Chapter 276
Chapter 276: fate forsaken gambler
A group of people hung suspended in midair, bound tightly by iron chains. Below them surged black vapor, endlessly churning with the rotten stench of decay.
Not far away, someone approached, dragging chains with slow, heavy steps.
The three looked carefully—it was a woman. Her face was shriveled and dry, her skin sagging loosely as if it could tear apart at any moment.
Her empty eyes stared numbly at the three. She tossed down the chains carelessly and stood there, unmoving, her hollow gaze chilling their hearts.
“Hang yourselves,” she finally spoke, her voice grating like stones scraping against iron, painful to hear.
The three had no choice but to wrap the chains around themselves and lock them in place. Immediately, the black vapor rose as if alive, twisting around the chains until they hung suspended like the others, enveloped by the foul mist.
Wang Jie watched helplessly as his skin began turning black, “Where is this place?”
The woman said nothing, turning slowly to leave.
Not far away, Su Su opened her weary eyes, glanced briefly at Wang Jie and the others, then shut her eyes again, unwilling to speak.
“This place is… the Corpse sect,” Qing Xiao finally answered, her voice equally weak.
Wang Jie looked at Qing Xiao in surprise, “Corpse sect? Isn’t the Corpse sect located in the first star cloud?”
Qing Xiao replied faintly, pausing often, “It can appear… anywhere. Corpse sect gathers death aura… no matter which star cloud, trial ground, or even battlefield, you might encounter them.”
Jiang You Sheng suddenly recalled something terrible, his expression turning grim, “Could this be a forward camp of the Corpse sect?”
Qing Xiao nodded slowly, “I advise you all to shield yourselves with star force to resist the corrosion of the corpse qi. Once fully corrupted, there’s no going back. Even if you haven’t betrayed your sect, the outside world will erase you.”
Jiang You Sheng fell into despair, “I never imagined we’d encounter a Corpse sect forward camp even on the battlefield. We’re doomed.”
Wang Jie asked doubtfully, “Senior, what exactly is this Corpse sect forward camp?”
Jiang You Sheng answered gravely, his voice hoarse, “It’s a place specifically for gathering death aura. It’s said every forward camp is guarded by a star refining realm cultivator.”
“Once corrupted by corpse qi, no matter how brilliant you once were, you can never return.”
Someone nearby added, “There was once a genius from Three Chan Heaven who fell into Corpse sect’s clutches and was corrupted by corpse qi. Though he later found their forward camp and killed two star refining realm cultivators, he still ended his own life upon returning to Three Chan Heaven.”
“No one corrupted by corpse qi can safely return to the realm of the living. The only path left is the Death realm.”
Wang Jie gazed at the swirling black mist—this was the corpse qi?
Zhu Cheng opened his eyes, seeing Wang Jie, but he no longer bore any hostility.
Someone else spoke again, “Our only hope now is to be rescued before we’re completely corrupted. I’d rather die on the battlefield than become something neither human nor ghost.”
Wang Jie stared down at his wrists, using lock force to fend off the corpse qi.
Yet lock force struggled, rapidly eaten away. However, his internal qi was effective. Corpse qi was still qi, and his own qi could naturally counter it.
There were many bound here, including cultivators in the hundred star realm like Zhu Cheng.
It was impossible to say who would succumb first.
Chains rattled softly as the woman returned again, dragging two more people into the area and hanging them up.
Her vacant eyes passed over everyone before she abruptly swung her chain, piercing one of the prisoners and instantly killing him.
Wang Jie was startled—weren’t they being corrupted by corpse qi? Why would she suddenly kill someone?
The woman’s gaze swept through them, stopping on Jiang You Sheng. The chain moved, ready to strike.
“Wait!” Jiang You Sheng shouted desperately.
The woman stared at him.
“Why kill me?”
She replied weakly, without energy, “A waste of corpse qi.”
“But I’m in the wandering star realm!”
She didn’t care, readying to strike again. Wang Jie cried out, “What’s your standard?”
The woman turned dully towards him, her eyes utterly emotionless.
Wang Jie persisted, staring directly at her, “How do you judge whether someone is a waste of corpse qi or not?”
He couldn’t bear seeing Jiang You Sheng killed like this.
Jiang Yi Yi also stared at the woman, her voice trembling, “That’s right, what’s the standard?”
Everyone around watched indifferently—none wished to get involved.
The woman looked at Wang Jie again, “There is none.”
“Then what about me?” Wang Jie challenged.
A faint spark of interest flickered suddenly in her empty eyes, “You… are not a waste.”
“My value is far higher than you can imagine. I want to protect him,” Wang Jie spoke boldly, though inwardly he felt anxious. He knew it was presumptuous, but he had to try saving Jiang You Sheng.
This man had carried Wang Jie on his back, saving his life.
Jiang You Sheng smiled bitterly, sighing deeply, “Wang Jie, there’s no need. Just find a way to survive yourself.” After a moment’s hesitation, he added, “If possible… please care for Yi Yi.”
Jiang Yi Yi struggled uselessly against her chains.
The woman continued to stare silently at Wang Jie. Wang Jie held her gaze, his heart uneasy.
After a tense moment, the woman turned and slowly walked away.
Everyone watched, astonished.
He truly managed to save someone? How? By what right?
Tang Zhou, Qing Xiao, and the others stared at Wang Jie in astonishment, wondering how this man could still protect someone. Wasn’t he just a lock force cultivator?
Su Su opened her eyes, glancing briefly at Wang Jie before returning to meditation, fully focusing her star force to battle the encroaching corpse aura.
Jiang You Sheng’s eyes filled with gratitude as he looked at Wang Jie. Even Jiang Yi Yi now regarded him differently.
“If not for you, Brother Wang, stopping me earlier, I would already be dead.”
Wang Jie gave a bitter smile: “Corpse Sect’s actions are strange; no one can ever truly know what they’re thinking.”
Jiang You Sheng was about to speak again when suddenly his mind shook violently. Consciousness slipped away, plunging him into darkness. The others around them also collapsed into unconsciousness. Only Wang Jie remained aware, though even he was soon dragged away with a harsh clatter of chains.
Wang Jie felt like mere cargo, thrown roughly from place to place. When he finally looked up, he saw a familiar pair of pale, dried-up arms clutching his star disk. Following the withered limbs upward, he saw a disheveled figure, face hidden beneath dirty strands of hair. It was impossible to discern features clearly—man or woman, beautiful or hideous.
The figure looked exactly like a rag in human form.
Yes, a rag—a terribly filthy one.
And now, his own star disk was in this rag’s hand.
“This yours?” the person asked, eyes gleaming coldly from behind strands of dirty hair, fixed intently on Wang Jie.
Wang Jie didn’t deny it. There was no point in lying before such a powerful being.
“It is mine.”
“Hehe,” the figure laughed softly, voice hoarse and eerie. “Interesting that Big Dipper Bridge Pillar would send a Star Path Master’s inheritor into battle without even assigning a protector. Quite unusual, don’t you think?” Abruptly, the figure leaned closer to Wang Jie. The chilling strands of hair brushed against him, bringing bone-deep cold and a nauseating scent of decay that pierced straight into his mind. “Is it really yours?”
Wang Jie took a deep breath, answering steadily, “If you don’t believe me, why even ask?”
The figure withdrew slowly, inspecting the star disk with curiosity. “Lock force and star dao cultivation—how intriguing. Very interesting indeed. Who’s your master, which Star Path Master?”
At this moment, Wang Jie knew secrecy was meaningless. Moreover, his easygoing master had once said Wang Jie could invoke his name in dire need—but every use of it would diminish his master’s regard for him slightly.
Yet now, when his very life hung by a thread, why worry about impressions?
“Shu Rang,” Wang Jie answered calmly.
“Shu Rang? Never heard of him. Must be hiding his identity well.” The figure studied Wang Jie closely again, then murmured thoughtfully, “It would be a shame to let corpse aura corrupt you. Lock force cultivators often have better disguises than star force cultivators, making them ideal agents. With the favor of a Star Path Master, such a combination has almost never appeared throughout the history of the Four Dipper Bridge.”
“Hehe, how about this—I grant you the position of Hundred Coffins.”
Wang Jie’s heart trembled violently. Hundred Coffins? He stared in disbelief at the figure before him.
“My name is Si Zhuo. I command the Front Camp and possess the authority to appoint a Hundred Coffins. Wang Jie, today I grant you the Dead Man Incense, let you worship the Corpse Lord, and slumber in a Hundred Coffins. May you, one day, help my Corpse Sect overthrow the living world and usher in the Death Realm.” Before Wang Jie could respond, his surroundings changed completely. The stars vanished, replaced by something indistinct yet tangible.
Only a towering ancestral tablet stood hazily before him, as if it might vanish into the void at any moment.
“Worship—Fate Forsaken Gambler’s Star Position.”
Though many characters were inscribed, Wang Jie could only clearly make out these few words.
Before the ancestral tablet stood an incense burner. Beside him, Si Zhuo stretched out a withered hand, presenting Wang Jie with a stick of incense. Those icy eyes locked onto him, filled with such sinister coldness that Wang Jie knew refusal would bring something far worse than death itself.
Those eyes were filled with absolute reverence toward the ancestral tablet, and hatred for anyone daring to desecrate it.
Wang Jie hesitated only briefly, then accepted the incense, lighting it respectfully. He stepped toward the incense burner.
The closer he came, the larger the ancestral tablet grew, towering like a mountain into the heavens.
Wang Jie felt an immense, mysterious pressure emanating from the tablet, coming from the void, from the weight of countless years, from some unfathomable height beyond his comprehension. It was as if the gaze of something beyond heaven and earth had fallen directly upon him.
Si Zhuo’s eyes never wavered, watching as Wang Jie paid tribute.
“Kneel…”
Wang Jie stood silently before the tablet, slowly dropping to his knees.
“Speak.”
“Disciple Wang Jie offers tribute to the Corpse Lord and slumbers in the Hundred Coffins,” he said, bowing deeply in respect.
As the words left his mouth, the ancestral tablet instantly vanished along with everything else around him. In its place appeared a single coffin—deep, dark, etched with incomprehensible patterns.
Si Zhuo spoke gently, almost softly: “Sleep now. In a hundred days, when you awaken, you shall be one of our Corpse Sect’s Hundred Coffins.”
Wang Jie rose slowly, turning to face Si Zhuo. At this moment, the gaze directed at him no longer carried chilling threat—instead, it was gentle, even warm. Si Zhuo now viewed him as a junior disciple.
“Junior is now considered a disciple of Corpse Sect?”
Si Zhuo smiled warmly. “Indeed. Even if you return to Black White Heaven now, disclose everything honestly, and prove you’ve never betrayed them, it won’t matter. Lighting the Dead Man Incense and worshiping the Corpse Lord is unforgivable to the living world.”
“Had you merely been tainted by corpse aura, imprisonment might suffice. But having lit this incense means certain death.”
Wang Jie no longer knew what he felt at this moment.
Frost Radiance Sect, Black White Heaven, Edge Sect, and now Corpse Sect. Every step he took seemed stranger than the last.
Especially this latest step—the Hundred Coffins of Corpse Sect. Wasn’t that Chu Yao’s identity? Now he too had become one. He wondered how it would feel if he someday encountered Chu Yao again.
Or Liu Ying, who had also been taken away.
“Enter now,” Si Zhuo instructed gently. “After a hundred days’ sleep, your future will be forever Changed.”
Wang Jie asked cautiously, “Can Junior still cultivate qi?”
Si Zhuo shook his head firmly. “No.”
“Why?”
“Because you are one of the Hundred Coffins. Their tasks involve infiltration, assassination, competition, and gathering intelligence. But above all, the most vital task is passing down our legacy undetected. If you cultivate Corpse Sect’s qi, upon returning to Black White Heaven, you’d be immediately discovered. Thus, you must cultivate nothing.”
“Then what meaning is there for me to become a Hundred Coffins?”
Si Zhuo’s eyes narrowed faintly. “Are you bargaining for benefits?”