Chapter 080
Chapter 80: The True Killing Strike
The mantis launched an unrelenting attack, never pausing, as if instinctively aware of its own weaknesses. It would not give Wang Jie the chance to strike.
A deafening crash sounded as the blade shattered.
No matter how fine the materials, they could not withstand the mantis’s ceaseless assault.
The scythes rose, and the mantis vanished. Wang Jie stood motionless, his fists colliding with the air. He unleashed fiftyfold strength, the shockwaves rippling through the air, expanding in all directions. He abruptly turned his head and spotted the mantis.
With a single finger, he struck.
The Heaven and Earth Luo Xuan Finger was now completely under his control. In an instant, it hit the mantis, causing it to stagger mid-air. It dropped its scythes, seemingly trying to force Wang Jie to back down.
By all logic, Wang Jie should retreat. Otherwise, even if he struck the mantis, his hand would be lost.
But it was with his left arm that he launched the strike.
The scythe slashed down, aiming at his wrist, then at his arm. But as the second slash came down, Wang Jie used another finger to knock it aside. Even the power of the Breaking Star Stage was no match for the full force that exploded. The ground cracked under the pressure, dust and debris flying everywhere.
Wang Jie flew backward, landing in a crouch. Blood ran down his arm, a deep gash cutting through the flesh.
Inside the smoke, the mantis fared even worse.
It had been pierced through.
Wang Jie gripped his torn sleeve to staunch the bleeding, his eyes locked on the mantis. Despite the pain, his body felt numb, not yet registering the full extent of the injury. Ahead, the mantis’s long, narrow eyes met his gaze, a faint yellowish liquid dripping from its body—its blood.
One of the scythes bore a deep dent, evidence of Wang Jie’s earlier strike, still stained with flesh.
The mantis glanced at the damaged weapon, then opened its mouth and devoured the bloodied flesh.
Wang Jie’s eyes widened. The power of the Ten Seals surged. A torrent of imprint power burst through the clouds, roaring upwards toward the mantis.
The mantis shot toward Wang Jie, flashing in and out of sight.
Wang Jie had never fully unleashed his imprint power, but now, all nine of his imprints had turned a faint black. As he released them, even he was startled by their strength.
But with such power, things were easier.
Lacking enough energy, his imprints would fill the gap.
Wang Jie slammed a palm onto the ground. Around him, the imprint power swirled into a silver mass, spreading outward. The Silver Radiance Art.
The mantis closed in on him. Though its form remained hard to discern, it became clearer within the Silver Radiance Art. Wang Jie struck again with a finger, but the mantis had prepared, evading with blinding speed. Wang Jie’s feet moved with the Armor Eight Steps technique, swiftly shifting position. He raised his hand, and—
He gripped something icy and rough. It was the mantis’s wing.
The mantis turned its head, locking eyes with him, close enough to touch.
In that moment, Wang Jie unleashed his full power, attempting to crush the mantis. But as the scythe cut through the air, the mantis severed its own wing, striking at Wang Jie. He hadn’t expected such decisiveness. At the crucial moment, the scythe collided with his wristguard, preventing the blow from landing.
The mantis stared at the wristguard, clearly concerned.
Without it, the mantis might not have struggled so much.
Wang Jie was sent flying back by the strike. He retaliated with a powerful punch, shattering a mountain peak, but the mantis dodged with ease.
Power seemed useless against it.
The mantis shimmered, rising into the air, its two scythes crossing to form a spiraling blade. It locked its gaze on Wang Jie and charged.
Wang Jie felt a cold chill run down his spine. He recalled the Star Breaking Combat Technique.
To reach the Star Breaking Realm, the most common method was to specialize in a combat technique, using it to break through the Ten Seal Great Mountain and shatter the stars. This technique was called the Star Breaking Combat Technique.
At that moment, the mantis was using it. This was its killing move.
And that meant one thing: this strike could destroy the very planet beneath their feet.
There was no escape. Even if he dodged this strike, if the planet was destroyed, the ship wouldn’t survive the explosion. He would die regardless.
So, this blow had to be stopped.
Even if it meant dying, he had to block it.
The mantis surely knew the gravity of the situation, and thus, it slowed its approach, pausing repeatedly, each halt building its power. Its narrow eyes gleamed with cruelty. It wasn’t trying to defeat Wang Jie—it was after the destruction of the planet.
This was the perfect way to deal with humans under the Wandering Star Realm.
No matter how strong, without a foothold in the universe, death was inevitable.
Wang Jie suppressed his thoughts, his eyes fixed on the mantis plummeting from the sky. He bent his legs, his gaze sharpening. The imprint power surged within him once more, breaking the clouds apart as the entire world trembled with visible ripples. The Heaven and Earth Luo Xuan Finger.
A giant spectral finger shot upwards.
The mantis’s eyes darkened with even greater cruelty as it advanced toward the Heaven and Earth Luo Xuan Finger.
Wang Jie stared at the mantis, releasing the Heaven and Earth Luo Xuan Finger first. With just ten thousand meters separating them, he clenched his fist, building up ten times the strength. At a thousand meters, he gathered fiftyfold strength, the veins in his right arm bulging as the energy flowed into his fist. At one hundred meters, he amassed ninety times the power.
The Heaven and Earth Luo Xuan Finger was a feint. The real killing strike was his fist.
With the Heaven and Earth Luo Xuan Finger unable to fully unleash his power, what was power? Throwing everything aside, it was just one punch. That punch, with no self and no other—this was power.
The mantis collided with the Heaven and Earth Luo Xuan Finger, easily tearing through it. But just as it did, something strange happened. It sensed an overwhelming, indescribable coldness, as if something was warning it to back off. The feeling was like facing a monster, and for a split second, it hesitated.
That hesitation was enough to slow its attack.
Wang Jie’s fist shot out, exploding with ninety-nine times the power, the force and energy merging into a peak blow.
The punch collided with the spiraling blades, and time seemed to freeze for a moment. The heavens twisted as an earth-shattering collision erupted, the power and the cutting force ripping through mountains and rivers, sweeping across the land and raising tsunamis in the oceans.
The entire planet shook.
Countless volcanoes erupted, spewing red-hot lava into the sky like fireworks.
Wang Jie’s fist remained locked against the mantis, the scythe driving into his hand, crushing bones and melting blood in the heat. The mantis, too, suffered. Its body began to shatter under the relentless force, its massive form collapsing inward.
Clearly, it was running out of strength.
Wang Jie let out a roar, his left hand shooting forward, releasing another Heaven and Earth Luo Xuan Finger. The mantis tried to dodge, but Wang Jie’s fist pinned its scythe in place. It couldn’t avoid the strike, and with a final thrust, its head shattered. The body twitched for a moment before it fell to the shattered mountain below.
Wang Jie exhaled and dropped from the sky, crashing into the river below.
He lay on the water’s surface, drifting downstream, utterly drained. Even after reaching ninety-nine times the strength on Blue Star, he had never fully unleashed his power before. This time, with the imprint power, energy, and strength all exploding at once, he had been able to defeat the Star Breaking Realm mantis.
The difference between the Ten Seals and Star Breaking Realm was immense.
No wonder the Silver Radiance Empire had so many Ten Seals, while only a handful reached Star Breaking Realm.
It was a qualitative gap.
He walked to the riverbank, changed out of his soaked clothes, and approached the mantis’s corpse. Its yellowish blood was still pooling around it. This liquid might help him avoid being hunted by cosmic giant beasts if smeared on his ship.
The priority now was to restore his battle power.
Fortunately, he had gathered a great deal of cataclysm materials. It was enough.
He immediately absorbed imprint power to recover.
The worst injury was to his right fist, but he could only wait for the exercises to help him heal.
If he had ninety-nine times the strength during his third battle with Shu Mu Night, perhaps he could try to defeat him with a single punch.
With this thought in mind, Wang Jie spent several hours absorbing imprint power. Afterward, he returned to his ship, exhausted, and slept.
Sunlight filtered through the ship’s windows, and as he gazed out at the clear sky, he stepped outside to continue absorbing imprint power.
A few days later, the time for exercises arrived. He applied healing ointment to his fist and began his routine, absorbing imprint power as he moved. By the end, his fist had healed remarkably well.
The effects were impressive.
His imprint power had also fully recovered during the exercises.
The combination of the Silver Radiance Art and the exercises had proven far more effective than anyone could have imagined.
Wang Jie smeared the mantis blood on his ship and then set off toward space. He knew it was time to leave—he couldn’t stay here for long.
Perhaps it was the mantis blood, or perhaps the cosmic giant beasts had given up the hunt.
Either way, he traveled smoothly to the Blue Star Constellation.
The Blue Star Constellation was a grouping of over ten planets closely linked by interconnected passages. Moving between them was as simple as walking, even without a spaceship.
Wang Jie hid his ship and, following Yan Fu Yu’s instructions, headed to a specific location.
It wasn’t far from where he landed—he had calculated his landing position carefully. At least, he had landed on the same planet.
Is this the place?
Wang Jie looked at the desolate mine in front of him, feeling a sense of familiarity. The first place he had reached after leaving Blue Star had been a mine, too.
It didn’t take long before he found it.
Beneath the ground was a large iron chest, inside which lay a puppet and a strange set of clothing.
A puppet master.
This was the identity Yan Fu Yu had told him would allow him to traverse the Ninth Star Chain.
The Ninth Star Chain connected the Eighth and Seventh Star Chains, with the Eighth Star Chain being the Frost Radiance Star Chain—an enemy of constant warfare. The Seventh Star Chain was more friendly, known as the Puppet Master Star Link.
People there worshipped the power of controlling puppets. Those who mastered the art were known as puppet masters, able to move freely between the Ninth Star Chain.
Of course, the key was being a true puppet master. Many from the Frost Radiance Star Chain had attempted to disguise themselves as puppet masters but were caught and met a brutal end.
Wang Jie’s puppet master set came from a real puppet master. As long as he wasn’t exceedingly unlucky, he wouldn’t be easily detected.
Beside the puppet was a basic guide for controlling it. The method was simple. Wang Jie didn’t need to use the puppet for battle or cultivation—it would serve merely as a vehicle.
After donning the clothes and controlling the puppet to stand, Wang Jie hid inside. The puppet was three meters tall, large enough to fit him. After getting familiar with it, he guided the puppet out of the mine, walking in a certain direction.
The sensation was strange—like sitting in a car. The speed could be adjusted at will, depending on the operator.
The more he controlled it, the more he felt the power in his hands.
It could run, jump, climb mountains, and even fly.
As it moved, tiny bells jingled, signaling the arrival of a puppet master.
Puppet masters rarely interacted with others. Their greatest advantage in battle was controlling their puppets, so they always hid their identities—something that would be useful for Wang Jie.