Chapter 274

Chapter 274: Reappears

The man spun around and swallowed something. A thin protective sheen surfaced over his skin, and he flung out a storm of dagger-like weapons. They were viciously sharp, their edges slick with poison.

Wang Jie met them head-on. Thunder Pattern crackled and surged, knocking the blades aside. At the same time, a curtain of rain spread outward, swallowing the space around them—Rain Sword Art.

Sword qi kept carving into the man’s starforce. The protective layer on his body started to fracture.

“Killing me won’t be that easy!” he roared, preparing his next move.

Wang Jie vanished from where he stood—Jia Eight Steps.

A shadow of a finger descended from above.

Myriad-Stars Finger.

The strike landed squarely on the man’s crown. His starforce scattered in an instant, and the force drove him straight down into a nearby meteor. The rock shuddered, cracked, and went still.

Dead.

Wang Jie exhaled slowly and glanced at the body. That man had been close to four hundred thousand combat power. Not an easy kill.

Now he backed off.

He had no intention of getting singled out—especially not by Fang He, whose gaze had been locked on him for far too long.

There was no more talk of rotating rest shifts. Everyone was grinding themselves to the brink.

Sure enough, Fang He finally broke through Yue Bai’s defense. Yue Bai plunged away into the darkness, life and death unknown.

And Fang He came straight for Wang Jie.

Wang Jie’s temples throbbed. This bastard really hated him to the bone. Were Luo Kui and the others seriously going to let Fang He keep tunneling toward him like this?

He took a deep breath. He couldn’t retreat again—falling back too much on a battlefield looked like desertion.

He might not be able to beat Fang He, but he wouldn’t go down easily either.

His eyes swept across the chaos, memorizing positions—then he planned his angle. If he could drag Fang He into another zone, toward Luo Kui and Hou Xiao, that would be—

Fang He abruptly stopped.

A chill ran through him so hard his whole body seemed to stiffen.

He turned, and Wang Jie followed his gaze.

Not far away, two figures had appeared without warning.

Pure white.

Skin that seemed to carry starlight beneath it. Bones that looked almost transparent.

Skeleton Clan.

Fang He’s pupils constricted. “Skeleton Clan…?”

Wang Jie felt cold climb his spine. Why were they here?

He would never forget that silhouette.

One move to erase Zhi Lan Xue.

That moment had carved itself into his mind.

The battlefield, still raging, suddenly felt distant—like everything had been pushed far away.

One of the Skeleton Clan creatures turned its head.

Looked directly at him.

Wang Jie’s heart seemed to stop, yet his pulse thundered in his ears.

He forced himself to stay still.

Don’t draw attention. Don’t move.

The second Skeleton Clan creature lifted its head and reached out. Wang Jie couldn’t tell what it did, only that the void itself seemed to peel back, revealing star-refining realm battles that had been hidden behind layers of distortion.

Every gaze on the battlefield snapped toward them.

For that single instant, they became the absolute center of the universe.

Wang Jie’s heartbeat was deafening.

The first Skeleton Clan creature slowly withdrew its gaze from him. Then it locked onto Fang He.

It moved.

One moment it was there—then it was in front of Fang He.

Fang He reacted on instinct. One Blade snapped down.

The blade fell… and froze.

A force surged upward like a waterfall flowing backward, and Fang He dropped out of the air as if his strings had been cut. His saber shattered in his grip.

One move.

Defeated.

The Skeleton Clan creature blurred again.

It appeared in front of Luo Kui.

One move—defeated.

Then it kept shifting, an impossible series of short transfers: Luo Yin, Su Su, Tang Zhou, Qing Xiao, Hanling… it went after every peak roaming-star realm fighter on this battlefield and crushed them all with a single strike each.

Even Luan Dao’s Myriad-Instant Slash stalled mid-arc.

Even his blade could not fall.

No one stopped it.

The star-refining realm above didn’t move—because another star-refining realm presence was watching them, holding them in place.

Wang Jie recognized it.

That first Skeleton Clan creature.

The one that had erased Zhi Lan Xue.

Zhi He burst forward, fury and desperation twisting his features. He stabbed a finger toward the Skeleton Clan creature—

And in the instant they crossed paths, Zhi He’s body went slack. His face drained to gray as he dropped, unconscious.

Defeated.

So utterly defeated Wang Jie couldn’t even see the process.

No one moved. No one dared.

The Skeleton Clan creature stood in the void, surveying the fallen “geniuses” of the battlefield with a posture that looked almost… disappointed.

Then someone stepped forward.

A man Wang Jie hadn’t noticed until now, hidden beneath brighter names, standing quietly in the shadow of everyone else’s glory.

He spoke one name, calm and clear.

“Xiao Hui.”

Jia Yi Sect.

The peerless young master Xiao Hui.

Wang Jie had first heard that name back on Blue Star—when a girl named Chong Ruo Ruo adored Xiao Hui and mistakenly believed Xiao Hui liked Wen Zhao instead.

Wang Jie had never imagined the first time he would see Xiao Hui would be like this.

The Skeleton Clan creature turned toward him and lunged.

Xiao Hui’s expression didn’t change. He stepped forward as well.

The starry void warped.

Those watching couldn’t see clearly—only that it wasn’t decided in a single move.

Xiao Hui held him.

Then a furious voice rang out from above, heavy with killing intent. “Skeleton Clan—damn you!”

A star-refining realm expert moved.

The second Skeleton Clan creature vanished.

A pale arm swept across the void—and the world itself seemed to split cleanly in two, a horizontal cut that severed the space between those above and the fight below.

It didn’t want anyone interfering.

Wang Jie felt his own insignificance like a weight on his chest.

A power that could slice the universe apart had stepped beyond anything he could comprehend—beyond anything he had ever witnessed.

Then pressure slammed down.

It felt as if every star-refining realm on the field had turned their weight on the lower battlefield at once.

Wang Jie’s mind rang like a struck bell. His body went limp.

He fell, helpless.

In that moment, he couldn’t fight. Couldn’t flee. Couldn’t even watch.

He didn’t even have the right to be a spectator.

Sound came and went through the haze.

“Quick—take Su Su and the others! Retreat, now!”

“Senior Zhi Ye was gravely injured by Skeleton Clan. Feng Men seized him while he was weakened. Our Beidou bridge-pillar has lost—notify the sect immediately!”

“Request another purge of the Dead Realm!”

“Withdraw first—withdraw!”

Wang Jie’s consciousness slipped away completely.

When he woke, everything was shaking.

It felt like lying in a rattling cart being dragged over broken ground.

He opened his eyes to a black starry sky on either side. Beneath him—

A puppet.

“You’re awake,” a familiar voice said.

Wang Jie blinked, stunned. “Senior Jiang?”

Jiang You Sheng’s voice carried tired relief. “You passed out. I dragged you away as fast as I could. If you didn’t die on the battlefield, you would’ve been captured by Feng Men.”

Wang Jie turned his head and saw another puppet alongside them.

A sharp, familiar voice snapped, “What are you staring at? You little thief. Still not honest, even now.”

Jiang Yi Yi.

The girl from Deepweight Star—the one who had once guarded him and watched him slip away.

Wang Jie managed a weak smile. “Thank you. What happened to me?”

Jiang You Sheng sighed. “Star-refining realm clashes. The unlucky get crushed by the aftershock. We were lucky enough not to be broken.

“But we lost. Senior Zhi Ye took the initiative and attacked the Skeleton Clan creature. He was heavily injured, and Feng Men captured him. Once our star-refining realm line broke, it was impossible to hold.”

Wang Jie understood why Zhi Ye had acted.

Those two Skeleton Clan creatures were the ones who had seized the bridge and killed Zhi Lan Xue. Zhi Lan Xue had been Zhi Ye’s direct-line junior.

He swallowed, throat tight. “What about Xiao Hui? How did his fight end?”

“He lost,” Jiang You Sheng said quietly.

Wang Jie jolted. “Lost?”

Jiang Yi Yi snorted. “To deal with a Skeleton Clan creature at the same level, you need a Wandering God. Xiao Hui isn’t enough.”

Wang Jie felt cold settle deep in his bones.

Xiao Hui was already terrifyingly strong—far beyond Six-Path Roamers.

And even he lost.

Skeleton Clan… just how monstrous were they?

“Rest,” Jiang You Sheng said. “We’ll find somewhere safe to hide. The bridge-pillar will be organizing reinforcements. As long as we don’t get caught, we just wait for rescue.”

Wang Jie didn’t argue. He closed his eyes and let exhaustion drag him down.

When he woke again, he felt clearer.

They were inside a hollowed-out asteroid. Outside, through cracks and narrow openings, the view was crowded with drifting rocks—an entire sea of asteroids.

“You’re awake,” Jiang You Sheng said.

He was still seated within his puppet, his actual condition impossible to tell.

Jiang Yi Yi sat in a second puppet nearby—sleeker, far more refined.

Wang Jie nodded. “I’m better.”

The first thing he did was pull out his Star Compass and check the area.

No qi signatures.

Good.

Jiang Yi Yi leaned forward, curiosity flickering despite herself. “What’s that?”

“A chen artifact,” Wang Jie said. “Like a combat power detector.”

“It’s useless junk,” Jiang Yi Yi said, unimpressed.

“Yi Yi,” Jiang You Sheng snapped, “watch your manners.”

Jiang Yi Yi huffed and looked away, clearly still holding a grudge.

Back then, if Wang Jie hadn’t escaped, she wouldn’t have been reprimanded by the Old Ancestor. She wouldn’t have been locked up. She wouldn’t have been publicly embarrassed.

At Little Round Lake, everyone knew the story: roaming-star realm Jiang Yi Yi had let a ten seals cultivator slip away.

She had never forgotten it.

Wang Jie didn’t bother arguing. He looked outward, toward the dense asteroid field. “Senior Jiang… where are we?”

Jiang You Sheng let out a helpless breath. “No idea. Our terminals are completely dead. Star-refining realm combat reshaped the region, and we were reinforcements—we weren’t familiar with this place to begin with.”

He glanced at Wang Jie. “What about you? Do you recognize anything?”

Wang Jie shook his head. “I stayed in the Cloudstream Domain. I’ve never been here.”

He had only once passed through the Asteroid Belt by battleship, back when it was thick with orbital dust and debris. This place didn’t feel the same at all.

“Then we’ll have to find a way to link up with others,” Jiang You Sheng said.

Wang Jie asked for more details about what happened after he blacked out.

Jiang You Sheng didn’t say much more than before. “Skeleton Clan appeared. Senior Zhi Ye attacked, got injured, and was captured—that was the decisive factor. Once the star-refining realm line had a gap, everything collapsed.”

“Our losses were severe,” he added. “And losses like this have happened too many times across history. Even the Ancient Sword bridge-pillar probably didn’t expect this outcome. They ended up holding a region they’ve never fought in before.”

Jiang Yi Yi clicked her tongue. “I still don’t get why that Zhi Ye would charge the Skeleton Clan first.”

“Yi Yi,” Jiang You Sheng warned, voice sharp, “show respect. That’s a star-refining realm senior.”

Jiang Yi Yi shrugged like she didn’t care. “He’s not from Third Nebula. On other battlefields, he’d be our enemy anyway.”

She wasn’t wrong.

On the Yin Yang Battlefield, they had been enemies too.

Jiang You Sheng and Jiang Yi Yi didn’t understand the reason. Wang Jie, though, could guess.

It had to be connected to that bridge.

Those two Skeleton Clan creatures were the ones who had stolen it and killed Zhi Lan Xue—on the very mission Zhi Ye had been escorting.