Chapter 161

Chapter 161: Stay

Qiu Chou’s hands shook around his sword hilt. He wanted nothing more than to cut Wang Jie down first. That bastard was forcing Wu Yun to silence him.

Wu Yun stared at Qiu Chou with flat indifference. “Since you’ve come,” she said, “stay.”

No one here was stupid. If she let Qiu Chou go, he would never believe he was safe.

This battle had only two endings: she died, or they did.

Qiu Chou backed away, voice tight. “I don’t know what happened here. I swear I won’t say a word. I won’t. I don’t even know who you are.”

“Don’t beg her!” Wang Jie shouted from the broken ship. “She wants you to be her dog!”

Qiu Chou roared, “Shut up!”

Lie Qiu stared, stunned—and then, slowly, hope rose in her eyes.

A Roaming-Star Realm cultivator had arrived. There was a chance.

Wu Yun’s gaze stayed merciless. “Enough.”

She swung the Mystic Star Umbrella.

Black Snow Starforce surged like a beam of darkness and slammed toward Qiu Chou. He felt the pressure and threw himself aside, heart pounding. “I said I won’t leak anything! I don’t know who you are!”

“She’s Wu Yun!” Lie Qiu blurted. “Didn’t he tell you already?”

Qiu Chou nearly went mad. He wanted to kill both of them.

Wu Yun was far stronger than him. A Black-White Heaven steward with strange starforce could crush him without effort.

He dodged again and again. Space was vast, but escaping quickly wasn’t easy—especially when he already knew escape was pointless.

Black snow began to fall even here, in the open void.

Inside the ruined ship, Wang Jie turned to Lie Qiu. “We’re still not at Yi Sword Heaven. Push me over there. Only there do we have a chance. If we stay here, we all die.”

Lie Qiu’s eyes flicked to him, raw fear on her face. “What about me?”

“If we live, you live. If we die, you die.”

Lie Qiu’s jaw clenched. “Fine.”

Wang Jie raised his left arm, bracer forward. “Do it.”

He swallowed a Recovery Pill and another Breath-Holding Pill. Lie Qiu gathered her strength and swung her spear like a club, smashing it into his bracer with a thunderous impact.

The force launched Wang Jie into the starry sky—straight toward Yi Sword Heaven.

In open space, even a small force could send a body drifting. A Full-Star Realm strike sent him flying like a meteor.

Wu Yun’s attention snapped to him. She flicked a hand, starforce firing toward his trajectory.

Wang Jie roared, “Qiu Chou! We have to—”

Qiu Chou bit down on his rage and slashed. Sword Qi crossed the void and cut Wu Yun’s starforce apart.

Wu Yun’s eyes turned colder.

The Mystic Star Umbrella swept again. Black Snow Starforce hammered toward Qiu Chou—and a second wave chased after Wang Jie.

Qiu Chou gritted his teeth and charged after Wang Jie. Starforce bombarded him along the way; several strikes hit his sword edge hard enough to make him spit blood. He kept moving anyway.

Wu Yun moved faster.

Her footwork flickered, and she passed through the falling black snow like a shadow, overtaking Qiu Chou with ease.

Wang Jie saw it instantly: Qiu Chou would never reach him first.

He raised his hand again.

Sword Rig: One-Line Sky.

Swords shot out toward Qiu Chou, linking to him through the void. Qiu Chou grabbed a blade with his free hand, wrenched hard, and used it like a lever, flinging Wang Jie even farther toward Yi Sword Heaven.

Wu Yun brought the umbrella down in a crushing arc.

The swords shattered.

Qiu Chou turned, lockforce surging, and slashed at her with everything he had.

Wu Yun had been about to chase Wang Jie, but she couldn’t ignore that cut. It carried the flavor of a Star-Breaking Realm technique.

She met it head-on.

Thousand-Snow Umbrella Dance.

Clang.

Qiu Chou’s blade cracked. He stumbled back, blood spilling from his mouth, but he still forced himself toward Yi Sword Heaven.

Wang Jie slammed into the ground inside Yi Sword Heaven, hard enough that his bones felt loose inside his body.

A heartbeat later, Qiu Chou crashed down as well—less violently, landing with his feet under him.

Qiu Chou rounded on Wang Jie, livid. “You’re trying to get me killed!”

Wang Jie tossed him a sword. “Enough. We’re already here. Nobody gets out clean now. Kill her.”

Qiu Chou’s grip tightened. He regretted saving Wang Jie in the first place, but he understood the truth: even if he killed Wang Jie right now, Wu Yun would still kill him.

In Wu Yun’s eyes, a lockforce Roaming-Star Realm cultivator like him was worthless.

Wu Yun stepped into Yi Sword Heaven.

Wang Jie and Qiu Chou attacked at the same time.

One man, one sword.

Slash.

Wu Yun laughed sharply. “Two pieces of trash. Even together, what can you do?”

She raised a hand and pressed down.

Black Snow Starforce poured out, forming a pillar of darkness that fell from the void into Yi Sword Heaven. The pressure was so terrifying that both Wang Jie and Qiu Chou instinctively tried to retreat.

Their sword moves shattered instantly.

Wu Yun landed.

“Earth Tide.”

Black Snow Starforce spread in waves, each one heavier than the last.

Qiu Chou had never faced anything like it. The first touch threw him backward; he coughed blood, face tightening. “That’s… Great Domain Scripture?”

Wang Jie’s eyes flashed. So that was the power of Great Domain Scripture.

Wu Yun swept the umbrella sideways.

Wang Jie was already in close. Sword and umbrella collided. Even with his raw strength, he couldn’t press her down.

Wu Yun looked surprised—surprised that a Star-Breaking Realm cultivator was still holding up under the tide’s amplification.

With a violent crack, Wang Jie was thrown back. Black snowflakes spun around him, freezing the air itself.

In an instant, Yi Sword Heaven’s endless land turned bitterly cold.

Qiu Chou drove his sword into the ground and cut upward. Lockforce surged through the blade, condensing into a single brutal line. His Sword Qi tore a gap in the tide.

Wang Jie took the opening.

Sword Steps.

He shot forward again. His right hand slashed with Star-Gazing Sword Form. His left hand rose, fingers curling into a seal.

Myriad-Stars Finger.

Sword shadows rained down like falling stars. Wu Yun had seen them before and didn’t bother reacting—until she realized what came behind them.

Finger shadows.

And the “stars” hanging in the air looked almost real.

Chen Art.

Wu Yun’s expression shifted, alarm flashing through her eyes. Black Snow Starforce dissolved the sword shadows—but it couldn’t dissolve the finger shadows.

One finger shadow condensed and struck her left shoulder, piercing straight through. Blood sprayed. Wu Yun staggered back, her face draining white.

Wang Jie didn’t give her room to breathe. Another Myriad-Stars Finger followed.

Wu Yun snapped the Mystic Star Umbrella open overhead. The finger shadow crashed into it, and the force drove her back several steps—but only several.

Qiu Chou leaped high and brought his sword down.

Wu Yun looked up, fury twisting her face. Injured by ants. By them.

Thousand-Snow Umbrella Dance.

The umbrella spun. Black snowflakes whirled in its wake, blooming like a beautiful storm in the dark.

Qiu Chou’s sword shattered in the whirl.

The umbrella swept toward him.

Wang Jie appeared between them, bracer up—blocking.

Boom.

The impact blasted Wang Jie away. But in the same instant, he shoved Qiu Chou forward with his other hand.

Qiu Chou surged to within a meter of Wu Yun. The umbrella was above, mid-motion, and Wu Yun’s body was exposed.

She froze, staring at him.

Qiu Chou stabbed on instinct.

The broken blade drove into Wu Yun’s abdomen.

Wu Yun’s face contorted. She struck back immediately, a palm slamming into Qiu Chou’s head. His forehead cracked; he flew away and crashed in the distance.

Wu Yun staggered too, blood on her lips, nearly falling.

The Mystic Star Umbrella snapped back to support her. She swallowed a pill. Her color steadied.

Far away, Wang Jie swallowed a Recovery Pill as well.

He’d blocked with the bracer, so he wasn’t critically injured, but half his body had gone numb.

Qiu Chou was in far worse shape—his forehead split, and his broken sword was still embedded in Wu Yun’s abdomen. The hatred in Wu Yun’s eyes was poisonous.

“You filthy lockforce trash,” she hissed. “I’ll make you wish you were dead.”

She charged.

Qiu Chou swallowed a Recovery Pill and turned to run—straight toward Wang Jie.

Wang Jie barked, “Strike! We have to kill her!”

“Give me a sword!” Qiu Chou shouted without looking back.

Wang Jie threw one.

Qiu Chou caught it and spun to face Wu Yun beside Wang Jie.

Black snow fell thicker. Wu Yun’s footwork flashed as she opened the umbrella and swept it in a killing arc.

Wang Jie and Qiu Chou attacked together, meeting the umbrella head-on.

Black Snow Starforce crushed down on them. They felt suffocated beneath its weight.

Wu Yun’s gaze was wild now—rage and pressure fused into something monstrous.

Wang Jie raised his bracer to block again—

And didn’t see Qiu Chou slip behind him.

Qiu Chou shoved him forward.

A shield.

A target.

Earlier, Wang Jie had pushed Qiu Chou forward only after blocking a strike for him—and because it had been the only way to land a blow on Wu Yun at all.

But now Qiu Chou threw Wang Jie out and turned to flee.

With Qiu Chou’s shove and the umbrella’s crushing momentum, Wang Jie couldn’t evade.

The Mystic Star Umbrella hit him squarely and drove him into the ground, deeper and deeper, until darkness swallowed him.

Wu Yun snorted, already dismissing him as dead. She called the umbrella back and leaped after Qiu Chou.

That was the one she needed to kill.

Far away, Qiu Chou ran without looking back. Courage had left him completely. All he wanted was to hide somewhere inside Yi Sword Heaven and wait until this woman left.

Yi Sword Heaven was vast. She wouldn’t find him.

She couldn’t.

Black snow fell.

Qiu Chou looked back.

Wu Yun was already there—beneath the Mystic Star Umbrella, closing the distance like a nightmare.

His face went gray. How was she that fast?

That useless bastard hadn’t bought him a single moment.

The umbrella arrived in a blink, Wu Yun descending with it.

“Earth Tide.”

The tide rolled out.

Qiu Chou took the full weight of it. He vomited blood. His body cracked from the feet upward as cold invaded him, black snowflakes landing one by one on his head.

Don’t die. Don’t die.

“I can help you!” he begged. “I can help you control Lockspace—I can—”

Wu Yun struck casually, slamming him into the ground, leaving only his head above the surface. Darkness pressed in around him, the pain of death stretching into infinity.

“A lockforce trash dared to wound me,” she said softly, almost lovingly. “I’ll make you suffer.”

She raised her hand to strike again—

And suddenly turned.

Wang Jie stood there.

Wu Yun’s pupils shrank. Impossible.

Finger shadows descended.

Myriad-Stars Finger.

The Mystic Star Umbrella opened above her, catching every finger shadow. The force pierced the void itself, shaking her internal organs.

If she hadn’t already been wounded, his Chen Art wouldn’t have threatened her like this.

Why hadn’t that earlier strike killed him?

Even if it didn’t kill him, it should have crippled him.

Then the finger shadows surged—power spiking abruptly.

Wu Yun’s face changed. “No—”

The umbrella couldn’t hold. It was driven downward onto her. She braced it with both hands; her palms tore open, blood streaking down. Her starforce burned away at a frantic rate. Blood seeped from her shoulder and abdomen, dripping onto the ground and freezing into crimson ice.

She couldn’t hold on.