Chapter 2358: Chapter 2358 Mastermind
Ye Liuyun couldn’t shake off the martial practitioners, nor could they catch up to him. Both sides burned through a fair amount of genuine energy just to maintain a barely consistent distance.
"Could this brat be concealing his cultivation level?" one of the martial practitioners asked, concern flickering in his voice.
"No way. His aura clearly shows he’s at the mid-stage of Ninth Tier." another replied with certainty.
“He must just have strong power of space! Whatever the case, even if he’s hiding his level, there’s no way he can take on all three of us. Stay on him—don’t let him slip away!" the third martial practitioner urged the others, trying to rally their spirits.
After looping around in a wide arc, Ye Liuyun suddenly doubled back and came to a sharp stop.
"So their spatial force isn’t that impressive after all." He smirked inwardly.
With that thought, he summoned Zhao Hu, Yu Yao, Lei Ming, and the Dragon Lady.
"Hold them off for me. I want to test each of them myself." Ye Liuyun transmitted a message to Zhao Hu and Lei Ming.
The three martial practitioners quickly closed the gap. They were stunned when Ye Liuyun suddenly summoned four Omnipotent Level martial practitoners. At such close range, retreat was no longer an option and they had no choice but to fight.
Ye Liuyun himself charged directly at one of the martial practitioners. The others encircled the remaining two but did not attack yet.
"Courting death!"
The martial practitioner sneered viciously, slamming a palm forward with full force.
Ye Liuyun responded in kind, channeling the full power of heaven and earth into his palm, fusing it with his refined advance energy.
With a deafening boom, the two palms collided, sending shockwaves tearing through the air.
Ye Liuyun was slightly overpowered. He staggered backward over ten steps and nearly toppled over. However, he ultimately managed to steady himself.
The martial practitioner across from Ye Liuyun was visibly stunned. He hadn’t expected that even after unleashing his full-force palm strike, a mere mid-stage Ninth Tier cultivator could actually block it.
That strike of his was so powerful that even many experts at the Omnipotent Level would have been unable to withstand it.
Ye Liuyun immediately drew his Demon Slayer and slashed down in a swift arc. He then followed up with a palm strike, this time infused with the power of heaven and earth as well as advance energy.
Ye Liuyun launched wave after wave of relentless attacks, forcing the martial practitioner to scramble just to defend.
What unsettled him even more was Ye Liuyun’s blade intention. Its killing pressure posed a serious threat, and he dared not take it lightly. As a result, his genuine energy was rapidly draining.
The other two martial practitioners saw the situation and decided not to act.
Zhao Hu and the others remained stationary as well. They formed an encirclement without engaging, simply ensuring the enemies couldn’t escape.
Ye Liuyun, on the other hand, was having a great time. But his opponent was growing increasingly alarmed.
After all, his genuine energy reserve should have been more than ten times that of Ye Liuyun. Yet after such an extended fight, Ye Liuyun’s genuine energy still seemed far from depleted.
Moreover, Ye Liuyun kept switching tactics, blending various forces into his strikes. He unleashed the Flame Force, Devil Lightning, and even alternated between Buddhist-Devil forces. Yet through all this, there was no sign of his genuine energy running out.
To make matters worse, the martial practitioner had to divert even more of his genuine energy to fend off Ye Liuyun’s spells. He also had to resist the Elemental Spirit Secret Skill, which caused his genuine energy reserves to dwindle at an alarming rate.
Growing anxious, the martial practitioner decided to launch a full-force counterattack.
Ye Liuyun immediately unleashed his Bloodline Power to suppress his opponent. Moreover, by activating the loop, he elevated the oppressive might of his bloodline to its peak. As a result, even when the martial practitioner struck with full force, they could barely muster seventy percent of his original strength.
Thus, his offensive was once again effortlessly neutralized by Ye Liuyun. Instead of gaining the upper hand, he was forced into a stalemate.
In desperation, the martial practitioner called upon power of space. However, to his dismay, Ye Liuyun’s control and mastery over Spatial Force exceeded his own. Within the void, instead of gaining dominance, he found himself completely suppressed. And now, Ye Liuyun was the one dictating the pace of battle.
At this point, he had already unleashed his full strength, drawing upon every ounce of power within him. Yet even so, he still wasn’t a match for Ye Liuyun. Left with no other option, he took a desperate gamble by launching a Divine Soul attack against Ye Liuyun.
However, the moment his Divine Soul entered Ye Liuyun’s Ocean of Consciousness, it was instantly enveloped in a golden light emanating from the Universal God Token. Before he could react, Ye Liuyun had already branded him with a Slaving Seal.
"Sigh...You should’ve held on a little longer," Ye Liuyun muttered, sounding almost disappointed. The fight had ended too soon for his liking. He hadn’t had enough fun yet.
After subduing the martial practitioner, Ye Liuyun immediately returned to the Xuankong Stone. There, he drew energy from the Multipurpose Cauldron to convert it into advance energy. He first refilled his Storage Stone to the brim, then replenished his virtuoso.
He also swallowed a drop of Vital Waters to begin healing. After all, the battle had left his entire body riddled with wounds.
Just moments earlier, his Storage Stone had nearly been emptied. Against a foe at the Omnipotent Level, he had to infuse advance energy into his virtuoso eight times. Judging from that, if he had wanted to drain his opponent completely, he would’ve likely exhausted all the energy within his Storage Stone.
"Ton Xin, forge me a Storage Stone with a greater capacity!"
He quickly realized that his current Storage Stone might not be sufficient in the future, so he asked Ton Xin to craft a larger one for him.
After instructing the subdued martial practitioner to rest, Ye Liuyun summoned another one from the trio and engaged in battle once more.
Eventually, all three martial practitioners had been branded with the Slaving Seal and kept by his side for future use.
Ye Liuyun discovered through soul searching that the assassination task on the Songstress was orchestrated by a government official under Wan Weihou.
This official named Hong Kun held significant power. He oversaw the appointments of city lords in Wan Weihou’s territory and had influence, making him one of the most formidable figures in the region.
Hong Kun didn’t limit his schemes to the Songstress alone. He also manipulated and threatened other competitors who posed a threat to his son, Hong Feng.
As for Songstress, Hong Kun hadn’t anticipated how troublesome she would be. Initially, he thought he could simply offer a sum of money to Stygian to have her eliminated.
But despite raising the price repeatedly, the Songstress remained unharmed.
Through bribery, Hong Kun learned that the Songstress was scheduled to face his son in the next battle. This forced him to resort to bribing Ye Liuyun.
If that failed, he planned to have Ye Liuyun eliminated.
Confident in his success, Hong Kun sent three Omnipotent Level experts to handle the task, thinking it would be a foolproof plan. He was especially relieved when he learned that Ye Liuyun had left the city.
However, as time passed, he received no reports. The Sound Transmission Talismans from the three martial practitioners were silent.
He realized that the three experts had encountered trouble. Taking advantage of the fact that Ye Liuyun hadn’t returned to the inn yet, he quickly sent three more experts to kill the Songstress.
However, after sending the three experts, he received no further updates. They were once again unreachable.
All three of them had been ambushed by Ye Liuyun’s clone using Divine Soul power.
Ye Liuyun and his clone both used disguises, so they were unaware that the clone was also protecting the Songstress.
As soon as the three arrived, one entered the inn and stood guard downstairs. He was immediately marked with the Slaving Seal by the clone sitting there.
The other two entered the room through the window, one after the other. Soon, they were also branded with the Slaving Seal by the clone, without the need for any Phantom Hand techniques.
When Ye Liuyun returned, he immediately stored the three of them in the Spatial World. That night, he had the clone lead the Stygian members under his control to storm Hong Kun’s residence, specifically targeting the martial practitioners in his household for elimination.
