Chapter 352

Chapter 352: Zen Palm Form

Wang Jie hit the ground with a crash, his body slamming into the earth hard enough to carve a massive crater.

Around him, huge carnivores fled in panic.

He looked up.

The ship hovered above the planet, then descended and landed.

So they really could track him.

Wang Jie drew a long breath and placed a pill on his tongue.

This was trouble.

Who was it?

At this point, hiding was pointless.

The ship settled.

Two figures stepped out.

Wang Jie saw them and exhaled. As expected… it was him.

In the Third Zen, the only people he’d clashed with were Su Qing and Jiang Yu.

Su Qing had no way to track him, and she couldn’t command a Hundred-Star Realm expert.

That left only Jiang Yu—the crown prince of the Third Zen.

Jiang Yu looked smug—insufferably smug. “Little brat, I caught you. You can really run.”

He was clearly just a teenager, yet his arrogance was sky-high.

Wang Jie stared at him. “Why are you chasing me? Have we even met?”

“Hahahaha!” Jiang Yu laughed loudly, chin lifted. “I knew you’d deny it. Shu He—this young master guessed right, didn’t I?”

Behind him, the maid Shu He bowed, smiling softly. “Young Master is wise, as always.”

Jiang Yu’s eyes turned cold. “Not many people dare bid against this young master at an auction. Little brat, you’ve got guts.”

“How did you know it was me?” Wang Jie asked. He knew denial was pointless now. He just wanted to understand.

“There are plenty of ways,” Jiang Yu said with a casual wave. “Not only do I know it’s you, I can chase you down. Forget the Third Zen—across this entire bridge-pillar, if I want you, I can find you. Little brat, your good days are over.”

Shu He stepped forward, gaze sharp as autumn water. “You offended our Young Master. You’ll pay the price.”

Shu He lunged.

Starforce surged skyward and crashed down on Wang Jie like a mountain.

He retreated with sword steps, but the pressure swept across the planet in an instant. At the same time, the void flashed with black light, forming layers of force that poured down like a dark waterfall.

It was stronger than a Six-Path Roamer.

Wang Jie hadn’t expected Jiang Yu’s maid to be this terrifying.

He immediately used Jia Eight Steps to dodge the black light.

Shu He’s expression flickered with surprise. “Jia Yi Sect’s Jia Eight Steps? You’re from the Jia Yi Sect?”

In the distance, Jiang Yu’s brows tightened. The Jia Yi Sect?

So there really was something suspicious about him.

“Shu He,” Jiang Yu ordered, “catch him. I want to interrogate him.”

“Yes, Young Master.” Shu He’s voice turned cool. “He won’t get away.”

Her figure blurred. Each step landed on the black light itself, and her speed spiked again.

It wasn’t a footwork technique—it was movement driven by that strange starforce.

Even with Jia Eight Steps, Wang Jie couldn’t shake her.

He’d originally planned to slip past Shu He and seize Jiang Yu.

Now it was clearly impossible.

Wang Jie kept his voice steady. “Young Master, an auction is meant for bidding. Do you really need to make such a scene?”

Jiang Yu sneered. “Now this young master suspects you’re a spy planted by the Jia Yi Sect in our Third Zen. Come back with me for questioning.”

Wang Jie felt a headache coming on. If he’d known it would turn into this, he would never have bid at all.

Shu He pressed closer, starforce rolling around her. When she struck with a palm, wind stopped, starforce stopped—everything froze beneath the weight of that single gesture.

A chill crawled down Wang Jie’s spine.

He drove his lockforce and met her palm with brute strength.

Bang!

The palms collided.

Both of them stepped back.

Shu He stared at him, genuinely startled. This man was unbelievably strong.

Wang Jie’s palm tingled with numbness. Shu He hadn’t even used much starforce, yet the technique behind that palm was monstrous.

What kind of battle art was that?

“No wonder you can control a mountain range,” Shu He said, eyes narrowing. “But if Young Master wants you, you won’t escape.”

She pulled out a rope. When she flicked it, ripples shimmered through the void itself.

Wang Jie’s instincts screamed.

Some powers couldn’t be used here. If he revealed them, his identity would be exposed.

But if he didn’t… this woman wouldn’t be easy to handle.

Troublesome.

Shu He snapped the binding rope again. It coiled toward Wang Jie like a spirit serpent, the starforce within it surging—instantly surpassing her own. It had clearly reached Hundred-Star Realm level.

With only Roaming-Star Realm combat power, she was forcibly controlling a Hundred-Star Realm chen artifact—yet it still moved with frightening agility.

Wang Jie tried to dodge, but the rope sealed every direction. Starforce spilled outward, cutting off all paths.

He had nowhere to go.

Luckily, he had something too.

Crack!

Wang Jie snapped out a long whip and smashed the binding rope aside.

Shu He’s eyes widened. “A chen artifact?”

The whip came from the Four Seasons Train—a six-tribulations chen artifact.

Because Wang Jie didn’t cultivate starforce and was only at Full-Star Realm, he had to drain off starforce constantly, forcing the whip down to roughly four-tribulations power.

Even so, controlling four-tribulations starforce was difficult for him. Lockforce and starforce clashed.

But knocking the rope away was enough.

Actual whip techniques? Impossible.

Shu He kept snapping the rope to bind him. Wang Jie kept knocking it aside.

Mountains shattered. Rivers split. Valleys cracked open.

Forests were ground to pulp beneath the twisting collision of starforce and lockforce.

Seeing she still couldn’t pin him down, Shu He snorted. With a twist of her right arm, she tangled the binding rope with his whip, then charged straight along the rope toward him.

With each step, the black starforce thickened, forcing Wang Jie to either meet it head-on or abandon the whip.

Wang Jie’s gaze sharpened.

He held the whip in his left hand, drew his saber with his right, raised it—and slashed.

One Blade.

The strike flowed out naturally, strength and lockforce surging together. For an instant, even Shu He hesitated. The black light gathered in front of her—

—and split under the blade.

Shu He blinked in surprise.

It wasn’t as powerful as she’d expected.

Then she realized it: he’d bluffed her.

Wang Jie’s expression hardened. One Blade was decent, but it wasn’t enough to truly threaten someone like Shu He.

As Shu He pressed down again with starforce, Wang Jie could only step with Jia Eight Steps and yank hard on the whip.

Shu He expected brute force—expected him to tear rope and whip apart.

Instead, she spun, wrapping the rope around herself, looping it around her waist.

If Wang Jie kept pulling, he’d only drag her closer.

Now he faced a choice.

Give up the whip?

Impossible. It was a six-tribulations chen artifact.

Then…

He pulled.

Shu He was hauled toward him by sheer strength. Her lips curved, and she stabbed out a finger—Bone-Corroding Finger Method.

Wang Jie raised a finger of his own—Myriad-Stars Finger. But he kept it restrained. The instant the finger-shadow appeared, it fused into one, making it harder to read.

The two finger arts collided.

Wang Jie’s eyes tightened. He felt the bones in his finger crack inch by inch while the flesh remained untouched.

A vicious technique—chen art that bypassed flesh to strike bone directly.

After that clash, his entire right arm went sluggish.

But Shu He didn’t fare well either. She hadn’t expected Wang Jie’s finger art to be that strong.

With the fused Myriad-Stars Finger, the impact tore through her arm as well. Her sleeve ripped open, lockforce cutting pale skin and spraying blood across the ground.

Both of them retreated.

Wang Jie seized the moment and snapped the whip. Shu He instinctively loosened the binding rope, letting him reclaim it.

“You even know chen arts?” Shu He’s eyes widened. “No… it’s lock arts.”

Wang Jie flexed his fingers, jaw set. That hit had hurt.

If he’d reinforced every bone in his right arm with the Undying Body beforehand, her finger art wouldn’t have done anything at all. He might have crippled her instead.

“Shu He!” Jiang Yu barked. “What are you doing? Hurry and catch him!”

Shu He frowned. By now, she couldn’t even see this man’s true path.

Aside from Jia Eight Steps, he’d shown no signature power. His physical strength was terrifying, but that alone proved nothing.

Even that finger technique had been restrained, almost deliberately quiet.

“Who are you?” Shu He demanded.

Wang Jie didn’t want this fight to drag on.

The longer it went, the more constrained he felt. If he went all out, he might not lose to her—but he couldn’t expose his full strength.

And Jiang Yu was still there.

A teenager was still a teenager… but he might not be weak.

Wang Jie’s voice turned hard. “Zen Mountain’s Zen Heir Disciple, Lu Bu Qi. You’ve attacked a Zen Heir Disciple like this. I will report it to the Second Zen.”

In the distance, Jiang Yu sneered. “You look suspicious, so I’m taking you back for questioning. If you got hurt because you panicked like a guilty thief, what does that have to do with me?”

He waved a hand. “Shu He—take him down. Now.”

The starforce vanished in an instant.

Shu He put away the binding rope. Her presence sank like a stone into deep water. “I don’t care who you are. Either surrender and come back to the sect to explain yourself… or take one palm from me.”

She raised her hand.

“Zen Palm Form.”

The moment the words left her mouth, heaven and earth seemed to change color.

All sound vanished.

This had happened once already. That palm had made Wang Jie wary. The next would be even stronger.

Wang Jie turned and slashed One Blade at Jiang Yu.

He meant to force Jiang Yu to move—to disrupt Shu He’s focus.

But Shu He didn’t care. She let the blade fly and simply struck with her palm.

Jiang Yu faced the incoming One Blade as if it were nothing.

Wang Jie clenched his teeth.

The saber-strike hit Jiang Yu head-on. Starlight erupted across Jiang Yu’s body, and the edge couldn’t bite in. Even Wang Jie’s strength couldn’t force Jiang Yu back a single inch through that protective starforce.

A powerful chen artifact.

Behind him, Shu He’s palm closed in.

Wang Jie’s scalp tingled. If he took that head-on, he’d be badly injured.

Luckily, he’d prepared for this.

He spun, pulled out the boat-shaped chen artifact, and raised it as a shield.

Bang!

Shu He’s palm slammed into it. Wang Jie braced behind the boat and used the impact to launch himself straight toward Jiang Yu.

He’d calculated the angle earlier.

He’d placed himself between Jiang Yu and Shu He on purpose.

Now he borrowed the force, accelerated with sword steps, and shot forward fast enough that even Shu He couldn’t catch him.

What Shu He hadn’t expected—what shocked her most—was that Wang Jie had actually blocked her Zen Palm Form.

She hadn’t expected the palm to crush him outright, but it should have forced out his true combat power.

Instead, she couldn’t even crack that boat-shaped chen artifact.

Wang Jie closed the distance to Jiang Yu and reached for him.

Jiang Yu turned and ran.

One step. Two. Three.

On the third step, he vanished.

Wang Jie grabbed empty air and stared, stunned.

Another chen artifact.

Shu He struck again, refusing to believe he could block many more.

Zen Palm Form was driven by a Zen state of mind and consumed less starforce. She could throw palm after palm.

And she was sure Wang Jie couldn’t hold out forever.

The next palms crashed down one after another—each landing on the boat.

She tried to angle around it, but Wang Jie used the boat purely as a shield. Zen Palm Form was overwhelming in force, but not tricky enough to slip past his defense and hit him directly.