It wasn't a safe return, and they met lots of fleets coming back to this universe. Lots of battles happened, and they lost more of their forces, the already thinned out ones.
None of this was known to Hye or others, but they got saved a lot by this unexpected turn of events. None of them knew that after every disaster at the outer battlefield, many forces would decide to retreat and build camps around it.
If that ever happened, then Hye and his infantile forces would have faced a far greater challenge this time. Thanks to luck, these forces got busy dealing with the retreating hostile fleets of the other universe. And that saved them a lot of trouble.
As battles raged between the two sides, they started to shift back into the outer battlefield. Hye's forces were cleansing the grand scale war that just ended here, and after a week or two, they ended up finding more ruckus in places neither Hye nor his warrior visited before.
They found damaged ships, tons of dead bodies in them, or floating in space. Hye was taking his time in resting, supervising over the ongoing building operations all over his new territory, and following up the new gains from his scattered forces.
When he got the news, he didn't think much about them. "My boys were wild, hahaha!" he mistook all this for the actions of his Soulers and Reapers, "but why did they destroy the ships? Or were they attacked and got their ships destroyed?"
He couldn't tell, but there was a huge harvest out there. Even if the ships were damaged, there were still many good parts that could be used. He decided to bring everything back, hand them over to the research department, allowing them to further study these ships and how to make them.
At the same time, he asked everyone to collect the dead bodies for him. They were treasure troves for him, having tons of valuable loot and bones to offer.
"Everything is heading down the right path," he muttered when he received the news. His dispatched teams finally got in contact with the first race outside his territory.
The recordings Lily's men made were sent to the team, and then things started to grow for the better. The race leaders became more respectful, and yet they still declined after two days of negotiations.
"We will join you at some point, but now today," they said, and that was something Hye expected.
[Draw them back, don't let them pressure any more] he sent to Lily, before explaining to her how this was crucial.
She wanted to persist, keep trying with them. But when he explained everything over, she finally got what he wanted.
[Some people just like to ride over a winning horse, right?] she sent and he could only sigh in agreement.
He was a winning horse, but he was still starting up the race. After a few months, and more battles and gains, he was sure this race and others would come and join.
Yet such an outcome wasn't the case for every single race out there. Many agreed to relocate, mostly the ones with poor defences and lacking in terms of technology and civilisation. They jumped at once to his ship, taking shelter there and taking refuge.
Out of all of the races they visited, only forty percent joined. This wasn't the ideal outcome Hye thought of when he sent the teams in the first place, but it was way better than having nothing at all.
The remaining races never showed their hostility, and just asked for more time to watch and analyse Hye's potential and growth.
[Make sure all the newly joined races are well received, integrate them deeply into our kingdom, and even make fleets led by a few of their capable generals...] Hye knew this was also some sort of test, one which other races were watching closely.