Ye Liuyun and his team had successfully eradicated over twenty enemy strongholds in succession.

Under Ye Liuyun’s guidance, women like Wu Qingcheng had made rapid progress in their cultivation. Previously, Ye Liuyun had always been preoccupied with various tasks, rarely finding the time to meticulously correct their flaws and witness their growth firsthand.

For their part, the women were overjoyed to have him spend so much time with them, which naturally fueled their enthusiasm for training.

One day, they arrived at a new enemy outpost. To their surprise, the place was sparsely populated by the invaders, its environment remarkably well-preserved, untouched by the usual devastation. Moreover, the world still teemed with ferocious beasts.

Seeing such an intact realm, Ye Liuyun was once again tempted to assimilate it into his own spatial world.

After swiftly eliminating the enemy elites guarding the area, he extracted their memories and learned that the invaders had intended to use this world as a breeding ground for beasts—a sustainable food source—which explained its pristine condition.

However, Ye Liuyun hesitated, concerned that merging this world with his own might disrupt the delicate balance of his existing spatial realm.

Seeking advice, he turned to Ye Ling.

"Why must you merge them at all?" Ye Ling suggested. "Your spatial world is vast enough as it is. Why not simply absorb this one and let the two coexist side by side?"

Ye Liuyun realized she was right. If multiple islands could exist in parallel within his world, then an entire realm should be no different.

After verifying that his spatial world indeed had the capacity, he and his companions set to work. Once they had purged the remaining invaders, they began the process of relocating the entire world into his domain.

To maintain equilibrium, Ye Liuyun then transferred a portion of the beasts into his original world and brought over martial artists of comparable strength to balance the scales.

Without such measures, the overpopulation of beasts would inevitably lead to territorial conflicts, while vast stretches of his original world remained barren and uninhabited.

When the task was complete, Ye Liuyun gazed upon the two worlds—one large, one small—floating harmoniously within his spatial domain. The sight fascinated him, evoking the sensation of a starry expanse taking shape.

He was genuinely curious whether this place would truly transform into a starry sky once he absorbed more worlds.

What was certain, however, was that the power he could draw from his spatial world had grown even stronger. Now, even formidable elders like Hongguang, clad in golden armor, stood no chance against him.

Yet, Ye Liuyun seldom relied on this borrowed strength in battle, preferring instead to hone his own mastery of cosmic and Xuan Yuan energy. After relentless training and expenditure, the quality of his Xuan Yuan had noticeably improved—though compared to Dian Qing, he still seemed slightly lacking.

Later, Ye Liuyun and his companions stumbled upon a demonic world. This time, instead of letting his doppelgänger refine it, he absorbed it into his spatial world himself. He then relocated all the demons into this newly integrated realm, granting them a homeland of their own.

Surprisingly, after assimilating the demonic world, Ye Liuyun found his spatial world functioning even more smoothly. The spatial power he could wield had also increased significantly.

"Seems like diversity is key for the spatial world!" he mused.

Thus, the next time they encountered a suitable world, he had his doppelgänger absorb it as well—and the effect was just as remarkable.

Moreover, as long as the fundamental energies of different attributes weren’t forcibly merged, they remained stable, unaffected by one another, and posed no interference to the demonic energy within his doppelgänger.

Ye Liuyun immediately shared this discovery with the others, urging them to venture out and refine compatible worlds into their own spatial realms to bolster their strength.

While spatial world power might lie dormant in ordinary times, it could prove life-saving in critical moments.

And so, as they feverishly absorbed and refined one world after another, the alien strongholds in the western territories dwindled rapidly.

The alien forces could only watch helplessly as their outposts were systematically dismantled.

By now, the aliens no longer had the means to stop Ye Liuyun. Deploying reinforcements from other battlefronts would not only risk defeat but also jeopardize the security of those regions.

Some elders had even suggested preemptively reclaiming the fundamental energies of these outposts to deny Ye Liuyun the chance to seize them.

Yet they also feared that without these outposts to slow him down, Ye Liuyun might directly assault their main stronghold.

At present, the next generation of their three-eyed golden-armored alien race had not yet fully matured—none were strong enough to stand against Ye Liuyun.

So, in a desperate bid to buy time, the aliens gritted their teeth and held firm. They ordered all remaining guardians and soldiers at the outposts to resist Ye Liuyun to the death, stalling his advance as long as possible.

For now, Ye Liuyun had no intention of attacking the alien stronghold. His focus was on gathering resources and strengthening his allies, which naturally slowed his progress. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

He also needed time for his own cultivation, so his campaign was a cycle of fighting and resting.

His original plan was to wait for Dian Qing, ensuring some resources remained for his allies rather than being entirely claimed by his own forces.

But to his surprise, before Dian Qing arrived, news came instead—a message explaining that the Tianhong Dynasty had erupted into internal strife.

The dynasty had dispatched troops to crush their academy, slaughtering many of its disciples. Even the academy’s acting headmaster had been killed, though the dynasty’s soldiers had also suffered heavy losses.

In response, Dian Qing had immediately detained all the dynasty’s elite enforcers sent their way.

"What happened to make your own people turn on each other so viciously?" Ye Liuyun asked, baffled. At a time when manpower was scarce, they were ruthless enough to attack their own.

"Ah!" Dian Qing sighed deeply before explaining.

It turned out that the old king of the Tianhong Dynasty had abdicated, passing the throne to a new ruler. But the new king resented the Sheng Yuan Academy’s dominance over the dynasty and sought to seize power amid the chaos.

However, the new king acted too hastily, provoking the academy’s wrath. One of the elders had intended to teach him a lesson but struck too hard—accidentally killing him.

Unwilling to apologize, the Sheng Yuan Academy only deepened the rift with the dynasty.

The dynasty had no choice but to select another new king. The academy then took the opportunity to install a puppet ruler, only for the royal family to retaliate—killing the puppet and placing their own chosen proxy on the throne.

Tensions between the two sides finally exploded. The royal family launched a surprise attack on the Sheng Yuan Academy, deploying swarms of assassins to nearly wipe out all its disciples.

The brutality of the assault was meant as a message to Dian Qing: the Sheng Yuan Academy was finished. The remaining strongmen had only two choices—submit to the royal family or be branded as traitors of the Tianhong Dynasty.

After hearing this, Ye Liuyun cut straight to the point:

"There’s a third option—take these martial experts, overthrow the royal family, and crown yourself king. Tear down the old order and build a new one!"