Chapter 2573: Chapter 2573
Qin Peng led his 300,000 elite troops, tearing through the enemy’s defensive line before charging deeper into their ranks, thoroughly disrupting the alien army’s formation.
Once the main forces engaged, his troops gradually withdrew from the frontlines, retreating to the rear of the allied army. These 300,000 soldiers were specialists—tasked only with breaching enemy strongholds and executing critical missions. Large-scale melees were beneath their expertise.
Though the alien forces numbered in the millions, their morale was already crumbling. The devastating strike from Qin Peng’s elite troops left them in disarray, making the rest of the battle far easier for Yu Xiaofeng to manage.
Adding to the chaos, tens of thousands of Flying Swallow units rained down coordinated assaults from above. Despite being outnumbered by two million, the allied forces quickly closed the gap.
The Demon-Sealing Stele and the Devil Vine also wreaked havoc, slaughtering swathes of enemy soldiers. Even when the aliens deployed their dreaded Three-Eyed warriors, neither artifact was deterred—instead, they actively hunted them down, with the Devil Vine eagerly devouring its prey.
Eventually, the two artifacts became so saturated with absorbed energy that they voluntarily returned to Ye Liuyun’s side. The Devil Vine immediately retreated into the spatial realm of his clone to hibernate, while the Demon-Sealing Stele settled silently into his sea of consciousness.
"With all that energy you’ve absorbed, I wonder just how much stronger you’ve become," Ye Liuyun mused. He would’ve liked to ask, but now wasn’t the time for idle chatter.
*I’ll have to ask Dian Qing later about the realms beyond Dominance,* he thought. The battlefield was no place for distractions.
Though the top-tier fighters no longer participated directly, they remained on high alert, ready to intervene if the situation demanded it. Most were now meditating, replenishing their depleted energy reserves.
Only Ye Liuyun was different—he effortlessly restored his mystic energy in an instant using Exchange Stones. With his clone and the reserves stored in Energy Stones, he had no concerns about running dry.
Just then, the alien forces attempted a pincer attack on the allied army’s rear. But Qin Peng’s troops swiftly annihilated both ambush parties before they could inflict any damage.
Meanwhile, the alien forces began a massive retreat. Unable to hold their ground in direct combat, they fragmented into smaller units, desperately trying to prolong their resistance.
Yu Xiaofeng, however, maintained his steady advance, ignoring the fleeing alien squads and instead focusing on encircling their main delaying force, determined to annihilate them first.
Qin Peng swiftly divided his 300,000 troops into three columns, securing the flanks and rear of the main army to prevent any surprise counterattacks from the scattered alien remnants.
By midday, the large-scale battle had nearly concluded. Roughly six million alien soldiers lay dead, their corpses strewn across the battlefield like a grim carpet.
Ye Liuyun’s forces had also suffered heavy losses—over three million troops. Despite the support of tens of thousands of Flying Swallows and the 300,000-strong Death Legion, the sheer weakness of the average soldier had taken its toll.
Casualties were evenly split between the Sacred Land and Tianhong forces—a deliberate balance maintained by Yu Xiaofeng to avoid accusations of favoritism in command.
With the battle winding down, Yu Xiaofeng ordered the cleanup of the battlefield and the establishment of a temporary camp. Meanwhile, Qin Peng led his troops in pursuit of the scattered alien units.
Ye Liuyun, for his part, unleashed Lei Ming, the demonic beasts, and his clones, dividing them into two teams to assist the Death Legion in mopping up the remaining enemies.
His earlier reconnaissance had confirmed that three of the alien Three-Eyed commanders remained hidden, while seven others had already been eliminated. To protect his allies and key officers, Ye Liuyun personally joined the fray.
Qin Peng’s unit, bolstered by two cloaked Three-Eyed aliens, required no additional support.
Under Ye Liuyun and his clone’s leadership, the two Death Legion squads barely saw action, mostly trailing behind to secure the battlefield while Ye Liuyun’s inner circle took the lead.
With their superior cultivation levels, this was the perfect opportunity for them to hone their skills.
As for the spoils, Ye Liuyun split them evenly—half distributed among the soldiers, the other half reserved for the Demon-Sealing Stele and the Demon Vine, hoping to accelerate their breakthroughs.
Meanwhile, Yu Xiaofeng had already enlisted Qiong Qi and other formation masters to set up teleportation arrays, preparing for the army’s withdrawal. Loot from the battlefield was distributed equally among all soldiers, ensuring fairness.
The remaining alien forces could easily be handled by Ye Liuyun’s three hundred thousand troops—there was no need for all the soldiers to stay here.
As for the two thousand martial cultivators at the third level of the Celestial Realm that Dian Qing had brought, only about fourteen hundred remained. Ye Liuyun left the decision to them: those who wished to fight could do so and keep whatever resources they seized. If they preferred to leave, they were free to go.
Dian Qing, however, neither sent these warriors into battle nor allowed them to depart. Instead, he ordered them to train on-site, preparing for the next assault on the alien strongholds.
Once the teleportation arrays were activated, the 1.5 million troops from the Tianhong Dynasty were the first to withdraw. The 3.5 million soldiers from the Sacred Land Dynasty rested a while longer, only pulling out after Ye Liuyun’s Death Legion had wiped out roughly another million aliens. The Swift Swallow battleships followed suit.
Dian Qing kept two thousand Swift Swallows behind as auxiliary forces for future attacks on alien bases.
Ye Liuyun, meanwhile, led his army to eliminate another two million enemy troops before finally ordering a retreat.
"Since you’re all heading into the cosmos to explore anyway, why not start from here?" Ye Liuyun suggested.
The commanders had no objections—to them, one stretch of the void was as good as any other. So the three hundred thousand soldiers split into three groups and set off from this location to continue their cosmic expeditions.
The remaining alien soldiers were left for Ye Liuyun and his forces to hunt down. He also used the battles as an opportunity to refine his own powers.
In the end, they achieved a resounding victory, thoroughly cleansing the stronghold of every last alien. The enemy’s ten-million-strong army and countless elite warriors were once again decimated, dealing them a devastating blow.
Even the three remaining three-eyed aliens couldn’t escape their fate—they too fell under Ye Liuyun’s control. Unfortunately, they were only at the ninth level of the Immortal Realm.
Disappointed by their low cultivation, Ye Liuyun initially planned to feed them directly to the Demon Vine. But then the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon suddenly proposed using one of its heads to experiment with refining the aliens’ third eyes.
The dragon was intrigued by the aliens’ formidable white and black beams and wanted to test their power. Coincidentally, these three-eyed aliens possessed both types of eyes.
With nine heads to spare, the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon could afford to lose a pair of eyes without significantly impacting its overall combat strength. Moreover, the head that spewed fire had eyes naturally resistant to flames, far more durable than ordinary ones.
So Ye Liuyun agreed to let it try. If the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon succeeded in assimilating these alien eyes, its combat prowess would instantly leap to new heights.
