The demon beasts were already battle-ready inside the spatial world.

As for the women who wanted to fight—if they got the chance, they’d step out and mix it up too.

By now Ye Liuyun had become a walking target for every cultivator in the Desolate Sea world; battles were guaranteed.

As expected, the moment they showed up they ran into a squad combing the area for them.

The squad wasn’t strong: the leader was only an ordinary Unity Sixth-Heaven, and the whole team barely numbered fifteen or sixteen. Half were green disciples at Unity First or Second-Heaven—clearly some clan out giving its juniors a bit of “experience.”

They strutted up, noses in the air, demanding Ye Liun identify himself while rattling off their own pedigree.

Ye Liuyun didn’t even listen. He released Ye Tiandao, Xiao Yunfang, Meng Qingyin, Li Xinran and the rest, ordering them to join the fray. A few Overlord-realm women were paired off to handle two of the Unity First-Heaven kids.

He himself slashed straight at the squad leader—perfect sparring material. Black Tiger turned into a white streak and shot at a Unity Fifth-Heaven cultivator. Phantom Hand vanished on the spot, killed one Unity Fifth-Heaven with a black beam, then went off to practice assassinating Unity Fourth-Heavens.

In a straight contest of raw power Ye Liuyun couldn’t beat the Unity Sixth-Heaven, but his body was tough enough to soak the hits.

So he tanked, using the guy as a guinea-pig for every spatial trick he could think of. Coincidentally the leader’s own methods were mediocre; he couldn’t crack that absurd physique.

His grasp of space was equally poor—when Ye Liuyun started bending the air around him he could only flail in panic.

At last, out of options, he launched a soul attack.

“You’re asking to die? I haven’t had enough fun yet!”

Ye Liuyun was annoyed; he’d finally found a decent punching bag and the idiot volunteered to get himself killed.

Instead of devouring the man’s soul he planted a slave seal and ordered him to keep fighting.

“Lose and I’ll kill you outright.”

The cultivator had no choice but to go on swinging, yet he still couldn’t wound Ye Liuyun; his expression was more miserable than a weeping ghost.

He poured every advantage his higher realm gave him into a flood of true essence, trying to hold off the spatial onslaught.

Mid-brawl Ye Liuyun suddenly recaptured the sensation of standing inside the empty void. The world before his eyes dissolved into layers of void and barrier.

From that instant the cultivator lost sight of him completely. He tried to force Ye Liuyun back out with his own puny spatial force—now even less effective.

Ye Liuyun, on the other hand, could do whatever he liked. Still in no hurry to kill, he ran through every spatial application he knew.

By the end even a full-powered true-essence burst couldn’t break the spatial lock he’d woven.

After memorizing the feeling, Ye Liuyun simply clenched the space around the man and crushed him like a grape.

“Never thought my spatial power would leap this far!”

He really hadn’t—mid-fight, it had suddenly soared.

Everyone else’s battles had long been over; the field was already stripped clean. Seeing him finish with space, no one batted an eye.

Ye Liuyun killing above his realm was routine. Even without spatial force he could take an ordinary Unity Sixth-Heaven with mystic energy, blade intent, or heaven-and-earth power—never mind soul attacks or that white beam.

They were used to it.

Ye Liuyun immediately synced the new spatial insight to both clones and told them to spar with Zhankong.

The moment the clones moved, Zhankong was shocked—Ye Liuyun’s spatial level had already caught up to his.

After the session the clones went back inside the spatial world to cultivate heaven-and-earth power.

Ye Liuyun, in high spirits, called Long Nu and told the blue whale to head for the most dangerous trench.As for Leng Qingxiao, just let the two siblings tail him.

Right now they’re all drifting in the Desolate Sea; even if the Starhead Bandits realize the key is fake, they’ll never track him down. Once he pinpoints the vault, he can always come back later.

A few days after he set off with the blue whale, Leng Qingxiao’s message arrived: the Starhead Bandits had reached the spot, but their expedition was down to little more than a hundred survivors, while the bandit group itself still counted just over three hundred.

They’d been pounded by sea-beasts along the way; most of the explorers had died inside ancient formations.

“Good. Keep watching the Starhead Bandits—see if they can actually pull any treasure out, and whether they end up clashing with the Dragon-Head Bandits later.”

Ye Liuyun already knew the vault’s exact location, so he felt zero urgency; he could sit back and enjoy the show—the Starhead Bandits’ frustration and the Dragon-Head Bandits’ next act.

His own journey, however, was anything but relaxed. More and more interceptors kept appearing, each batch stronger than the last. Anyone beyond Ye Liuyun’s ability was simply time-stamped with a slave seal and turned into an asset.

He didn’t care which faction they belonged to; whoever dared set their sights on him was either branded on the spot or killed outright—no one was allowed to leave.

Leng Qingxiao kept the updates flowing: the Starhead Bandits had turned back almost immediately, run head-first into the Dragon-Head Bandits, and the two sides had savaged each other.

Next, the powerhouses tailing the Starhead Bandits began to strike as well—Chang Yuxing was killed outright. Leng Qingxiao and Leng Qingyao seized Li Qingyang himself.

Li Qingyang’s clone had actually been one minor realm higher than the original body, but it still fell to the siblings’ combined assault. A soul-search revealed the truth: the Starhead Bandits hadn’t managed to open the vault.

“They used the key, yet the door still wouldn’t budge. None of them knows why,” Leng Qingxiao reported.

Ye Liuyun chuckled inwardly but offered no explanation; he simply ordered them to whittle down the remaining elites of both bandit groups and then stay near the vault as lookouts.

“Don’t overextend—act only within your limits,” he reminded.

“Understood,” Leng Qingxiao replied.

Then he added, “Master, word of your current position is already sweeping the Desolate Sea. Countless cultivators are heading your way—even the factions that were monitoring the Starhead Bandits have turned toward you.”