“Looks like the news has already spread. Let them come—don’t worry, I’ve got it handled.”

Ye Liuyun answered Leng Qingxiao. He could feel the Martial Cultivators closing in. He still couldn’t figure out how the word had traveled so fast, but he didn’t particularly care.

He’d just captured another dozen-odd experts at the seventh or eighth level of Unity-Return; he had more than enough firepower to deal with any pursuers. Tang Xinyao and his own people were already stashed inside his spatial world. Everyone left outside was a prisoner he’d taken. With them around, he wasn’t worried in the least.

Even if a whole army of cultivators tried to storm him, he’d roll out the flame chariots and vaporize however many showed up.

Besides, Devil Vine—cooped up these past few days inside his clone’s spatial world—had broken through to the eighth level of Unity-Return. With that kind of muscle at his side, he could handle plenty of danger on his own.

So Ye Liuyun didn’t change course; he kept flying a straight line toward the deep-sea trench.

Out in the abyss he dispatched First Clone to guard Dragon Girl—someone might try to ambush her. The deep wasn’t exactly safe to begin with, and the sea beasts that attacked her were usually stronger than the Blue Whale. Her risk was real.

Once First Clone descended, he helped Dragon Girl capture a seventh-level Unity-Return octopus and tucked it beneath the Blue Whale as a hidden bodyguard.

After that the road got rougher; blocking experts popped up every day. Ye Liuyun fought nonstop, refining his玄元 until it was diamond-hard.

Then he started rotating in both clones—one fighting, one cultivating—so that later all three could break through together.

The prisoners he’d taken kept dying in battle, but he kept replenishing the roster with fresh captures, keeping the squad at a steady thirty-plus heads.

His spatial-force timing was perfect: it let him dodge several seventh-level strikes that otherwise would’ve left him badly hurt.

Still, the cultivators tailing him kept swelling in number. Seeing the high levels of the experts around Ye Liuyun, none dared to strike alone; they waited for a critical mass.

Ye Liuyun didn’t mind the shadow—he was letting them gather for one big showdown.

They ranged wildly in level and soon topped a hundred and fifty, including clan disciples led by stronger seniors.

When they judged the pack big enough, they ringed him in.

“Showtime.”

Ye Liuyun released his demons, beasts, and Tang Xinyao to pick their targets.

Roar!

The monsters revealed their true forms; with Lei Ming’s thunderous bellow the battle ignited.

Numbers were small on both sides, yet the battlefield sprawled—top-tier fighters need space, and lower-level cultivators dare not edge close.

So the heavyweights clashed high in the sky, while the mid-levels battled above the waves.

Ye Liuyun and Second Clone each picked a sixth-level Unity-Return opponent for sparring.

The rest they threw to the prisoners. His two eighth-level captives squared off against peers; at that tier, kills never come easy.

Both sides fielded roughly the same count of sixth- and seventh-level fighters, so no one could spare a hand. Among his own troops nobody else could handle ordinary sixth-level enemies; therefore most of those warriors locked onto Ye Liuyun.

That was the plan they’d foreseen. Knowing he lacked manpower there, Ye Liuyun never expected a leisurely workout.

His beasts, demons, and Tang Xinyao could barely hold off fifth-level attackers—no chance to cover him.

He was now facing thirteen run-of-the-mill sixth-level cultivators; taking a beating was inevitable. First Clone and Dragon Girl tried to help, but he waved them off, telling them to watch for underwater ambushes.

He ate two opening blasts, adapted instantly, fully deployed his spatial power, slipped into the void, and began rapid assassinations.

Together with Second Clone he first used spatial compression and spatial lock to crush two enemies, then space-shifted two more straight into his spatial world, branded them with slave seals, and sent them back out to fight for him.The rest of the fight became a breeze. Against these opponents he knew he was in little danger, so he didn’t even bother tapping the power of time.

Along the way one martial cultivator tried to poison Ye Liuyun—utterly useless. A demon cultivator showed up too, but Ye Liuyun couldn’t be bothered; he simply had the Demon-Sealing Stele drink the man’s power dry.

When only two foes were left, he and his second clone took one each and started drilling their Heaven-and-Earth energy.

The instant he let his guard slip, a Unity Seventh-Step powerhouse shot over and punched him flying.

At the same moment, his first clone underwater spotted a Unity Eighth-Step martial cultivator leading two Unity Fifth-Step experts sneaking through the deep sea. All three had just arrived; hearing Ye Liuyun owned a blue whale, they had dived down to check and subdue the beast first.

Instead they saw a black true dragon and a cultivator of modest realm guarding the place. They charged straight in.

The first clone instantly froze time, planting a slave seal in the nearest Unity Eighth-Step attacker.

Synchronously, Ye Liuyun sensed the temporal ripple. His soul was now strong enough to stay almost unaffected; he shot his own spirit into the Unity Seventh-Step assailant’s sea of consciousness and yanked the man’s soul under his control.

“Nice trick—one of us stops time, the other two strike together,” he mused.

Both he and the first seal branded their captives, then released the freeze. Below, the clone and Dragon Girl began sparring with the two Unity Fifth-Steps. Clad in her Blue-Sea armor, Dragon Girl handled one effortlessly; the clone used the other for practice. The freshly tamed Unity Eighth-Step fighter was dispatched topside to support Ye Liuyun.

Up above, Ye Liuyun immediately ordered the newly enslaved Unity Seventh-Step man to reinforce the rest of his team.

An enemy Unity Eighth-Step expert saw the failed ambush and the turncoat, hurled a treasure to block his current opponent, then flashed through space to ambush Ye Liuyun. Confident that with his spatial art Ye Liuyun couldn’t possibly dodge, he appeared right beside him—