Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Cooperation

Wang Jie walked to the southwest corner and pointed at the lake.

Spiral Qi Force struck from afar.

The ground shuddered, like something had exploded beneath the water.

The next instant, the lake churned. A massive shadow rolled through the depths.

Hong Jian slashed.

One Blade tore across the surface and split Xuan Lake in two, water surging apart in a clean cleave.

From the exposed depths, a giant black fish burst upward. It whipped its tail, shattering the blade light, and tried to flee.

Feng Yu, Da Hu, and others struck from every side.

The fish was Seventh Seal—something that hadn’t existed before the ten-year metamorphosis period. Killing it would take time.

The worst part was how fast it was. It slipped like a shadow through water, hard to pin down.

Wang Jie fired another Spiral Qi Force, casual as breathing. The strike crossed the air and punched through the fish’s body.

After that, it was over.

Hong Jian followed with One Blade again and again until even Xuan Lake looked torn apart. The water turned red. The black fish floated, dead.

Wang Jie left immediately, heading for the Clean Zone to find Si Yan.

There was no point hiding his residence anymore. Old Five had recovered enough to protect himself.

On the seventeenth, Wang Jie and Old Five waited in the courtyard.

Old Five kept glancing at the second floor, restless to the point of twitching.

Hours later, a figure jumped down from above and landed in front of them.

Old Five’s eyes lit up. “Old Nine—you can walk?”

Wang Jie stared at Old Nine’s legs and felt the knot in his chest loosen.

Old Nine smiled and lifted one foot, steady. Then he looked at Wang Jie. “Thank you, Old Boss.”

Wang Jie smiled back. “Wolf King’s Three Eyes really worked. Congratulations, Old Nine.”

After that, Wang Jie handed over a large portion of the disaster materials Hong Jian had provided. Old Five and Old Nine took them without hesitation, absorbing Imprint Power and cultivating as fast as they could.

Free resources were still resources.

This era didn’t run on fairness. It ran on strength, on scarcity, on who could seize what and keep it.

Even Hong Jian—better than most, willing to bleed for the base—had never once considered letting everyone outside the walls come inside. It wasn’t realistic. It would break the base from within.

Kindness existed only above a bottom line.

That was the moral standard of the apocalypse.

The three brothers ate a full meal, and they dragged Si Yan down too.

Si Yan had been deep in his research on Moon Plant’s disaster material, brimming with excitement, but Old Five was not a man who respected a researcher’s schedule.

Over food, Old Nine spoke bluntly. “Zuo Tian is going to break through.”

Wang Jie grunted. “I know.”

Old Five’s gaze sharpened. “Old Boss—when do we deal with him?”

“After you reach Seventh Seal,” Wang Jie said. “Both of you.”

Old Five stared at him. “Even now you’re not confident? That finger art of yours is insane.”

Wang Jie’s expression hardened. “Why did we fail two years ago? Have you forgotten?”

Silence fell.

Wang Jie’s voice stayed low. “Wen Zhao could dodge it. Zuo Tian might be able to as well.”

Old Nine frowned. “Then what do you plan to do?”

Wang Jie’s eyes narrowed. “We go to Tian Fu Base and hit it with a stick. See how much he’s really hiding.”

The doorbell rang.

Wang Jie looked toward the gate and saw a familiar figure standing there.

Liu Ying.

He’d nearly forgotten about her.

Old Five and Old Nine exchanged looks, grinning like idiots.

Wang Jie opened the door.

Liu Ying was filthy, the kind of grime that screamed Wastewater Zone—but she’d gotten here without being driven off, which meant she had the right to live in the Clean Zone.

“Sorry,” Wang Jie said. “Too much happened. I forgot to come find you.”

Liu Ying stepped inside, uneasy. “Then… did you look for my brother?”

Wang Jie handed her the photo.

Liu Ying’s eyes filled instantly. Tears fell onto the paper.

Wang Jie didn’t say anything. There wasn’t anything to say.

Upstairs, Old Five muttered loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Old Boss—did you break up with her?”

Old Nine sighed. “Stop talking.”

Old Five clicked his tongue. “Still, Old Boss has unique taste. That woman…”

Old Nine looked like he wanted to throw something at him.

Liu Ying left soon after. Before she went, she set ten tubes of beast blood on the table.

Wang Jie accepted them. It was the mission’s price, even if he no longer needed it.

In this era, pity was a luxury most people couldn’t afford. For many, living was worse than dying.

With Hong Jian’s disaster materials, Old Five and Old Nine cultivated without restraint. In only a few days, Old Five broke through to Seventh Seal.

He’d always been gifted. Otherwise, he never could have stood beside Wang Jie in what they’d tried two years ago.

Old Nine recovered to Sixth Seal smoothly. Seventh wouldn’t take long.

Old Five flexed his fingers, amazed. “It feels like absorbing Imprint Power is faster now.”

Wang Jie had noticed it too—ever since the night Moon Plant died.

The ten-year metamorphosis period. Mutant plants and beasts had evolved by a whole realm overnight. Humans couldn’t do that, but absorption and breakthroughs had sped up. With enough time, Seventh Seal powerhouses would start appearing in batches.

If there were no trialists, it would have been good news.

But now…

Reports came in constantly: bases attacked, squads slaughtered, trialists moving with purpose. And their focus wasn’t the mutant wilderness.

It was Blue Star cultivators.

Jin Ling stayed strangely quiet. Maybe fewer trialists had landed nearby. Or maybe the crater outside the city had scared them off.

Either way, people’s anger toward trialists grew by the day. So many died at their hands, and yet the gap in strength was still enormous.

Most trialists were Seventh Seal.

Very few were below.

Then Feng Yu brought news that shook the courtyard.

“Zuo Tian fought a trialists squad,” she said. “He forced them to acknowledge Blue Star’s right to negotiate as equals. They agreed to an assembly in Shang Jing City in one month.”

Wang Jie stared at her.

Old Five and Old Nine stared too.

A trialists squad—five, all Seventh Seal—and Zuo Tian had forced equal talks?

How?

Trialists varied in strength, but even the weak ones weren’t supposed to be that weak.

Tian Fu Base became Hua Xia’s focus. Zuo Tian’s reputation climbed like wildfire. He was young, presentable, one of the Three Gods—and now he was treated as the leader of Blue Star in negotiations with trialists.

For two days, news poured in praising him.

And there was a reason people believed.

Trialists attacks on Blue Star cultivators decreased.

The assembly’s theme was clear: before the second batch arrived, Blue Star had to squeeze every possible gain from its resources—raise strength, gather disaster materials, prepare for what was coming.

A month wasn’t long.

During that time, Zuo Tian urged everyone to purge mutant plants and beasts. Protect Blue Star, gather more disaster materials, use them as bargaining chips.

The Five Major Bases responded immediately.

Bai Yuan stood in Shang Jing City and called for unity. Humans shouldn’t fight each other first—deal with the wilderness before anything else.

Soon, more cultivators went out hunting.

And beneath every call to action was the same echoed warning:

Don’t break through.

—

Outside Jin Ling Base, a bridge collapsed with a roar and smashed into the river.

On the south bank, a group of cultivators stumbled back, pale. “That was close. If we’d fallen in, we’d be dead.”

“Hui Zhua,” someone snapped, “how did you lead us? You didn’t know the bridge was about to go?”

Hui Zhua apologized frantically, wronged and rattled. How was he supposed to know?

Then someone squinted down the road. “Hey… isn’t that wild grass?”

A car rolled up and stopped near the bank. Wang Jie stepped out.

He was here for Wen Zhao.

Zuo Tian’s fame was too bright now. Going to Tian Fu Base in the open would be foolish. Wang Jie wanted answers first—wanted to know what the trialists truly wanted. Not knowing would get him killed.

He glanced at the group staring at him, then looked back at the collapsed bridge.

No crossing.

Fine.

He bent his knees, then launched.

His body shot across the river like a cannonball.

Hui Zhua and the others gaped.

In this era, the wilderness wasn’t the only terror. Rivers and seas were worse—deep, hidden, full of things no one understood.

No one leapt across open water.

It was suicide.

Wang Jie moved in midair, feet shifting as if he were stepping on invisible stairs, drawing closer to the far bank.

Then the river exploded.

A snake as thick as a barrel shot upward, fangs flashing. Its scales caught the sunlight and flared like knives.

Seventh Seal.

Wang Jie pointed once.

Spiral Qi Force slammed into the snake’s head from above and smashed it back into the water.

Wang Jie didn’t slow. He shifted again and landed on the far bank.

Behind him, the group stared with open envy.

That was what a true powerhouse looked like.

Wang Jie checked his map. Reports said Xue Ju had been sighted north of the Yangtze. He set off, killing mutant creatures as he went. He ran into two Seventh Seal mutants along the way.

The wild was getting worse.

Thunder rolled. Dark clouds swallowed the sun, and rain poured down in sheets. In the blurred curtain of water, a white flicker moved.

Xue Ju.

Wang Jie accelerated.

Xue Ju ran for a time, then stopped. Wen Zhao sat astride it, turned her head, and lifted a hand. Force swirled in her palm and released.

The rain curtain twisted as the attack roared toward him.

Wang Jie dodged. “I’m not here to fight you.”

Wen Zhao watched him. With her left hand, she opened an umbrella as if the storm couldn’t touch her. “You’re looking for me?”

Wang Jie stepped closer, boots sinking into mud. “What’s the goal of your trial?”

Wen Zhao’s brows rose slightly. “Why would I tell you?”

“Because we share an enemy.”

“Oh?”

“The second batch of trialists.”

Wang Jie told her what was happening—Zuo Tian’s announcement, the killings, the warnings, the looming arrival.

Wen Zhao fell quiet for a moment. “I thought the first batch of trialists could suppress you. I didn’t expect that besides you… someone else could do something like this.”

Wang Jie stopped a few steps away. “Blue Star and trialists don’t have to be enemies. We can cooperate.”

Xue Ju let out a low growl, warning him not to come closer.

Around them, movement stirred in the wild. Then it went quiet again, pressed flat by that single growl.

Wang Jie’s gaze drifted to Xue Ju’s mouth—especially its teeth.

Snow-White Canine Tooth.

He almost laughed.

Yeah. Definitely white.