Over the next several decades, events unfolded just as Liu Yuan had predicted.
One battered team after another returned to the secret base in the Blackstone Star Belt.
The first to return was Ancestor Xue Ku's team.
The former ruler of the Baleful Intent Dao Realm was in an even more wretched state than Fankong. When he returned, only a dozen or so trusted followers remained at his side, all wounded, their auras feeble.
When he saw Liu Yuan, relief at having survived the disaster appeared on his shriveled old face for the first time.
He recounted in detail how he had been hunted, how he had used the terrain to ambush his pursuers in turn, and how he had finally escaped only by fighting until both sides suffered grievous losses.
After hearing him out, Liu Yuan merely nodded, acknowledging Ancestor Xue Ku's ruthlessness and decisiveness.
To kill some of his pursuers even in such desperate straits—his resolve and methods were extraordinary indeed.
After Ancestor Xue Ku, several other rulers of Dao Realms returned one after another, each leading the battered remnants of their forces.
Their experiences were all much the same.
Once their teleportation tokens stopped working, they had become trapped within the Heavenly Net laid by the Divine Asura Domain and been hunted relentlessly.
Some, like Fankong, had relied on caution and luck to avoid direct clashes, escaping with their lives after a long and arduous journey.
Others, like Ancestor Xue Ku, had fought bloody battles with their pursuers, barely tearing open a way out after paying a terrible price.
Without exception, every returning team had suffered devastating losses.
Hundreds of Hunyuan Wuji Realm experts had fallen.
Among them, You Xuan, ruler of the You Xuan Dao Realm, and Yuan Chen, ruler of the Heavenly Abyss Dao Realm—both