Chapter 3341

By the time the demon army reached the royal capital, the palace had long since been reduced to a complete mess.

After Ye Liuyun looted the palace, quite a few bold martial cultivators also entered it to scavenge for anything left behind. By then, there were no resources left inside.

The demons did not care, however. After occupying the planet, they simply continued advancing.

By the time Jiang Yuanhai and the others’ fleet was about to arrive, the demon army had been reduced to fewer than five hundred thousand soldiers.

Their grand commander was also preparing to withdraw. The resources they had collected here were already enough to support those five hundred thousand demon soldiers in cultivation for a long time.

They had also been on tenterhooks these past few days, worried that Ye Liuyun’s army might launch another surprise attack at any moment. They still had the advantage in numbers, but if they suffered another heavy blow, their entire army could be wiped out.

Therefore, the demon army had begun pulling back over the past two days. Its main force of two hundred thousand soldiers was already organizing its equipment, inspecting the warships, and extracting the origin power of the planet they were on. The other detachments were hunting down martial cultivators in the surrounding area, hoping to obtain a few more resources before leaving.

“You want to leave as soon as the battle is over? What a pity—you won’t be able to get away!”

Ye Liuyun had already noticed the demon army’s movements. He estimated that they would return the way they had come, collecting the origin power from each planet along the route. They had probably not taken the planets with them because their spatial worlds were not yet large enough.

The demon warships, however, were slower than their own. Jiang Yuanhai’s fleet was about to arrive, and even if the demons fled toward the Sacred Demon Star System right now, they would soon be caught.

Ye Liuyun’s guess was exactly right. After extracting a planet’s origin power, the demons all boarded their warships and headed back, collecting the origin power from each planet in the order in which they had attacked them.

Whenever human martial cultivators returned to some of the planets, the demons would take the opportunity to send soldiers over and conduct another sweep.

That delay was enough for Jiang Yuanhai’s fleet to intercept the demon army on the next planet.

The demons had no idea where this army had come from. When they saw the fleet arrive, they initially assumed it was the final force organized by the Seal-Bearing Star System. They were even preparing to destroy this army before leaving.

But when Jiang Yuanhai’s army disembarked from the warships and formed ranks, the demons discovered that all its soldiers were at the Ninth Stage of Return to One—far higher than the cultivation levels of the soldiers they had encountered before.

The soldiers alone were vastly stronger than the demons. Moreover, once the army had formed up, firepower chariots rolled out at the front of the formation.

“They’re allies of that demon army!” The demon grand commander immediately recognized the firepower chariots and realized that something was wrong.

They had already experienced the power of those firepower chariots. To make matters worse, the enemy soldiers were stronger, while Ye Liuyun’s demon army had not appeared again. If it was hiding nearby and launched another surprise attack, their entire army would be wiped out.

Jiang Yuanhai, however, gave them no time to think. As soon as the formation was ready, he ordered the soldiers to attack. With firepower chariots in front and shield-bearing soldiers behind them, an army of three hundred thousand advanced toward the demons in a fan-shaped formation.

The demon army could not retreat now either, or they would be pursued and attacked. Thus, the demon grand commander immediately ordered the three hundred thousand ordinary soldiers to meet the enemy, while keeping the two hundred thousand strongest soldiers behind to guard against Ye Liuyun’s surprise attack.

“Fire!”

At Jiang Yuanhai’s command, the firepower chariots began firing in a dense barrage.

Jiang Yuanhai was always cautious when directing battles. He would not rely on his soldiers’ strength to clash head-on with the enemy. Unless the firepower chariots had eliminated half the enemy army, he would not order his soldiers to charge.

The three hundred thousand soldiers under his command had enough firepower chariots to form an impenetrable blockade. Thus, although the demon soldiers charged for a long time and were blasted to death in large numbers, they could not advance even a single step.

Even when the demon soldiers raised their shields, the energy cannons of the firepower chariots blasted them into the air.

Seeing this, the demon grand commander knew that defeat was inevitable. He immediately ordered the two hundred thousand elite soldiers to board the warships and prepare to withdraw.

But just as they boarded the warships, Ye Liuyun made his move. A gigantic thunder dragon beast condensed from spiritual energy struck with a single claw, smashing both hundred-thousand-class warships to pieces and blasting the soldiers inside them back out.

“The people who ambushed us before really were hiding nearby!”

The demon grand commander finally understood. These humans intended to wipe them out here.

It immediately let out an angry roar and ordered another hundred thousand elite soldiers into the battlefield, intending to engage Ye Liuyun and the others in close combat.

Without even waiting for Ye Liuyun to say anything, Jiang Yuanhai had the firepower chariots seal off the defensive line, refusing to let the demons approach. Whenever they charged too fiercely, he even ordered the army to retreat slowly and increase the distance between them.

The entire demon army charged while the firepower chariots bombarded them without pause. The demons suffered heavy losses, and after an hour of fighting, nearly half the army had already been blasted to death. If the battle continued, the demon army would be wiped out in less than half a day.

Suddenly, the demon army’s commander began retreating with the last hundred thousand soldiers at its side. It wanted to preserve those hundred thousand troops.

At that moment, Ye Liuyun’s demon army suddenly appeared on both sides of the hundred thousand soldiers. They set up firepower chariots and bombarded them, while also using heavy crossbows to help pick them off. However, they did not seal off the demons’ escape route.

Jiang Yuanhai coordinated with Ye Liuyun. He suddenly stopped retreating and instead ordered the firepower chariots forward, while the soldiers fired their bows and crossbows in unison and launched a counterattack.

The demon grand commander did not dare stop with the last hundred thousand soldiers. It could only continue charging ahead, escaping with as many troops as possible.

Ye Liuyun then gave the order for the ancient demon soldiers to charge, cutting the hundred thousand-man force in half. The grand commander tried to turn back and rescue the rear half that had been cut off, but one of Ye Liuyun’s clones sent out the female soldiers, who used firepower chariots to block them.

The demon grand commander had no choice but to flee with the remaining fifty thousand soldiers.

Relying on the speed of the Azure Wind Wolves, the female soldiers held their crossbows and continued shooting the demons from behind. The two clones also kept condensing gigantic beasts of spiritual energy and sending them crashing into the demon army to wreak havoc.

The demon army’s commander was struck by an arrow from the Demon-Hunting Bow wielded by the first clone. Half of its shoulder was blasted away, but the creature was lucky enough to survive and escaped under the protection of its soldiers.

After pursuing and killing the demons for half a day, the female soldiers reduced that detachment of the demon army to fewer than twenty thousand troops. Only then did they stop the pursuit, using their storage rings to collect the bodies and weapons of the demon soldiers.

Ye Liuyun’s first clone continued following the remaining demon soldiers while remaining invisible. The second clone gathered all the resources and left them for the demon soldiers, while the female soldiers returned to his spatial world to accelerate their cultivation.

Ye Liuyun’s side also finished the battle, ultimately capturing more than twenty thousand prisoners. Since both sides in the battle consisted of demon soldiers, the demons found it easier to accept surrender, and they did not resist to the bitter end.