Right at the moment his cultivation realm broke through, Ye Liuyun and both of his avatars swallowed their pills together. The first avatar took four different strength-refining pills one after another; it took a a bit longer, but the result was almost as good as Ye Liuyun’s and the second avatar’s.

The marrow-washing pill of True Grade 9 used completely different ingredients and refining methods from the previous ones; there was no drug resistance in Ye Liuyun’s body, so the purifying effect was striking. Impurities hidden in his soul, bloodline, flesh and divine essence were driven out one by one.

“This stuff really works!”

He immediately resolved to get the same pills for everyone else.

He rarely took pills on ordinary days, so his body should have contained far fewer impurities than most people—yet under these pills he still expelled an alarming amount. Even he hadn’t expected that every kind of power inside him carried so much dross. Now that it was gone, future advancement would be faster and every force would be more condensed.

After the last trace of medicine finished its work he felt light all over and his mood soared—until he glanced at his core again and plunged straight back into cultivation. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Less than twenty percent of divine essence remained in his core. The breakthrough had compressed what he had; then the marrow-washing pill refined it again while stripping impurities, leaving a huge void. He began pouring source power into the Exchange Cauldron non-stop, draining every last energy stored in Essence Stones so he could later refill them with Grade-4 Divine Essence.

Even after that he still had to draw heavily from the cauldron before his core brimmed full again.

Next came refilling the Essence Stones. Once they were topped up he figured they’d only last six or seven more refills—and he alone had already burned through more than four hundred units of source power.

“Stronger than before—and hungrier than ever.”

He could only sigh at the frightening consumption. He didn’t dare imagine how many units it would take to fill his core once he reached the Taixu realm.

That galaxy-origin source was kept for emergencies; whenever time allowed he relied on ordinary source power instead.

“Need to stockpile resources—now.”

He decided that after Second Avatar finished sweeping through Duqiao Galaxy they would stay behind in Huoyin Galaxy to gather more supplies for future breakthroughs. And when he entered the He clan secret realm this time, he wouldn’t be polite—if given half a chance he’d loot it clean. Since He family knew sending guards inside meant death yet still sent them as sacrifices, they deserved no sympathy from him.

Just as every Essence Stone on him brimmed full again, it was finally time for He Lingwu to enter that secret realm. Even with fast cultivation speed replenishing all that divine essence had taken nearly a hundred fifty days; without accelerated flow inside an avatar’s spatial world there simply wouldn’t have been enough hours left.

On assembly day Ye Liuyun morphed into one of He Lingwu’s guards using Thousand-Illusion Art propping up a fake Sixth-level Return-to-One aura—it cost extra energy but drew no suspicion so gritted teeth paid off.

Every He disciple arrived flanked by two retainers faces bright with anticipation while those retainers looked like mourners unable to refuse: most were bound by forced master-servant contracts—even if unwilling they had no choice; He Lingwu’s other guard had been dragged here exactly like that though not voluntarily either way around things went down pretty much same pattern across board today anyway...

Ye Liuyun feigned identical gloom blending among them waiting quietly queue line-up until portal opened up ahead somewhere deep within clan grounds where elder escorted group without much talk letting step inside themselves afterwards since even whether they’d land together afterward unknown exploration entirely left individuals own devices apparently...

Stepping through alongside young master found himself alone next instant:

"Looks randomized teleportation."

Instantly spread mental sense plus golden pupils scanning surroundings:

Avatar already stood ready inside spatial world beside portable black tower prepared emergency evacuate anytime yet sensed no outside control concluding place wasn’t someone’s personal pocket dimension judging tree sizes around likely chunk Desolate Ancient World scant spiritual qi abundant profound qi others probably forced rely imported sources restore true essence whereas himself unaffected whatsoever...

Yet almost instantly he felt it: both his bloodline and his soul-force were being sharply suppressed.

The Unity Sixth-Step level he had propped up with Thousand- was yanked straight back to his true cultivation. Even his divine yuan showed signs of being throttled, as though the realm meant to push him down another whole tier. His body, too, groaned under a sudden gravity.

“Is this suppression aimed only at outsiders, or does it hit every He clansman?”

Ye Liuyun let the question settle while he spun his bloodline in an internal cycle to fight the pressure, then sent yuan energy racing through his meridians to push back against the realm’s clamp.

Soul and flesh had long been drilled under crushing weights; though he could not quite bring out ten-tenths of himself, eight or nine still came easily.

For now it was nothing more than raw force squeezing him—no sign of a will inside the secret realm trying to puppet him—so he eased a notch.

At the same time he touched He Lingwu through the slave seal to see how the man fared.

He Lingwu felt it too, but by his own words the秘境’s grip on him was light; only drawing in spiritual energy was like sipping through a clogged straw, so he had to burn his own stock of primal essence to refill his core.

Ye Liuyun did not call him over yet. After getting the report he released First Clone, Snow-Wolf, Metal Puppet and Leng Yuan one by one to gauge their reactions.

Clone mirrored himself almost exactly. Snow-Wolf, however, buckled hard—its soul-force took the worst hit and could barely muster half its usual bite; body and cultivation now scraped only Unity Seventh-Step level.

Leng Yuan fared little better overall, but a sturdier soul let his spirit attacks still land. Only Metal Puppet shrugged off everything save for an energy bill that had doubled.

Satisfied with the tally, Ye Liuyun stowed them again and kept just Clone for company.

Clone whipped out Heaven-Eater and charged straight at a black panther already sprinting toward them. Ye Liuyun drew Demon-Slayer and flanked the beast from the side.