Chapter 3340

“Master, judging from the current situation, we can cut through this demon vanguard and withdraw from the other side.” After observing the battlefield, Black Mountain felt they could wipe out these elite demon soldiers, which was why he made the suggestion to Ye Liuyun.

“No. That would make it easy for them to surround us, and our soldiers would suffer far too many casualties. Make the arrangements immediately. Have us clear the battlefield as we fight and prepare to withdraw.” Ye Liuyun rejected Black Mountain’s suggestion. He did not want to take the risk of suffering heavy casualties.

His forces were already limited, and he would still have to attack the Holy Demon Galaxy afterward. Ye Liuyun would never sacrifice his soldiers for a dynasty like the Palm Seal Dynasty.

Besides, he only wanted to deal a heavy blow to the demon army; he did not intend to wipe out its main force. If he did that, the army might flee back to the Holy Demon Galaxy.

He planned to leave the demon race with roughly two hundred thousand of its main forces, allowing them to remain locked in a stalemate with the Palm Seal Dynasty. He wanted them to be reluctant to leave and to hold out until Jiang Yuanhai’s army arrived, at which point he could annihilate them in one fell swoop.

That was why he merely had Black Mountain clear the battlefield while advancing and make preparations to withdraw.

“Yes!” Black Mountain carried out Ye Liuyun’s order without the slightest hesitation.

He had the vanguard continue advancing steadily while the rear guard immediately began clearing the battlefield and collecting resources.

The previous battlefield was littered with corpses. The demon army had not yet had time to clear them away, so Ye Liuyun’s army benefited from the situation. The Ancient Demon soldiers at the very rear of the army collected all the corpses, weapons, and equipment into their storage rings as they advanced.

Once the demon armies on both flanks had circled around, Ye Liuyun immediately had his clones take action. They released all the female soldiers, who used firepower chariots to block the enemy and heavy crossbows as support, intercepting the reinforcements as much as possible. At the same time, the clones released giant beasts of spiritual energy to throw the demon formation into disarray.

Ye Liuyun also kept a constant eye on the progress of the battle while continuously condensing giant beasts of spiritual energy to kill demon soldiers.

When the demon grand commander saw that the reinforcements on both flanks had been blocked, he feared that Ye Liuyun’s army would cut straight through them, so he took the initiative to order his soldiers to retreat.

Ye Liuyun felt that they had killed enough of them and that only a little over two hundred thousand demon soldiers remained. He therefore gave Black Mountain the order to withdraw as well.

Thus, the demon armies on both sides began retreating at the same time, and the empty space in the middle of the battlefield grew larger and larger.

The reinforcements on the demon army’s two flanks also stopped charging and began slowly retreating. Ye Liuyun did not have the female soldiers pursue them.

Instead, once the distance between the two sides was sufficiently large, he put the entire army into his spatial world, brought out a flying vessel, and flew straight into the distance, allowing the demon army to watch him leave the battlefield.

The demon grand commander was deeply puzzled that Ye Liuyun had not pursued them while he had the advantage. If Ye Liuyun had continued hunting them down and the reinforcements on both flanks had been unable to protect them, their main force of a little over two hundred thousand soldiers might truly have been wiped out.

After thinking it over for a long while, it could only conclude that Ye Liuyun did not want to fight them to the death and had withdrawn once he had gained the advantage.

After the flying vessel had traveled far enough, Ye Liuyun put it away and used spatial energy to return to the battlefield, where he monitored the demon army’s movements.

The demon army merely sent some soldiers to pick up the few remaining resources before returning to its main camp to reorganize those two hundred thousand primary combat troops.

Those two hundred thousand demon soldiers had originally belonged to five separate armies. Now, they could only be reorganized into two armies of one hundred thousand each.

When Ye Liuyun saw that they had no intention of withdrawing, he felt relieved.

He had two of his clones take the female soldiers directly to the Palm Seal Dynasty to keep an eye on the dynasty’s movements, while he remained here to monitor the demon army.

Unless a particularly suitable opportunity arose afterward, he would not attack this demon army again.

After reorganizing, the demon army actually began advancing again.

“These demons really are formidable. More than half of their main combat force was wiped out, yet they still intend to keep advancing!” Ye Liuyun could not help marveling inwardly at the demon race’s toughness.

Even with only six hundred thousand soldiers remaining in its entire force, the Palm Seal Dynasty was still no match for the demon army. However, the demon army fought much more cautiously afterward, and its main forces generally did not take the field casually.

The demon army had evidently given the ordinary troops the opportunity to temper themselves, while directing the resources it acquired toward them in the hope of cultivating another elite force.

Even when the original main forces went into battle, they would send out only one unit at a time. Even if that made the fighting slower, they would no longer deploy both main-force units.

After that, the Palm Seal Galaxy continually organized martial artists and sent them over, launching several counterattacks in succession, all of which ultimately ended in failure.

In front of a large army, ordinary martial artists were actually inferior in combat power to those soldiers of lower cultivation realms, even if they were somewhat stronger than the soldiers previously encountered. A volley of heavy crossbow bolts could kill more than half of them each time.

Over the following month, the demon race continually occupied planet after planet. After taking them, it did not station troops to guard them. Instead, it slaughtered the inhabitants planet by planet, storing the corpses as food and cultivation resources.

Before long, the demon army was already not far from the Palm Seal Imperial City.

At that moment, Ye Liuyun also received synchronized information from his clones: the Palm Seal Imperial Family had actually begun fleeing in batches.

“Intercept them and wipe them out!”

Ye Liuyun immediately ordered his two clones to take action.

The two clones focused on the flying vessels carrying the princes, princesses, and several important members of the imperial family. Once they flew into the starry sky, the clones condensed giant beasts of spiritual energy and blasted their vessels apart, then seized all the resources they were carrying.

Each clone had five thousand female soldiers accompanying it. Even when the dynasty arranged escort forces, those forces were still no match for the female soldiers and instead became their sparring partners.

When the female soldiers fought these people, they used neither mounts nor heavy crossbows, nor did they use their bloodline powers. Relying solely on their newly improved strength, they were able to eliminate those guards.

After using soul-searching techniques to learn that little of the palace’s remaining defensive force was left, one of the clones directly launched an attack on the imperial palace. It used giant beasts of spiritual energy to annihilate the powerful experts, then released five thousand female soldiers.

The female soldiers wiped out the imperial palace’s treasury, as well as the Palm Seal King and the remaining members of the imperial family who had not yet managed to flee. They seized all the resources, while the corpses were fed to the female soldiers’ Azure Wind Wolves.

Once the imperial family was destroyed, no one organized the martial artists to throw their lives away anymore. Thus, the other martial artists withdrew in advance just as the demons were about to attack.

Only some martial artists organized themselves voluntarily and began waging guerrilla warfare against the demon army. Their strongest members would strike and immediately retreat, slowing the demon army’s progress instead.

Whenever the demon race occupied a planet, it took even longer simply to eliminate the martial artists waging guerrilla warfare against them. As a result, more and more martial artist groups adopted this strategy, and the demon army’s casualties also increased somewhat compared with before.