Among the four martial cultivators Ye Liuyun had his eye on, one was a burly-bearded warrior whose core was twice the normal size and whose bearing screamed “commander.”

Another was a steady-looking middle-aged man in military boots; his true essence was extraordinarily condensed and laced with dense mystic qi—very similar to the mystic origin Ye Liuyun once wielded

The third was a young man whose face still showed panic; he didn’t look like a soldier at all, yet his soul force was formidable, and a strange rune glimmered on his core. Ye Liuyun had no idea what the rune did, but he guessed it granted some unique power

The last was a cold-faced fellow with lowered brows who never looked anyone in the eye. Ye Liuyun noticed he was sensing the surroundings purely by instinct—like a razor-sharp assassin

After picking these four, Ye Liuyun added several slaves who looked like officers, two or three from every star sector

In the early Unity realm section he no longer bothered asking which galaxy the slaves came from; he simply chose thirty-plus solid mid-life warriors at each tier. Older men, he figured, knew more about warfare and could serve as sparring partners for the women and commanders like Yu Xiaofeng

At the Sovereign level he went straight for the jugular: he bought more than five hundred Sovereign Ninth-Heaven slaves, almost emptying the entire stock. The steward thought he must be a mine owner buying labor for the pits

“They’re sparring partners for the younger generation,” Ye Liuyun tossed off to the steward and Qingyu, dispelling their doubts

Slaves of other realms he deemed useless, but he still swept the halls once more, found no overlooked bargains, and let it go

“Fire Seal Galaxy’s elites must be shrewd—any hidden gems were snapped up long ago,” he mused

After finishing with slaves, he asked Qingyu to show him the vicious-beast market. To his surprise, there were entire districts devoted to demon beasts and demonic beasts

Qingyu explained:

“These demon and demonic beasts are war captives too. Demon beasts are intelligent and popular, so the high-tier ones sell fast; even the low-tier ones fetch steep prices—rich heirs love flaunting them

“The demonic beasts are a headache. People think they’re stupid, hard to manage, and costly to feed—worse than ordinary beasts—so the prices are rock bottom. The guild is currently feeding the high-tier demonic beasts with low-tier ones and unwanted slaves. Only this lot remains.”

Ye Liuyun glanced over; thousands of demonic beasts, all Fifth- or Sixth-Heaven Unity realm, were crammed into cages. If handed to the demon legion they’d boost combat power—or serve as rations if they couldn’t be tamed

“I’ll take them all—food for my own demonic beasts,” he told Qingyu

Qingyu replied, “If Young Master Li buys the entire stock at once, the price can be negotiated. They’re a deadweight loss for us anyway.”

She added, “Our guild also sells demonic-origin essence. Since you keep demonic beasts, you might as well buy that too—bundle discount.”

Ye Liuyun nodded. “Fine. Resources like these are rare. Arrange it for me, but the price must be low or I’ll pass

“Also, ask how many beast and warrior corpses you have—I’ll buy those as feed as well.”

Buying corpses to feed beasts was common practice; Qingyu didn’t blink. She told Ye Liuyun to rest while she fetched a steward

Ye Liuyun wandered the beast market a bit longer, found nothing worth snapping up, and returned back to wait

Soon Qingyu returned with a guild steward. After pleasantries, the steward probed, “Young Master Li, what species of Devil Beast do you raise?”

“Why? Do you need to know my beasts’ pedigree to sell feed and essence?” Ye Liuyun countered

“Not at all,” the steward hurried to explain. “It’s just that demonic beasts and demons have been causing unrest lately. The dynasty has ordered strict checks on any sale of demonic-origin essence.”

Knowing the man referred to his own demon army and beasts, Ye Liuyun didn’t argue. “Two demon flood dragons.”

The steward relaxed. “Demon flood dragons—no problem then...”

Ye Liuyun raised an eyebrow. “Do I need to prove they’re flood dragons?”

The steward sighed. “The dynasty is cracking down. If it’s inconvenient to bring them here, we can send someone to verify. Any lost time will be compensated

“The demonic beasts we’ll sell at meat price; we have over two thousand units of demonic-origin essence—half price for you.” 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

“As for the beast carcasses and martial-cultivator corpses you need, we normally extract the primordial cores and sell the bodies as feed for ferocious beasts, while the cores are sold separately

We can also sell the bodies with the cores still inside, as beast feed, and at half price

Would that arrangement satisfy you?”

Ye Liuyun nodded at the words. “If that’s the case, the price is indeed fair. However, how many beast and cultivator corpses do you have, and what cultivation levels are they at?”

The steward felt a weight lift from his shoulders; those demonic beasts and the source power tainted with fiendish aura had always been hard to move, and the dynasty’s latest eccentric regulations made them even harder to sell

A customer like Ye Liuyun was exactly what they needed, and they couldn’t afford to let this deal slip away.

He answered at once: “We have over twenty thousand beast corpses, all at the Sovereign or Unity realm, and none died of illness or poison

As for martial cultivators, we have far more—at least five hundred thousand bodies recovered from the battlefield so far. They include both enemy and allied soldiers and cultivators who fell in combat, all ranging from the Sovereign to the Unity realm.”

“That many?” Ye Liuyun hadn’t expected them to have transported such a vast number of corpses.