Chapter 195

Chapter 195: Undying Body

Wang Jie stared at the token in his hand. The Zhi Affairs Token?

He’d once held something similar, though not as a physical object—more like an authority bestowed on him.

Back at Frost-Hua Sect, the Condensing Domain Lord had granted him the right to mobilize one hundred thousand lockforce disciples. But that kind of authority didn’t even belong in the same breath as this.

The Zhi Affairs Token could command not only lockforce cultivators, but starforce cultivators as well, and its reach extended to anyone below the Full-Star Realm.

Priceless.

“The Zhi family really values Wu Yun,” Zong Cheng Ping said with a sigh, handing the token back.

Wang Jie took it and put it away.

The others exchanged uneasy looks, waiting for his orders.

After this battle, his control of Suo Xing Jian had become absolute. It was no longer the old balance of half strength and half interests. Now there was only fear.

If he could kill Wu Yun, then within Suo Xing Jian he was untouchable. Even if Qiu Chou were still alive, it wouldn’t change anything.

That had been the goal from the start.

He intended to leave Suo Xing Jian for a while. He had no desire to come back later and find himself bargaining all over again. One battle to settle everything—cleanly, decisively.

He asked a few questions, dismissed them, and ended the meeting.

He left only one standing order: the annual allocation of lockforce cultivators sent to the Star-Cloud Battlefield would be decided by him. When he arrived, he would choose.

No one dared object.

And they were to keep searching for handsome pets.

He refused to believe there wasn’t a single one worth keeping.

Now, though, he had something else to do.

Time to cultivate the tendon-and-bone tempering method.

Time to suffer.

He’d braced himself, but the moment he began, it was still brutal—like his flesh was being peeled away while something ground between tendon, bone, and muscle. The pain nearly shattered him.

Sweat poured off him. Blood seeped through his pores; when he wiped his face, his hand came away red.

He clenched his teeth and endured. He had to.

His eyes reddened as he condensed the lockforce inside him again and again, forcing it to roll through his meridians and bones.

In that moment, he almost wanted to teach the method to everyone, just so they could all share this misery.

And that bargain master of his—was there really no other technique? Did it have to be this one?

Who even invented a cultivation method like this? What kind of lunatic decided this was a good idea?

Half a month.

It took him a full half month just to roll through all his meridians and bones once.

And that was only rolling—barely the first step, not true tempering.

To temper properly, he would have to run the cycle countless times. The thought alone made his mind go numb.

His skin felt loose. His bones felt like they’d been taken apart and put back together wrong.

Still, there was one piece of good news.

He’d finally found a handsome pet.

How long had he been searching in Suo Xing Jian? He’d been looking even before he went to the Zhi Academy. After he came back, he kept looking—pairing batch after batch—until he finally succeeded.

When the last green sprout finished forming, he let out a long breath.

Bone-Motion Art—harvested.

A figure atop the five sprouts twisted in unnatural, irregular motions, then dissolved into light and sank into his mind. Wang Jie closed his eyes and felt it settle.

So this was Bone-Motion Art?

It didn’t seem like much at first glance.

He would practice it later. For now, he still had to temper his tendons and bones.

The timing was perfect, too. The field had just cleared, which meant he could cultivate the tempering method inside it. Otherwise, if too many sprouts already crowded the space, new ones wouldn’t even be able to push up.

If the method his bargain master had given him truly had room to upgrade, then the field would probably fill quickly.

He’d cultivated the first cycle outside. For the second, he went into the field.

Maybe he could grow an improved version—something that didn’t hurt quite so much.

A few more days passed. He could roll through much faster than before, but the pain didn’t lessen in the slightest.

When he finished the last bone, an afterimage sank into the soil. Green sprouts erupted one after another.

Wang Jie’s eyes flared.

There it is.

He’d assumed the bargain master’s method was already top-tier. He hadn’t expected an upgraded version at all.

He watched, barely breathing.

One. Two. Three… eight.

His heart sank.

Eight sprouts—second only to the Heaven-Reversal Path.

That wasn’t good.

The Heaven-Reversal Path had been agony too, and the worst part had been the materials. With his Ten Seals cultivation, without all the lucky breaks and support he’d stumbled into, there was no way he could have completed it.

And the final imprint had forced a direct breakthrough into the Star-Breaking Realm. The difficulty had surpassed anything anyone else faced. He’d nearly died.

Truly nearly.

Nine sprouts had left a shadow that never quite went away. Eight wasn’t much better.

The technique’s name was simple, blunt, and arrogant: Undying Body.

Somehow, that only made it feel even more impossible.

He checked the required materials, touching each sprout in turn. Then he went silent, withdrew from the field, and didn’t look back.

He couldn’t complete the materials.

Not now.

And “not now” might mean a very long time.

At least it was only eight sprouts. He still had one empty plot.

If he could find a technique that produced only a single sprout, he could plant it, pull it, and plant it again to confirm it was repeatable. If it was, he wouldn’t hesitate—he’d tear out these eight sprouts and free the space for something he could actually finish.

For now, he returned to tempering his tendons and bones.

It worked best when paired with his exercises.

Before long, his Red Thunder Pattern reached its limit. His defense wouldn’t rise another step.

Even if he hadn’t finished using his thunder-seal pills, it didn’t matter. With pills alone, Red Thunder Pattern was as far as he could go.

To reach Cyan Thunder Pattern, he needed real lightning.

Thunder Abyss was the first place that came to mind.

He immediately asked Du Xian for Thunder Abyss’s location in the fourth nebula. The information was cheap—because it wasn’t secret.

“Great Chen Mountain?” Wang Jie repeated, surprised.

Du Xian nodded. “Yes—but it’s not that Thunder Abyss is inside Great Chen Mountain. It’s that Great Chen Mountain is inside Thunder Abyss.”

“Thunder Abyss came first. Great Chen Mountain came later. Black-White Heaven placed Great Chen Mountain in the fifth star chain because of Thunder Abyss.”

Wang Jie frowned. “Thunder Abyss helps cultivate Stacked Sky Light Chen Art?”

“It does,” Du Xian said. “Black-White Heaven has a method that borrows lightning to accelerate starforce control, raising the odds of mastering Stacked Sky Light.”

“Otherwise, where do you think the Heavenlight Pavilion comes from? Even among the giant factions in the first nebula, the number of disciples who can master Chen Art isn’t much higher than Black-White Heaven’s. This is why.”

“So the Heavenlight Pavilion is basically Black-White Heaven’s signature.”

Wang Jie hadn’t expected that.

No wonder Zhi Xing Xue could arrange his entry into the Zhi Academy but couldn’t slip him into Great Chen Mountain.

Chen Art—yes, he had mastered it. But any Chen Art should require at least the Full-Star Realm to complete properly. Without the right level of starforce control, without enough starforce to sustain it, you couldn’t even use it consistently.

To master Chen Art at the Star-Breaking Realm was already exceptional.

Geniuses rarely understood how shocking they were—because they measured themselves against monsters.

Wang Jie measured himself against Shu Mu Ye, the freak who could use Chen Art with Ten Seals.

If Thunder Abyss could improve starforce control, then if he learned Black-White Heaven’s lightning method, maybe it could also sharpen his lockforce control—and in turn increase the power of his Chen Art.

Right now, his Myriad-Stars Finger Method was only the most basic form.

And Yi Sword Art could only control a single sword. It was honestly pathetic.

Sword Rig and Yi Sword Art were meant for each other. That was the path he wanted to build.

And his Myriad-Stars Finger Method had only produced five sprouts. It wasn’t enough.

If he wanted Thunder Abyss, he needed Great Chen Mountain. And for that, he would need Zhi Xing Xue to push from behind the scenes.

All he could do was wait.

And cultivate.

At the Zhi Study Valley, Mo Wan Yin waited with respectful patience.

A rich pill fragrance drifted out. Mo Wan Yin bowed deeply. “Congratulations, Master, on leaving seclusion.”

A graceful figure stepped out. She wore white, her aura clean and refined, her face beautiful and youthful. On her forehead was the mark of a green leaf.

Her eyes were bright, her gaze clear.

“I didn’t finish,” Bai Ye, the Celestial Master, said calmly. “I failed.”

Mo Wan Yin blinked. “Failed? Was Master too eager?”

“Not really.” Bai Ye stretched lazily. “A failure is a failure.”

She tilted her head, then smiled. “While I was in seclusion, did anything happen? Tell me two good things.”

Mo Wan Yin smiled and offered the pills she’d brought.

Bai Ye glanced down, then lifted one with surprise. “A Six-Scent Burststar Pill?”

She sniffed it, thoughtful. “It carries the scent of blazing starforce. Who refined this? Did a master arrive in the sect?”

Mo Wan Yin explained what had happened.

Bai Ye waved away the fact that Wang Jie was a lockforce cultivator as if it were irrelevant. “I’ll handle Zhi Qing. I’ll make sure she doesn’t trouble Master Wang.”

Then she pointed toward the door. “Go invite Master Wang to the pill assembly.”

Mo Wan Yin hesitated. “The pill assembly?”

Bai Ye nodded. “The White Realm Lord contacted me. Guests from the first nebula are coming, so he wants this gathering treated properly.”

“Yes, Master.” Mo Wan Yin bowed. “This disciple will invite Master Wang at once.”

After Mo Wan Yin left, Bai Ye contacted Zhi Upper Realm to request a conversation with Zhi Qing.

Zhi Qing was in seclusion.

Over in Suo Xing Jian, it took half a month before Wang Jie finally connected with Mo Wan Yin.

Even then, she had to go through the shop—using the little attendant to reach him.

Wang Jie was puzzled by the pill assembly, but an invitation from Bai Ye was not something to refuse.

His bargain master had told him to find backing where he could, and only seek help when he truly couldn’t handle something himself. And each time he approached that man first, the man’s impression of him would drop.

Most things, then, still had to be handled by Wang Jie alone.

Another month passed.

He kept tempering his tendons and bones, pairing the cultivation with his exercises. Even though the pain left his body numb, he could feel his flesh and bones strengthening. The lockforce within him continued to fuse and deepen.

The results were undeniable.

Then, one day, he followed Lie Qiu and witnessed a war unfolding within Suo Xing Jian.

In the starry sky, explosions bloomed like flowers. Two types of ships traded fire—one belonging to a newly spacefaring civilization, the other a fleet under Lie Qiu.

Lie Qiu stood beside him and explained, “Besides supplying lockforce cultivators to Black-White Heaven, we’re tasked with guarding Suo Xing Jian.”

“When a civilization makes contact with the cosmos, we investigate, report to Black-White Heaven, and wait for their decision.”

“Many civilizations are taken away directly,” she added. “Many are destroyed.”

She looked ahead, her face unreadable. “This one—the White Realm ordered it destroyed.”