Chapter 127

Chapter 127: Upper Limit

Ten days later, Wang Jie saw a sight that left him momentarily speechless.

Two beams of light—like blades driven into the dark—stretched from far to near. Between them lay a slit so bright it seemed to cut the starry sky itself.

Miao Tai pointed. “That is Lone Peak Gorge.”

Wang Jie watched it. “The mandatory route into Yi Sword Heaven?”

Miao Tai nodded. “I don’t know how Black-White Heaven did it, but they changed the structure of this region.

“Yi Sword Heaven is a vast landmass floating in the starry sky—so large it could bury billions of stars.

“It can be approached from all directions, but Four Alliances sealed the other routes. That forces everyone to enter from Lone Peak Gorge. Even Four Alliances has to use the same path.”

Wang Jie looked at the ship’s screen. Ships were everywhere, crowding the space around the gorge. It was bustling.

Call requests popped up constantly.

Miao Tai accepted one.

“Trying to enter Yi Sword Heaven? I can get Your Excellency in—for a price. Your Excellency’s ship says money isn’t an issue. Interested?”

Another request came immediately.

“I’m a close friend of Qi Sheng’s son from Lone Peak Gorge. If you want to enter Yi Sword Heaven, come to me. I have a way.”

Miao Tai accepted a few more. They were all the same.

“My lord’s ship is too eye-catching,” he said. “Everyone wants a cut.”

“If I pay and they still can’t get me in?” Wang Jie asked.

Miao Tai smiled faintly. “Then it depends on whether my lord is someone they can afford to offend.”

Wang Jie’s lips curved. “Fair.”

The ship moved toward the application point. Miao Tai handled the process quickly, submitting Wang Jie’s request.

Then he sighed. “My lord, prepare yourself. Lone Peak Gorge books slots half a year in advance. Without connections, you can’t squeeze in.”

Wang Jie looked at him. “Aren’t you the connection?”

Miao Tai smiled bitterly. “Star-Breaking Realm experts in Suo Xing Jian aren’t rare. Anyone with a slot has Star-Breaking Realm behind them, and some have Full-Star Realm. Those people have countless relatives and friends. Even lining up takes forever.

“Unless I apply for myself. Then no one blocks me.”

Before he could finish, the request was rejected.

Miao Tai turned helplessly to Wang Jie.

Wang Jie’s expression didn’t change. Whether Miao Tai had tried in good faith no longer mattered. “The ones who decide here are five Full-Star Realm experts, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Take me to them,” Wang Jie said. “I’ll talk.”

Miao Tai hesitated. “My lord… you truly intend to go?”

Wang Jie gave him a thin smile. “You don’t want me to?”

Miao Tai snapped straight. “Of course I want my lord safe. That’s why I don’t.”

Wang Jie sat down and drank calmly. “Arrange it however you like. Take me to whoever you choose.”

Miao Tai stared at him for a long beat, then bowed. “Understood.”

The ship veered away.

Miao Tai’s heart felt heavy. This man’s confidence was too steady—too calm. Ten Seals defeating Full-Star Realm was impossible.

Unless…

Unless he had backing powerful enough to make even Lone Peak Gorge wary.

And yet—how could a man with that kind of backing not know about space-time minor vortices?

Call requests continued. They ignored them all.

Half a day later, they circled around the blade-like beams and reached a planet on the far side.

“This is where those Full-Star Realm experts live,” Miao Tai said quietly. “I don’t know which of them are present.”

Wang Jie looked toward the planet. “Let’s go.”

The planet was advanced—ports, docking stations, sleek towers, screens and lights everywhere. Nothing about it looked like a cultivation stronghold.

A flying vehicle waited for them.

Miao Tai lowered his voice. “Senior Fu An is one of the five. He sent this to pick us up.”

They climbed in and were whisked through the city. Music filled the air. Ads blared. Colorful balloons drifted over crowds chasing pleasure.

If Blue Star had developed peacefully for a few more centuries, it might have looked like this.

The vehicle stopped on a lively street.

“My lord, we’ve arrived.”

They entered a small two-story courtyard house tucked just off the road. A man lay in a reclining chair, swaying comfortably as if the noise outside were a lullaby.

Miao Tai bowed deeply. “Junior Miao Tai greets Senior Fu An.”

Fu An opened his eyes. He glanced at Miao Tai, then fixed his gaze on Wang Jie.

Wang Jie met it without blinking.

After a moment, Fu An said coolly to Miao Tai, “Young people have no manners.”

Miao Tai’s face tightened.

Wang Jie spoke first. “That depends on whether the man in front of me is an enemy or a friend.”

Fu An’s eyes chilled. “Origin.”

“None.”

“Background.”

“None.”

Fu An’s gaze sharpened. “Then why do you dare speak like this?”

Wang Jie walked a slow circle around the courtyard, taking everything in. “I’ve heard some high-level cultivators like to temper their hearts in noisy places. Is that why you stay here?

“Too bad. Your heart isn’t calm.”

Miao Tai took an involuntary step back.

Fu An sat up, interest flickering. “It isn’t. You have a method?”

“No.”

Fu An’s smile vanished. “Do you know what happens to people who run their mouths in front of me?”

Wang Jie dragged over a stool and sat directly across from him. He nodded toward Miao Tai. “He didn’t dare surround and kill me because I bought a star-belt-class ship and my strength is unusual. He couldn’t judge my background.”

He leaned forward slightly. “You’re speaking to me for the same reason.”

Then he added, evenly, “So I’ll tell you the truth. I have no origin. No background.

“Do whatever you want. There won’t be consequences.”

Miao Tai stared at Wang Jie’s back, shaken. Was that… really true?

Fu An studied Wang Jie for a long time. Then he nodded once. “You have nerve. Not afraid of death?”

“Let’s find out.”

Fu An lifted his hand.

A single fallen leaf spun from his palm and drifted toward Wang Jie—slow, gentle, almost lazy.

Wang Jie flicked a finger.

The leaf snapped sideways as if struck by an invisible blade, shooting out of the courtyard, screaming past the city’s skyline, and vanishing into the starry void beyond.

For an instant, wind rose around their feet.

The ground trembled.

Then everything went still again, as if nothing had happened at all.

Miao Tai, standing behind them, hadn’t even realized what he’d witnessed.

Fu An stared at Wang Jie, shock unmistakable. That had been a Star-Breaking technique. Wang Jie had deflected it with a finger—after reading its path instantly, after catching it cleanly.

That did not belong to Ten Seals.

Silence.

Then Fu An asked, “Name?”

“Wang Jie.”

“You want to enter Yi Sword Heaven?”

“Yes.”

Fu An leaned back. “Go. I’ll arrange it.”

Wang Jie rose. “Thank you, Senior.”

Fu An chuckled. “Now I’m a friend?”

“At least not an enemy,” Wang Jie said, smiling faintly.

He paused, then added, “Can you add him as well? I’m unfamiliar with Yi Sword Heaven. I want someone who knows the way.”

Miao Tai blinked. He was going too?

Fu An waved a hand. “Fine. Go together.”

Wang Jie turned, then hesitated, remembering something, and sat back down.

Fu An frowned. “What now?”

Wang Jie said, “Senior, I’d like to understand the situation of Full-Star Realm lockforce cultivators.”

Fu An rocked lazily in his chair. “For starforce cultivators, reaching Full-Star Realm is straightforward. Absorb the starforce of an entire planet.

“For lockforce cultivators, the requirement is the same in principle: absorb lockforce equal to an entire star.”

Wang Jie narrowed his eyes. “That’s it?”

Fu An laughed. “You think that sounds easy?

“For starforce cultivators, the challenge is starforce itself. For lockforce cultivators, the challenge is lockforce itself.

“Where do you get that much lockforce material?”

He tilted his head. “Lockforce cultivation is simplest up to Star-Breaking Realm. After that, if your lockforce is sufficient, Full-Star Realm comes naturally.

“But feeding one Full-Star Realm lockforce cultivator is harder than feeding a hundred thousand Ten Seals cultivators—more.”

“On the interstellar battlefield,” Fu An went on, “Ten Seals, Star-Breaking Realm, even Full-Star Realm lockforce cultivators are all the same. Cannon fodder. Many factions would rather have more Ten Seals. Quantity matters.”

“Only lockforce cultivators who reach Roaming-Star Realm have value.

“And through all of history… how many have reached Roaming-Star Realm?”

Wang Jie asked quietly, “Then combat?”

Fu An extended a hand. “Try.”

Wang Jie placed his palm against Fu An’s.

Both of them stiffened.

Fu An stood abruptly. “What color is your imprint, exactly?”

Wang Jie stared back, startled. “You were trying to disperse my lockforce?”

They both looked rattled—genuinely.

Fu An’s gaze sharpened. “If two cultivators wield the same force—starforce or lockforce—a higher realm has strong control over a lower realm. They can disperse the lower one’s power. Disrupt their strikes.”

He paused, as if replaying what he’d felt. “But I could barely disperse yours. There’s only one explanation: your imprint color is deep. Your lockforce is anchored so tightly it resists being scattered.”

Wang Jie let out a slow breath. “So that’s how it works…”

He’d never fully understood. Even Wu Mian had never mentioned it—perhaps assuming it was common knowledge.

Some truths only revealed themselves after time and experience.

—

Later, staring out at the starry sky, Wang Jie listened as Fu An explained even more—especially about the future of lockforce cultivators.

He’d heard it countless times: lockforce cultivators had no future.

But this time, he felt the weight of it.

Fu An couldn’t go any further.

Fu An admitted it himself—no matter how many catastrophe materials he obtained, he could not step into Roaming-Star Realm. He described it as a wall ahead, impossibly thick, beyond human effort to break.

That wall was his upper limit.

Every lockforce cultivator would face a wall like that, different for each person.

Fu An even mentioned Zhong Yi—who had reached their own wall, entered closed-door seclusion, and died without leaving so much as bones.

Zhong Yi was the highest peak known in lockforce history: Hundred-Star Realm.

Wang Jie turned to Miao Tai. “Have you reached your limit?”

Miao Tai’s gaze darkened. “I have. I feel it clearly.

“That’s why I live however I want. Cultivation is meaningless to me now.”

“Fu An is the same?”

“Not just Senior Fu An,” Miao Tai said quietly. “The Full-Star Realm experts in Four Alliances are the same, too.”