Chapter 133

Chapter 133: Not One Will Escape

Not long after, the two arrived.

In the distance, Wang Jie was circling a ferocious creature, slipping around its attacks.

“That’s him?” the second man asked.

“Yes,” the first man said quickly. “Be careful. He’s fast, he hits hard, and I can’t see his realm.”

“Lord Feng said not to judge combat power by realm,” the second man replied. “But the detector reading never jumps, and he can still dodge a Star-Breaking Realm creature’s attacks. That kind of control is precise. No wonder you couldn’t handle him.”

The first man didn’t answer.

The second was an elite Star-Breaking Realm expert under Feng Wen Cheng—faster and stronger than most.

The first man hadn’t been hunting slaughterstone at all.

He’d been hunting help.

If he could force Wang Jie to give up the antidote, he’d rather gamble than place his life in an enemy’s hands.

The two watched.

Meanwhile, Wang Jie had already spotted the slaughterstone.

He didn’t kill the creature instantly. He’d learned his lesson: some creatures, right before death, would bite down and shatter the slaughterstone to quickly bolster their lockforce. He’d lost one that way.

It wouldn’t happen again.

Wang Jie stepped in.

Flames burst upward—but compared to Thunder Well’s lightning, they looked almost gentle.

He shifted once and appeared on the creature’s back. Then he lifted his leg and stomped.

Boom.

The ground collapsed.

A shockwave spread like a storm. It slammed into the two men in the distance so hard they nearly suffocated, forcing them to retreat again and again.

That stomp was monstrous.

The creature was crushed into pieces.

The first man stood frozen.

This… much strength?

The second man turned and ran.

He hadn’t even seen how Wang Jie reached the creature’s back. The speed was beyond him. And the power—

How could he fight that?

He managed only a few steps.

Wang Jie was already in front of him.

The first man turned too—and found Wang Jie in front of him as well.

Both of them went stiff.

When did he appear?

Wang Jie looked between them and smiled. “What are you two doing?”

“We’re helping you find slaughterstone,” the first man blurted.

Wang Jie’s gaze slid to the second. “And him?”

“He heard about it and came to help,” the first man said rapidly, voice tight.

“Is that so?” Wang Jie asked.

“Yes,” the second man forced out. “Lord, I’m here to help.”

“Oh?” Wang Jie sounded amused. “Good. If you’re willing, then help properly.

“Come here.”

“Lord,” the second man said, struggling to keep his voice steady, “we already helped you find it. What—”

“Human nature is unreliable,” Wang Jie said. “Efficiency isn’t.”

A few breaths later, Wang Jie nodded, as if satisfied.

“Done. I’ve planted Sword Poison in you too. Go.

“Collect slaughterstone. Your quota is one hundred.

“As for you…” He glanced at the first man. “Ninety.”

The two left with faces gone pale.

Wang Jie crouched and dug the slaughterstone from the ground.

Not bad.

In half a month, he’d already found ten.

Yi Sword Heaven really did have a frightening number of slaughterstone. Wherever powerful creatures gathered, slaughterstone followed.

He could collect a thousand here—if he had enough hands.

So he stopped hunting and headed toward Yi Sword Heaven’s entrance.

The deadline was approaching. The next batch was about to leave.

No one was leaving.

Everyone was staying to collect slaughterstone.

More people meant faster progress. Otherwise, how could he do it alone?

Outside, at the Lone Peak Gorge, Miao Tai received a shocking message:

The fifteen people from the Four Alliances who entered Yi Sword Heaven… none had come out.

The news rocked Lock Passage.

The Four Alliances treated it as an emergency and replaced the next batch of fifteen entirely—swapping out weaker cultivators and sending stronger ones instead.

The goal shifted from cultivation to investigation.

Miao Tai frowned.

Fifteen missing, including several Star-Breaking Realm cultivators.

What in the world was happening inside Yi Sword Heaven?

His personal terminal rang.

“Senior Fu An.”

Fu An’s voice was tight. “Where is he? Still not out?”

“No.”

“What happened inside? Did you see anything?”

It wasn’t just Miao Tai.

Everyone who had exited with him was being questioned.

Miao Tai’s only answer was the truth: “Everything was normal.”

Fu An fell silent, then muttered, “Why… why is it like this?”

No one had an answer.

They could only wait for the next group’s result.

A month passed.

No one came out.

The matter exploded.

Experts from the Four Alliances gathered at the Lone Peak Gorge. The Lone Peak Gorge’s five Full-Star Realm experts all returned as well.

Miao Tai was brought too, along with the others who had left in his batch.

They were now considered the last people to have come out of Yi Sword Heaven.

The final planned batch of fifteen was canceled.

Even if it hadn’t been canceled, no one would dare enter.

Until they found the cause, Yi Sword Heaven was a death sentence.

Inside Yi Sword Heaven, Wang Jie had succeeded.

Thirty people were collecting slaughterstone for him.

Thirty.

The first two batches of fifteen.

Not a single one had escaped.

They were lucky—they hadn’t died to the beasts.

They’d planned to leave at the deadline.

Wang Jie blocked the entrance.

Until he had a thousand slaughterstone, no one went anywhere.

Everyone reported their progress.

Wang Jie tallied the numbers.

Five hundred and sixty-eight slaughterstone.

An impressive pile.

But the deeper they went, the scarcer it became. The count slowed sharply.

Then he noticed something else.

Two signals were gone.

Two people dead.

Casualties were inevitable. Yi Sword Heaven had too many powerful creatures. Teams held up at first, but the deeper they pushed, the more monsters they faced.

By Wang Jie’s count, the next batch of fifteen should have arrived by now.

Were they refusing to enter because no one had come out?

He didn’t care.

The slaughterstone count kept climbing. That was what mattered.

Still…

Outside would eventually act. They couldn’t allow Yi Sword Heaven to become unusable.

Wang Jie made a decision.

He ordered everyone to bring their slaughterstone to him immediately.

The teams that received the message exchanged looks.

“No rush,” someone muttered. “Experts will come in and deal with him soon. He forced us to collect slaughterstone. We collected them. Whether he can keep them… depends on his strength.”

“The Four Alliances plus the Lone Peak Gorge have so many Full-Star Realm,” another said, sneering. “Does he really think he can do whatever he wants in Lock Passage? Laughable.”

At the Lone Peak Gorge, the final decision came quickly:

Five Full-Star Realm experts would enter Yi Sword Heaven together.

Along with five Star-Breaking Realm.

Ten people.

A terrifying formation by Lock Passage standards.

Frost-Hua Sect had fifty million outer court disciples, yet it only had one Full-Star Realm expert like Wu Mian.

Here, five arrived at once.

The ten entered Yi Sword Heaven and immediately contacted the trapped teams.

The surface erupted into motion.

Everyone Wang Jie had forced to collect slaughterstone began converging on the entrance.

Two leaders took charge there:

Lie Qiu and Feng Wen Sheng.

The Four Alliances consisted of Lie Qiu, Zong Cheng Ping, Nie Zhou, and the Feng brothers.

Zong Cheng Ping was acknowledged as the strongest.

Lie Qiu and Nie Zhou were comparable. The Feng brothers were weaker individually, but together they could hold their ground.

As the harvest teams arrived, Lie Qiu demanded an explanation.

When she heard the truth, her face twisted with fury. “How dare he! He’s openly violating Lock Passage’s rules.”

Feng Wen Sheng’s voice was low. “His strength is unclear, but he definitely has Full-Star Realm combat power. He won’t be easy.”

Lie Qiu snorted. “If he’s not here, it means he doesn’t dare face us head-on. I’ll kill him.”

Feng Wen Sheng caught her arm. “Don’t rush. His personal terminal signal vanished. He’s in the dark, we’re in the open. Think first.”

“You don’t want to corner him into never leaving,” he added. “That would be worse. Who would dare enter Yi Sword Heaven again?”

“A Full-Star Realm expert hiding out here is dangerous,” he said. “Even you or I alone wouldn’t be safe.”

Lie Qiu was hot-tempered, not stupid. She forced her rage down. “Then what do we do?”

“He wants slaughterstone,” Feng Wen Sheng said. “That means we can negotiate.”

“First, we check whether the Sword Poison is real.”

“I suspect he isn’t far,” he added. “At the very least, he knows we’re here.”

Far away, on a mountain peak, Wang Jie watched.

This distance exceeded the combat power detector’s range. If he came any closer, they could locate him—and he could locate them.

He was here because the slaughterstone teams had all moved toward the entrance.

Outside reinforcements had arrived.

As expected, Full-Star Realm.

The Sword Poison was fake.

But he was real, and the danger he represented to Yi Sword Heaven was real.

If Wang Jie were one of them, he’d do everything possible to eliminate a hidden threat like this. Otherwise Yi Sword Heaven—Lock Passage’s most valuable ground—would be ruined.

Black-White Heaven wouldn’t tolerate that.

Black-White Heaven might not personally interfere, but pressure would come.

Wang Jie sat cross-legged, mind racing.

They were planning how to deal with him.

He needed a way to deal with them.

Yi Sword Heaven was his leverage.

At the entrance, the ten split into five teams.

Each team was led by a Full-Star Realm expert.

One team stayed to guard the entrance.

The other four went deeper, searching in four directions to hunt Wang Jie down and eliminate the threat.

Wang Jie activated Toad Breath, lowering his presence until he looked like just another motionless creature on the mountain.

Then he fixed his combat power detector on the distance and waited.