Chapter 3176: Chapter 3176
Ye Liuyun was momentarily thrown by Jiang Yuntian’s move; he instantly froze time, intending to subdue the man first.
But then it struck him—those words had already been spoken. Even if he controlled this one, the rest would still scatter and flee.
So he switched tactics at once, reversing time. Before the man could step forward, Ye Liuyun planted a slave seal on him. With no order given, the others dared not abandon the battleship.
“Whew—close call!”
He exhaled in relief.
Jiang Yuntian was just as frustrated: the moment he contacted one subordinate, that subordinate was seized again. He could only reach out to another, yet the same thing happened. In his eyes, the instant his order was relayed, the man was taken. After several tries, he was completely stumped.
How is this happening? How did Ye Liuyun spot them
The question gnawed at him, but no amount of head-scratching led him to suspect that Ye Liuyun could rewind time.
Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun began using only half his temporal power at a time—gradually branding the elite soldiers while reserving the other half to counter Jiang Yuntian’s pawns. Once his power replenished, he struck again.
Every subsequent attempt by Jiang Yuntian collapsed under the same time-reversal tactic. Pacing his tent in agitation, Jiang Yuntian found no better plan.
Ye Liuyun no longer whisked the newly controlled into his spatial world; he left them in place to avoid panic among the troops. When no more disappearances occurred, the soldiers relaxed, their earlier tension easing.
Only then did someone notice the battleship wasn’t heading home—it was circling nearby.
A few rose to demand an explanation, but many objected.
“The prince himself must have set our course. Anyone who leaves now is probably under Ye Liuyun’s control.”
Those voicing this view were, of course, already Ye Liuyun’s puppets, so the would-be inquirers sat back down; no one dared move.
Any soldier urging others to investigate was promptly branded. Among them were indeed Jiang Yuntian’s agents.
In the end, Jiang Yuntian retained control of a single elite soldier.
Clenching his teeth, he ordered that last man to blast the battleship apart. With the ship gone, the scattered troops—lacking leadership—might quarrel and some would surely drift back.
Yet the outcome was identical: the moment the soldier acted, Ye Liuyun rewound time and seized him.
Jiang Yuntian slumped in defeat. He could no longer reach the army; any dispatch would arrive too late. All he could hope was that after Ye Liuyun took the Ninth Heaven elites, the rest might be spared.
Ye Liuyun kept working. A month later, every Ninth Heaven soldier bore his seal.
He then ordered the helmsman to halt. The Ninth Heaven elites, feigning Jiang Yuntian’s command, directed all troops to disembark and form ranks.
Surrounded by those very elites, the soldiers dared not resist.
Ye Liuyun appointed new commanders, had every man swear a loyalty oath, then marched them back aboard under fresh leadership.
Not one of Jiang Yuntian’s fifty thousand remained; Ye Liuyun took them all.
He had little use for such numbers, though—he would simply deliver them to Jiang Yunfei to be expended.
Three thousand troops donned the thirty thousand sets of armor Jiang Yuntian had provided. The Ninth Heaven elites and the lowest-ranking ten thousand wore none at all.
The course the warships were steering led straight to Jiang Yunfei’s main force. By the time they arrived, Ye Liuyun’s golden pupils finally confirmed that Jiang Yunfei had already conquered the entire planet and concentrated every unit in one place.
Yet Ye Liuyun didn’t care in the slightest. He simply ordered the fleet to land, had his soldiers form ranks, and charged straight at Jiang Yunfei’s army.
Jiang Yunfei was startled; he had no idea where this bizarre force had come from. Only thirty thousand of them wore armor. Among the twenty thousand who wore none, ten thousand were peak Ninth-Step experts.
He had no time to think further—he could only order his troops to meet the attack and let the surrendered soldiers wear the enemy down first.
Two hundred thousand turncoat soldiers surged forward.
Ye Liuyun released the Devil Vine and sent the ten thousand unarmored, lowest-realm soldiers charging ahead.
Those ten thousand were all Seventh-Step cultivators. Even though that was the weakest tier in Ye Liuyun’s army, it was still high compared with the surrendered troops.
With the Devil Vine tearing open the enemy formation, they carved deep into the turncoats’ ranks.
While the melee raged, Ye Liuyun used his power over time to strike at the Ninth-Step elites on Jiang Yunfei’s side, whisking the strongest hundred-plus straight into his spatial world.
Jiang Yunfei was already wavering; he simply didn’t have enough peak Ninth-Step experts to match them. Now, more than a hundred of his best vanished in an instant, and retreat flashed through his mind. He began pulling his main force back while driving every surrendered soldier forward.
Ye Liuyun was disappointed; he’d hoped both armies would clash at full strength, yet Jiang Yunfei was already running.
He wasn’t worried, though. Jiang Yunfei alone could escape easily, but fleeing with a hundred thousand men was impossible. If Jiang’s soldiers tried boarding warships, Ye Liuyun would board his own and give chase; if they fled on foot, he’d overtake them even faster.
So he did nothing. His main army never moved, letting the ten thousand men fight the two hundred thousand turncoats to the death.
Jiang Yunfei realized the trap and immediately ordered his vanguard forward to reinforce the surrendered troops. The moment Jiang moved, Ye Liuyun dispatched a thousand slightly weaker Ninth-Step soldiers to intercept the vanguard—yet his main host still did not stir.
Jiang Yunfei frowned and conferred with his commander. The commander advised, “Their quality is overwhelming, but their numbers are small. We should throw everything at them—maybe we can scare them off.”
“And if they don’t scare?” Jiang pressed.
“Then we fight to the bitter end. Either way, we can’t escape now.” The commander’s voice carried bleak resignation.
Jiang hesitated, watching his vanguard being torn apart by those elites, then finally nodded.
At once, the grand commander signaled for the entire army to advance.
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