Ye Liuyun and his avatar each released a soul, charging straight into the snow-wolf’s sea of consciousness.

He hadn’t expected the wolf’s mindscape to resemble a frozen domain—an endless tundra saturated with ice-force. Snow-blades slashed at both souls without pause, and, worse, he couldn’t locate the wolf’s own soul; it was hiding somewhere inside.

“Hahaha!” The old man laughed aloud when he saw the two souls dive in

“Using soul attacks? Suicide!”

The snow-wolf never broke stride. Ye Liuyun had no choice—he flung out a metal puppet to block it, hacking down with his blade. The wolf flickered through space, dodging and clashing with the puppet.

Its spatial power far outclassed the puppet’s; it pressed the Metal Puppet so hard that only its near-indestructible alloy kept it from being shredded on the spot.

Ye Liuyun and his avatar fell back together to stay clear of those claws.

Meanwhile, inside the wolf’s mindscape, both souls sheathed themselves in flame to fight off the pervasive cold.

“This beast merged its domain with its sea of consciousness—never seen that trick before. Domains can be used like this?”

Admiration didn’t slow him. He loosed bolts of lightning across the field; one soul morphed into a Heaven-Swallowing Beast that devoured every fleck of snow and ice, while the other became a soul-saber that chopped at the edge of the frozen realm.

A domain must have borders; fused or not, those borders were still this creature’s mind-wall. Rather than hunt for its owner, Ye Liuyun would simply tear down its house.

Sensing annihilation closing in, the snow-wolf finally appeared mid-air and lunged at that saber despite Heaven-Swallowing suction all around it.

The saber whipped round mid-flight—slash

The wolf tried to warp space away... only to find void itself scorched hollow by Nether Ghost-flame. Forcing through would stain its very soul. One stunned heartbeat later saber-light fell from nowhere—and though it jerked its head aside, shoulder met steel full-on as black fire poured into wound-flesh.

A howl tore through consciousness; again it vanished—but now Ye Liuyun could track each lick of ghost-flame embedded in its spirit-form. He chased unseen seams with three more cuts; two missed but one clipped tail-tip adding fresh ebon blaze to bone-white fur.

Pain seared—and then suction ceased abruptly. Before relief could register an enormous net dropped from nowhere overhead!

It burst from void-veil trying dodge—only for saber-edge greet chest-center: *thunk!* Thunder roar plus ghost-fire geysered inward paralyzing every limb alive within spirit-shape!

**ROAR!**

One swipe batted away blade yet cords followed morphing instantly into ropes binding paws neck muzzle tight as any cocoon forming knot after knot until nothing moved freely anymore—

Then came colossal fist transformed once more slamming skull fractures webbing across ethereal bone while lightning danced again till darkness claimed beast entirely under control—

Slave-seal planted former contract erased memory skimmed confirming single presence alone remained hereafter—

Half original strength invested maintaining merged realm thus left behind weakened core vulnerable after all—

"Pros cons alike," mused Ye Liuyun stepping outside body returning physical plane where puppet hostilities ceased same instant leash tightened elsewhere—

Across field elder struck simultaneous assault upon both original selves knowing well enough about inner sanctuary never worried slightest concerning guardian fate awaiting outcome beyond doubt...

He assumed that both Ye Liuyun and his clone had only one soul left—easy pickings

His own soul power wasn’t anything special, but the aura Ye Liuyun had released looked dominant, so it had to be the main battle-soul. With their cultivation levels, whatever secondary soul remained couldn’t possibly stand up to him.

Instead, one of his souls was instantly caged by the Myriad-God Token and branded a slave-mark by Ye Liuyun; the other plunged into the clone’s sea of consciousness, only to be wrapped head-to-toe in Nether Ghost-flame. Before he could even locate the clone’s soul, he was half-charred; the clone finished the job, stamped a slave seal on him and hurled him out.

The clone’s inner world was a labyrinth of folded voids—once inside, there was no way out. Every corridor blazed with ghost-fire; nowhere to hide.

After branding him, Ye Liuyun rifled through his memories and learned the old man’s name: Fan Cheng. His clan were herb suppliers tethered to an alchemist great-family.

Ye Liuyun had never crossed the Fans nor captured their disciples. Fan Cheng had simply been passing by and decided to mug him on a whim—maybe even “rescue” some hostages for an extra bounty.

What he thought would be effortless cost him a ninth-order war-beast... and his own freedom.

“Keep him alive—might be useful for getting close to that alchemist family.”

Rather than stash him in a spatial world, Ye Liuyun sent Fan Cheng straight home so no one would see them together. A metal puppet staged a brief chase so any watchers would swear Fan Cheng had been driven off in defeat.

As for the snow-wolf: the clone pocketed it for spatial-force drills; it wasn’t returned.

The corpses already shredded by the wolf were fed back to it. Lin Luoyi fetched two soul-recovery pills for Leng Yuan and the beast to mend their spiritual wounds.

Ye Liuyun swept his gaze over what captives remained—twelve still breathing—and ducked back into his clone’s pocket world to cultivate.

The rest boarded a flying ship and resumed travel; Leng Qingxiao and his sister flanked them on winged dragons.