“Haha, look at me—so worked up I forgot to thank you! You’ve gone to so much trouble for me; I’ll remember this debt. Come, let’s sit in the hall and talk.”

Fan Yuzeng had seen Fan Xin handle things to his liking, so his attitude warmed at once and he invited Fan Xin straight to the sitting room.

“Perfect—we’ll chat while we wait for news. Tell me all about that Golden-Crow Sacred Flame.” After ushering Fan Xin to a seat, Fan Yuzeng even ordered the maids to bring tea.

The moment Ye Liuyun saw no one else in the hall, he launched a soul attack and branded Fan Yuzeng as a slave.

Most Fan elders spent their days on the clan planet and rarely wore soul-defense treasures, so Ye Liuyun’s attack succeeded effortlessly.

He then controlled Fan Yuzeng to make small talk. Once the maid served the tea, Fan Yuzeng dismissed her and was promptly tucked into Ye Liuyun’s spatial world, where a clone began a thorough soul-search.

Ye Liuyun released another clone that took Fan Xin’s appearance, while he himself morphed into Fan Yuzeng.

s likeness.

A short while later, the clone disguised as Fan Xin returned to his quarters, and the Ye Liuyun disguised as Fan Yuzeng went straight to find Steward Elder Fan Yurong.

Fan Yuzeng had planned to send his descendants to the Void Pill Sect to study alchemy, and it was through Fan Yurong’s connections.

Fan Yurong was already a powerhouse of the Fan clan, having reached the mid-stage of Ninth Heaven Return. A solitary man, he usually cultivated in a chamber beside the council hall.

If anyone needed him, he handled matters right there in the chamber.

Ye Liuyun did the same. When he arrived, Fan Yurong simply sent a mental message to enter.

But the instant Ye Liuyun stepped inside—before he could even greet Fan Yurong—the elder released a clone that was also at Ninth Heaven Return.

“Elder Yurong, what are you doing?” Ye Liuyun asked in Fan Yuzeng’s voice, feigning confusion.

Fan Yuzeng had never known Fan Yurong possessed a Ninth Heaven Return clone.

“Hmph! Impersonating a Fan elder? I’m not so easily fooled!” Fan Yurong snorted coldly. He and his clone’s four soul bodies surged into Ye Liuyun’s sea of consciousness.

As a veteran expert, Fan Yurong’s soul power rivaled Ye Liuyun’s. He’d assumed four souls would be enough. Yet the moment they entered, they were all seized by Ye Liuyun’s Myriad God Seal.

Ye Liuyun immediately began a soul search to learn how he’d been exposed and whether Fan Yurong had relayed any warnings.

After the search, he relaxed. Fan Yurong had noticed the wrong Interspatial Ring, the unfamiliar footfalls, and the way the door was closed—none matched Fan Yuzeng. But, pressed for time and overconfident, he hadn’t yet sent word.

Ye Liuyun exhaled, branded both Fan Yurong and his clone, and sent them back to their own seas of consciousness.

Fan Yurong was filled with regret; one careless move had cost him and his clone everything. But it was too late—he could only obey the slave seal.

Ye Liuyun was also chagrined; a tiny oversight had nearly ruined everything.

Fan Cheng, Fan Xin, and Fan Yuzeng weren’t especially close and seldom observed one another so closely, so the details had gone unnoticed. Fan Yurong, however, knew Fan Yuzeng intimately and watched carefully.

Fortunately, all had ended well. Inside Fan Yurong’s chamber, no one outside knew what had transpired.

He had Fan Yurong dismiss the clone, tucked the elder into his spatial world, and released two new clones—one mimicking Fan Yuzeng, the other Fan Yurong.

This time he studied them meticulously, replicating even the easily overlooked details. His own Interspatial Ring, forged from flowing gold, could alter its shape or vanish at will.

Only when satisfied did he send “Fan Yuzeng” back. Through layers of control, he’d seized the outer court, inner court, and chief stewards. Now he had to decide how to deal with the rest.

He gathered Fan Xin, Fan Yuzeng, and Fan Yurong inside his spatial world and, via the slave seals, ordered them to help devise a plan.

“I intend to take this planet. We need a way to drive out every Fan disciple. If large numbers of elders and disciples were poisoned, how would you handle it?” he asked the three.

He planned to use poison to scare the Fan clan away.

“We can evacuate the disciples disciples for now, but the guardians absolutely can’t leave. There’s also an elder here who carries a kind of Jade-Dew Pellet that neutralizes poison,” Fan Yurong told Ye Liuyun.

“Good. Summon him first, subdue him, then bring all the guardians under control. I’ll have my clones poison them right away to coordinate with you.”

After giving the order, Ye Liuyun immediately had his two clones slip poison to the disciples beside them.

Moments later, someone rushed to report to Fan Yurong—who was actually Ye Liuyun in disguise. He first sent for the elder who could detoxify the poison.

Unexpectedly, the elder who arrived was a woman named Fan Yuqian. Ye Liuyun didn’t care about gender; he branded her with a slave seal on the spot, then led her to summon every guardian to the council hall. He even had several poisoned disciples carried outside the hall as proof.

Inside the hall, Ye Liuyun secretly released the toxin. Only after the guardians arrived did he announce, “A sudden poisoning has erupted among both inner and outer disciples. I suspect it’s deliberate

The toxin is vicious—even Elder Yuqian’s Jade-Dew Pellets can’t touch it. I plan to evacuate the disciples temporarily, but the duty of guarding this place will fall to all of you.”

When the guardians saw the poisoned disciples—some already reduced to pools of black sludge—they realized how lethal the toxin was. Several immediately wrapped their bodies in protective true essence.

Ye Liuyun paid them no mind. By the time they thought to shield themselves, it was too late. The instant they stepped into the hall, the poison had already seeped inside them. Now he only needed to wait for it to take effect.

“We have no objections—Elder Yurong, just give the orders!” The guardians were dutiful, none shirking responsibility. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

“Excellent.” Ye Liuyun promptly sent runners to relay the command: all inner and outer disciples were to withdraw at once, while the inner and outer elders were to assemble and discuss troop deployments and guard rotations.