Chapter 337

Chapter 337: Pain

Ting Chen raised her hand again, palm aimed at him, fingers curling.

Wang Jie dispersed his power at once. His body twisted under the impact—and the strike passed through him without doing real harm.

Ting Chen’s voice carried a calm cruelty. “You’ve forced out my Endless. That means you can stand at the peak of the Full-Star Realm.”

“But this is as far as you go.”

She lifted her arm high.

Starforce surged into the sky, condensing into a blade that fell like judgment itself.

Sever the Future Aspect.

Wang Jie forced himself up. Lockforce roared inside him and shot upward, becoming a red moon.

The red moon collided with the falling blade.

Boom.

Crimson ripples exploded outward, sweeping across everything.

The crowd went mad.

“Nan Family Red Moon?”

“That’s Red Moon—how does he have it? Is he Nan Family?”

“He shouldn’t know the complete Red Moon. They all participated in the same trial—did he get something back then?”

Ting Chen’s eyes flashed.

Nan Family Red Moon?

Wang Jie swept his hand.

Moonlight slashed—each strand a sword edge.

Ting Chen raised her palm. Starforce surged to meet it.

Stacked Sky Light.

Every strand of moonlight was blocked.

Outside the arena, people were speechless.

Black-White Heaven’s man was using Nan Family Red Moon.

Star Vault Vista’s woman was using Black-White Heaven chen art.

What was happening?

Wang Jie’s expression tightened too.

Stacked Sky Light—of all things.

People called it a shameless defense. That was exaggeration, but not by much.

His half-baked Red Moon wasn’t breaking it.

Ting Chen struck with her other hand.

Wang Jie stepped on Madman Footwork again, disrupting Tracing Shadow.

He lifted a finger.

Myriad-Stars Finger Art.

Countless finger-shadows fell like meteor rain.

Ting Chen walked through them with lazy precision, avoiding every strike with each step.

She could drift through a rain curtain untouched. Of course she could avoid this.

They closed again.

Wang Jie gripped his sword. Three swords circled him like a cage.

Intercepting Sword Art.

He needed to see her clearly. Needed to read the truth in her movement.

Ting Chen’s gaze fixed on him. She struck with a plain palm—simple, direct.

Wang Jie thrust.

They crossed.

His Intercepting Sword Art found nothing.

Her palm hit his chest again.

But this time he’d anticipated it.

Thunder Pattern flared across his front. It shattered under the impact, but it blunted part of the destructive force. His protective qi absorbed some as well.

Ting Chen looked back at him. “Your qi isn’t enough.”

She struck again.

Wang Jie’s mind went blank.

How did you dodge a strike that arrived like destiny?

Lockforce surged into a shield.

It was smashed with a single palm.

The remaining force threw him backward, blood spilling from his lips.

Ting Chen moved as if she were taking a stroll—every strike effortless.

And yet each one crushed him into the ground.

Guang Yin San Jie created a gap too vast to bridge.

The fact that he could endure Tracing Shadow was already unbelievable.

But if this continued, he would lose.

So far, Ting Chen hadn’t suffered a scratch.

At the Star Vault Vista, Ting He stared at the screen, hands pressed to her mouth.

She didn’t want her sister to lose.

But she didn’t want Wang Jie to lose either.

“Wang Jie can’t break Guang Yin San Jie,” Ting Can said from behind her. “Even if she’s only just begun cultivating it.”

“Because it’s a Star Position technique.”

Ting He turned, confusion and desperation in her eyes. “Great-grandfather… does that mean Star Position techniques are invincible?”

Ting Can smiled faintly. “No technique is invincible.”

“But if the gap is too wide, then even if you know the method to break it, it won’t matter.”

He looked back to the screen. “Unless Wang Jie has a power that absolutely surpasses your sister, he can’t win.”

“And you know your sister’s strength.”

Ting He pressed her lips together. “I just hope Sister… doesn’t make him lose too badly.”

Ting Can chuckled.

Elsewhere, in Tian Cang, Shu Mu Ye watched in silence.

No one knew what he was thinking.

In Black-White Heaven, Windwhisper Star, Hong Jian, and the others clenched their fists, the air thick with helpless anger.

They watched Wang Jie get battered again and again with no answer.

Zhi Yu shook his head. “After Tracing Shadow comes Endless.”

“Legend says it’s eye-born, eye-extinguished. She can predict the future.”

“It’s already impossible.”

“And even if there’s a way to break it, after spending so much strength surviving Guang Yin San Jie, how can he still beat this girl?”

“Even without Guang Yin San Jie, her combat power wouldn’t be below anyone else who received Enlightenment Tea.”

Shu Rang didn’t speak.

From the moment Ting Chen stood across from Wang Jie, the ending was already carved into the air.

All that remained was how Wang Jie would choose to face it.

Some women… had to be beaten into submission.

—

Wang Jie staggered back step by step.

Blood soaked his clothes. Even his hair was stained red.

His eyes, however, did not retreat.

He kept feeling each strike—reading it, tasting it, carving it into his bones.

He had to admit it.

This was close to hopeless.

Every defense he raised became meaningless. Even full-body defense was useless. And if he burned lockforce too fast, how would he win?

Ting Chen stood there like a flawless statue—beautiful, cold, untouchable.

Across the universe, countless hearts cheered for her.

She matched every fantasy: the beauty, the status, the disdainful gaze, the sense that she stood above all things.

Wang Jie panted, face pale as paper.

“How many times have you hit me?” he asked.

Ting Chen’s voice was calm. “I don’t remember.”

Wang Jie laughed hoarsely. “You can’t even remember. You really never saw me as anything.”

“I told you already,” Ting Chen said. “You’re not worthy.”

“Is that so?”

Wang Jie’s lips curved, and something feral flickered behind his eyes. “Then I’m guessing I’m not wrong.”

“One of your eyes predicts my movements. The other sees my weak points.”

Ting Chen narrowed her eyes, saying nothing.

Wang Jie exhaled, almost in awe. “Twist shadows and time. Predict the future. See weakness.”

“It really is… flawless.”

He lifted his gaze. “But what if I have no weak points?”

“Or what if I’m nothing but weak points?”

Ting Chen frowned slightly, as if he were speaking nonsense.

He should be out of options by now. He should be at his limit.

So why was his fighting spirit still burning?

He hadn’t even touched her once.

“If you’re trying to show off your Bone Qi Method to interest me,” Ting Chen said coldly, “you’re mistaken.”

“To me, your Bone Qi Method is no different from begging.”

She stepped in and struck again, black-and-white eyes fixed on him.

Wang Jie lifted his head and dragged in a brutal breath.

All right.

Let’s begin.

Pain.

In the next instant, agony tore through his entire body.

Bones shifted. Flesh ripped. His ears filled with the sound of himself breaking.

Outside the arena, people stared, dazed.

His upper garments exploded into scraps. Flesh peeled open. Meridians snapped as they stretched. Bone pierced through skin.

It looked like he was about to burst apart.

Ting Chen stopped, horror flashing across her face.

Wang Jie clenched his teeth so hard his jaw trembled. Blood slid down from the corner of his mouth. Along his back, bone after bone punched through.

He spat blood, dropped to one knee, and sucked in ragged breaths. Then he looked up at Ting Chen and rasped, voice shredded raw:

“If even I don’t know what I can do… then what can you do to me?”

Bone-Motion Art.

He moved by dragging his body with bone.

Inside him, torn flesh was stitched back together by mid-tempered sword-thread. He pulled himself by his own strings, turning himself into a puppet and forcing motion through ruin.

He charged.

Ting Chen’s eyes locked onto him—then faltered.

Her prediction failed.

She couldn’t see it.

His movement had no pattern to read.

Bang.

Ting Chen threw up both arms on instinct. Wang Jie’s fist blasted her back, the shockwave rolling off her spine and pressing toward the arena’s edge.

Her eyes burned.

Impossible.

No one could surpass Endless.

She flipped and landed—and Wang Jie was already there again.

Under Bone-Motion Art, his body moved in irregular, broken ways. And because his flesh, bones, and even meridians were shattered, he was nothing but openings.

Everywhere was a weak point.

Which meant Ting Chen’s eyes became useless.

No future to predict.

No single weakness to exploit.

Because he was all weakness.

Impossible.

No one could do this.

A body that broken should not be able to move. It should have crumbled into dust under its own force.

Yet he moved.

Bang.

Qi-Qi Convergence roared.

Lockforce threaded through his shattered frame and exploded.

All those methods he’d used to temper his bones. That nameless cultivation art. The nights of torment. The endless cycles of pain—every drop of it paid him back now.

The agony of being stitched together with mid-tempered sword-thread had long since turned numb.

All he knew was this:

Move.

Punch.

Punch again.

Win.

Even watching made people’s hearts clench. Anyone could see the pain he was enduring.

He was enduring.

He was fighting like a man refusing to die.

Ting Chen—was being pressed back.

At the Star Vault Vista, Ting He covered her mouth, eyes wide and wet.

It was as if she were seeing the Wang Jie from back then—bloodied and broken as he challenged Shu Mu Ye again and again.

That sunlit figure stepping forward, leaving pain behind with every stride.

The man who had once fought for his hometown with everything he had… was here again.

Even Ting Can looked shaken. “This kid…”

Elsewhere, Qing Huan, Shu Mu Ye, Ban Xia—each of them watched, their eyes changing as the fight cut deeper than combat and into something rawer.

No one could say how far human will could stretch.

But Wang Jie’s will, right now, was enough.

Ting Chen steadied herself, pupils returning to normal. She stared at Wang Jie, fury rising like flame.

She would not lose.

She was the Star Vault Vista’s eldest miss. She had never lost since childhood.

Her target was Tian Cang’s Guarding Star Realm—the strongest of her generation.

How could she lose to him?

You want to win?

Then I’ll show you despair.

I’ll show you how ridiculous your “marry us” fantasy is.

Wang Jie charged again.

Ting Chen’s aura changed.

The void itself seemed to sink.

Wang Jie felt it instantly—something strange, heavy, wrong. The air pressed down and his breath nearly seized in his throat.

At the Star Vault Vista, Ting Can’s face changed. “No. How can this girl use that?”

He moved to intervene.

“Great-grandfather!”

Ting He’s shout stopped him cold.

Ting Can turned—and froze.

Ting He’s face had changed. No playful warmth, no flustered softness.

She was solemn. Calm. Still.

It made him feel as if he were seeing her for the first time.

“Sister is proud,” Ting He said softly. “If she chose this, then let her.”

Ting Can searched her eyes. He had only seen that expression once before.

Whenever Ting He looked like this, it meant she was serious.

“Do you understand what doing this will mean for the Star Vault Vista?” Ting Can asked, voice tight.

Ting He gave a faint smile and looked toward the arena. “No matter the consequences, Sister and I can fix them.”

Ting Can let out a bitter breath.

Fine.

Let them.