Yu Xiaofeng and Qin Peng immediately expanded their advance route based on Liu Yunyao’s decision, extending from the original five frontal planets to fifteen surrounding ones. Displaying their might across more planets would better deter the barbarian tribes.

Meanwhile, Liu Yunyao informed the border army commander to prepare for an assault on the barbarians’ second line of defense. However, she cautiously withheld the true numbers of the barbarian forces and martial warriors, only stating that she would lead the charge to breach the enemy’s formation. Once the defenses were shattered, the commander’s troops could simply pursue and eliminate the scattered remnants.

Hearing that this would be an easy victory, the commander readily agreed and began mobilizing his soldiers for battle.

"Let’s move out!"

Once everything was in place, Liu Yunyao took a deep breath and gave the order to advance. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

This time, the demonic army of 150,000 had already been unleashed ahead of schedule, serving as the vanguard to invade the barbarian planets.

Yu Xiaofeng led this demonic horde from planet to planet, declaring their ultimatum: surrender and live, resist and perish—along with the entire world.

At first, the barbarians refused to believe the threat, desperately rallying their forces to fight back.

"Exterminate every living thing on this planet!" Yu Xiaofeng coldly commanded the demonic army.

The Tiger-Headed Beast King had been waiting for this order. With a deafening roar, he led the bloodthirsty demons into a frenzied slaughter. They cut down everything in their path—warriors, civilians, even savage beasts—leaving no survivors. Every resource was plundered, and the land they passed through became a barren wasteland, drenched in rivers of blood.

Even Yu Xiaofeng couldn’t help but sigh at the sheer brutality of war.

The demonic army focused solely on annihilation, making no effort to stop fleeing barbarian warriors. Many escaped to neighboring planets, desperate to spread the warning.

Seeing them flee, Yu Xiaofeng inwardly relaxed. He had worried the barbarians might stubbornly fight to the death rather than retreat. Now that they were running, he knew the news of their destruction would spread.

By the time Liu Yunyao arrived with her 300,000 troops, all that remained were dried bloodstains and scattered flesh. Not a single valuable resource—or even an intact corpse—had been left behind. The demonic army, relentless as ever, was still hunting down the last remnants of barbarians and beasts.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun had already begun extracting the world’s core energy. Once he claimed it, he granted the demonic army two more days to finish their purge. After that, with the barbarians nearly eradicated, Ye Liuyun didn’t wait for the world to collapse on its own. Instead, he ordered a full retreat—then unleashed a devastating assault to obliterate the dying planet.

He seized the opportunity to test how many strikes it would take for him to shatter an entire planet.

With his first palm strike, the planet began to fracture, deep fissures splitting across its surface, spreading like cracks in glass. Bereft of its primordial energy, the world was already on the brink of collapse—his attack only hastened its demise.

Yet seeing that the planet hadn’t shattered completely, he gathered his strength and delivered another devastating blow.

**"BOOM—"**

The impact sent violent tremors through the celestial body, tearing it apart in a cataclysmic explosion. Fragments of the shattered world hurtled outward, scattering into the void.

"Two strikes! If it still had its primordial energy, it might have taken two more!" Ye Liuyun mused, evaluating the effectiveness of his attack.

Afterward, he retreated into his spatial realm to replenish his energy reserves.

"Next time, let Leiming and the Dragon Maiden handle the attack," he instructed Yu Xiaofeng. If another planet needed to be destroyed, others would take his place—he needed to conserve his strength for the assault on the barbarians’ second line of defense.

Witnessing an entire world reduced to rubble by just two of Ye Liuyun’s strikes, the soldiers’ morale soared. Victory was all but assured.

Using the same strategy, they obliterated six more barbarian-held planets in succession. The barbarians, stubborn to the end, fought with desperate resistance.

It wasn’t until they reached the seventh planet that the defending forces, under their commander’s orders, finally surrendered en masse to Liu Yunyao’s army.

Yu Xiaofeng imposed strict discipline on the barbarian troops, forbidding them from landing. Liu Yunyao’s forces stationed themselves in uninhabited zones, waiting for the border defense army to arrive and take control.

Rather than enslaving the defeated barbarians, they distributed surplus resources among them, allowing them to trade for what they needed. Even their governance systems remained unchanged under Liu Yunyao’s administration.

Days later, the high commander arrived with a force of seven hundred thousand soldiers and the delegation responsible for the official handover.

"What’s going on? Have several planets here vanished? Or is my map inaccurate?" The Grand Commander asked Liu Yunyao with genuine curiosity.

"Those planets were wiped out by us!" Liu Yunyao gave him a brief rundown of what had happened, leaving the Grand Commander utterly shaken.

"I never imagined the princess could be so ruthless! She’s destined for the throne, after all. Since ancient times, monarchs have been merciless—I can no longer see her as just a deputy or a woman!"

From that moment on, the Grand Commander’s tone toward Liu Yunyao became far more deferential. Many matters were no longer framed as orders or instructions but as requests for her counsel.

Before leaving the region under his command, Liu Yunyao had Liu Qianzhong draft an imperial decree, allowing surrendered planets to retain their autonomy and mandating that their inhabitants be protected from harassment by occupying forces, just as their own people would be.

Then, Liu Yunyao pressed onward with her army. Of the next eight planets they encountered, some surrendered immediately, sparing themselves any harm. Others resisted stubbornly—only to be annihilated without hesitation, their entire populations slaughtered.

When news of this reached the barbarian tribes, the shockwaves were immense. Those with wavering resolve began advocating for surrender. After all, submission didn’t mean enslavement, so why fight to the death?

For ordinary civilians and martial cultivators alike, it made little difference who ruled them. Though the barbarians were known for their stubbornness, no one actually wanted to die.

Martial cultivators from surrendered planets started slipping back home in droves. Even those from remote worlds sneaked away, intent on persuading their leaders to surrender the moment the Liu Lin Dynasty’s forces arrived.

By the time Ye Liuyun and his allies were poised to attack, over a million of their own people had already deserted. Of the remaining five million martial cultivators, half were plagued by indecision, their resolve nowhere near as firm as before.

This time, the Border Army’s Grand Commander accompanied Liu Yunyao on the campaign. But when he saw the sheer number of barbarian warriors before them, he nearly turned tail and fled on the spot.

Liu Yunyao, however, reassured him calmly, "No need to panic. Wait and see. If we’re truly outmatched, you can still run later."