Everyone dispersed, and Dugu Qiubai's group decided to stick with Xiang Shaoyun's group. Both of them were incredible combatants, and there was no major disagreement between them. Thus, they would naturally be able to kill even more aliens by joining hands.
Xiang Shaoyun did not refuse the offer to move together. When the two joined hands, there was no doubt that they had the strongest group in the area. After a short rest, they started searching for the aliens to complete their extermination of the alien army.
They did not think that the aliens would give up so easily. If they couldn't kill all the aliens before the next batch of aliens arrived, things would become troublesome.
After losing their leaders, the powerful Nine Revolutions Realm experts, the aliens could no longer stop Xiang Shaoyun and Dugu Qiubai. They suffered one defeat after another.
Qin Jiu and his group were nowhere to be seen. It was unknown if they were going after the scattered aliens or if they were planning something else.
After most of the surviving aliens retreated from the battlefield, Xiang Shaoyun and Dugu Qiubai retreated to the spatial path. Firstly, they needed to reorganize their people and give them some time to further grow in strength and heal. Secondly, they needed to send someone back to check on the dominion.
Xiang Shaoyun had Xiang Yangzhan return with a small group of people. Initially, his father refused. But after Xiang Shaoyun persuaded him with emotions and logic, he relented and left with a small group of people. Dugu Qiubai also had a group of True Martial Academy members return because they were worried about the True Martial Academy.
After the two small groups left, Xiang Shaoyun stealthily pulled a group of his trusted followers into his astral cosmos sea so that they could cultivate inside. Among them were people like Devil Concubine, Scarlet Flame Monarch, Devouring Ghost, Green Ghost, and Song Tiandao.
As a ninth-stage God, the power within Xiang Shaoyun's astral cosmos sea had grown to an extremely formidable level. As he could constantly absorb the energy from the boundless universe around him, his body was constantly producing primal inception energy. Thus, he had no issue supplying the experts cultivating in his astral cosmos sea with energy.
He could only ensure that a year inside was equal to a day outside. He was unable to further widen the time difference. Even so, what he had done was enough to earn the unbridled respect of his followers. They were unaware that they were in Xiang Shaoyun's astral cosmos sea. Rather, they believed they were inside a treasure pocket space Xiang Sahoyun had refined. They cultivated peacefully in his astral cosmos sea, trying their best to absorb the primal inception energy and grow stronger.
Of course, Xiang Shaoyun would not forget to increase his strength as well. Facing the ocean of stars before him, he occasionally transformed into his giant form to devour every strand of astral energy he could find, continuously accumulating energy in his astral cosmos sea.
Every cultivator required more energy to grow the higher their cultivation was. Xiang Shaoyun was no exception, but after fusing his nine stars and comprehending the profundity of primal inception, he had gained the ability to enlarge his body to increase his absorption speed. He had fully awakened the terrifying potential of his strongest physique, obtaining the ability to absorb energy far faster than his peers.
Thus, he only needed to continue what he was doing to quickly reach peak ninth-stage God Realm.
...
Meanwhile, his soul clone had left the Nether Yin Planet with Ming Shi and returned to his main body. The Nether Yin Planet was sealed by the Nether Monarch, a Reincarnation Realm expert. Not even Ming Shi, with his Eight Revolutions strength, could tear the seal apart. Only Xiang Shaoyun's Nether Yin Gate could open a small gap in the seal, allowing the two to leave the planet.
After leaving the Nether Yin Planet, Ming Shi led Xiang Shaoyun deep into the river of stars in accordance with his senses.
According to Ming Shi, the Nether Yin Planet was merely a mid-tier life planet in the Myriad Planet Field. There were several high-tier life stars in the Myriad Planet Field where Reincarnation Realm experts had once appeared. Those planets also possessed countless experts. Even someone with Ming Shi's strength would not dare to act too arrogantly in the Myriad Planet Field, afraid that he would provoke those old monsters.
Xiang Shaoyun knew that the invading aliens came from the same Myriad Planet Field, a place with many different races and civilizations. In this place, numerous powerful factions coexisted and formed numerous alliances, competing for hegemony over the boundless universe. All of them aimed to subjugate the other planets so that they could steal the other planets' spirits.
It was said that any Nine Revolutions Realm expert would need to devour the spirit of a life planet before they could step into the Reincarnation Realm. And the higher the tier of the devoured planet spirit, the higher the cultivator's accomplishment would be.
Thus, Ming Shi judged that the aliens were so fixated on the dominion because the spirit of the dominion was so powerful it could allow one to become undefeatable after entering the Reincarnation Realm.
Xiang Shaoyun knew that Venerable Yuan Shi came from the dominion and that Venerable Yuan Shi was most definitely unequaled in strength. Although Venerable Yuan Shi had left the dominion for countless years, Xiang Shaoyun did not think that Venerable Yuan Shi was dead.
In the past, Venerable Yuan Shi had left for the sake of searching for the origin of the aliens. Only then would he be able to end that threat for real. Unfortunately, it seemed like Venerable Yuan Shi had failed to accomplish that goal.
After witnessing what the undefeatable Nether Monarch was capable of, Xiang Shaoyun knew that he had to enter the Reincarnation Realm if he wished to attempt what Venerable Yuan Shi attempted. Thus, the natural earthly soul was something he needed to obtain.
After traveling through numerous dangerous areas with Ming Shi, he finally arrived at the endless earthly sea. The sea was drifting about randomly in space. What was the so-called endless earthly sea, exactly? It was a place filled with numerous broken chunks of broken dead planets and other celestial bodies, forming a chaotic region that looked like a sea.
The place wasn't exactly a place with life. The numerous floating celestial bodies were gathered together by a peculiar power to form an odd region that slowly drifted amid the boundless universe. If it wasn't for Ming Shi's strength, it wouldn't be an easy task catching up to the constantly moving earthly sea. But when they arrived, they found that the place had been occupied by some powerful life forms.
Those life forms were a branch of a certain alien army. There weren't many of them, but each of them was at least a God, with the strongest of them being in the Nine Revolutions Realm. It was only then that Xiang Shaoyun fully understood just how powerful those aliens were. Even a random army he encountered would have a Nine Revolutions Realm expert in it. There was no comparing these aliens with the humans living in the dominion.