Ye Liuyun also had Wu Xiang craft a complete set of teleportation array plates, then sent a bodyguard to deliver them to Jiang Yunmo.

Those plates could even transport living beings; from now on, resources, demonic beasts, and slaves could be shuttled straight to Ye Liuyun without anyone having to make the trip to the royal capital.

While Xiao Heng and the others drilled the troops, Ye Liuyun planned to push his cultivation to the sixth level of Unity.

He returned to his clone’s pocket world and focused on refining both the source energy and the Draconis origin pills. When he grew tired of cultivating, he sparred with his clone, practicing the manipulation of Heaven-and-Earth momentum to ready himself for the coming breakthrough.

His command of that momentum already far surpassed that of cultivators at the same rank; he could fight the two Unity-eighth-level bodyguards to a draw. He also took the chance to weave Heaven-and-Earth force around himself for defense and concealment—both worked well. At the very least, Unity-eighth-level warriors could neither detect him nor easily break his defenses.

After his soul strengthened, he could sense the minute shifts of every kind of energy in the world, making comprehension of Heaven-and-Earth momentum even easier.

That, in turn, let him draw in more worldly power with far less effort when he broke through.

Once he advanced, the quality of his divine essence had already condensed far beyond its previous state. His core, after refining the True Origin core wall, had grown even tougher; it withstood the impact of higher-grade divine essence without any deliberate reinforcement.

After this breakthrough, both his divine essence and his Heaven-and-Earth power surged several-fold, instantly putting him on par with Unity-ninth-level cultivators.

As soon as he reached Unity sixth level, Ye Liuyun couldn’t wait to spar with a Unity-ninth-level warrior. With his current divine essence and worldly force, even an early ninth-level opponent couldn’t hold him off without going all-out.

If he further released his bloodline pressure, the fight became one-sided.

His bloodline, after absorbing and refining a hundred True Dragons, had grown terrifyingly potent—strong enough to suppress ordinary cultivators by an entire minor realm. Even those with formidable bloodlines were far from his equal.

After acclimating to his new strength, Ye Liuyun summoned the two demonic flood dragons and two late-stage Unity-ninth-level experts for a test.

Without even drawing on saber intent, he used bloodline suppression to drag the flood dragons down a full minor realm, then obliterated them with divine essence and Heaven-and-Earth power.

Against the two late-stage ninth-level warriors, the suppression was weaker but still dropped them to early ninth level. Relying on divine essence and worldly force alone, he fought them to a stalemate; adding saber intent tipped the scales in his favor.

That was assuming they wielded no high-tier artifacts or divine weapons—otherwise, he reckoned the fight would remain even.

Of course, he hadn’t used his soul force at all; it now eclipsed theirs so completely that employing it would have been outright bullying.

Satisfied with his assessment, Ye Liuyun condensed and compressed his soul, bloodline, and physique once more before checking on everyone else’s progress.

The demonic beasts had all reached late or peak Unity fifth level, each on the verge of another breakthrough. With resources overflowing lately, their cultivation had rocketed.

The women advanced more slowly; many resources still awaited absorption and refinement. None had broken through yet, but their true essence was dense, and their soul, bloodline, physique, and elemental power had all improved markedly.

Tang Xinyao’s squad now numbered eight, every member at late Unity fifth level with solid true essence. They had pulled Li Xinran in to round out the formation; though she was only Unity third level, she was better than an empty slot.

Yu Xiaofeng and the other four commanders had burned through more than half the slaves, gaining plenty of combat experience. However, they were attempting a major-realm breakthrough, so they needed more time. All had reached late or peak Sovereign ninth level, condensing true essence and firming their foundations.

The two demon legions still hadn’t exhausted the resources seized earlier; they continued raising overall strength. Commanders like Black Rock and Black Mountain had recently advanced and weren’t breaking through again yet, but their true essence was thoroughly tempered.

The demon army had outfitted all the captured beasts as mounts, forming a cavalry of war-beasts that greatly boosted combat power.

After devouring every cultivator corpse, the Devil Vine hadn’t even gotten to the remaining beast corpses before falling asleep. Upon waking, it broke through to Unity ninth level, then polished off the rest of the beasts to stabilize its realm.

Ye Liuyun sparred with the vine to gauge its strength and found its command of Heaven-and-Earth force far greater than his own. Bloodline suppression had no effect—the vine was a plant; neither soul nor bloodline pressure worked. In short, he still couldn’t beat it.

Only by bringing out saber intent could he barely fight to a draw. Yet his physique could now endure the vine’s strikes, so unless the vine tried to devour his energy, it had no way to subdue him.

Finally, Ye Liuyun inspected Xiao Heng’s army. They had meshed seamlessly with the main force, mastered the energy-storage stones and conversion cauldrons, and were ready for battle.

He summoned both clones and gave Xiao Heng and Li Zhaoyuan their orders.

“This time we aim to seize all five mineral-planets of the He clan. Prepare the soldiers for continuous combat. Leave the powerhouses to us—your task is to handle the miners and use them for live training.”

“Resolve those miners at top speed. Kill or capture—whatever it takes, the only metric is time. Prisoners go straight into the spatial world; every corpse must be recovered. When the fighting ends, not a single miner is to remain.”

Ye Liuyun then laid out the exact miner counts and defensive layouts on every ore planet, leaving the teams to devise their own strike plans.

He and his avatars split the work. Ye Liuyun himself would lead the Devil Vine, the puppets, and the elite assassins in the ambush; the Second Avatar would follow with the remaining powerhouses to mop up any martial cultivators; the First Avatar would orbit the planet to intercept any He-clan reinforcements. Once the battle was over, they would use the black teleportation tower to jump straight to the next target.

With everything settled, Ye Liuyun activated the black tower and arrived near one of the ore planets.

These jump points had been scouted in advance; inside agents had confirmed that the situation on the ground hadn’t changed much, so they could strike immediately.

The instant they appeared, Ye Liuyun and the Second Avatar swept the area with their golden pupils. Seeing no alterations, the two of them dove together toward the stronghold where the enemy experts were concentrated. The First Avatar kept watch in the void above.