Chapter 128

Chapter 128: Yi Sword Heaven

Wang Jie exhaled slowly.

He knew that feeling—the same certainty he’d once felt when his strength capped at ninety-nine times. A hard limit. A wall you could sense in your bones.

And yet he’d broken that wall.

So why should this one be unbreakable?

He had talent others didn’t. At Ten Seals, he could defeat Full-Star Realm. Why couldn’t he be the exception?

He stopped thinking about it.

One step at a time.

He would face that wall when he reached it.

—

Back near Lone Peak Gorge, call requests flooded in again—inevitably, along with mockery.

But when Wang Jie’s ship docked at a specific berth, every nearby ship fell silent.

That berth was reserved for those entering Yi Sword Heaven.

If you could dock there, it meant you had a slot.

“How did he get in?”

“Weren’t the slots decided half a year ago?”

“Anyone who can afford a star-belt-class ship has to have backing.”

“Could it be Black-White Heaven?”

“Black-White Heaven’s starforce cultivators don’t care about us, but don’t forget—every year they send lockforce cultivators too. There are always strong ones among them.

“Some lockforce cultivators earn merit on the battlefield. Their status isn’t low.

“His backing might be tied to the interstellar battlefield.”

“Forget it. You can’t provoke someone like that…”

By the rules, Wang Jie still had to wait more than a month before departure to Yi Sword Heaven.

He wasn’t in a rush. If anything, he had another problem to solve.

He needed to move five people to tears.

Wang Jie looked at Miao Tai. “Do you have anyone under you who’s especially sentimental?”

Miao Tai blinked. “Sentimental?”

“Easy to be moved. The kind who cries when they’re touched.”

“I… I’ve never asked.”

Wang Jie handed him a draft. “Go talk to people around here. Have them read it. Best case, they cry because they’re moved.”

Miao Tai stared at the pages like they were poison. “My lord… what is this?”

He skimmed it, then looked up sharply.

The protagonist’s name was Wang Jie.

Miao Tai glanced at Wang Jie, then back at the story, utterly baffled.

“My lord, if you want people to cry, that’s easy. Beat them.”

“No,” Wang Jie said flatly. “They have to cry because they’re moved. If you can do it, I’ll give you one hundred thousand starstones.”

Miao Tai’s eyes widened. “One hundred thousand?”

Wang Jie patted his shoulder. “Go. No threats. No intimidation. They must cry because they’re touched.”

Miao Tai left, dazed, like a man who’d been thrown into a dream.

Wang Jie wasn’t sure what else to try. He didn’t know how to make people cry.

So he gambled on luck.

The universe was vast. People were countless. Surely he could find the right kind of person somewhere.

Half a month passed. More and more ships arrived and docked. No one came out. Everyone waited for the final day, when they would depart for Yi Sword Heaven.

Wang Jie trained.

Miao Tai returned, opened his mouth, and stopped.

Wang Jie was doing his exercises.

Miao Tai backed away silently, as if he’d stumbled into some secret technique.

Later, he stood before Wang Jie again, looking miserable. “My lord… nobody cried.”

Wang Jie’s expression tightened with disappointment. “Then find another way. I need them moved to tears.”

“They have to cry?”

“They have to,” Wang Jie said. “If they won’t cry, you will.”

Miao Tai went pale.

—

Another half month later, a silver ship descended.

Wang Jie and Miao Tai stepped out. It was time.

This ship had come specifically to transport the chosen entrants. One by one, others disembarked from their own vessels.

Ten people total—Lone Peak Gorge’s slots.

Men and women, young and old.

Two were Star-Breaking Realm.

Shuang Hua Sect had almost no Star-Breaking Realm lockforce cultivators—Wang Jie had never even seen one there. Yet here, they were common.

That was the difference between a star chain-level power and Shuang Hua Sect.

Black-White Heaven ruled the entire Fourth Nebula. Its foundation was monstrous; its experts were countless.

And in Suo Xing Jian, there were even Roaming-Star Realm lockforce cultivators—hidden somewhere, belonging to neither Four Alliances nor Lone Peak Gorge.

The blade-like beams flanking Lone Peak Gorge blazed close enough to sting the eyes.

Wang Jie sat quietly with Miao Tai.

Two people approached—a man and a woman.

Wang Jie looked up.

“It’s you,” the man said harshly, hate burning in his eyes. “You took Tao Er’s slot.”

Miao Tai immediately stood, blocking him. The man was Star-Breaking Realm. The woman beside him was Ten Seals.

“Your Excellency is looking for trouble?” Miao Tai asked.

The man ignored him, staring straight at Wang Jie. “There were no slots for you. A Star-Breaking Realm joining is one thing, but you came too. Two slots disappeared at once. One of them was my son’s.”

The woman’s voice shook with fury. “We fought so hard to get our family into Yi Sword Heaven. Tao Er was supposed to come with us. Next time he’ll have to go alone—do you know how dangerous that is? You will pay for this.”

Wang Jie’s tone stayed calm. “If you’re afraid it’s dangerous, don’t go.”

The man surged forward.

A voice echoed from within the ship. “All entrants, remain seated. Fighting is forbidden aboard this vessel. Violators will be stripped of their qualification to enter Yi Sword Heaven.”

The couple glared at Wang Jie, trembling with rage. “Watch yourself.”

Then they left.

Wang Jie didn’t care. He had no interest in petty grudges.

A few hours later, Yi Sword Heaven appeared.

He stared.

A vast continent floated in the starry void, mountains rolling like waves. Waterfalls hung in midair, spilling in shimmering silver streams that fell forever. It was a beauty he’d never imagined.

Land floating in space—he’d never seen anything like it.

The ship shuddered lightly and docked. Entrants filed out.

The couple threw Wang Jie one last venomous look before leaving.

Miao Tai lowered his voice. “My lord, should we deal with them?”

“No,” Wang Jie said. “Let them go.”

His attention was fixed on the distance.

They stood on a cliff edge with a view that stretched impossibly far. Beyond, catastrophe creatures ran in endless packs. The sky itself was black with flying beasts—Ten Seals creatures, countless, filling the air like a storm cloud.

Miao Tai had been here twice. “Yi Sword Heaven has the most and strongest lockforce creatures in all of Suo Xing Jian,” he explained. “Only seventy people enter each year, and Black-White Heaven keeps dropping slaughterstones here. The lockforce density is thickest anywhere.”

Wang Jie could feel it. The lockforce was almost sticky, damp against his skin.

It reminded him of Blue Star after Jia Yi Sect had dropped over a hundred slaughterstones at once.

Yi Sword Heaven had existed for a long time, yet it still felt like this—meaning Black-White Heaven must have poured an absurd number of slaughterstones into this land over the years.

Yi Sword Heaven was like Blue Star in its later stage.

A single slaughterstone drop could reshape an entire region’s ecology, forcing creatures into evolution. That meant this place was crawling with monsters far beyond Ten Seals.

Humans could cultivate higher. Creatures could, too.

Even insects.

Wang Jie’s true target was Fifteen Layers.

Everyone who entered Yi Sword Heaven came for it.

“Fifteen Layers,” Miao Tai said, guiding him onward. “Each layer has a different environment—heat, cold, gravity, wild winds. Each layer only accepts a matching realm or lower. If someone stronger tries to force their way in, they either can’t enter, or they enter and the layer collapses.”

“So a Star-Breaking Realm can’t force entry into a layer meant for Ten Seals.

“But Ten Seals can enter layers meant for Star-Breaking Realm.”

“Fifteen Layers is divided into three major realms: Ten Seals, Star-Breaking Realm, and Full-Star Realm. Six layers for Ten Seals, five for Star-Breaking Realm, four for Full-Star Realm…”

Miao Tai’s explanation was thorough as they headed toward the entrance.

Wang Jie was surprised to learn their personal terminals still worked here—but only within the same layer.

On the way, they were attacked a few times, but not heavily. The path to Fifteen Layers was the most traveled by entrants, and catastrophe creatures avoided it.

The blood stench alone was enough to make most beasts wary.

By the time they reached the entrance, bones carpeted the ground. Many still had unchewed flesh clinging to them.

Three corpses were human.

Wang Jie recognized the couple’s clothing. They were both dead here.

Not far away lay another body—a middle-aged man he’d noticed on the ship. Dead as well.

Miao Tai spoke grimly. “This road leads straight to the entrance. We know it, and the beasts know it too.

“Some of them are as intelligent as humans. They hunt here.”

“So that’s why those two kept talking about danger,” Wang Jie said.

He turned and snapped a finger through the air.

The void rippled in an arc and slammed into a grotesque creature lurking nearby—veins like blood threads webbing its body, eyes trembling as it locked onto him.

The blow drove it back, but didn’t crush it.

Miao Tai’s voice tightened. “Star-Breaking Realm beast, my lord. Be careful.”

A second creature emerged—nearly identical, teeth slick with blood and rot. It stared at them without blinking.

Something dangled from its mouth.

A finger.

Wang Jie’s stomach turned. It was the man’s—the same man who had threatened him earlier.

They’d been enemies, but seeing this still made Wang Jie feel sick.

Jia Eight Steps.

He flashed behind the creature and drove a kick into its spine.

The strike was brutal. The beast snapped in half at the waist with a shriek, hurled into the distance.

Miao Tai’s heart pounded. If that kick had landed on him, he would have ended the same way.

The other creature roared and charged past Miao Tai, straight for Wang Jie.

Miao Tai attacked without hesitation.

Wang Jie struck at the same time.

Minutes later, both Star-Breaking Realm beasts were dead.

Miao Tai bent and pulled a long strand of fur from one corpse, offering it with reverence. “Congratulations, my lord. Star-Breaking Realm catastrophe material. Rare.”

Wang Jie accepted it. It was his first time seeing Star-Breaking Realm catastrophe material. The lockforce inside was on a completely different level from Ten Seals.

Even the best Ten Seals catastrophe materials from Star Vault Materials Exchange couldn’t compare.

If he had to estimate, it was like the lockforce intensity of fifty Ten Seals materials combined.

A treasure.

He put it away without ceremony. “This is truly rare?”

“Yes,” Miao Tai said. “Creatures evolved by slaughterstones reach Ten Seals quickly, but Star-Breaking is a threshold. Without guidance, most never learn Star-Breaking techniques, never climb past that mountain.

“Only a few intelligent beasts break through—and those can pass methods to their offspring.”

He looked toward the dark entrance. “In all of Suo Xing Jian, outside Yi Sword Heaven, slaughterstone planets with Star-Breaking Realm beasts are extremely rare.”

Wang Jie’s gaze held steady. “Once they break star, reaching Full-Star Realm becomes easier, doesn’t it?”

Miao Tai nodded. “Star-Breaking is hard for beasts, but Full-Star is easier. They fight constantly. They’re better at finding catastrophe materials than humans.

“That’s only comparing individuals, though. If you compare factions—Four Alliances, or even me—we collect faster because we have people.”

They stepped up to the entrance.

It looked like an ordinary passage carved into stone—house-shaped, cramped, and pitch-black.