Ye Liuyun didn’t bother chasing the fleeing expert; instead, he slashed straight at the Leng clan patriarch. His two avatars followed suit, blades flashing in unison. The other demonic beasts had already stormed the Leng estate and were locked in slaughter with its defenders.

Boom after boom shook the ground, and in moments the entire Leng compound was reduced to rubble.

The patriarch, facing three blades at once, borrowed the power of his inner world to block two strikes, but the third sent him flying. He crashed beside the late-stage Ninth-Heaven expert, a ghastly gash across his chest bleeding so badly that he no longer had the true essence to heal. All he could do was lie there gasping.

Both unlucky men sprawled in disgrace, forced to watch as Leng disciples were cut down one by one.

All of the Leng clan’s Ninth-Heaven experts were already dead; only a handful of Seventh- and Eighth-Heaven cultivators remained, far too few to stop the beasts.

“What kind of monster did we provoke?” the patriarch groaned.

“Patriarch, call the garrison!” the late-stage expert urged. “This Ye Liuyun is also on the dynasty’s wanted list—otherwise the Ninth Prince wouldn’t have tried to capture him. The local troops will want the credit.”

Without hesitation the patriarch took out a voice-transmission talisman and called for aid.

The local garrison commander had long-standing ties with the Leng clan. Seeing a chance to curry favor with the dynasty and extort the Leng family in the bargain, he promptly marched out five thousand soldiers.

Ye Liuyun’s divine sense caught every word, yet he made no move to stop them. Instead he ordered everyone to speed up, finish off the Leng clan quickly, and released two puppets to accelerate the slaughter.

He himself stayed back, overseeing the battlefield while sending both avatars toward the incoming troops. Lightning and flame erupted first, scattering their neat formation; then the avatars waded in with blades drawn, using the soldiers as live practice dummies.

Their bodies were tough enough to shrug off massed attacks, turning the soldiers’ spears and swords into mere scratches.

Lei Ming, Long Nu, and Zhu Que abandoned the Leng remnants and plunged into the garrison ranks. Most Leng experts were already dead; the rest were left to the other beasts for target practice.

These provincial soldiers were far weaker than the praetorian—utterly brittle. A single arc of blade intent from an avatar carved through dozens; their armor might as well have been paper.

Lei Ming and Long Nu’s physiques were impervious to ordinary weapons; Zhu Que simply hovered overhead, harvesting souls with distant fireballs, never bothering with close combat.

After watching a little longer, Ye Liuyun relaxed and strode toward the patriarch and the injured expert to prevent either from escaping once they recovered.

“We’ll pay any price,” the patriarch blurted. “Spare what’s left of the Leng clan and all our resources are yours.”

Seeing Ye Liuyun even dare to butcher the garrison, the patriarch knew escape was impossible and surrendered on the spot.

The expert, meanwhile, was channeling true essence to knit his shattered arm back together. A gleam of hope flashed in his eyes: once Ye Liuyun stepped close enough, he would launch a soul attack. He was confident in his own soul strength—surely this young man couldn’t match him.

But Ye Liuyun struck first. The moment the expert glimpsed Ye Liuyun’s soul, the light in his eyes died. That soul was three times the size of his own.

Impossible—how could anyone possess such overwhelming soul force? Had this been a hidden powerhouse all along?

Before the thought finished, Ye Liuyun planted a slave seal, preventing the man from borrowing his inner world’s power. No explanations were offered; these captives were future cannon fodder, nothing more.

He turned to the patriarch, ignored the plea, and rummaged straight through the man’s memories. Once he had mapped every resource the Leng clan possessed, he confiscated every Interspatial Ring and forced the patriarch to empty his inner world—source energy, planets, everything—into Ye Liuyun’s own.

“I gave you a chance; you refused. Now you beg for mercy? Too late.”

With a single slash he severed the patriarch’s head.

Then he swept the Leng treasure vault clean and went back to slaughtering soldiers for practice.

When the remaining Leng disciples saw their patriarch fall and realized the beasts would not relent, they threw down their weapons and surrendered. Ye Liuyun paid them no heed; the beasts never paused, and not a single Leng clansman survived.

Once the estate was wiped out, the beasts turned on the garrison and annihilated every last soldier.

The onlooking martial cultivators, seeing their terrifying combat strength, the Ninth Heaven Unity demonic beasts and puppets, didn’t dare lend a hand; they only watched in silence as the Leng clan and the garrison were wiped out. Amid gasps at their power, they marveled at the audacity of people who would even slaughter imperial troops.

The garrison commander, sensing doom, had already reported the situation to the dynasty. Later he tried to threaten Ye Liuyun’s clone with the dynasty’s name, but before he could finish the sentence the clone cleaved him in two.

When the battle ended, the soldiers’ dying screams finally faded and the entire city fell silent.

Ye Liu and the others quietly swept the battlefield, gathering armor and weapons for later forging while the beasts claimed the corpses themselves.

The Leng clan’s top expert was taken into the second clone’s spatial world to heal on his own.

After that, Ye Liuyun recalled everyone, mounted his snow wolf, and rode toward the next target.

News of the families that had once hunted Ye Liuyun—now extinguished one after another—spread swiftly across the lands bordering the Desolate Sea.

Those clans could not flee; they could only wait for Ye Liuyun to arrive. Yet the later families had learned their lesson. The moment Ye Liuyun appeared, they handed over all their resources to buy their survival.

A few clan experts, thinking themselves clever, tried to launch soul attacks on Ye Liuyun in hopes of seizing control. They ended up becoming nourishment for his soul and dragged their entire clans to annihilation.

Some sought help from city lords or garrisons, only to be slaughtered and plundered to the last coin.

Their actions finally drew the Fire-Seal Dynasty’s attention. Jiang Yuantang dispatched ten thousand fully-armed praetorian; killing a garrison was a direct challenge to royal authority, and Jiang Yuantang would not allow it.