Ye Liuyun had no intention of letting anyone else lend a hand; he simply moved both avatars’ divine souls into his own sea of consciousness. After he personally killed Zi Ao, the avatars would deal with the remaining martial artists.

As soon as Wu Xiang finished setting up the array, he activated it at once, concealing Ye Liuyun. Ye Liuyun didn’t wait long—his golden pupils spotted Zi Ao and the flying ship behind him. He immediately stopped using the golden pupils to observe them, lest Zi Ao notice.

When Zi Ao arrived, he scanned the Thousand Burial Mountain and, unsurprisingly, saw nothing amiss. He assumed Ye Liuyun had left the ship and entered the mountains.

Jiang Yunmo then emerged from the flying ship, stowed it, and followed Zi Ao into Wu Xiang’s array with twenty elite martial artists.

She had absolute confidence in the purple pupils of the mastiff beast. No matter what tricks Ye Liuyun tried, she believed they could not lose.

Ye Liuyun stood motionless, waiting for Zi Ao and the others to draw near.

“Never thought Jiang Yunmo would come herself! Yet she didn’t alert the royal court—only brought martial artists. Overconfidence, or does she lack solid proof and still need to keep watching me?”

He weighed the matter in his mind, considering how to handle Jiang Yunmo.

Given the Fire Seal Dynasty’s vigilance, once he took control of her, the royal house would know almost instantly. Fortunately, he was far enough away that reinforcements would need several hours to arrive.

“Still, I have to act against Jiang Yunmo quickly—who knows what other experts or soldiers she might have in her spatial world.”

With his decision made, the moment they stepped a little closer, he unleashed his power over time and struck first.

Only then did he reopen his golden pupils.

He saw that the purple pupils on Zi Ao’s soul were still rotating under the influence of his time force, locking onto him almost immediately.

“Those purple pupils really are formidable!”

Admiring inwardly, Ye Liuyun didn’t wait for an attack. Black light shot out, dissolving Zi Ao’s soul. The moment the soul perished, the purple pupils dimmed and drifted within Zi Ao’s sea of consciousness.

Ye Liuyun sent out a strand of soul and pulled the purple pupils into his own sea of consciousness. The golden light of the Myriad God Token flashed, purifying the pupils and erasing all residual will, leaving them for Ye Liuyun to use.

The instant Zi Ao fell, five other soul strands struck simultaneously.

Jiang Yunmo wore defensive treasures, but three of Ye Liuyun’s soul strands shattered them at once. In her sea of consciousness bloomed a poisonous soul flower and a defensive great bell.

Ye Liuyun’s souls had long since refined the poison flower; they feared no toxin. The great bell never activated. He branded slave seals on Jiang Yunmo’s two souls and withdrew, moving to subdue the others.

The twenty martial artists following Jiang Yunmo all wore defensive artifacts against soul and illusion attacks—clearly prepared. Yet their defenses were weaker than hers. One soul strand broke the artifact; another planted the slave seal. The process was swift.

With ample time power at his disposal, Ye Liuyun collected all their physical bodies into his spatial world to prevent any mishap, then restored the flow of time.

The souls in his sea of consciousness returned to their respective avatars, ready to conduct thorough soul searches.

Zi Ao’s human form could no longer hold; it reverted to its true body—a black mastiff as large as a white tiger.

Suddenly, two late-stage Unity Nine Heavens experts burst out of each of the storage rings belonging to Jiang Yunmo and Zi Ao.

“Hmm?” Ye Liuyun hadn’t expected such a failsafe.

With Jiang Yunmo already controlled and Zi Ao dead, yet more experts emerging from their rings, it was clear these four were not under their command but under someone else’s.

Inside Ye Liuyun’s spatial world, the four experts froze the instant they appeared; even their true essence and spatial power were completely suppressed.

Their souls lunged at Ye Liuyun and his avatars, but their soul strength was far too weak. Slave seals were planted at once, and soul searches began to learn who controlled them.

From the searches he learned these four had been dispatched by the Third Prince to protect Jiang Yunmo and Zi Ao. Fortunately, neither Ye Liuyun nor his avatars had resumed their true appearances; the Third Prince knew they had been taken but had not seen Ye Liuyun’s real face. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Immediately afterward, Ye Liuyun searched Jiang Yunmo’s soul again to confirm whether she had any hidden forces left—and uncovered a major secret.

Turns out this Jiang Yunmo was a fake princess. The real Jiang Yunmo was still being secretly confined inside her own spatial realm!

The woman standing in front of him was merely someone who resembled Jiang Yunmo—her real name was Wei Yushan. She had been discovered by the Third Prince by chance and taken in as a maid. Three years ago, while the true Jiang Yunmo was off guard, the prince captured her and had Wei Yushan take her place.

The violet mastiff had originally been Jiang Yunmo’s tamed beast. Wei Yushan trapped it with an array, drugged it with hallucinogenic smoke, and then forcibly branded it with a slave seal.

The prince’s only reason for controlling Jiang Yunmo was to vie for the throne—he wanted the Holyfire Chamber of Commerce under her command to funnel resources straight to him.

“Royal offspring will do anything for power,” Ye Liuyun muttered with a wry smile. He ordered Wei Yushan to release the genuine princess.

When the two women stood side by side, the resemblance was uncanny; the tiny differences would escape anyone who wasn’t staring intently. And who would dare scrutinize a princess so closely?

Jiang Yunmo had been kept in decent conditions—her true essence was sealed, but she hadn’t been mistreated. Ye Liuyun promptly performed a soul-search on her and indeed found the royal guardian imprint in her sea of consciousness.

Yet Jiang Yunmo had always been fiercely competitive. With no precedent for a woman on the throne in the Fireseal Dynasty, she had turned to commerce, believing her chamber of commerce could win her status. She simply underestimated the viciousness of her royal siblings and had fallen into Jiang Yunyang’s trap.

Ye Liuyun laid out everything that had happened and asked for her own thoughts on what should happen next. He had no intention of keeping her locked in his spatial world forever.

But before releasing her, he had to be certain she wouldn’t leak any information about him. After all, he wasn’t about to rescue a princess for free—he intended to turn this rescue into a fortune.