Chapter 2433: Chapter 2433
Ye Liuyun was now fully aware of Xiao Mulin’s identity.
But what did it matter if he was royalty? On this journey of death, even nobles were slaughtered like commoners—no exceptions.
With a cold command, Ye Liuyun ordered the tall man to release the two elite guards he held captive. He forced them to submit to slave seals and surrender all the resources stored in their spatial rings.
Now, with eight second-level Heavenly Realm experts under his control, Ye Liuyun could handle any danger with ease.
The short man, overwhelmed by the relentless assault, saw his defensive treasures shatter before he was blasted into oblivion. His spatial ring, of course, ended up in Ye Liuyun’s possession.
The other captives met the same fate—stripped of their valuables, left with only a handful of white spirit crystals to barely sustain their combat strength.
Once the battlefield was cleared, Ye Liuyun stashed the eight experts, along with Zhuque and Qiong Qi, into his spatial world. He kept only seven ordinary prisoners with him as he pursued Xiao Mulin.
A smaller group meant less attention. If they appeared too formidable, their prey might flee at the mere sight of them.
As for these seven? They were nothing but expendable pawns. If they all died, he wouldn’t lose sleep over it.
Xiao Mulin was no fool either. He constantly altered his route, but with Xuanwu silently tracking him, Ye Liuyun’s group never lost the trail.
The real challenge was the hordes of savage beasts blocking their path. The chaotic energy from their battles inevitably alerted Xiao Mulin, driving him to desperately shake off his pursuers.
When they reached the edge of a sinister, miasma-cloaked wasteland, Xiao Mulin gritted his teeth and plunged inside.
Following Ye Liuyun’s orders, Xuanwu halted outside, refusing to recklessly charge in.
Once Ye Liuyun arrived with his group, he recalled Xuanwu into his spatial world and led the others into the foreboding terrain.
The land was barren, the trees skeletal, everything shrouded in an eerie blackness. As Ye Liuyun extended his divine sense, he realized with a chill—this place teemed with demonic beasts.
The moment he stepped into this area, Ye Liuyun sensed the ripples of battle not far away.
"Looks like Xiao Mulin has already engaged the demonic beasts here!"
Without hesitation, Ye Liuyun led his group toward the source of the commotion.
A pack of demonic wolves—over thirty in number—swiftly closed in, encircling them. The captives he had taken earlier tensed up immediately.
Ye Liuyun decided to test the Nine Nether Prelude with his divine soul, and to his surprise, the melody still held its power here.
The alpha wolf soon bowed its head in submission, and the rest of the pack followed suit.
"Perfect. Now we even have mounts!"
Mounting the demonic wolves, they raced after Xiao Mulin at breakneck speed.
With the wolf pack leading the way, other demonic beasts cleared a path. Ye Liuyun continued to wield the Nine Nether Prelude, steadily expanding his army of tamed beasts.
By the time his divine sense detected Xiao Mulin and his two elite martial warriors locked in a desperate struggle against a few savage Earthbreaker Bears, Ye Liuyun had already amassed a full-fledged beast army—encircling them completely.
The two guards beside Xiao Mulin, having barely managed to slay the Earthbreaker Bears, froze in shock.
"Your Highness, we’re surrounded by demonic beasts!" one guard urgently warned.
"This level of coordination... There must be a Beast King orchestrating this," the other analyzed grimly.
Xiao Mulin clenched his fists, regret flashing across his face. "Then what do we do? Fight our way out?"
He hadn’t anticipated a Beast King capable of rallying the beasts into such an organized assault—far beyond what any second-level martial warrior should face in a trial.
"We’ll do our best to protect His Highness and break through!" The two guards had no better options left—they could only promise to try their hardest.
Ye Liuyun observed them from a distance of about two miles away, completely undetected. He gave a firm pat to the Wolf King beneath him.
"Awooo!"
The Wolf King let out a piercing howl, and instantly, the surrounding magical beasts launched their assault.
"The Wolf King is over there!" The two guards of Xiao Mulin quickly pinpointed the source of the howl.
"We’ll take down the Wolf King. Your Highness, hold your ground with your defensive artifacts for now. Once the Wolf King falls, these beasts will scatter!" With that, the two guards charged straight toward Ye Liuyun’s position.
Meanwhile, Xiao Mulin activated a shimmering protective barrier around himself, shielding against the relentless attacks of the beasts.
"Awooo! Awooo!"
The Wolf King howled again, and this time, the creatures that had been targeting the guards immediately shifted their focus, swarming toward Xiao Mulin instead.
It was then that the two guards spotted Ye Liuyun, mounted atop the massive Wolf King.
"I’ll handle that cultivator—you deal with the Wolf King!" One guard barked to the other before lunging forward.
But Ye Liuyun struck first, launching a soul attack that branded the man with a slave seal. The other guard was quickly overwhelmed by the wolf pack and met the same fate.
With both guards subdued, Ye Liuyun began sifting through their memories, uncovering the extent of Xiao Mulin’s strength.
Only then did he learn that, aside from numerous defensive treasures, Xiao Mulin also possessed ten metal puppets—each as formidable as these two guards.
Not only that, but he also possessed a treasure—a hollow Metal Puppet that could envelop Xiao Mulin, instantly elevating his combat prowess to the level of his elite guards.
These were Xiao Mulin’s trump cards, reserved for only the most desperate situations.
After learning this, Ye Liuyun immediately patted his demonic wolf, signaling all the magical beasts to cease their attacks and scatter. Meanwhile, he transformed into the likeness of one of the guards and summoned his doppelgänger, the Vermilion Bird, and the Qiong Qi. The three of them donned cloaks of invisibility and stealthily approached Xiao Mulin.
The guards’ consciousnesses were bound by soul contracts—not with Xiao Mulin, but with the Sacred Dynasty—so he remained unaware that his men had already fallen under Ye Liuyun’s control.
Seeing the beasts retreat and a guard returning, Xiao Mulin assumed the Beast King had been slain.
"Your Highness, the Beast King has been eliminated!" Ye Liuyun, disguised as the guard, reported.
"Excellent!" Xiao Mulin, unsuspecting, immediately dispelled the protective barrier.
Yet, sensing a faint disturbance in the air, he glanced toward the Vermilion Bird’s direction. Unaccustomed to the invisibility cloak, the divine beast had left a trace of its presence.
"Attack!"
Ye Liuyun’s mental command rang out, and the four of them launched a synchronized soul assault on Xiao Mulin.
Xiao Mulin’s soul-defense artifact proved formidable—even their combined strike failed to breach it in one go. In desperation, he unleashed all ten of his metal golems.
Without hesitation, Ye Liuyun released the ten captured experts he had subdued earlier, temporarily holding the golems at bay. Meanwhile, he, the Qiong Qi, and the others intensified their efforts, swiftly planting a slave seal on Xiao Mulin.
The moment the seal took hold, Xiao Mulin obeyed Ye Liuyun’s will, halting the golems and surrendering them.
Ye Liuyun promptly handed the constructs over to Tong Xin and the Qiong Qi for study. If they could mass-produce such golems, their chances against the alien invaders would grow significantly stronger.
