Chapter 207

Chapter 207: Guarding Star Realm People

From a distance, if you ignored its scale and only looked at shape, Great Chen Mountain resembled a sword thrust forward at an angle.

Not sharp, not truly—yet so straight it seemed to cut the starfield just by existing.

The closer Wang Jie’s ship drew, the more uneven and rugged the mountain became, and the more immense it felt.

The Stacked Sky Light Chen Art was located at the very peak. Everyone had to climb up from below.

If people could simply drop from space directly onto the summit, the place would have been chaos long ago.

That rule had been set ages ago.

Wang Jie broke rules only when the rules were built to crush him.

Here, the rule was reasonable. Breaking it would be pure arrogance—and arrogance drew enemies.

He’d come to join Heavenlight Pavilion. If he made himself a target at Great Chen Mountain, then even if he entered Heavenlight Pavilion in the end, he wouldn’t be able to help Zhi Xing Xue much.

Little Lan’s reminder hadn’t been empty.

Some rules could be broken.

Some couldn’t.

The ship docked at the foot of Great Chen Mountain.

The area was nearly empty. Few ships anchored here.

Most cultivators stayed at the Thunder Well. Only those who had obtained qualifications came here.

Following Luo Yan’s instructions, Wang Jie found the qualification checkpoint and scanned the qualification granted by the Thunder Well.

He was allowed in.

Without qualification, you could still climb—but if you were discovered, every cultivator training on the mountain would attack you.

Wang Jie had asked Luo Yan why qualifications were necessary at all. People who could reach One Gaze, Three Thousand should be rare—rare even with the glasses. Great Chen Mountain was enormous. Why lock it down?

Luo Yan’s answer had been simple.

Annoying.

At the peak, there was only one place where Stacked Sky Light could be studied. If anyone could come and try, the ones who truly could cultivate it would be constantly interrupted.

The people with power had made the rules.

Because if you couldn’t qualify, you couldn’t learn Stacked Sky Light. And if you couldn’t learn it, you had no right to disturb those who could.

Wang Jie began climbing.

The mountain range surged upward like a spine, piercing the sky. Even so, with his speed, he steadily approached the summit.

For most of the ascent, he saw no one.

Only at the peak did he encounter others—around a dozen.

That was already astonishing.

Chen Art was notoriously difficult. To have more than ten people reach One Gaze, Three Thousand was impressive, and among them, only one or two would likely succeed in truly learning Stacked Sky Light.

His arrival drew attention.

There was only one way up from the base to the summit. Anyone who reached the top became immediately visible.

Wang Jie’s gaze was pulled toward the distance.

There, sealed within slabs of Seal-Chen Stone, threads of starforce moved in intricate patterns. That was Stacked Sky Light’s operational method.

Cultivators sat scattered around it in silence, each training alone.

Wang Jie started toward it.

He’d barely walked a few steps when someone stepped into his path.

The man’s eyes were cold. “You can’t cultivate here.”

Heads turned.

Wang Jie raised an eyebrow. “And why not?”

The man sneered. “A Lockforce cultivator thinks he’s worthy of cultivating Chen Art?”

The surrounding cultivators reacted with surprise.

A Lockforce cultivator?

Wang Jie’s expression darkened.

This wasn’t a random insult. The man recognized him.

Otherwise, by sight alone, how would anyone identify him? His breath-concealing method wasn’t a joke.

“Who decided Lockforce cultivators can’t cultivate Chen Art?” Wang Jie asked. “You?”

“Yes,” the man said, pleased with himself. “And what of it?”

“Then try stopping me.”

Wang Jie attacked without hesitation.

The man blocking him was Roaming-Star Realm, not weak. The instant he moved, his combat power surged—around one hundred fifty thousand, comparable to Azure.

But the moment he collided with Wang Jie’s Thunder Pattern, he was pushed back like a man trying to stop a tide with his bare hands.

He couldn’t even shake it.

“Brother Zhang! Brother He!” he shouted, face twisting. “Help me!”

Two cultivators rushed in from either side.

One wielded a long whip studded with barbs, snapping it toward Wang Jie. The other leapt into the air and struck with both legs, kicking fast enough to leave afterimages—each impact carrying the suggestion of a beast’s roar.

Both were Roaming-Star Realm.

Three Roaming-Star Realm cultivators had been waiting for him.

Wang Jie ignored the flanking attacks. His right palm drove through the Thunder Pattern and slammed into the man before him.

The force blasted the man backward again.

Then Wang Jie extended a finger.

Luo Xuan Finger pierced forward through the air.

The man’s face drained. He hadn’t expected Wang Jie to be this strong.

He’d agreed to block a mere Star-Breaking Realm Lockforce cultivator from learning Stacked Sky Light. No one had told him the target could do this.

Was this Star-Breaking Realm?

Even the Star-Breaking Realm of the Zhi family weren’t this absurd.

The strike nearly punched through him.

The whip snapped in from the side.

Wang Jie caught it with his left hand.

Brother Zhang’s eyes glittered viciously. His whip was covered in barbs, and the barbs carried poison. If someone grabbed it barehanded, they’d be finished.

But Wang Jie’s hand held firm.

He yanked hard, and Brother Zhang was ripped off balance and flung straight into Brother He.

Brother He startled and twisted, aborting his kick and slamming down instead.

Wang Jie pulled again.

Brother Zhang’s face turned beet-red. He couldn’t even hold his own weapon. And yet Wang Jie—who should have been poisoned—stood untouched.

With a sudden wrench, the whip tore free. The force ripped skin from Brother Zhang’s palm, leaving it bloody and raw.

Before he could react, the whip came back around.

He tried to dodge, but Wang Jie closed the distance instantly—Jia Eight Steps snapping him into place like a shadow that couldn’t be shaken.

The whip looped around Brother Zhang’s throat.

Panic broke across his face. “Stop! I was wrong! Senior Brother—spare me!”

Wang Jie flicked his arm and hurled him off the mountain.

Brother He froze. He didn’t dare attack again.

No one was stupid. One exchange was enough to know strength.

The Lockforce cultivator standing before them was a ruthless monster.

Wang Jie’s gaze shifted to the one who had first blocked him.

That man’s face was pale. He clasped his hands in a hurried salute, then leapt into the starry sky and fled.

Star-Breaking Realm cultivators couldn’t walk the starfield.

Roaming-Star Realm could.

Wang Jie watched him go and didn’t pursue. A lackey was still a lackey.

Brother He fled as well.

A heavy silence settled over the peak. The other cultivators stared, shaken.

Among those training Stacked Sky Light here, only those three had been Roaming-Star Realm. They’d always acted superior, looking down on everyone else.

And they’d been crushed.

Who was this man?

How could a Lockforce cultivator be this terrifying?

Wang Jie looked at his palm.

Just now, he’d protected himself with qi and relied on his own tough body. That was why the whip’s poison and barbs hadn’t worked. If the whip’s quality had been even one level higher, he might not have been able to catch it barehanded.

He lifted his gaze toward a distant corner.

“Come out,” he said. “Your lackeys have all run. How long do you plan to keep watching?”

A woman sat there, calm and still. Her aura seemed ordinary—Full-Star Realm at most.

But Wang Jie didn’t dare underestimate her for a breath.

Zhi Shu.

After the Star-Devourer incident, she’d been punished and vanished. He hadn’t expected her to be here.

No one else around seemed to realize what kind of person sat among them—someone who could decide whether they lived or died.

Zhi Shu looked at him without emotion. “We knew you’d come. But you won’t pass me.”

Wang Jie had expected her to attack the moment he appeared. During Star-Devourer, he’d ambushed her. She shouldn’t have swallowed that.

Instead, she sat there like stone.

Had her punishment changed her?

“You might not be able to beat me,” Wang Jie said.

Zhi Shu’s gaze didn’t flicker. “Even if I can’t, you still won’t cultivate Stacked Sky Light here.”

Wang Jie understood.

He turned and left.

Against Zhi Shu at full strength, he wasn’t confident he could win.

And Zhi Shu wasn’t confident either.

Wang Jie’s Thunder Pattern and Lockforce cultivation weren’t restricted by Fixed-Star Technique. Otherwise, she would never have let him walk away.

Neither could guarantee taking the other down.

Zhi Shu’s voice carried down the mountain like a decree.

“From this moment on, no one may enter the summit to cultivate Stacked Sky Light.”

She hadn’t forgotten what Wang Jie had done during Star-Devourer—disguising himself as Zhi Nan Xing, even disguising himself as her.

That shameless bastard.

Wang Jie descended all the way to the foot of Great Chen Mountain, boarded his ship, and headed for the nearest trading region.

He needed information. He needed a solution. If Great Chen Mountain held anyone who could help him get past Zhi Shu, he’d find them through Star Vault Exchange.

Inside the ship, a figure stood as if he’d always been there.

Wang Jie’s scalp prickled. “Master… can you stop appearing out of nowhere?”

He forced a dry laugh. “At least knock? Stand outside the ship and rap on the hull? Disciple will kneel and welcome you.”

Shu Rang’s expression was stern. “You encountered the Skeleton Clan?”

Wang Jie nodded.

Shu Rang’s gaze deepened. “You’re lucky. Most people meet the Skeleton Clan and die.”

Wang Jie had heard the same line from everyone who knew them.

Hearing it again didn’t make him feel better. It only made his survival feel more accidental.

“Master,” Wang Jie asked carefully, “the Skeleton Clan really is that terrifying?”

Shu Rang snorted. “A pack of monsters that abandoned their human identity. No matter how terrifying they are, this universe will never belong to them.”

Then his eyes narrowed. “How do you know Qi Xue Yin?”

Wang Jie didn’t deny it.

He told Shu Rang everything that had happened on Blue Star.

Truthfully.

Shu Rang had asked once before how Wang Jie could use Qi Refining. Wang Jie hadn’t answered then, and Shu Rang hadn’t pressed.

This was the second time.

Wang Jie could lie to many people—he could even lie to Zhi Xing Xue.

But he couldn’t lie to Shu Rang.

Not only because of the title Master, but because Shu Rang possessed a terrifying, unreadable insight. If he asked, it wasn’t because he didn’t know.

He wanted to hear Wang Jie say it.

As the story unfolded, even Shu Rang—who’d seen countless things—was stunned.

He stared at Wang Jie as if seeing him for the first time.

“How…” Shu Rang murmured, then exhaled slowly. “A Slaughterstone native defeating Shu Mu Ye…”

Even for him, it was difficult to comprehend.

No wonder Wang Jie and Qi Xue Yin knew each other.

No wonder she had brought him to witness bridge-building.

That wasn’t a casual connection.

“I thought you had romantic entanglements with the Third Miss of the Qi family,” Shu Rang said, eyes strange. “I was going to separate you. Now it seems I don’t need to.”

Wang Jie frowned. “Why would you separate us?”

Shu Rang’s gaze grew even stranger.

Wang Jie hurriedly said, “Disciple has nothing of that sort with Qi Xue Yin. No romantic relationship. I was just curious.”

Shu Rang nodded slowly. “It relates to what I’m going to have you do.”

“Later,” he added.

He circled Wang Jie once, assessing him the way a merchant assessed goods. Wang Jie felt distinctly uncomfortable.

Shu Rang clicked his tongue. “Little kid. Not bad—you actually beat Shu Mu Ye once.”

He paused. “Do you know who Shu Mu Ye is?”

“Master knows him?” Wang Jie asked quickly. He’d wanted to ask someone—anyone—for a long time.

Shu Rang looked out at the starfield and spoke as if stating an obvious fact.

“The place we live is called the Bridge-Pillar. You’ve seen it. It truly is a Bridge-Pillar.”

“You think the universe is boundless,” he continued, “but it’s only space circling the Bridge-Pillar.”

“And beyond the Bridge-Pillar… it isn’t that you can’t go. It’s that if you go, you die. There exists an absolute power of death outside.”

“That power moves like ocean tides,” Shu Rang said. “It draws near again and again, eroding the space we live in.”

“So, to resist it, redirect it, and monitor it… a profession was born.”

He looked back at Wang Jie.

“Guarding Star Realm people.”