"Our operations must be swift and covert. Avoid needless large-scale slaughter as much as possible.
The focus is on controlling resources, not occupying territory.
If you encounter remnant forces or spies from the Seventh Heaven, capture them if possible. If not, kill them. Leave no seeds of future trouble."
"Yes!" The newly advanced Early Emperor Lord experts acknowledged the order in unison, their eyes burning with fighting spirit and confidence.
Having just broken through, they needed actual combat to familiarize themselves with their power and consolidate their cultivation.
Thus, over the following months, the surviving cultivators of the Fifth and Sixth Heavens experienced yet another "upheaval of the heavens."
While they were still steeped in lingering fear from the battle between Emperor Lords ten years earlier, or struggling in the mire of scarce resources and shattered order,
figures radiating auras far more terrifying and vast than those of their former overlords quietly descended.
Among these figures, some possessed sword intent that pierced the skies, some drifted like shadows, some had astonishing mastery over space, and some exuded boundless draconic might,
while others emanated chilling ghost qi imbued with a higher order of majesty.
Behind them followed the disciplined, well-equipped elites of the Purple Cloud Palace.
Words were hardly necessary.
When the full, unrestrained pressure of the Emperor Lord realm enveloped an area, every thought of resistance vanished in an instant.
Occasionally, forces that failed to recognize the situation or clung to wishful thinking attempted to resist, only to be reduced to ashes by a casual strike from an Early Emperor Lord expert.
The Purple Cloud Palace had clear objectives and efficient methods.
They had little interest in conquering land or enslaving living beings. Instead, like the most efficient miners and gardeners,
they swiftly took over, reorganized, and maximized the development