Chapter 2447: Chapter 2447
Ye Liuyun took out some resources as rewards for Ling Hai and then entrusted the other martial cultivators under his leadership. "You’re quick-witted. From now on, you’ll be in charge of them."
"Thank you for your guidance, Master!" Ling Hai responded immediately, relieved to have narrowly escaped danger once again.
At the same time, he was still shaken by the sudden appearance of the hunting eagle, silently speculating about Ye Liuyun’s true identity.
Ye Liuyun paid no attention to his thoughts. Instead, he summoned Ye Tiandao and the sixty-plus members of the Vanguard Corps, assigning them to Ling Hai and the others for protection.
After this battle, he had come to appreciate the efficiency of the Vanguard Corps. They obeyed his commands without question, sparing him the need for lengthy explanations.
However, the Vanguard Corps didn’t need to follow him closely. He would forge ahead on his own while they trailed behind at their own pace, steadily improving as they went.
Ye Tiandao’s spatial world had also expanded significantly through cultivation. Ye Liuyun instructed her to keep the Vanguard Corps within it, allowing her to rotate them out for training as she saw fit.
And so, Ye Liuyun’s journey through the land of death continued.
One day, he spotted a martial cultivator in the distance, but the man quickly veered away upon noticing him.
Such encounters were common in this perilous realm. Unless someone attacked him first, Ye Liuyun had no intention of initiating conflict.
Yet before long, he suddenly heard a woman’s desperate cry for help.
Acting swiftly, Ye Liuyun followed the sound. His divine sense soon detected a man in the distance, assaulting a woman with malicious intent.
The man let out a cruel laugh as he tore at the woman’s clothing, already having ripped half of it away.
The woman, seemingly deprived of her true essence, struggled fiercely but was powerless against his brute strength.
With a sharp *rip*, the man tore the last of her garments to shreds.
Ye Liuyun had no intention of meddling in others’ affairs, but now that he’d stumbled upon this scene, he couldn’t just walk away.
"Stop right there!" he shouted, dashing forward without hesitation.
The man froze mid-action. When he spotted Ye Liuyun, he hesitated briefly—likely assessing that he was no match—before turning to flee.
But Ye Liuyun wasn’t about to let a scoundrel like him escape. In one swift motion, he drew his Great Wilderness Bow and loosed arrow after arrow in rapid succession.
The martial artist clearly hadn’t expected such a relentless assault. Panicking, he spun around, slashing wildly with his blade to deflect the shots. He managed to block the first arrow and narrowly dodged the second, but the third struck true.
His protective armor absorbed the impact of that one, but Ye Liuyun’s onslaught didn’t relent—the fourth and fifth arrows followed in quick succession.
Three arrows ultimately found their mark, blasting through the man’s body with such force that the next two sailed clean through the gaping wounds.
"Aah!" The woman screamed in horror, her hands trembling as she clutched the tattered remains of her clothing to her chest.
By then, Ye Liuyun had reached her side. She stared up at him, eyes wide with fear and brimming with tears, hastily trying to cover herself.
Turning away to give her privacy, Ye Liuyun strode over to the fallen man and retrieved his Interspatial Ring.
The woman hurriedly dressed herself before bowing deeply. "Thank you, savior! I owe you my life."
"Just passing by," Ye Liuyun replied with a dismissive wave. A small act of kindness hardly warranted gratitude.
"My name is Tang Qian," she said, wiping her tears. "May I ask yours? And... could you help me unseal my suppressed true energy?"
"Liuyun," he answered simply.
Ye Liuyun casually gave his assassin alias, withholding his real name. He had no intention of getting entangled with this Tang Qian.
He stepped forward to undo her seals, but she shrank back nervously, still shaken from the earlier fright.
"Don’t be afraid. I’m just releasing the seals," Ye Liuyun reassured her gently.
"Mmm," Tang Qian murmured in response, turning her face away as if too timid to meet his gaze.
Frankly, Ye Liuyun preferred it this way—less awkward for both. He placed a hand on her shoulder, channeling his Xuan Yuan energy into her body.
But the moment his fingers made contact, Tang Qian gasped and collapsed against his chest. At the same time, he realized with a jolt—her true energy wasn’t sealed at all.
Before he could process the betrayal, a sharp blade plunged straight toward his heart.
"Quick! Use the Time Halo’s rewind function!" The Book Demon’s urgent voice roared in his mind.
Instinct took over. Ye Liuyun activated the Time Halo, reversing time by five breaths—just enough to return to the instant his hand touched Tang Qian’s shoulder.
This time, his golden pupils caught the glint of a hidden dagger in her sleeve. The trap was undeniable.
Without hesitation, he launched a soul attack, branding her with a slave seal and rifling through her memories to confirm her motives.
The truth unfolded: the man he’d seen earlier, the one he’d just killed, and this very Tang Qian were all accomplices. Their scheme was routine—lure, deceive, and murder for treasure.
As for Tang Qian? She was a woman of loose morals, entangled with both men, which explained why she hadn’t cared about being seen undressed by strangers.
This method made their schemes even more covert, allowing them to succeed almost every time.
If they encountered a lecherous man, she would strike him down the moment he tried to take advantage of her. If the target was a gentleman, she would kill him under the pretense of helping him unseal his true essence.
"Now that’s truly impossible to guard against!" Ye Liuyun couldn’t help but sigh.
"No wonder Wuhen warned me not to trust anyone here! Meeting Sharman made me lower my guard around others!" he thought to himself, resolving to be more cautious from now on.
"Master, I only did it out of desperation—please don’t blame me! From now on, I’ll serve you faithfully!" Tang Qian’s voice snapped him back to reality.
Her syrupy, ingratiating tone made Ye Liuyun’s skin crawl.
"Call your other accomplice here. Tell them you’ve already subdued me."
Ignoring her, he ordered her to summon the other partner in crime.
Without hesitation, Tang Qian took out a communication talisman and sent a message, instructing her accomplice to meet them and informing him that Ye Liuyun had been captured.
"Why didn’t you say you killed him?" the man demanded as soon as he arrived.
"Idiot! With Old Yao dead, we need someone else to play along. How else are we going to keep up the act?" Tang Qian replied smoothly.
The man didn’t press further and immediately barked at Ye Liuyun, "Throw me your Interspatial Ring!"
As soon as the man stepped close enough, Ye Liuyun unleashed a soul attack, devouring his spirit before doing the same to Tang Qian.
He opted for a soul strike to ensure neither of them had a chance to escape.
Still seething, he summoned a burst of Golden Crow Holy Fire, reducing their corpses to ashes.
"At least you won’t taint this world any longer."
His fury stemmed mostly from the fact that they had forced him to waste one use of his Time Halo.
Earlier, when he activated it, he had already noticed—the halo’s radiant white light wasn’t as dazzling as before.
"Thank you! You just saved my life!" Ye Liuyun quickly expressed his gratitude to the Book Demon.
