Chapter 157

Chapter 157: Strange Planet

Not having a future is one thing, but another reason is that Starforce cultivators are indeed far more powerful than Lock Force cultivators. They have far more possibilities.

A Starforce cultivator absorbing energy from a Strange Planet and battling a Lock Force cultivator with the same combat power would result in a hopeless battle for the Lock Force cultivator. This is the difference.

Lock Force cultivators will always be doomed to the fate of cannon fodder.

“You didn’t come to find me just to tell me who has the Strange Planet, right?” Wang Jie glanced at Miao Tai, a hint of expectation in his gaze.

Miao Tai gave a dry laugh. “I… humble as I am, I don’t know, nor do I have the ability to obtain information about the Four Alliances or Lone Peak Gorge. I just wanted to inform you of the possibility, my lord, so that those people don’t deceive you.”

Wang Jie didn’t care. “I’m not subordinate to them, and they don’t need to report anything to me.”

Miao Tai complied and withdrew.

Wang Jie gazed at the starry sky. He spoke indifferently, but the fact that he knew about this made it impossible not to care.

Even if Zong Cheng Ping and the others hid the Strange Planet, he couldn’t ask them about it, but Nie Zhou was different. He was the only one left from the Four Alliances that had perished.

Wang Jie immediately contacted Du Xian.

“I want to purchase information on Nie Zhou.”

“Nie Zhou? Isn’t she dead?”

“I want to see if she has any leads on the Strange Planet.”

Du Xian understood. “Alright.” After a brief search, she quoted, “Fifty thousand starstones.”

“So cheap?” Wang Jie asked instinctively. He regretted it immediately—wasn’t he just pretending to be rich? He wasn’t exactly swimming in money.

The main issue was that his expenses had been so high recently, and the price was indeed quite low.

Du Xian chuckled. “It’s not cheap. If Nie Zhou weren’t in the Full Star Realm, it wouldn’t even be worth a thousand starstones. After all, she’s dead, and a Lock Force cultivator’s information has no value.”

Wang Jie paid the amount without hesitation, and Du Xian sent over the information.

He carefully examined the details and pinpointed a location. He immediately contacted Du Xian again: “According to this information, only Nie Zhou knew about this place. How did you come by this?”

He quickly added, “I’m not trying to test Star Dome’s intelligence methods, but to verify the truth of the information.”

Du Xian replied, “I can’t tell you clearly, but I can say that nothing in the universe escapes Star Dome’s sight.”

Wang Jie shuddered inwardly, growing more wary of Star Dome’s reach.

“By the way, if you do find the Strange Planet, you don’t have to sell it to Black White Heaven. You can sell it to us.”

“But Lock Path interval is Black White Heaven’s domain. Wouldn’t it be troublesome if they found out?”

“Black White Heaven has strict rules against any interference with the Four Great Training Fields,” Du Xian said, making it clear.

Wang Jie couldn’t refute that.

Rules only mattered on the surface.

“Don’t worry. We’ll offer you a price that will make you eager to sell,” Du Xian concluded, ending the conversation.

Wang Jie had wanted to ask why Du Xian didn’t just look for it herself if the price was so attractive, but after thinking it over, he refrained.

…

The dim clouds hung low over the land. Countless people walked on the surface of flowing magma, with bright flashes of light streaking through the starry sky, shaking the earth.

Far off, ships shot into the sky. Some were swept by sudden, unknown winds and exploded in mid-air, killing most of those aboard, while others inside were numb, having long gotten used to it.

In the burning forest, a man quietly ate his food. Behind him, tens of thousands of people silently followed, lying in wait without a sound.

Suddenly, a beep rang out.

The man opened his personal terminal.

“Xiao Rong?”

“Who are you?”

“No need to worry about who I am. Return to Lock Path interval and kill a person named Wang Jie. I can make you completely free, never to enter the battlefield again.”

Xiao Rong’s gaze deepened. “Let me trust you first, then I’ll act.”

The voice on the other end was serious. “Then return to River Cloud zone. Someone will make promises to you there.”

Xiao Rong’s expression shifted slightly. “Alright.”

River Cloud zone was the location of Black White Heaven’s deacon hall.

If he was being asked to go there and receive a promise, the chances of it being true were high. He immediately left. He couldn’t bear to stay in this damned place for another day.

Everyone thought he stayed willingly in the battlefield, but in reality, it wasn’t the case at all.

Who would want to stay in a place where death could come at any moment?

But the sect needed to create this image of him to show all Lock Force cultivators that he was their backbone.

As for Wang Jie… what had he done in Lock Path interval to make the sect let him go? Was it really peaceful there?

At Lock Path interval, Wang Jie arrived at Nie Zhou’s most secret hideout.

According to the information from Star Dome, this location was known only to Nie Zhou himself, and no one else had any idea. Now, the Four Alliances Nie Zhou once led hadn’t fallen apart just yet. They still existed, perhaps because Wang Jie needed such a faction to gather materials for him, otherwise, it would have collapsed by now.

Nie Zhou was carefree, but his residence was unexpectedly simple.

Wang Jie swept the area with Lock Force, scanning every inch. Finally, he found something buried beneath the ground.

Most of it was material—pill recipes, starstones, formation books—all items he wouldn’t leave at home but carry on him. Unfortunately, when he killed Nie Zhou, he hadn’t taken anything along, and he wasn’t sure if someone else had taken them.

There were three sixth-grade materials and one seventh-grade material.

And plenty of star-sealing stones.

These star-sealing stones were essential for making formation dao.

Among them, there were fifty-two fourth-grade, eleven fifth-grade, five sixth-grade, and one seventh-grade star-sealing stones. Not bad.

Why did this guy, who wasn’t even a formation daoist, have so many star-sealing stones? Did he rob a formation daoist?

Besides these, there were a lot of other insignificant materials.

As Wang Jie surveyed the surroundings, a rag in the corner caught his attention.

Nie Zhou seemed like a clean person. His clothes were high-end, and his surroundings were neat and simple. There shouldn’t be any trash.

He picked up the rag, his eyes brightening. It was a star map.

The rag was tattered, and the coordinates were unclear, but with some effort, he could redraw them.

Had Nie Zhou intentionally used this rag to hide the coordinates, to prevent them from being taken by enemies? How cautious.

Wang Jie easily reconstructed the coordinates and then set off in his ship.

On the way, a servant from a store contacted him, meaning Xing Xue was trying to reach him.

He glanced at the coordinates—he wasn’t far from them, so he decided to go there first.

Two days later, Wang Jie arrived at the designated location. He saw a planet slowly rotating in front of him. From the outside, it appeared ordinary, surrounded by other planets. But this was the one marked by the coordinates.

Thinking this, he immediately entered the planet and had his ship analyze it.

Every spaceship traveling through space had basic analysis functions, and the more advanced the ship, the more detailed the analysis. Wang Jie’s ship was clearly a high-end one.

Soon, the analysis results appeared.

Wang Jie was first surprised, then overjoyed. He found it—the Strange Planet. Nie Zhou really had hidden a Strange Planet.

According to the ship’s analysis, the planet’s atmosphere contained strong toxins. There were plenty of poisonous planets in the universe, but these toxins fused with starforce, not only filling the air but also coursing through the planet’s core. The final analysis confirmed that this was a Strange Planet, with toxins that corroded the blood.

He named the planet immediately: Blood Poison Planet.

Toxins that corroded the blood—wasn’t that blood poison?

He instinctively wanted to contact Du Xian to sell it to Star Dome. But then, he thought better of it—there was no rush. First, he would consult Xing Xue the elder.

Though he was eager to join Star Dome, Xing Xue was still the one who could offer him a foundation.

At the store, the servant greeted him warmly, then left efficiently.

“Senior, I am Wang Jie.”

“Xiao Rong has returned to Black White Heaven.”

Wang Jie’s heart sank. He had suspected that the enemy might use Xiao Rong, as he was a Lock Force cultivator. If Xiao Rong returned, no one outside could interfere.

“Against Xiao Rong, you can’t win. He’s at the peak of Wandering Star Realm. To ensure his survival in Star Cloud Battlefield, the sect provided him with a lot of life-saving items. He’s seen the Great Domain Canon, and his combat power surpasses that of an ordinary Wandering Star Realm cultivator, capable of matching those cultivating Strange Starforce.”

“Therefore, you either avoid him, or strike first.”

Wang Jie frowned. “Is there no way to change his stance?”

Xing Xue’s voice grew somber. “My influence is too limited; I’m just starting. Xiao Rong was cultivated by certain people. Even if his disciple, Zong Cheng Ping, stands by you, it won’t make much of a difference—at most, it’ll make Xiao Rong a little cautious.”

“So, threatening him with Zong Cheng Ping won’t work?”

“No.”

Wang Jie felt a headache coming on.

Xing Xue had no better idea. Wang Jie had forced the Elder Court to promise that no one would interfere with Lock Path interval, which had its pros and cons. Now, the downside was showing. Once Xiao Rong returned, no one would be able to help him.

And Xiao Rong’s influence at Lock Path interval was not something Wang Jie could compare with.

Once he returned, the Four Alliances and Lone Peak Gorge would probably abandon him.

“There’s another way,” Xing Xue spoke again. “You mentioned before that you broke through to the eighth level in Sword Mastery Heaven’s fifteenth layer and obtained a technique from Zhong Yi, which can deepen the imprint color to pitch black, right?”

“I will submit this technique to the sect and see if it can help you gain merit. With that merit, we can block Xiao Rong from entering Lock Path interval.”

Wang Jie’s eyes lit up. “Is there much hope?”

“Not much. It’s just a technique for within Ten Seals.”

“It could help with breakthroughs both in combat and after the tenth imprint, right?”

Xing Xue sighed. “There is such a technique within the sect.”

Wang Jie’s heart sank. No wonder.

“Anyway, not just this technique, I’ll also submit other things and try to gain allies to block Xiao Rong.”

In reality, stopping Xiao Rong was more about opposing Zhi Qing and those people. The cost wouldn’t be small.

Wang Jie spoke, “Senior, I’ve recently found a Strange Planet. Not sure if it’s useful.”

Xing Xue’s voice grew excited. “You found a Strange Planet? What kind of planet is it?”

Wang Jie described it.

Xing Xue responded, “Keep the planet safe and don’t let anyone find it. I’ll contact Black Domain Lord immediately. A Strange Planet and a technique should be enough to stop Xiao Rong.”

Ending the conversation, Wang Jie exhaled, his lips curving into a bitter smile. The Strange Planet hadn’t even warmed up in his hands before it was almost gone.

But, it was fine. If this could help resolve the crisis, it would still be worth it.