Chapter 2755: Chapter 2755
The battle had been grueling for Ye Liuyun, with both sides locked in a stalemate.
Even with the Vermilion Bird, the Demon Vine, and the Demon-Sealing Stele joining the fray, nearly half of his elite martial warriors had fallen by the time the fighting ceased.
As soon as the clash ended, the surviving warriors immediately began replenishing their depleted energy, while the soldiers at the third level of the Dominator Realm were tasked with scouring the battlefield. The Demon Vine and the Demon-Sealing Stele had already drained the corpses dry, leaving the soldiers to scavenge only armor, weapons, and storage rings.
"Impressive, truly impressive!" Liu Zhong clapped his hands and laughed heartily, praising Ye Liuyun. "No wonder you’ve achieved so many great victories—your army’s strength is remarkable. Just how much did you pay for that Vermilion Bird of yours?"
His tone shifted abruptly as he steered the conversation toward the mythical beast.
"You flatter me, Elder," Ye Liuyun replied calmly. "This Vermilion Bird was raised by me since its infancy. It’s like a brother to me—not something bought with coin."
"Oh? So I take it you wouldn’t be willing to sell it, then?" Liu Zhong pressed further.
"Of course not," Ye Liuyun answered firmly.
"Ah, what a shame," Liu Zhong sighed, though his true intentions remained unclear.
A flicker of wariness crossed Ye Liuyun’s mind. *Is this man plotting something?*
Without lingering, he recalled the Vermilion Bird, re-established slave seals on the three Dominator Seventh-Realm warriors it had subdued, and stored them away in his spatial realm. The Demon Vine and the Demon-Sealing Stele followed suit. Then, he settled among his soldiers to meditate and recover.
"Commander Ye, now’s not the time for rest!" Liu Zhong’s voice suddenly cut through the quiet.
"Hm?" Ye Liuyun immediately halted his cultivation and approached. "Do you have further instructions, Elder?"
"The alien tribes haven’t been wiped out yet—we must press forward! If they rebuild their sacrificial altars, who’s going to take responsibility for that?" Liu Zhong sneered, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Understood! I’ll have the troops advance immediately!"
Ye Liuyun promptly assembled the soldiers who hadn’t participated in the previous battle—those at the third level of Dominator realm—and prepared to move out.
"They’re not strong enough!" Liu Zhong scoffed, clearly dissatisfied. "We need your elite soldiers to handle this!"
"Senior, those soldiers just finished a battle and need time to recover their true essence. If they’re thrown back into combat now, they’ll be weaker than these third-level Dominator soldiers."
By now, Ye Liuyun had realized Liu Zhong was deliberately provoking him. Though he didn’t understand why, he still tried to explain, unwilling to let his men suffer for it.
"I’ll lead the vanguard and give Commander Ye’s troops time to recover!" Han Qiao, unable to stand by any longer, stepped forward and took charge.
"You?" Liu Zhong’s eyes flickered before he nodded with a smirk. "Fine. If you’re volunteering, go ahead."
Without another thought, Han Qiao rallied his forces and advanced toward the alien encampment.
Liu Zhong followed behind, chuckling to himself.
Meng Wenxiang and Ye Liuyun exchanged glances, communicating silently through spiritual transmission.
"Han Qiao’s about to walk into trouble," Meng Wenxiang warned.
"Most likely," Ye Liuyun agreed. "Once the alien elites engage, he’ll be in serious danger. My unit’s combat strength is depleted—I won’t be able to assist him."
"I’ll do what I can," Meng Wenxiang sighed. "This is exactly why so many refuse to serve the Empire."
Ye Liuyun didn’t indulge in complaints. Instead, he focused on replenishing his profound energy. His energy-storing stone still held reserves—he had barely tapped into it earlier. But he had no intention of stepping in as Liu Zhong’s shield again.
If Han Qiao found himself overwhelmed, Ye Liuyun could still deploy the Demon Vine and the Demon-Sealing Stele to aid him. But the Vermilion Bird? That, he wouldn’t summon again. Let Liu Zhong deal with those powerful foes himself!
The alien race was currently preoccupied with fending off full-scale assaults on several major battlefronts, having deployed a significant number of troops and elite warriors to the front lines. Their remaining forces were indeed sparse, though they could still muster two to three hundred thousand soldiers.
Han Qiao found the alien defenses no easy challenge. After painstakingly breaching a gap in their lines, his forces were immediately repelled by a counterattack from the alien elites. Yet Liu Zhong remained on the sidelines, watching idly without lifting a finger.
Meng Wenxiang also led a detachment to assist, but they suffered heavy casualties against the alien warriors.
"Han Qiao, fall back!" Meng Wenxiang called out.
Reluctantly, Han Qiao withdrew his troops from the hard-won opening in the enemy defenses.
"Why the retreat?" Liu Zhong asked, his tone almost mocking.
Han Qiao snorted in frustration. "We can’t break through. The losses are too high!"
"Too high? On the main front, battles routinely claim hundreds of thousands of lives. You lose a mere thousand or so, and suddenly it’s ’too high’?" Whether Liu Zhong meant to provoke or was simply stating facts, his words grated on everyone’s nerves.
Ignoring him, Meng Wenxiang and Han Qiao pulled their forces back, shifting to a defensive stance.
"Tch. If your armies are so useless, I suppose we’ll just have to wait for Commander Ye to save the day," Liu Zhong sighed theatrically, showing no urgency whatsoever. His demeanor suggested he wasn’t the least bit concerned about the aliens rebuilding their altar—if anything, he seemed content to let Ye Liuyun spearhead the assault.
Ye Liuyun nearly choked on his own rage at the remark.
Through covert channels, he ordered his troops, "Keep training. Let’s hold off for a few more days. As for Liu Zhong—whether he fights or not is his own damn problem."
But Liu Zhong wasn’t done stirring the pot. He promptly contacted Liu Haotian, complaining that Han Qiao and Meng Wenxiang’s forces had failed to advance while Ye Liuyun’s troops were "resting," and demanded a solution.
Liu Haotian immediately reached out to all three commanders via messenger talisman for updates.
Ye Liuyun ignored the message entirely. Han Qiao, unsure how to respond, stayed silent as well. Left with no choice, Meng Wenxiang relayed the full account to Liu Haotian in weary detail.
"That powerhouse is the grand elder of the Star Disk Empire. Naturally, he wouldn’t care much about ordinary soldiers. This battle is crucial—even if you lose all your troops, you must fully support him. At worst, I’ll replenish your forces afterward," ordered Liu Haotian.
"What about Commander Ye’s elite soldiers?" Meng Wenxiang asked on Ye Liuyun’s behalf.
"Same goes for them. Give them half an hour to recover, then send them straight into battle!" Liu Haotian replied.
"Yes, sir!" Meng Wenxiang responded reluctantly before relaying the orders to Ye Liuyun and Han Qiao.
"They won’t stop until we’re all dead!" Han Qiao sighed in frustration.
Ye Liuyun remained silent, deep in thought, strategizing how to preserve as many soldiers as possible.
"This is the fate of us commanders! Don’t do anything reckless now," Meng Wenxiang cautioned, noticing the grim determination on Ye Liuyun’s face and fearing he might act rashly in anger.
But Ye Liuyun slowly shook his head and said calmly, "If he wants us to fight, then we fight. Full assault. I’ll take the center—you two flank the sides. We’ll carve straight through the enemy ranks and see if he lifts a finger then."
