Chapter 275
Chapter 275: A Hand
Wang Jie was still thinking when Jiang Yi Yi suddenly called out, “Hey, you.”
He looked over.
“Are you really a lockforce cultivator?”
“As real as they come.”
“How are you that strong? I’ve seen you fight—your combat power has to be at least three hundred thousand.”
Jiang You Sheng stared at Wang Jie too, equally stunned.
He hadn’t expected Wang Jie’s strength to be that high.
And yet he was only in the Star-Breaking Realm.
It made no sense.
Wang Jie didn’t know how to explain it, so he just said, “I’m a genius.”
Jiang Yi Yi fell silent.
The three of them stayed hidden inside the meteorite for a while longer. Only after Wang Jie finished his exercises and recovered did they finally leave.
They had to find a way to regroup with the others. They couldn’t keep hiding forever.
They needed to escape the Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar’s sphere of control, even if this place had originally belonged to the Beidou Bridge-Pillar.
They moved from meteorite to meteorite. In Jiang You Sheng’s estimation, far too many Beidou Bridge-Pillar people had scattered and fled—there had to be some nearby.
If they could link up, they’d become a force. Anything was better than the three of them alone.
The Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar had won, but after its earlier losses, its one clear advantage was that it still had a complete command structure. Beidou’s side, on the other hand, had been shattered and dispersed.
That meant every additional ally they gathered would shrink their disadvantage.
Not long after, they spotted silhouettes on a distant meteorite. They looked like they were hiding too.
They didn’t approach immediately. They couldn’t be sure who the other party was.
“If I were the Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar’s Chief Huntsman,” Jiang You Sheng said grimly, “I’d have experts spread across the entire asteroid belt in an organized net, specifically to flush out enemies in hiding. If those people are from the Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar, there’ll definitely be experts among them.”
Jiang Yi Yi’s voice went tight. “How can we know? What if they’re our people?”
Jiang You Sheng didn’t have an answer.
Wang Jie said, “We’re leaving. They’re enemies.”
The puppets didn’t move, but inside them, the two clearly turned to stare at him.
“How can you be sure?” Jiang Yi Yi demanded.
Wang Jie said, “I recognized someone who ambushed me on the battlefield.”
That settled it. They didn’t doubt him again.
In truth, it was a lie. Wang Jie hadn’t recognized anyone. What he’d sensed was the Star Compass—an aura in that direction that was extremely strong, around the level of a Six-Path Roamer.
Worse, it was unusually full, as if it were overflowing.
He remembered the Skeleton Clan beings hunting down and crushing expert after expert on the battlefield. Someone of that level shouldn’t be walking around with an aura that abundant.
And Beidou Bridge-Pillar people had been chased and forced to flee nonstop. It was even less likely they’d have an aura that “complete.”
So the odds those people were enemies were extremely high.
His judgment proved correct.
Far away, more than ten people were hiding. Every so often, someone would deliberately poke their head out, letting the outside world catch a glimpse, then quickly duck back into cover, like they were trying to lure something closer.
Crimson Luo Sword Fiend was there as well.
She was a Roaming-Star Realm powerhouse with a steady combat power of five hundred thousand. Luo Kui had warned them before: if they ever ran into certain people, they needed to avoid them at all costs.
She was one of those people.
The three of them adjusted their route and continued searching, still keeping to cover. They weren’t wandering blindly.
They kept moving in the direction of the Beidou Bridge-Pillar, confident the others were doing the same.
The next battlefield would inevitably be ahead—below Fourth Nebula, where it bordered the First Main Battlefield.
If the Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar broke through there and surged into Fourth Nebula, it would be the same as driving straight into Beidou Bridge-Pillar territory.
With a foothold like that, the Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar would find it far easier to attack the Beidou Bridge-Pillar in the future.
Beidou would never accept that.
So Beidou reinforcements would have to press forward in force, while scattered survivors like them kept approaching too, ready to strike from within and without at the critical moment.
No one needed to tell them. Anyone with half a brain could guess it.
But it also meant the closer they got, the more dangerous it became.
The Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar’s people weren’t stupid, either. They would definitely intensify their search in that direction.
More than ten days passed.
That day, Jiang Yi Yi’s eyes lit up. “We found the marker!”
Jiang You Sheng looked sharply. “Yes. That’s ours.”
Wang Jie frowned at the meteorite ahead. He didn’t see anything that looked like a marker.
They didn’t explain. Wang Jie belonged to Fourth Nebula, while the marker was a secret map-sign drawn under the guidance of a Third Nebula Xuan Gate Master.
All Wang Jie could do was follow as they took multiple routes, circling around to the destination.
Not long after, they regrouped with part of the Shield Mountain Peak and the Falling Bow Hall. There were five Roaming-Star Realm cultivators among them, and more than ten Full-Star Realm cultivators.
As for Star-Breaking Realm cultivators, Ten Seals cultivators, and lockforce cultivators—it was almost impossible for them to have survived under that enormous sword formation.
These people were simply lucky.
That single massive sword formation had erased ninety percent of the cultivators within its range.
With so many people gathered, Jiang You Sheng finally relaxed. He even stepped out of the puppet to breathe freely for once.
Wang Jie urged him away almost immediately.
“Why?” Jiang You Sheng asked, confused.
Wang Jie didn’t know how to explain it without exposing too much. He had seen a traitor in that group.
It was one of the auras he’d sensed before, back in Fengmen’s underground prison—the kind that marked a betrayer.
If a traitor was here, it meant they were almost certainly within Fengmen’s surveillance. It was only a matter of when Fengmen chose to strike.
If Fengmen wasn’t moving yet, it might be because they were fishing.
“One of them is probably a traitor,” Wang Jie said.
Jiang You Sheng instinctively followed Wang Jie’s gaze, but Wang Jie immediately warned, “Don’t look.”
Jiang Yi Yi scoffed. “Everyone here is a disciple of the Shield Mountain Peak or the Falling Bow Hall. Where would a traitor come from?”
“I once had a disguise mask,” Wang Jie said. “A traitor could easily have ways to alter their face and pass as someone else.”
He didn’t say the most important part out loud: faces could be faked, but unless someone could refine qi itself, their aura couldn’t.
“If they’re disguised,” Jiang Yi Yi shot back, “how could you recognize them?”
“Demeanor. Habits. The way they watch people. The way they walk,” Wang Jie said calmly. “I saw someone who looked a lot like a cultivator who once followed Fang He. That cultivator betrayed us alongside Fang He.”
Jiang You Sheng’s expression tightened. Wang Jie’s reasoning wasn’t airtight, but at a time like this, it was better to fear the worst than gamble on being wrong.
“Go,” Jiang You Sheng said.
Wang Jie finally released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
The three of them left without another word.
As they traveled, Jiang Yi Yi’s frustration only grew. “We were looking for our own people. If there really is a traitor, we should drag them out right there.”
Leaving like this—aren’t we abandoning them?”
Jiang You Sheng’s voice turned heavy. “If there’s a traitor, they’re already being watched by Fengmen. If we ‘drag them out,’ we’ll be dragged down too.”
Jiang Yi Yi glared at Wang Jie. “Why should we believe him?”
“Because I once escaped a Roaming-Star Realm expert while I was only at the Ten Seals stage,” Jiang You Sheng said coldly.
Jiang Yi Yi was furious, but finally shut her mouth.
Jiang You Sheng sighed. “Move faster. Since we decided to leave, we should leave far.”
A few more days passed.
That day, the three of them hid inside another meteorite, suppressing their breathing until it was nearly imperceptible.
High above, two figures swept past.
“You’re sure they ran this direction?” one asked.
“Most likely. We searched the other routes already.”
“Useless trash. Someone shows up and you still can’t hold them.”
“They’re only two Roaming-Star Realm puppeteers. Even if they escaped, it doesn’t affect the big picture.”
“What do you know?” the other snapped. “We finally pushed deep into the Beidou Bridge-Pillar. If we can plant ourselves here and hold the ground, attacking the Beidou Bridge-Pillar later will be simple. We won’t need to grind each other down in the Three Domains like before.”
“So nobody leaves.”
“Yes, Senior. I’ll keep searching.”
The two moved on.
Inside the meteorite, Jiang You Sheng and Jiang Yi Yi looked at Wang Jie. The last trace of doubt vanished from their eyes.
Because one of those voices belonged to someone they had seen among the people they’d regrouped with earlier. The other was clearly a Fengmen Hundred-Star Realm powerhouse.
Wang Jie had been right.
He wasn’t proud of it.
He was a traitor too.
A traitor could always find another traitor.
“We’ll hide here for a few days,” Wang Jie said.
This time, Jiang Yi Yi didn’t argue.
After a while, they spotted open starfield ahead.
The asteroid belt lay behind them.
They had reached its edge.
The asteroid belt had two “edges.” One was the Bridge-Pillar’s outer boundary—beyond it was a dead zone no one could survive. The other was an inner boundary within the Bridge-Pillar: the corridor where warships once traveled toward the First Main Battlefield.
They were right beside that corridor.
Wang Jie’s skin crawled. “This is the easiest place to monitor. And if the Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar sends reinforcements, they’ll pass through here.”
“Any powerhouse who sweeps their gaze across this corridor could spot us.”
“We retreat.”
Jiang You Sheng agreed immediately.
They hadn’t meant to come here. They’d wandered into it by accident.
They hadn’t retreated far when beams of light streaked overhead and blasted into distant meteorites, punching open paths as if clearing the route.
Wang Jie and the others flattened themselves instinctively and looked up.
Warship after warship was approaching, heading toward Fourth Nebula.
“Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar reinforcements?” Jiang You Sheng whispered. “How are they here so fast?”
Wang Jie felt the same chill. It didn’t make sense. By all logic, the Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar’s reinforcements should still be on the way.
How long had it even been since Beidou’s defeat?
Then cultivators struck the warships.
Wang Jie recognized one immediately: Yan Hui Xue, a Xuan Gate Hundred-Star Realm powerhouse, once the strongest true disciple of his generation.
Yan Hui Xue wasn’t alone. Many cultivators attacked together.
They moved with practiced precision—strike, retreat, strike again—not trying to win, only trying to cripple the warships. It was obvious they’d done this before.
But this time, they ran into something far worse.
A giant hand emerged outside the warships. It seized Yan Hui Xue and the cultivators beside him, then crushed them like insects.
Wang Jie’s pupils shrank violently. His face went bloodless.
Crushed. Just like that.
Jiang Yi Yi clapped a hand over her mouth, trembling.
None of them dared make a sound. They watched blood scatter across the starfield, watched the warships glide away as if nothing had happened.
Only after the fleet vanished completely did they dare lower their eyes.
“That was a Star-Refining Realm expert,” Jiang Yi Yi breathed.
Jiang You Sheng nodded, then looked at Wang Jie. “We leave. Now. This place is too dangerous.”
Wang Jie gave a tight grunt and turned to go.
The Star Compass flared in his mind.
Dots—too many—blinked all around them.
His scalp prickled.
So many auras… right here?
A shadow fell across their sight.
An absolute coldness pinned them in place.
It wasn’t temperature. It was dread—a chill that rose from deep in the soul.
Someone was behind them.
Wang Jie stared at the Star Compass. The nearest aura was vast beyond description, like an abyss. It was the largest aura he had ever sensed.
Who?
A hand slid into view beside his ear.
The palm was pale, threaded with dark veins like dried blood vessels, like withered branches. As it approached, it carried a stench that made his stomach turn.
Rotting flesh.
The hand closed around the Star Compass and took it away.
Wang Jie didn’t move.
He didn’t even dare to turn his head.
It felt as if death itself stood behind him.
The next instant, the world changed.
They hadn’t moved, yet the space around them became a cage hung with iron chains. Ahead, the starfield and meteorites still looked the same.
The scenery hadn’t changed.
But they had.
Scenes layered and multiplied, as if an entire region had been inserted into reality in the span of a breath.
And yet it overlapped perfectly with the starfield outside—seamless and wrong in a way his mind couldn’t grasp.
“Stand up,” a dry voice said, like someone who hadn’t spoken in centuries.
The three of them rose shakily.
Jiang You Sheng and Jiang Yi Yi’s puppets crumbled away inch by inch. No one attacked them. They simply dissolved, as if time itself had eroded them.
Their faces turned even paler.
A low chuckle scraped through the air.
“Afraid? Don’t be afraid. From now on, we’re all on the same side. Turn around.”
They turned.
No one.
The speaker wasn’t there at all.
What they saw instead were familiar faces—bound in chains, suspended like livestock.
Su Su. Qingxiao. Fengmen’s Tang Zhou. Xuan Gate’s Zhu Cheng… and more.