Chapter 2945: Chapter 2945
"When did I ever say I wouldn’t use auxiliary forces in battle against you? Don’t you have your own reinforcements? If you choose not to use them, neither will I. But if you employ your backup, why shouldn’t I do the same?"
Ye Liuyun had Heiyan relay his words to Shayin and the others.
Upon hearing this, Shayin’s group indeed looked troubled. They had to admit Ye Liuyun had a point. If they fought Heiyan’s team head-on without any reinforcements, the result would be mutual destruction—they’d neither kill nor capture Ye Liuyun.
But if they used their own backup, then Ye Liuyun had every right to do the same. The problem was, the weapon in Ye Liuyun’s hands was far too devastating—a single barrage would obliterate them all.
So they stood there, exchanging uncertain glances, paralyzed by indecision. Fight? They couldn’t. Retreat? They couldn’t do that either.
Finally, Ye Liuyun grew impatient and sent Shayin a direct mental message.
"Here’s a proposal: summon all your reinforcements, let me assess their strength, and then I’ll pick one of your allies—or one of you—to challenge in single combat. If I win, you surrender to me. If you win, I surrender to you. Fair?"
Seeing how slow-witted they were, Ye Liuyun wasted no time setting his trap.
Shayin pondered for a moment before replying, "That sounds reasonable—if you lose, you surrender. But we’re here under orders. We can’t surrender."
It figured that in a direct fight, Ye Liuyun, with his lower cultivation level, stood no chance against them. Still, to guard against the unexpected, Shayin added a caveat: even if one of them lost, the others couldn’t surrender—they had their mission to fulfill.
Ye Liuyun was momentarily speechless. After a pause, he countered, "Then what happens if you lose?"
"Only the one who loses surrenders. That’s fair," Shayin stated bluntly.
Ye Liuyun agreed without hesitation.
His real goal was to gauge the strength of their reinforcements. If he found someone he could handle, he’d take the opportunity to test himself—to push his limits.
Shadowgaze glanced at the large orbs surrounding them and signaled his men to release the wraiths and skeletal puppets they carried.
Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun used his golden pupils to assess the strength of those wraiths and skeletons while instructing Heiyan to confirm whether this was truly their full power.
"Correct, this is all they’ve got," Heiyan replied promptly, familiar with these individuals.
"Is there any chance Wuxing secretly granted them extra strength?" Ye Liuyun pressed further.
Heiyan pondered for a moment and conceded the possibility. If this squad failed, Wuxing might very well have bolstered their abilities.
"Is there any way to ensure they aren’t hiding anything?" Ye Liuyun pressed Heiyan again.
"Ask them directly—make them swear to it!" Heiyan answered earnestly.
"Uh... then you ask," Ye Liuyun replied, inwardly amused by how straightforward these ancient demons were.
Heiyan promptly relayed Ye Liuyun’s question to Shadowgaze, who assured him that no additional power had been concealed.
By then, Ye Liuyun had finished evaluating the wraiths and skeletal puppets carried by the guards. Each wraith and puppet matched the cultivation level of its respective guard—one wraith and one skeleton per person. Only Shadowgaze was an exception, accompanied solely by a Fourth-Level Unity Realm wraith.
The wraiths, meanwhile, were studying Ye Liuyun with astonishment. They could sense the aura of the Netherworld’s ruler emanating from him, yet they hesitated to believe it, given his seemingly low cultivation level.
Shadowgaze and his guards, too, were observing Ye Liuyun closely, oblivious to the wraiths’ peculiar reactions.
"That skeletal puppet," Ye Liuyun declared, pointing at one carried by a guard. "If it loses, its owner surrenders to me."
The guard glanced at Shadowgaze, who nodded in approval. In his mind, Ye Liuyun—a mere Eighth-Level Dominator—stood no chance against a Third-Level Unity Realm puppet. Defeat was inevitable.
So the guard agreed and commanded the skeletal puppet to attack Ye Liuyun.
Ye Liuyun opened the barrier of his formation, allowing the puppet to enter. Then, he reactivated the formation to prevent Sha Ying and the others from ambushing him.
Without hesitation, the skeletal puppet immediately struck at Ye Liuyun.
Ye Liuyun instantly channeled all his Heaven and Earth energy and the power of Buddhist light into a palm strike, blasting it straight at the puppet’s chest.
These puppets were forged from the bones of ancient demons, so they were steeped in demonic energy. The power of Buddhist light was particularly effective against them.
The skeletal puppet countered with a palm strike of its own, meeting Ye Liuyun’s attack head-on.
With a resounding *boom*, both the puppet and Ye Liuyun were forced backward, yet neither appeared injured. However, the puppet’s arm was now coated in a layer of golden light, dispersing all the demonic energy from that limb.
But the skeletal puppet could automatically consume demon crystals to dissolve the Buddhist light’s power before replenishing its demonic energy.
This shocked Sha Ying and the guards—even Hei Yan and the others had no idea Ye Liuyun’s strength could rival that of a Third-Level Unity Realm expert. They had assumed he was merely a soul cultivator, relying solely on his powerful divine soul to control them.
Yet what happened next left them even more stunned.
As soon as Ye Liuyun steadied himself, he launched another palm strike, once again infused with Heaven and Earth energy and Buddhist light. The guards didn’t notice, but he had switched hands.
The previous exchange had actually cracked one of his arm bones, but his high pain tolerance kept him from showing any discomfort. He was already working to heal it as quickly as possible.
Ye Liuyun opted for long-range attacks—close combat put him at a disadvantage since the puppet’s raw strength surpassed his. Playing to his strengths, he focused on depleting the puppet’s energy with Buddhist light.
The skeletal puppet retaliated with a punch, sending a surge of demonic energy toward Ye Liuyun’s golden light. But suddenly, the Buddhist light vanished—only to reappear right before the puppet, slamming into its body.
*Boom!* The golden light struck the puppet, dispersing another large portion of its demonic energy.
Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun endured the puppet’s punch head-on. Though the impact made his bones creak ominously, he absorbed the demonic energy from the blow, converting it into Buddhist light before launching another attack.
By then, the cracks in his other arm had healed, allowing him to unleash yet another palm strike of Buddhist light. This time, he infused it with spatial power, making it arrive first despite being launched later. Just as the puppet’s demonic energy recovered, another *boom* scattered it once more.
The skeletal puppet was indeed formidable, but lacking spatial abilities, it couldn’t evade Ye Liuyun’s attacks. Every strike of Buddhist light drained its energy significantly—dissipating the golden light required twice the usual expenditure.
