Chapter 163

Chapter 163: Card

Back aboard the ship, Wang Jie used its systems to contact the outside world and report Wu Yun’s pursuit.

Lie Qiu watched the message transmit successfully and finally let herself breathe.

As long as the outside world knew, someone would come for Wu Yun.

Then they would be safe.

“Her injuries are worse than I expected,” Wang Jie said, eyes narrowing. “Otherwise this ship wouldn’t have made it here.”

Lie Qiu let out a grim laugh. “Who would’ve thought Lockspace could draw a steward’s assassination?”

“Wait,” Wang Jie said. “The outside will react soon.”

Black-White Heaven.

Zhi Xing Xue stepped out from the Elders Council chambers, and the decision came down immediately.

Wu Yun was to be captured.

A public decree went out: Wu Yun had illegally entered Lockspace. If caught, she was to be executed on the spot.

The news hit like a shockwave.

No one expected a steward to personally enter Lockspace just to assassinate a single man.

And the name Wang Jie spread again—into countless ears, across countless halls.

Yi Sword Heaven.

Inside the ship, a screen lit up. Miao Tai’s voice came through, tight with urgency. “Lord, the Elders Council has already dispatched cultivators into Lockspace to hunt Wu Yun. Lord, don’t show your face right now. If Wu Yun’s cornered, she may lash out.”

“I know,” Wang Jie said.

“There’s more,” Miao Tai continued. “Senior Zhi Xing Xue had me pass on a message. If Wu Yun decides to hide, finding her will be difficult.

“Lockspace is no longer safe.

“She wants Lord to go to Zhi Academy.”

Wang Jie’s brows rose. “Zhi Academy?”

“Yes. Senior has already sent people to pick you up. At most… three months.”

Wang Jie leaned back, thinking.

The Elders Council had been truly enraged. Wu Yun wouldn’t be tolerated.

Which meant even if she wanted to flee Lockspace, she couldn’t.

She would either hide forever—or be caught.

If Wang Jie stayed here, he’d be living under a blade. Avoiding the risk made sense.

And the decision wasn’t easy for Zhi Xing Xue either. She had only just helped him take control of Lockspace. If he left now, who knew what variables might appear by the time he returned?

But there was no choice.

Better to lose ground than lose his life.

“All right,” he said. “Tell Senior Zhi Xing Xue I’ll wait in Yi Sword Heaven.”

“Understood.”

“One more thing,” Wang Jie said. “Tell Zong Cheng Ping and the others to deliver every last bit of material they’ve gathered over the past few months. Don’t reveal that I’m going to Zhi Academy yet.”

Miao Tai didn’t hesitate. “Yes, Lord.”

“When the time comes,” Wang Jie added, “you’re leaving with me.”

“Understood.”

After the call, Wang Jie kept his distance from the ship whenever he could. If Wu Yun could track them through it, he didn’t want to make it easy.

Lie Qiu had disappeared somewhere as well. Wang Jie didn’t know where she was hiding, but he had promised he would take her with him when he left.

Before leaving, there was still one thing he needed.

The tenth layer.

Zhong Yi’s sword.

That place was the safest refuge he had. Even if Wu Yun stood at the entrance, she couldn’t enter.

Far in the distance, the Eight Prisons Mad Clan creature lay motionless on the ground, just as it always had. Only the fractures in the land suggested it had awakened not long ago.

Wang Jie approached openly this time, hiding nothing.

The Mad Clan creature’s eyes snapped open. It sat up and stared at him—stared with a hunger that didn’t blink.

Wang Jie met its gaze. “Didn’t you want to eat me?”

He lifted his chin. “Come.”

The creature bared its teeth and swung its chains. The massive links smashed down toward Wang Jie. He dodged, and the impact of lockforce tore a canyon into the earth, shaking the entire layer.

Wang Jie released his full strength.

One hundred and fifty thousand combat power.

Sword Steps carried him in a flash to the creature’s side. He drove a punch in with Qi-Qi Convergence, holding nothing back.

The creature reacted instantly.

It had eight arms. That was why it was called the Eight Prisons Mad Clan. Every Mad Clan creature could open a domain—one domain, one prison. Each domain increased its strength and starforce dramatically.

Now, all eight arms struck together.

Wang Jie halted mid-stride and threw his fist wind straight into the clash.

The eight palms spread, forming a wall of flesh that blocked his punch wind completely. The counterforce shoved back so hard it nearly crushed him in place.

Wang Jie retreated with Jia Eight Steps, breath tight.

This thing was stronger than Wu Yun—at least in raw physical power. Wu Yun’s terror lay in her strange starforce and Great Domain Scripture.

This creature was different.

It was pure body. Pure brutality.

Wu Yun could be beaten if you found a flaw.

This thing?

Even if you got close, breaking its defense would be a nightmare.

Chains smashed down again.

The land shattered again.

A storm of starforce roared across the tenth layer.

Wang Jie swept it aside and frowned.

The starforce was weak—like it had no follow-through.

It had been imprisoned here too long. Its starforce reserves clearly hadn’t been replenished.

“Humans!” the Mad Clan creature howled. “I’ll kill you!”

Wang Jie watched from a distance, calm.

He didn’t need to trade blows head-on. He could grind it down.

He raised his hand and pointed.

Myriad-Stars Finger.

The “stars” turned. The world’s colors shifted. Countless finger shadows fell and hammered the Mad Clan creature’s body.

It raised its arms to block, slapping and smashing finger shadows apart again and again, but it still bled. It still took damage.

Wang Jie never expected one cast to end it. He was fighting a Roaming-Star Realm powerhouse.

Sometimes he wondered if Myriad-Stars Finger was too weak. But the truth was simpler: against an equal opponent, any single finger shadow would have been enough to kill.

His problem was that his enemies were always two realms above him.

So he kept casting.

Again.

And again.

At intervals, patiently.

One arm crippled.

Then another.

Then another.

Slowly, inexorably, he ruined all eight arms.

And still he didn’t stop.

More than a month passed before the Mad Clan creature let out a final, furious roar and collapsed—dead at last.

Only then did Wang Jie approach, exhaustion heavy in his limbs.

Grinding it down had cost him dearly.

He stepped past the corpse and walked through the archway behind it.

A sword was embedded in the ground beyond.

Pure white. Exquisitely made. Beautiful in a way that felt almost unreal.

Too slender for him, perhaps.

Wang Jie wrapped his hand around the hilt and pulled.

A clear ring sounded—an elegant sword song.

He examined the blade, then swung it casually.

The air split. The earth split. A thick mountain ridge sheared open as if it were paper.

So this was a Five-Tribulations Chen Artifact?

And yet there was no starforce inside it.

Had Zhong Yi used it without starforce?

That made sense. If the sword held Five-Tribulations starforce, how could Zhong Yi wield it freely?

Five Tribulations corresponded to the Star-Refining Realm.

No matter how strong Zhong Yi had been, she couldn’t fight while resisting Star-Refining Realm starforce inside the weapon. That would have been suicide.

Which meant this sword, though a Chen Artifact in make, was currently closer to an ordinary weapon forged from eighth-rank materials.

Without a Chen Refiner pouring Five-Tribulations starforce into it, it wasn’t truly a Chen Artifact in function.

Wang Jie stored the sword away.

He stayed in the tenth layer long enough to restore his lockforce, then returned to the sixth layer and sought out the stone-sword creature.

The stone-sword creature was delighted to see him. As always, it hurried off to find food.

Wang Jie reminded it, “Don’t go to the surface. Find what you can inside Fifteen Layers.”

After that, he returned to his plots.

The plots were his path to strength. If he didn’t understand them, he couldn’t rest.

He’d tested countless methods already.

He needed to keep going.

One day, after spending some time with the stone-sword creature, he returned and noticed something in the third plot.

Something half-buried in the soil.

A card.

He crouched and touched it.

Nothing happened.

It wasn’t like the sprouts—touch one of those and you immediately understood what it needed.

So… pull it out?

He did.

The card looked ordinary, but when he studied the pattern, he froze.

The fish.

It was the same set of fish he’d once collected—one hundred different kinds, the materials required to cultivate Flow Sword Form.

Back on Blue Star.

It had been a long time, but he still remembered those shapes.

He stared again.

Yes. Those were them.

Why was this here?

Those fish had been first-plot materials—so why had they appeared as a card in the third plot?

Could materials thrown into the first plot be recovered?

But how?

He studied it for a long time and got nowhere.

How the card had appeared, though—he had a guess.

The last time he experimented in the third plot, he’d grown bored and drawn Zhong Yi’s sword, playing around and using Flow Sword Form.

It must have triggered something.

First plot: materials produce techniques.

Third plot: techniques produce cards—cards that represent the materials tied to the technique.

So the first and third plots were connected.

The only remaining question was how to use the card.

Wang Jie left the tenth layer and went to find Lie Qiu.

If the card did nothing for him, what would it do to her?

He tossed it to her.

Lie Qiu caught it reflexively, studied it, and frowned. “What’s this?”

“No idea,” Wang Jie said lightly. “You lot should know Yi Sword Heaven better than I do. I’m asking if you recognize it.”

Lie Qiu squinted at the card. “It’s just a card. Maybe someone dropped it.”

She made a dismissive gesture. “Probably useless.”

She started to hand it back.

Wang Jie stopped her. “Keep it. Give it to me after we leave.”

Lie Qiu blinked, confused. “Why not now?”

Wang Jie didn’t answer.

Lie Qiu hesitated, then tucked it away anyway.

The air went quiet.

Wang Jie waited, watching her for any reaction.

Lie Qiu looked like she wanted to leave. The people sent to pick them up hadn’t arrived yet—why waste time lingering?

Then Wang Jie asked casually, “How did you reach Full-Star Realm?”

Lie Qiu stiffened. “That’s… a long story.”

“Then tell it slowly.”

Lie Qiu stared at him, then began—reluctantly—to explain how she’d risen step by step and taken control of the four alliances.

Not long into her story, she faltered.

Her expression tightened, as if something had seized her nerves.

Wang Jie’s eyes sharpened. “What is it?”

Lie Qiu frowned, unsettled. “It’s strange. Why… why do I suddenly feel like I have to collect one hundred different kinds of fish?”

Wang Jie stared. “For what?”

Lie Qiu looked almost sick. There was resistance in her eyes—and something deeper, like an invisible hook buried beneath her ribs. “I have to. I have to collect one hundred different kinds of fish.”

Wang Jie exhaled slowly. “Why would you do that?”

“I don’t know,” Lie Qiu said. “It’s just… like I’m supposed to.”

“No one told you to?”

“No.”

Wang Jie watched her for a beat, then said, “Then you’re strange.”

And he walked away.