Chapter 282

Chapter 282: No Head or Tail in Sight

Wang Jie’s blood stirred. “Disciple will cultivate diligently.”

Shu Rang looked satisfied. “Now that you’re my formal disciple, you can live freely in Black-White Heaven. I’ve watched you long enough to know you’re not someone who bullies others with borrowed power—but when you should borrow strength, borrow it. When you should take something, take it.”

“Don’t tie your own hands.”

“At least in Black-White Heaven,” Shu Rang said, “there is no one you need to fear. People like Zhi Qing and Jun Qian are nothing but trash.”

He paused. “The only ones worth paying attention to are Zhi Yu—and that girl, Bai Ye.”

Wang Jie blinked. “Bai Ye, the Celestial Master?”

Shu Rang nodded. “That girl doesn’t belong to Black-White Heaven. Staying on good terms with her isn’t a bad thing. But you don’t need to obsess over it.”

Then he handed Wang Jie another jade. “The technique inside will help you integrate Lockforce into your bones and blood as quickly as possible.”

Wang Jie’s scalp tingled. “Mentor… this will hurt, won’t it?”

Shu Rang glared. “Suffering is part of cultivation. I suffered far more than you.”

“Yes,” Wang Jie said immediately. “Disciple will work hard.”

“Rest for a while,” Shu Rang said. “When the war begins, I’ll take you to watch.”

Then he left.

Wang Jie sat down with the jade in his hand and exhaled. His Mentor was ruthless—but he hadn’t truly abandoned him. That counted for something.

He slept.

Maybe it was because he was back among allies. Maybe it was because Shu Rang was here.

Either way, it was the best sleep he’d had in a long time.

He didn’t wake for five full days.

When he finally stepped out, the warship was full of hurried footsteps and tense faces. The agreed counterattack time was approaching, and preparations were in full swing.

Yet from the outside, you could barely feel it. Everything looked… normal.

Wang Jie walked to the edge of the warship and stared into space.

Warships, flying vessels, and roaming cultivators filled the darkness in dense layers. People streaked past like shooting stars.

He saw the Dual-Wind Line.

He saw the vast camp of cultivators on the far side.

At the very front stood the Thunderflare Hou, blazing with lightning and radiating savage majesty, surrounded by countless starry sky behemoths.

And on the Beidou Bridge-Pillar side, starry sky behemoths gathered as well.

Shu Rang appeared beside him without startling him this time.

“There are too few starry sky behemoths that humans can tame,” Shu Rang said. “What you’re seeing is only a sliver of the starry sky’s living creatures. Many powerful starry sky behemoths can’t be tamed at all.”

Wang Jie asked, “Mentor, what is the strongest starry sky behemoth you’ve ever seen?”

Shu Rang considered. “Maybe… that fish whose head and tail you couldn’t see.”

“A fish?”

“Yes,” Shu Rang said lightly. “Seven-colored scales. Beautiful. You could tell it was a fish, but you couldn’t see its head or tail.”

“Like that bridge,” he added. “You can tell it’s a bridge, yet there’s no beginning and no end.”

“Where is it?” Wang Jie asked.

“I don’t know,” Shu Rang replied. “I only glimpsed it once by accident. When I looked again, it was gone.”

Wang Jie couldn’t imagine something so vast vanishing like that. He had no idea what realm Shu Rang truly occupied, but it certainly wasn’t the Star-Refining Realm.

Shu Rang nodded to himself. “You rested well. For now, don’t cultivate. Rest. Or play. Empty your mind, and let your body fully recover.”

Wang Jie obeyed.

He did nothing. He cultivated nothing. He thought about nothing. He wandered the warship like a man with no purpose.

That irritated people.

Everyone else was busy, and he was idle. It didn’t matter how reasonable it was—people resented it.

A few tried to pick a fight. Those few vanished quickly.

After that, no one bothered him again.

Wang Jie enjoyed the peace. He even visited the command room occasionally, greeting Zhi Xing Xue and Chief Huntsman Shuang Jin. Anyone who saw that grew even more uneasy. They treated him the same way they treated a Star-Refining Realm expert.

A month passed.

Then the war arrived.

Two vast forces collided. Starry sky behemoths tore into each other first. Warships traded fire next, detonations shaking space. Then both sides’ cultivators surged out along the asteroid belt, like tides crashing head-on.

Shuang Jin and Zhi Xing Xue stepped forward together. Star-Refining Realm experts of the Beidou Bridge-Pillar appeared from multiple directions—no fewer than ten.

The opposing side answered with their own Star-Refining Realm experts.

The moment they struck, the universe seemed to sway.

Starforce swept outward in catastrophic waves. Some cultivators couldn’t even keep the Starforce inside their bodies from being torn away and drained.

Above, the clash of powers was a blur of light and distortion. Below, warships bucked and exploded. The battlefield became a storm.

At the same time, in the Cloudstream Region, Gu Xun Yi, Celestial Master Qi, and the Black Realm Lord appeared. Because the decisive battle was focused on the Dual-Wind Line, the rear lines weren’t watched closely. The three Star-Refining Realm powerhouses slaughtered the Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar’s Hundred-Star Realm experts from behind, forcing the Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar’s Star-Refining Realm experts to rush back.

That single time gap decided everything.

Shu Rang stood with Wang Jie, watching from afar. “In this battle, the Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar has lost.”

Wang Jie agreed. The enemy wasn’t foolish—they simply had no choice. With their rear collapsing under three Star-Refining Realm attacks, they had to split their forces. Every rushed reinforcement destabilized another front. Every delay bought Beidou time to carve them apart.

Timing, terrain, and people. The Ancient Sword Bridge-Pillar had none of them.

“See this clearly,” Shu Rang said. “In war, absolute experts can crush everything. But when strength is close, the mind decides.”

“Cultivators aren’t brutes.”

“Yes, Mentor,” Wang Jie replied.

“I’ll take you to observe,” Shu Rang said.

The void beneath their feet shifted.

In the next breath, they hovered above another asteroid belt. Below stood a lone figure.

Xiao Hui.

Wang Jie’s eyes widened. “Jia Yi Sect… Xiao Hui?”

Shu Rang looked down coolly. “A genius of the Xiao Family. He stands at the limit of the Roaming-Star Realm, second only to Wandering God. Watch carefully.”

Xiao Hui’s opponent was a Hundred-Star Realm man whose Starforce boiled like a furious sea. Giant palm seals formed in bursts and slammed down with crushing force.

“At the Hundred-Star Realm,” Shu Rang said, “you draw the power of a hundred stars into your body. In raw Starforce, even the most talented cultivator struggles to surpass it. A hundredfold gap is a hundredfold gap.”

“But battle isn’t decided by Starforce alone,” Shu Rang continued. “Technique. Understanding. Creation. In the end, your body, your will, your intelligence—those decide victory.”

As he spoke, Shu Rang broke down the Hundred-Star Realm man’s every move, dissecting the palm seals as if he were peeling them apart in midair. Wang Jie felt as if time had slowed. The combatants below didn’t even realize they were being watched.

Xiao Hui fought with a blade, meeting the palm seals again and again. His Starforce couldn’t match his opponent’s—but he didn’t retreat a single step. His eyes were calm in a way that felt almost terrifying.

Then his body trembled.

A surge of Invisible Blade Light rose into the sky.

Shu Rang’s gaze brightened. “The Xiao Family Bridgeway Art—Blade-Bone Aspect.”

“Any Xiao Family descendant who inherits it cultivates the blade,” Shu Rang said. “Blade-Bone Aspect is naturally compatible. It makes their progress twice as fast with half the effort.”

He glanced at Wang Jie. “Look. Tell me what you see in Xiao Hui’s Blade-Bone Aspect.”

Wang Jie stared as Xiao Hui’s blade moved—defense, counter, slash. Each strike was clear, yet the Hundred-Star Realm man’s injuries didn’t always make sense. Some blade lights seemed harmless. Others were deadly.

If Wang Jie placed himself in the Hundred-Star Realm man’s position, he realized he couldn’t even survive two strikes.

The gap was terrifying.

Xiao Hui pressed forward, carving bloody lines into his opponent.

Wang Jie’s breath caught. “False and real.”

Shu Rang smiled. “Good. You can be taught.”

Wang Jie finally understood. The blade could shift between false and real. You couldn’t distinguish it by sight. Only by facing it would you learn how lethal it truly was.

Then Xiao Hui gripped his blade—

And the blade changed.

It seemed to expand without limit, propping open heaven above and earth below.

One Blade fell.

Heaven and earth split apart. The Hundred-Star Realm man looked down in disbelief as his body separated, then collapsed into death.

Wang Jie’s mind went blank for a moment.

One Blade… to kill a Hundred-Star Realm expert.

Shu Rang’s voice turned solemn. “This blade art divides yin and yang. Between yin and yang lies one origin. Xiao Hui has already reached a high level. One more step, and he’ll approach the realm where he can stand beside Wandering God.”

He turned slightly. “With everything you have, could you take that One Blade?”

Wang Jie shook his head without hesitation. “No.”

“Good,” Shu Rang said. “Not arrogant. Not impatient.”

Wang Jie swallowed. “Mentor… when will I be able to catch up to someone like him?”

“Star Dao masters rise in leaps,” Shu Rang said. “When you reach the Roaming-Star Realm, your name will echo through the universe.”

Then the void shifted again.