Chapter 3001: Chapter 3001
Ye Liuyun now had an ample supply of primordial energy at his disposal. Even his demonic beasts no longer needed martial cultivators’ core pellets for cultivation—they simply tossed the primordial energy into the Energy Conversion Cauldron, where it was transformed into the energy they required.
From their raid on the merchant guild, Ye Liuyun and his group had seized vast quantities of primordial energy, much of which contained traces of ancient aura. This was particularly beneficial for many of his demonic beasts, far more effective than if they had absorbed the ancient aura themselves.
Thus, Ye Liuyun never hesitated to provide for his beasts. He simply piled the energy within his spatial world, allowing them to take as much as they pleased.
The first three city assaults by the bandit alliance went smoothly. However, by the fourth siege, the Dragon Head Bandit Group dispatched several experts at the fifth or sixth level of the Unity Realm.
But before Ye Liuyun’s doppelganger even needed to intervene, Li Qingyang had already mobilized a group of powerful fighters from their flying vessel. Well-prepared and outnumbering their opponents, they swiftly eliminated the enemy experts, ensuring the bandit alliance’s advance remained unhindered.
As Ye Liuyun and his companions grew stronger, their battles became increasingly effortless, and their progress accelerated. Consequently, the time it took to conquer each city grew shorter.
Between battles, Ye Liuyun constantly sparred with captured prisoners, refining his advance energy. His golden core now faintly radiated the power of heaven and earth.
The golden glow was no longer as dazzling or sharp as before. Instead, it had become subdued—much like Ye Liuyun himself, its aura restrained. The faint celestial energy it emitted made his core more attuned to nature, allowing him to absorb the energies of heaven and earth with greater ease.
The quality of the advance energy within his core had already reached a level comparable to the true essence of a fourth-level Unity Realm martial cultivator. Every wisp of advance energy was now infused with condensed celestial energy.
After a month and a half of travel aboard their flying vessel, Ye Liuyun’s cultivation level had not advanced at all—until he finally felt he could compress his energy no further. By then, he could already hold his own against a fourth-level Unity Realm martial cultivator with his advance energy alone. Only then did he allow his cultivation to ascend to the mid-stage of the first level of the Unity Realm.
"Being able to fight across three realms again... That wasn’t easy!"
Refining his advance energy this time had taken him forty to fifty days—equivalent to four or five hundred days inside the Void Stone. For him, this was already a considerable amount of time.
Under Ye Liuyun’s persuasion, his demonic beasts, Tang Xinyao, and the others had also been refining their true essence to solidify their foundations. Otherwise, if they broke through too soon after their recent advancements, it would surely raise suspicions among bandits like Liu Yan.
Moreover, by tempering their true essence, they had genuinely improved their combat prowess. Having experienced the benefits of refining advance energy, none of them were in a hurry to push for further breakthroughs.
Even Chi Lian could now barely withstand attacks from a third-level Unity Realm martial cultivator—a feat that counted as cross-realm combat. Before this, she wouldn’t have stood a chance against opponents even one realm below her.
The demonic beasts had not only enhanced their combat prowess but also made significant improvements in their divine souls, bloodlines, physical bodies, and various elemental powers. After refining vast amounts of resources during this period, their overall strength had surged dramatically. The Dragon Maiden, Thunder Roar, Nine-Headed Demon Dragon, White Tiger, and Stone Ape were now capable of challenging opponents two realms above their own.
Thanks to the massive accumulation of corpses and Yuan Pills, the Demon Vine was on the verge of breaking through to the sixth level of the Unity Realm. The sheer number of battles they had fought far exceeded Ye Liuyun’s initial expectations.
The same went for Tang Xinyao and the others—their cultivation had all advanced to the late second level of the Unity Realm. However, since they had engaged in fewer battles compared to the demonic beasts, their Yuan Qi was not as refined, with the exception of Tang Xinyao and Tang Hao, whose foundations remained solid.
Thus, Ye Liuyun allowed the demonic beasts to freely advance their realms while Tang Xinyao and the others continued honing their skills. As for the beasts’ rapid breakthroughs, he could easily attribute them to the massive consumption of corpses and Yuan Pills.
Using the Black Tower of Teleportation, Ye Liuyun also brought his first doppelganger to the battlefield, leaving the command of the alien battlegrounds to Tian Dao. Though the first doppelganger had been fighting relentlessly, the current alien opponents were too weak to provide sufficient pressure.
Ye Liuyun immediately redirected the first doppelganger to engage in more intense combat training. Together with the second doppelganger, they began capturing more martial practitioners while simultaneously practicing bloodline suppression and refining their soul-based attacks.
Experimenting with the Great Derivation Soul Technique, he transformed one of his golden-armored soul entities into a gleaming golden blade, crackling with lightning and wreathed in ghostly flames.
By infusing this soul blade with sword intent, he could instantly slay even fourth-level Unity Realm martial practitioners. The two doppelgangers employed the same method, though they also fortified their consciousness with layered defenses—forging soul bells with various energies, weaving spatial distortions, and deploying illusions to create labyrinthine void mazes. Any invading soul would struggle just to locate theirs.
However, few opponents possessed souls strong enough to breach their defenses. Most were cleaved apart by the golden soul blades in a single strike, their remnants swiftly devoured. These defensive measures remained largely untested.
Li Qingyang observed the battlefield closely each time. Noticing their heightened combat strength, he deliberately allowed a fifth-level Unity Realm expert to slip past, intending to test their limits.
Ye Liuyun immediately grasped his intent. With a coordinated assault, they swiftly eliminated the fifth-level expert.
He knew their recent power surge couldn’t be hidden—better to display it openly. Perhaps they’d even be entrusted with more critical missions.
Fighting ordinary bandits now felt too effortless. Continuing like this would no longer provide the necessary pressure for growth.
Li Qingyang nodded in satisfaction, already scheming how to best utilize this formidable fighting force.
After the battle concluded, Li Qingyang immediately summoned Ye Liuyun and Liu Yan.
Without beating around the bush, he asked Ye Liuyun directly, "If I gave you ten experts at the Sixth Level of Guiyi Realm and sent you to take a city on your own—could you do it?"
The First Star Bandits only attacked one city per planet they passed. Originally, the plan had been to lure out some of the Dragon Head Bandits’ elite fighters, but there had been no reaction from them.
Their leader, Chang Yuxing, wanted to escalate the assault, yet feared excessive losses. Testing the waters with Ye Liuyun’s small squad was the perfect move.
Liu Yan’s jaw dropped at the question. Though he knew Ye Liuyun and his team were formidable, such a mission was beyond anything he’d ever dared imagine. Even with twenty experts, he wouldn’t have the nerve.
Yet, Ye Liuyun responded with a hint of excitement, agreeing without hesitation.
"No problem. We don’t even need reinforcements—just let us handle it alone!"
"Oh?" Li Qingyang quickly caught on—Ye Liuyun had some hidden cards up his sleeve, capable of countering Sixth-Level Guiyi experts. Moreover, he clearly didn’t want Li Qingyang to discover them, hence the insistence on fighting independently.
But Li Qingyang didn’t mind. He had no designs on their treasures to begin with.
