Next up, Kong Jiaxiang began to suppress those within the clan who opposed him.

Ye Liuyun and his clone, however, were occupied with absorbing spiritual energy.

These were all experts in the Immortal Realm and their Divine Soul energy was strong. In no time, a new Divine Soul had grown to a third of its original size.

Through a slave seal, Ye Liuyun controlled Kong Jiaxiang, ordering him to devotedly work for him. He had him gradually transfer all of the Kong family’s businesses to his own mercenary group over the course of a year.

With regards to the handover of businesses, he arranged for Lao Wei to manage it.

Only then did Kong Jiaxiang realize that all his thoughts were tightly controlled by The Slaving Seal and his resistance was futile.

He had no thoughts of regaining freedom, merely working diligently towards completing Ye Liuyun’s orders.

Ye Liuyun immediately returned to his base. He had been busy expanding his power throughout the time on the frontier battlefield and he felt he needed to keep time for himself to upgrade his own strength.

He was not lacking in resources to begin with and he had obtained a mass of resources from Ao Lie. It should be no problem to advance to late-stage of fifth level, together with his clone, before his meeting with Chen Tai.

The resources available in the Eastern border battlefield were indeed more abundant than other places. The Dark Legion of Ye Liuyun were all working on improving their strength.

Those by Ye Liuyun’s side were also practicing within the Cosmic Stone everyday, following Ye Liuyun’s lead. Under the influence of Shi Yuan, they all desired to advance their realms.

After the Dragon Lady had refined Ao Lie’s physical body in its entirety, not only did her realm advance to the early-stage Sixth Tier, her bloodline and physical powers were greatly enhanced as well. Even her Spatial Power came close to matching Ye Liuyun.

In the time that followed, Dragon Lady remained in Ye Liuyun’s spatial world, practicing some basic combat skills taught by Ao Lie.

Lei Ming, Ye Tiandao, Manshu and among others, all broke through to the late Fifth Tier together with Ye Liuyun and his clone, consolidating their realms.

He Lianxiu finally made a breakthrough to the mid Fifth Tier. As for the rest, their realms were steadily advancing to the mid Fourth Tier.

Among the resources left by Ao Lie, there were also quite a few high-level ferocious beasts’ Yuan Dan, and Ye Liuyun let the monsters continue with their cultivation.

All of the top-grade divine crystals of Ao Lie, Ye Liuyun had pooled in one place for storage. He now had a large amount of divine crystals for use, and his spatial world also had no lack of energy, so for the time being, they were not needed.

Everyone’s weapons, treasures, defensive armor, etc., have also been exchanged for higher-grade divine artifacts, enhancing the overall combat ability of the group to another level.

Even the boundaries of ferocious beasts like Vermilion Bird, Bull Lion, Devil Wolf, etc., had seen a corresponding enhancement.

After a period of recuperation, Ye Liuyun also received news that Chen Taihe, the eldest son of the Chen family, was on his way.

For safety reasons, Chen Taihe decided to meet Ye Liuyun at the Chen Family’s estate.

This time, Ye Liuyun didn’t intend to kill that Seventh Realm powerhouse, but to plant a Slaving Seal in him, to help Chen Taihe seize control of the Chen family.

Therefore, he and his clone stopped cultivating in advance and prepared to go out to replenish some divine soul energy.

A few of the largest forces wihtin the border battlefield, aside from the Chen and Kong families, there was the Eastern Royal Management, which controlled the Spirit Crystal mineral vein. The Northsky Sect, controlled a region and its secret realms, specially for training for their disciple. TheShui Family, a dependent family of the Fairy Clan, controlling an area of plantation, providing the Fairy Clan with all sorts of medicinal herbs and spirit rice.

Some of the smaller forces, Ye Liuyun had completely outgrown by now. What he used to find troublesome, he now thought, didn’t matter if they were eradicated.

So, after discussion with his party, he set the first target as the Eastern Dynasty, sending the Beastmen army to instigate at the lowest level of the Eastern Dynasty’s sphere of influence, then to take over their baseline.

After that, let He Xianiu and Xiao Yunfang leading the troop to attack the mid-level forts and mercenary group.

Ye Liuyun himself, along with Ye Tiandao and the Blade Legion, advanced to the outskirts of these major forces’ core areas for a sweep.

"Doesn’t that mean declaring war on them directly?" Xiao Yunfang was somewhat worried.

"This time is mainly aiming against the Eastern Royal Management. Others are just test out the opponents’ responses. Without attacking their cores, it’s unsure that they would start a war! We can’t always keep dragging with time. It’s too slow to grow the power bit by bit!"

Get your troops ready, have Yu Xiaofeng cover the border and consolidate your forces with He Lianxiu in the City of Necropolis. Prepare to bring down the influences of the Eastern Royal Management."

"Yes!" Xiao Yunfang responded promptly and set off to arrange the plans.

Ye Liuyun was the first to depart, heading straight to the three largest mercenary groups in the Eastern Dynasty’s territory. Taking this opportunity, he also instructed the Dragon Lady to practice the Mad-Dragon method. He observed her mental state through his duplicate. Once she went mad to a certain level, he would suppress her in advance, prompting her to cease.

As expected, whenever the Dragon Lady utilized the Mad-Dragon method, she would lose her senses over time, unable to control even her transformation, revealing her true form. However, her combat strength surged linearly, enabling her to effortlessly eliminate hundreds of martial practitioners on her own.

Ye Liuyun continually absorbed her soul energy while accompanying her, evaluating her fighting abilities. After each battle, he used soul energy through his duplicate to control her madness. After each fight, the Dragon Lady would be completely exhausted and needed time to recover her strength.

However, her combat strength surged linearly, enabling her to effortlessly eliminate hundreds of martial practitioners on her own.

Ye Liuyun continually absorbed the Divine Soul energy while accompanying her, evaluating her fighting abilities.

After each battle, he used his Divine Soul energy through his clone to control her madness.

After finishing battle, the Dragon Lady would always grew weak, needing time to recover her conscious.

Meanwhile, the Half-Beast Legion was the first to sweep across the lands held by the Eastern Royal Management. He Lianxiu also dispatched soldiers to wipe out all the medium and small-sized mercenary groups within a few days.

The remaining praetorian were all handed over to Ye Tiandao and He Lianxiu to handle, and they were all eradicated in the end.

Ye Liuyun also used this battle to fully restore his soul power to its previous state.

They initially thought that an army of fifty thousand would be more than enough to deal with some mercenary groups.

They did not expect that these fifty thousand man troops were surrounded by the He Lianxiu and Ye Tiandao in two parts. Then Ye Liuyun did not dally, instead, he ordered the army to take the prisoners and resources and retreat back to the City of Death.

Among them, Dragon Lady killed the most enemies. Even Lei Ming had to admit that he was inferior when Dragon Lady’s Wild Dragon Technique was used. Moreover, Dragon Lady seemed to grow stronger the more she fought, as if she didn’t know the meaning of fatigue. In this state, Ye Liuyun estimated that even an eighth-level martial practitioner would struggle against Dragon Lady. In the end, it was Ye Liuyun, fearing that Dragon Lady might become too powerful to control, who suppressed her power using his Divine Soul and forced her to rest. The remaining Royal Management guards were then left to Ye Tiandao and He Lianxiu to deal with, and they were eventually all eliminated.