Chapter 269

Chapter 269: Treatment

Wang Jie finally understood.

Star-Refining Realm battles were beyond anything he’d truly grasped before. He’d seen glimpses, but never the full weight.

Refining a star meant refining oneself into a star—able to absorb starforce directly from the universe like a world devouring light.

No wonder their every move reshaped the battlefield.

Void fissures ripped open like yawning abysses, swallowing light and sound.

In the face of that kind of battle, even a Hundred-Star Realm would be annihilated the moment they crossed the line.

The clash lasted several days.

At last, Zhi Ye pulled back. The enemy’s three Star-Refining Realm experts pulled back with him, as if by unspoken agreement.

“Brother Zhi Ye,” Han Heng called across the void, sounding almost amused, “your strength is more than this. Why hide it until now?”

Zhi Ye shrugged. “And your strength is more than that.”

He smiled. “Let the ones behind you come out. Is it really fun hiding this long?”

Han Heng’s smile deepened. “Then what about you?”

His voice carried through the starry sky, reaching everyone. “You’ve been here for a while too, haven’t you? Waiting for us to strike first so you could counter and kill in one blow.”

Wang Jie’s heart clenched. So they really had arrived long ago.

Shuang Jin’s eyes turned sharp. “Then come out. Let’s see who you brought.”

Han Heng nodded. “Gladly.”

Something massive shifted behind him.

A huge outline emerged, sharpening with every heartbeat.

Wang Jie’s eyes widened.

A skeleton.

A giant skeleton fused with a man, stepping out of the void together as if they were one being. The skeleton was several times larger than the man. The skeleton’s bony hand gripped a sword, and the man beneath it held a sword as well.

Beside them, a bolt of lightning rose like a pillar connecting heaven and earth.

Wang Jie had never seen lightning like that.

In the Thunder Well, lightning came in countless separate bolts. This was different—like innumerable bolts fused into a single thunder path.

From the thunder path stepped out a Thunderflare Hou, radiating a pressure so terrifying the void itself seemed to tremble. The moment it emerged, it threw back its head and howled.

The Black Realm Lord’s voice carried, dark with recognition. “White-Bone Sword Lord. Lian Lei Huang.”

He turned his gaze to another direction, where two more figures emerged. “And you two… you’ve fought year-round in the No-Chen Domain and the Cloudstream Domain, yet you didn’t return.”

His tone was almost impressed. “What a hand. Seven Star-Refining Realm cultivators. It’s been a long time since things were this lively.”

Han Heng stared across the void. “And you? Which ones came this time?”

Shuang Jin’s eyes narrowed. “Then come. Let’s see.”

A white-robed old man stepped out of the void.

His face was rosy, his expression kind—almost gentle. Yet his smile carried a helpless bitterness.

“I didn’t expect seven Star-Refining Realm cultivators,” the old man sighed. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come.”

Han Heng’s eyes widened. “Celestial Master Qi?”

His voice sharpened with disbelief. “You’re the pill dao Celestial Master from the Northern Dipper Bridge-Pillar’s Milky Way Defense Corporation. You came to the battlefield?”

Celestial Master Qi spread his hands, looking resigned. “I thought it would be like before—just showing my face. I didn’t expect this time to be different.”

Shuang Jin’s expression tightened. Celestial Master Qi wasn’t known for combat.

Seven Star-Refining Realm experts on the enemy side—how were they supposed to hold?

Then another presence surfaced.

And the moment it did, the void seemed to still.

It wasn’t human.

It wasn’t a beast.

It was a word.

A single written character, hanging in the void like a seal—Illusion.

Wang Jie stared, stunned. Was it a chen artifact?

Han Ling’s voice turned hoarse. “No way…”

Wang Jie looked at him. “Senior Brother Han—who?”

Across the battlefield, Han Heng’s voice dropped into something dark and wary. “Scribe of Mortal Dust, Gu Xun Yi.”

The name fell like a blade.

The enemy’s Star-Refining Realm experts visibly stiffened.

On Black-White Heaven’s side, Shuang Jin’s shoulders eased—just slightly.

Zhi Ye smiled, and his voice carried across the void. “Thank you for reinforcing us, Senior.”

Wang Jie didn’t understand the full weight of it, but he saw the enemy’s reaction and felt his spine tighten.

Han Ling spoke low beside him, face grim. “That’s the Phantom World Sect’s peerless powerhouse from the Second Star Cloud.”

His eyes looked almost reverent. “Gu Xun Yi is called the Second Star Cloud’s strongest Star-Refining Realm across all ages.”

Wang Jie swallowed. “Strongest… across all ages?”

Han Ling nodded. “Even the First Nebula acknowledges that title. Across the entire history of the Second Star Cloud’s Star-Refining Realm, no one has surpassed him.”

He drew a slow breath, voice heavy with legend. “To cultivate, he wrote through mortal dust, then destroyed his own eyes. He used his blood to inscribe the word Illusion and entered it.”

Han Ling’s gaze fixed on the floating word. “From then on, the man became the character, and the character became the man. He transcended the limits of flesh.”

He exhaled. “I thought it was just rumor.”

Now the rumor hung in the void, real enough to kill stars.

Han Heng forced a bitter laugh. “Even Senior Gu came. This won’t be easy.”

“Try,” Zhi Ye said, sounding delighted. “Maybe Senior Gu isn’t as frightening as you imagine.”

Lian Lei Huang answered with a howl and hurled thunder.

Lightning cascaded toward the word Illusion with unstoppable force—

And vanished the moment it drew close.

The word Illusion vanished as well.

Then it appeared above Lian Lei Huang’s head and fell like a seal.

Lian Lei Huang disappeared.

Han Heng’s face twisted. He slashed out, furious.

The word Illusion vanished again, evading the blade.

Then it swept across the void.

White-Bone Sword Lord, and Jian Gui—

Both were engulfed.

Both disappeared.

Three Star-Refining Realm experts erased in moments.

Wang Jie’s blood ran cold.

Han Heng’s expression turned ugly, his gaze searching. But no matter how he tried to lock on, he couldn’t find Gu Xun Yi at all.

Shuang Jin surged forward immediately.

Gu Xun Yi had taken three Star-Refining Realm experts alone. That left the remaining forces matched.

Quick battle. Quick kill.

The Star-Refining Realm battlefield shifted away, dragging that incomprehensible war into the far distance.

Below, Blade Gate’s cultivators surged forward.

And behind Wang Jie, he felt it—qi. Vast waves approaching.

Even without a star compass, he could sense it.

Warships appeared—Northern Dipper Bridge-Pillar reinforcements.

The war ignited again.

A man leaped from one of the warships and charged straight into Blade Gate’s line like a suicide attack.

Wang Jie’s mouth fell open.

The man’s body erupted with blade light as he ran, and the moment he struck the enemy formation, he carved a swath through them—an entire field of cultivators erased in an instant.

Han Ling’s eyes flashed with excitement. “That’s Yan Hui Xue—Xuan Gate’s Hundred-Star Realm expert. Body-tempering blade arts.”

He grinned. “Our heavy hitters are here.”

Then he looked at Wang Jie. “Junior Brother Wang—go.”

Han Ling shot forward.

Countless people surged from the rear lines, charging Blade Gate.

Wang Jie was swept along and ran with them—until he saw Fang He.

Fang He stood in the chaos like a fixed point, his eyes locked on Wang Jie.

And Han Ling—

Where was Han Ling?

Fang He’s grin was feral as he rushed in.

Wang Jie clenched his teeth. He couldn’t retreat now. If he did—

A zither’s sound rose behind him, sharp and familiar.

Wang Jie looked back.

Su Su.

She sat with her instrument, gaze fixed on Fang He. “I didn’t expect Black-White Heaven’s Six-Path Roamer to become a traitor. Then I’ll help you clean house.”

Fang He chopped down and shattered Eight Tones Eight Annihilations, then glared at her. “Get lost. I only want Wang Jie.”

Su Su’s fingers stilled.

Her gaze followed Fang He’s.

And landed on Wang Jie.

Wang Jie met her eyes, awkward as the memory hit—enemies from the Ying-Yang Battlefield, now thrown onto the same side of the war.

Su Su’s expression turned spectacularly complicated.

Him.

The bastard who had disguised himself as a woman.

“You’re here?” she said through clenched teeth.

Wang Jie spread his hands helplessly. “Maybe we kill the enemy first?”

Su Su hugged her zither, stood up—and walked away.

Wang Jie’s stomach dropped.

Fang He surged in, killing intent overflowing.

Then a voice shouted, hard and cold: “Fang He! Do you remember me?”

Wang Jie looked over.

Yue Bai.

Another familiar face.

Fang He’s eyes narrowed. “Scram.”

Yue Bai sneered. “I lost to you before. Now I’m back.”

He lifted a hand.

Tens of thousands of Shield Mountain Peak disciples surged forward together, forming a wall—Heaven-Vein Shield Lock.

Wang Jie almost choked.

So “back” meant jumping him with an army?

But he didn’t waste the gift.

He ran.

If someone else could stall Fang He, all the better.

Fang He roared in fury, but Shield Mountain Peak’s defense wasn’t easy to break. Yue Bai wasn’t Fang He’s equal, but if he committed fully to defense, Fang He wouldn’t cut through quickly.

In the sky, arrows rained down—Falling Bow Hall.

Then Luo Kingdom’s forces poured into the battlefield like a tide.

The world was absurd.

Not long ago, they’d been enemies.

Now they were fighting shoulder to shoulder.

Wang Jie didn’t know whether to laugh or curse. He tightened his grip on his sword and threw himself back into the slaughter.

The war raged for more than ten days before it finally paused.

Both sides retreated, leaving the void littered with drifting corpses.

Along the way, Wang Jie ran into Hou Xiao. She warned him about several terrifying figures to avoid—monsters who could kill him without anyone ever knowing what happened.

Fang He eventually broke free of Shield Mountain Peak’s net—only to be targeted by Qing Xiao.

Qing Xiao was a Void Mountain Range disciple. The Skyport battle had already shown Wang Jie what kind of horror that meant.

Even Fang He, a Six-Path Roamer, had nearly been erased.

That was the truth of this battlefield.

Even monsters had to watch their backs, because stronger monsters could appear at any time.

After the battle ended, countless wounded went to Flower Country for treatment.

Wang Jie went too.

Flower Country belonged to the Second Star Cloud, yet even First Nebula cultivators treated them with careful respect.

Only a little over ten Flower Country healers had come.

In a war this vast, that number should have been laughable.

No one laughed.

Wang Jie watched a lazy young girl yawn and slap a cultivator with her palm, as if she were scolding a pet.

The cultivator’s body shuddered. Frosty air surged outward.

His already gray-white face turned even whiter.

Then something worse happened.

Another Flower Country woman stepped forward and drove One Blade into the cultivator’s body.

Wang Jie’s breath caught.

She began to dig.

From inside the cultivator, she pulled out an ice chunk—only fingernail-sized, but buried deep. She carved it out piece by piece.

At first, the cultivator clenched his teeth and endured.

Then endurance broke, and only screams remained.

The people waiting in line instinctively stepped backward.

Too brutal.

Too terrifying.

Wang Jie’s eyelid twitched.

Was this treatment… or was this murder?