With Ye Liuyun’s strong support, Xiao Mu’an and Liu Kui gained even more confidence.

Soon, they amassed a vast amount of resources and distributed them to martial artists who volunteered for the war. The entire Holy Land was once again mobilized.

Secret realms that had once belonged to the royal family were now freely opened to these willing warriors.

Even Xiao Mu’an himself made thorough preparations, dedicating himself to cultivation and sparring with others.

The entire Holy Land was buzzing with activity. Mo Tianheng, Mo Shaowen, Liu Yang, Liang Bin, and others all ventured into the "Journey of Death" to temper themselves.

Meanwhile, Ye Liuyun grew tired of battling the half-beast undead puppets. Harnessing his spatial power, he roamed the cosmos, seeking out celestial beasts to spar with. He often unleashed the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon and the Gold-Devouring Beast, allowing them to feast and grow stronger.

With his current mastery of spatial power, Ye Liuyun covered more ground in a few months than he had in years past. In the vast expanse of space, he encountered many formidable celestial beasts, often engaging in fierce, evenly matched battles.

Recently, he stumbled upon a Violet Kylin, a creature capable of spewing purple flames—a type of yin fire.

This Violet Kylin surpassed Ye Liuyun in both cosmic energy and spatial power, having already broken through to the Dominator Realm.

Every time they clashed, Ye Liuyun found himself at a disadvantage, barely able to hold his own.

But he noticed that even when taking hits, his injuries weren’t severe—perfect for body tempering.

So, he stubbornly clung to the Violet Kylin, even frequently offering it roasted meat to keep it from shaking him off.

This frustrated the Violet Kylin to no end, as fighting Ye Liuyun drained its energy.

Fortunately, it could replenish its reserves by absorbing planetary energy. Combined with the temptation of Ye Liuyun’s roasted meat, it never fully abandoned him. Otherwise, with its superior spatial power, it could have easily escaped at full speed, leaving Ye Liuyun in the dust.

Later, to further entice the creature to stay, Ye Liuyun even had Liang Xue release the Azure Kylin to keep it company. He even provided additional resources, finally convincing the Violet Kylin to agree to spar with him.

At first, the Purple Kylin Snake regarded Ye Liuyun as nothing more than a fool, but gradually, it found itself struggling more and more in their battles.

Ye Liuyun wasn’t just rapidly improving the quality of his advance energy—his mastery of celestial and spatial forces grew stronger by the day. His physical body also toughened at an astonishing rate, becoming increasingly resilient. What’s more, he could absorb the Purple Kylin Snake’s Yin Fire to strengthen his own Nether Ghost Flame.

Every day, after training, he would consume body-refining elixirs and resources to further enhance his physique.

By the end, Ye Liuyun could actually exhaust the Kylin’s True Yuan reserves—though he always stopped once it was drained. He didn’t want to push it to the point of tapping into the power of its spatial realm, fearing he wouldn’t be able to compensate for the loss.

Later, Ye Liuyun summoned his doppelgänger, Lei Ming, the Dragon Maiden, and the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon to take turns sparring with the Purple Kylin Snake.

With Ye Liuyun’s resources replenishing its strength, the Kylin didn’t mind. If anything, it treated the battles as valuable training—beneficial for both sides.

They fought and roamed the starry void until Ye Liuyun received a report from the Falcon reconnaissance team: they had encountered an alien fleet.

According to the Falcons’ intel, at least in terms of numbers, the information Zhuge Feiyu had provided was accurate.

"Three more months of training, then we leave!" Ye Liuyun confirmed the timeline with the group.

So, day after day, they took turns battling across the cosmos. Sometimes, Ye Liuyun even faced Lei Ming, the Dragon Maiden, and the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon simultaneously, letting them attack him in unison.

When the time came for Ye Liuyun and his companions to depart, the Purple Kylin Snake actually seemed reluctant to see them go. To show its appreciation, it demonstrated a unique ability—control over time itself.

While Ye Liuyun and the others were roasting meat, the Kylin made them experience time reversing by half a quarter-hour. The meat in Ye Liuyun’s hands, already perfectly cooked, reverted to its earlier, uncooked state.

The sensation of time flowing backward left them all utterly stunned.

Ye Liuyun watched, wide-eyed, as the roasted meat before him slowly regressed to its previous condition. It felt surreal, like something out of a dream.

"How did you do that?" Ye Liuyun asked the Purple Kylin Snake directly.

"It’s an innate ability of mine, just extremely energy-consuming!" The purple qilin struggled to explain, only knowing it was an inherent divine skill it was born with.

Ye Liuyun glanced at Qinglin, who quickly shook her head. "Don’t look at me—I don’t have that kind of power!"

"How about I provide the energy, and you take us through it a few more times?" Ye Liuyun immediately proposed to the purple qilin.

This was exactly what the creature had hoped for.

Its time-manipulation ability grew stronger with practice, but the energy cost was steep. On days when resources were scarce, it couldn’t afford to train.

Now, with Ye Liuyun acting as its generous patron, the qilin wasn’t about to let this opportunity slip.

"Deal!" it agreed without hesitation.

After hastily finishing their roasted meat, the group mounted the purple qilin’s back. Ye Liuyun channeled the essence of an entire world into the beast, fueling its power.

Meanwhile, he and his doppelgänger focused intently on the sensation of time reversing.

It felt like traversing a shimmering, multicolored river in the void—where everything flowed backward. The radiant hues were woven from countless fleeting moments, each a fragment of reality.

Reaching out, Ye Liuyun tried to grasp the dazzling lights, but his fingers passed right through them as if he were a ghost.

Activating his golden pupils, he saw only fragments of matter whizzing past—disjointed yet forming coherent scenes in his mind’s eye.

This was a world of vivid complexity, yet starkly different from the earlier spectacle of colors. Here, the raw essence of existence laid bare.

Fifteen minutes later, the purple qilin came to a halt, drained of energy. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

But Ye Liuyun and the others remained lost in thought, still immersed in the echoes of that extraordinary experience.

"It feels like stepping into another dimension!" Lei Ming exclaimed, his sentiment eerily mirroring Ye Liuyun’s own experience.

Without hesitation, Ye Liuyun turned to the Purple Kylin Snake and asked, "Forget reversing time—can you simply pull us into that temporal state without altering the flow?"

"Of course! That’s actually easier and far less resource-intensive," the Purple Kylin Snake replied, its voice laced with confidence.

"Perfect. Later, I want you to shift in and out of that state multiple times—let us get a proper feel for it," Ye Liuyun said, his mind already racing with the possibility of unlocking the secrets to entering the River of Time.

Once the Purple Kylin Snake had replenished its energy, they sought out a secluded island, marking their surroundings with deliberate precision. Ye Liuyun even snapped a towering tree in half to serve as a reference point before instructing the creature to demonstrate time reversal once more.

This time, his golden eyes tracked every detail—how the splintered wood seamlessly fused back together, how birds mid-flight rewound their paths through the sky.

Then, at his urging, the Purple Kylin Snake repeatedly slipped in and out of the temporal stream, allowing Ye Liuyun to immerse himself in the sensation.

Yet, for Ye Liuyun, mere observation wasn’t enough. He wanted to delve deeper—into the Purple Kylin Snake’s very consciousness, to experience its firsthand connection to the River of Time.

But the creature balked. Letting them witness the phenomenon was one thing; granting access to its mind, risking the theft of its most guarded ability? That was out of the question. This power was its ultimate trump card.