Chapter 2417: Chapter 2417
After Ye Liuyun and Qiong Qi finished cleaning out the place, they finally retreated from the grand hall.
"Aren’t we taking this hall with us?" Qiong Qi glanced back at the towering structure, his mind already calculating possibilities.
"If we try to move this hall, the whole place might collapse. Let’s not push our luck—we’ve already made quite the haul," Ye Liuyun replied, his tone pragmatic. He wasn’t one to get greedy. Without hesitation, he ordered the soldiers to charge across the bridge and clear the area.
The treasures they had secured here were nothing short of extraordinary. Not a single piece was ordinary—even the divine crystals were of the highest purity, refined into spiritual marrow. The weapons, artifacts, and elixirs were all transcendent-grade, while the herbs and ores were rare beyond measure. These resources alone had made the expedition more than worthwhile. There was no need to risk it all for one last grand hall.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the bridge, the soldiers were being slaughtered by the monstrous creatures. Feiyan was doing her best to assist, bombarding the beasts with relentless attacks, but more and more kept pouring out, relentless and ravenous.
"Fine! Let’s leave the Sacred Dynasty a little memento," Qiong Qi grumbled, reluctantly abandoning the hall and following Ye Liuyun.
Once the soldiers fought their way through, they quickly cleared a path for Ye Liuyun and Qiong Qi.
"Those black stones paving the ground—they’re refining-grade ore too," Qiong Qi pointed out, still unwilling to let anything go to waste.
"Move it! If we stop to dig up rocks now, how many men do you think we’d lose?" Ye Liuyun shot back without even turning his head, striding forward decisively.
"Wasteful brat," Qiong Qi muttered under his breath, but he had no choice except to follow.
Soon after, Ye Liuyun recalled the soldiers and Feiyan back into his spatial realm, then retreated into the forest with Qiong Qi.
Left without targets, the frenzied beasts turned on the corpses littering the ground, tearing into them indiscriminately—whether their own kind or not—stuffing their maws with whatever flesh they could find.
Qiong Qi took the lead once more, guiding the way until they soon reunited with Ye Liuyun’s clone.
Ye Liuyun immediately took out the teleportation black tower and returned directly to Zhiyang Royal City, bypassing the original route.
Who knew how many sea eagles still lurked in that mist above? There was no point in risking it.
Back in the spatial world, Qiong Qi couldn’t stop grinning as he surveyed the piles of treasures. The haul this time was enough to sustain everyone in Ye Liuyun’s spatial world for years. Without hesitation, Qiong Qi picked out a selection for himself and retreated into the Profound Void Stone to cultivate. The women, too, wasted no time in choosing resources suited to their needs before heading off to train.
Lin Luoyi, Tong Xin, and the others busied themselves examining the various elixirs, weapons, and artifacts they had acquired. Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun returned to Black Kill to regroup with Youming and the rest.
"You’re done already? I heard the Sacred Dynasty sent a whole army into the secret realm," Youming said as they quickly gathered around him.
"Yeah, it’s handled. I took the secret realm’s core energy, and those soldiers... well, they didn’t make it out," Ye Liuyun replied vaguely, glossing over the details. He simply distributed the medicinal herbs, feral beast, and divine crystals he had collected inside the realm among the group.
The others didn’t take too much—after all, Ye Liuyun had risked his life for these resources, and they hadn’t contributed much to the effort.
Afterward, the group accompanied Ye Liuyun to the mission counter to record his points.
"Eight hundred?" Ye Liuyun was stunned. He hadn’t expected a single mission to yield so many.
"It was a special mission—worth two thousand points," Youming explained. "Originally, it would’ve been four hundred each, but we all agreed you did most of the heavy lifting. So, we each transferred a hundred to you, keeping three hundred for ourselves."
"That’s not right!" Ye Liuyun protested. "We’re a team—we completed the mission together. I can’t take more than my share!" He insisted on returning the extra points.
But Youming shook his head. "You shared plenty of resources with us. This is fair. We all know what we owe each other. You contributed more, so you deserve more. If you refuse, we’ll feel too awkward to team up with you again!"
Tianyan chimed in, "Exactly! You not only contributed the most but also saved our lives! If you don’t take a bigger share of the points, how could we ever face you again?"
Kuangsha gave Ye Liuyun a hearty pat on the shoulder. "If you’re feeling bad about it, just treat us to a barbecue feast—let us indulge a little, and we’ll call it even!"
Seeing their sincerity, Ye Liuyun finally relented. "Alright, if you all insist, I won’t hold back then! Barbecue it is—and drinks are on me too!"
Laughing, the group pulled Ye Liuyun along as they headed back to their quarters to celebrate.
This time, they had not only completed a special mission flawlessly but had all returned unscathed—a feat that left every trainee in the Black Kill organization stunned. It was indeed cause for celebration.
Special missions were notoriously difficult, with high casualty rates being the norm.
After their raucous celebration, they wasted no time in taking on new assignments. Two more successful missions followed, each executed without a single loss, sending shockwaves through the ranks of Black Kill.
Meanwhile, the Sacred Dynasty remained oblivious to the theft of their treasure vault—all because Ye Liuyun had left the grand hall untouched.
Just as he had suspected, removing the hall would have triggered the collapse of the surrounding stone bridges, instantly alerting the Sacred Dynasty through their defensive formations. His restraint had kept their heist undetected.
Though the haul was substantial, Ye Liuyun knew the Sacred Dynasty’s wealth extended far beyond what they had taken.
In subsequent missions, he made a point of capturing powerful martial artists, hoping for new leads—but nothing surfaced.
Then, one day, while browsing available assignments, a particular mission caught his eye: the assassination of a renowned Sacred Dynasty formation master named Wei Yan, who was tasked with setting up defensive arrays on a remote island in the starry void.
It struck him—if the treasure vault had been protected by formations, perhaps the key to uncovering more lay with the formation masters themselves.
Following Ye Liuyun’s suggestion, the team accepted the mission to eliminate Wei Yan.
It turned out that ever since learning about the disappearance of Wang Island and Outpost Island, the Sacred Dynasty had begun reorganizing its defensive island network.
Their powerful cultivators had directly relocated a massive island, positioning it three months’ travel from the Sacred Dynasty. This time, the dynasty intended to station its own elite troops there for defense.
Wei Yan had been dispatched to set up defensive formations for the military base on the island. Departing from the Sacred Dynasty with a sizable escort, he was too well-protected for Ye Liuyun and his group to strike immediately. They had no choice but to follow him to the new island and wait for an opportunity.
Before setting out, Ye Liuyun had already sent his doppelganger ahead to scout. With Feiyan’s incredible speed, they would undoubtedly arrive before Wei Yan.
The doppelganger quickly located the newly established island. It was already garrisoned with two hundred thousand troops, guarded by several powerful experts, and populated by a considerable number of civilians. The island had been renamed "Satellite Island."
Upon arrival, the doppelganger disguised himself as a soldier and infiltrated the local garrison, careful not to draw attention. He had sensed an overwhelming presence among the troops—likely an exceptionally formidable martial cultivator.
