Chapter 65: The Vastness of the Universe
“How many?”
“The twenty-third. Keep going.”
Jun Tang narrowed his eyes. Why did this man insist on stepping on his pride?
Bian Qi gripped the mining shovel, sweeping it outward. The shadows of the shovel flickered—clearly a weapon technique at play. Wang Jie moved swiftly, catching Bian Qi’s fingers amidst the shovel’s trajectory, pressing them firmly against the handle. In one smooth motion, he pivoted and flung Bian Qi aside. Just as Bian Qi was about to be thrown away, Wang Jie retracted his hand and redirected the force, slamming him hard in the opposite direction.
Inside and outside the mine, everyone watched in stunned silence. Wang Jie had effortlessly tossed Bian Qi around like a piece of trash. Their minds went blank.
Was this man truly this powerful?
Bian Qi felt the world spin around him, his body dragged by an uncontrollable force before slamming heavily into the ground. He nearly lost consciousness.
Wang Jie casually tossed aside the mining shovel, his gaze locked onto Jun Tang.
Jun Tang remained seated, unmoving. The shovel whistled past his ear, embedding itself into the gray stone wall behind him, sending sparks flying.
A provocation.
Jun Tang fixed Wang Jie with a deep stare before shifting his gaze beyond the mine.
No one moved.
The people outside the mine continued watching, neither intervening nor helping, as if nothing had happened.
Wang Jie was perplexed. No interference? That didn’t seem right.
He stepped forward toward Jun Tang.
Bian Qi’s expression changed drastically. He struggled to rise. “Do you know who—” Before he could finish, Wang Jie struck him aside with a single slap, then continued forward.
He observed the people outside the mine as he walked.
They were tense but still refrained from stopping him.
Only when he sat down beside Jun Tang did their expressions tighten further. Under everyone’s gaze, his hand landed squarely on Jun Tang’s shoulder.
“I heard you’re a rebel?”
Silence.
All eyes were fixed on them, frozen in disbelief.
Jun Tang was just as stunned. From childhood until now, he had never experienced anything like this.
This man… had the audacity to drape his arm over his shoulder?
Insolence.
Utter insolence.
He forcefully suppressed his anger, his tone as calm as possible. “Who are you?”
Wang Jie smirked. “A nobody. But tell me, whose rule are you rebelling against? Your father’s? Your second granduncle’s? Or your third uncle’s?”
Bian Qi attempted to intervene again, but Jun Tang stopped him.
Jun Tang met Wang Jie’s gaze. “My sister’s.”
Wang Jie raised an eyebrow. “You’re rebelling against your sister?”
Jun Tang’s brow twitched, a flicker of killing intent flashing in his eyes.
Wang Jie had grown up surrounded by violence and was exceptionally sensitive to murderous intent. He instantly understood—Jun Tang wanted him dead.
Changing the topic, Wang Jie chuckled. “How did your sister become an Emperor? You seem decent enough—handsome, good manners.”
Jun Tang’s voice was cold. “That is none of your concern.”
Wang Jie clapped his shoulder, making Jun Tang’s patience wear dangerously thin. “Don’t be like that. We’re stuck in this hellhole together—consider it a bond of camaraderie. Loosen up.”
From a distance, Bian Qi glared at him with unwavering hostility.
Jun Tang stared at Wang Jie, his gaze filled with ice-cold rejection.
Only then did the people outside the mine finally step in. The day’s mining was over.
As Wang Jie walked ahead, Bian Qi stood behind Jun Tang, voice low and filled with shame. “This subordinate was incompetent and failed to stop him. I ask for Your Excellency’s punishment.”
Jun Tang’s tone was frigid. “No matter where you go, there will always be geniuses. He cultivates Lock Force, doesn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“When this is over, kill him.”
“Understood. But those people who watched and did nothing—they should die as well.”
Jun Tang replied, “I ordered them to remain still. No matter what happens here, they must not interfere. How do you know this man wasn’t sent by that wretched woman to test me?”
Bian Qi bowed. “Yes, I understand. In the coming days, we will endure without incident.”
On this bleak and desolate planet, amidst the barren mines and the strange insects that crawled across the ground, Wang Jie had initially assumed he was in for a hard time.
Yet, from the very first day, he observed the Qi Flow of those around him, searching for anyone stronger.
Who would have thought that after beating Bian Qi and his people senseless, his days would improve instead?
Not only did no one demand that he turn in his mining quota, but he also gained the privilege of sitting beside Jun Tang, watching others dig. He had practically become the second-in-command of the mine.
“You failed in your rebellion, yet these miners still treat you with such reverence. That’s odd. Doesn’t failure usually mean death?”
Jun Tang took a sip of water before replying, “My sister trained at the Frost Radiance Sect. I am the rightful heir to the Silver Radiance Empire. If not for my father appeasing the sect, he would never have passed the throne to her.”
“Oh, so the empire’s people actually favor you?”
Jun Tang remained silent.
Wang Jie seized the moment. “Tell me about the Silver Radiance Empire.”
Jun Tang gave him a sharp look. “You don’t know?”
“I was just passing through.”
“Where are you from?”
“I’m the one asking the questions here.”
Jun Tang’s cold glare bore into him, but after a moment, he reluctantly began explaining the empire’s situation.
Since stepping into the vast universe, Wang Jie had faced terrifying Cosmic Beasts, endured near-death experiences, and was now forced into hard labor in a mine. He considered himself extremely unlucky.
He needed some kind of gain from this misfortune. To him, Jun Tang’s greatest value lay in his knowledge.
This was a rare opportunity.
And so, Wang Jie relentlessly asked question after question.
Jun Tang grew increasingly irritable, but Wang Jie was persistent. The mine was only so big—there was nowhere to run. Within days, Jun Tang had been pushed to his breaking point.
He felt mocked.
This man didn’t even know about Star Force or Slaughter Stones?
Yet he carried a Battle Power Detector, the latest model no less.
A filthy, despicable commoner.
On the other side, Wang Jie sat atop the mining mountain, gazing at the vast starry expanse above. The universe… was truly immense.
He had thought that leaving Blue Star would bring him news of Armor One Sect, but to his surprise, while the name was known here, it was as distant and unattainable as the heavens themselves—no one knew anything concrete about it. Let alone Sincere One Dao or Three Zen Heavens; those names might as well have belonged to myths.
This place was the Condensed Brilliance Domain within the Frost Radiance Star Chain of the Silver Radiance Empire, located in the Third Nebula.
Jun Tang, a prince stripped of his inheritance rights within the Silver Radiance Empire, had only a limited understanding of the universe, confined mostly to the Third Nebula, and even that knowledge was incomplete. Anything beyond that was a mystery to him. As for Armor One Sect, in his own words, it lay on “the other side of the universe.” But this “other side” was not a matter of distance—it was a matter of status.
Armor One Sect was an existence far beyond reach.
Many of the things Jun Tang and Wen Zhao spoke of matched up—such as Heaven Stones being the same as Slaughter Stones, and Seal Power being identical to Lock Force. The standard path of cultivation here still followed Star Force, much like what he had known. But there were also stark differences. Jun Tang’s knowledge was simply too lacking—he had never even heard of the Death Realm.
Seeing Jun Tang struggle to hide his confusion, Wang Jie became certain—Blue Star’s location had changed.
The Armor One Sect’s trial would not have chosen a place too distant from its reach. But here… Wang Jie felt as if he had been thrown from the fringes of the universe to an even more remote and isolated edge.
“So, we mine because the empire trades these resources for Slaughter Stones?” Wang Jie asked.
“Yes.”
“And Slaughter Stones can rapidly increase the number of cultivators, making them useful for war?”
“Correct.”
“How many Slaughter Stones does the empire have?”
“Not many. A single Slaughter Stone can create hundreds of thousands of low-level cultivators or a few dozen high-level ones. And by high-level, I mean those within Ten Seals. As far as I know, before that woman returned, the empire’s entire stockpile did not exceed a hundred stones.”
“Only a hundred?” Wang Jie frowned.
He remembered that in Blue Star’s early days—just eleven years ago—several Slaughter Stones had been dropped there. And later, when the trial participants arrived, especially in the effort to stop Shu Mu Night, over a hundred more stones had been thrown down as if they were nothing.
Yet here, the mighty Silver Radiance Empire possessed only a hundred?
One hundred Slaughter Stones… If ten were enough to turn Blue Star into a cultivation haven, that meant a hundred could have produced tens of millions of cultivators. Considering Blue Star had over a million cultivators across its five major bases before the trials began, a tenfold increase would be in the tens of millions. Perhaps, in sheer numbers, this wasn’t so small after all.
“In an Interstellar Battlefield, cultivators are just one aspect. The real force lies in space warships and all manner of advanced weaponry,” Jun Tang added.
Wang Jie had never personally witnessed the destructive power of space warships, but he knew that cultivators beyond the Ten Seal Realm entered the Star-Breaking Realm—capable of shattering entire planets. No matter how powerful those weapons were, how many of them could truly destroy entire worlds?
That day, Wang Jie learned much from Jun Tang. At the end of their mining shift, he made sure to thank him.
Jun Tang was exhausted—more so than during his days of being hunted down.
This man must die.
Their sleeping quarters were shared by twenty people, with stone slab beds lined up in rows. Jun Tang was relieved to find he wasn’t assigned to the same room as Wang Jie.
This planet had no distinction between day and night. There was no sun here.
Lying on his bed, Wang Jie gazed at the unfiltered starlight streaming in through the window before gradually falling into sleep.
He didn’t know how long had passed before his eyes suddenly snapped open. A black particle drifted in from outside, landing by his hand.
He didn’t move, merely using two fingers to pick up the small mechanical object. What was this? Some kind of machine? What use could something this tiny have?
Thinking for a moment, he brought it to his ear.
“Kill Jun Tang when the opportunity arises.”
Five words.
Wang Jie’s eyes narrowed sharply. It was the voice of the Old General. He would never forget it.
That old man had single-handedly crushed Bian Qi, a Star-Breaking Realm expert, and held off warships alone. Wang Jie had never even considered resisting him—the gap between them was far too great.
But why had the Old General chosen him?
Because he had beaten up Bian Qi and the others? Yes, that seemed like the most logical reason. In this mine, there was likely no one more suitable for the task than him.
Kill Jun Tang?
Wang Jie fell into deep thought.
The next day, mining resumed. Wang Jie continued questioning Jun Tang about various common knowledge topics, and Jun Tang gradually grew accustomed to it.
Then, out of nowhere, Wang Jie stood up, tossed aside his mining tools, and began exercising.
Jun Tang stared, dumbfounded. What… was happening?
The others around them were equally stunned.
After completing his exercise routine, Wang Jie casually sat down beside Jun Tang again. “So, you’re saying that in an Interstellar Battlefield, it’s completely normal for a war to claim millions of lives?”
Jun Tang took a sip of water. “It’s normal for entire empires to be wiped out.”
“There are a lot of Cosmic Giant Beasts?”
“An overwhelming number. Some even have civilizations. In fact, some Cosmic Giant Beasts have developed technology more advanced than ours.”
“You know how to pilot a spaceship?”
“Yes.”
“You studied it?”
“No need. It’s common knowledge.”
“Teach me.”
“Bian Qi, you teach him.”
A few days later, Wang Jie asked curiously, “Who’s the most powerful person you’ve ever seen?”
Jun Tang looked up, his gaze distant with remembrance. “I don’t know how strong she truly is, but I do know that with a single glance, she froze an area so vast that even a space warship at full speed could not escape it in a month.”
Wang Jie’s pupils contracted.
He had no idea how fast a space warship was, but it had to be far faster than the spacecraft he had used to escape Blue Star. And his own vessel had reached the cosmos in mere moments.
A single glance… to freeze all that?
Frost Radiance Sect?
More than ten days passed. During this time, Wang Jie performed his exercise routine once more.
Jun Tang rarely asked him questions, but this time, he did.
Wang Jie’s response? “To strengthen the body.”
Jun Tang’s desire to kill him only deepened.
Then, an announcement came.
“The mine will be on break for three days! Everyone is free to roam the mining mountain in celebration of the Emperor’s coronation!”
The mine overseer, a burly man with a scarred face, made the proclamation, simultaneously activating a light screen to display the grand coronation ceremony.
The miners, almost instinctively, turned their gazes toward Jun Tang.
The prince who had failed in his rebellion.
This novel is translated and hosted on Bcatranslation