Chapter 220
Chapter 220: A Stunning Painting Scroll
Wang Jie lifted his head. The chaotic clash between three Hundred-Star Realm experts was still far away; from here, he couldn’t make out a thing.
It didn’t matter. As long as he could keep track of most of Black-White Heaven’s people, he would be fine.
The battle line began to pull back. The Hundred-Star Realm combatants also retreated, taking the bulk of their forces with them.
Huh?
Was that… him?
Wang Jie spotted Cang Wu. Even now, he still didn’t know the man’s real name.
Cang Wu moved through the battlefield like someone who had lived on it for years. He skirted the most violent zones with ease, drifting through pockets of relative calm. Even when he ran into one or two enemies, they couldn’t threaten him.
Wang Jie watched him angle toward a particular direction and immediately followed.
Cang Wu was a Full-Star Realm cultivator. Somehow, he used starforce to disguise himself as Qi Refining, but in real strength he was nowhere near Wang Jie. And because he looked like Qi Refining, Cang Wu was certain no one could possibly be tracking him.
He had no idea Wang Jie was on his heels.
After trailing him for a while, Wang Jie realized Cang Wu was heading toward the rear of the Second Star-Cloud Battlefield.
Cang Wu kept slipping across the chaos. Even the fiercest clashes couldn’t drag him into their vortex. Wang Jie stayed behind him the entire time, careful not to close the distance too much.
Eventually, Wang Jie saw him meet up with a woman from the Singing Phoenix Hall. Cang Wu adjusted his disguise, then headed toward the Singing Phoenix Hall’s side together with her.
Wang Jie’s eyes narrowed.
So he really was connected to the Singing Phoenix Hall?
No… maybe not. That woman might be from the Dead Realm, hiding inside the Singing Phoenix Hall.
But he’d heard the Singing Phoenix Hall was made up entirely of women. How had this man slipped in?
Wang Jie didn’t chase further. He turned away, memorizing Cang Wu’s disguised appearance.
On the way back, he kept scanning with the Star Compass. But with auras flaring from every direction, there was no such thing as a truly safe route. In the end, he chose one path and forced his way through.
Front-left.
The same direction he’d taken to enter.
Someone was lying in ambush there.
Judging by the aura, it was only a Roaming-Star Realm cultivator.
Wang Jie suppressed his presence and crept closer. Ahead lay a forest on a chunk of land—more than half of it already pulverized, wreckage trailing out into the starry void. The enemy was hidden behind what remained.
If Wang Jie hadn’t noticed the aura in advance, he would have been struck the moment he passed.
He fixed the position in his mind and slashed once.
Sword qi tore through the void and split the forest cleanly in two.
A woman burst from behind the shattered treeline, shock flashing across her face. How had he found her?
She turned toward Wang Jie—
And met his second sword.
On a battlefield, judging by realm was idiotic. Only combat power mattered.
The pressure of Wang Jie’s blade sent danger screaming up her spine. She spun and fled at once, refusing to entangle even as a Roaming-Star Realm cultivator.
A hardened veteran.
Wang Jie had been ready to let her go—until Cang Wu’s disguise surfaced in his mind again. If that man could alter his face and slip into the Singing Phoenix Hall, then Wang Jie could do the same.
And if he could wear a Singing Phoenix Hall identity, wouldn’t this battlefield become far safer?
Decision made, he locked onto the woman.
Sword Steps.
Chase.
Chen Qi realized she was having the worst luck imaginable.
She’d been a beat too slow when taking missions and ended up assigned to the Han Hai Battlefield.
Entering Han Hai would’ve been tolerable on its own. The Singing Phoenix Hall moved in groups there—safer than most.
But her group of senior sisters had run into a ruthless Roaming-Star Realm cultivator from Black-White Heaven. Everyone died except her.
She escaped, barely. And with her promotion close, she only needed to kill one more Roaming-Star Realm cultivator to leave the battlefield.
So she had resorted to ambushes.
After surviving for a while, she’d learned one rule: ambushes were safest. Strike once. If it didn’t land, retreat immediately. Copy the Dagger-Offering Order—those people survived by refusing to gamble.
She’d ambushed three targets already: a Star-Breaking Realm cultivator, a Full-Star Realm cultivator, and even a Ten Seals. She still didn’t understand how that Ten Seals had been walking alone on this battlefield, but it didn’t matter. Dying by her hand was practically his fortune.
She was lining up her fourth when her target struck first.
How did he detect her?
His sword qi was brutal. It felt like lockforce, yet it carried enough threat that even a lockforce cultivator would instinctively avoid it.
Worse—he chased.
Courting death.
Wang Jie was far faster than Chen Qi. He caught her in a blink and swung.
Chen Qi snapped out a jade flute, knocking the blade aside, and drove a palm at his chest.
Wang Jie met it with a palm of his own.
Their hands collided. Starforce and lockforce condensed at the point of impact, then exploded outward. Chen Qi’s gaze sharpened as she felt the surging lockforce flooding from him—vast and crushing, far beyond her own starforce.
How could he have that much lockforce?
No time to think.
Wang Jie forced her down with sheer palm strength. The impact, laced with lockforce, slammed into her shoulder. Half her body went numb. She twisted hard to slip away—
But Wang Jie moved as if he didn’t need recovery at all. His body snapped into a twisted, unnatural angle, and he struck again.
The bizarre posture made Chen Qi think of the fighters from Luo Kingdom.
A dull bang.
She was sent flying, blood bursting from her mouth.
Gritting through the pain, she raised the jade flute and played.
Eight Tones Eight Annihilations.
Huh?
Where—
She looked up.
Wang Jie was gone.
Chen Qi tried to move—but she was already too late.
A hand dropped onto her shoulder from behind. Fingers tightened. The tips sank into flesh. Blood streamed down between his knuckles, and she felt bone beginning to crack.
Chen Qi froze.
Pinned—utterly controlled.
The man’s strength was freakish. His speed was even worse. His lockforce surpassed hers despite her being Roaming-Star Realm, and his attacks were strange in a way she had never encountered.
She swallowed hard. “Who are you?”
Wang Jie drew out the Nine-Form Diagram. The moment he released her, he drove a palm into her back.
Chen Qi’s body jolted. Lockforce ripped through her insides like a battering ram. She staggered, nearly collapsing.
She turned, face drained white.
Wang Jie’s expression remained calm. “Do nine movements.”
Chen Qi stared at him, bewildered.
Then she began to move.
The Nine-Form Diagram hovered before her as she copied it again and again. Wang Jie watched her perform while also keeping his attention on the Star Compass, wary of enemies closing in.
To her credit, she complied quickly. Her imitation sped up as the minutes passed.
Wang Jie lowered his gaze and fed aura into the Star Compass, expanding its range.
That was when Chen Qi swallowed a pill and flung down a Formation Scroll.
Starforce burst outward like a cloud of fireflies.
A Star-Bewildering Formation.
The firefly starforce shifted and combined into different killing patterns—endless variations of lethal strikes. And the formation’s power reached the Roaming-Star Realm level.
As the Star-Bewildering Formation enclosed Wang Jie, Chen Qi lifted her jade flute again and played a final tune—Sorrow Sea Tide Star Tune.
Kill him.
Thunder answered.
A deafening boom rolled across the void. Thunder Pattern spread, the force of it tearing the Star-Bewildering Formation apart. Wang Jie walked out from the broken formation, stepped forward—
He crossed past Chen Qi in a single stride.
Second step.
Gone.
Chen Qi stood where she was, staring blankly ahead. The light drained from her eyes. Then she fell.
The Nine-Form Diagram was complete.
Wang Jie didn’t linger.
That Thunder Pattern had been too loud. It would draw attention.
For the next two days, he roamed the battlefield, using the Star Compass to avoid strong enemies. Enemy or ally—it didn’t matter. He avoided them all.
On the third day, everything changed.
Black-White Heaven’s Elder Li Tong He was defeated.
Above, in the starry sky, countless people heard Li Tong He’s furious roar: “Shameless! You’ve been hiding a Hundred-Star Realm all along!”
“Junior wasn’t hiding anything,” another voice replied, smooth and cold. “I simply broke through at the right moment. Senior Li—rest in peace.”
Black-White Heaven cultivators blanched. Wang Jie’s expression darkened as well. If Li Tong He died, Black-White Heaven would be purged by the two star clouds. Then the real trouble would begin.
He didn’t hesitate.
Escape first.
“You think you can kill this old man?” Li Tong He’s voice rumbled. “You still can’t.”
Formations blazed in the heavens. Blood at the corner of his mouth, Li Tong He fled in a single direction.
A voice thundered across the Han Hai Battlefield: “All of Third Nebula, heed this order! Whoever kills Li Tong He will be promoted directly to Battle General!”
A second voice followed, even sharper: “All of Second Star Cloud, heed this order! Whoever kills Li Tong He will be promoted to Battle General—and may immediately leave the Star-Cloud Battlefield, never to be conscripted again!”
Those proclamations turned countless eyes red with hunger. People surged toward Li Tong He’s escape route like a tide.
Li Tong He rasped, “Black-White Heaven! Block them!”
They had no choice. Li Tong He could not die.
But now both star clouds were focused on him. This was no longer a chaotic melee—it was a directed hunt. The pressure on Black-White Heaven skyrocketed.
Li Tong He could be killed.
If he couldn’t, those Hundred-Star Realm figures in the heavens wouldn’t have tried to force the issue. They were restrained by each other and couldn’t personally descend.
That left the battlefield’s Roaming-Star Realm elites.
One by one, terrifying auras rose from every corner of the battlefield and rushed toward Li Tong He.
Like Wang Jie, many had been hiding their strength, keeping low.
Now, staying low was impossible.
Wang Jie watched a ragged lockforce cultivator shoot into the sky, his Roaming-Star Realm starforce crushing everyone around him as he charged toward Li Tong He.
Wang Jie could only stare.
These people had been hiding even harder than he had.
In the distance, Li Tong He was swallowed by a tightening ring of attackers. Roaming-Star Realm cultivators closed in with ferocious coordination. Black-White Heaven’s own Roaming-Star Realm fighters fought desperately to hold them off, buying Li Tong He a path to retreat.
Wang Jie wanted to stay far away—until he saw Li Tong He communicating with something.
A warship.
A way out of Han Hai.
In the entire Han Hai Battlefield, only Li Tong He had the authority to mobilize a warship capable of leaving.
He had to get out.
Wang Jie fell in behind at a distance—not too close, not too far.
If there was even a slim chance to escape, he would take it.
Arrows flashed like dragons.
Lan Ning joined the chase.
Wang Jie caught her position. This wasn’t the languid harassment she’d used against him before—every arrow now was heavy, ruthless, aimed straight at Li Tong He.
Yue Bai arrived as well. A group from Shield Mountain Peak rose into the void to block Wu Jiang, only to be shattered by Wu Jiang’s One Blade.
Yue Bai was forced to engage Wu Jiang and couldn’t pursue Li Tong He.
Roaming-Star Realm fighters struck everywhere.
Many looked old—some even older than Li Tong He himself.
People from Xuan Gate?
Wang Jie’s eyes narrowed. That man had to be Qing Ge, the one Xia Xiao Nian had mentioned—top five among Xuan Gate disciples, an undeniable expert.
Then Wang Jie’s gaze snagged on someone near Qing Ge.
Huai Si?
Back at Shuang Hua Sect, Wang Jie had met Huai Si on the Eighteen Bends. The man had stared at him as if trying to dissect him. That was why Wang Jie had gone to Deepweight Star—only for Huai Si to follow him there as well.
Back then, Huai Si had been Full-Star Realm.
Now he was Roaming-Star Realm.
More and more people surged in around Li Tong He. Li Tong He kept retreating, his wariness always divided—part of his attention remained on the Hundred-Star Realm conflict above. From time to time, a crushing force would descend from the heavens, hunting him.
Wang Jie backed away.
This kind of battle was not something he could join. One mistake and he would be erased.
He hadn’t retreated far when the battlefield’s roar was suddenly smothered—
By music.
Zither notes drifted out, thin as mist at first, scattered like a startled shadow across the void. Then the player’s strength deepened, and the melody surged—violent, relentless, like an avalanche collapsing from a white mountain.
Even the void seemed to tremble.
The battlefield fell silent.
No voice could rise against the zither music.
Everyone was trapped inside it, the void itself stretched taut like a string.
Wang Jie looked into the distance.
A woman in white sat in the void, fingers moving across her instrument, the melody pressing down over the entire battlefield.
She looked like she had been painted into existence—an exquisite scroll come to life.
“Su Su?”
Someone’s voice trembled with disbelief.
“How is she here?”
“She can’t be here!”
“Retreat!”