Chapter 60: The Starry Sky Martial Gathering
The group carried Wang Jie in solemn silence as they made their way towards Golden Hill.
Two days passed.
“When shall we send Eldest Brother on his final journey?” someone asked quietly.
“No rush. I wish to look upon him a little longer.”
Another three days drifted by.
“Why is Eldest Brother’s body still warm?”
“Perhaps the heat of the season,” came the uncertain reply.
“…”
More days passed.
“He’s still warm… and… I think I feel a heartbeat.”
“Doctor! Someone fetch the doctor!”
Hong Sword stood at the bedside, staring in astonishment at Wang Jie, who lay there in tranquil stillness. “He… truly hasn’t died?”
Across the room, Four Eyes rubbed his temples, exasperated. “Not dead, yet also not alive.”
“A living corpse?”
“A man in slumber?”
“How should I know?” Four Eyes snapped irritably. “Shadow Lass is gone, and now this brat is neither dead nor alive. Blue Star is on the verge of destruction, yet here you are fretting over death. Does it even matter anymore? If you ask me, these should be days of indulgence, savoring the last moments of joy.”
With that, he left, leaving the others helplessly at a loss.
None could discern Wang Jie’s true condition.
Bai Yuan had vanished. Wang Jie lay in a state between life and death. It felt as if Blue Star itself had been forsaken.
Two more days passed. The sun shone as it always had, yet in an instant, darkness consumed the world.
All raised their heads, their gazes arrested by a sight beyond comprehension.
A hand.
A single colossal hand, blotting out the sun, reaching from the distant void towards Blue Star.
Hong Sword and the others stood frozen on the balcony, their minds rendered blank.
What… was this?
None had ever imagined witnessing such a scene in their lifetime.
Whose hand could be so vast? A hand capable of grasping celestial bodies? A hand that could obscure the very light of the sun?
Paralyzed with dread, none could move as the hand descended upon Blue Star. The seas surged into monstrous tsunamis, creatures bowed in submission, glaciers melted, and the entire planet trembled like a mere toy in a child’s grip.
Darkness engulfed all.
They were ensnared within that hand.
In that moment, everyone believed their doom was upon them. That Blue Star would be crushed into oblivion. Each passing second stretched into eternity, an agonizing wait for annihilation.
They envied the dead, who at least were spared this torment.
They waited for death.
Yet it did not come.
Ten minutes passed.
An hour passed.
A day.
Two days.
Three.
By the fifth day, five beams of sunlight pierced through the gaps between the fingers, spilling onto the earth.
Once more, all could see the colossal hand, but this time, it withdrew, drifting away into the cosmic expanse.
Blue Star returned to normalcy.
No one understood what had transpired. The sky remained blue, the sun as brilliant as ever. The moon ascended in the east, the sun set in the west—unchanged, as though nothing had ever happened.
Yet, one anomaly lingered—a bridge. A bridge shrouded in mist, with neither beginning nor end, suspended above the sun, unfathomably distant.
And for reasons unknown, all who gazed upon it instinctively knew—
It was a bridge.
A bridge in the Starry Sky.
At that very moment, Wang Jie was experiencing something wondrous.
He felt as if he had been reduced to a mere mote of dust, drifting through the vast cosmos, journeying past myriad universes.
He beheld countless souls, each vivid and real, of flesh and blood. He should have known them, yet their names eluded him.
He saw a titanic vessel, vast enough to carry entire constellations.
He saw an impregnable city, encircling multiple universes within its walls.
He saw a boundless river, stretching across the Celestial Expanse, limitless and eternal.
And he saw the silhouette of a lone figure standing at the edge of the universe, branches coiled around his waist, propping up the firmament itself.
But in the blink of an eye, everything vanished. Memories faded into obscurity, leaving only the unmistakable sensation of heat surging within his body.
This heat… it was from the Wrist Guard?
Yes, the heat of the Wrist Guard—searing, unbearable.
[Someone… pour cold water on me… it’s too hot.]
Suddenly, a face loomed before him, shrouded in golden light, radiating divinity.
A voice, as mighty as thunder, roared:
“Bring the Wrist Guard to me.”
“Take it to the Sacred Star Linked Bridge.”
“Bring it… to me—!”
A searing pain pierced his heart, as though he were being melted alive.
With a sharp gasp, Wang Jie’s eyes flew open.
“Who… are you?”
He stared blankly at the ceiling, his vision shifting from haze to clarity.
The familiarity of the surroundings sank in—
Home?
Just then, a figure burst into the room, his face alight with joy.
“Boss!”
It was Old Nine.
Wang Jie looked at him, his gaze gradually sharpening.
“Old Nine?”
“Boss, you’re alive! You’re really alive!”
Wang Jie turned his attention to his own body. He willed himself to move—but failed. His mind reeled, memories flooding back. The Sacrificial Altar, the sunlight, Shu Mu Night—yes, he had battled Shu Mu Night, had thrown a desperate punch, channeling every ounce of his strength.
Then—nothing.
Even now—nothing.
[Have I been crippled?]
Noting his leader’s expression darken, Old Nine quickly reassured him, “Boss, don’t overthink. You’re fine! You’ve just suffered severe injuries. You’re only numb for now! Hold on—I’ll fetch the doctor!”
He dashed out in a frenzy.
“Old Five, Old Two—come quick! Boss is awake! Get the doctor! And drag Four Eyes over here—Boss is awake!”
Soon, the room was filled with people, each taking turns examining Wang Jie, their eyes filled with relief and curiosity.
Hong Sword, Lian Qin, Older Sister Tang—they had all come.
Inside and out, the place overflowed with people.
The fallen warrior had returned.
Wang Jie’s awakening sent shockwaves through the Three Great Bases, as everyone awaited the results of his examination.
Four Eyes was completely dumbfounded. “How is he even alive? This is a corpse’s body, isn’t it?”
Qing Zheng frowned. “Watch your words.”
Four Eyes adjusted his glasses and turned to the group of doctors standing across from him. They exchanged bewildered glances, their expressions twitching with hesitation as they glanced nervously at Hong Sword and Qing Zheng, afraid to speak.
“This body should not be alive,” Four Eyes insisted. “He has lost the ability to produce blood. His meridians are completely shattered, and his bones are in ruins. There’s no logical reason for him to be breathing.”
Hong Sword’s voice was firm. “We live in the era of cultivation. If he is alive, there must be a reason. Find out what it is. And find a way to heal him.”
Four Eyes turned his gaze toward Wang Jie.
Wang Jie simply said, “Old rules. Bring me the medicine.”
“It won’t help.”
“Just bring it.”
Four Eyes sighed in frustration. “How about I observe when you take it?”
Wang Jie stared at him in silence.
Defeated, Four Eyes left.
One by one, the others also dispersed, leaving only Hong Sword and Old Five behind.
Wang Jie quickly learned of the current situation.
Due to Shu Mu Night’s previous slaughter of countless mutated creatures—especially the powerful ones, which the trial participants had lured toward him—Blue Star had undergone a shift. With the trial now over, the Armor One Sect had ceased supplying Heaven Stones, causing the flow of Seal Power to dwindle by the day. Mutated creatures had stopped growing stronger, and the bases were now safe.
The Safe Zones were expanding.
The number of mutated creatures outside was rapidly diminishing.
And yet, an unseen hand had gripped Blue Star. What it had done, no one knew. Not even Wang Jie.
“Bai Yuan has gone missing?”
Hong Sword nodded. “Most likely taken by the Armor One Sect—he did master the Armor One Divine Sword, after all.”
Wang Jie gazed out the window. “Liu Ying was probably taken by Chu Yao. What about Zuo Tian?”
Hong Sword shook his head. “We’re not lying to you. Zuo Tian disappeared as well. No one knows where he went. Do you think he was taken by the Armor One Sect too?”
Wang Jie didn’t know. He had no answers.
What he did know was that his body was still burning. An unbearable heat coursed through him, and it had shifted—from his wrist to his entire arm.
Disabled? Perhaps. But not necessarily.
So many days had passed, yet the Wrist Guard had not forced him into calisthenics. It seemed even the Wrist Guard recognized when its owner was truly unable to move.
The Sacred Star Linked Bridge…
He hadn’t been mistaken. The true owner of the Wrist Guard had been wearing an entire set of golden battle armor—everything but the wrist guard itself.
If just the wrist guard alone had left him in this state, how powerful must the full golden armor be?
He had to go there.
Something about it felt ominous. If he didn’t, he feared something terrible would happen.
Blue Star had finally regained a rare moment of peace.
At least, there was no longer any threat of a Beast Tide.
After Hong Sword left, Older Sister Tang arrived, bringing news of the outside world. But none of it was of immediate importance. Right now, rebuilding the bases and gathering the remaining survivors from Frontier City were the top priorities.
“Bai Xiao is still searching for Bai Yuan,” Tang said. “She believes he never left—that he’s still on Blue Star.”
“Oh, right. Take a look at this.”
She handed Wang Jie a piece of paper. It was filled with scribbles and crude drawings.
“This was doodled by one of the trial participants we captured,” she explained.
Wang Jie scanned the paper. Most of the scribbles were meaningless complaints, but one set of characters stood out—Starry Sky Martial Gathering.
Beneath those four words, the trial participant had written extensively, filling the space with hopeful musings, only to scratch them all out, leaving them unreadable.
“Starry Sky Martial Gathering?”
Tang nodded. “When Wen Star Ru asked us to release the trial participants, we made sure to ask about it. The one who wrote this said it’s the grandest tournament in the universe, involving all the civilizations and factions capable of reaching the vastness of space—including non-human ones.”
“If you rank high enough, you can ascend in one leap.”
“He didn’t know the specifics. He could only dream.”
Wang Jie set the paper down and looked up at the sky. His gaze landed on the bridge, looming faintly in the heavens. “Right now, we can only dream too. But Bai Yuan… he might have a real chance.”
Tang put away the paper, spoke a few more words, and left.
It felt cruel to talk about such things in front of a man who had once stood at the pinnacle—only to end up completely crippled.
Yet she couldn’t help herself.
Wang Jie had performed a miracle once before. He had fought Shu Mu Night three times.
Perhaps… he could create another miracle.
Outside Golden Hill Base, the makeshift tents were gone. Everyone now lived within the expanded base.
The Safe Zones continued to grow. Humanity was reclaiming its lost land.
Wang Jie sat in his wheelchair, pushed along by Old Five. His gaze lingered beyond the base’s borders.
“Boss, thanks to you, Blue Star wasn’t destroyed. Everyone’s still alive.”
Wang Jie smiled. “I was doing it for myself too.”
In the distance, Feng Yu was patrolling. Upon spotting Wang Jie, she slowly bowed in respect.
Everyone treated Wang Jie with the utmost reverence, despite his current condition. His battle against Shu Mu Night had shattered their perception of reality. To them, he was both their savior and a man who had once truly stood at the peak.
His gaze swept across the city walls. The average strength of cultivators had risen significantly.
Though his body was crippled, his ability to observe Qi remained intact. He could still see the aura of every individual.
Before the trial participants arrived, the Three Gods and Five Extremes stood at Seven Seals, while the average strength of the five major bases’ cultivators was around Two or Three Seals.
Now? The average had risen to Four Seals. And that was just the baseline—Seven Seals, Eight Seals, and even Nine Seal cultivators were emerging.
Take Feng Yu, for example—she was now at Nine Seals.
She had secretly aided Flame Four, hoping to escape her identity as a Blue Star human.
Wang Jie knew. But he didn’t care.
Everyone was simply struggling to survive.
There was no shame in that.
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