Chapter 271
Chapter 271: Dou Huo
Not long after, the elder approached Wang Jie, speaking coldly, “You, come with me.”
Wang Jie turned toward the elder and respectfully asked, “May I inquire what senior commands?”
“Come when summoned! Since when does a mere disciple like you have the right to question?”
“Then I apologize, but right now is my time for rest. Forgive me if I don’t accompany you,” Wang Jie replied sharply.
The elder sneered, “You think a Lock Force cultivator gets to rest on the battlefield?”
Nearby, the disciple who had introduced Wang Jie earlier was startled and silently stepped back. [So this fellow is a Lock Force cultivator too? I couldn’t tell at all. But he’s really foolish. I already explained how things work here. A smarter man would have left immediately, yet he stayed.]
Yet, did catching a mere Lock Force cultivator truly require an elder to personally take action?
Wang Jie quickly opened his personal terminal to show the elder the information inside.
The elder didn’t even glance at it. Raising his hand, he reached out to seize Wang Jie, growling, “Impudent! You dare bargain with me?”
Wang Jie instantly retreated, but the elder was a Hundred Star Realm cultivator, his Star Force surging out violently. Wang Jie nearly suffocated, gasping desperately for breath as he coughed in pain.
The elder reached for him again.
Wang Jie’s eyes flashed dangerously. Facing a Hundred Star Realm opponent—someone beyond even a Six Dao Wanderer—he didn’t dare confront him head-on. He gritted his teeth and roared, “Old man, if you dare touch me, Tong Shou will never forgive you!”
The elder froze, staring intently at Wang Jie. “What did you just say?”
Wang Jie returned his gaze icily. “Ordinary cultivators have no right to rest—only those who have been granted special privileges. I’m allowed rest even though I cultivate Lock Force. Do you truly think I’m ordinary? Let me tell you clearly, it’s not just Tong Shou; even Senior Zhi Ye and the Black Realm Lord are watching me.”
He sneered, “Ask around: when I went missing on the Yin Yang Battlefield, how many searched desperately for me?”
The elder grew uncertain. Indeed, Lock Force cultivators were mere cannon fodder with no right to rest. For Wang Jie to have this privilege meant someone influential was protecting him.
Watching Wang Jie’s steady gaze, the elder’s eyes flickered with suspicion. Could this boy truly have such powerful backing?
In fact, he knew little about Wang Jie—only that this young man had once taken elder courtyard juniors hostage, forcing the Lock Path Interval into independence. After that incident, the elder himself had entered secluded cultivation and only now emerged to reinforce the battlefield. Everything that happened in between remained unclear.
If this boy spoke the truth, he truly needed to reconsider.
Suddenly, Wang Jie said coldly, “Do you even know how Elder Cheng died?”
These words struck the elder like heavenly thunder, reverberating in his ears.
The elder’s expression shifted dramatically. He stared at Wang Jie in disbelief, “You know about this? Elder Cheng is dead?”
Recently, the sect’s greatest mystery was Elder Cheng’s disappearance.
Nobody knew Elder Cheng’s whereabouts, nor did the sect find any trace of him leaving. Yet he had vanished. Strangest of all, no one investigated. Not the Elder Courtyard, not the White Realm Lord, not even the Zhi family bothered.
It was as if everyone silently agreed Elder Cheng was gone.
A living, breathing Hundred Star Realm cultivator had disappeared without a trace.
Wang Jie watched the elder’s changing expression with contempt. “And you call yourself Hundred Star Realm? You don’t even know about this matter. You’re not worthy of confronting me. Get lost.”
The elder’s rage flared at being scolded by a mere junior. Yet recalling Wang Jie’s earlier words, doubt crept deeper into his mind.
“Is Elder Cheng truly dead?”
“Ask around yourself, and while you’re at it, find out exactly who stands behind me. Someone like you dares to threaten me? You wouldn’t even need to step onto the battlefield to be torn apart.”
The elder glared coldly at Wang Jie and finally nodded. “Fine. For now, I’ll spare you. But if I discover you’ve lied to me, I promise you’ll pay dearly.” With that, he turned and departed.
Watching him leave, Wang Jie finally breathed out in relief.
No matter how powerful his backing, this was still a battlefield. Had the old man decided to kill him, even if punishment followed afterward, it wouldn’t revive him. Wang Jie certainly had no intention of dying alongside such a stubborn old fool.
A short while later, small battleships were hurled into the distance by Hundred Star Realm Star Force, one after another.
Each small battleship was filled with countless Lock Force cultivators. Their faces were lifeless, their bodies implanted with destructive energies, suffering torment worse than death. Many ships exploded midway, destroyed without ever reaching their target. But some struck behind enemy lines. Lock Force cultivators burst out, launching desperate, suicidal attacks that inflicted considerable damage on the enemy.
Wang Jie watched, eyes filled with sorrow.
Human life was so worthless.
When Armor One Sect spoke back on Blue Star, they’d made it sound mild. On this battlefield, these cultivators were less than cannon fodder. They weren’t even qualified for such a title.
“Old man, don’t you feel uncomfortable at all?” Wang Jie suddenly asked, directing his voice into the distance, toward the elder who’d tried to capture him. He was the one who had thrown those ships.
The elder ignored Wang Jie’s insolence, remaining silent.
Wang Jie looked at him once more. “Perhaps one day, even Hundred Star Realm cultivators will be thrown away like cannon fodder onto the battlefield. You’ll know suffering then.”
The elder laughed mockingly, “Ignorant junior, no battlefield treats Hundred Star Realm as mere fodder.”
Wang Jie raised his head. “In my eyes, even Hundred Star Realm is nothing special.”
The elder gave him one last cold glance and walked away.
Wang Jie had been testing him. This old man clearly had battlefield experience. Unfortunately, the probing had revealed nothing substantial.
The true cruelty of war was only beginning.
Black White Heaven’s suicidal attacks soon drew retaliation. Countless small sword formations, spinning like deadly whirlwinds, were flung toward them. Few could resist, and along their path, space itself was torn apart as they crashed relentlessly into their ranks.
Wang Jie struck out decisively with his sword, unleashing the full might of the Sword Rain Technique. His fierce strike shattered one sword formation completely, instantly tearing apart the three cultivators who formed it.
These small sword formations came in groups of three, groups of five, and even larger groups.
Only those warriors with three or four hundred thousand combat power could stand against them head-on.
But their numbers were simply too great.
At this moment, Black White Heaven threw out a batch of enormous trees. Their massive branches twisted and wove together, creating a thick, towering wall. The sword formations struck fiercely against it, but the trees stood unshaken. Immediately afterward, countless Gong Nation warriors rushed onto the branches. With a bend and a snap, the trees flung these warriors across the battlefield. The Gong Nation warriors’ blood burned fiercely, their fighting strength rising beyond limits as they charged recklessly toward the enemy.
Countless arrows and warship beams shielded them as they flew.
Yet from the opposite side, even more sword formations emerged.
On this battlefield, there seemed no end to the ways of warfare, each more dazzling than the last.
Only now did Wang Jie truly feel what an interstellar war was. It was far beyond anything he had imagined before—a millstone grinding flesh and blood without mercy.
Between heaven and earth, there was nowhere to hide.
In the distance, the towering tree wall was suddenly torn open. It was not broken by a sword formation but by hundred-star realm cultivators who had hidden themselves within those very sword formations.
[Even such strong cultivators hid themselves inside these sword formations?]
A shiver ran down Wang Jie’s spine. If one of those hundred-star realm experts had hidden in the formation that attacked him earlier, he would have been in great danger. Realizing this, he raised his vigilance, quickly retrieving the star disk to closely monitor his surroundings.
At that moment, a deep rift abruptly appeared above the Star Dome, swallowing the entire battlefield in front.
All the warriors on the battlefield—even the mighty hundred-star realm cultivators—vanished into nothingness beneath that terrifying rift.
It was merely the aftershock of a battle between star refining realm experts.
Tong Shou Shuang Jin flew backward heavily wounded, crashing violently into a battleship.
At the same time, the Black Realm Lord staggered out, swaying unsteadily with each step, clearly injured badly as well.
In the distance, faint silhouettes coughed blood.
Even Gu Xun Yi’s magnificent calligraphy painting was now cracked. No matter how powerful he was, facing three star refining realm cultivators alone had left him struggling.
Time continued to flow.
Wang Jie rested briefly again. Not long afterward, Grandmaster Qi retreated and no longer joined the battlefield. Gu Xun Yi forcibly dragged another star refining realm expert away from the battle, causing the situation to grow unpredictable. If Gu Xun Yi couldn’t hold out, the entire battlefield would collapse.
Wang Jie turned to look.
He saw Grandmaster Qi’s pale face. The grandmaster weakly waved his hand and then fled without looking back.
He was merely an Alchemy Heavenly Master, never skilled in battle to begin with.
Yet retreating at such a critical moment felt utterly irresponsible.
Boom!
Another giant tree collapsed after being attacked by hundred-star realm cultivators.
A wave of enemies surged inward, not far from Wang Jie’s position.
Without hesitation, Wang Jie raised his sword and swung fiercely. Countless blades of sword qi soared through the air, striking down as many foes as possible.
Suddenly, his eyes locked onto a creature charging through the torn opening in the tree wall. His pupils flickered with recognition—[it’s that beast?]
A black-blue titan wolf charged inside, its entire body rippling with star-sand, a cosmic giant beast. Wang Jie had never encountered one personally, but he knew it from Si Yao.
Si Yao had once shown him various images, including precisely this titan wolf.
This titan wolf had eleven seals.
Wang Jie had never imagined that this beast belonged to the ancient sword pillar keeper—its name was Dou Huo.
The titan wolf stormed in, confronting large numbers of Black White Heaven disciples. Its fur bristled, and with a sweep of its claw, blades of visible sharpness sliced forward, tearing countless people apart in an instant.
A wandering star realm cultivator charged out and thrust a palm strike at the beast, yet the palm energy could not even approach the wolf before being repelled. The wolf’s fur pierced straight through the cultivator, leaving him to perish with wide-open eyes.
This titan wolf was at the full star realm.
This was definitely the one.
Wang Jie was certain this titan wolf matched the images Si Yao had shown him—full star realm, yet killing wandering star realm cultivators as easily as crushing ants.
Perhaps sensing Wang Jie’s gaze, the titan wolf abruptly turned its head. Its pupils flashed with cruel amusement, and suddenly it lunged at Wang Jie, bringing down its claw in a fierce strike.
Wang Jie shook the sword hilt, slashing out sharply, even as a curtain of rain began to fall.
The titan wolf remained wary, using its claw to parry the sword’s edge. Countless sword qi blades fell upon its body but, like before, were unable to penetrate its defenses at all.
Wang Jie observed its energy and was shocked to discover the titan wolf possessed an overwhelmingly powerful star force, surpassing even the strongest wandering star realm cultivators he had encountered—stronger even than Six Dao Wanderer.
[How could it have so much star force?]
Before Wang Jie could dwell on this, the titan wolf brutally charged at him again. Its body encircled by star force, it formed a stellar shield that blocked every sword qi, its deadly eyes locked firmly on Wang Jie.
Stepping swiftly with Armor Eight Steps, Wang Jie appeared beside the beast and kicked fiercely.
Immense strength crushed through the star force shield, landing squarely on the wolf’s abdomen and sending its massive body flying.
The wolf’s playful gaze instantly shifted to disbelief—it hadn’t expected Wang Jie to possess such immense strength. Seizing the chance, Wang Jie pointed his finger, fusing it with the Starry Finger technique, and struck downward.
The titan wolf howled toward the heavens. Its fur bristled again, releasing beams of star force into the sky, forming a strange, array-like pattern that completely shattered Wang Jie’s Starry Finger. The destructive force then surged directly toward Wang Jie.
For the first time, Wang Jie encountered a full star realm cultivator capable of destroying his Starry Finger.
Until now, Wang Jie had always fought above his realm, rarely meeting a worthy opponent. Yet now, a mere full star realm titan wolf was proving troublesome.
But—
He had yet to unleash his true power.
As the destructive formation descended upon him, Wang Jie clenched his fist and threw out a punch. Ninety-nine-fold maximum strength erupted, instantly obliterating the killing formation, scattering a shower of black-blue fur.
The titan wolf’s eyes widened in shock and disbelief.