The entire Bison Star System was not only formidable in martial cultivation, but also excelled in alchemy, artifact forging, and formation techniques. As a result, the Death Corps found themselves at a disadvantage.

After assessing the situation, Ye Liuyun realized how fortunate it was that Ye Tiandao had launched a preemptive rescue. Had the enemy fully grasped their weaknesses and struck with full force, the Death Corps would have been in grave danger.

But now that he understood the enemy’s strength, he didn’t rush to counterattack. Instead, he dispatched his four most capable women—Xuanyuan Ling, Liang Xue, Wu Qingcheng, and Luo Yurou—to the planets they had already conquered. Their mission was to assess the operations of the merchant guilds and the availability of resources.

Given the current circumstances, it was impossible to subdue all the local regimes in one fell swoop—in fact, they might even suffer defeats. The enemy’s allied forces hadn’t even fully mobilized yet.

War was a battle of attrition, and resources were the lifeblood of any campaign. So Ye Liuyun decided to focus on securing supplies first, ensuring his soldiers could strengthen themselves before engaging in large-scale battles. And when it came to business, these women were far more adept than he was.

Liang Xue and Wu Qingcheng were no longer weaklings; venturing out wouldn’t be too perilous for them. With Xenocide and Phantom Hand covertly guarding them within their controlled territories, he didn’t have to worry excessively about their safety.

As for the immediate battles, he and his inner circle could hold the line, prioritizing defense and buying time. Ye Liuyun even made a trip back to borrow Liu Yunyao’s Shadowfang Lion.

That thieving cat had a knack for pilfering, and he planned to take it behind enemy lines to swipe some much-needed resources.

When Liu Yunyao saw Ye Liuyun reduced to borrowing her beast, she knew the war must be going poorly. Anxiety gnawed at her, but there was little she could do. The soldiers from their star system were too weak—sending them would only be a burden rather than help.

However, upon returning, Ye Liuyun didn’t immediately deploy the Shadowfang Lion. Instead, he had it enter his doppelgänger’s spatial realm to accelerate its cultivation. Only by reaching the Dominator Realm would it stand a better chance of evading detection by enemy powerhouses.

Ye Liuyun and his doppelgänger took turns standing guard, vigilant against enemy assaults or scouts. It didn’t take long before they intercepted several spies sent by the Bison Star System’s allied forces—all Dominator Realm cultivators at the third level.

After capturing them, Ye Liuyun extracted their memories, devoured their souls, and then handed the remains to the Shadowfang Lion for quick absorption and refinement. Motivated, the beast poured all its resources into rapidly boosting its strength.

From the spies’ storage rings, Ye Liuyun also discovered that the martial artists here were surprisingly wealthy. Each ring contained the essence of over a dozen complete worlds—enough to sustain large-scale battles for quite some time.

At least they didn’t have Energy Storage Stones. If they did, the fight would have been even tougher.

On the opposing side, after sending out numerous scouts who all vanished without a trace, the Allied Forces found themselves locked in a stalemate.

Occupying multiple planets within the Taurus Star System, the Allied Forces had abundant resources and weren’t particularly troubled by the deadlock. Their strategy now hinged on waiting to see how long Ye Liuyun and his forces could hold out.

But Ye Liuyun wasn’t one to sit idle. He took turns with his doppelgangers to infiltrate enemy camps, systematically whittling down their elite warriors. He deliberately avoided using his Cloak of Invisibility, relying instead on his Xenocide Concealment technique to mask his presence as he ambushed enemy cultivators.

The Xenocide Concealment worked well—until the moment he struck. The slightest spatial disturbance or surge of energy from his attacks was enough to alert the keen senses of these seasoned warriors.

During his first strike, Ye Liuyun cleaved through a cultivator with a single slash of his blade, only to be immediately detected by three others nearby. Unfazed, he seized the opportunity to test his skills. Drawing his Demon Slayer, he launched a full-force assault, engaging all three at once.

These opponents were all at the third level of the Dominator Realm. They rained blows upon him, but his formidable physique allowed him to focus his attack on one while enduring the strikes of the other two. Within moments, another foe fell.

Just as he turned to the remaining two, more cultivators swarmed in from all sides. Swinging his blade to carve a path, he attempted to break free from the encirclement. Lingering meant certain entrapment—the enemy numbers were overwhelming.

Yet these warriors were no pushovers. A coordinated strike from the front line halted his advance, while others closed in from behind.

"Tch. Can’t even let me practice in peace," Ye Liuyun muttered with a sigh.

Activating his temporal powers, he froze time. In that suspended moment, he devoured the souls of the surrounding cultivators and stashed their lifeless bodies into his spatial storage before slipping away from the enemy camp.

When time resumed, the warriors who had just been attacking him had vanished without a trace.

Those arriving late skidded to a stop, dumbstruck.

"Where’d they go?"

"What kind of technique is this? Spatial teleportation?"

Whispers spread as they speculated—had their enemy sent some supreme expert capable of whisking away an entire group in an instant?

Ye Liuyun remained concealed outside their camp, pondering his next move.

"Breaking into their camp is out of the question—there’s no chance to test my skills there. I’ll have to take out their patrols from the outskirts and lure them into action."

With that thought, he turned his attention to the patrolling soldiers stationed beyond the camp.

As expected, when the missing patrol was discovered, martial cultivators were dispatched to investigate. Three cultivators at the third level of the Dominance Realm moved as a group. Ye Liuyun ambushed one with his Xenocide Concealment Technique and engaged the other two in combat.

Fighting two at once, he managed to hold his own thanks to his abundant Xuan Yuan energy. Wielding his blade against one and striking with his palm against the other, he attacked simultaneously. In the end, he wounded one with his blade and exhausted the other’s true essence to claim victory.

He swiftly stashed the bodies and vanished again using his Xenocide Concealment Technique. The reinforcements that arrived failed to locate him. This time, nine cultivators showed up—too many for him to engage directly. Instead, he waited for them to disperse before ambushing another group.

This time, he opened with a soul attack to eliminate one instantly, then took down another with a surprise strike. The last fell to a flurry of blade strokes. But by then, he was surrounded by other cultivators, with even more rushing to the scene.

Ye Liuyun tapped into his temporal power just enough to unleash another soul attack, wiping out the six encircling him. After collecting the corpses, he activated the Black Tower of Teleportation and returned to his home planet.

His Xuan Yuan energy was nearly depleted, forcing him to recuperate and replenish his strength. Still, the haul was substantial—nearly two hundred fragments of origin power and a wealth of resources looted from the cultivators’ storage rings.

Ye Liuyun instructed Lan Xin, Qing Yan, and the others to stockpile these resources, preparing for Xuan Yuanling and her team to establish a merchant guild. As for the cultivators’ corpses, he fed them all to the Demon Lion, ensuring it wouldn’t go hungry for resources.