Chapter 332

Chapter 332: Just You Wait

Gui Xiao Die’s Fish-Watching Force shattered the instant it touched his palm. She retreated in a blur. Where she’d stood, the arena trembled and dented under the strike.

The sheer power shocked her. Was this man a monster?

She hadn’t underestimated Wang Jie.

Using Fish-Watching Force to dissolve his palms was meant to test his lower limit, since he’d beaten Yuan Mu head-on.

But she couldn’t test it at all.

His strength exceeded what she could dissolve.

Then—Spirit-Roaming Steps.

Gui Xiao Die’s figure fluttered, and in a blink she vanished from the arena.

Wang Jie stood still. Red lightning flickered along a Thunder Pattern—and rain began to fall.

Under the rain, Gui Xiao Die gradually reappeared. Wang Jie guided sword qi and slashed down, but she dodged easily.

A fish swam out from the rain toward him.

Rain-Curtain Sword Qi cut through it. The fish split apart, but a patch of rain curtain went blank too.

Fish-Watching Force existed to dissolve power.

Sword qi was power as well.

If he wanted to cut through Fish-Watching Force, he needed to use more sword qi.

Fish after fish appeared, swimming beneath the rain curtain.

Behind Wang Jie, six swords rose—Rain Sword Art.

Outside, the spectators saw a strangely beautiful scene.

In the rain, Wang Jie stood unmoving. Gui Xiao Die danced like a butterfly. Fish swam through the falling water, and now and then, a streak of rain would slice a fish apart.

At a glance, it almost looked elegant.

Only Wang Jie and Gui Xiao Die knew how intense it truly was.

It was a contest of starforce against lockforce—and a contest of will.

Wang Jie didn’t rush. Gui Xiao Die kept using Spirit-Roaming Steps to slip through the sword qi.

Back in the Balance Battle, Gui Xiao Die had beaten Xiao Mu—one of the experts Si Yao had shown Wang Jie before.

Xiao Mu had the ability to delay One Blade.

Meaning One Blade would definitely appear. No one just knew when or where.

Gui Xiao Die’s method of dealing with One Blade wasn’t Fish-Watching Force or Spirit-Roaming Steps.

It was something else.

Wang Jie had watched the replay on the light screen and remembered it. He wanted to see it up close.

So—Myriad-Stars Finger.

If dense rain couldn’t break Spirit-Roaming Steps, what about adding a storm of finger shadows?

No footwork could dodge everything perfectly.

As Myriad-Stars Finger activated, shadows formed under the rain and stabbed again and again.

Gui Xiao Die couldn’t hold. Dodging six blades from Rain Sword Art was already her limit.

If she couldn’t dodge…

Then she simply wouldn’t move.

Starforce surged and spread over her body, turning into a lake beneath her feet. Fish swam through that starforce lake.

In that moment, neither Rain Sword Qi nor Myriad-Stars Finger could come near her.

Gui Xiao Die looked rooted in place inside the lake.

At Black-White Heaven, Zhi Yu praised, “Tree-Guard Stance—the Cold-Smoke Ferry’s supreme defensive battle technique. It comes from their Zuo Wang Bei Ming Art.”

His eyes narrowed with memory. “When I was young, I fought this move at the entrance of the Thousand Rivers, and I couldn’t shake it at all. Only by using my Zhi family’s Fixed-Star Technique to disrupt its starforce for an instant could I seize a chance to break free from the double entanglement of Tree-Guard Stance and Fish-Watching Force.”

He leaned forward slightly. “I want to see how this kid plans to break it.”

Beneath Gui Xiao Die’s feet, the starforce lake kept spreading. When Rain Sword Qi came close, it visibly bent, as if invisible force guided it down into the lake.

Wang Jie pointed with one finger. Myriad-Stars Finger merged and pressed down from above.

Gui Xiao Die flipped her palm upward. Starforce blossomed into branches from her feet, climbing along her body and forcibly blocking the descending finger.

No matter how Myriad-Stars Finger pressed, it couldn’t push through.

At the same time, the starforce lake crawled toward Wang Jie.

Wang Jie retreated step by step, but the arena was only so large. Soon, there was nowhere left to go.

He slashed.

Sword qi plunged into the starforce lake and vanished.

Gui Xiao Die stared at him coldly. “My Cold-Smoke Ferry’s trump card isn’t something you can break.”

Wang Jie stared at the lake, eyes narrowing.

“Peel the threads. Return to the essence.”

Gui Xiao Die’s gaze shook. He saw it already?

Yes. The essence of Tree-Guard Stance was thread-peeling—forcing all an enemy’s power back to its starforce essence, then using Fish-Watching Force to draw that starforce away and merge it.

It sounded simple.

It was brutally hard to cultivate.

She had trained in the Thousand Rivers for a long time to reach this point. She believed no one could break it.

Yet he’d seen through it almost immediately.

But so what? Seeing didn’t mean breaking.

At most, it proved his comprehension was high.

Wang Jie could see it because he’d cultivated Tempered Sword-Thread; his mind no longer stopped at the surface of techniques.

Watch long enough, and you could see it.

Breaking it was hard for others.

For him… maybe not.

He stepped forward and planted his foot directly into the starforce lake. He lifted his head and grinned. “Did you forget? I cultivate lockforce.”

Gui Xiao Die raised a brow and sneered. “So what? As long as it’s power, it can be stripped and merged.”

“Only if your starforce can suppress my lockforce.”

Gui Xiao Die laughed. “You don’t seriously think your lockforce is stronger than my starforce, do you?”

“Then let’s compare.”

Wang Jie stood on the lake, raised his right hand, palm down—and vast lockforce surged out and pressed down. With a boom, the arena trembled like floodgates opening. For a moment, the starforce lake was pushed back.

Gui Xiao Die sneered. Since she cultivated Tree-Guard Stance, how could she not have considered this?

The only way others could break this move was with stronger, vaster starforce—enough to crush the entire lake. But “stronger” didn’t mean a slight edge. It meant doubling the amount.

Because Tree-Guard Stance stripped away the opponent’s starforce. Without starforce at least doubled, you could never suppress her inside Tree-Guard Stance.

And she believed no one had that much more starforce than she did.

Lockforce was different. Tree-Guard Stance stripped lockforce far more slowly than it stripped starforce. So Wang Jie only needed his lockforce to exceed even a tenth of hers—maybe less—to break free.

But was that possible?

She had absolute confidence in the amount of starforce she held.

This man wanted to compete with her in sheer quantity?

Ridiculous.

Wang Jie found it ridiculous too.

Fine.

He’d play.

The entire arena became an ocean of starforce and lockforce.

Starforce spread across the stone, trying to drown Wang Jie. Under his feet, lockforce expanded outward from a single point, pushing back again and again.

Anyone who knew Gui Xiao Die refused to believe Wang Jie could break this.

Yet as time passed, the lockforce beneath his feet spread wider and wider—while Gui Xiao Die’s starforce lake began to shrink.

Gui Xiao Die frowned. Starforce poured from her wildly. She didn’t need to think about the next match; there would be time to rest afterward.

She had to win this one with everything.

It was what her Old Ancestor had promised that person.

But no matter how much starforce she released, Wang Jie’s lockforce surged just as violently, with no sign of stopping.

Their output had long surpassed the level of the Full-Star Realm. Even top experts in the Roaming-Star Realm might not have such vast reserves.

And they kept going.

Gui Xiao Die’s expression changed.

Wang Jie’s stayed calm.

Time dragged on.

Gui Xiao Die stared at him, disbelief creeping into her eyes.

How was this possible?

He still had lockforce?

Where was it coming from?

Wang Jie was a little surprised too. Gui Xiao Die’s starforce was insane—Tree-Guard Stance demanded it.

But she had no idea how much lockforce he actually had.

As things continued, Gui Xiao Die couldn’t take it anymore.

Her starforce was nearly gone, yet Wang Jie kept releasing lockforce. Even if he was at his limit too, they were still only roughly equal.

She needed to win. And without starforce, the memory of Wang Jie’s terrifying physical strength made her skin prickle.

No.

She had to gamble.

What was wrong with this man? Why did he have so much lockforce?

Was he sick?

She sat down cross-legged, closed her eyes, and used Zuo Wang Bei Ming Art.

Wang Jie instantly rushed her. A palm dropped toward her, trying to end it.

Gui Xiao Die opened her eyes.

In that instant, both pupils turned gray-white, and her aura went cold—as if she’d become someone else.

Wang Jie saw those gray-white pupils and froze mid-motion. His body seemed to lose control. Momentum carried him forward in a stumble.

Gui Xiao Die seized the opening. Fish-Watching Force surged, trying to knock Wang Jie out of the arena.

Outside, countless people were baffled.

They couldn’t understand what had just happened.

Someone sighed. “The Cold-Smoke Ferry’s Zuo Wang Bei Ming Art can make an enemy forget what they were about to do in an instant. It’s terrifying. If you seize that instant, no matter how big the gap in battle power is, you can turn it around.”

“There’s something like that?”

“Forget?”

“That’s filthy.”

At Black-White Heaven, Qing Zheng, Old Five, and the others cursed Gui Xiao Die for being shameless.

But on a battlefield, there was no shameless—only victory and defeat.

Just as Wang Jie was about to be pushed out, he shattered Fish-Watching Force with one palm. Then, with a casual sweep, his sword flashed out and cut toward Gui Xiao Die.

Gui Xiao Die didn’t care.

He wanted to use the sword’s momentum to break free of Zuo Wang Bei Ming Art?

If it were that easy, how could the Cold-Smoke Ferry dominate the Thousand Rivers?

Forgetting meant losing that instant of control.

A sword you couldn’t control, and you still wanted to hurt her?

Her gray-white pupils locked on Wang Jie again.

Wang Jie’s mind went blank for an instant.

But the blade kept coming.

Gui Xiao Die didn’t care—until a cold flash swept past.

Her pupils snapped back to normal.

She stared blankly at the blade’s passing line.

How…?

A thin red line appeared on her neck.

Wang Jie recovered almost immediately. When he saw her stunned expression, he nearly laughed.

How could she know he didn’t control his sword with lockforce?

It was Sword Rig.

No lockforce needed. The moment the sword left his hand, its power was already set.

If Gui Xiao Die had been even slightly cautious, that sword wouldn’t have hurt her.

In the end, she’d been too confident in her own art.

And Wang Jie had used that confidence.

Of course, if the sword hadn’t worked, he still had Bone-Motion Art. Forget?

It didn’t matter. Bone-Motion Art was all inertia.

Gui Xiao Die lost.

In their duel, the odds were obviously on her. Ninety-nine percent of people believed she would win.

Yet she lost.

At the Cold-Smoke Ferry, Gui Xiao Die opened her eyes and instinctively clutched her neck.

She had felt death.

“Well?” someone asked.

Gui Xiao Die’s face was ugly. “Why? That sword shouldn’t have been able to hurt me. Why?”

“I told you long ago,” the voice said evenly, “Zuo Wang Bei Ming Art isn’t invincible. Be careful of anyone. In a fight, it’s not just battle power. It’s brains.”

“But he clearly forgot,” Gui Xiao Die snapped. “He clearly lost control of his sword.”

Her eyes burned with stubborn fury. “I’m not convinced. I was careless. If we do it again, I won’t lose.”

“You still haven’t seen it. Think it through.”

Gui Xiao Die clenched her teeth and looked up at the light screen. She saw Wang Jie on the arena rolling his shoulders.

She clenched harder.

She wasn’t convinced.

She hadn’t really lost.

Wang Jie—just you wait at the Roaming-Star Realm tournament.