Ye Liuyun immediately released Ye Tiandao and had her fight at his side.

She was the one who focused most fiercely in battle and obeyed him without question; her combat instincts were razor-sharp, so he never worried about her.

Every other woman begged to come out and fight beside him, but he turned them all down, only promising to let them out when the right moment came. Juggling Longnu and Ye Tiandao between himself and his two avatars was already more than enough to keep him busy.

The enemies now attacking them were all late Unity Seventh or Eighth layer powerhouses—far too fast for Longnu and Ye Tiandao to react to.

Ambushes that relied on spatial force he could sense in time, but foes who hid themselves inside the very fabric of heaven and earth were another story; he had no way to guard against them in advance. The instant he felt danger he had to freeze time, devour the attacker’s soul, and yank Longnu and Ye Tiandao out of harm’s way.

So the two women could only look for sea beasts to sharpen themselves on, and even those chances were rare. Still, as long as they stayed beside Ye Liuyun they felt safe, no matter the threat.

This time the blue whale carried them an immense distance before finally stopping.

It let out a long, mournful cry, then flopped onto the seafloor and lay motionless.

Longnu questioned it for a while but learned nothing beyond the fact that the trench ahead was their destination. How deep it was, what dangers waited inside—the whale couldn’t explain.

“Knowing the place is enough; we’ll explore slowly on our own.”

Ye Liuyun didn’t press the whale. With Longnu and Ye Tiandao he approached the trench cautiously.

Inside, everything was pitch-black; even his golden pupils couldn’t see far. The first stretch was relatively shallow, but the depth plunged beyond that.

The pressure was considerable—he could feel it—but his body was strong enough to bear it. Longnu ignored the abyssal weight entirely, while Ye Tiandao had to circulate yuan qi to protect herself.

He noticed but didn’t pull her back into his inner world; the strain would temper her physique and refine her energy.

They moved in formation: Ye Liuyun in front, an avatar behind, Longnu and Ye Tiandao flanking him, advancing step by step into the dark.

Slowly. Since the whale had called this the most perilous spot in the Desolate Sea, he took no chances. The treasure vault had already halved the First-Star pirates’ expedition; here could be worse.

A little farther and their figures vanished into the trench’s black throat.

Dangerous sea beasts did ambush them, but none escaped Ye Liuyun’s golden eyes or Longnu’s senses; sneak attacks became frontal assaults.

The first attackers were small, weak sea-snakes—Ye Tiandao carved them apart with blade intent. Between her and Longnu, Ye Liuyun never needed to lift a finger.

He kept scanning for formations. Two minor illusion arrays appeared; they simply walked around them.

Sea beasts passed through those arrays unhindered. When Longnu tried, the illusions ignored her too, yet a seventh-layer Unity slave Ye Liuyun released was trapped instantly—standing blank and helpless, open to any bite.

“This array isn’t simple,” he muttered, and summoned Qiong Qi to help crack it.

Qiong Qi studied it for a while and exclaimed, “Whoever laid this knew their craft.”

He worked half a day to free the slave, merely extracting the man without breaking the formation.

“That much effort for a tiny array?” Ye Liuyun asked silently.

Qiong Qi nodded. “The formations here are genuinely formidable.”

He peered around, but inside the lightless trench he could see nothing of the greater picture.

“Then don’t go back—stay and keep exploring with us.”

Hearing how cunning the traps were, Ye Liuyun wanted the extra insurance.

Qiong Qi saw they were on a full expedition and agreed.

From then on they advanced even more slowly, more cautiously. Longnu loosed her draconic pressure, driving nearby sea beasts into terrified retreat.With that, Ye Tiandao found himself with nothing left to do; he could only trail behind in silence, fighting the trench’s crushing pressure.

Qiong Qi felt it too. A full cultivation realm below Ye Tiandao, he had to burn even more true essence just to keep from being flattened.

The trench had no bottom they could see and no end they could guess. They simply kept descending. The formations inside grew thicker by the step, harder to dodge, until at last the runes fused into a solid wall and they had to stop and wait for Qiong Qi to carve them a path.

Outside, the Dragon Princess heard the blue whale’s warning.

“A powerful martial cultivator is tailing us!” she told Liu Yun at once.

“Let them come,” Liu Yun said, unconcerned. “With this maze of arrays, they’ll only be marching to their graves.”

Some of the wards here were invisible even to his golden pupils; Qiong Qi had to sniff them out by instinct. Unless the pursuers’ formation skills matched Qiong Qi’s, they were bound to stumble into a trap.

Those pursuers were the same big–sect powerhouses who had followed the Star-Bandit Syndicate. After wiping the syndicate out and finding nothing worth taking, they had picked up Liu Yun’s trail and come chasing.

They had watched from afar as Liu Yun slaughtered a crowd of experts without apparent cause, and kept their distance. Only when Liu Yun’s group vanished into the deep did they edge forward.

They spotted the whale first, then the trench, and guessed that Liu Yun had gone in to hunt treasure. The gloom of the rift looked perfect for an ambush, so one after another they slipped inside.

Some of the more cautious stayed topside, planning to strike when Liu Yun surfaced.

Those who entered crept forward step by step, but formations swallowed them all the same—skewered by beasts, crushed by arrays, not one ever drawing close to Liu Yun’s party.

And Qiong Qi, even while breaking a path, never tore the formations down completely; he merely punched a single corridor through. The rest of the deadly lattice he left untouched, exactly as it had been.