Chapter 2757: Ripping Off the Face

Soon, Lu Xiao received an order from the Empire to assemble the soldiers of all nearby Chengzhu Fu and cooperate with the Empire in preparing to exterminate the Wolf Hunt Mercenary Corps and the Mercenary Guild.

The Empire, seeing that Ye Liuyun did not appear, began preparing to strike at Ye Liuyun's foundation.

They naturally also suspected that Lu Xiao had already defected to Ye Liuyun.

Moreover, if they truly wanted to exterminate the guild and the mercenary corps, they would not need Lu Xiao to act at all.

So after Lu Xiao told Ye Liuyun the news, he also concluded that the Empire had deliberately released the information to stir up a reaction and draw Ye Liuyun out.

Ye Liuyun thought carefully and felt that, having developed this far, it would be hard to continue growing covertly; since the Empire would not tolerate him, he could only devise another plan.

In the shadows, he can relocate at any time, giving him a huge advantage.

And he will never leave these resources to the Empire.

After some consideration, he finally decided to directly pull all these planets into his own Space World.

In this way, the resources and manpower can be taken together.

If anyone chooses to follow or not, it's up to them; just let them escape directly.

Acting decisively, Ye Liuyun completed his action plan and began seizing planets nearest to the Empire.

First he connected with the Primordial Power, then ordered all Martial Cultivators above to evacuate; those unwilling to leave would be pulled into the Space World by him.

Some City Lords and major powers would naturally leave of their own accord.

By the time they reported the news, the Empire reacted and sent people to capture Ye Liuyun, those fourteen planets had already vanished.

The speed of seizing planets surprised the Empire.

Their Martial Cultivators analyzed that it could not have been done by Ye Liuyun alone; otherwise such a rate of three to four planets per day would be impossible.

Even Martial Cultivators of the Sevenfold Sovereign could not achieve this.

Yet, it was indeed Ye Liuyun alone who did it.

In his current Space World, there are already hundreds of planets; directly seizing a dozen more is fully supported by the Primordial Power.

The few later planets that were barely pulled in can be gradually refined; there will be no serious maladaptation.

Regardless of whether the Empire believes it was Ye Liuyun alone, they have launched a full‑scale manhunt on him.

Seizing planets under the Empire's nose and snatching its resources is a grave crime.

Ye Liuyun has completely broken ties with the Empire.

The Transmission Talisman Liu Haotian gave him was already pulled into his Space World, preventing the Empire from tracking his whereabouts.

When needed later, he can still contact Liu Haotian, Meng Wenxiang, Han Qiao and others.

He himself changes his appearance and continues to develop mercenary forces on surrounding planets.

He uses the same method, only changing the name.

After developing four or five planets, he directly seizes those planets, then moves elsewhere, changes the name, and repeats.

Thus, the Star Chart Empire is tormented by Ye Liuyun beyond endurance.

Yet their control over each planet is weak, making it hard to obtain information promptly.

By the time they get the information, Ye Liuyun has already acted to seize the planet, then disappears without a trace, never to be found.

Only when a planet vanishes can they infer from the method that it was done by Ye Liuyun's group.

Finally, the Empire began to strike against mercenary corps across the lands.

To prevent them from growing strong.

This left many mercenary corps homeless, their grievances echoing.

Ye Liuyun secretly dispatched Mo Ran with a team of Martial Cultivators to covertly recruit people everywhere.

This team consists of older, experienced Martial Cultivators; because of their age they cannot join the elite squads, making them better suited to conceal their identities and subdue mercenaries across regions.

And Ye Liuyun's Wolf Hunt Mercenary Corps, due to the Empire's manhunt, has become increasingly renowned.

Some struggling mercenary corps, when encountering recruiting Martial Cultivator Elders, voluntarily defect.

Suddenly, the number of Ye Liuyun's mercenary corps expands rapidly.

Ye Liuyun worries that the recruits might contain Imperial spies.

So he instructs Mo Ran and his team to cease recruiting under the Wolf Hunt Mercenary Corps name, instead dispersing across regions under various mercenary titles, though the rules remain similar to the Wolf Hunt Mercenary Corps.

As a result, the Empire cannot send spies into the Wolf Hunt Mercenary Corps.

The Wolf Hunt Mercenary Corps seems to have vanished; no one mentions it anymore.

Meanwhile, various large mercenary corps across the lands have flourished.

These mercenary corps operate independently, appearing unconnected, like mercenaries banding together for warmth, and have not drawn much Imperial attention.

The Empire's investigation into Ye Liuyun's whereabouts has become a complete stalemate.

The intensity of the Empire's crackdown on regional mercenary corps has gradually lessened from its initial vigor.

Without any airtight walls, after a while Liu Haotian also learned the Empire's reasons for pursuing Ye Liuyun and told Han Qiao and Meng Wenxiang.

"Really damn shameful! How is this any different from bandits?"

"Damned Empire!"

Han Qiao openly berated the Empire's actions and also worried about Ye Liuyun's safety.

"Alas, I don't know if there's still a chance to fight alongside him!"

Meng Wenxiang sighed.

He feels that Ye Liuyun has completely broken with the Star Chart Empire and may never return to the army.

However, Ye Liuyun has not replied to their messages during this period, and they cannot reach him.

Liu Haotian's Transmission Talisman has long been seized by the Empire.

But they target only Ye Liuyun, yet have been unable to monitor any signal of his appearance.

Everyone assumes Ye Liuyun is hiding his name and evading the Empire's manhunt everywhere.

But what they didn't expect was that Ye Liuyun merely altered his appearance and spent each day carefree, busy digging the corners of the Star Disk Empire.

The Sharp Blade Corps has already expanded to nearly ten thousand people, and even the lowest‑ranked members are Zhuanzai Sanchong Martial Cultivators, while the highest are more than a dozen Sevenfold Sovereign Martial Cultivators, all captured from the Martial Cultivators of the Star Disk Empire who were tracking him.

The Wolf Hunt Mercenary Corps now numbers fifty thousand in reality, not counting the Mercenaries gathered by the Elders of Mo Ran's team.

Each person commands a Mercenary unit of over a thousand, totaling more than two hundred thousand together.

They all focus on commodity trade, and the resources are supplied by Ye Liuyun.

As a result, Ye Liuyun has made a good profit.

He now lacks neither resources nor people.

He himself spends each day sparring with Foreign Tribe members, then calmly cultivates.

When he has free time he wanders around, studies how to acquire those Xingqiu, and expands his own Space World.

The Chengzhu Fu in various regions have not escaped his extortion; each time he obtains a substantial amount of resources.

The Thief Cat also acts frequently, and each haul is lucrative.

He controls five or six Inspection Envoys in various regions, and is well aware of the Star Disk Empire's movements.

No matter how the Empire tempts him, he simply never shows his face, and the Empire cannot get at him.