Chapter 134

Chapter 134: Deal

Hours passed.

Then the combat power detector shrieked.

One… two… three.

Three signatures above ten thousand combat power were approaching. One reading surged and dipped—likely a Full-Star Realm.

They’d found a lead.

Wang Jie turned his gaze that way.

Far off, a short old man led a team through the rain-soaked wilds of Yi Sword Heaven.

He was one of the Lone Peak Gorge’s five Full-Star Realm experts, sent this time as their representative to support the Four Alliances.

His name was Cui Si.

In Lock Passage, people called him Quick Hands Cui.

Two Star-Breaking Realm cultivators followed him—one newly arrived, and one of the people Wang Jie had forced into hunting slaughterstone.

Behind them trailed several others, faces dark with anger.

They’d already verified it.

There was no Sword Poison.

Wang Jie had conned them into collecting slaughterstone and nearly gotten them killed.

Now that a Full-Star Realm expert had arrived, they were here for revenge.

Cui Si moved in slow bursts, pausing often, his eyes drifting left and right as if he were listening to the world itself. The people behind him grew tense.

No one dared complain.

Quick Hands Cui’s combat power was only sixty thousand, but anyone who let him get close would regret it. Even seventy or eighty thousand combat power experts feared being caught by those hands.

He was low-key, rarely involved himself in disputes.

This time, he’d been forced by obligation—and privately, he was praying.

Please don’t run into that man.

Please.

The world didn’t care about prayers.

A sudden burst of wind snapped toward them.

Cui Si reacted instantly, darting aside.

Pebbles punched through the air and slammed into the people behind him. Aside from the two Star-Breaking Realm cultivators, the rest dropped unconscious.

Cui Si’s head snapped forward.

Wang Jie was already closing in, Jia Eight Steps carrying him across distance in a blink.

Wang Jie threw a punch, qi and strength fused, showing no courtesy to a Full-Star Realm opponent.

Cui Si’s combat power detector screamed.

Instead of dodging, the old man stepped in.

If you insist on closing distance, don’t blame me.

Wang Jie’s punch twisted off course mid-strike, his momentum dragged sideways as if caught in a whirlpool.

What?

Cui Si’s expression shifted too. That strength—

He’d wanted to counter, but dissolving the force took everything he had. He lost a fraction of time.

Just enough for both of them to register surprise.

“Master Cui!” someone shouted from afar. “That’s him!”

Cui Si cursed inwardly.

Unlucky.

But his mouth spoke in a different tone as his hands moved. “Little Brother, why make trouble here? Come back to Lock Passage with me. We can talk.”

Wang Jie tried to break away.

Cui Si’s power wasn’t overwhelming, but it was sticky—dragging, clinging, pulling his attacks into spirals that dissolved before they landed.

It felt like the old man had dozens of hands.

“Right!” Cui Si shouted, striking left.

“Up!” he yelled, striking low.

He made a spectacle of it, barking directions that didn’t match his attacks—dirty, distracting, shameless.

Wang Jie’s eyes narrowed.

He retreated, but Cui Si caught him again.

So widening distance wasn’t simple.

Fine.

Jia Eight Steps.

Wang Jie flickered—and in the next instant he was a kilometer away.

Cui Si’s eyes widened.

That movement technique was absurd.

Trouble.

Wang Jie drew his sword and thrust.

Cui Si slapped open a formation scroll and activated it.

Three phantoms appeared.

Three-Wraith Formation.

Wang Jie recognized it immediately—he’d used it himself.

This old man was cautious, slippery, and far more shameless than his appearance suggested.

“Run!” Cui Si barked, already sprinting. “He’s a tough one!”

Three-Wraith Formation could fool even Full-Star Realm cultivators.

But it didn’t fool Wang Jie.

He hadn’t reached One Gaze, Three Thousand, but he was close enough to see through formations.

Cui Si ran.

The two Star-Breaking Realm followed.

Wang Jie surged after them.

Sword Steps.

Cui Si glanced back, pupils shrinking.

Impossible.

The formation didn’t slow him at all?

Wang Jie’s blade flashed.

Cui Si took the hit—there was a dull clang at his chest, and he was thrown sideways by the force.

But the strike didn’t bite.

He landed, changed direction, and kept running. “Little Brother, it’s a misunderstanding! I’m here to deliver slaughterstone!”

Wang Jie’s smile turned cold. “Sure. Then stay and talk.”

“This is really unnecessary!” Cui Si shouted, still running.

He was fast. Without Sword Steps, Wang Jie might not have caught him.

But the detector was still screaming.

Experts were closing from the other directions.

Wang Jie’s gaze sharpened.

Enough.

Qi-Qi Convergence.

Sword Rig.

One-Line Sky.

Cui Si’s body stiffened for an instant, as if caught by invisible blades. He whirled around and braced.

He couldn’t dodge this one.

Clang—

The Chen Artifact on his chest shattered.

Sword light tore through him. Blood sprayed into the rain.

Cui Si staggered, then collapsed.

Wang Jie didn’t stay.

He vanished into the wilds.

Not long after, Lie Qiu arrived and froze at the sight. “Cui Si!”

Cui Si lay on the ground coughing blood, face twisted with bitterness. “I did my best. I couldn’t beat him.”

Lie Qiu checked the wound, expression tightening. “That sword qi… He even shattered your second-tribulation Chen Artifact. Who is he?”

Cui Si shook his head. “No idea. Young. Very young.”

He coughed again. “He feels like he’s only after slaughterstone. He didn’t go for a killing blow.”

“What technique did he use?” Lie Qiu demanded.

“Don’t recognize it.”

Lie Qiu’s eyes narrowed. “What have you been doing with your life?”

Cui Si winced. “I’m tired. You handle it yourselves.”

He waved weakly and slumped back, eyes half-closed.

Lie Qiu rose, scanning the rain-soaked world, jaw tight.

Feng Wen Sheng arrived a moment later. He listened, then examined Cui Si’s injury himself, visibly unsettled.

His own strength was comparable to Cui Si’s—possibly worse.

If he’d been the one chased…

He didn’t want to think about it.

“We can’t keep doing this,” Feng Wen Sheng said. “We’ll be picked off one by one.”

“Then you leave,” Lie Qiu snapped. “I’ll search alone.”

Feng Wen Sheng looked at her. “And if he stays hidden?”

“How long will you search? One year? Two? Three?”

He lowered his voice. “How do we explain this to Black-White Heaven?”

“Don’t forget—Yi Sword Heaven isn’t ours.”

“If we fail to keep it safe…”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

He didn’t need to.

Lie Qiu’s expression darkened.

Just then, one of the people Wang Jie had forced into hunting slaughterstone gasped. “He’s contacting me.”

Lie Qiu and Feng Wen Sheng both looked at the man’s personal terminal.

“Lock his position,” Lie Qiu said sharply.

“He wants to talk,” the man said.

Feng Wen Sheng gestured. “Open it.”

A calm voice came through. “Hello.”

Lie Qiu snapped, voice like a whip. “Who are you? Where are you? Come out!”

Wang Jie sounded almost amused. “I was going to end this, but your attitude annoys me. Forget it. We’ll keep playing.”

“Wait,” Feng Wen Sheng said at once, cutting Lie Qiu off with a glance. He leaned toward the terminal. “I’m Feng Wen Sheng, one of the Four Alliances. Tell me your purpose. We want to settle this quickly as well.”

A pause.

Then Wang Jie spoke again. “That tone sounds like a person.

“And tell that woman not to speak. She’s annoying.”

Lie Qiu’s face flushed with rage, but she forced it down.

Feng Wen Sheng kept his voice level. “State your terms.”

“Help me collect one thousand slaughterstone,” Wang Jie said. “Then this ends.”

“Why do you need that many?” Feng Wen Sheng asked. “And most of the slaughterstone here are already used up.”

“Oh?” Wang Jie replied. “So you want to find good ones for me?”

Feng Wen Sheng’s face tightened.

Lie Qiu shot him a look that clearly said: idiot.

Feng Wen Sheng exhaled. “That’s not what I meant. I’m trying to negotiate.”

“I’ve said my goal,” Wang Jie replied. “When you’ve collected them, I’ll tell you where to meet. Then you hand them over.”

His voice chilled. “Don’t play tricks. If you want to play with me, I promise Yi Sword Heaven will never be safe again. You send one person in, I kill one person. We’ll see who runs out of patience first.”

The connection cut.

Feng Wen Sheng looked at Lie Qiu. “We help him collect.”

Lie Qiu’s mouth curved in a cold smile. “Fine. Then I’ll personally deliver them to him.”

“Not you,” Feng Wen Sheng said. “Us. Finding them is one thing. Keeping them is another.”

He raised a hand and ordered everyone to hunt slaughterstone with full force.

Far away, Wang Jie was already moving.

No point dragging this out.

Once the slaughterstone were gathered, he would trade at the Twelfth Layer.

The best place to trade would have been Fourth Layer—he would have been safe there.

But he couldn’t stay trapped in Yi Sword Heaven forever.

This had to end cleanly.

And when it ended, there would be a real fight.

He decided to find a helper first—from the sixth layer.

After that, Wang Jie returned to Fourth Layer and sat in the one hundred and fifty times gravity zone, staring at the Thousand-Color Stone and training his control of lockforce.

One month passed.

Two months passed.

His control of qi kept rising.

His control of lockforce reached One Gaze, Two Thousand Eight Hundred.

He was closing in on One Gaze, Three Thousand.

The Thousand-Color Stone truly accelerated his progress. Combined with gravity training, his exercises, and the Barrier-Breaking Pill, his improvement was frighteningly fast.

Then, one day, he received unexpected good news.

One of the Heaven-Reversal Path materials—making five people cry from being moved—had been completed.

Wang Jie hadn’t done anything himself.

His attempt in Yi Sword Heaven had failed.

The only explanation was Luo Yan.

He’d told Luo Yan to spread stories before. He hadn’t expected it to pay off like this.

Luo Yan really was reliable.

That left only two requirements:

Master a Chen Art.

And collect one thousand slaughterstone.

Soon.

He’d been stuck at ten seals for far too long. He still hadn’t reached the ten seals peak he’d planned, much less broken through the mountain into Star-Breaking Realm.

He didn’t know how much longer it would take.

He kept cultivating.

Outside, Lock Passage didn’t rush.

They already knew what was happening.

Fu An felt the cold twist of realization settle into certainty.

When he’d first heard Wang Jie hadn’t come out, he’d known something was off. With that strength, Wang Jie shouldn’t have died in Yi Sword Heaven.

Then everything that followed had made Fu An suspect him.

A man with an unknown origin.

A man capable of doing the impossible.

Now it was confirmed.

With Wang Jie’s strength, none of this was strange.

Miao Tai, meanwhile, had been detained. The Four Alliances and the Lone Peak Gorge interrogated him repeatedly, but he truly didn’t know anything.

If he’d known it would become like this, he would have stayed in Yi Sword Heaven.

Now everyone waited.

Waited for the slaughterstone quota to be met.

Waited for the trade.

Another month passed.

Wang Jie left Fourth Layer and returned to the surface. He opened his personal terminal and contacted them.

Feng Wen Sheng answered immediately, voice strained. “We can’t find any more. Too many slaughterstone have shattered over the years. We’ve gathered nine hundred and fifty-two. These were thrown here by Black-White Heaven across countless years. More than ten people died collecting them.”

Nine hundred and fifty-two.

Wang Jie had sixty-two slaughterstone on him already.

Together—

Enough.

“Come to the Twelfth Layer,” Wang Jie said. “We trade.”

Twelfth Layer.

Wang Jie sat cross-legged on a slope of broken stone and waited.

Before long, eight people arrived.

Lie Qiu and Feng Wen Sheng led them.

Behind them stood another Full-Star Realm expert and five Star-Breaking Realm cultivators.

Wang Jie opened his eyes, expression calm.

Lie Qiu stepped onto the slope first, staring straight at him. She lifted a hand.

The others fanned out immediately, surrounding the area.