Chapter 237

Chapter 237: Tai Qiong Walker

Perhaps sensing his silence, Zhi Xing Xue explained further. “Think of it like this. A normal person wants to destroy a mountain range. With tools, even with bare hands, given enough time, it can be done.

“But moving that mountain range, untouched, to another location? That can’t be done.”

“The same principle applies. If you want to move Blue Star to Suo Xing Jian, a Star-Refining Realm cultivator could do it, but it would be very, very slow. Above that is my father, but Father is in seclusion, and I don’t know when he’ll come out.”

“So whether it’s the speed of Star-Refining Realm, or waiting for Father to leave seclusion, you must be prepared to wait a long time.”

“And that’s without counting accidents.”

Her tone grew heavier. “There’s another point. You’re a Star Dao master yourself. Star Dao masters have a basic duty.”

Wang Jie remembered. His bargain master had said it clearly: a Star Dao master’s most basic obligation was to keep the universe’s stars running properly.

Moving a star at will clearly violated that duty.

His heart sank.

“I don’t know whether the one behind you will interfere,” Zhi Xing Xue said. “But even if he doesn’t, moving Blue Star will still be difficult.

“So my suggestion is this: bring Blue Star’s people first.

“Blue Star is only a planet. You were born there; it’s natural to be attached. But the next generation after leaving won’t share that attachment.”

Wang Jie wanted to bring Blue Star itself, but the reality was brutal.

The moving process could fail. The waiting time invited even more accidents.

So he made his choice.

“Senior, sorry to trouble you. Then bring the people of Blue Star first.”

“All right. I’ll arrange it.”

“Thank you. Please ask whether they’re willing. Anyone unwilling, don’t bring.”

“Don’t worry. Those who cultivated lockforce will be arranged directly in Suo Xing Jian. Because of you, they won’t face much danger. Everyone else can be settled at Great Chen Mountain or Zhi Academy.”

Zhi Xing Xue was unexpectedly thorough, thinking even for a group of ordinary people.

Wang Jie felt genuine gratitude.

—

In a distant corner of Fourth Nebula, something strange unfolded.

Countless stars lit up. Streams of visible starforce poured from them, connecting into a vast, ruler-like band spanning the sky.

Beneath that ruler stood a single figure, unmoving.

His face was grim.

“Star Dao master,” a voice said.

Another voice answered, calm and distant. “Tai Qiong Walker?”

The figure beneath the ruler bowed. “Tai Qiong Walker Si Yao greets Star Dao master. May I ask which Star Dao master is meditating here? I have disturbed you.”

“Who are you observing?”

Si Yao answered without hesitation. “A Star-Breaking Realm cultivator named Wang Jie.”

The moment the name left his lips, the ruler vanished as if it had never existed.

The stars that had flared all sank back into silence.

The sky returned to normal.

Si Yao stared into the distance, his breath tight. If his own aura hadn’t been unstable, he might have thought it an illusion.

A Star Dao master.

Black-White Heaven actually had a Star Dao master?

And why would a Star Dao master notice him at all?

He stood there for a long time, thoughts circling until they locked onto the same name again.

Wang Jie.

Could it be because of him?

Si Yao was Star Vault Vista’s Tai Qiong Walker, a traveler of the universe tasked with observing those invited to join. No matter their realm, anyone close to an invitation had to be observed.

He happened to be in Fourth Nebula recently. Wang Jie, a lockforce cultivator, had come up on the reports.

By logic, a lockforce cultivator shouldn’t have been invited at all.

But the local official had reported something extraordinary: peak Star-Breaking Realm strength, even surpassing the Tian Cang Guarding Star Realm genius who had shocked the universe not long ago.

That wasn’t normal.

So Si Yao had to verify it.

Observation meant understanding a candidate’s past first, then meeting them in person.

Wang Jie was currently on the Ying Yang Battlefield. Si Yao knew that. So he began by investigating Wang Jie’s past.

Star Vault Vista’s intelligence wasn’t open to Tai Qiong Walkers. The organization didn’t want its own records coloring a Walker’s evaluation.

Si Yao had to see everything with his own eyes.

He had barely begun before a Star Dao master noticed him.

Star Dao masters were infamous for their detachment. They didn’t interfere with the world. Cold and solitary didn’t begin to describe them.

Even a Sect Master of Jia Yi Sect might not draw a Star Dao master’s attention.

Unless what Si Yao was doing touched something that belonged to that Star Dao master.

That made the pieces fit.

Without a Star Dao master’s hand, how could a lockforce cultivator surpass a Tian Cang Guarding Star Realm genius?

And Wang Jie was reportedly a chen refiner on top of that.

A lockforce cultivator who was also a chen refiner?

Absurd.

The only explanation was outside intervention.

If Wang Jie truly had ties to a Star Dao master, then Si Yao had no choice: he had to speed up the observation and secure the invitation.

—

Wang Jie was suffering.

Truly suffering.

He was cultivating a method to temper his tendons and bones. He’d trained it for a long time; by now he should have been numb to the pain.

But this time, he added ice magma.

Yes. Ice magma.

Qing Huan had warned him before leaving: it was excellent for body refining.

Wang Jie hadn’t expected it to be this brutal.

He assumed it would be cold, but the cold speared straight into his bones. Combined with the tendon-and-bone tempering method, it felt like being forged between ice and fire.

He bit down so hard his mouth bled.

And yet the results were undeniable.

It was far better than tempering alone.

Especially when he paired it with his training routine, he could feel his strength rising in a way that reminded him of the Ten Seals days—when every session made him noticeably stronger.

At Star-Breaking Realm, progress was normally far slower.

He’d only gained a bit over tenfold.

Now, with ice magma, the speed climbed again.

Pain and joy, hand in hand.

Nothing in this world came without a price.

Only those who could endure what others couldn’t would seize what others could never reach.

So he refined.

Each session consumed ice magma at a terrifying rate. The moment it spread across his skin, the cold invaded like needles, and the ice magma seemed to vanish with every breath.

He had thought he’d collected an enormous amount.

It lasted three months.

For three months, he didn’t leave his rest room once.

He didn’t treat himself like a human being.

The result was clear. His strength rose to thirty-nine times at Star-Breaking Realm.

The amount of lockforce his body could withstand increased drastically. His internal lockforce felt almost… empty, like it was lagging behind his body.

Even his qi increased.

Slowly, but it increased.

Compared to three months earlier, his overall battle power rose again. Not in a way that defied all sense—Star-Breaking Realm already achieving this much was outrageous enough.

He was pushing the limits of humans.

Every step was hard-won.

Next step: return to Skyport. Collect more ice magma.

“What?” Wen Yuan practically yelped. “Skyport again? I’m not going.”

The battle at Skyport had left him with a scar.

Every kind of monster and powerhouse had shown up.

Even Yun Que, a Six-Path Roamer, had nearly died.

Go again?

Li Cai and Zhi Qing Po didn’t look much better either.

Wang Jie’s gaze swept the squad. Aside from Yun Ju—whose opinion he had no intention of respecting—everyone else mattered.

“If you don’t want to go, don’t,” Wang Jie said evenly. “I’m going either way.”

Han Song asked, “Why do you have to go to Skyport?”

“To collect ice magma.”

“For body refining?” Li Cai asked.

Wang Jie nodded.

Yun Ju snorted. “Refining your body, and you want everyone else to risk their lives with you? Ridiculous.”

Wang Jie’s eyes slid to him. “Everyone else can choose not to go. You have to go.”

Yun Ju glared. “Why?”

“Because I don’t like you,” Wang Jie said bluntly. “And I want to get you killed.”

Everyone around them immediately stepped back.

Yun Ju’s face twisted. That bastard.

Shi Wei broke the silence. “I’ll go.”

The others looked at him.

He said quietly, “The gap between us and them keeps getting bigger.

“Are we really going to become the kind of people who don’t even dare return to the battlefield?”

The words landed like a weight.

In Skyport’s battle, they’d seen Su Su, Yun Que, Qing Xiao, and the Zhi Family experts who arrived later. All of them were the same generation.

So why was the difference so vast?

Su Su’s zither sound had suppressed an entire battlefield. It had been unbelievable.

And even a Six-Path Roamer wasn’t the pinnacle of their generation.

Above that were the First Nebula prodigies. At the very top stood Guarding Star Realm figures—and those terrifying experts from strange civilizations.

If every being of their generation were gathered together, they might not even enter the top three tiers.

For people once praised as geniuses, it was a crushing truth.

Han Song exhaled and smiled, the edge of resignation in it. “I’ll go too. Ice magma body refining is effective.”

Li Cai nodded once. “Then we go.”

Wen Yuan looked pleadingly at Zhi Qing Po. “Qing Po… you and me—”

“I’ll go,” Zhi Qing Po said.

Wen Yuan’s mouth fell open. Then he looked toward Yun Ju, miserable, and finally muttered, “Do I even have a choice?”

Yun Ju didn’t.

He could choose, but he couldn’t choose.

If the whole squad went, how could he stay behind?

Wang Jie clapped his hands once. “Good. Since it’s decided, we leave tomorrow.

“But we say it up front: life and death are fate. No one blames anyone.”

—

Elder Li Tong He soon heard that Wang Jie’s squad intended to return to Skyport. He immediately went to Wang Jie to try to stop him.

He did not want to live through another round of lords staring him down.

As an elder, being forced into this kind of helplessness was humiliating.

He was a lord figure himself—yet here he was.

He tried to persuade Wang Jie for a long time. It failed.

Wang Jie had to go.

In the end, Elder Li Tong He had only one option.

He went with them.

If there were no enemies, Skyport after its great battle would be relatively safe. The Polar Earthworm population had been thinned; danger should be manageable.

But he feared outside eyes.

Yue Jian was gone, but the Command Hub certainly still had traitors. If word leaked out and Wang Jie’s squad was ambushed, even a single Hundred-Star Realm could wipe them out in moments.

Then everything would truly be ruined.

And there was another reason.

His son was in that squad.

The next day, the ship launched.

Destination: Skyport.

Elder Li Tong He watched the Command Hub shrink behind them and let out a long sigh.

Wen Yuan, strangely, felt better. With an elder protecting them, what was there to fear?