Chapter 2495: Chapter 2495
Xiao Mu’an pondered in silence for a long while before finally making his decision. He took out a communication talisman and contacted Xiao Qiwu.
"I’m going to make a deal with Ye Liuyun," he said. "I’ll set up an anti-flight formation at the trading site. You can send assassins to take him down in one strike."
"Good!" Xiao Qiwu agreed without hesitation.
Afterward, Xiao Mu’an headed straight to the royal palace to report to Xiao Qitian Dynasty Dynasty Dynasty. "Ye Liuyun has reached out to me," he explained. "He wants to sell that massive alien warship. I think we should set up an anti-flight formation at the trading location to prevent his escape and capture him in one move. If the Black Killers try to take advantage of the chaos, we can eliminate them as well. But secrecy is crucial—if word gets out and Ye Liuyun becomes wary, we’ll be the ones in trouble."
Xiao Qitian Dynasty Dynasty Dynasty was pleased with the plan and immediately gave his approval. "If you pull this off, I won’t forget to reward you," he said. "Right now, we’re at a critical juncture in our struggle against the Black Killers. If we can get our hands on Ye Liuyun’s equipment, even Xiao Qiwu’s military strength won’t be a threat! I’ll have Liu Kui personally lead his elite troops to carry out the ambush. You’ll have full authority over the arrangements—coordinate directly with Commander Liu Kui."
"Yes!" Xiao Mu’an replied with satisfaction before taking his leave.
Without delay, he contacted Ye Liuyun again, this time insisting on an in-person transaction under the pretext of inspecting the goods.
When Ye Liuyun heard the demand, the corner of his mouth curled up in amusement. "An in-person deal is too risky for me," he said dismissively. "Pay me a 30% deposit first—thirty divine crystal veins upfront."
"Who pays before seeing the goods?" Xiao Mu’an retorted. "Money and goods exchanged at the same time—that’s fair for everyone!"
"Then I’m not selling," Ye Liuyun said flatly before cutting off communication, leaving Xiao Mu’an with no further response.
After some thought, Xiao Mu’an decided that since the payment would ultimately end up back in their hands anyway, he might as well agree. Using a teleportation array, he sent over the crystals equivalent to thirty divine crystal veins.
A single divine crystal vein contained at least tens of trillions of divine crystals—Ye Liuyun had struck it rich this time. Even if the remaining payment fell through, he wouldn’t be at a loss.
"Xiao Mu’an is really going all out this time. Seems like they’re planning something big," his clone remarked beside him.
"Exactly. We’re about to make a killing!" Ye Liuyun grinned, his eyes gleaming with ambition. "If they don’t care about the threat from the otherworldly races, then we’ll just take all the resources we can first!" He knew it was a trap, but he was willing to take the risk.
Without delay, he and his clone split up, using the Black Tower of Teleportation to shake off the Black Kill assassins tailing them. Their first move was to rendezvous with Yu Xiaofeng and the demon army led by the Tiger King.
While Ye Liuyun took Qiong Qi and the other formation masters to set up preparations near the agreed-upon meeting site, his clone kept watch from the void, monitoring any suspicious movements below.
Mo Sha, their inside informant, had already warned them—Black Kill was making a major move, deploying ten of their deadliest assassins and enforcers. Even Mo Sha himself had been forced to participate. Their goal? To capture Ye Liuyun during the exchange.
Ye Liuyun wasn’t idle either. He had the elite warriors he’d subdued, along with the Blade Corps, all geared up for battle.
Against Black Kill’s top-tier assassins, he had seven formidable fighters—five gifted by Xiao Qiwu and two he’d captured himself. Add in the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon and the Demon Vine, and that made nine.
Backing them up were over seventy slightly less powerful martial artists, more than enough to handle Black Kill’s forces. The rest would be left to the Blade Corps.
And if even they were overwhelmed? He still had a thousand soldiers clad in exo-armor—his hidden trump card. They’d been training in secret, mastering their suits, and now each could unleash the combat prowess of a third-tier Heavenly Realm cultivator.
He doubted Black Kill or the Sacred Dynasty could muster that many elites.
As an extra precaution, he’d dispersed Black Kill members like Hu Zi and Lone Star to nearby cities, keeping an eye out for any unexpected moves.
Meanwhile, Xiao Mu’an had seized the opportunity to recruit a renowned but previously uncooperative formation master, tasking him with crafting a large-scale anti-flight artifact for immediate deployment.
The formation master produced a single Anti-Sky Banner—only to be imprisoned by Xiao Mu’an under the pretense of preventing leaks. Forced into a master-servant contract, he was left with no choice.
Not stopping there, Xiao Mu’an demanded twenty elite martial artists from the Sacred King, again citing secrecy. One by one, they too were bound to him by the same ruthless contracts.
Xiao Mu’an also profited handsomely from this affair, significantly bolstering his own strength.
However, he didn’t just bring twenty men—he also had over twenty elite martial cultivators from his inner circle lie in ambush nearby in advance.
On another front, he sought out Liu Kui. He didn’t dare make a move against Liu Kui himself, so he could only ask him to position his personal fleet beyond the starry skies, readying the Swift Swallow Fleet for immediate deployment.
But when Liu Kui heard they were targeting Ye Liuyun, he had doubts about whether the plan would work. Given Ye Liuyun’s past performance, he didn’t seem like someone who would fall for such a trap so easily.
"Don’t worry," Xiao Mu’an declared with unwavering confidence. "I’ve already set an inescapable net for Ye Liuyun—there’s no way he’ll slip away!"
Meanwhile, the Qiong Qi and other formation masters had finished setting up arrays around their meeting point before swiftly retreating into Ye Liuyun’s spatial world.
These formations weren’t designed for attack, defense, or illusions—they were purely detection arrays, meant to sense if anyone approached. Their purpose was to monitor the movements of any hidden ambushers nearby.
"Someone’s already on the move!" Mo Sha sent word to Ye Liuyun.
"If they’re not coming together, we’ll take them down one by one!" Ye Liuyun immediately contacted his clone. "No need to guard the starry skies anymore. With our 150,000-strong army of demons and half-beasts, we have more than enough to deal with them!"
"Got it! I’ll leave a squad of Hawks here to patrol, then come down to assist you," the clone replied. He stationed a team of Hawks nearby, instructing them to sound the alarm if they spotted anything but not to engage.
Soon after, Ye Liuyun and his clone concealed themselves in the vicinity, lying in wait for the assassins of Black Kill to arrive.
Before long, the pre-set detection arrays triggered. Rushing to the location, Ye Liuyun and his clone were surprised to find that it wasn’t Black Kill’s operatives—but martial cultivators sent by the royal family.
Then, one after another, the arrays across the area picked up movement, revealing that martial cultivators had arrived early to set up ambushes.
After investigating, Ye Liuyun and his clone discovered that the first wave consisted entirely of royal martial cultivators.
"Let’s grab one and test them out!"
Ye Liuyun and his avatar immediately launched a joint attack, imprinting a slave seal on a martial artist through a soul assault.
Through soul-searching, they discovered that Xiao Mu’an had actually sent twenty men.
"These martial artists are all Xiao Mu’an’s people!" Suspicious of Xiao Mu’an’s motives, Ye Liuyun dug deeper into his past actions.
He found that Xiao Mu’an had been playing both sides—exploiting the Black Killers while also manipulating the Sacred King—all to strengthen his own power.
"So that’s it," Ye Liuyun muttered, eyes narrowing. "Xiao Mu’an wants to overthrow the Sacred King and take his place!"
