The strongest two within his own ranks having advanced to the Void Refining stage filled Lei Dong with renewed confidence. Although he had managed to preserve his strength by employing a strategy of 'breaking the whole into parts' during this time, the reality was that under the Emperor of the Dark Night’s near-mad encirclement, they had been chased like stray dogs.

Lei Dong had long suppressed this humiliation, yearning to finally vent his frustrations. Yet, this period of desperate hiding and constraint had not been entirely without benefit. With the exception of Wan Yan, who for some unknown reason refused to cultivate within the Grotto-Heavens and instead remained outside to oversee the situation, all members of Lei Dong’s first echelon saw their cultivation levels soar thanks to the abundant supply of Chaos Crystals.

Lei Dong was no less generous to himself, utilizing both the Origin of Chaos and Chaos Crystals, two heavyweight resources. His originally above-average aptitude had now elevated to that of an ordinary genius. The only minor regret was that the Origin of Chaos was far too scarce to elevate his aptitude to the level of someone like Wan Yan.

Even so, by not holding back on his own development and consuming over a dozen Chaos Crystals consecutively, Lei Dong had reached the peak of the initial Soul Transformation stage, just a step away from the middle stage. While such rapid advancement risked destabilizing his foundation and potentially inviting backlash from Qi deviation, with the great enemy pressing close, Lei Dong could afford no reservations about urgently boosting his strength.

As for Dongfang Fu, Xiao You, and Tian Mo, due to their exceptional innate talent coupled with plentiful resources, they too experienced repeated breakthroughs, reaching the middle stage of the Soul Transformation realm by now. Others also made various degrees of progress, which need not be detailed here. Worth noting is Lei Dong's direct contingent: the nascent Soul Transformation stage Dragon Soldiers now numbered sixty-eight. Combined with others, they could scrape together a true Soul Transformation strike team.

With such might, even Void Refining experts would hesitate to confront them head-on. It must be remembered that while Void Refining experts could slaughter Nascent Soul cultivators like chopping vegetables, facing Soul Transformation cultivators was not nearly so easy. Killing any single one within a move or two proved difficult, especially for those at the middle or higher Soul Transformation stages, who could often withstand several rounds of assault.

If they managed to stall even slightly, allowing the others to swarm in for an attack, even a Void Refining expert forged from Chaos Iron could hardly escape severe injury or death. Of course, Lei Dong was not foolish enough to throw his elite Soul Transformation squad directly against a Void Refining expert; that was far too dangerous. If a Void Refining expert went berserk in a suicidal frenzy, they could take down twenty or thirty Soul Transformation cultivators before perishing. The loss of even one of these core elites would cause Lei Dong immense pain. After all, sustained by the resources in this chaotic space, Lei Dong had every chance to gradually nurture these top-tier talents to break through to the Void Refining realm. It would be a catastrophic loss to let them perish easily by clashing head-on with the enemy's apex forces; Lei Dong certainly wouldn't permit it.

Beyond that, the construction of Lei Dong's Nascent Soul troop base had proven far faster than anticipated. After all, whether it was the Fierce Ghost Soldiers spawned from Supreme Grade Spirit Ghosts or the remaining minority of Golden Core stage Dragon Soldiers, their aptitudes were considerable. This was especially true for the Fierce Ghost Soldiers originating from Supreme Grade Spirit Ghosts, whose ascent to the Nascent Soul realm was essentially guaranteed. In this chaotic space, with the spiritual Qi of Chaos exceptionally dense, even without deploying Chaos Crystals, their cultivation sped up remarkably, making the advancement to Nascent Soul extremely effortless.

Furthermore, cultivators such as the Abyss Demons, Shadow Demons, Cyclops, and the elite Naga warriors possessed exceptionally superior bloodlines. Even without benefiting from Lei Dong’s Grotto-Heavens or Chaos Crystals, simply by roaming and surviving in the wilderness for several years, a considerable number of the Golden Core stage among them managed to break through autonomously and achieve the Nascent Soul stage.

As a result, the Nascent Soul force that Lei Dong had assembled from various clans, initially numbering only twenty-three or twenty-four thousand, had now swiftly surpassed forty thousand, accounting for a tenth of his total troop numbers. Moreover, a significant portion of those Nascent Soul experts had progressed from the initial stage to the middle, or even the peak, stages.

His overall strength had more than doubled since the time he adopted the 'breaking the whole into parts' tactic. Having been hunted like dogs for so long, his forces were now sharpening their blades, poised and ready for the counterattack.

Another month passed before Lei Dong finally made his move. This time, however, he deployed only the elite of his elite—a mere one thousand several hundred individuals. Among them were no less than a hundred total Soul Transformation experts, augmented by the King of Glory, the Ghost Emperor of the Underworld, and the Demon King of Purgatory, three initial-stage Void Refining experts. The remainder consisted mostly of peak-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, and even some at the very pinnacle of that realm.

The composition of this force was the very definition of extreme refinement.

The Emperor of the Dark Night remained active outside, maintaining his massive army in a dispersed, sweeping formation, effectively combing the territory to hunt down Lei Dong. He had no other viable option; he could only proceed by sheer luck. If he could luckily locate Lei Dong's headquarters, the problem would be solved once and for all. Otherwise, simply waiting meant Lei Dong would inevitably grow stronger. The merits and demerits of the Heart-Snatching Demons were widely known; perhaps their greatest flaw was their inability to advance further.

Lei Dong was now only a hair's breadth away from the middle stage of the Jin Qi God Realm. His cultivation was refined to the extreme, and relying on his deepening comprehension of spatial laws, he had reached a point unattainable by others, appearing and disappearing unpredictably within spatial fissures.

After scouting from a distance, the Emperor of the Dark Night spotted a troop detachment of a thousand soldiers on his left flank, positioned at the far left of his entire formation. This unit was roughly tens of thousands of miles from the central mass of the Emperor of the Dark Night's army, and the nearest supporting unit was still over a thousand miles away.

The Emperor of the Dark Night’s sweeping search formation was designed with mutual linkage in mind. If any thousand-man squad was suddenly attacked, the surrounding units, merely a thousand miles distant, would immediately react in a chain sequence, rushing to reinforce the position in the shortest possible time. At full speed, reinforcements would arrive within the span of half an incense stick’s burn time. If the targeted unit could hold out momentarily, supporting forces would continuously converge to crush the attackers.

Any perpetrator of a sneak attack would be entangled and find escape impossible. However, this formation rested on one crucial prerequisite: if the attacked thousand-man squad was annihilated before even half an incense stick could burn, it would deliver a fatal blow to the structure of the formation.

The Emperor of the Dark Night was formidable, initially commanding over twenty thousand Nascent Soul cultivators, subsequently integrating more than ten thousand Blood Fiend Elite Soldiers, bringing his total at the Nascent Soul level to over thirty thousand. Furthermore, he already had around thirty Soul Transformation experts, and adding the Soul Transformation squad leaders from the Blood Fiend Elites, his count of Soul Transformation experts alone exceeded one hundred, roughly equal to Lei Dong's own numbers.

Thus, it was evident that the vast majority of each thousand-man squad consisted of Nascent Soul cultivators, with only a few Soul Transformation leaders included. To guard against surprise attacks, the thousand-man squads on the formation's wings were each garrisoned with ten Soul Transformation experts, making their defenses substantial. Despite being an army of Heart-Snatching Demons, the Emperor of the Dark Night was confident that any one of these thousand-man squads could hold its ground against any enemy for half an incense stick's time without suffering excessive losses.

Yet, the Emperor of the Dark Night never imagined the grand gift Lei Dong, having long lain in wait, had prepared for him. This strike force of just over one thousand men was concealed within the Weapon Storage Pagoda, a treasure recently refined by Lei Dong from the Winged God Clan.

This Weapon Storage Pagoda was itself an extraordinary artifact. Although far inferior to Lei Dong's Grotto-Heavens in every aspect, it was still an invaluable treasure for launching surprise assaults.

After scouting, Lei Dong pre-selected a location characterized by extremely harsh conditions: howling malevolent winds in the sky and deep ravines scarring the ground—an ideal place for concealment. Lei Dong stealthily deployed the members of the strike team first. This particular route was one that the enemy's flank thousand-man squad was fated to traverse.

In less than a moment, that thousand-man squad appeared, moving through the deeply fissured canyon area. Because the fierce winds above were so violent, even powerful Nascent Soul experts found it difficult to remain exposed in them. Consequently, this enemy group flew extremely close to the ground.

Once they were positioned precisely within the planned ambush perimeter, Lei Dong gave the order: Attack commences.

The precision strike force of over a thousand men completely enveloped the thousand-man enemy unit, unleashing a barrage of ferocious spells and savage attacks.

The three most powerful Void Refining experts pushed their speed to the absolute limit, charging into the enemy ranks like hungry tigers, each singling out a Soul Transformation expert from the opposing side. Without the slightest hint of mercy or restraint, they unleashed their most devastating assaults.

The ten Soul Transformation experts in the opposing ranks were not highly ranked—three were at the middle stage, and seven at the initial stage. According to their tactical plan, the three Void Refining experts naturally targeted the middle-stage Soul Transformation cultivators.

"I command, Spatial Imprisonment," the Ghost Emperor of the Underworld initiated his assault immediately with a killing move from his True Word incantations, Spatial Imprisonment, binding one of the middle-stage Soul Transformation cultivators. Following this, his Nether Palm, devoid of any noticeable heat or energy signature, struck the crystalline structure of that confined space.

Upon shattering, the middle-stage Soul Transformation cultivator, controlled by the Heart-Snatcher, immediately vomited torrents of blood; seven or eight tenths of his life force instantly vanished. Combining Spatial Imprisonment with a brute-force rupture often resulted in a near-fatal execution.

However, the Soul Transformation Demon showed no sign of fear. Instead, it erupted with a fierce, sanguinary aura, lunging towards the Ghost Emperor of the Underworld, radiating a ferocious, death-defying intensity. This was the advantage that the Heart-Snatching Demons possessed over ordinary experts, beyond their many shortcomings: they would not feel panic or terror even when facing extreme disadvantage. Their morale remained perpetually high.

"You court death, fool," the Ghost Emperor of the Underworld, even before reaching the Void Refining stage, was already an existence of the highest caliber. Now, having entered the Void Refining realm, his strength had multiplied several times over. With minimal effort, he could erase a mountain range.

His snow-white hair streamed backward as a chilling sharpness flashed in his eyes. He condensed a punch imbued with the ghostly energy of the Underworld and smashed it directly into the severely wounded middle-stage Soul Transformation cultivator. The entire exchange took less than three moves. The terrifying might of the Ghost Emperor of the Underworld was evident.

As he obliterated that demon, the King of Glory and the Demon King of Purgatory achieved their own victories at almost the exact same moment—one burned to ash by searing flames, the other becoming a wandering soul beneath the Sword of Glory.

..., (To be continued) .RT