Chapter 194

Chapter 194: The Number One Lockforce Cultivator

After ending the call with Du Xian, Wang Jie contacted Zong Cheng Ping.

Zong Cheng Ping sounded genuinely startled that Wang Jie was back.

“Bring Lie Qiu, Fu An, and the others,” Wang Jie said. “Come with me somewhere. I’ll show you a scene.”

Zong Cheng Ping didn’t refuse.

News of Star-Devourer hadn’t spread to Suo Xing Jian. Messages within the four refining grounds moved quickly inside Black-White Heaven, but news from Black-White Heaven didn’t flow back so easily.

Zong Cheng Ping also understood something else: in Suo Xing Jian, there was no one left who could restrain Wang Jie.

They were fence-sitters. Whoever’s wind was strongest, they followed.

They didn’t get to choose.

A bleak wilderness stretched under a dark-yellow sky. Wind pressed grass flat. From time to time, massive creatures glided overhead, screeching as they passed.

Wu Yun sat inside a wooden cabin, brows drawn tight. She looked up, irritated, and flicked a finger.

A huge creature dropped from the sky and slammed into the ground.

“So irritating,” she muttered. “When can I leave this place?”

She stepped out and stared up into the starry void.

She had been hiding here for a long time.

Ever since she failed to hunt Wang Jie and was wanted by the sect, she hadn’t dared move.

No news reached her. No news left her. A cage.

If she killed Wang Jie, everything would change.

Kill Wang Jie, and she could beg forgiveness from Miss Zhi Shu, borrow the Zhi family’s route out of the Fourth Nebula, and vanish. Even if she never returned, it would be better than this.

Where was Wang Jie?

—

In deep space beyond the planet, the Star-Devourer ship drifted closer.

Farther out, more ships approached—Zong Cheng Ping, Fu An, and the rest.

Wang Jie had gathered everyone in Suo Xing Jian who could still claim authority.

He wanted them to watch.

To understand.

To remember who truly held power here.

Wu Yun was on the dark-yellow planet ahead.

Star Vault Vista’s methods were terrifying. Zong Cheng Ping still couldn’t understand how they’d tracked her.

But the intel was solid.

After a short time, three ships arrived.

It was time.

Wang Jie stepped out of the hatch and leapt into open space, body plunging toward the planet. He entered the atmosphere, flames licking around him from friction, but it barely touched him.

Clouds rushed up. He pierced them—and met a swarm of strange flying creatures.

He seized one, forced it under control, and rode it hard toward the distance.

At the foot of a mountain, outside the cabin, Wu Yun’s head snapped around.

A cultivator was approaching.

She didn’t hesitate. She shot upward, fleeing toward space. Right now she couldn’t afford to be found. She couldn’t afford to fight anyone—no matter their strength.

She tore through the cloud layer.

Then a voice behind her rang out like a hammer.

“Wu Yun!”

Wu Yun froze mid-flight and turned back.

Wang Jie?

The Wang Jie she’d been desperate to find.

He stood on the flying creature’s back, closing in fast. The dark-yellow cloud layer reeked of something sharp and foul. Wang Jie leapt free, stepped onto Sword Steps, and met her gaze.

“Come,” he said. “Let’s finish this.”

Wu Yun stared at him, uncertainty flickering through her eyes.

He wasn’t supposed to be her match.

So why had he come?

Confidence… or a trap?

Help?

She turned and ran.

Wang Jie had expected it.

A steward who rose without overwhelming battle power did it by being careful.

But it was too late.

Roaming-star realm was fast, but Sword Steps wasn’t slow.

Qi-Qi Convergence ignited. Invisible qi burned around him.

Wang Jie lifted a finger and struck—Myriad-Stars Finger.

Starlight patterns spun, and finger-shadows rained from above, smashing down toward Wu Yun.

Wu Yun released black snow starforce, gripped Mystic Star Umbrella, and unleashed Thousand-Snow Umbrella Dance.

The finger-shadows hammered the umbrella again and again. The pressure drove Wu Yun downward, forcing her toward the planet.

Wu Yun’s face turned pale.

Impossible.

How long had it been since their last encounter?

How had he grown this strong?

Her black snow starforce couldn’t affect him at all.

Sword Steps flashed.

Wang Jie slammed into the umbrella’s handle.

Wu Yun whipped the umbrella around, breaking the momentum of Sword Steps—only for Wang Jie’s fist to follow.

Earth Tide erupted.

Heavy, layered tidal force swept across the sky, swallowing black snow starforce and turning the dark-yellow heavens pitch-black in an instant.

Wave after wave pressed down.

Wang Jie drew back, Thunder Pattern flaring.

Red Thunder Pattern met Earth Tide head-on.

Wu Yun’s pupils shrank. “Red Thunder Pattern?”

She couldn’t believe it.

Red Thunder Pattern wasn’t just talent—it demanded wealth and time. Even if Wang Jie had used Thunder-Seal Pills since childhood, reaching red in star-breaking realm should have been nearly impossible.

As far as she knew, among Black-White Heaven’s young generation, only Li Cai possessed Red Thunder Pattern.

And Li Cai was roaming-star realm, stronger than she was.

Wu Yun understood.

She couldn’t win.

Red Thunder Pattern could endure attacks above a hundred thousand battle power. Anyone who cultivated it had an absurdly strong foundation.

Wang Jie’s body strength had to be monstrous too.

No wonder he’d dared come alone.

Wu Yun spun and fled.

Black snow starforce surged upward like a black rainbow, piercing the sky.

Outside the planet, Zong Cheng Ping and the others saw it clearly.

They stared in disbelief.

Wang Jie had called them here to watch him kill Wu Yun?

Not long ago, Wu Yun had chased him into hiding at Zhi Academy. How much time had passed for him to hunt her down like this?

Red lightning tore through black snow starforce and ripped open the heavens.

With Thunder Pattern blazing above him, Wang Jie sent sword after sword cutting toward Wu Yun.

Wu Yun swung Mystic Star Umbrella desperately. Swords shattered one after another—yet each impact chewed away at her strength. The umbrella handle ground her palms bloody.

The swords were endless, linked into a single ruthless line.

Finally, one sword shattered—and the impact knocked the umbrella out of her grasp.

Wang Jie stepped onto Jia Eight Steps and closed the distance.

Her black snow starforce hadn’t recovered much since their last battle. She truly had been abandoned.

Hiding here without being found was likely the greatest mercy Zhi Qing’s faction had granted her.

Lockforce roared around Wang Jie, spiraling into a tornado that seemed to bloom between heaven and earth.

He stepped out of it and punched.

Wu Yun shoved all her black snow starforce forward. It vanished under that fist.

The punch hit.

Wu Yun slammed downward, punched through cloud and air, trailing a smear of dark-yellow as she fell.

Blood burst from her mouth. The force spread through her body like poison. Where the blow landed, it pierced through.

A hollow weakness filled her.

She stared up through shattered clouds at Wang Jie.

Why?

How long had it been?

A star-breaking realm cultivator crushing a roaming-star realm steward?

A joke.

And yet it was happening.

Wang Jie stood above her like a judgment. She couldn’t run. She couldn’t hide.

For a moment, he reminded her of the legends—those few who once suppressed their entire generation and climbed to six-path roamer.

This man couldn’t be beaten.

A thunderous impact followed.

Mountains shattered.

Wu Yun hit the ground hard enough to crush a massive range, body buried deep beneath broken stone.

Wang Jie descended, watching her aura below—already nearly half dispersed.

She was finished.

He lifted a hand and beckoned toward the void.

The ships above hesitated, as if the act of entering the planet might doom them.

Then they moved.

One after another, they descended and landed, gathering above the broken mountains where Wu Yun had fallen.

Wang Jie looked down at them. “That is the steward you’ve been bowing to. How does it feel?”

Fu An and Lie Qiu exchanged a glance, then looked at Zong Cheng Ping, unsure how to respond.

Zong Cheng Ping bowed, voice reverent. “Compared to you, Brother Wang, Wu Yun is not worth a blow.”

The old “brother” already felt too small.

Cui Si leaned in with a flattering grin. “Lord is truly the number one lockforce cultivator of all time—defeating even a steward. In the future, you’ll lead Suo Xing Jian to shine across the Fourth Nebula.”

Fu An cleared his throat. “I agree.”

Wang Jie’s eyes shifted to Lie Qiu.

Lie Qiu pressed her lips together, then bowed. She didn’t speak, but her posture was more respectful than it had ever been.

The Feng family brother bowed too.

Wang Jie nodded once, then looked down into the shattered earth.

“Come out,” he said. “Stop pretending.”

Wu Yun crawled up from below, drenched in blood and dirt, ragged as a dying animal.

Wang Jie walked toward her, slow and inexorable. “Do you regret not killing me back then?”

Wu Yun’s eyes were cold, hatred and regret twisted together. “If I’d known, I would’ve risked everything to kill you.”

“But who could’ve imagined you’d improve this fast?”

Wang Jie laughed softly. “I’ll take that as praise.”

He stopped in front of her.

“Then,” he said, “it ends.”

He struck with his palm.

Wu Yun’s gaze turned vicious. She slammed herself into the ground—and at the same time, the umbrella she’d lost earlier dropped from above.

Deep black snow starforce, stored within, detonated in a single violent burst and blasted straight at Wang Jie.

Wang Jie had already noticed.

He stepped aside.

The strike hit the earth instead.

Black snow starforce tore through the planet, punching a hole clean through.

But it changed nothing.

Wu Yun was dying.

Half her body was buried. Her eyes were wide with refusal.

A Black-White Heaven steward—once a path to endless power—ruined here, in the Suo Xing Jian she had despised most.

Cracks spread across the ground. The planet groaned. Far away, the earth shuddered, wind rising into a howl.

Black snow starforce spilled outward and turned to drifting black snowflakes.

Wang Jie looked down at Wu Yun’s storage ring.

No reason to waste it.

He opened it with her blood. There wasn’t much worth taking—until one item made Zong Cheng Ping suck in a breath.

“Zhi Affairs Token?”

Wang Jie lifted it and gave it a small shake. “You recognize this?”

The planet continued to fracture. Lava bled through the earth. That last strike had been heavy enough to push the world toward collapse.

“Lord,” Cui Si urged, “we should leave.”

Wang Jie nodded. None of them were roaming-star realm. If they ended up drifting in open space, they would die.

They returned to the Star-Devourer ship.

Once everyone was gathered, Zong Cheng Ping stared at the Zhi Affairs Token with open envy.

“This token can command a million disciples below full-star realm,” he said. “The sect issues it only to important figures.”

“It doesn’t just mean you can order disciples. It means the person behind the token has background.”

“Otherwise, no ordinary person could obtain one.”

He swallowed. “Wu Yun’s token must have come from Zhi Upper Realm.”