Chapter 190

Chapter 190: Star-Devourer’s Ownership

Ye Huang?

A disciple of a black-realm lord?

Wang Jie hadn’t expected him—and he definitely hadn’t expected him to be “helping.”

As a disciple of a black-realm lord, Ye Huang naturally wasn’t intimidated by the Zhi family. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have dared involve himself in the fight over Star-Devourer in the first place.

The Zhi family might dominate the Fourth Nebula, but they still couldn’t do whatever they pleased.

Wang Jie couldn’t say a word. He was still disguised as Zhi Shu.

So he slipped past the front line and kept pushing away from Star-Devourer at full speed.

Inside a ship ahead, Zhong Yu said, “Looks like Wang Jie is dead. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be fleeing so urgently. Star-Devourer was released by Old Ancestor Zhi Qing. Now that it’s done its job and eliminated Wang Jie, of course they’ll take Star-Devourer back.”

Ye Huang sneered. “As if. Use everyone up and then take it back? Does she really think Black-White Heaven is hers to command? Chase.”

The ship pivoted and accelerated after Wang Jie.

Beams lanced out. They opened fire.

Wang Jie gritted his teeth. He wanted to reveal himself, to end this farce with a single sentence. But even if Ye Huang was “helping,” that didn’t mean he’d let Wang Jie walk away with Star-Devourer.

Before he could decide, more ships arrived—several at once.

Yun Ju’s voice cut through the screen. “Senior Sister Zhi Shu, go. We’ll hold Ye Huang. But after this, please punish Zhi Nan Xing.”

Li Cai’s voice followed, sharp with anger. “Senior Sister—did you order Zhi Nan Xing to kill me?”

Ye Huang’s contempt bled into every word. “Yun Ju, you’ve been played by the Zhi family, and you’re still running errands for them.”

“Ye Huang!” Yun Ju roared. “If I can’t have it, then neither can you!”

Wang Jie glanced back. Three ships had slammed into a chaotic standoff.

Everything had flipped.

The ones “helping” him were trying to kill him. The ones who’d been hunting him were buying him time.

Fine. Not his problem.

This farce was ending, one way or another.

His ship surged through the starry void. Behind him, battle-flares lit the darkness. On Star-Devourer itself, lightning and Blackflame still clashed, dragging countless eyes toward the spectacle.

And yet more and more gazes shifted—to the ship now approaching the final station of the contest.

An old man waited there: Elder Yan, keeper of Black-White Heaven’s registry of strange planets.

Whoever delivered both jade tokens to Elder Yan would claim Star-Devourer’s final ownership.

Elder Yan watched the ship drift closer. The hatch opened. A figure stepped out.

Elder Yan’s eyes widened slowly, as if he didn’t trust them.

Around him, countless eyes fixed on the impossible scene unfolding.

—

At the same time, deep within Star-Devourer, Mo Wan Yin finally smashed through the Formation despite Han Ling’s interference—and discovered someone buried underground beneath layer after layer of bronze slips.

Zhi Shu’s bronze slips. Wang Jie hadn’t taken them.

They were a four-tribulation chen artifact, utterly different from everything else here.

Mo Wan Yin stared at the familiar hem of a skirt pinned beneath the slips.

Han Ling had been smiling.

That smile vanished.

He tore the bronze slips aside—and there lay Zhi Shu, unconscious.

Han Ling froze, eyes blank. “How…?”

Mo Wan Yin froze too. “Then who was the one we saw earlier?”

Han Ling snapped his head up with a furious bellow. Blackflame ripped free of Star-Devourer and shot toward his ship.

That person was Wang Jie.

Mo Wan Yin struck sideways, intercepting the Blackflame—and in the same motion, blocking Han Ling from advancing.

—

Wang Jie stepped out of the ship, bowed to Elder Yan, and spoke with steady formality.

“Disciple Wang Jie took part in the Star-Devourer contest. I now present the tokens. Please verify them, Elder.”

Elder Yan stared at him, stunned—unfamiliar, yet somehow familiar.

And bald.

How had this kid pulled it off?

They’d all been fixated on the battle inside Star-Devourer. They’d all watched “Zhi Shu” board a ship. Even a hundred-star realm expert hadn’t seen through the disguise.

Absurd.

Elder Yan wasn’t alone. Several people stood behind him, glaring at Wang Jie. One stepped forward, voice sharp with accusation.

“Wang Jie. What did you do to Zhi Shu?”

Wang Jie didn’t answer. He simply raised his hand.

Two jade tokens lay in his palm.

Elder Yan’s gaze dropped to the jades. The tokens were real.

Truthfully, this contest had never been fair.

One token had been placed directly with Zhi Shu from the start. Whoever wanted Star-Devourer had to get past her.

That was the price Old Ancestor Zhi Qing paid to bring Star-Devourer out at all.

In other words, Old Ancestor Zhi Qing had bought this strange planet from Black-White Heaven, released it for the contest, and the elders’ court was merely here to witness the outcome.

So no matter who fought, everyone “knew” where Star-Devourer would end up.

With the Zhi family.

That would not change.

And yet Wang Jie had broken that certainty and stolen something that was never meant to be his.

Even Elder Yan felt the ground shift under that realization.

“You used underhanded methods to steal the token!” the man behind Elder Yan shouted. “It doesn’t count!”

The others exchanged glances, but none of them spoke.

Elder Yan’s brow tightened.

Wang Jie looked up, eyes cold. “Senior, are you saying that as a star-breaking realm cultivator, I must openly seize the tokens from roaming-star realm cultivators—maybe even a six-path roamer—before Star-Devourer can belong to me?”

He didn’t wait for an answer.

“If I had that kind of strength,” he demanded, voice rising, “what would I need Star-Devourer for?”

“Impudent!”

The man struck.

The killing intent in that palm was restrained—and yet it howled, bottomless.

He meant to kill Wang Jie.

And no one stopped him.

Not even Elder Yan, standing within arm’s reach.

Wang Jie’s scalp went numb. He tried to retreat, but his fight with Zhi Shu had torn him up too badly. His body didn’t respond fast enough.

The palm came down—

A blade of lethal sharpness cut through the void and slashed across the attacker’s path.

The man swung a hand to block it. The clash stopped the strike from landing cleanly, but the leftover force still blasted Wang Jie backward into open space.

Wang Jie wasn’t a roaming-star realm cultivator. In the starry void, he fell like a man drowning. His injuries ruptured; blood sprayed from his mouth.

Then a gentle strength caught him, cradling him in place.

He coughed, fingers locked around the jade tokens so tightly his knuckles went white. Blood smeared the tokens red.

He turned his head.

Little Lan had arrived.

The old crone’s eyes were ice as she stared at the attacker. “Elder Cheng, what a display. A disciple fights for a strange planet, and you try to kill him for it. This will go to the elders’ court. We will demand an explanation.”

Elder Cheng snorted, eyes dark. “That brat has no respect for seniors. I was teaching him a lesson. You want to report it? Go ahead.”

Wang Jie stared at him, chill crawling through his bones.

That palm hadn’t been a “lesson.”

It had been an execution.

Elder Yan finally spoke, his tone clipped. “Enough. A misunderstanding. It doesn’t need to reach the elders’ court.”

He looked at Little Lan and offered a small smile. “This child is yours?”

Little Lan’s face stayed cold. She steadied Wang Jie and brought him forward. “It doesn’t matter who brought him. He arrived here with the tokens. Does that count as winning?”

“It isn’t over,” Elder Cheng cut in.

Behind them, Yun Ju and Li Cai finally arrived, ships roaring up. Only now did they understand what had happened. Their eyes burned with rage.

Little Lan’s gaze hardened. “So what is it, Elder Cheng? Wang Jie isn’t allowed to hand over the tokens until he fights them too? Or do you intend to block the final step yourself?”

Elder Cheng’s mouth opened—

Little Lan laughed, loud and fearless. “A Black-White Heaven elder acting like this? Fine. I’ll spread the word. I’ll tell everyone the Star-Devourer contest was rigged—disciples fight to the death to reach the end, and the last obstacle is an elder!”

“You—!” Elder Cheng surged with fury.

Elder Yan snapped, “Enough. Silence.”

Elder Cheng clenched his jaw, glaring at Little Lan as if he wanted to tear her apart.

Elder Yan drew a slow breath, then extended his hand toward Wang Jie.

“Give them to me,” he said. “You win.”

Wang Jie inhaled, deep and hard. He lifted his hand and released the blood-smeared tokens into Elder Yan’s palm, meeting the elder’s gaze without flinching.

“Thank you,” he said, the words stiff as stone.

He had crawled to the final step, and an elder had tried to bury him there.

Was it laughable?

No.

This was the universe. This was the cultivation world.

From the beginning, the tokens had never been meant for him.

He belonged to Star-Devourer, but Star-Devourer did not belong to him.

That was the “common sense” everyone carried.

If not for Little Lan, he would already be a corpse—even after making it this far.

Anger? Humiliation?

No. He’d thrown those childish things away long ago.

Every step he took had only one purpose: to live.

A person had to accept every possible outcome. From the start, he had treated everyone as an enemy.

Every step was stained with blood.

Elder Yan raised his head, voice carrying through the void, echoing across Star-Devourer.

“The Star-Devourer contest is over. The owner is—Wang Jie.”

The instant those words fell—

The fighting on Star-Devourer stopped.

Yun Ju and the others halted too. Charging now meant nothing.

It was done.

They stared at Wang Jie as if he were an insult written into reality. They’d been played. Completely.

The person on that ship hadn’t been Zhi Shu. It had been this bastard.

And if Zhi Shu could be disguised…

Then Zhi Nan Xing—

Realization hit in waves. Mouths fell open.

Li Cai glanced at Yun Ju, then at Wang Jie, and looked sick—like he’d taken a beating for nothing.

Ye Huang could only stare, stunned.

Yun Ju’s eyes turned venomous. He surged forward, voice cracking with rage. “Wang Jie! Zhi Nan Xing was you too, wasn’t it?”

Little Lan’s gaze snapped over. “Impudent.”

Yun Ju stopped dead.

Little Lan might be a maid, but she was Lady Xing Xue’s maid—and if Lady Xing Xue hadn’t returned, Little Lan would have been treated as an elder in her stead.

Wang Jie looked at Yun Ju, expression almost amused. “Guess.”

Yun Ju roared, “I won’t let you go! Never!”

Wang Jie laughed. “So before this, you had no hostility toward me?”

Yun Ju’s chest heaved. He bit down on his fury and stared until his eyes looked ready to bleed.

On Star-Devourer, Wen Yuan watched in open amazement. He could even do it like this? How did he disguise himself? Even the elders had been fooled.

A ruthless man.

Mo Wan Yin pressed her lips together. Dan Dao had gained another monster.

She had been the anomaly—an alchemy-branch cultivator who excelled in combat. But this Master Wang seemed even more excessive.

Han Ling exhaled slowly, cradling the unconscious Zhi Shu as he stared into the starry void. “If you truly intend to protect him, you’ll have work ahead of you. He’s walking a lonely road.”

Then he turned and left.

Mo Wan Yin withdrew her gaze. Lonely?

Which Dan Dao cultivator wasn’t?

This time, the Zhi family had suffered a decisive loss.

Zhi Shu had been defeated—and her enemy had worn her face and stolen Star-Devourer.

Zhi Nan Xing was still missing.

The net the Zhi family wove with Star-Devourer had tightened around their own throats. Ridiculous.

This outcome would shake all of Black-White Heaven.

It was rare to see the Zhi family take a hit.

Little Lan led Wang Jie back onto Star-Devourer. Zhi Nan Xing had to be dug out and returned to the Zhi family.

And everyone still on Star-Devourer had to be driven off. That was now Wang Jie’s right.

Little Lan glanced at him. “Zhi Nan Xing’s bronze slips—are they with you?”

Wang Jie nodded. “They are.”

“Return them to him,” she said. “There are lines you shouldn’t cross with the Zhi family for now. Master is still one of them.”

“All right.”

Not long after, Zhi Nan Xing was unearthed. Wang Jie bound the bronze slips to him. Little Lan grabbed him by the collar and tossed him into the void like trash.

In the distance, Shi Wei happened to be nearby. He was preparing to leave when he spotted Wang Jie.

“Next time we meet,” Shi Wei said, “I’ll treat you to soup.”

“I’ll look forward to it,” Wang Jie replied.

Shi Wei left.

Maybe that “soup” was thanks for Wang Jie beating Yun Ju senseless.