Ye Liuyun unleashed the demonic vines and the Demon-Sealing Stele, leading his companions and demonic beasts to cleanse the area around the altar of the alien races. Then, he dispatched his army to eradicate the remaining alien forces and corpse demons.

Afterward, Ye Liuyun summoned Mulai and began a thorough soul search to uncover the true strength of the Golden-Armored Aliens. Unfortunately, critical portions of Mulai’s memories had been erased.

In Mulai’s fragmented recollections, he only remembered a few close kin—even the identity of the Golden-Armored Aliens’ supreme ruler had been wiped from his mind. The only thing he knew was that upon returning, he was to report to a certain elder—a figure Mulai regarded as the most powerful among them.

That elder possessed terrifying might, capable of reducing an entire planet to dust with a single palm strike. His cultivation realm? The Sovereign Realm.

Most of the three-eyed Golden-Armored Aliens bred by their kind were young and inexperienced.

"Thankfully, those ancient powerhouses don’t have this ability, or we’d truly stand no chance!" Ye Liuyun muttered with a mix of relief and frustration.

Just then, Mulai received an inquiry through a communication talisman—someone was checking on the situation here.

"Reply that a traitorous alien under human control infiltrated the ranks, but everything else is proceeding as planned. The altar will reopen soon," Ye Liuyun instructed Mulai.

After Mulai sent the response, no further questions came.

Without delay, Ye Liuyun extracted the world’s core energy and ordered his forces to regroup toward his position through the void. The remaining alien stragglers were left to their fate, while Mulai and his Silver-Armored kin were all recalled into Ye Liuyun’s spatial realm.

Once his army was withdrawn and the world’s essence harvested, Ye Liuyun wielded his spatial power, taking the Demon-Sealing Stele and demonic vines to hunt down the last remnants of the alien presence.

His swift preparations for retreat stemmed from one concern—that the Golden-Armored Aliens might detect something amiss and send reinforcements to rescue Mulai.

The sudden inquiry from the alien race earlier suggested they might possess some unique method to detect that Mulai had been controlled.

That was precisely why he took matters into his own hands, swiftly eliminating the aliens and corpse demons at this outpost. Then, through the alien altar within the spatial realm, he rushed to their other strongholds.

Ye Liuyun’s instincts proved correct. Just two days after his departure, a group of golden-armored alien elites arrived at the outpost. Among them was the very elder from Mulai’s memories.

The elder was accompanied by two half-beasts—wolf-headed, human-bodied creatures covered in dark, metallic alien scales as black as ink.

But they were too late. The outpost had already begun showing signs of collapse.

The golden-armored elder let out a furious roar, shaking his subordinates to their core.

He then issued a series of sharp commands, and the aliens dispersed in groups. Afterward, he muttered something to the two half-beasts.

The half-beasts flared their nostrils, their eyes gleaming with menace as they stalked away. Meanwhile, the elder headed toward the nearest alien outpost.

As for the remaining aliens and corpse demons on the planet that Ye Liuyun hadn’t yet purged, they were left to their fate—none of the newcomers bothered with them.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun had concealed himself in another alien outpost, refining the third eyes he had seized from Mulai alongside his doppelgänger.

After absorbing the power of these alien eyes, not only did their abilities to emit white and black light strengthen, but their golden pupils’ penetrative vision also improved.

For nearly half a year, Ye Liuyun remained hidden within the outpost, biding his time. Only when his doppelgänger fully assimilated the spatial realm’s primordial energy—gaining the ability to harness its power—did he prepare to strike again.

During this period, he absorbed numerous energy orbs he had previously acquired and sparred relentlessly with the captive aliens.

The golden and silver-armored warriors, in particular, were formidable opponents, each capable of wielding the spatial realm’s energy.

Though Ye Liuyun’s advance energy had grown stronger, he still had to rely on spatial power to hold his own against them.

Ye Liuyun could sense that despite absorbing copious amounts of energy, his primordial core now resembled a bottomless pit—insatiable and impossible to fill.

No matter how much energy he consumed, his profound essence showed no significant increase, with only marginal improvements in quality. It was only now that he truly grasped how excruciatingly difficult it was to advance to the third tier of the Celestial Realm.

Many around him had already broken through to that level. Yet, they had shifted their focus to refining their soul power, physical bodies, and spatial abilities—areas where he still lagged far behind. Without shoring up these weaknesses, further progress would become increasingly difficult.

Moreover, he wasn’t the only one with an insatiable demand for resources. So many others were in the same predicament, and Ye Liuyun’s stockpile was quickly dwindling.

Though he knew the alien races were undoubtedly hunting him down and setting more traps, he had no choice but to strike again. The core energy of an entire planet could solve many of his problems.

Using the Black Tower of Teleportation, Ye Liuyun made a brief return to the Sacred Dynasty. He sent back the two-million-strong army he had originally brought with him.

He simply couldn’t sustain them anymore. The upkeep for two million soldiers was staggering. These troops had fought alongside him against numerous alien forces, rapidly growing stronger. Equipped with Yuanstone Converters, they had never lacked resources.

But if their supplies ran low, discontent would inevitably arise. Now was the perfect time to send them home.

The Sacred Dynasty had ample resources, so he wouldn’t have to worry about their needs. Their return would also bolster the dynasty’s defenses against potential alien ambushes—killing two birds with one stone.

Ye Liuyun’s own elite force of a million soldiers and the Vanguard Corps had grown formidable enough to handle alien armies on their own. External reinforcements were no longer necessary.

Meanwhile, Xiao Mu’an had been relentlessly strengthening his soul power, hoping to break free from Ye Liuyun’s slave seal.

Instead of tightening his control, Ye Liuyun sat down with him for a calm discussion. Xiao Mu’an genuinely sought freedom, proposing an equal alliance instead.

Though Ye Liuyun warned him that the alien invasion would never cease, Xiao Mu’an remained steadfast. As the Sacred King, he refused to live under another’s thumb.

So Ye Liuyun released him from the slave seal—along with all the other Sacred Dynasty cultivators he had previously controlled. Xiao Mu’an even offered a generous sum of resources in gratitude.

Ye Liuyun didn’t force any formal alliance pact. Whether they would cooperate in the future depended entirely on Xiao Mu’an’s actions.

However, he did reclaim all the equipment from the two-million-strong army. Trust was one thing, but caution was another—better to prevent Xiao Mu’an from turning those very weapons against him someday.

Only after settling these matters did Ye Liuyun resume his assault on the alien strongholds.