With only a handful of days left, Ye Liuyun focused on compressing his soul, refining his bloodline and body with pills, then finally prepared to lead everyone out of the blue-whale’s lair.

He guessed that after more than a month without showing themselves, the cultivators hunting him outside should have given up

He deliberately contacted Leng Qingxiao and his sister. Sure enough, with no whale to relay news, the trackers had lost all trace of him; some were already leaving the Desolate Sea.

Only then did Ye Liuyun bring the group out. He released the demonic beasts, Tang Xinyao’s squad, and the women who wanted combat experience. The captured human experts were ordered to guard them. Splitting into three equal forces, he and his two clones spearheaded the advance, cutting a straight bloody path toward the treasury.

Along the road they swept aside every sea creature, plundered the Marine Clan’s resources, and even handed Sealing Soul Orbs to several human experts, tasking them with capturing the souls of powerful sea beasts for his later cultivation.

Most beasts and Tang Xinyao’s team were already challenging sixth-level Unity sea beasts while only at the fourth level themselves. Recently they had concentrated on condensing their Profound Origin, making up for earlier shortcomings in soul, blood and body. Their realms had barely risen, but they now knew what it felt like to jump two full levels in a fight.

Lei Ming and the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon, relying on their draconic bloodlines, could already take on seventh-level Unity beasts. With her Blue-Sea battle armor fully activated, Dragon Girl could even contend with ordinary eighth-level Unity sea beasts.

Little Blue Ice’s Soul-Fixing Bead was a life-saver; whenever she met a beast she couldn’t beat, she brought it out—unfailingly freezing the opponent’s soul. Those souls were then devoured in turn by her and the other beasts, boosting everyone’s soul power.

The Thieving Cat revealed his true form—demonic lion—during battle, killing with spatial force. Yet his combat strength was only average; he stayed with Purple Kylin Snake, Vermilion Bird and Chilian, forming a safe zone that protected the wounded while still letting him strike from range.

The women were divided into three groups, sparring with sea beasts under expert guard. Ye Liuyun himself fought at full intensity, tempering his Profound Origin while pushing his spatial power and Heaven-and-Earth force to new heights.

With human experts now capturing souls for him, the group no longer needed to use soul attacks unless someone launched one at them first.

Neither beasts nor women needed his protection anymore. Everyone wore several true-rank armors, treasures and weapons; in a pinch they could simply throw the gear out and block any danger.

The beasts treated every kill as vengeance for Phantom Hand and Black Tiger, showing no mercy and ignoring level gaps. Corpses and cores piled up in their rings; the seawater they passed turned crimson.

With the blue whale dead, no one kept the sea beasts in check; the smell of blood lured them in only to be massacred. Wave after wave came, and the fighting never stopped.

Two opponents gave Ye Liuyun the most trouble. One was a colossal sea turtle that arrived to snatch beast cores. No force he possessed could crack its shell; in the end Little Blue Ice froze and devoured its soul with her bead.

The other was a white shark. It started at late sixth-level Unity, but mid-battle broke through to the seventh. Relying on its denser True Origin, it battered Ye Liuyun relentlessly until he could only endure with his bare body. When the shark finally ran out of energy, Ye Liuyun chased it down and hacked its head off; the dying beast launched a soul strike that he swallowed whole.

Beyond that he could handle only those seventh-level Unity experts whose spatial power was weak. He could now send fire and lightning straight into an opponent’s body through space, and his隔空刀意—blade will that cut across emptiness—split many beasts from the inside before they could dodge.

Once spatial practice was sufficient, he moved the fights onto the surface, deliberately choosing slightly weaker beasts so he could rely on Heaven-and-Earth force. If a beast dived to flee, he did not waste time pursuing; underwater he held no advantage, so he simply froze time with a soul strike and killed it instantly, guarding against ambush from hidden cultivators.

For a full month they fought non-stop before finding an island to rest. Everyone withdrew into his inner world to restore True Origin, leaving only a few untired experts on watch.

That battle left them all exhilarated, cheering with satisfaction.

They stayed ten days—injuries healed, Origin and storage stones refilled—then set off again: one month of slaughter, ten days of recovery. After two more such cycles they linked up with Leng Qingxiao and Leng Qingyao.

The women still below Overlord realm had tempered their True Origin to crystalline density; they returned to break through to Unity.

Ye Liuyun did not wait. Once the others had replenished their power, he advanced straight toward the treasury.Inside the blue whale’s sea of consciousness was the array map to this treasure vault, so along the way they slipped past every formation without a hitch

When a detour wasn’t possible, Qiong Qi simply dismantled the array with a flick of his claw

By the time Ye Liuyun led the group to the vault entrance, not a single member of the party had so much as a scraped knee—an outcome that left Leng Qingxiao and Leng Qingyao clicking their tongues in disbelief.

The vault lay inside a submerged reef. Where the reef met the seabed stood a stone door; in its center, a ring, and at the ring’s heart, a triangular recess.

After locating the vault, Ye Liuyun sent the Leng siblings back to keep watch in the starry void—no other cultivators must find this place

He then tucked most of his people into his spatial world, keeping only two Unity-Eighth-Step experts and a handful of puppets at his side in case of inner dangers.

Ready, he drew out the black triangular key.

“Two whole bandit leagues bled themselves dry for this thing, and in the end they walked away empty-handed—and short a lot of lives.”

He sighed, studying the triangular socket

Sure enough, a tiny trident was etched inside.