Chapter 301

Chapter 301: The Bottom Line You Can’t Force Out

Starsea stones kept tumbling out of the tear in the void.

Yun Jian watched them fall, then sighed. “I meant to find something good and give it to you as a gift. These starsea stones are too ordinary. Sorry.”

The woman behind him smiled. “Being the first to witness what the void held is enough. That’s the gift.”

Yun Jian ignored the growing mound of currency. He turned, took her hand, and said, “Come on. Let’s keep searching.”

She followed without complaint.

The moment they left, the onlookers surged forward to scoop up the starsea stones.

There were more than ten million. Converted to starstones, it was a trillion—an absurd fortune.

Yun Jian, a member of the Yun family, could afford to sneer at it. Most clubs could not. They grabbed greedily, eyes bright with hunger.

Before long, the news spread: Yun Jian had used a striped key to open the void’s stash, and ten million starsea stones had dropped.

The effect was immediate.

It meant the striped key fragments really were keys. It meant the treasures from the other train cars had truly been transferred into this one.

Searches grew more frantic. Killings multiplied.

In the midst of that frenzy, someone blasted starforce into the train’s ceiling and left a message in glowing strokes:

Striped key exchange. Central landmass.

Wang Jie stood on a ridge, reading the words. So someone was finally trading.

With the keys shattered into fragments, completing one on your own took luck. Trading was different—you might be able to trade for the missing half.

But anyone who went to trade would also become a target.

Wu Yuan was tempted. He wanted to go too.

Black-White Heaven wasn’t afraid of being watched.

Yet Shao Ling Er hadn’t moved, and Wu Yuan didn’t want to move first.

In the distance, Shao Ling Er was watching him as well. When she saw Wu Yuan make no move toward the exchange, her expression darkened further.

“Senior Sister,” the same female disciple muttered, simmering with anger, “they’re obviously monitoring us.

“If they really are working with Ke Mu Sheng, then Ke Mu Sheng can handle the exchange. They can trade and still keep eyes on us. It’s disgusting.”

Shao Ling Er’s temper flared. Enough.

She strode forward and shouted, “Wu Yuan! I’ll ask you one last time—are you determined to keep tailing us?”

Wu Yuan’s brows tightened. This was going to explode.

Yu Zhi shifted uneasily. “Elder… Shao Ling Er’s strength is extraordinary. They say she’s the most likely genius in Cheng Yi Dao’s history to surpass Shu Mu Ye. Making her an enemy isn’t wise.”

Wu Yuan’s jaw clenched. “Do you think I don’t know that?”

He looked at his people, then finally spoke the truth he’d been holding back.

“What if I told you there may be a Nan family descendant hidden in Cheng Yi Dao?”

Shock rippled through the group.

No wonder the elder had insisted on watching them.

“How do you know?” Han Ling blurted.

Wang Jie stepped forward. “I sensed it. Someone in Cheng Yi Dao has cultivated the red moon method deeper than I have.”

Yu Zhi’s expression turned heavy. “That’s… trouble.”

Wu Yuan lifted his chin. “I once lost to Shu Mu Ye in a single move. Today, what’s wrong with testing Shao Ling Er?”

He rose into the air, starforce coiling around him like a tide.

“Shao Ling Er,” he called, voice carrying. “What do you want?”

People nearby retreated at once. No one wanted to be caught between two hundred-star realm experts.

Shao Ling Er glared at him. “I’m the one asking what you’re doing.

“Are you working with Ke Mu Sheng?”

“Ke Mu Sheng?” Wu Yuan repeated, genuinely baffled. “Why would I work with him?”

“Then why are you watching us?”

“The train isn’t that big.”

“Spare me,” Shao Ling Er snapped. “You know what you’re doing.

“I’ll give you one last chance. Stay away from us. Otherwise—”

Wu Yuan drew his saber and pointed it at her. “Otherwise what?

“Black-White Heaven isn’t so weak that we’d fear Cheng Yi Dao.”

Shao Ling Er’s lips curved into something cold. “Good.

“Then try it.”

Starforce erupted from both of them at once.

Two hundred-star realm starforces collided, shaking the void so hard the nearby land fragments trembled and drifted apart.

Wu Yuan’s eyes flashed with something almost savage. He’d been holding himself back for too long—ever since he’d first seen Shao Ling Er in Silver Radiance Empire, he’d wanted this fight.

Starforce slammed and shredded.

Then Shao Ling Er’s power surged and crushed forward, forcing Wu Yuan back a fraction.

Wang Jie and the others felt the pressure roll over them like a physical weight.

“Cheng Yi Dao’s Tai Su scripture allows recultivation,” Han Ling said through clenched teeth. “She must have recultivated. Her starforce isn’t something Elder can match.”

Yu Zhi didn’t hesitate. “Move. Help Elder by handling her people.”

Black-White Heaven charged.

The Dao Yi Club had only five with Shao Ling Er. Strong as they were, they couldn’t outnumber Black-White Heaven’s dozen.

Shao Ling Er split her starforce with ruthless precision—one portion kept pressing Wu Yuan, the other swept down to crush Wang Jie’s side.

Wu Yuan tightened his grip and struck.

One Blade cleaved forward, tearing through the pressure and flying straight at Shao Ling Er.

Shao Ling Er lifted a hand and flicked a finger.

Mirrors blossomed in the air—layer upon layer of starforce turning into reflective planes. Saber-light twisted as it crossed them, warped into ripples, then rebounded back toward Wu Yuan.

Wu Yuan’s expression tightened. His signature strike—turned aside that easily?

He inhaled sharply. His starforce shifted.

Gravity.

The weight of it buckled the void.

He raised his saber high and brought One Blade down again.

Shao Ling Er’s brows creased, finally focusing.

Below, Wang Jie’s group seized the opening. They crossed the void and met the Dao Yi disciples head-on.

Yu Zhi’s objective was simple: seize striped key fragments.

Wang Jie’s was even simpler: find the Nan family descendant.

Yun Que’s short blade hovered at his side.

Wang Jie said quickly, “Senior Brother, leave her to me.”

Yun Que didn’t question it. He veered away.

Wang Jie’s opponent was the female disciple who had been feeding Shao Ling Er anger and suspicion. Her name was Zhi.

Zhi’s gaze locked on Wang Jie.

So it really was him.

If he hadn’t kept pressing for the red moon method, Nan Ling wouldn’t have died.

Nan Ling… today, she would avenge you.

They clashed.

Zhi fought with ruthless competence—so strong she could pass for a six-path roamer even without revealing anything unusual. Worse, Wang Jie could sense a hidden depth beneath her techniques, like a beast keeping its claws sheathed.

It made sense.

She was a Nan family descendant. She carried the four seasons bridgeway art and the red moon method. What she showed now were only the techniques she’d learned under Cheng Yi Dao’s banner.

Even so, it was enough to stall Wang Jie.

If she fought at full strength, he wasn’t sure he could win.

But she couldn’t fight at full strength—not with Black-White Heaven around her and powerful observers watching from afar. She needed to stay hidden.

That was Wang Jie’s advantage.

He didn’t need to defeat her here. He needed to see her.

To read her.

With qi sight, he tracked the subtle circulation of starforce inside her body. Even if she never displayed the red moon method openly, traces still threaded through the way her power moved.

He wanted to memorize that pattern—to deduce more of the red moon method.

Zhi didn’t realize Wang Jie already knew what she was.

She didn’t realize Black-White Heaven had been tailing them because of him. If she had, she would have tried to kill him on the spot.

With both sides constrained, the fight dragged on—blow after blow, neither able to finish the other.

And the longer it went, the clearer it became: Cheng Yi Dao truly deserved its reputation. These disciples might not be famous, but each of them had strength comparable to a six-path roamer.

Black-White Heaven had gathered all its current six-path roamers—yet even with numbers, they couldn’t crush five people quickly.

The gap between factions was plain.

Jia Yi Sect might dominate most of first nebula, but Cheng Yi Dao held the greater part of the entire Nandou bridge-pillar.

Even Jia Yi Sect’s elites would struggle against Cheng Yi Dao’s core disciples.

A sudden roar thundered overhead.

Wu Yuan’s starforce surged, and behind him a colossal phantom took shape—an enormous beast, scales forming as it grew more solid with each breath.

Wang Jie’s eyes widened. A manifestation of the great domain scripture?

Shao Ling Er’s gaze sharpened. “So you trained in Wei Jie.

“That means when you lost to Senior Brother Shu… it was in Wei Jie too.”

Wu Yuan shut his eyes, sinking into pure saber intent.

The beast behind him became almost real.

Wu Jiang looked up with dread and hope. That was Master’s strongest technique—qilin-peak slash.

If even that couldn’t force Shao Ling Er back…

Shao Ling Er sneered. “A fine saber art. Useless against me.”

Wu Yuan opened his eyes and struck.

One Blade fell.

The void trembled. All across the train, people turned, drawn by that immense, lifelike phantom and the crushing saber intent that came with it.

Shao Ling Er raised her hand. Her fingers curled, and as the saber intent closed in, she clenched her fist.

Mirrors shattered in a chain.

“Water Moon Shatter-Mirror Chant.”

Sound rippled through broken reflections, folding and amplifying.

The saber intent fractured like glass.

Wu Yuan staggered backward and spat blood, his face turning deathly pale.

A stunned hush spread.

Wu Yuan had lost.

Lost cleanly.

And worse—he hadn’t forced Shao Ling Er to show anything close to her true limit.

“Retreat,” Wu Yuan rasped.

Wang Jie didn’t hesitate. He broke away at once.

Zhi tried to pursue, but thunder roared—Mo Wan Yin’s thunder pattern slammed into her and drove her back.

Shao Ling Er watched Wu Yuan, eyes sharp with the urge to finish it. Wu Yuan lifted his head, starforce boiling as if he’d rather die than be humiliated again.

Shao Ling Er glanced around instead.

Too many eyes. Too many predators.

Chasing now would only invite a dogpile.

So she let Black-White Heaven withdraw.

All around them, the watching gazes receded—carrying shock, caution, and dread.

Shao Ling Er was too strong.

Wu Yuan hadn’t forced out her bottom line at all.