No matter how the allied forces and martial cultivators defended themselves, they simply couldn’t thwart the enemy’s ambushes—they couldn’t even detect their opponents’ whereabouts.

At that moment, another squad of martial cultivators at the third level of Dominance began bombarding the ground, attempting to force the demonic vines out. The violent tremors shook the entire planet, yet even as the world crumbled apart, they found no trace of the vines. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The moment the planet’s source energy emerged, it was instantly seized by the invisible Ye Liuyun. The squad that had been attacking the planet was also subdued, branded with slave marks and taken away. Terrified, the remaining martial cultivators dared not stray from the main force.

The violent quakes made it even easier for the Thieving Cat to move around, stealing as much as it could before the enemy retreated. By the time the planet collapsed and the allied forces withdrew, the cat had already pilfered storage rings from over six hundred powerful warriors—including a vast stockpile of military supplies from Kuishan’s spatial artifact.

Ye Liuyun didn’t continue harassing the allied forces. Instead, he took the Thieving Cat back, urging it to focus on breaking through to a higher realm.

He handed over all usable military resources to Yu Xiaofeng, who suddenly found himself flush with supplies—enough equipment, elixirs, and cultivation materials to sustain their two-million-strong army for a long time.

The key advantage now was that the allied forces simply couldn’t outlast them. Even if they dragged the conflict out, the alliance’s resources were already stretched thin. Their royal treasuries and merchant guilds were depleted, making it nearly impossible to quickly gather enough supplies for another massive campaign.

Ye Liuyun kept the remaining source energy for himself and gave the rest of the resources to Xuan Yuanling.

Meanwhile, Yu Xiaofeng wasn’t idle. While preparing ten thousand Falcon battleships to pursue the retreating enemy, he discussed with Ye Liuyun the possibility of delivering one final, devastating blow.

"Good idea," Ye Liuyun agreed. "The allied forces are already terrified, and in the vastness of space, we can catch them completely off guard." He immediately dispatched his clone to join the Falcon fleet in the attack.

Once the Falcons caught up, they blasted apart two of the alliance’s massive warships, leaving roughly two hundred thousand soldiers stranded. Ye Liuyun’s clone then unleashed the demonic army, slaughtering half of them and capturing the rest.

Kuishan hesitated but ultimately didn’t dare intervene. He led the remaining forces in a frantic retreat, putting ten planets’ worth of distance between them before finally stopping to regroup.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun’s forces celebrated another resounding victory, their morale soaring. In contrast, the allied forces—deprived of supplies, humiliated by repeated defeats, and having lost hundreds of elite martial cultivators and three hundred thousand troops before even engaging in a full-scale battle—found their spirits crushed.

Kuishan faced an even more pressing issue—the soldiers’ cultivation resources had run dry. Despite reaching out to the various dynasties within the alliance for aid, each one offered nothing but excuses to avoid responsibility.

In the end, the allied dynasties made the shocking decision to withdraw all their forces, preparing to accept Ye Liuyun’s terms by sacrificing one of their weaker dynasties to him.

This immediately plunged the alliance into chaos. No dynasty wanted to be the sacrificial lamb, so factions formed, alliances shifted, and internal strife erupted.

The allied army ultimately disbanded entirely, with soldiers returning to their respective dynasties. Each kingdom now stood alone, fighting for its own survival.

Even Ye Liuyun hadn’t expected that with barely any effort on his part, the entire alliance would collapse, and the once-mighty coalition army would crumble into nothing.

Yu Xiaofeng, after successfully integrating the surrendered troops, continued training his forces while steadily advancing forward. They pushed through over ten planets without the allied dynasties reaching any final decision.

Eventually, the dynasties began reaching out to Ye Liuyun individually, seeking alliances and even suggesting which targets he should attack next.

With their cooperation, Ye Liuyun maneuvered between them with ease. In no time, he conquered two dynasties, seizing their territories and expanding the Lingyun Chain Commerce Guild across their lands.

Bolstered by these new resources, Ye Liuyun’s army grew stronger—both in supplies and manpower.

Now, in addition to the one million soldiers of the Death Legion, he had inherited over a million more troops from the two conquered dynasties. Though their quality varied, at least two to three hundred thousand could be trained into elite fighters.

Ye Liuyun’s elite Vanguard Regiment also expanded by over a thousand, all martial cultivators at the second or third level of the Dominator Realm. The regiment had now been restored to its full strength of three thousand.

Yu Xiaofeng temporarily halted their offensive, allowing Qin Peng and Pei Yong to screen and train the surrendered soldiers. Meanwhile, Ye Tiandao worked tirelessly to drill the new recruits of the Vanguard Regiment.

As for Ye Liuyun himself, he seized this lull in the war to focus entirely on his cultivation.

With resources no longer scarce, he shared some with Qiang Hui, Tuolin, and his own doppelgänger to speed up their recovery. This allowed him and his clone to continuously spar with them, refining their advance energy.

The Purple Kylin Snake, the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon, the Vermilion Bird, Thunderclap, and the Dragon Maiden all swiftly advanced to the fourth level of the Dominator Realm. With ample resources, the demon army’s strength surged even faster, with every soldier rising by an entire realm.

After a period of recuperation, the Lingyun Dynasty established by Ye Liuyun had become the most formidable force in the region, both in military might and financial resources.

After discussing with Yu Xiaofeng, Ye Liuyun decided it was time to advance their plans. He proposed reestablishing the alliance among the dynasties.

The other dynasties, however, saw through his intentions. With Ye Liuyun as the strongest contender, his proposal clearly signaled his ambition to become the alliance leader. If he succeeded, the combined forces of the alliance would effectively serve his interests.

Unsurprisingly, they unanimously opposed the idea, arguing that without external threats, there was no need to form a joint military force.

Ye Liuyun had anticipated their refusal. Seizing the opportunity, he launched his campaign of conquest, systematically annexing one dynasty after another.

These dynasties had already been stripped of their wealth by Ye Liuyun’s earlier schemes. Once war broke out, the Lingyun Trading Consortium—the only major merchant guild—temporarily shut its doors, cutting off their supply lines. Deprived of resources and outmatched in military strength, they fell swiftly to Ye Liuyun’s forces.

With each victory, Ye Liuyun amassed even greater resources. His demonic beasts—the Devouring Vine, the Nine-Headed Netherdrake, and the Vermilion Bird—played pivotal roles in every battle, feasting on the spoils of war and growing stronger at an astonishing rate.

The Devouring Vine, with its insatiable appetite and rapid digestion, advanced the fastest. It would wake from slumber already craving more energy, and at this pace, it wouldn’t be long before it broke through to the next realm.

The Nine-Headed Netherdrake progressed steadily, while the Vermilion Bird’s cultivation surged through the absorption of spectral souls, which it harvested in abundance from each conflict.

The high-level martial cultivators in these lands proved to be a boon for Ye Liuyun’s beasts. Thunderclap, the Dragon Maiden, the Violet Kylin, the White Tiger, the Stone Ape, and Little Bluefrost all surpassed Ye Liuyun, breaking through to the fourth level of the Dominator Realm ahead of him.

Even the newly trained demonic army of fifty thousand under Ye Liuyun’s command advanced at a pace that could only be described as meteoric.