A martial cultivator like He Yunzhang could suppress their opponents by an entire realm with his power of bloodline alone, forcing their combat strength down to the early stage of Return-to-One Eighth Layer. Then, with a single slash, he could cleave them in half.

During the soul battle between Leng Yuan and Ye Liuyun, Ye Liuyun’s soul directly detonated Leng Yuan’s with the borrowed force of heaven and earth. Both sparring partners died on the spot. They had always harbored petty schemes, and Ye Liuyun couldn’t be bothered wasting resources to keep them alive.

Even without using his power of bloodline, Ye Liuyun—combining saber intent, divine essence, and the might of heaven and earth—could now fight a Return-to-One Ninth Layer early-stage cultivator at full strength.

In battle he didn’t bother blocking incoming attacks; he simply let his body take the blows. Even strikes from late-stage Ninth Layer powerhouses like the Devil Flood Dragon couldn’t faze him. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Once Ye Liuyun and his companions joined the fight, their progress skyrocketed. Every planet they seized, Ye Liuyun handed over to Ye Tiandao.

By now Ye Liuyun had noticed something odd about the planets of the Crossing-Bridge Galaxy. There weren’t many, they were spaced almost exactly apart, and their source energies were nearly identical—as if someone had deliberately arranged them.

Recalling the constant warfare raging in the Fire-Seal Galaxy, he began to suspect that the Crossing-Bridge Galaxy was nothing more than an outpost for Fire-Seal.

Still, deploying an entire galaxy as a defensive screen was too grand a scheme for him to be sure. After capturing several planets, Fire-Seal hadn’t reacted at all.

So he held back, lest he draw Fire-Seal’s attention. Instead, he left Tang Xinyao and the women’s squad to continue the fighting.

At the same time, he sent twenty thousand fresh troops to each of the two demon legions, rotating them in groups of three thousand for live-fire training against whatever powerful corps might appear. Resources were plentiful; whatever they seized could be poured straight back into the soldiers’ advancement.

His guess was spot-on: the entire Crossing-Bridge Galaxy was indeed a forward position laid out by Fire-Seal. Fire-Seal Dynasty’s Divine King Jiang Yuantang had long since received word that demon forces were assaulting the Crossing-Bridge system.

But his main armies were deployed elsewhere, and those two demon legions were small and low-level—barely worth noticing. As for the women, no report had even reached him; the dynasty’s scouts had overlooked them entirely.

Their numbers and strength were negligible against an entire galaxy. The Crossing-Bridge system was chaotic to begin with; the court simply assumed they were a particularly aggressive bandit gang.

The dynasty’s chosen proxy had been the Dragon-Head Bandits, but their top experts had been wiped out in the Desolate Sea, and the gang had fractured into turf wars.

Thus Jiang Yuantang focused only on cultivating a new puppet bandit group. Once the scattered gangs coalesced, they could wipe out the demon legions themselves.

Fire-Seal’s armies had no large strategic reserve; each expeditionary force simply drafted what troops it needed, avoiding the drain of maintaining standing armies.

After Ye Liuyun pulled back, he commandeered Chen Huoyang’s flying shuttle for Tang Xinyao and the women, telling them to hit a planet a few times and move on, never concentrating in one place long enough to attract notice.

He also left the thief-cat Devil Lion with them to plunder resources. The lion could now fight at Return-to-One Eighth Layer and had virtually no match in the Crossing-Bridge system.

Ye Liuyun himself, together with his beasts, returned to the Desolate Sea world to hunt powerful cultivators. The Desolate Sea’s experts were stronger and more numerous—perfect for sharpening their skills.

The moment they arrived, Ye Liuyun dropped his disguise. The families that had hunted him before immediately dispatched squad after squad of experts to the Desolate Sea.

News of Ye Liuyun’s appearance spread quickly. The Chen clan had circulated his portrait, and informants rushed to claim rewards. Chen sent over two hundred cultivators racing toward the Desolate Sea.

When the Ninth Prince returned to the capital, he was seized and interrogated for days, but his sea of consciousness held no relevant memories, so he was released. Still, he seethed with rage, clueless as to who had framed him.

Upon hearing Ye Liuyun had resurfaced, he gathered every soldier he could—two thousand men—and marched on the Desolate Sea to capture Ye Liuyun alive and uncover the truth.

Yet both the Chen clan and the royal court were far from the Desolate Sea; their information arrived late. For now, Ye Liuyun’s opponents were merely nearby family forces.

That suited them perfectly. Sea beasts in the Desolate Sea also struck at them from time to time, keeping the pressure just right.

Ye Liuyun, his clone, and the beasts split into two shifts, rotating in and out of battle. When half of their energy stones were spent, they withdrew to cultivate while the other team took over.

Using saber intent in the Desolate Sea posed no risk of shattering planets; the vast ocean absorbed much of the force. Each slash still churned up tsunamis that surged outward.

Against Return-to-One Ninth Layer cultivators, he relied on bloodline suppression followed by a saber-intent kill. Against Eighth Layer foes, he practiced spatial power and the forces of heaven and earth, not rushing the kill.

His clone tested the gap between himself and the original by unleashing Tribulation of Thunder and Inferno of Flames on the swarming cultivators and sea beasts.

In the Desolate Sea, Dragon Girl held an edge. When battles came too thick and fast to recover essence, they could dive into the deep, letting her dragon might intimidate surrounding sea beasts so the team could cultivate in peace.

After absorbing and refining a vast number of dragon pearls and dragon corpses, the three dragon clans—Dragon Maiden, Thunderclap, and the Nine-Headed Demonic Dragon—now radiate an even denser draconic aura, their mere presence terrifying sea beasts into submission.

They keep fighting while scouring the Desolate Sea for top-tier resources, baiting the major powers into relentless pursuit. The most zealous among them, the Leng Clan, has already dispatched two teams of martial cultivators—both were wiped out.

Weaker aristocratic families no longer dare strike on their own; only by banding with others do they risk an assault. Yet whether they ambush or swarm, none who come ever return.

Ye Liuyun and his companions have fought nonstop in the Desolate Sea for three straight months without a single casualty on their side, while the martial cultivators they’ve slain are too many to count.

With these demon beasts at his side, Ye Liuyun hardly bothers taking prisoners anymore; after a quick spar he heads straight back to cultivate.

He’s afraid that training inside his spatial world might damage it. Though Ye Ling has assured him the current spatial realm is sturdy enough to withstand his full force, he still refuses to take the risk.