Upon returning and seeing the desecrated altar reduced to ashes, Muxi let out a furious roar and slammed both palms onto the ruins with devastating force. The sheer impact extinguished the lingering flames instantly—along with pulverizing every last charred bone fragment into dust.

"ROOOAAAR!" His thunderous bellow activated the sealing arrays surrounding the area.

Just as he turned, a blinding white light shot from Ye Liuyun’s position, striking Muxi square in the chest at point-blank range. There was no time to dodge.

Years of combat experience told Ye Liuyun this strike should’ve blasted a gaping hole through the demon’s torso—a fatal wound. He’d deliberately aimed for the chest rather than the head; the larger target area made evasion nearly impossible.

Simultaneously, he unleashed his doppelgänger, the Demon-Sealing Stele, and the Devil Vine, all converging on Muxi in a coordinated assault. Two thousand armored soldiers materialized across the city through spatial manipulation, half deployed to purge the invading monsters.

Yet in the blink of an eye, spatial energy yanked Ye Liuyun backward as his doppelgänger forcibly teleported him away—

BOOM!

A concussive force blasted him out of the void. Unbelievably, Muxi had survived. Not only survived, but effortlessly dodged both the Stele and Vine’s attacks to counter with a palm strike. The doppelgänger, prioritizing Ye Liuyun’s rescue over another light-beam attack, had barely managed partial evasion. Still, the glancing blow sent Ye Liuyun tumbling violently through dimensional layers before crashing onto solid ground.

Though the impact sent him skidding dozens of meters, the injuries proved superficial. Muxi was already lunging for another strike when Ye Liuyun flicked his wrist—releasing the two undead beast puppets as living shields to absorb the killing blow.

The Demon-Sealing Stele and the Demon Vine launched simultaneous attacks on Mu Xi from above and below.

Ye Liuyun and his doppelganger each fired a beam of white light—one aimed straight for Mu Xi’s core, the other at his neck.

A violent surge of cosmic energy erupted from Mu Xi’s body, repelling the two half-beast corpse puppets, the Demon-Sealing Stele, and the Demon Vine. Even the twin beams of white light from Ye Liuyun and his doppelganger were forcefully blocked.

Yet the gaping hole in Mu Xi’s chest remained.

"Why won’t this bastard die? What kind of power is he wielding that can even deflect the white light?" Ye Liuyun muttered in frustration, turning to the Book Demon for answers.

Without understanding this, he couldn’t be sure whether his white and black beams were truly effective.

"He’s using cosmic energy to shield his wound," the Book Demon explained. "The force he just unleashed was drawn from his spatial realm. If the energy is potent enough, it can repel the white light. But sustaining this will drain him quickly. Keep up the assault—don’t give him a moment to recover."

Acting on the advice, Ye Liuyun ordered his allies to press the attack. The Demon-Sealing Stele and the Demon Vine had the ability to siphon energy; once they latched onto Mu Xi, he would only grow weaker.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun and his doppelganger alternated between black and white beams, forcing Mu Xi into constant evasion and leaving him no opening to strike back.

The two half-beast corpse puppets proved even more formidable, intercepting several of Mu Xi’s counterattacks.

"ROAR!"

Unable to hold his ground, Mu Xi roared for backup from the other Three-Eyed Aberrants.

Two of them charged forward despite the danger, immediately unleashing black beams at the half-beast puppets—Mu Xi’s primary restraints—clearly aiming to eliminate them first.

The remaining two Aberrants rushed toward Ye Liuyun and his doppelganger, firing white beams of their own. With no choice, Ye Liuyun and his double retaliated in kind, deflecting the incoming attacks.

Just then, the demonic vines suddenly shot out a blinding white light, melting Mu Xi’s right arm in a surprise attack. His combat power plummeted instantly.

The two martial artists who had been emitting black light toward the half-beast corpse demons were immediately crushed into pulp by the monstrous creatures. Without hesitation, the two corpse demons lunged at Mu Xi again.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun and his doppelganger, having just slain the two three-eyed aliens targeting them, now joined the assault on Mu Xi.

In desperation, Mu Xi summoned several more aliens to act as human shields, but they were swiftly eliminated.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, the armored soldiers clashed fiercely with the alien forces. Though some soldiers had fallen to the deadly white beams, Ye Liuyun had warned them beforehand—target the three-eyed aliens first. As a result, many of those aliens were quickly dispatched.

No reinforcements were coming for Mu Xi now. The remaining alien elites were being systematically hunted down by the armored soldiers.

These soldiers were no pushovers—their defenses were formidable, and their numbers overwhelming. Only a handful of aliens with exceptional spatial abilities held any advantage; the rest were outmatched.

Mu Xi had never imagined that despite bringing so many powerful warriors, his forces would be decimated so thoroughly.

Half of his spatial energy was now dedicated to sealing his grievous wound, leaving him barely enough strength to fend off the two half-beast corpse demons. The Demon-Sealing Stele and the demonic vines, however, were proving too much to handle.

To make matters worse, he had to constantly evade the white and black beams fired by Ye Liuyun and his doppelganger, draining his energy further.

Each time the Demon-Sealing Stele pressed down on him, he could feel his power being siphoned away. The demonic vines weren’t lashing out violently either—instead, they coiled around his legs, greedily absorbing his strength.

And now, he had to stay vigilant against the vines’ white-light attacks. It was all too much.

Though its arm quickly regenerated thanks to the immense energy sustaining it, the cost was staggering.

Before long, it found itself struggling even against the two half-beast corpse demons. Fortunately, their strength was waning too.

Just as panic began creeping in, a momentary lapse in focus left it vulnerable—another sneak attack from the demonic vine’s white light severed its leg clean off, the tendrils greedily devouring the limb.

"Damnable thing!"

Enraged, Mu Xi stomped down hard on the vine, driving itself toward the ground in a furious attempt to crush it outright.

The vine recoiled at first, but realizing Mu Xi was plunging downward, it swiftly coiled around the remaining leg, siphoning its energy. All the while, the Sealing Demon Stele pursued relentlessly from above, draining its power without pause.

Ye Liuyun, his doppelgänger, and the two half-beast corpse demons wasted no time closing in.

**BOOM!**

The earth shook as a massive crater formed—but Mu Xi’s leg was now trapped deep within, impossible to wrench free. The demonic vine had sacrificed one of its own tendrils to drag the remaining limb underground.

With the Sealing Demon Stele pressing down from above, only half of Mu Xi’s body remained visible, wedged between the stele and the shattered ground. Ye Liuyun couldn’t even see it anymore.

Yet neither he nor his double hesitated. They immediately unleashed a curse, golden light erupting from within Mu Xi’s body, forcing it to expend even more energy suppressing the surge with the power of its spatial realm.

The two mindless half-beast corpse puppets clambered forward undeterred, each sinking their teeth into an arm and yanking outward with savage force.

Meanwhile, the Sealing Demon Stele and the vine continued their voracious feast on Mu Xi’s dwindling energy.

From beneath the stele, Mu Xi’s roars of fury and pain echoed—**"RAAARGH! RAAARGH!"**—but its struggles grew weaker by the second.