liuyun followed suit, storming the serpent’s mind with a soul blade and cleaving its spirit apart before absorbing it. He then stowed the golden snake’s body.

Meanwhile, the second clone drank in the surrounding demonic qi. The flood-dragon soul that had invaded him was already poisoned to death by the toxic soul flower in his sea of consciousness; its power was absorbed wholesale. The flood-dragon’s corpse dropped from the void—mid-Ninth Heaven. The first clone waved it into storage and hurled it straight to Leiming, who was still cultivating.

“These beasts are ambushing us again!” Ye Liuyun’s thoughts turned to the others’ safety.

Such sneak attacks were deadly; he feared the rest might not endure.

Before he could decide what to do, a flying Teng Snake swooped in, crimson eyes fixed on Dragon Girl, casting illusions at her.

But her black pupils were immune, and a golden bell in her sea of consciousness rang to rouse her soul. She simply reached out, seized the snake’s neck, crushed it, and stored the corpse.

She knew the serpent’s crimson eyes could be refined by someone, so she kept them for whoever needed them later.

The luckless Teng Snake never expected to deliver itself to death.

Ye Liuyun immediately warned everyone: powerful beasts had begun targeting them. Anyone unsure should retreat and rest—yet no one budged. They all insisted on staying outside to fight, wanting to ease his burden.

Had the other beasts not held the line earlier, Ye Liuyun would’ve been swarmed.

Understanding their resolve, he ordered Demon Lion to stop fighting and instead scan the void for approaching beasts. He released both metal and spatial puppets: the metal puppet joined the battle, while the spatial puppet hunted beasts hiding in the void.

The spatial puppet promptly plunged into the emptiness, sensing watchers nearby.

Moments later, it reported back: one flood-dragon slain, now pursuing a gray hunting rat. Both were only Eighth Heaven, yet their spatial prowess was formidable.

“Try to take that rat alive!”

The moment Ye Liuyun heard it was a rodent, he figured it might come in handy for scouting the Dragon Clan tomb

So the spatial puppet didn’t emerge from the void; it chased the rat from inside the emptiness itself

Ye Liuyun sensed the spatial ripples circling them twice, then racing farther and farther away—clearly the puppet was in hot pursuit of the rat

The demon lion slipped into the void to scout as well. Its spatial power wasn’t as refined as the puppet’s, but its speed let it dart around, searching for any hidden beasts

By now the beasts that had attacked them were nearly wiped out by the monster horde, and no fresh waves came to besiege them

First Avatar suddenly drew the Demon-Hunting Bow and loosed an arrow into the ground in front of Tang Xinyao and the others

A boom tore the earth open. They never saw the creature, but the shattered soil that sprayed up was flecked with blood—the beast beneath had been killed outright

Tang Xinyao only then sent out her divine sense and found an earthen-yellow serpent belowground, its head already blasted apart

She was still marveling when two bursts of golden light flashed behind them. Two small, demon-qi-laden insects were erased in an instant—Second Avatar’s spellwork 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Everyone tensed, sweeping the area with divine sense and special ocular arts

“Since none of you want to turn back, stay sharp.”

Though Ye Liuyun felt the danger too, he saw it as a chance for the others to train, so he didn’t force them to retreat—he simply told them to stay alert

He had Chi Lian coil around the Megalithic Ape’s neck to sense beasts by their blood aura, while Little Blue Ice crouched on White Tiger’s back, ready with the Soul-Anchoring Pearl against soul sneak-attacks. Xuanwu moved close to Dragon Girl, and Xenocide edged up to Nine-Headed Demon Dragon—paired sentries all around.