Chapter 354

Chapter 354: Wind and Snow Everywhere

“Third Uncle, can we escape in this direction? This isn’t the route away from the Third Zen.”

“Those Third Zen people will chase toward the route away from them,” Third Uncle said coldly. “If we go the opposite way, we’ll slip out for sure.”

“I wonder where Old Ancestor and the others are.”

“Hmph. They ran long ago. They took the core members and left only a few collateral Roaming-Star Realm branches to hold the Sea-Cliff Grand Array. If we hadn’t fled fast, we would’ve been left there to die with your Second Uncle.”

He glanced around, impatient. “How many people are on the ship now?”

“We fled in a rush,” someone replied. “We brought both starforce and lockforce cultivators. It should be around twenty thousand.”

“There are still lockforce cultivators?” Third Uncle clicked his tongue. “Then up ahead is the clan’s lockforce star-devourer. We were going to raise it a bit longer and give it to the Third Zen as a sign of goodwill. We don’t need that anymore. Let those lockforce cultivators replenish themselves.”

“How can we do that?” another voice protested. “How can we waste time for them?”

“Not for them,” Third Uncle snapped. “That lockforce star-devourer also stores the gift Old Ancestor prepared for the Third Zen. We’re taking it with us.”

“What gift?”

“I don’t know. But if it was meant for the Third Zen, it must be valuable. Too bad we never got the chance to deliver it.”

The ship accelerated toward the lockforce star-devourer.

A little over half a day later, it came into view.

Wang Jie was quietly merging lockforce when he suddenly opened his eyes and looked into the distance.

A ship.

It definitely wasn’t Star Vault Vista. They couldn’t arrive this fast.

That meant—

An enemy.

He rose at once and moved toward the landing zone.

Snow fell thicker and thicker, and the red leaves drifting through heaven and earth looked like flames against white waves.

When the ship landed, it shattered the silence.

Heat spilled out and melted the snow.

Lockforce cultivators poured out, rushing to replenish.

Inside the ship, the starforce cultivators sneered down at them. “Hurry up. Don’t waste time because of you.”

“I don’t get why we’re stopping for this trash.”

Wang Jie watched through the wind and snow as more and more lockforce cultivators appeared.

Madam Miao.

Were they only here to replenish?

If so, there was no need to fight. Once they were done, they’d leave.

He restrained his aura and backed away, not wanting to be spotted. He didn’t know who else might be with them.

But as he turned, a tiny bug fluttered into the air and hovered right in front of him.

Its mung-bean-sized eye stared straight at him.

Bad.

On the ship, Third Uncle’s gaze sharpened. “Who’s there?”

He waved a hand. Countless insects burst outward and swarmed toward Wang Jie.

Wang Jie could dodge cultivator probing. He could even avoid a combat power detector.

But he couldn’t avoid insects.

They sensed the world in a way humans didn’t.

Now that he’d been discovered, there was only battle.

The insects formed a black cloud that rolled toward him, chewing sounds rising like wet sandpaper against bone.

Wang Jie raised his saber and struck One Blade.

The blade-light tore the cloud apart, killing countless insects.

Third Uncle charged out of the ship, eyes bloodshot. “Kill him!”

Lockforce cultivators rushed in together, surging to overwhelm Wang Jie.

Starforce cultivators followed, filing out and staring in disbelief. They hadn’t expected to find someone here.

Wang Jie lifted his saber again and slashed.

One strike cut down an entire line of attackers.

There was no reason to hold back against Madam Miao cultivators.

This was a fight to the death.

Blood stained the wind and snow.

In the monochrome world, it was hard to tell whether there were more red leaves… or more blood.

Wang Jie killed as if he were practicing his saber. Each One Blade took multiple lives.

And still they kept coming.

When the starforce cultivators joined the battle, there was less blood—because many of them were filled with insects, like Madam Miao’s core.

Outside the ship, Third Uncle narrowed his eyes.

He was a Roaming-Star Realm expert and should have moved immediately, but he stayed cautious, letting the others wear Wang Jie down first.

Behind him, someone whispered in fear, “He should be Full-Star Realm, right? How is he so strong? Is he from the Third Zen too?”

“Probably,” another said shakily. “For a lockforce cultivator to have this kind of combat power… who else could produce him besides a behemoth like the Third Zen?”

“I thought the strongest lockforce cultivator was the Full-Star Champion, Wang Jie. But this guy might not be much weaker.”

Wang Jie kept slaughtering until the killing became numb and distant. He no longer knew how many had fallen.

In the starry-sky world, the destruction of a single planet could mean countless deaths. But that was different—abstract.

This was personal.

Blade through flesh. Breath through blood.

Killing made you great.

It was one of the requirements.

Red and white crashed together in violent contrast.

Wang Jie tightened his grip on the saber. No one nearby dared approach. They stared at him with raw fear.

Bodies layered the ground, and blood melted snow into steaming slush.

Third Uncle finally couldn’t wait.

He raised a palm and pressed down. Surging starforce mixed with a strange poison poured out, flooding the sky and turning the white wind and snow green in an instant.

Wang Jie stepped with Jia Eight Steps.

“Jia Eight Steps?” Third Uncle’s pupils shrank. Not good—was the other side from the Jia Yi Sect?

He shot into the sky without hesitation, trying to flee.

He had no intention of fighting anymore.

As for the people below—whether they lived or died meant nothing to him.

Rain began to fall.

Sword qi rode the raindrops, piercing the green starforce and slicing toward Third Uncle as well.

Third Uncle’s pupils tightened. The technique felt familiar.

Wait. This was…?

He looked down.

Wang Jie swung casually.

Raindrops and sword qi merged—and the slash swept sideways, cutting Third Uncle in half at the waist.

But there was no blood.

Only insects spilling out.

Third Uncle screamed, “You’re Wang Jie! The Full-Star Champion Wang Jie!”

He remembered now.

Wang Jie waved again.

Countless strands of sword qi flashed, cutting Third Uncle into fragments.

Below, the rest were cut down beneath the rain-sword qi as well.

The ship lifted, attempting to flee into space.

Wang Jie pointed a finger.

A finger-shadow streaked out.

The ship exploded, and the people inside vanished into smoke.

It had only been an encounter.

Wang Jie exhaled and flicked his saber. Blood flew from the blade and was quickly buried beneath wind and snow.

The corpses would be buried too, erased by endless weather, as if this slaughter had never happened.

Wang Jie’s vision shifted, and he appeared among the fields again.

Killing to become great—completed.

Making the brat cry—also completed.

Did Jiang Yu cry?

Wang Jie had thrown him into the insects only to disgust him. He hadn’t expected tears.

He hadn’t expected the kid’s heart to be that fragile.

Two requirements for the Myriad-Instant Slash were done.

How long the rest would take… he had no idea.

He turned to leave.

Then his expression shifted.

He paused and looked into the distance.

There was a survivor.

Wang Jie walked through the snow step by step.

Buried beneath the white, Miao Chong trembled—partly from pain, partly from terror.

Half his body was burned black. His eyes stared blankly at the sky, and every second was a new kind of torment.

A shadow fell across his vision.

His pupils shrank.

A blade-edge approached.

He smelled death.

“Wait,” Miao Chong rasped, shoving snow aside with shaking hands. “I-I don’t want to die.”

Wang Jie looked down at him without speaking.

His eyes were terrifyingly deep.

In the Blue Star apocalypse, too many people had died. He couldn’t even remember how many he’d killed.

Who wanted to die?

But life was never yours to control.

Not for this man.

Not for him.

If the one who’d appeared here had been Miao Mei—or even Miao Sha—the one dying would have been Wang Jie.

The farther he walked on the path of cultivation, the harder his heart became.

Under the crushing pressure of death, Miao Chong stammered, “I know… this lockforce star-devourer has… it has a gift Old Ancestor prepared for the Third Zen.”

Wang Jie raised an eyebrow. “What gift?”

“If I tell you, will you spare my life?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Wang Jie swung his blade and ended it.

There would be no sparing.

He wasn’t the kind of person who would lie to someone at death’s edge.

As for the gift—he would find it himself.

If he found it, fine.

If not, so be it.

Half a month later, a ship finally arrived.

Wang Jie looked over. This time, it was Star Vault Vista.

Nian Wei had already warned him while the ship was still approaching.

The person coming in person was Ting Chen.

The thought made Wang Jie feel vaguely guilty.

He didn’t know why the Eldest Miss had come herself. It was only to receive a lockforce star-devourer—did it really require her?

With mixed thoughts, Wang Jie headed toward the landing site.

By coincidence, Ting Chen’s ship landed at the same place Madam Miao’s survivors had landed before.

Ting Chen was annoyed—truly, deeply annoyed.

As Star Vault Vista’s Eldest Miss, she’d never run into real trouble in her life. She could do whatever she wanted.

To ordinary people, giants like the Jia Yi Sect and Cheng Yi Dao were untouchable. Even more mysterious places—Bu Zou Guan, Reverse-Delusion Mountain—might as well have been legends.

But she could go wherever she pleased.

Even the wars of the four bridge-pillars didn’t concern them.

She could walk sideways across the starry sky if she wanted.

But after the Full-Star Tournament, everything changed.

The final battle exposed things that should never have surfaced—and that bastard’s kiss made her grind her teeth with rage.

Now Star Vault Vista had run into trouble because of what she’d revealed. She had no choice but to come to the Third Zen, both to learn the Zen Martial Precepts and to avoid certain dangers.

After arriving, she’d assumed that with her comprehension, cultivating the Zen Martial Precepts would be easy.

Instead, it was torture.

The Zen Martial Precepts demanded an extremely stable mind. Yet she kept thinking of Wang Jie’s hateful face and that kiss. Every time she remembered it, she couldn’t calm down.

Forget the Zen Martial Precepts—she couldn’t even cultivate the Twelve Heavenly Stems.

The First Zen had specifically told her to go out and clear her head.

Just then, an analyst in the Third Zen was handing in a lockforce star-devourer, so Ting Chen volunteered to receive it personally, hoping the trip would quiet her mind.

“Aunt Shen,” Ting Chen asked as they approached, “what is it?”

Her gaze fell on a girl who looked even younger than her—perhaps fifteen. Yet Ting Chen called her Aunt Shen without hesitation.

“A lot of people died down there,” Aunt Shen said quietly.

Ting Chen looked down.

At that moment, someone reported that combat power was approaching.

Wang Jie arrived at the landing site and waited. The snow had long buried the stains of blood, turning everything white again.

Red leaves drifted through the air, beautiful against the storm.

The ship descended slowly.

Ting Chen stepped out, with Aunt Shen behind her.

Wang Jie saw Ting Chen and exhaled softly, guilt tugging at him. He stepped forward and bowed.

“Lu Bu Qi greets the Eldest Miss.”

Ting Chen studied him with a calm gaze, clearly not recognizing him. “You’re the analyst who recently joined the Third Zen?”

“Yes.”

“You’re willing to hand over this lockforce star-devourer beneath our feet?”

“Of course. I’ve received kindness from Star Vault Vista, so I should repay it.”