Chapter 107

Chapter 107: Wen Guan

Master Luan stared at the pill as if it were a treasure pulled from the void. His smile nearly split his face. “Excellent. I was right. Star-refining pills can succeed.

“Starforce is a natural power of the universe. If it exists, it can be refined!”

He laughed, bright and unrestrained.

Wang Jie kept his expression steady. “Senior… does this count as success?”

“Of course!” Master Luan turned to him, eyes shining. “Young friend, you’ve done something earthshaking.”

Wang Jie didn’t let the praise go to his head. He wasn’t even a true chen refiner, and surely the wider universe had seen stranger things.

Still, the old man’s excitement was real.

“Xiao Nian,” Master Luan said, pushing the pill toward him. “Eat it.”

Xia Xiao Nian took it without hesitation and swallowed.

Wang Jie blinked. He hadn’t even asked what it was. Honest to a fault.

Xia Xiao Nian sat cross-legged and began to cultivate. A faint frost gathered over his skin. Wang Jie couldn’t tell whether it came from the pill or from Xia Xiao Nian’s own technique—he was a True Disciple, a Full-star Realm expert, perhaps even stronger than Xia Bei Yi. Wang Jie couldn’t read him at all.

Soon, Xia Xiao Nian opened his eyes. “The effect is stronger.”

Master Luan looked back at Wang Jie as if he were seeing him for the first time. “We succeeded.”

After a few modest words from Wang Jie, Master Luan immediately produced a heap of pills and asked him to star-refine them—pills meant for realms beyond Star-breaking Realm.

These weren’t tools. The starforce was only one ingredient.

Wang Jie couldn’t help but frown. “Senior, Junior has his own matters as well. I can help when you ask, but this is… a lot.”

“If you have difficulties, say so,” Master Luan said at once. “In Frostglow Sect, there’s nothing I can’t solve.”

Wang Jie seized the opening. “Junior has a wish. I want to break the claim that lockforce cultivation has no future—to give every lockforce cultivator a chance to push past the limit.

“So I’ve been applying star-refining to lockforce itself, trying to carve out another road.”

He spoke earnestly, then added, “Junior knows it may sound arrogant. Just Ten Seals, yet I want to challenge history. But since heaven gave me star-refining ability, perhaps it’s so I can do something for the sect’s fifty million lockforce cultivators…”

Xia Xiao Nian cut in, deadpan. “What do you want?”

Wang Jie’s breath caught. The grand momentum collapsed instantly.

Master Luan glared. “Shut up. Let Master speak.”

Wang Jie exhaled and said plainly, “I need disaster materials. As many as possible.”

Master Luan blinked. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Master Luan let out a long breath, then called, “Xiao Nian.”

“Disciple is here.”

“Give the order. Gather all disaster materials in Alchemy Branch and deliver them to Little Master Wang’s residence—let him use them freely. Also report to the Sect Master: harvest the disaster materials from the slaughterstone planet at once. If it still isn’t enough, buy from outside. We must satisfy Little Master Wang.”

Xia Xiao Nian bowed. “Disciple obeys.”

He withdrew.

Master Luan turned back to Wang Jie with a pleased smile. “Young friend—satisfied?”

Wang Jie smiled too. “I’ll follow Senior’s arrangements.”

That single order shook the entire Frostglow Sect.

Master Luan was a master of the pill path. Within the sect, almost no one could overrule him.

And now his demand involved Wang Jie, a newly arrived chen refiner.

Rumors and speculation surged through the sect like wildfire.

In the middle of it, Wang Jie received an unexpected audience with Frostglow Sect’s Sect Master—Wen Guan.

“This old man is Wen Guan,” Wen Guan said warmly. “At last, we meet, Master Wang.”

He looked middle-aged, but his eyes carried the weight of ages. Wang Jie had heard he’d lived an unimaginably long time.

Wang Jie bowed. “Greetings, Sect Master.”

“As you were.” Wen Guan smiled. “I’ve known Master Luan for a long time. He’s spoken of star-refining pills for years. To see it finally realized is a delight.”

Master Luan snorted beside him. “You busy man had time to come?”

“Even I have quiet days,” Wen Guan replied lightly. His gaze slid to Wang Jie. “A chen refiner is rarer than almost anything—second only to Star Dao Masters. I’ve long wanted to see one for myself.”

“Since you’re here,” Master Luan said, not missing a beat, “help me. I’ve gathered several new materials.”

Wen Guan sighed theatrically. “Can I refuse?”

“No.”

“I’m the Sect Master.”

“And I’m Master Luan.”

Wen Guan laughed. “Fine. Master Wang, come watch. It’ll benefit you.”

Wang Jie followed, eager despite himself. Some scenes weren’t meant for ordinary eyes.

What he saw left him breathless.

For a heartbeat, Wen Guan’s body seemed to dissolve into light—refining itself into a star. The world around them warped into an endless, soundless void. One material after another spun around that star, and in mere moments, each was stripped, melted, and remade.

Then the star dimmed.

The void collapsed.

Wen Guan returned to his human form as if nothing had happened.

Wang Jie’s lungs finally remembered how to breathe. He felt as though he’d just climbed out of the universe and back onto solid ground.

Master Luan looked at him with a satisfied smile. “That is Star-refining Realm.

“Those materials would take me a long time to refine. The Sect Master did it in moments.”

Wang Jie could only nod, stunned. Against that kind of existence, it wasn’t a matter of winning or losing. It was like asking a mortal to strike the sky.

Wen Guan let out a light laugh and left.

Master Luan watched him go, then turned back to Wang Jie. “First time seeing Star-refining Realm?”

“Yes,” Wang Jie admitted.

“That feeling is normal,” Master Luan said quietly. “Refining stars—refining oneself into a star that can absorb the universe’s starforce at will—it’s beyond flesh and blood, beyond normal thought.

“Even Hundred-star Realm experts feel a chasm when facing Star-refining Realm.”

Wang Jie’s voice dropped. “I thought no matter how strong someone was—even if a glance could kill me—I would still have the courage to strike once.

“But this…”

“Star-refining Realm is the realm that separates levels,” Master Luan said. “To put it bluntly: before Star-refining Realm, you are human. After it… you may be called a monster.”

He clapped once, sharply, snapping Wang Jie fully back into the room. “Enough. Don’t get lost in it. Cultivation is step by step.

“Now.” His tone shifted into his familiar obsession. “I’ll begin refining ordinary materials. Watch. The more you see, the more it helps your star-refining pills.”

Wang Jie understood the truth—his field either allowed it or it didn’t—but he nodded anyway. Refusing wasn’t an option.

Master Luan set a massive pill cauldron before him. Ingredient after ingredient went in. Using starforce, he controlled multiple layers of flame, melting, combining, fusing. His focus grew so complete that the outside world might as well not exist.

So Wang Jie cultivated lockforce while he watched. It was dull, but it was also seclusion—the kind of opportunity countless people would kill for.

The only variation was watching materials he’d never encountered before.

As time went on, the heat rose.

Higher. Hotter.

The air turned red, warping and trembling. The walls around them began to glow as if they might melt. Heat pressed against Wang Jie’s skin until it felt like a physical weight.

For a terrifying stretch, Master Luan refined in a near-trance, seemingly forgetting Wang Jie existed at all.

Wang Jie grit his teeth and endured.

And somewhere in that suffering, he noticed something. Under the scorching pressure, his lockforce grew heavier, denser. Even his qi felt as if it were thickening.

So high heat could train him, too.

Eventually, Master Luan exhaled and extinguished the cauldron. As if remembering belatedly, he turned and saw Wang Jie.

Wang Jie was bright red, faint steam rising from his body.

Master Luan jolted. “You… didn’t cook through, did you?”

Wang Jie opened his eyes. “Almost.”

“Damn it.” Master Luan frowned. “I forgot. Pill-making produces intense heat. Many Alchemy Branch cultivators can’t improve because they can’t endure it. You need a certain realm just to stand near the cauldron.”

His gaze swept Wang Jie again, turning into admiration. “Still… impressive. That heat would crush even Full-star Realm. You endured it.”

Wang Jie forced a thin smile. “Senior, next time refine alone. I might not survive a second ‘almost.'”

Master Luan coughed awkwardly. “I can control it. I’m not like those ordinary pillmasters. Don’t worry—there won’t be a next time.”

He reopened the cauldron, keeping the heat just below the previous peak.

Wang Jie stayed.

He cultivated.

He watched materials melt and fuse.

And when the moment felt right, he stood and began his exercises.

Master Luan noticed, then quietly looked away and continued refining without asking a single question.