When Ye Liuyun attempted to travel to other alien outposts via the altars, he discovered that all their portals had been deactivated.

By now, he had already extracted the foundational energy of this outpost, and the world itself would soon collapse. After a moment’s thought, Ye Liuyun summoned the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon and the Gold-Devouring Beast, instructing them to scout for the next alien stronghold while also seizing the opportunity to strengthen themselves.

If teleportation wasn’t an option, they’d just have to search the old-fashioned way.

Besides, his clone was currently occupied with assimilating the Demon Realm into his spatial world, so there was no immediate need for further action. After drifting through the void for some time, the clone finally completed the fusion, and Ye Liuyun recalled all the demonic beasts.

The demonic tribes and their half-beast kin had suffered heavy losses in the battle against the aliens. Now that the Demon Realm had expanded into a full-fledged planet, the factions ceased their infighting and settled into separate territories to rebuild their populations.

With time flowing ten times faster in this world, they would undoubtedly flourish in no time.

As for governance, the clone adopted a hands-off approach. Aside from safeguarding the garrison of 150,000 demonic soldiers, he left the rest to develop independently.

These demonic warriors were no slouches—each nearly as formidable as the elite Blade Corps. By simultaneously cultivating both demonic and half-beast martial techniques, their strength grew at a staggering rate.

To prevent alien bites from infecting them, Ye Liuyun had outfitted them head-to-toe in armor. They were also rigorously trained in wielding various weapons, ensuring they’d dominate any alien army on the battlefield.

"What we lack now is top-tier combat power."

Ye Liuyun knew his current forces weren’t yet a match for powerhouses like Elder Mu Xi. Perhaps the Demon Vine and the Sealing Stele could join forces to challenge her, but the stele’s consciousness remained unstable, and the vine was still just a Devil Beast.

He needed to grow stronger—and so did his allies.

Gathering the remaining alien prisoners, he handed them over to Leiming and the others, along with the demonic beasts, for training. The Blade Corps sparred against 2,000 armored soldiers, and he even lent them a half-beast corpse puppet to push their limits further.

Ye Liuyun frequently ventured into the clone space world to refine the essence energy, enhancing the quality of his advance energy. He also sparred regularly with the half-beast corpse demon puppets, Blue Armor, and others to hone his combat skills.

At that very moment, Mu Xi had already led the alien forces to the satellite islands surrounding the sacred land.

The sacred land had expanded the satellite islands further. Of the two million soldiers Ye Liuyun had sent back, one million were stationed here under the command of Liu Kui, tasked with both defense and training new recruits. The other million were garrisoned in the royal capital.

Now, the satellite islands boasted a garrison of no fewer than five million soldiers—though most were newly conscripted.

Powerhouses like Mo Sha, whom Ye Liuyun had released, had also been invited by the sacred dynasty to bolster the island’s defenses. Thus, the strength of the satellite islands’ guards was nothing to scoff at.

Yet, in Mu Xi’s eyes, such forces were insignificant.

"Stay hidden. We’ll head straight for their sacred planet, set up the altar, and then annihilate them!" Mu Xi ordered, leading the alien elites past the satellite islands and directly toward the sacred land.

After the sacred land had eradicated all the alien invaders in the previous battle, peace had been restored. Xiao Mu’an, freed from Ye Liuyun’s control, had resumed his lofty position as the Sacred King and was now indulging in the pleasures of his station.

His current focus was consolidating power among the major factions and scheming to extract more resources for the dynasty.

The last great war had taken a heavy toll on the sacred dynasty, depleting their reserves, and they now sought to replenish them by squeezing the major factions.

Moreover, he believed the aliens, having just been repelled, wouldn’t launch another attack so soon. Even if they did, the satellite islands stood as the first line of defense.

The army and elite warriors Ye Liuyun had helped train would surely withstand the next alien assault. And even if they faltered, there would still be time to mobilize once the aliens were spotted. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Thus, the entire sacred land had let its guard down. Aside from a few blacksmiths and formation masters leisurely replenishing equipment, no one else remained in a state of readiness.

Even the patrols of Swiftwings around the sacred land had gradually been called off. Only Liu Kui on the satellite islands occasionally dispatched squads of Swiftwings to scout for alien movements.

But these scouts had long been evaded by Mu Xi and his forces. With their mastery of spatial energy, dodging the Swiftwings was effortless—they simply slipped beyond the scouts’ detection range.

Mo Tianheng, Mo Shaowen, Liu Yang, Liang Bin, and others had been wandering around the Holy Land all this time. Though deeply troubled by the complacent attitude toward the Holy Land’s defenses, there was little they could do.

Despite their significant improvements in strength—enough to rank them among the elite within the Holy Land—they still weren’t at the very top. Their influence couldn’t sway Xiao Mu’an’s decisions.

Meanwhile, Mu Xi and the other alien races arrived effortlessly at the starry outskirts of the Holy Land. After scouting the perimeter, they quickly selected the perfect location to erect their sacrificial altar.

They chose a secluded mountain town nestled against towering peaks. In one swift strike, they slaughtered every inhabitant, ensuring no word of their presence could escape.

The town was small, with only a few thousand residents—far from enough for their needs. So, each of the alien beings released several human martial cultivators from their spatial realms, all tainted with the sinister aura of their kind.

These cultivators were traitors who had long betrayed humanity and pledged allegiance to the alien races. Clearly, Mu Xi and his cohorts had come prepared. They dispatched these human puppets to nearby cities, tasking them with abducting more victims.

Each of these turncoats had reached the Third Heaven Realm of cultivation, making them formidable even within the Holy Land.

While the traitors carried out their grim mission, Mu Xi and his followers began constructing the altar. A group of alien array masters first layered the town with intricate defensive formations, masking all traces of their presence to evade detection.

The human puppets, meanwhile, infiltrated neighboring cities, seizing control of major factions through deception and coercion. They lured unsuspecting victims back to the mountain town, where they were either devoured by the aliens or reduced to skeletal materials for the altar’s construction.

By using human agents as their proxies, the aliens operated with chilling stealth. The Holy Land remained oblivious—even as the altar neared completion.

Local marquisates caught wind of rumors about rapid expansions by certain martial factions in smaller towns, but they dismissed them as insignificant.

Then, the moment the altar activated, waves of alien reinforcements poured through. Bolstered by their human puppets, they swiftly expanded their reach, conquering several more cities in the surrounding regions.

Each time, the aliens struck with overwhelming force, slaughtering every soul within the captured cities to ensure no whisper of their invasion could spread.