Chapter 224
Chapter 224: Provocation
Li Tong He frowned deeply, seeing Wang Jie’s troubled expression, and spoke gravely, “This situation is truly unreasonable. No matter how Zhi Qing’s faction targets you, assigning such an impossible mission is utterly inhumane.”
“Never mind you—even a Six Dao Wanderer could not accomplish it.”
“In our Black White Heaven, even the greatest Six Dao Wanderer has only ever reached Battle Hero rank. Touching the realm of Battle General is practically impossible unless one dedicates their entire life to the battlefield, slowly grinding through sheer time.”
“How could you possibly spend eternity on the battlefield?”
“Rest assured. You once saved this old man’s life. I will gather support from my allies, and along with Senior Xing Xue’s backing, we should be able to overturn this decision.”
Wang Jie responded gratefully, “Thank you, Elder.”
Yet he knew this would be futile, for this was not simply Zhi Qing causing trouble—it was that mysterious cheap master of his. Either this master didn’t act at all or struck mercilessly when he did. A task that even a Six Dao Wanderer couldn’t achieve—he was supposed to complete?
Feeling exhausted, Wang Jie bid farewell to Li Tong He and spent some money to rent a resting chamber. He couldn’t leave for now, so he might as well stay.
His task: protect a transport spaceship.
Wang Jie himself found it amusing.
His first mission was to sabotage the enemy’s transport ship, and now his second was protecting their own transport ship. If the enemy operated missions as they did, protection would be incredibly difficult.
Including Wang Jie, five cultivators had accepted this task, the other four all at Wandering Star Realm.
“Meeting on the same ship is fate. I am He Qian, a five-blood Wandering Star Battle Soldier. I’ve spent twenty years on the Ying Yang Battlefield, and I suppose no one here has joined this battlefield longer than I have,” said a middle-aged man, who already looked quite aged.
Wang Jie and the others glanced at each other, shaking their heads.
He Qian smiled, saying, “Judging by your appearances, perhaps you’re all disciples, and you’ve likely spent far less time in the sect compared to me. I already hold a nominal position in the Deacon Hall, so let me arrange this mission as the leader. Does anyone disagree?”
In a sect, disciples were disciples, deacons were deacons, and elders were elders. But beyond these titles, there were certain individuals who, despite their long time in the sect, never became deacons or elders. Thus, they were forced to take nominal positions under the Deacon Hall or Elder Court.
Their behavior and actions were restricted by wherever they held a nominal position.
He Qian was precisely such a person.
Such individuals were relatively rare since most Wandering Star Realm disciples easily became deacons, or took positions in places like the Discipline Hall or even Zhi Upper Realm. Only those who achieved nothing at all ended up in nominal positions.
A nominal position did not necessarily mean incompetence, though it usually did.
Those disciples who had not reached Wandering Star Realm were often assigned elsewhere, guarding the various regions of Star Cloud Realm, and these were far more common.
One disciple spoke up, “We’re willing to follow Senior Brother He’s command.”
He Qian smiled again, replying, “Very good. After all, this mission is difficult, and we can only succeed through unity.” He then began assigning tasks.
Each person was placed in a fixed position around the ship, patrolling their areas while closely watching the starry sky. If anyone tried to attack, they must immediately intervene.
Wang Jie was assigned the rear-right side of the ship, close to the tail.
He Qian didn’t issue complex commands, just simple position assignments.
Time passed steadily. Their destination was a battlefield, nowhere near as immense as Hanhai Sea, yet still chaotic enough for millions of cultivators to fight fiercely. Their ship carried materials needed to repair warships.
Wang Jie glanced at his star disk. The detection range was far too limited, utterly useless here.
Depending on the amount of energy infused, the star disk could detect a fixed range. However, in the vastness of the starry sky, even casual areas surpassed the size of entire planets. Currently, Wang Jie’s star disk couldn’t even detect a significant area, making ambushes impossible to anticipate.
He helplessly put the star disk away.
Several days later, as Wang Jie vigilantly watched the stars, his heart suddenly lurched. He turned sharply towards the ship’s tail. In the next moment, the ship trembled violently, and a warning blared on his personal terminal: “Enemy attack! Senior brothers, stay alert!”
Instantly, Wang Jie saw a glowing barrier rise around the ship. Beyond the barrier, a figure rushed forward rapidly, blade raised to strike.
Wang Jie swiftly drew a sword, hurling it Force fully. The sword tore through the void, flying toward the distant attacker.
The enemy’s blade struck fiercely against the sword, ripples spreading through the void. Though the sword broke, the assailant was driven several steps backward by the recoil. Astonished, he stared at the interior of the ship.
Wang Jie stepped out, standing atop the ship, and unleashed the Star Gazing Sword Style.
Sword after sword sliced through space toward the enemy, forcing him to retreat rapidly.
Yet the ship shuddered again; the glowing barrier shattered. Wang Jie spun around—one direction had already been breached. Another tremor quickly followed from elsewhere as explosions erupted across the ship. [Not good, we’ve failed.]
He had experienced this exact scene before, except that last time, he had been on the attacking side. Now, he was on defense.
The ship shook violently amid continuous explosions.
Resigned, Wang Jie quickly returned inside, boarding a small shuttle and bursting out. The transport ship was lost; even if he could guard his section, the others had already failed theirs.
Moments after he fled, the massive transport exploded, tilting downward toward a nearby planet. Several small shuttles escaped alongside him. He even glimpsed He Qian furiously chasing after an enemy.
But it was useless.
The enemy’s mission was accomplished by destroying the ship—they wouldn’t linger for unnecessary combat. He Qian could never catch them.
Wang Jie shook his head, returning to the central hub.
In the time that followed, he repeatedly undertook various tasks. Some succeeded, others failed. His luckiest moment came when two Third Nebula Wandering Star cultivators tried to hunt him down, only to be killed by him instead. Both had higher blood-drop counts on their identity tokens, granting him two blood drops in a single stroke.
Thus, half a year passed, and Wang Jie smoothly advanced to Battle Guard.
In half a year, Wang Jie reached War Guard. This speed amazed everyone. His reputation had long since spread across the Decree Platform.
He Qian had died.
He fell during a mission.
He had survived twenty years on the Ying Yang Battlefield, yet he couldn’t escape death’s grasp in the end. Many others had died earlier, and quicker.
Compared to them, Wang Jie was merely at Star Breaking Realm yet had managed to become a Wandering Star War Guard—it was truly astonishing.
Through his persistent daily training, his strength now reached one hundred ninety units. In terms of multiples within the ten-seal stage, this equated to nineteenfold strength.
When he broke past limits at ten seals, he reached Hundredfold Strength, which at the Star Breaking Realm was tenfold. That meant his strength had increased by ninefold since then. His progress was slow, but cultivation was always slower the higher one climbed.
Although strength didn’t equal combat prowess directly, once strength reached a certain height, it became something entirely different.
Wang Jie dreamed of the day he could attain Hundredfold Strength at Star Breaking Realm. If he reached that level, his combat power would become utterly terrifying, even if he remained in Star Breaking Realm.
In this half year, he had met Zhi Nan Xing again. Zhi Nan Xing had also returned from the Hanhai Sea battlefield.
When they met this time, their attitudes were completely different from their first encounter at Central Command.
Though Zhi Nan Xing was reluctant to admit it, he now admired Wang Jie. Whenever they met powerful foes, misfortune always befell Wang Jie. Had it been Zhi Nan Xing himself, he doubted he could have survived.
Wang Jie smiled bitterly; [he didn’t wish for misfortune either, but bad luck always seemed to follow him.]
The Decree Platform grew busier, with missions increasing steadily, most involving the Third Nebula.
“Senior Brother Wang, over here, over here!” Someone waved energetically from afar.
Wang Jie glanced over, smiled gently, and walked towards him.
Many people had set up stalls, and among them was someone who once explained the Hanhai Sea battlefield to Wang Jie. Back then, he had pitied Wang Jie, thinking him doomed. Yet not only had Wang Jie returned, he’d swiftly become a War Guard.
“How’s business? Not sold anything yet? Want me to buy something to support you?” Wang Jie asked warmly, sitting beside the stall.
The stall owner rolled his eyes, “Senior Brother, even if you buy it, it won’t do you much good. I’ll wait patiently; someone with fate will eventually arrive.”
Here, no matter how long one had joined the sect, higher rank always meant seniority.
“Senior Brother Wang, actually, I called you over to share some news,” the stall owner whispered.
“What news?” Wang Jie asked curiously, knowing this stall owner was always well-informed.
The stall owner lowered his voice further, “I heard the sect will send reinforcements to Ying Yang Battlefield.”
Wang Jie was startled. Reinforcements?
“The news is reliable. My cousin is a war soldier, and I’m in his squad. He got direct orders from the sect. Many disciples have received transfer orders to Ying Yang Battlefield, including genius figures like White Wanderer and Black Wanderer, as well as descendants of some elders from the Elder Council.”
Wang Jie nodded, “Thank you.”
The stall owner smiled mischievously, “Senior Brother, have you thought about forming your own team? If you do, plenty of people will definitely want to join. But don’t rush now; wait until those geniuses arrive. If you can pull them into your team, you’ll have powerful connections once you return to the sect.”
Wang Jie eyed him knowingly, “And what about you? What’s your idea?”
He was certain the stall owner had a purpose in sharing this news.
The stall owner grinned again, “I hope that Senior Brother will include me in your team when the time comes. I, Zheng Qi, would be truly grateful.”
Wang Jie understood now; Zheng Qi wanted to establish connections using Wang Jie’s influence.
He patted Zheng Qi’s shoulder, “Alright, if I form a team, I’ll count you in.”
Zheng Qi was thrilled, “Thank you, Senior Brother!”
For Wang Jie, joining any team was easy, especially since others usually didn’t plan to seek real achievements but only wanted relationships. But if he created a team himself, things would be different. He was already a Wandering Star War Guard, and despite being Star Breaking Realm, here nobody cared much about cultivation levels.
With his current status, he ranked highly across the entire Ying Yang Battlefield. Few could surpass him, since Wandering Star Realm experts were scarce to begin with.
Shortly after, Wang Jie took on another mission and departed.
Again, it involved protecting a transport spaceship.
Although they were attacked again, the protection succeeded this time. It couldn’t fail every single time.
When he returned to the Decree Platform, he noticed many more people had appeared.
He had planned to find Zheng Qi to ask about it, but Zheng Qi had left for a mission.
Unexpectedly, he encountered an acquaintance—Di Zi.
In the distance, Di Zi also spotted him. Her gaze was calm, showing no trace of their earlier conflict. Wang Jie almost wondered if she’d truly been the one behind his first mission or the one who threw him into the Hanhai Sea battlefield.
Di Zi maintained neutrality, but the person behind her was different.
“Oh, isn’t this War Guard Wang Jie? You still need to come personally to pick up missions? Nobody behind you to arrange things properly?” The speaker was a man who stood close behind Di Zi, his tone filled with mockery and sarcasm.
His voice was loud enough that many around overheard, turning to watch.
Seeing Wang Jie and Di Zi, people instinctively stepped back but continued watching intently.
Recently, Wang Jie had become well-known, rising swiftly on the Ying Yang Battlefield to become Wandering Star War Guard in merely half a year. Even stranger was that he achieved this as a Star Breaking Realm lock force cultivator, something nearly unbelievable.
Di Zi, Elder Ming’s disciple, held high status herself and was also a Wandering Star War Guard.