Chapter 2985: Chapter 2985
This time, the powerful cultivator’s energy palm had barely begun to form before it gradually dissipated.
Taking advantage of the moment the expert launched his attack, the doppelganger shot a beam of white light at him, killing him instantly.
The expert had assumed Ye Liuyun had already withdrawn his doppelganger—never imagining someone of this cultivation level would dare ambush him. Moreover, his attention had been entirely focused on Ye Liuyun and the others, particularly those three who had fired the white beams.
His plan had been to incapacitate them, extract their memories to uncover the origin of those strange eyes, and then refine the eyes for himself to gain that same power.
In this region, he had long been an invincible existence—no one had ever dared challenge him. Within his territory, no martial cultivator could surpass him, so the thought of being ambushed had never even crossed his mind.
Thus, when the doppelganger’s white light shot toward him, he didn’t even attempt to evade it. In truth, there was still some distance between them—had he been more vigilant, he might have dodged the first strike.
Even the doppelganger was surprised he hadn’t dodged. It had already prepared follow-up attacks, but none were needed. It simply flew over, retrieved the expert’s corpse, and brought it back.
The group examined the body and confirmed—this truly was a sixth-level Harmonization Realm expert. They couldn’t help but marvel.
"Who would’ve thought that just a few minor realm differences could create such a massive gap in strength!"
Ye Liuyun nodded grimly. "Indeed. The sheer weight of heaven and earth’s momentum in that single palm was overwhelming. And the amount of energy he wielded was dozens of times greater than even the Dragon Girl’s. It seems a sixth-level Harmonization expert isn’t someone we can defeat just by sheer numbers."
As they were still absorbing this realization, Ye Liuyun’s expression suddenly darkened. He swiftly stored the expert’s corpse away.
"What’s wrong?" Tang Xinyao asked urgently.
"Prepare for battle—another group is rushing toward us!" Ye Liuyun’s divine sense had already detected a large number of martial cultivators charging in their direction.
Clearly, they had witnessed the group’s earlier struggle against the expert and were now swooping in to take advantage of their weakened state.
"So many? This can’t be just one team, can it?"
Before long, Tang Xinyao also spotted over sixty martial cultivators—among them, three at the peak of the fourth-level Unity Realm.
"Looks like three smaller groups merged into one," Ye Liuyun observed with a nod. He reassured the others that he would handle the strongest opponents himself, so they needn’t worry.
"Kill!"
The moment the bandits charged, Ye Liuyun wasted no time and led the counterattack.
First, he wielded his temporal power, freezing the flow of time. Then, with his soul force, he devoured the souls of the three Unity Realm experts one by one. Next, he absorbed the souls of several third-level Unity Realm fighters and placed slave seals on others. He repeated the process with over a dozen second-level Unity Realm warriors, amassing a disposable force of thirty before finally releasing his temporal hold.
As time resumed, the enemy cultivators froze in shock—many of their comrades had vanished, especially the strongest among them. Their corpses had already been stashed away in Ye Liuyun’s spatial realm, fed to the demonic vines.
In that split second of confusion, the beasts and Tang Xinyao’s group struck, instantly cutting down several more fighters.
Ye Liuyun drew his Demon-Slaying Blade and joined the fray. Each swing of his blade claimed another life.
Though the enemy outnumbered them, they were completely overwhelmed. The Dragon Maiden didn’t even need to reveal her true form—her cultivation was the highest, and a single punch from her could obliterate a cultivator.
Even the Purple Kirin, alarmed by the sheer number of attackers and fearing injury, activated his own temporal power, slaughtering the warriors rushing toward him in an instant.
The others fought with wild abandon, but by the battle’s end, their energy reserves were nearly depleted.
Ye Liuyun checked in with each of them. Aside from the Purple Kirin, the Demon Lion, the Vermilion Bird, and other beasts that hadn’t engaged directly, the rest had barely enough energy left for one or two more fights at most.
"Let’s go. We’ve captured enough. Time to head back."
Ye Liuyun had captured enough prisoners, and the others’ true essence was nearly depleted—there was no need for them to stay and fight any longer.
But to their surprise, they hadn’t gone far before encountering another group of bandits lying in ambush. These men shared the same assumption—that their true essence must be exhausted—and sought to take advantage of their weakened state.
This served as a warning to Ye Liuyun: in the future, whenever he left or returned to the city, he would have to conserve enough combat strength.
*"Since they dare to come, we dare to kill!"*
Without hesitation, Ye Liuyun led the group into battle once more.
As always, he employed his mastery over time to eliminate their strongest fighters first, preventing them from striking at his allies.
Yet the number of ambushers was overwhelming, and as the battle raged on, their own ranks dwindled. By the time Ye Liuyun caught sight of the city gates, only a few of their strongest—Long Nü, Thunder Roar, the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon, the White Tiger, and the Stone Ape—remained, relying on their formidable physiques to keep fighting.
Ye Liuyun himself had expended a great deal of cosmic energy and blade intent, and half of his own true essence had been drained. But ahead of them, over a dozen experts at the third or fourth level of the Harmonization Realm still blocked their path.
*"Enough. No more fighting."*
He promptly stowed the others inside his spatial realm, donned his invisibility cloak, and slipped back into the city unnoticed.
At this point, facing these opponents would only force him to rely on his black-and-white light, time manipulation, or soul power—none of which would serve as meaningful training. Better to leave them alive for future practice once his strength had improved.
The martial artists waited for a while, but when no trace of them appeared, they began searching. Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun and his companions had already stealthily returned to their residence and settled into quiet cultivation.
To hasten everyone’s recovery, Ye Liuyun’s second avatar adjusted the time flow within the spatial realm, speeding it up tenfold.
By the time three days had passed in the outside world, their true essence had fully replenished, and even their energy-storing stones were completely refilled.
Only then did Ye Liuyun release Tang Xinyao and the other eight, all of them refreshed and ready, before heading to the adventurer recruitment center.
The moment they appeared, they caused an uproar among the martial artists gathered there.
In recent days, the city had been abuzz with tales of their exploits. However, no one knew that Ye Liuyun had taken down those experts at the fifth or sixth level of the Guiyi realm.
The martial artists speculated whether they had gone into hiding or had already been killed. Even Liu Yan was worried that Ye Liuyun and his group might have met their end.
But the moment Liu Yan caught sight of them, his worries finally eased. Seeing that all nine of them were still alive, he called out to Ye Liuyun from afar, "I was worried sick about you all! You ventured way too far after leaving the city. Any farther, and you’d have stepped right into the territory of those powerful figures!"
"Still, this battle of yours has earned you quite the reputation—even our boss has heard about it. I never expected you all to be this strong!"
"Yeah, we noticed the presence of those experts ahead and stopped in time," Ye Liuyun replied, deliberately avoiding any mention of killing those powerful foes to prevent unnecessary suspicion.
After exchanging a few more words with Liu Yan, the latter lowered his voice and sent a mental message: "So? Did you manage to capture any?"
"Thirty," Ye Liuyun replied telepathically. "Add me and these nine guards behind me—we’re registering a total of forty!"
