Ye Liuyun was merely making some preparations in advance. After all, the alien forces didn’t have many weapon-forging martial cultivators under their control, and the previous weapon-forging outpost had already been wiped out by him. Moreover, they might not even find sufficient materials for forging weapons.

But what Ye Liuyun hadn’t expected was that just as he led his forces to attack the next alien stronghold, he received a distress signal from the Demon Realm.

The Demon Realm was under attack by the alien forces!

Without hesitation, Ye Liuyun immediately used the Black Tower of Teleportation to return to the Demon Realm. The demons and demonic beastmen there had already joined forces to resist the alien invasion.

Their plea for help had come a little too late—they had initially tried to fend off the aliens on their own. However, they hadn’t anticipated how quickly the aliens could turn their own soldiers into corpse demons. Nearly half of their forces had been converted and were now attacking them from within.

Worse still, the aliens were organizing these corpse demons to mine ores and transport them back to their own territory.

Ye Liuyun wasted no time. He unleashed all the forces at his disposal and launched a full-scale purge against the invaders.

During the operation, he learned through soul-searching that the Demon Realm fell within the southern war zone of the alien forces. They had merely stumbled upon this place by chance, not specifically targeting the ores.

But once they discovered the mineral deposits, they immediately recognized the strategic importance of the region and intensified their assault.

Now, under the relentless attack of Ye Liuyun’s army, the alien forces were forced into retreat, desperately calling for reinforcements from nearby outposts.

However, their reinforcements couldn’t arrive fast enough—certainly not as fast as Ye Liuyun was annihilating them.

To Ye Liuyun, these alien troops were so weak they weren’t even worth a second glance. He had already begun using spatial powers to wipe them out en masse.

The Demon Vine, the Demon-Sealing Stele, the Nine-Headed Netherdrake, Zhuque, and the elite Blade Corps showed no mercy either, slaughtering the enemy with full force. Even Ye Liuyun’s companions—his women and demonic beasts—could easily cut down these aliens.

And then there was Ye Liuyun’s million-strong army, deploying everything from hawks and war chariots to puppet beasts and energy cannons. From the very first strike, they unleashed a devastating assault.

As a result, the invading alien forces didn’t last more than a few days before being completely obliterated.

Through the scale of mining operations and soul-searching, Ye Liuyun deduced that the demons hadn’t managed to transport much ore yet, so the impact on weapon forging would be minimal.

"Absorb the Demon Realm into your spatial world. We can’t leave it for the alien races," Ye Liuyun instructed his doppelgänger.

Immediately, Ye Liuyun and his doppelgänger began a massive spatial transfer. First, they relocated all the demonic creatures from the doppelgänger’s spatial world to the vast floating islands within Ye Liuyun’s own cosmic expanse. Then, they moved the remaining demons and demonic half-beasts to separate islands. Finally, the doppelgänger communed with the realm’s core energy.

Now, the Demon Realm’s core energy was no match for the doppelgänger’s power. The communication and absorption proceeded smoothly.

But just then, enemy reinforcements arrived. Ye Liuyun swiftly led his forces to intercept them in the void.

The alien reinforcements consisted of Three-Eyed beings and spatial power experts.

Ye Liuyun guessed that the aliens had realized the ore’s value and thus dispatched such formidable forces.

A fierce battle erupted across the starry expanse, explosions and energy clashes lighting up the darkness.

Even Mulai and the Vermilion Bird were struck by the Three-Eyed aliens’ blinding white light. However, the aliens held back—clearly unwilling to kill Mulai—and the Vermilion Bird narrowly dodged a fatal blow.

The Blade Corps suffered over fifty casualties. Some were still unaccustomed to battling such powerful foes, while others struggled with void combat, leading to heavy losses.

To minimize further damage, Ye Liuyun finally released the captive aliens from his spatial world, turning the tide and wiping out the reinforcements.

But by then, only fifty or so of those captive aliens remained.

Many had already perished during training sessions with Lei Ming and the others. After this battle, only a quarter of their original number survived.

At last, the doppelgänger completed the absorption, drawing the entire Demon Realm into his spatial world.

"Clean up the battlefield. We leave immediately."

Ye Liuyun immediately prepared to withdraw, fearing being trapped by enemy reinforcements. He first recalled his clone into the spatial world, instructing it to stabilize the dimension as quickly as possible.

After the others finished clearing the battlefield, Ye Liuyun swiftly gathered them into his spatial realm before teleporting back using the Black Tower.

The alien forces, however, didn’t immediately dispatch reinforcements. Instead, they were mobilizing more powerful warriors.

When they discovered Ye Liuyun’s presence in the area, they were utterly baffled. Hadn’t he just seized a stronghold in the Northern War Zone? How had he suddenly appeared in the distant Southern War Zone?

Some speculated that he must possess a teleportation artifact. Regardless, they knew confronting Ye Liuyun with small numbers would be futile.

By the time they assembled enough forces, Ye Liuyun had already returned to the previously attacked stronghold in the Northern War Zone, systematically eliminating the remaining alien troops and corpse demons.

News of his return to the Northern War Zone to wipe out their outposts left the aliens both furious and helpless.

They had attempted to reinforce their strongholds before, but the vast distances between them made timely intervention impossible. Even their strongest warriors arrived too late—Ye Liuyun was always gone by then, leaving them grasping at air.

Their only option was to station more elite fighters at each outpost. But this strategy came at a heavy cost, and despite their efforts, they repeatedly failed to hold their positions.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun’s elite unit, the "Blade Corps," grew increasingly formidable in battle. With just over two thousand soldiers, they could overpower seven hundred elite alien warriors even when outnumbered three to one.

Realizing this approach was ineffective, the aliens concluded that their only chance was an all-out confrontation. They needed warriors of Mu Xi’s caliber, backed by a massive force, to annihilate Ye Liuyun and his followers once and for all.

Thus, they shut down all their teleportation altars, blocking any unauthorized passage. From then on, portals would only open briefly for prearranged transfers before being sealed again.

Every elite alien warrior was recalled, preparing for a decisive battle once Mu Xi reached their sacred grounds. Their plan was to amass their full strength and crush Ye Liuyun’s forces in one overwhelming strike.

Their only regret was failing to secure more of the rare ores from the demon realm. Still, they gathered their best craftsmen to replicate Ye Liuyun’s equipment—especially the "Skyhawks"—producing as many as possible with whatever materials they could scavenge.

Though their substitutes couldn’t match the original ores, their vast occupied territories offered alternatives. Even if their Skyhawks lacked the same durability, they hoped the overall performance wouldn’t lag too far behind.

Time was now their greatest constraint. While replicating war chariots was straightforward, crafting functional Skyhawks would take longer.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun suddenly realized the aliens had deactivated all their teleportation altars.

"This complicates things," he muttered. "Eliminating their outposts just got a lot harder."