After the dragon girl relayed Ye Liuyun’s words, several demonic flood-dragons erupted in furious roars.

She had no wish to slaughter them all, so she explained again: Ye Liuyun truly possessed the strength he claimed, and she even used her own transformation into a true dragon as proof.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun had already taken the now-empty Soul-Seal Orb from Chen Huoyang and was preparing to deal with the flood-dragons.

“ROAR!”

The flood-dragon chieftain’s thunderous bellow silenced the entire swarm. It stared at Ye Liuyun, recalling the lightning he had unleashed, and decided he might indeed be able to help them evolve into dragons.

As for the claim that someone else had emptied the dragon corpses—of course it didn’t believe a word—but since Ye Liuyun had taken them, it knew it couldn’t get them back.

After a moment’s thought, the chieftain roared at the last remaining late-stage Unity Nine Heavens flood-dragon expert. It would test Ye Liuyun’s strength first.

The expert instantly leapt forward and snarled at Ye Liuyun, a clear challenge.

“They want you to show your power. If you defeat it, they’ll believe you,” the dragon girl translated.

“I can fight. But if I win, this flood-dragon is mine.” Ye Liuyun didn’t refuse, yet he had no intention of performing for free. If he was going to act, he would claim a reward.

When the dragon girl relayed his terms, the chieftain actually agreed.

“It says the two strongest in the tribe are the ones you may take. You’ve already captured one; if you can beat this one too, take him. If you lose, he’ll eat you.”

Ye Liuyun nodded—fair enough. Without moving a step, he released his soul, shot it into the flood-dragon’s sea of consciousness, planted a slave seal, and then simply tucked the creature into his spatial world.

Seeing the might of Ye Liuyun’s twin souls, the chieftain’s pupils shrank; it finally understood Ye Liuyun truly had the power to wipe them out. None of them could withstand that soul force.

The rest of the swarm hadn’t expected their strongest warrior to be taken in a single breath. Panic rippled through the ranks. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

But the chieftain roared again, restoring order, then spoke to the dragon girl.

“It wants you to release both flood-dragons so it can give them instructions,” the dragon girl told Ye Liuyun.

He didn’t mind. He released the two captives and let them communicate.

Through the slave seal, Ye Liuyun could hear the chieftain clearly: after they evolved into dragons, they were to return and bring more of their kin so the entire tribe could advance.

When they finished, Ye Liuyun stowed the pair away again and pointed out the formation’s eye. With their combined strength, the swarm could probably break it in half a day. As for the inner layers, he left them to figure it out; even without knowing the eye, they’d batter it down in a month or two.

His part done, the chieftain gave a low growl to the dragon girl, then bellowed once more. Instantly the flood-dragons split to either side, clearing a path.

“What did it say?” Ye Liuyun asked.

“They told us that after we dig up the demonic crystals, we can head east—there are plenty of feral beast there to stockpile food. But I think they’re using us to deal with their rivals.”

Ye Liuyun laughed. “Let them use us. As long as we profit. The beasts here are perfect training targets—where else would we find such a place

If we don’t kill them, they’ll just devour each other anyway. After we’ve had our fill, they won’t need to fight over territory—everyone benefits.”

He knew the flood-dragons were probably exploiting them, but it gave him a convenient excuse to keep fighting. The dragon girl nodded in agreement.

Ye Liuyun first returned the dragon girl and his clone to his spatial world, then reached the outer Thousand Burial Mountain and locked onto several demonic-crystal lodes. The chieftain had been smart enough to accept his terms, so he couldn’t be too greedy.

Fortunately, he had already gained plenty; mining a bit less was no loss.

He had his first clone release a horde of ancient demons and set them to excavate the lodes, storing everything in the clone’s spatial world. The two captured flood-dragons went there as well—the clone’s world was far more suitable for magical beasts.

The demonic flood dragons paid Ye Liuyun no further mind and let him dig wherever he pleased. They themselves followed his instructions, pouring all their strength into battering the Dragon Clan tomb’s array. Half a day later the outer layer of the formation shattered, and the flood dragons surged inside, overturning and excavating everything in sight—yet they found nothing of value, only an overwhelming density of dragon aura.

After that, the flood-dragon chieftain began organizing shifts to hammer at the middle layer of the tomb’s formation. Boom after boom rolled out without pause; they were clearly giving it everything they had.

On Ye Liuyun’s side, the noise was just as deafening. The ancient demons mined with brute force, caring nothing for the mountains themselves. They simply blasted the ranges apart, exposed the demonic-crystal lodes, shoved them into storage rings, and ultimately handed everything over to the first clone.

Two days later, Ye Liuyun had stripped away five entire demonic-crystal veins.

He then left the flood-dragon stronghold, released all his contracted beasts and Tang Xinyao’s squad, and headed east in a straight slaughtering line.

Each time, he and his clones left two people outside: one to fight and temper themselves, the other to guard the rest. Both puppets were stowed away; instead he let the snow wolf join the battles so it could sharpen its skills as well.

The two flood dragons he kept sealed—once they appeared, none of the other beasts would get any real practice.

Beasts and Tang Xinyao’s group alike fought to their hearts’ content, carving through herd after herd, reaping beast meat, beast cores, and all sorts of elemental energies.

Ye Liuyun himself, apart from occasionally slaying fire- or lightning-attribute beasts, spent most of his time sealing souls into his Soul-Sealing Beads and stockpiling meat. He could no longer absorb soul power himself, but the souls would still serve the women at his side.

By soul-searching the kings of several smaller herds, he learned that farther ahead lay the territory of a golden-tiger pride—long-standing rivals of the flood dragons, locked in constant border skirmishes.

A few days after entering the tigers’ domain, they were hit by multiple herds attacking in waves, one after another, giving them almost no chance to breathe.

When Ye Liuyun and the others had fought until their true essence was nearly exhausted, he recorded the coordinates of the spot, then used the black teleportation tower to return to the Ferrybridge Star System for rest and recovery.