Chapter 3370
Yu Xiaofeng’s forces later encountered another fifty to sixty thousand demonic soldiers who had fled from Ye Liuyun.
The black-armored soldiers stopped them as well. After killing some of them, Heishan led the demonic soldiers in subduing the rest.
Afterward, the Death Legion gradually withdrew to the camp. Heishan and the Tiger-Head Beast King divided the work between them: Heishan took charge of subduing the surrendered soldiers, while the Tiger-Head Beast King continued leading the demonic army in capturing the demonic soldiers who had scattered.
Jiang Yuanhai completed the planetary blockade. The demonic soldiers who had failed to escape could no longer get away, and most of them were captured by the Tiger-Head Beast King.
Xiao Heng and Li Zhaoyuan caught up with some of the flying vessels and warships carrying the fleeing demonic soldiers through the starry sky, killing quite a few more of them. However, the demonic soldiers no longer had unified command and had fled in every direction, leaving them widely scattered. After pursuing several of the larger warships, the two of them did not chase any farther.
After they returned, Jiang Yuanhai continued to blockade the surrounding starry sky for some time. Once the Tiger-Head Beast King had nearly finished capturing the fleeing soldiers, they returned to the main army’s camp to rest.
Heishan and the Hetou Beast King were still the busiest of them all.
They collected corpses and spoils and reorganized the surrendered soldiers, keeping themselves extremely busy. Almost all the resources seized on the battlefield were given to them.
But their army had grown considerably as well. The surrendered soldiers they had captured in this battle alone already numbered more than two hundred thousand. Adding those who had yet to be reorganized to the demonic soldiers they already had, they had assembled a demonic army of four hundred thousand.
Reorganizing these four hundred thousand surrendered soldiers and sorting and distributing the resources was also an extremely time-consuming task.
Therefore, after Jiang Yuanhai’s and Xiao Heng’s armies had finished resting, Ye Liuyun and the others sent the entire Death Legion out. With the black-armored soldiers and puppets protecting them, they went to clear the surrounding planets of demons and demonic cultivators, giving the Death Legion a chance to hone its combat skills.
Ye Liuyun also handed the emptied Soul-Sealing Pearls to the black-armored soldiers, ordering them to fill them with the souls of demons and demonic cultivators and bring them back.
As for the demonic soldiers eliminated by Heishan, Ye Liuyun directly pulled their souls into the Soul-Refining Cauldron to refine them, then had the people around him absorb them. The demonic energy they could not absorb was also distributed among Heishan, Heiyan, and the other demonic commanders.
The demons of the Sacred Demon Star System were extremely shocked when they learned that the two-million-strong demonic army had been defeated once again. They had never expected that a powerhouse like Qisang and an army of two million demons would be wiped out by human martial cultivators.
The demons thus began mobilizing their entire race, recalling all the demonic armies stationed outside. As for the defeated soldiers, they did not dare let them remain where they were, lest Ye Liuyun wipe them out as well. Instead, they ordered all the defeated soldiers to return to the Sacred Demon Star System on their own.
Four million of the demons’ ten-million-strong army had been wiped out by Ye Liuyun and the others in successive battles, so they also needed to replenish their personnel and equipment.
They were therefore making frantic preparations for war and had no intention of launching another offensive, lest they merely send more heads to Ye Liuyun.
The Soul-Refining Cauldron was a supreme treasure of the Scarlet Demon race, so they were naturally anxious to reclaim it. But if they sent too few powerhouses, they feared being besieged, so they could only patiently wait for Ye Liuyun to come to them.
They estimated that Ye Liuyun’s next destination would be their territory.
The demons intended to let the enemy exhaust himself while they rested. But this instead gave Ye Liuyun and the others an opportunity to increase their soul power.
Every time Ye Liuyun’s Death Legion attacked a planet, the black-armored soldiers would bring back Soul-Sealing Pearls filled with souls, allowing Ye Liuyun, the others, and the commanders to absorb them first and increase their soul power.
There was simply too much soul power. Even the demonic commanders, including Heishan, benefited greatly, each condensing a soul origin of his own.
In the end, because there was far too much demonic energy, many people absorbed only the soul power and not the demonic energy. Ye Liuyun simply refined all that demonic energy and transformed it into Buddhist-Demonic Power for his own use.
The women and demonic beasts increased their soul power even faster. Nearly everyone had condensed at least one soul origin, and they were all assimilating it. The demons’ strategy of resting while awaiting the enemy gave them ample time to increase their soul power.
During this period, Ye Liuyun not only assimilated the second soul origins of both his avatars but also continued to strengthen them considerably. His own two soul origins were likewise constantly devouring the soul power refined by the Soul-Refining Cauldron, increasing their strength.
The soul power of the captured demons and demonic cultivators alone was not enough, so he directly threw dragon souls into the cauldron to refine and absorb them. Since his soul origins had already absorbed and refined quite a few dragon souls, he could absorb newly refined dragon souls faster than the souls of other demons.
However, he did not cultivate any more soul origins. Instead, after ensuring that he and each of his avatars had two soul origins, he focused on continuously strengthening them.
Once he reached the Sacred Demon Star System, he would take one of each avatar’s soul origins back into his own sea of consciousness. Four soul origins should be enough to deal with the demons’ soul powerhouses.
The Death Legion also used this time to conduct some rigorous military training. Even the Tang family disciples and the demonic beasts and women around Ye Liuyun joined the Death Legion and thoroughly enjoyed themselves in battle.
The Sealing Demon Stele was now strong enough to easily suppress demonic powerhouses at the peak of the ninth level.
The more than one hundred planets in this star system were wiped out one by one. Commanders such as Yu Xiaofeng and the soldiers had all undergone thorough tempering before returning to the spatial world of the second avatar to accelerate their cultivation.
The Death Legion had lost twenty thousand soldiers of somewhat lower cultivation, but Yu Xiaofeng did not replenish its ranks. Instead, he planned to select replacements from the armies of the other routes and the elite black-armored troops after their cultivation levels improved.
This time, Ye Liuyun and his two avatars did not hold back either, collecting every planet conquered by the army. Their next battle would take them into the Sacred Demon Star System, and these planets would be of little use if left behind.
After Heishan had completely reorganized and trained the demonic legion, he distributed the large quantity of resources obtained here among the corresponding demonic forces.
He organized two hundred thousand demonic soldiers at the late Guiyi stage to serve as the main combat force. All the resources they had obtained were distributed among these soldiers.
The other two hundred thousand were at the early and middle Guiyi stages. They would be used as cannon fodder for charges or as defensive forces. Heishan did not give them any resources at all, instead letting them cultivate slowly on their own.
The demonic legion then returned to the spatial world of the first avatar to accelerate the refinement of the resources they had obtained and improve their strength.
Ye Liuyun, meanwhile, continued advancing toward the Sacred Demon Star System with Jiang Yuanhai’s and Xiao Heng’s fleets.
He also had to hurry to increase his soul power along the way, so he did not scout ahead for the army and instead left the arrangements to the army itself. Nearly all of their five hundred thousand soldiers were at the ninth level, so they were more than capable of detecting certain dangers.
Even if they failed to detect a threat in time, they could still escape the encirclement of the demonic army by relying on the speed of their warships.
For the sake of safety, Jiang Yuanhai dispatched more than a hundred small flying vessels to cover the surrounding area extending several days’ travel. Several hundred scout vessels took turns rotating out, with a batch dispatched almost every half day, which was more than enough to deal with any danger.