As the battle raged on, Ye Liuyun and his companions suddenly realized that no martial cultivators were attacking them anymore—they merely tailed them from a distance.

Curious, Ye Liuyun captured a few of the watchers and soul-searched them, learning that the Chen family and Jiang Yunhan were on their way. He immediately understood: his own appearance had given away his whereabouts.

Still, he thought it was for the best. Sparring with these cultivators advanced him far faster than fighting feral beast; humans adapted far more quickly.

Besides, the demonic beasts still hadn’t exhausted their stock of beast cores, so he felt no rush to return to the beast realm. He might as well trade blows with the strongest experts here in the Desolate Sea.

Therefore, Ye Liuyun made no move to flee. He let the cultivators follow while he led the beasts in topping up every trace of true essence, readying for a full-scale war.

After Lin Luoyi and Tong Xin finished absorbing the dragon souls, they returned the Soul-Sealing Pearls to Ye Liuyun. He handed the two pearls to Little Blue Ice and Xuan Wu so they, too, could help the other beasts stockpile soul power.

The beasts had just absorbed dragon souls and couldn’t take in more soul energy for the moment, but storing some for later was still possible.

He also gave Dragon Girl, Lei Ming, and Nine-Headed Demon Dragon each a dragon corpse to accelerate their growth.

Ye Liuyun and his two avatars seized the chance to refine yet another dragon corpse apiece. The moment he finished, his War God Armor informed him its rank had risen.

After devouring the dragon scales of nine true dragons in succession, a rank-up was only natural. Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun’s soul, bloodline, and physique all improved across the board, nourishing every force within the armor.

He absorbed another dragon pearl, yet not even a minor breakthrough followed; it merely polished his mid-stage Fifth Heaven realm to an exceptional solidity. Helpless before his own energy-devouring abyss of a body, he could only keep cultivating with primal source power.

After refining the true-dragon core, he discovered the leftover shell—once the virtual-tier dragon’s core wall—could be fused onto his own core to strengthen both its inner and outer walls.

So he melted every remaining empty shell from previous refinements onto his twin cores, reinforcing them inside and out.

Only when he had nothing left that required long, secluded cultivation did he stop, turning on the watchers who had tailed them for so long.

“You’ve followed us long enough—time to clean house!”

Ye Liuyun released his soul, shaping it into a soul saber that struck the cultivators one by one. When he met someone with two souls, he cleaved one, then reshaped his soul into a colossal fist and pummeled the second with the power of heaven and earth.

If a cultivator possessed only a single soul, he practiced his saber intent on it before transforming into a Heaven-Swallowing Beast and devouring the remnants.

These cultivators’ paltry soul force barely benefited him anymore; he simply wanted to hone these soul transformations and abilities.

Yet every time he unleashed his soul, the surrounding cultivators spotted it. Seeing the massive soul saber, they realized how formidable his soul power was, and from then on they equipped soul-defense treasures.

Though his soul force could still break lower-grade defenses, the added hassle was undeniable.

“Soul attacks are still too slow if they can see them coming.”

Reluctant to rely on his time power, he began infusing spatial force into his soul projection, letting the saber appear the instant it was launched, unseen until it struck.

He did resort to time power on occasion—only against those wearing soul-defense treasures, freezing time to shatter their defenses before devouring their souls.

But even after refining his soul techniques, word of his overwhelming soul strength reached Jiang Yunhan and the Chen experts. They promptly equipped soul-defense gear.

Jiang Yunhan had originally disdained such trinkets, confident in his own sea-of-consciousness defenses. Yet, to lull Ye Liuyun into a false sense of security, he donned a low-grade soul-defense item, baiting Ye Liuyun into attacking his soul.

“Hmph, perfect! If he dares strike at my soul, he’s dead!”

Jiang Yunhan arrived brimming with confidence. The two thousand soldiers he brought were the royal capital’s elite guards—mostly early Eighth Heaven, a few late Seventh Heaven—plus a guard captain and his personal bodyguards: twenty-one experts ranging from early to mid Ninth Heaven.

He had no intention of splitting his forces. All of them together would crush Ye Liuyun’s group, no matter how strong they were.

Their small warships, however, were nowhere near as fast as the Chen family’s flying boats. The Chen experts rode the mid-grade virtual-tier boat the Heavenfire Ancestor had forged for them—twice as fast—reaching the Desolate Sea days ahead.

The moment they arrived, they used their scouts’ reports to encircle Ye Liuyun.

“Ye Liuyun, you’ve got guts—kidnapping our Chen family’s artificer. Hand him over now, or you’re a dead man. Even if you flee to the ends of the earth, the Chen clan will hunt you without end!”

The Chen party’s leader was Chen Piaoran, a prodigy of the younger generation who had reached the late stage of the ninth level of the Unity realm. Though a Chen clansman, he cared nothing for artifact forging and had devoted himself solely to martial arts, rising to become an inner-court elder.

He’d been on duty when Ye Liuyun struck at Old Ancestor Skyfire; before he could react, the old man was already gone. Ever since, he’d worn the disgrace like a brand. This time he was determined to redeem his honor—capture Ye Liuyun alive and bring Skyfire back.

At the sight of the spirit beasts Ye Liuyun had released, he instantly sent a voice order to his three squads: “Kill everyone except Ye Liuyun.”

Ye Liuyun sized up their strength, plotting his countermove while answering with lazy provocation. “Since I dared to act, I’m clearly not afraid of your Chen family. But the numbers you brought this time... don’t look like enough for us to slaughter.”

“Big words—survive one move of mine first!” Chen Piaoran snapped. A long spear flashed into his grip, and he thrust it straight at Ye Liuyun from afar.

That spear was a Void-grade weapon; the moment Slaughter Demon Blade sensed its rank, it thrilled with excitement, humming eagerly.

“Attack!”

Ye Liuyun shouted the order and struck first. All his saber intent erupted, merging with divine essence and the power of heaven and earth as he slashed at Chen Piaoran with everything he had. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

“Cut him down!”