Chapter 2432: Chapter 2432
After that battle, Ye Liuyun continued to hone his skills in every possible way.
He had no intention of staying trapped in this secret realm forever.
Beyond engaging in fierce combat, absorbing energy, and enhancing his Heavenly and Earthly Power as well as his Profound Origin, he also focused on improving his spatial abilities. Each time he used Spatial Overlay, the immense pressure weighed heavily on him. Yet, he deliberately leveraged the spatial compression of this realm to strengthen his control over space.
His Blade Intent sharpened rapidly through relentless battles.
Flames, the power of Buddha and Demon, and other abilities were constantly wielded and refined.
Though Ye Liuyun and his companions fought daily and frequently encountered martial artists—seizing vast resources in the process—opportunities for undisturbed cultivation were scarce. Danger lurked everywhere in this place.
From the memories he extracted from others’ consciousness, he learned about different regions they had explored, only to realize that nowhere was truly safe.
This was a journey of death, forcing them to grow stronger through ceaseless combat.
Fortunately, Ye Liuyun had a doppelgänger to share the burden. For anyone else, the pressure would have been unbearable.
Eventually, he ventured beyond the dense forest, exploring new territories.
Just as he stepped out of the woods, he unexpectedly encountered three royal descendants from the same batch as him.
"Become our servant, or die!" one of them declared arrogantly, flicking his wrist to release over twenty people from his spatial world. Among them were three soldiers and two members of the Black Killers—all from the same group.
"Did you capture all these people yourselves?" Ye Liuyun asked skeptically, doubting that the three of them alone could have subdued so many.
Especially those two Black Kill assassins—even if they couldn’t defeat them, surely they could outrun them.
"Exactly!"
To his surprise, the group actually agreed.
Ye Liuyun immediately realized they might have powerful guardians nearby or some formidable treasures at their disposal. He took a deep breath. Dealing with these twenty-plus opponents was already a challenge—if more experts joined the fray...
"If we can’t win, then we run!"
With that thought, Ye Liuyun activated his spatial overlap technique again and bolted.
But the moment he moved, the two Black Kill assassins lunged after him. Having been humiliated by their earlier defeat, they were now desperate to prove their worth to their masters by capturing others—a twisted way to restore their pride.
Fortunately, Ye Liuyun’s armor absorbed their attacks, allowing him to escape unscathed.
Pushing himself to the limit, he first put enough distance between them to evade their spiritual sense detection. Then, without hesitation, he summoned his doppelgänger, and together, they unleashed a swift soul attack to eliminate the two assassins. But just as they finished, the rest of the pursuers closed in.
Now with some breathing room, Ye Liuyun steadied himself. He drew the Great Wilderness Bow and fired a relentless barrage of arrows behind him, slowing their advance. Meanwhile, his doppelgänger wielded blade intent to fend off any martial artists who got too close. Fighting as they retreated, the two held their ground.
The three royal heirs trailed at a distance, clearly unwilling to let him go. Several times, they tried to encircle Ye Liuyun and his doppelgänger, but each time, he slipped away using spatial overlap.
"This brat is too slippery!" one of the royals grumbled, growing impatient with the chase.
"Keep going! We *must* catch him!" snapped the leader. "The fact that just two of them held off over twenty speaks volumes about their strength. Capturing him alone would be worth more than all these useless fools combined."
He was Xiao Mulin, the seventeenth prince of the Holy Land Dynasty. Though not particularly formidable himself, he had a keen eye for judging others.
The other two dared not disobey his orders and could only continue pursuing Ye Liuyun alongside him.
Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun and his doppelgänger had already taken down two more martial cultivators with the Great Desolate Bow. Instead of fleeing far, they deliberately maintained a calculated distance, aiming to whittle down their pursuers.
"Perhaps I should send a stronger fighter to capture him? At this rate, our numbers will keep dwindling," a short man beside Xiao Mulin suggested cautiously.
"Hmm, good idea. But to be safe, let’s send two. We don’t want to fall into his trap," Xiao Mulin replied, his tone measured and wary.
"Very well!" The short man immediately summoned two martial cultivators at the second level of the Heavenly Realm from his spatial world.
Ye Liuyun’s golden pupils had been tracking their every move, and he instantly noticed the two new threats.
At first, the pair concealed themselves among the other martial cultivators, inching closer to Ye Liuyun before suddenly striking.
But Ye Liuyun was ready. In a flash, he released Liao Yunyang and four other powerful fighters, cutting off the two attackers and the pursuing group. Then, he and his doppelgänger swiftly branded the duo with slave seals.
With that, Ye Liuyun and his six newly acquired warriors turned the tables, slaughtering seven or eight of the enemy martial cultivators in moments.
Xiao Mulin sensed the danger immediately and halted alongside the two royal disciples beside him.
"That bastard’s soul force is too strong. We need to retreat—now!" Xiao Mulin urged, his voice tense.
"But my two guards..." The short man who had summoned the fighters wore a pained expression, reluctance twisting his features.
"They have six strong fighters now, and we’re down to four. If we keep pushing, we’ll be the ones in danger," Xiao Mulin muttered, hesitation flickering in his eyes.
"We could sneak up on him in the chaos, then suddenly unleash my two bodyguards to catch him off guard!" the taller man suggested eagerly, his eyes gleaming with cunning.
"Good idea. I can also use my defensive treasure to draw the attacks of those two powerhouses," the shorter one chimed in, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
"Fine, go ahead and try it! Retreat immediately if things go south!" Xiao Mulin agreed, though he himself took several cautious steps backward instead of joining the fray, his expression guarded.
Ye Liuyun, however, had been closely monitoring their every move. The instant they made their play, his sharp senses caught it. Without hesitation, he summoned Phantom Hand, Xenocide, the Vespera, the Vermilion Bird, and the Qiong Qi—commanding them to intercept the tall man while coordinating a synchronized soul attack.
The tall warrior carried protective artifacts against spiritual assaults, making Ye Liuyun wary that a single strike might not penetrate his defenses.
Working in perfect unison, Ye Liuyun’s avatars, the Vermilion Bird, and the Qiong Qi shattered the tall cultivator’s mental barriers, branding him with a slave seal before he could even release his two elite guards. In mere moments, the man became Ye Liuyun’s captive without landing a single blow.
But Ye Liuyun had little interest in him. Seizing the opportunity, he swiftly turned his attention to rounding up the others.
With the aid of his six formidable allies, Ye Liuyun subdued six more ordinary cultivators in quick succession.
Meanwhile, the short man had no choice but to activate his defensive treasure, encasing himself in a protective barrier as he endured relentless assaults from Ye Liuyun’s forces.
Xiao Mulin, realizing the tall man had been subdued, wasted no time fleeing the scene. Though Ye Liuyun couldn’t spare the effort to chase him down immediately, he dispatched the Vespera to tail the escapee—planning to deal with him personally once the current skirmish was settled.
