Chapter 3354

Ao Yan’s flying ships changed course and went ahead to wait for Ye Liuyun, which naturally did not escape Ye Liuyun and the others’ golden eyes.

“Since they aren’t in a hurry, we’ll take our time as well. Let’s first raise everyone’s strength, then have a showdown with them.”

Ye Liuyun also had everyone slow down and seize the time to improve. As for the Demon-Sealing Stele, he had it absorb as much power as possible and further increase its strength. It might be able to help when they dealt with Ao Yan.

The Death Legion also trained while gaining combat experience, fighting at an unhurried, steady pace.

Ye Liuyun and his clone were devouring dragon souls to increase their soul power. After Ao Yan reached the planet ahead, it did not remain idle either. Instead, it had its people gather all the low-realm demonic cultivators there and send them to it in batches so it could devour their soul power.

In the eyes of the demon race, these low-realm demonic cultivators were nothing but trash—food as well as cultivation resources. There were nowhere near as many soul-power resources available for cultivation in the Sacred Demon Galaxy.

That was the main reason it had been willing to come this time. Once here, it could do whatever it pleased and obtain a massive amount of soul power.

Its method of cultivation was also quite unusual. It first pulled the souls of those people, one by one, into a small black cauldron. This cauldron was a supreme treasure of the Red Demon Clan called the Soul-Refining Cauldron. It could refine souls into purer soul power, saving it a great deal of cultivation time.

However, the soul power Ao Yan converted with it was infused with extremely pure demonic energy, making it suitable only for demons or demonic cultivators.

Ao Yan had come fully prepared this time. It had deliberately brought the cauldron along, intending to convert as many soul-cultivation resources as possible for absorption later.

After the Demon Saint Son arrived, the demonic soldiers and powerful demonic cultivators from the surrounding planets were also transferred there, forming a vast million-strong army. Shrouded in demonic energy and billowing black mist, it stretched beyond sight.

Of the more than two hundred demonic experts Ao Yan had brought, some were lying in ambush underground at the positions reserved for Ye Liuyun’s army in front of the formation. Once the battle began, they would launch surprise attacks on the commanders within the army.

Others were lying in ambush in the dense forests on both sides, using formations to conceal themselves. Once the battle began, they would focus their attacks on Ye Liuyun and the army’s supreme commanders.

After half a month, Ye Liuyun’s Death Legion finally fought its way to the side of the enemy’s planet opposite the army.

From this position, commanders such as Yu Xiaofeng, who had refined the golden eyes, could already see through the demonic energy and observe the situation of the demonic army opposite them.

As for Ye Liuyun’s golden eyes, because he had refined the Third Eye of an alien race, they could see the souls of the demons hidden within the formations in the dense forests on both sides. His golden eyes also possessed fairly powerful penetrating abilities, allowing him to see the demonic experts lying in ambush beneath the ground.

He could even see Ao Yan cultivating inside the city opposite them.

Ao Yan was absorbing soul power from a small black cauldron in its cultivation room. The moment Ye Liuyun looked over with his golden eyes, Ao Yan sensed it at once. It promptly put away the Soul-Refining Cauldron and extended its divine sense toward Ye Liuyun’s side to investigate.

Soon, Ao Yan’s divine sense reached them and swept over their army.

Ye Liuyun, Yu Xiaofeng, and the others were all in the main tent at that moment. The tent was protected by formations set up by Qiong Qi and the other grand formation masters, so Ao Yan’s divine sense could not penetrate it.

Moreover, there were several hundred tents like this, equipped with defensive formations and distributed throughout Ye Liuyun’s entire camp.

In fact, these tents had been specially set up for the Black-armored Soldiers, allowing them to defend against surprise attacks by powerful enemies throughout the camp. Each tent housed anywhere from several dozen to dozens of Black-armored Soldiers. The main command tent and the tents on the camp’s outermost perimeter had somewhat more soldiers stationed in them.

After investigating, Ao Yan discovered only several patrol teams of a dozen or so Black-armored Soldiers inside the camp. The Death Legion, meanwhile, had formed up outside the camp and begun sweeping through the local planet.

Ao Yan had received reports about the Death Legion’s strength long ago and knew that they were only at the mid-stage of the Return-to-One Realm. It assumed that the main combat power of Ye Liuyun’s army still lay in the firepower chariots and the ten thousand puppets.

The puppets and firepower chariots were dead objects and lacked flexibility. Once the experts it sent charged into the army, the firepower chariots and puppets would be unable to do much.

Even if there were some patrol teams of Black-armored Soldiers in the army, its side had an absolute advantage in the number of experts, so it had nothing to worry about.

Ye Liuyun also described Ao Yan’s arrangements to Yu Xiaofeng and the others.

“We can launch a surprise attack on them. Have the female soldiers circle around to their rear and strike their army first. As for the experts in front, it would be best if you could deal with them in advance. We also need to send someone to keep an eye on Ao Yan and prevent it from escaping,” Yu Xiaofeng suggested.

“All right, then. I’ll go out now and draw Ao Yan’s attention while sending my clone to ambush those hidden experts.” Ye Liuyun agreed.

He immediately had his second clone lead the female soldiers around to the rear of the opposing army and lie in ambush. Then he had his first clone take Chi Lian, Xiao Lanbing, and two Vespera beasts to the opposite planet to attack those experts.

After making the arrangements, Ye Liuyun led the people around him outside to gain combat experience and draw Ao Yan’s attention.

When Ao Yan saw Ye Liuyun and the others come out, it naturally began paying attention, observing their battles and assessing their strength.

It paid especially close attention when Vermilion Bird and the other beasts launched soul attacks, carefully sensing the strength of the beasts’ soul power.

It also watched the Demon-Sealing Stele for a while. However, it was too far away at the moment to sense the stele’s suppressive effect on demons. It could only tell that the stele was already capable of dealing with demonic cultivators in the late ninth level.

Ao Yan itself was at the peak of the ninth level, however, so it did not attach much importance to the Demon-Sealing Stele. It still felt that its subordinates’ reports of the stele being terrifying were mainly because those people had been too weak.

It also did not know that the Demon-Sealing Stele could devour soul power. Even when those people were pinned beneath the stele, they had still been able to call for help at first, which indicated that their souls had not been controlled.

It believed that its soul power was strong enough that even if it were temporarily suppressed by the Demon-Sealing Stele, it would not be hindered from attacking. It might even be able to kill Ye Liuyun and claim the stele for itself.

Moreover, as the Demon Saint Son of the Sacred Demon Galaxy, Ao Yan had plenty of life-saving trump cards. It certainly possessed a Void-rank armor, so it had not worried about its own safety at all.

What interested Ao Yan most among Ye Liuyun’s people were the three beasts—Lei Ming, the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon, and the Demon Lion. They were all demonic beasts, and not only were their realms high, their strength was formidable as well.

After seeing them, Ao Yan wanted to subdue all three demonic beasts. It therefore carefully examined every aspect of their strength. In particular, the strength of their soul power was the key factor determining whether it could subdue them.

After discovering that the soul power of all three demonic beasts was inferior to its own, it relaxed. It also checked the Interspatial Ring it specifically used to raise demonic beasts. Inside were four demonic beasts it had trained, which it could release to fight when the time came.