Chapter 238

Chapter 238: The Martial Tournament Approaches

Far beyond the Ying Yang Battlefield, rumors moved.

More than a few people had learned that Wang Jie was returning to Skyport.

“What is this Wang Jie, really? I heard his disappearance threw Black-White Heaven into chaos.”

“He must be tied to a secret. This is our chance. Capture him and force him to talk.”

“I agree.”

“Or it’s a trap,” someone else said. “After what happened once, do you think Black-White Heaven is stupid enough to let him enter Skyport again? They’ll bait you, then kill you.”

“Exactly. Wang Jie isn’t stupid either. Why would he walk into death?”

“Don’t forget Third Nebula. We thought we were the ones laying an ambush, but Black-White Heaven used the battlefield as cover while they dealt with Xuan Gate elsewhere.”

“Xuan Gate’s failure is right in front of us. None of you wants to be outplayed again.”

“Skyport drained everyone. Rest for now.”

“I suggest sending Su Su and the others to other battlefields for experience,” someone said. “There probably won’t be many major fights left in this Ying Yang Battlefield. Even Han Hai has gone quiet.”

“That needs to be discussed with the Dagger-Offering Order. Wu Yan’s disappearance was a heavy loss…”

Second Star Cloud was exhausted. Third Nebula had even less strength to fight.

Xuan Gate had nearly sealed itself shut.

The Ying Yang Battlefield had fallen into an unnatural silence.

—

Back at Skyport, the frozen ground welcomed them with eerie calm.

Wang Jie led them straight into the search for ice magma.

Polar Earthworm were far fewer now. When one did appear, Han Song and the others dealt with it quickly. None of them posed any real threat.

Elder Li Tong He stayed at a distance, not interfering. His role was simple: watch the surroundings and make sure no one was stalking them.

Wang Jie kept striking the frozen crust, testing here and there. He didn’t know how to find ice magma by feel. Was it purely luck?

No.

Where there were more Polar Earthworm, there was more ice magma.

He pulled out a star compass and expanded its search range, hunting for the aura of Polar Earthworm.

Days passed before he finally found a pool of ice magma.

It wasn’t even close to what he’d consumed over three months.

But to Han Song and the others, it looked like a fortune.

They began smearing it onto themselves, bit by bit, like applying medicine.

“Captain,” Han Song asked, shivering through clenched teeth, “you’re not taking any?”

Everyone looked at Wang Jie.

Wang Jie walked over, glanced at the pool, and clicked his tongue. It was barely enough to fill a bath. “You’re done?”

Wen Yuan shook his specially made bottle. “I’m taking this much. That’s enough. It’ll last me a long time.”

Li Cai and the others were shaking, teeth chattering.

Wang Jie nodded, then stepped forward and jumped in.

Splash.

A few drops sprayed onto Yun Ju’s face.

Yun Ju nearly screamed. The cold hit like needles, instantly numbing his skin.

Everyone stared as Wang Jie lay down in the pool.

“A bath?” Han Song blurted.

Even he was stunned.

Han Song cultivated smithing. His body was far tougher than most cultivators at the same realm, and his realm power was high. He had believed he applied the most ice magma.

But this?

Soaking in it like water?

Could a human body withstand that?

Even Elder Li Tong He approached, eyes narrowing. Wang Jie’s face was twisted with pain, but he endured it—forced it down with sheer will.

“Wang Jie,” the elder warned, “be careful.”

Wang Jie nodded without speaking.

He couldn’t speak.

The pain was too intense.

And it wasn’t just the ice magma. He still had to run his tendon-and-bone tempering method.

His training time was coming.

What he endured was far beyond the rest of them.

Han Song looked at him with something close to reverence. “No wonder you cultivate lockforce and still become this fierce. Even I couldn’t take it.”

His strength wasn’t beneath Wang Jie’s, but his body truly couldn’t accept that kind of agony.

Wen Yuan stared, slack-jawed. “He’s a monster…”

Star-Breaking Realm was already like this. What would Full-Star Realm look like?

Roaming-Star Realm?

If this kept going, was he aiming at the Guarding Star Realm?

Yun Ju’s gaze shook.

Shi Wei’s words echoed: the gap was growing.

A few drops on his face and he nearly collapsed. Wang Jie was lying in the pool.

Wang Jie forced himself upright. “Now…”

He began his routine.

He moved through his training method and exercises, tempering tendons and bones while the ice magma bit deeper into him.

By the time he finished a full set, the ice magma was visibly reduced. There wasn’t enough to lie in anymore. He could only sit.

Slow and steady.

Less than two days later, the pool was gone.

Wang Jie climbed out and continued searching.

The way the others looked at him was no longer normal.

Monster.

Nothing else fit.

Even Han Song felt the urge to ask for his body refining method.

Skyport remained quiet. They encountered almost no danger. They wandered, searched, harvested, refined.

Half a year passed.

In that time, the most ice magma they managed to gather was still only half of what Wang Jie had once consumed.

Half a year of body refining later, Wang Jie’s strength rose to sixty-five times.

Then it stopped.

A limit.

In the Ten Seals, he’d hit strength limits twice. He understood the pattern: it wasn’t that ice magma had become useless. It was that his body had reached its current ceiling. To rise further, he would have to break that ceiling first.

It was time to return.

Elder Li Tong He promised he would send people to Skyport specifically to collect ice magma for Wang Jie. They couldn’t afford to waste more time here.

Wang Jie agreed.

Without breaking the limit, more ice magma wouldn’t help anyway.

So they left.

—

On the return ship, the squad kept glancing at Wang Jie, sensing he had changed—dramatically—yet unable to name exactly how.

Only Elder Li Tong He spoke the truth aloud.

“Your foundation is rising.”

Wang Jie’s eyes sharpened. Yes. His foundation was rising.

Even he hadn’t fully understood why his battle power increased so quickly.

For a cultivator, sudden leaps in battle power were rare. Often they took years of hard cultivation.

Yet Wang Jie was still Star-Breaking Realm, and his battle power climbed at a pace that defied sense.

From a Hundred-Star Realm perspective, Elder Li Tong He finally found the answer after watching Wang Jie before and after Skyport.

It was simple.

If a person had ten points of raw strength, then a combat skill might add five points atop that, producing fifteen points of destructive power. Later, with improvement, the skill might add six, then seven—total destructive power climbing little by little.

But Wang Jie wasn’t just improving techniques.

He was increasing the base itself.

Ten became eleven, twelve, thirteen… and the skill’s added power grew with it. The higher his base climbed, the wider the gap became. And he was still refining techniques on top of that.

Other people climbed stairs.

Wang Jie grew taller, then climbed—then grew taller again while climbing.

How could anyone compete?

He wasn’t bound by realm in the way others were.

Elder Li Tong He was shaken. Without this Skyport trip, he might never have realized what Wang Jie was truly doing.

How was he strengthening his foundation?

Most methods strengthened you through realm and through absorbing starforce and lockforce; the body’s raw increase was limited.

Yet Wang Jie had flipped the equation.

No wonder the lords were watching him.

Wang Jie stared at his own hands and felt a cold confidence settle.

Now, he could crush Qiao Xi.

Qiao Xi—the one who tried to ambush him, who even attempted to move against him at Skyport, forcing him to have Han Song intercept her.

Now, Wang Jie was sure he could smash her.

His gaze drifted to the bracer on his wrist.

One bracer, and it could steadily raise his foundation.

What if he had a full set?

Just how terrifying was Sacred Armor Union Bridge?

He’d asked around, but no one had even heard the name.

It had to be far away.

Very far.

Elder Li Tong He broke the silence.

“One more thing,” he said. “Starry Sky Martial Tournament is coming.”

Wang Jie looked up sharply. “Starry Sky Martial Tournament?”

The others stared at the elder with burning eyes.

A cultivator fought heaven and the universe for their life. Any human with a competitive spirit wanted their name to ring across the stars.

Even if you reached the peak, what did it mean if no one knew you existed?

Starry Sky Martial Tournament gave that answer.

For cultivators, it didn’t matter why it existed. It was enough to know it could make you famous.

No matter how weak you were, you dreamed of standing on that arena at least once.

Elder Li Tong He smiled, unsurprised by their reactions. “What? You’ve been waiting for this, haven’t you?”

Li Cai clenched his fist. Faint lightning flickered along his knuckles. “I’ve been waiting for it for years.”

Shi Wei and Wen Yuan nodded.

Even Han Song looked excited, a rare crack in his usual composure.

Elder Li Tong He continued, “Starry Sky Martial Tournament. By its cycle and rules, each generation only gets one chance to participate—unless you freeze yourselves, and almost nobody does that. The tournament’s greatest purpose is to display talent, attract powerful patrons, seize resources, and perhaps even become a candidate for the Guarding Star Realm.”

“It also has a huge effect on morale for humans.”

“It’s not just a contest of techniques.”

“It’s normal that you want to join.”

Wang Jie asked, “When does it start?”

“Five years. The first round opens then—the Full-Star Realm tournament.”

“The first round?” Wang Jie frowned. He knew of the tournament, but not the structure.

Elder Li Tong He explained, “There are three rounds: Full-Star Realm, Roaming-Star Realm, and Hundred-Star Realm.

“And there’s a long gap between each round.

“They do it that way to give cultivators time to prepare.”

“If you take first in Full-Star Realm, you have time to break through to Roaming-Star Realm before that round begins. Maybe you can secure a decent rank again.”

“After all, each person only gets one chance.”

“If the three realms opened at once, it would be unfair to those born later…”

It was only an outline, but enough to make everyone’s blood boil.

Naturally, they were curious where Elder Li Tong He had ranked in his own generation.

The elder said nothing. Which, by itself, was an answer.

Han Song finally asked, “Elder, if I join the Roaming-Star Realm tournament… what do you think my rank would be?”

Elder Li Tong He studied him. “The tournament isn’t limited to Bei Dou Bridge-Pillar. Other Bridge-Pillars will participate as well, and even special beings who have pledged themselves to humans. Ranking… isn’t important.”

“Give an estimate,” Han Song pressed.

Wang Jie was curious too.

Elder Li Tong He coughed lightly. “In Bei Dou Bridge-Pillar, you might fight for top one hundred. Even that would be difficult. If you look at the entire Roaming-Star Realm tournament…”

He stopped there.

The silence that followed was heavy.

Han Song wasn’t weak. Within Black-White Heaven, he stood just below the Six-Path Roamer tier.

And yet he might not even crack the top one hundred in Bei Dou Bridge-Pillar?

Then what did that make the rest of them?

Li Cai, Shi Wei, Yun Ju—each of them was considered a genius within the sect, admired by ordinary disciples. But none of them believed they were far above Han Song.

If Han Song was like that, so were they.