Chapter 256

Chapter 256: Taken Away

Luo Kui lifted his sword high and brought it down again.

Thunder Pattern was already wrecked. Wang Jie could only dodge, but Luo Kui loomed above him like a judge. He didn’t need tricks. He crushed everything with sheer combat power.

The body-guarding pill’s protection shattered at a touch.

No matter how fast Wang Jie was, as long as he couldn’t escape the planet, he would be caught inside the strike’s reach.

The planet fragments underfoot cracked and burst. Under Luo Kui’s casual slashes, stone and steel might as well have been paper.

Wang Jie couldn’t even think about counterattacking.

Blood spilled from his mouth. Sword qi forced its way into his body—only his guarding qi kept it from ripping him apart.

Luo Kui’s brows rose. “You… you’ve started Qi Refining?”

Black-White Heaven still had people doing Qi Refining?

Interesting.

Luo Kui dropped, and in the same breath his blade swept sideways.

Wang Jie moved at the exact instant Luo Kui landed—his first opening in a storm that hadn’t given him a single breath.

Luo Kui sneered. The gap between them was a chasm. And this boy dared strike back?

Metal shrieked.

Wang Jie blocked the slash with his bracer. His left arm bones shattered instantly. His body halted for the briefest beat, and he stabbed a finger forward.

Myriad-Stars Finger Art.

Countless finger shadows overlapped, compressing into a single, piercing force.

Luo Kui tightened his grip and swept his sword through it, shattering the technique from the side as if breaking thin glass.

Wang Jie’s heart lurched. Myriad-Stars Finger Art had never been broken so easily.

He stepped on Jia Eight Steps and tried to slip away.

Luo Kui’s sword dropped.

Starforce flowed along the blade and spread outward in an instant, flattening into a crushing plane that covered the entire planet fragment.

There was nowhere to hide.

Wang Jie was slammed down as if the sky itself had fallen on him. Another mouthful of blood burst from his lips.

Then sharp sword qi stabbed down, striking again and again against the Cloud-Thread Robe.

The Cloud-Thread Robe held—eighth-grade material, durable enough.

But the force transmitted through it was merciless.

Wang Jie felt his internal organs rupture. It was as if his body were splintering from the inside out.

He clenched his teeth and forced out a single item from his storage—an IOU slip.

An IOU slip: Qing Feng Bu Gui Ke.

Luo Kui drew his sword back and stepped forward, appearing before Wang Jie. The elder wanted the boy captured, not killed. This was enough.

He drove the sword hilt into Wang Jie’s chest.

A crisp impact rang out.

Wang Jie used Bone-Motion Art to force his shattered left arm up, catching the blow with his bracer. In the instant he was thrown backward, he borrowed the impact, spun, and snatched a sword into his hand.

Three swords stacked.

Rain Sword Art.

A curtain of fine rain poured across the air, each droplet sharpening into sword qi that screamed toward Luo Kui.

Luo Kui’s eyes flashed with surprise. “You can still fight?”

He lifted his sword and rotated the blade, catching the rain of sword qi and grinding it away. Then the sword swept sideways like a heavy baton.

Wang Jie felt something surge inside him—foreign, borrowed, yet undeniable.

It came from the IOU slip.

He leaned into it, drawing it through his meridians until qi and qi converged.

His gaze locked on Luo Kui’s right elbow.

That joint—where Luo Kui’s inner qi linked to the qi flowing through his sword.

Wang Jie pointed.

Myriad-Stars Finger Art erupted again, finger shadows fusing under the cover of Rain Sword Art.

Luo Kui had already raised his estimate of Wang Jie. The boy had endured far longer than anyone at the Star-Breaking Realm should have.

But he still underestimated him.

The sword did not return in time.

The finger strike slammed into Luo Kui’s elbow.

A numb shock tore through Luo Kui’s arm. Blood flashed. The connection snapped—and the sword in his hand clattered to the ground.

Wang Jie didn’t hesitate.

He stepped on Sword Steps and shot toward open space.

Luo Kui stared at his fallen blade.

A Lockforce cultivator at the Star-Breaking Realm had knocked his sword away?

He reached to seize it again—his elbow had been pierced clean through. He couldn’t exert strength.

Forced to switch hands, he lost a single heartbeat.

That heartbeat was enough.

Wang Jie burst out of the planet fragments, momentum carrying him forward. Beyond, Black-White Heaven’s reinforcements were visible—a distant chain of moving fragments.

Then Luo Kui’s killing intent surged.

He raised his sword and cut downward.

“This strike,” he said, voice cold, “is No-Thought.”

Wang Jie twisted and looked back.

There was sword qi—but no sword shape.

It was like pale, chilling moonlight descending, silent and inevitable.

All Wang Jie could do was raise his bracer.

A light clink sounded.

Then his world flipped.

He was smashed downward and plunged into the Cloudstream with a heavy splash.

People saw it—Black-White Heaven, Edge Sect, all eyes catching the same moment.

Luo Kui lowered his sword and frowned.

Careless.

He’d been hurt by this boy, and in his anger he’d struck without regard for life or death.

But the elder had ordered him to capture Wang Jie, not kill him.

Now there was only one outcome.

Anyone who fell into the Cloudstream died.

Even a Hundred-Star Realm expert would sink into a bottomless abyss.

Luo Kui’s gaze flicked to his right elbow. He couldn’t let anyone notice the injury.

That would be humiliation on top of failure.

—

Wang Jie sank.

His body felt like it weighed billions. The pressure of space itself crushed at him, and he couldn’t even breathe.

In the last instant his thoughts stayed clear, he tore a small craft from his storage—a boat he’d obtained from the Zhi Vault.

A desperate gamble.

The moment it appeared, the boat carried him upward.

Up.

Up.

Until he broke the surface.

Wang Jie sucked in air so hard it burned his throat. He had never loved the outside world so much.

In the Cloudstream, he’d suffocated like an ordinary man drowning. The crushing force of space had nearly ground him into nothing.

The war still raged somewhere behind him.

He hauled himself onto the boat and paddled toward the edge of a nearby planet fragment. No one should be watching him now—the battlefield was in the opposite direction.

He could not go back.

Not only because of Luo Kui…

If Fang He saw him alive, Fang He would strike first. There would be no chance to speak.

His injuries were too severe to waste movement. He clenched his teeth and kept paddling, praying no one noticed him as he slipped away.

Fog thickened around him. Once he’d moved far enough, vision vanished and the world became soundless haze.

Wang Jie lay back on the boat and swallowed another revival pill.

His left side was numb from shoulder to hip. Every time he’d taken Luo Kui’s sword qi head-on, it had been the left side that suffered. The bracer itself remained untouched.

Luo Kui’s power dwarfed his. Starforce and sword qi alone were enough—Luo Kui hadn’t even needed elaborate battle techniques.

Except that final strike.

Wang Jie had provoked him, and Luo Kui had answered with a true technique.

The Cloud-Thread Robe was intact. Eighth-grade materials didn’t tear easily.

But inside… inside was a battlefield of its own.

Weakness came in waves. His vision dimmed.

He couldn’t sleep.

He absolutely couldn’t sleep.

He paddled until he no longer knew how long it had been. At last, a small planet fragment emerged out of the fog. He crawled onto it, found a valley, put away the boat, and finally blacked out.

—

He woke to something crawling on him.

Wang Jie’s eyes snapped open.

A rat.

The moment it noticed him moving, it darted away.

He forced himself upright and leaned against a rock, panting. Blood scabs had formed across his skin. Some had fallen to the ground in stiff flakes.

He looked up. Nothing but fog and dimness.

He took out a star compass and pushed qi into it to read the surroundings.

His gaze sharpened.

People.

He couldn’t tell whether they belonged to the Edge Sect or Black-White Heaven, but the response told him something else—there was at least one Roaming-Star Realm expert among them.

His personal terminal was dead.

Wang Jie scraped up the fallen blood scabs and buried them, erasing traces. Then he hid himself as deeply as he could and waited.

Two days passed.

It was time.

He swallowed a revival pill and began his exercises.

Heat poured from the bracer into his body. Sensation returned in a slow flood, like someone forcing shattered flesh and bone back into alignment.

It itched—deeply.

He’d endured this sensation countless times.

This time, when the exercises ended, his strength had increased.

Wang Jie laughed bitterly.

So it was true. Only by passing through life and death did strength rise.

If he could keep climbing… if he could reach the limit of Star-Breaking Realm strength, maybe one day he could stand against a Six-Path Roamer—or even one of the Edge Sect’s Three Swords.

But he was nowhere near that.

Not yet.

Not like his first battle with Shu Mu Ye, when he’d fought on equal footing.

Now, after the exercises, his injuries had recovered by more than half.

He straightened his Cloud-Thread Robe and decided to scout. He needed to know which side the nearby cultivators belonged to.

Moving carefully, he followed the star compass readings.

Before long, he saw them.

Edge Sect.

Every one of them carried a sword, and qi sight made the truth obvious. On this battlefield, Black-White Heaven cultivators sometimes disguised themselves as Edge Sect—weapon, clothing, even posture—but qi could not be faked.

Those who didn’t practice the sword would not send their qi entirely into the blade.

These cultivators did.

Their qi fed their swords like rivers flowing to the sea.

“Senior Brother, when are they coming?”

“Don’t know. Why are you in such a rush?”

“The battle a few days ago hit Black-White Heaven hard. This is the best time to rack up merit.”

“Wait. We’ll merge soon. I heard even a Hundred-Star Realm elder will come.”

Wang Jie backed away silently.

More Edge Sect cultivators were gathering here, and a Hundred-Star Realm expert would arrive.

This place wasn’t safe.

He considered his options, then returned to the planet’s edge and retrieved his boat.

He piled large rocks over it—not for weight, but for concealment. If anyone saw he had a boat capable of traversing the Cloudstream, the trouble would be endless.

The Cloudstream was considered uncrossable. Enter and you died.

That was common sense.

If his boat became known, he’d be hunted for it.

He disguised it as best he could, climbed aboard, and set off.

Leaving was dangerous.

Staying was worse.

A Hundred-Star Realm expert could find him easily.

He hadn’t paddled far before a figure strode through the air toward him.

A Roaming-Star Realm cultivator.

Wang Jie’s face drained. He spun the boat back.

“Who’s there?” the cultivator shouted from above.

Wang Jie’s mouth twisted with bitterness. Instead of answering, he struck—Luo Xuan Finger.

Invisible force roared through the fog. The Roaming-Star Realm cultivator raised his sword to block and was shoved backward by the impact.

Wang Jie used the opening to leap onto the planet fragment, put the boat away, and run.

The disturbance drew attention immediately.

Soon, the entire planet fragment was searching for him.

Wang Jie had thought about capturing an Edge Sect cultivator and using Nine-Form Diagram to disguise himself, but there had never been a good chance.

He could disguise himself as Cang Wu, but that was even more dangerous. Cang Wu wasn’t Edge Sect—no one would hesitate to kill him.

The planet fragment was vast, nearly the size of a continent on Blue Star, but under a cultivator’s search it wasn’t vast enough.

When Wang Jie saw Luo Kui again, it felt like sprinting straight into a dead end.

Luo Kui’s eyes widened. “You? You’re still alive?”

Wang Jie exhaled. “By luck.”

“Senior Brother Luo Kui knows him?” the Roaming-Star Realm cultivator beside Luo Kui asked.

Luo Kui stared at Wang Jie for a long moment. “I’m done with this operation. I’m taking him with me. You continue.”

He seized Wang Jie and left.

Wang Jie didn’t resist. Even without the surrounding crowd, Luo Kui alone was beyond him.

And Luo Kui had shown in their battle—he didn’t want Wang Jie dead.

This all had to do with the arrays.

Luo Kui carried him through the air, cutting across the fog toward the Edge Sect Command Hub.

Neither of them spoke.

Only when the looming outline of the Edge Sect Command Hub emerged did Wang Jie truly understand how far he’d been taken.

Black-White Heaven’s Command Hub was now distant in every sense.