Chapter 2209: Pursuit and Interception

The Imperial Guard trapped in the Formation used every treasure they could.

But as casualties mounted, the remaining men grew anxious.

Although there was no Leader, some still rallied their comrades, preparing to break out together.

So the gathered Imperial Guard launched another assault on the protective shield.

Ye Liuyun's Technique kept killing them.

But soon, the clone's Mysterious Origin was exhausted.

The All-Purpose Cauldron was not on the clone.

The Storage Yuan Stone was in his hand.

But now, as his strength grew, the Storage Yuan Stone could no longer fully replenish his Mysterious Origin.

He also needed to reserve some Mysterious Origin for a crucial moment, so he could only watch those Imperial Guard attack the shield.

Ye Liuyun, seeing this, knew the Formation would eventually be broken.

He simultaneously told Ye Tiandao to prepare for battle and instructed Xiao Yunfang to dispatch troops for interception.

He had her organize squads of ten thousand soldiers each, releasing one squad every half‑day toward Qiming City to intercept the defeated Imperial Guard, with the city's defense handed to Yu Xiaofeng.

The Imperial Guard gathered beneath the shield suddenly erupted in explosions.

These extensions of the Formation and some special configurations were added later by Qiong Qi, even Ye Liuyun was unaware.

Qiong Qi had clearly anticipated that they would concentrate to assault the shield, so he set up a special attack here.

This time the Divine Crystal exploded, killing nearly a hundred Imperial Guard outright.

The other Imperial Guard soldiers immediately scattered to evade, but explosions rang around them, blasting them into fragments of flesh and bone.

Ye Liuyun, watching so many Imperial Guard die in the blasts, felt a pang of sorrow.

But there was no choice; if they broke the Formation too early, it would cause huge losses to the pursuing Sharp Knife Squad.

All he could do now was to gather as many captives and corpses as possible.

The entire Formation was in chaos; some scattered Imperial Guard were too preoccupied to help themselves.

The gathered Imperial Guard kept bombarding the shield to break the Formation, and no one even noticed him.

At that moment, Qiong Qi transmitted a voice to Ye Liuyun: "The Formation can hold for another half‑hour! They're all inside; attacking them consumes too much energy!"

Qiong Qi said regretfully.

"That's enough! Leave the rest to me!"

Ye Liuyun didn't feel regretful; the effect far exceeded his expectations.

Although Qiong Qi usually talks boastfully, when he handles matters, Ye Liuyun is always completely at ease.

After the explosion, those Imperial Guard quickly regrouped, recklessly attacking the shield again.

After all, if they didn't break the Formation, they would all die inside.

Before long, the shield's glow began to dim.

But the remaining Imperial Guard soldiers kept dwindling.

Only a few scattered soldiers remained; the majority of Imperial Guard had gathered to assault the Formation.

Some defended against the Formation's attacks, while others hammered it full‑force, their coordination growing ever smoother.

"The Formation is about to be breached; I'll give them one final surprise!"

Qiong Qi transmitted a voice to Ye Liuyun at that moment.

"Alright!"

Ye Liuyun replied affirmatively and immediately informed Ye Tiandao.

"It's about to break! Everyone, push harder!"

At this point, some Imperial Guard noticed the Formation could no longer hold.

The protective shield began to flicker on and off.

As they glimpsed hope, all the energy inside the Formation suddenly converged toward them, forming a massive fist that slammed them.

The troops in the middle couldn't even attempt to flee; they were engulfed by a flash of Technique.

The Formation vanished along with it, leaving no barrier at all.

While the Imperial Guard were stunned, Ye Liuyun deployed the Sharp Knife Squad in a three‑sided encirclement and attacked them.

The Imperial Guard were exhausted, had no will to fight, and immediately rushed outward through the breach.

Ye Liuyun and his clone instantly became invisible, moved in, and began gathering the wounded captives.

When the Formation collapsed, over three thousand Imperial Guard escaped, but were immediately attacked again by the Sharp Knife Squad; only a little more than two thousand broke through and kept fleeing.

Ye Tiandao left three thousand behind to surround that thousand Imperial Guard, and with the remaining seven thousand continued the pursuit.

Ye Liuyun handed this area to his clone, while he kept pursuing with Ye Tiandao's main force.

At this moment, Mo Xiaotian, who had been hoping for good news, also learned the Imperial Guard's situation through the Divine Soul Contract.

Although he constantly berated Ye Liuyun's army, he couldn't ignore those Imperial Guard soldiers.

He also couldn't leave them to Ye Liuyun, so he had to command their escape.

So he controlled the Imperial Guard, leaving two to three hundred each time to block the Sharp Knife Squad's pursuit, allowing the rest to keep fleeing.

After a few days of fleeing, the Imperial Guard were down to just over a thousand.

And each of them had nearly exhausted their True Essence.

At that point, they ran head‑on into an interception force of ten thousand soldiers.

Under Mo Xiaotian's control, they could not surrender and had to fight desperately, carving a bloody path.

But this time, only a little over three hundred Imperial Guard managed to escape.

Many were killed or captured from sheer exhaustion.

Ye Tiandao still led troops in pursuit from behind; the remaining three hundred plus people ran forward for another half day, originally intending to catch their breath, but they encountered another ten-thousand-strong interception force.

Mo Xiaotian also knew they were completely done for, so he simply stopped caring about them.

And once these people lost Mo Xiaotian's control, they immediately surrendered.

Otherwise they would have been captured after fighting to exhaustion; the result would be the same.

Ye Liuyun once again annihilated the Imperial Guard.

The Zhongxing Dynasty indeed lived up to expectations; ten thousand Imperial Guard were again completely wiped out.

Moreover, Ye Liuyun's army began to value the Imperial Guard, daring not to underestimate their combat strength.

After Ye Tiandao and the intercepting unit handed over the prisoners to Ye Liuyun, they returned to garrison the three outer cities.

Ye Liuyun counted the number of Imperial Guard captured in this battle: over three thousand six hundred.

However, most of these people were seriously injured and needed time to recover.

Ye Liuyun brought them all back to Qiming City for settlement, letting them cultivate and recover.

After returning to Qiming City, Ye Liuyun's first act was to thank Qiong Qi, letting his master and disciple openly enjoy a barbecue feast, and he also gave Qiong Qi many Divine Crystals to help him set up another defensive formation.

Ye Liuyun also discussed with Song An the plan for the army's advance.

At this moment, Liu Yang and Mo Shaowen were also engaged in a major battle against the Zhongxing Dynasty's Imperial Guard.

Targeting their Imperial Guard, which was not numerous, they also used the captured martial cultivators they had taken prisoner to fight the Imperial Guard head-on; although casualties were not small, they also shattered the Imperial Guard's offensive.

Therefore, Ye Liuyun and Song An felt they could let the army advance further, to see what trump card the Zhongxing Dynasty still had to respond with.

Thus, Ye Liuyun notified all the armies to try to advance forward, but to be ready to retreat at any moment, and not to station heavy troops to defend the cities.

When encountering a counterattack, they would immediately retreat back to their current area of activity.