Other insights held no appeal for Ye Liuyun; he finally left the Insight Stone Forest for good and focused solely on advancing his realm.

After cultivating divine essence for a while, his cultivation merely reached the mid-stage of Unity Fourth Heaven.

Although the demonic beasts and Tang Xinyao’s group had not advanced in realm, their combat strength had soared; now they could easily fight two full realms above their own.

Ye Liuyun’s women had not only improved their insight strength; most had also broken into the Unity realm. Even dancers like Wu Qingcheng—who rarely fought—had reached Dominator Eighth or Ninth Heaven.

Once Yu Wenqiang’s conscription ended, Ye Liuyun left the military camp at once and began plundering resources. After stripping the He clan’s mines, he would hurry to the Chen family to seize weapon-refining master and forge suitable armor and weapons for the ancient-demon soldiers about to march.

He didn’t send the others back to the Ferrybridge Galaxy yet; instead, he had them help him seize more veins.

From He Yunzhang he learned that the He clan still stationed many guards at the mines—perfect for handling lower-realm foes.

The moment he struck, He Yunzhang was summoned to guide him personally.

He Yunzhang was loath to show his face, even less to harm his own clan.

But Ye Liuyun told him, “Your He clan moved against me—there must be a price. That I haven’t wiped you out is already mercy.”

Then he clamped a slave seal on He Yunzhang, leaving him no room for betrayal as he helped harvest the He family veins.

The He clan controlled over three hundred mines, graded primary, intermediate, and advanced, scattered across fifty-plus planets—nine of them uninhabited. Ye Liuyun’s first target: those nine lifeless worlds.

He had planned to start with smaller veins, build up force, then study the uninhabited planets, but time was short; he had to go all-out.

Though the uninhabited planets were guarded by many He-clan powerhouses, Ye Liuyun was no longer overly concerned. His spatial power had grown; he could hide in the void without even using an invisibility cloak, and even a Unity Ninth Heaven expert would struggle to detect him.

On the first planet they struck, there was only one early Unity Ninth Heaven expert—He Yunzhang alone could handle him. Thirty-plus Unity Eighth Heaven, sixty-plus Unity Seventh Heaven, and barely two thousand Unity early- to mid-stage cultivators made up the rest.

Most of these guards were mercenaries; fewer than thirty were true He clansmen.

Such a light defense existed because the planet’s veins were mostly primary grade, the ore quality low, and the He clan didn’t value them.

They never imagined anyone would dare raid them—let alone rob such low-grade veins. The ore here was mainly for construction materials and the crudest weapons.

Yet to Ye Liuyun, even if it could only forge low True-grade arms, he could still sell them at a premium in other galaxies.

Besides the guards, tens of thousands of miners labored here; the strongest among them capped at Unity Third Heaven, most merely Dominator realm.

According to He Yunzhang, the He clan might rally these miners against them. Ye Liuyun decided that if they resisted, he’d let the newly selected ancient-demon troops hone their skills—and treat the miners as a food reserve.

Before landing, he tucked He Yunzhang into his spatial world, slipped into the void, and drifted toward the planet’s strongest guardian.

The experts here usually cultivated in peace; no one expected an assault, so vigilance was low. Ye Liuyun was beside the Unity Ninth Heaven cultivator before the man noticed.

Without courtesy, Ye Liuyun planted a slave seal and whisked him into the spatial world. Two clones emerged: one joined him to hunt Unity Eighth Heaven experts, the other to capture Unity Seventh Heaven cultivators.

After seizing more than twenty cultivators, the He clan steward finally sounded the alarm.

Ye Liuyun and his clones released Snow-Wolf, Leng Yuan, and He Yunzhang—Snow-Wolf and Leng Yuan cloaked to hide their identities—to deal with the late-Unity experts. Demon Vine, demonic beasts, and Tang Xinyao’s group were loosed upon the mid- and early-Unity foes.

The steward promptly herded every miner into a siege against them. Ye Liuyun instantly deployed the freshly formed ancient-demon elite to slaughter the miners and stockpile provisions.

The battle among the powerhouses ended swiftly. With Snow-Wolf, Leng Yuan, and He Yunzhang—three Unity Ninth Heaven experts—the remaining He-clan cultivators barely resisted before surrendering.

Without pause, Ye Liuyun’s forces intimidated the mid- and early-Unity cultivators. Unused to real combat, they broke after a few kills from Demon Vine and the beasts, and under the pressure of Unity Ninth Heaven aura the rest capitulated.

“Accept all surrenders. Make them sign master-servant contracts!”

Ye Liuyun instantly ordered the demonic vines and the demon beasts to stop, then—together with his clone—led three peak Ninth-Layer Return-to-One experts to cow the miners. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The miners were weak; in the short time that had passed, nearly half of them had already been slaughtered. They had surrendered, yet the Ancient Demon race treated them purely as food and kept encircling and killing them. Only when Ye Liuyun arrived and shouted for them to stop did the Ancient Demon legion finally halt.

Ye Liuyun had his First Clone gather all the captives into his spatial world first, but still handed them over to the Ancient Demon legion to handle. He instructed the legion: after devouring the remaining miners’ souls, they could then consume the physical bodies.

As for the other cultivators in the early and middle stages of Return-to-One, Ye Liuyun allocated them to the snow wolves, demon beasts, Tang Xinyao, and the women who had joined the fight, letting everyone make full use of the spoils—devouring souls while Chi Lian absorbed power of bloodline. The core pills were reserved for the demon beasts as cultivation resources; nothing was to be wasted.

Especially for the snow wolves, Ye Liuyun even had the Vermilion Bird lend a hand, ripping out certain cultivators’ souls and feeding them directly into the snow wolves’ soul domains to help them devour those souls. Otherwise, a single snow wolf’s soul strength was too feeble; if it ever encountered a cultivator with strong soul power who could pinpoint its hiding place, it would be doomed.

Once Chi Lian finished absorbing power of bloodline, she would help the others elevate theirs. Ye Liuyun told Chi Lian to first boost the bloodlines of the five commanders under Yu Xiaofeng, then look after those closest to him.

For these five commanders to raise their strength rapidly, the first step was to upgrade their bloodline—only then could the rest of their power increase at an accelerated pace.