After the altar constructed by Muxi was activated, it had already transported a sufficient number of powerful warriors.

In truth, they could have unleashed these warriors immediately to slaughter the humans of the Holy Land Dynasty. But to lure Ye Liuyun into their trap, they held back. Instead, they continued to seal off the cities they had seized with arrays, while sending the martial artists under their control to infiltrate neighboring towns, gradually expanding their reach.

At the same time, they began using the altar to transport their alien army. The arriving troops were temporarily concealed in the Thousand Burial Mountain behind the city, their presence masked by arrays.

Batch after batch of soldiers—tens of thousands at a time—were teleported in. Soon, even the arrays could no longer suppress the overwhelming aura of malevolence. A few martial artists stumbled upon the truth, but they were swiftly hunted down and killed.

Meanwhile, the human martial puppets sent by the aliens continued to stir up trouble in other cities, provoking the local authorities until the Marquis’s estate finally lost patience and dispatched elite warriors to deal with them. But the enforcers were ambushed, captured, and delivered to the aliens, where they were corrupted and turned into puppets themselves.

The Marquis’s estate then sent troops, only to be repelled by these enhanced martial artists. It was only then that the local authorities reported the situation to the Prince’s estate. To show support, the Prince immediately dispatched an army of 100,000 to quell the rebellion.

It was during the battle against these tainted martial artists that some soldiers began noticing something amiss. Upon receiving the intelligence, the Prince’s estate secretly sent scouts to investigate—only for most of them to be killed or captured. Still, a few managed to relay the truth: the aliens were behind it all.

The Prince’s estate wasted no time in reporting the findings to Xiao Mu’an.

Xiao Mu’an dispatched a large number of Swift Falcons to scout the area. Realizing they could no longer hide, the alien army finally revealed itself.

And just like that, the entire Holy Land was thrown into chaos once more.

Xiao Mu’an dispatched scouts to gather intelligence on the alien-occupied city while mobilizing the million-strong royal guard to block all potential invasion routes.

Yet, to his shock, the alien forces numbering in the millions launched a sudden assault. Bolstered by their elite warriors, they decimated his troops almost immediately upon arrival. Worse still, most fallen soldiers were reanimated as undead abominations under alien control, spreading chaos unchecked.

The elite scouts Xiao Mu’an had sent never returned—either transformed into mindless fiends or corrupted by alien influence, now serving the enemy. Realizing the gravity of the situation, he issued an emergency decree, emulating Ye Liuyun’s past strategy against the aliens, rallying martial cultivators and Liu Kui’s forces to reinforce the blockade.

But this time, the blockade became a slaughter. Alien elites struck mercilessly, including the dreaded Three-Eyed Ones and those wielding spatial powers, turning countless warriors and soldiers into undead horrors. The plague of abominations spiraled out of control, spreading like wildfire.

These undead, born from powerful martial artists, proved nearly impossible to contain. Still, Xiao Mu’an stubbornly refused to seek Ye Liuyun’s aid. Pride held him back—after finally breaking free from Ye Liuyun’s shadow, asking for help would feel like admitting defeat, a step backward in their fractured relationship.

Instead, he issued another call, summoning martial cultivators to distant rally points far from the frontlines. His logic wasn’t flawed, but his enemies had grown stronger, and human traitors lurked among them.

The aliens intercepted his orders. The moment the cultivators assembled, alien elites ambushed them, crushing the resistance once more. Countless warriors fell, only to rise again as undead, their corruption spreading uncontrollably. Now, even regrouping seemed an impossible task.

With no other options left, Xiao Mu’an immediately ordered all cities to seal their gates and fortify their defenses to prevent the alien invaders from breaking in. The priority was to purge the martial artists who had been corrupted by the alien forces.

It was Mo Tianheng, Mo Shaowen, and others who first recognized the severity of the situation and promptly informed Ye Liuyun.

Upon hearing Mo Tianheng’s report, Ye Liuyun was stunned.

"The corpse demons have spread this quickly? And they’re this powerful? Does that mean the alien forces are even stronger this time?"

"Exactly. Reports say there are three-eyed aliens and warriors with formidable spatial powers. Not to mention the numerous gold-armored and silver-armored ones," Mo Tianheng replied.

Mo Shaowen and Liu Yang added, "We captured a few alien soldiers. According to them, this attack was orchestrated by a gold-armored elder named Mu Xi. They’ve even set up an altar here."

"Mu Xi? What’s he doing there? That doesn’t make sense—with his strength, he could’ve wiped out the Sacred Land outright!" Ye Liuyun frowned in confusion.

"Wait, Mu Xi is that powerful?" Mo Shaowen asked, surprised.

Mo Tianheng narrowed his eyes. "You know him?"

Ye Liuyun then recounted how they had captured Mu Lai and tricked Mu Xi out of his resources.

"My guess is, he’s luring you out. He’s probably set a trap, waiting for you to take the bait," Mo Tianheng speculated.

"Yeah. But I’ve got no choice but to bite."

Without hesitation, Ye Liuyun asked for Mo Tianheng’s coordinates and teleported back to the Sacred Land using the Black Tower. He gathered Mo Shaowen, Liu Yang, Liang Bin, and the others.

"Didn’t Xiao Mu’an ask for your help?" Mo Tianheng and the rest questioned.

"Not yet. I figure his pride won’t let him. But when he’s truly out of options, he’ll come crawling," Ye Liuyun said with a smirk.

"So what do we do now?" Mo Shaowen asked Ye Liuyun.

"First, we’ll eliminate the human traitors. Without these collaborators working with the alien races from within, dealing with the invaders will become much easier. Otherwise, with those traitors around, we’ll never truly eradicate the alien threat."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Liuyun immediately led them toward the battlefield to locate human martial artists who had been corrupted by the alien forces nearby.

This approach of his coincidentally aligned with Xiao Mu’an’s strategy. However, Xiao Mu’an lacked sufficient strength—the forces he dispatched couldn’t gain the upper hand. At best, they could maintain a stalemate against the traitors; completely wiping them out was nearly impossible.

Ye Liuyun, on the other hand, altered his appearance and deployed his trusted allies—Phantom Hand, Xenocide, and Vespera—to covertly eliminate the targets.

With Ye Liuyun in command, almost none of the traitors he marked managed to escape.

Yet the sheer number of corrupted humans far exceeded his expectations.

The infected weren’t just those brought by Mu Xi and other alien leaders—many more had been captured and turned later. The cleanup operation dragged on, with no end in sight.

But since Ye Liuyun operated in secrecy, the alien forces remained unaware of his return. They simply allowed the corpse demons to expand their territory, biding their time for Ye Liuyun to reveal himself. For now, they held back their main forces, in no rush to launch a full-scale attack.