Chapter 231

Chapter 231: Warning

Every earthworm spewed ice slurry at once.

White flooded the sky. Not just the ground below, but the void itself—swallowed by a roaring ice wave that rolled toward them like a tidal surge.

Faces blanched. Shields wouldn’t hold.

“Everyone out—block it!” someone shouted.

Wang Jie stepped into the air with the rest, attacks flaring upward. Techniques collided with the white wave in a storm of light. The earth cracked, the air screamed, and more than one ship exploded as defenses failed.

Yue Jian shot forward. She struck in the brief window while the earthworms were spitting—one sweeping blow that shook the void and shattered dozens of bodies at once.

Han Song leapt out again. His hammer fell, and blackflame became a roaring dragon, scorching the sky so dark it seemed to stain the stars.

When the chaos finally eased, the polar earthworms in this direction were nearly wiped out.

Yue Jian hovered, breathing hard. Her gaze flicked toward Wang Jie’s side, and she gave the slightest nod.

Their efficiency had been the highest.

Han Song was the strongest here after her.

“Keep searching,” Yue Jian ordered.

A third of the ships were gone.

Wang Jie’s vessel took on survivors. No one spoke. Everyone stared into the white expanse, eyes scanning for Zhi Nan Xing.

On the main front, the battle remained brutal. Warships could endure far more than their smaller craft. Every concentrated barrage flipped and shattered chunks of frozen earth.

Elder Ming stared ahead, jaw tight. There were too many earthworms, and even warships were being lost.

Then the alarms sounded.

He looked at the screen and felt his blood run cold.

Enemy attack.

From behind, endless beams swept in, blanketing Black-White Heaven’s fleet—earthworms and all—under a storm of fire.

Warships and ships advanced in formation.

Back at the command hub, Li Tong He surged to his feet. “What?”

“Reporting, Elder. Skyport is under attack. Second Star Cloud and Third Nebula have joined forces. They’re striking Skyport.”

Li Tong He’s expression turned ugly. Joint operations weren’t surprising.

But the target was.

“They should be hitting the command hub,” he said through clenched teeth. “Not Skyport.”

If they were attacking Skyport instead, it meant they knew the command hub wouldn’t fall easily.

Which meant one thing.

An insider.

At Skyport, Wang Jie’s group was hit next.

Beams hammered in from behind. Their shields shattered instantly.

Han Song moved, forcing his way into the barrage to shield the ship as best he could, but even he couldn’t hold everything back.

Wang Jie looked over his shoulder.

Ships and warships were closing fast.

His stomach sank. They’d been set up.

They had just fought off a wave of earthworms, and the enemy arrived immediately afterward—striking when they were most exposed.

“It’s Second Star Cloud,” Li Cai said, recognizing the ships at a glance.

Inside a warship on the far side, Su Su stood with a calm smile.

Finally.

This direction had been her request. Third Nebula had taken the opposite sweep—because she knew Wang Jie was here.

Last time, he’d disguised himself as someone from Singing Phoenix Hall and rescued Li Tong He right under her nose.

A humiliation.

As a Divine Maiden of Singing Phoenix Hall, she was feared even by the Six-Path Roamers of Black-White Heaven. Yet she’d been toyed with by a lockforce cultivator.

Unforgivable.

Qiao Xi had failed to kill him before. This time, there would be nowhere to run.

“Go,” Su Su said.

Cultivators flooded out, boots and feet slamming onto frozen earth as they charged.

Under the beam bombardment, Han Song could no longer keep their ship steady. It shuddered, lurched, and crashed into the ground.

Wang Jie and the others burst out as fire flared behind them. Enemy cultivators were already closing across the white earth.

A fight to the death.

Wen Yuan was already throwing seal-chen stones like his life depended on it—because it did.

Yun Ju’s face was ashen. “Are we really dying here…?”

Music rose—clear, cold, merciless.

Singing Phoenix Hall had joined the slaughter.

Black shadows flashed through the white ground: Dagger-Offering Order.

A group in strange robes rushed in too, each garment embroidered with a flower—Flower Country cultivators.

But the most striking group was the one at the center: every member held a brush.

Phantom World Sect—the strongest sect of Second Star Cloud, an uncrowned king.

“Floating Life Phantom World Record,” someone breathed. “A single brush determines heaven and earth…”

Their possibilities were endless.

Yue Jian surged forward. “Black-White Heaven—kill.”

“Kill!”

The two forces collided like beasts.

The moment the clash began, Wang Jie saw mountains and rivers crash down out of nowhere. Instinct screamed at him to retreat.

Phantom World Sect.

A flick of a brush shattered the landscape, and the fragments transformed into a spikehorn beast that charged.

Wang Jie smashed it apart and locked onto the cultivator who’d conjured it. He stepped—Jia Eight Steps—and vanished.

The Phantom World Sect cultivator jolted. “Where—?”

The brush snapped again. Ink-dark starforce swirled into floating peaks around him.

Wang Jie appeared at the edge of the formation, grabbed a “mountain” with one hand, crushed it, then drove a palm down. The cultivator’s body shook once and went limp.

Full-Star Realm, yet he’d stalled Wang Jie for a breath.

That was Phantom World Sect.

Three more cultivators cut in behind him, their sect marks unclear. Second Star Cloud had plenty of lesser powers besides the famous ones. Wang Jie swept those three away and kept moving.

Nearby, Li Cai’s Thunder Pattern roared. Wen Yuan dodged desperately—he’d run into a Roaming-Star Realm powerhouse trying to break his formations.

Han Song was a hammer-made calamity, crushing anyone who dared come close.

Shi Wei, Zhi Qing Po, the others—each was locked in their own fight.

A chill slid down Wang Jie’s spine.

He looked up.

Qiao Xi.

She crossed the battlefield with her flute already raised. Thunder fell from her notes—Thunder-Sound True Dharma—crashing through the air toward him.

This time, she would kill him.

Senior Sister had made it clear: even if he was tied to Jia Yi Sect, he would die all the same.

Wang Jie shouted, “Han Song—her!”

Han Song looked up, swung his hammer, and blackflame tore across the battlefield toward Qiao Xi. She retreated fast, diamond-like starforce rolling as flute-notes slammed against the fire.

The collision shook the air.

Wang Jie exhaled—

—and then his blood went cold again.

Su Su was moving.

Not Qiao Xi’s level. Not even close.

Su Su’s presence alone weighed on the battlefield like a guillotine.

At Han Hai, she had suppressed countless experts by herself. Even the wounded Elder Li Tong He had been helpless before her.

She wasn’t here to play.

She stared straight at Wang Jie, eyes deep and unblinking, as if she’d memorized his face.

Then she sat.

The zither sounded.

Eight Tones Eight Annihilations.

The atmosphere changed instantly. Black-White Heaven cultivators paled under the crushing pressure.

Wang Jie felt it most.

The first note hit and he threw up Thunder Pattern by reflex.

It shattered before the second note finished forming.

His guard qi churned. He swallowed a revival pill so fast he barely tasted it.

A moment later, Yue Jian launched herself across half the battlefield and struck at Su Su with a palm that could split earth.

Su Su lifted her eyes, music tightening into a single dreadful line.

Sorrow Sea Tides Rise.

White, bone-like shadows seemed to descend around Yue Jian. The air rippled like sawteeth, then erupted into a storm. Yue Jian flipped back, blood at her lips.

Su Su was forced to rise as well—annoyed, but not frightened. Her interest stayed on one target only.

Wang Jie.

Wang Jie’s heart sank. Yue Jian wasn’t Su Su’s match.

But Su Su couldn’t crush Yue Jian quickly, either.

They could stall each other—

His eyes narrowed.

Behind Yue Jian, there was a subtle flow. A thread of qi that didn’t belong.

A dead artifact.

“Senior Sister—behind you!”

Wang Jie shouted.

Yue Jian shifted without thinking.

An invisible strike stabbed into the frozen earth with a faint, chilling chime.

Yue Jian’s gaze snapped toward the distance. A man stood there, face ordinary and pale, eyes sharp.

Wang Jie met his gaze.

Wu Yan.

If Wang Jie hadn’t shouted, Yue Jian would have taken that hit while her focus was on Su Su.

The battle would have ended right there.

Su Su’s brows lifted in surprise. He could see through Wu Yan’s ambush?

“Wu Yan,” Yue Jian said coldly. “It’s a shame I didn’t kill you at the command hub.”

“You won’t get another chance,” Wu Yan replied—and flipped backward into nothingness.

Yue Jian’s expression tightened. She stayed alert.

Su Su attacked again. Music ran along cracks in the frozen earth toward Yue Jian. Yue Jian’s starforce surged to meet it, the two forces colliding and tearing the ground apart.

Wang Jie’s skin prickled. Wu Yan disappearing didn’t mean he was done.

He pulled out his star compass. Qi was everywhere—chaos layered over chaos—but one thread was moving fast, low, and deliberate.

His instincts screamed the same name.

Wu Yan.

He ran.

He had no choice. If Wu Yan locked onto him fully, Wang Jie would die.

Han Song was pinned by Qiao Xi. Li Cai and the others couldn’t stop a killer like Wu Yan.

Wu Yan’s eyes narrowed as he chased. This man’s footwork… Jia Eight Steps?

Black-White Heaven had someone connected to Jia Yi Sect?

Borrowed? Hidden? It didn’t matter.

He would kill him anyway.

On the main front, Black-White Heaven’s fleet began to collapse. They were under fire from enemy warships—and still being harried by polar earthworms.

A two-sided grind.

Elder Ming stepped into open space.

Three Hundred-Star Realm experts appeared before him.

Elder Ming’s voice turned sharp. “Second Star Cloud and Third Nebula working together. Xuan Gate… have you considered what happens when Second Star Cloud turns on you? Your First Star Chain is closest to them.”

A man laughed coldly. “What Xuan Gate does is none of your concern. Today, you can die here.”

He attacked.

Three against one.

Elder Ming was forced back almost immediately.

Then, without warning, one of the attackers screamed as his arm tore away—severed by an ambush strike.

The remaining two whipped their heads around.

Below them, an old man in black stood on the frozen earth, eyes like knives.

One of them blurted, “Night Hunt?”

Elder Ming exhaled hard.

Night Hunt—one of the five Hundred-Star Realm powerhouses under the Black Realm Lord.

In Black Realm and White Realm, beyond Black Roamer and White Roamer, there were also Night Hunt and Bai Shou—figures who fought under the realm lord’s direct orders.

They hadn’t expected one to be hidden here.

Which meant this battle might not end the way they’d planned.