Chapter 3149: Looking for Someone to Practice With

The soldiers left under Xiao Heng's command quickly dropped to five hundred. They also felt the soldiers had grown stronger, so they voluntarily asked Ye Liuyun for a battle, hoping to regain their standing in Ye Liuyun's mind and also to clear their own names.

Ye Liuyun merely smiled, agreed to give them a chance, and had them immediately prepare their troops.

He thought Xiao Heng and Li Zhaoyuan's drill experience was fine, and the soldiers had indeed grown stronger, but their ability to command troops was far lacking. The two lacked personal combat awareness.

Although he knew the two were ambitious, there was currently no environment to cultivate them. To develop combat awareness, they needed countless battlefield drills.

So he also wanted them to recognize their problems and thoroughly grind away their arrogance.

As for these soldiers, although they had grown stronger, their individual strength was still far from being able to challenge higher levels, and they still needed constant tempering.

Thus he let Tang Xinyao's team engage them in real combat, launching a surprise attack.

As a result, Tang Xinyao's team easily broke into their camp, then charged straight through their main force, killing a path and retreating intact. Fortunately, with Meng Tianlin and Lin Mo present, they wounded two; otherwise they would have suffered a worse defeat.

Xiao Heng and Li Zhaoyuan still objected, saying Tang Xinyao had ambushed them. So Ye Liuyun similarly notified Heishan to prepare for battle, then had Xiao Heng and Li Zhaoyuan lead troops to ambush Heishan.

Consequently, Xiao Heng's force was cut in half; the remainder barely escaped, being pursued and killed by Heishan.

"Do you know the gap now?" Ye Liuyun casually asked after the battle, then left them to reflect on their own.

Xiao Heng and Li Zhaoyuan were utterly demoralized, never expecting that after training such strong troops they would still be defeated.

However, after a few days of respite, they again asked Ye Tiandao, Xiao Yunfang, and Meng Qingyin why, despite the soldiers' growth, they still lost battles.

Ye Tiandao was not good at expressing himself, and felt embarrassed to say their two commands were inadequate, so he simply avoided them.

Xiao Yunfang and Meng Qingyin directly pointed out their two problems, saying their combat awareness was too poor, and they fundamentally lacked awareness of war's cruelty. If this isn't fixed, even the strongest troops would be useless to them.

After educating Xiao Heng and Li Zhaoyuan, Ye Liuyun also felt it was time to give them more opportunities for real combat, so they could sense and improve themselves in battle.

The demon beast corps, monster beasts, and the women had also trained enough; it was time for them to go out and practice.

During this period, Ye Liuyun had already refined that purple pupil into his first doppelganger.

He wanted to give that purple pupil to those around him for refinement, but the women worried it looked too strange, fearing it would make them ugly and unwanted. The monster beasts also had their own pupils; they had no interest in this eye that consumes soul power to kill opponents, thinking it was not as good as the foreign tribe's three-eyed version.

Ye Liuyun also did not want this good thing wasted, so he had his first doppelganger refine it directly; fortunately, his soul lacked a special pupil, and with this purple pupil he also gained a life-saving trump card.

The first doppelganger refined the purple pupil onto the soul's eye; the golden pupil was unaffected.

This purple pupil's abilities like clairvoyance are indeed considerably stronger than the golden pupil's, but even using it for clairvoyance or defending against soul attacks consumes some soul power; using purple light to annihilate an opponent's soul consumes even more soul power. Thus he treats it merely as a trump card, not to be used lightly.

During this period, the dynasty also sent many Imperial Guard experts outward to capture them, and even dispatched troops to protect the medicine-material planet of the Fan family. The Fan family, too, was on high alert, preparing for a major threat.

The scouts and Holy Fire Chamber of Commerce arranged by Ye Liuyun also sent him information, so he temporarily would not act against the Fan family.

The Fire Seal Dynasty could do nothing about them; unable to find them and with them fleeing quickly, it could only dispatch reinforcements upon receiving news.

Thus he used the Black Tower teleport to return to the Duqiao star system, preparing to practice on the bandits there. He estimated that even if the Fire Seal Dynasty sent warships to take advantage of the gap and encircle them, it would still take some time.

He let the two demon race corps each attack a planet, and Ye Liuyun equipped each with two assassins to help them resist strong enemies' surprise attacks.

Xiao Heng, Li Zhaoyuan and their people were also placed by Ye Liuyun on a planet, to fight on their own and obtain future cultivation resources.

But Ye Liuyun equipped them with five assassins—two to deal with strong opponents, three to recover equipment, especially Storage Yuan Stones and the like, which must all be brought back and not left for the Fire Seal Dynasty.

Ye Liuyun also led the monster beasts and Tang Xinyao's team to attack a planet, while his two doppelgangers protected the women as they sought a city to practice in.

The ancient demon corps and demon race corps have recently increased their strength rapidly, so the speed of capturing cities is faster; each time they deploy three thousand soldiers, rotating battles nonstop, they can take three or four cities in a day. After each battle ends, they simply gather the loot and rush to the next city, without time to tally.

Ye Liuyun, leading the monster beasts and Tang Xinyao's team, did the same—each sortie with full effort, after fighting they immediately rushed to the next city, handing over the battlefield to the Magic Vine for cleanup. The Demon Lion, meanwhile, went ahead to sweep clean the places rich in resources such as the Chamber of Commerce and the City Lord's Mansion, gathering the most important supplies first.

Only the women's combat was somewhat slower; they still focused on practice, but they also fought without cease.

Two days later, Ye Liuyun received news that the dynasty had sent Imperial Guard troops rushing over.

Afterwards, Jiang Yunmo also contacted Ye Liuyun. The information she provided was more detailed, even including the numbers, strength, and expected arrival time of the Imperial Guard.

She also told Ye Liuyun: "Local bandit gangs have already sent nearly a hundred cultivators of the Return to One Sixth Seventh Layer over there, though their target remains unclear."

Ye Liuyun thought: that number definitely wouldn't dare to act against the two demon race corps; it would essentially be either them or Xiao Heng's group.

Ye Liuyun thanked her and was about to put away the Transmission Talisman, but Jiang Yunmo asked him: "Aren't you looting resources? Why are you now looting the bandits?"

The reason Jiang Yunmo knows his identity yet still cooperates is merely because she thinks he is just an outside martial cultivator seeking some resources, and does not think highly of him.

"My strength has risen recently; I'm just looking for someone to practice on," Ye Liuyun said casually.

"Oh? Then I might as well give you some targets for you to practice on," Jiang Yunmo said upon hearing that, also feeling it was a good opportunity to let Ye Liuyun help her suppress her rivals.

Ye Liuyun immediately understood her meaning, but he didn't mind: "Sure. Send me the detailed information and coordinates of the target; if the difficulty isn't great, I'll arrange an attack."

Jiang Yunmo acknowledged and went to make the list. She also had to consider which opponents to eliminate.