Chapter 41

Chapter 41: Lift

Ming Zhao’s eyes went wide with horror.

He turned to flee.

Wang Jie kicked a pebble.

The stone punched through Ming Zhao’s body. He fell without another sound, left forever on this blood-soaked land.

Wang Jie cracked open their blood-keyed storage ring and dumped out the disaster materials. There was nothing else of value—no treasures, no secrets. Probably a restriction of the trial.

Only then did he leave.

Back on the aircraft, silence stretched tight.

Old Nine leaned against the window. “A beast tide killed a hundred thousand people.”

His voice was distant. “I don’t know when it started… but people became numbers.”

Qing Zheng patted his shoulder. “Don’t brood. We’re all the same. Who knows if we’ll even live to the next minute.”

Old Five looked at Wang Jie. “Old Boss… are we really going to be sacrificed?”

It was always like that. Until something truly happened, you couldn’t feel it in your bones. Even watching someone die in front of you brought shock more than grief.

Wang Jie watched the sun sink into the horizon. “No.”

Old Five laughed, loose and fearless. “Even if we are, so what? If we die, we die together. What’s there to fear? Years ago, in that fire—we should’ve died then.”

Qing Zheng threw his head back and laughed. “Yeah! What’s there to fear?”

Old Nine’s mouth twitched into a faint smile.

The heavy mood cracked—and what came next, as always, was Wang Jie’s exercises.

Old Five and the others silently turned to stare out the window, unwilling to comment.

Wang Jie moved through his routine, drawing Imprint Power into his body as sweat ran down his face and dripped onto the floor.

His strength rose again.

Fifty times.

It wasn’t doubling anymore.

It wasn’t that the Imprint Power had lessened—it was that, at this realm, the amount of strength he could extract from each absorption was shrinking.

The next time might be sixty. Or less. Until he hit the limit.

Was that limit the ceiling of the Eighth Seal?

Or was it the ceiling for all beings in the universe at this level?

Wang Jie wanted to know.

When the aircraft landed at Tian Fu Base, the disaster materials were unloaded. Wang Jie and his men went straight to sleep.

Sunlight stabbed into his eyes.

Morning.

Aircraft came and went, delivering more materials and more Trialists. Even the twenty-plus Trialists who’d been imprisoned at Shang Jing City were brought here.

Their looks at Bai Yuan and the others were openly hostile.

But they were kept in line.

Yun Lai alone could suppress them.

Everything could wait until Shu Mu Ye was dealt with.

Wen Xing Ru’s group continued absorbing Imprint Power to keep themselves at peak condition.

Two days later, scouts confirmed it—

An insect sea was moving toward Tian Fu Base.

Insect Xuan had arrived. He was coming with Insect Ruo Ruo.

Meanwhile, Shu Mu Ye’s side was under constant surveillance. The pit at Shan Cheng had been filled long ago. The bodies were stacking, already more than ten meters high.

Shu Mu Ye had said it clearly: when the corpses reached a thousand meters, he would build the bridge.

And Blue Star would be buried.

The Trialists stayed at peak strength. A handful of Blue Star Eighth Seal cultivators were granted the right to absorb Imprint Power from disaster materials too, hoping to break through to Ninth Seal and become combat power for the siege on Shu Mu Ye.

Wang Jie, notably, was left out.

He hadn’t acted during the last siege.

Wen Xing Ru didn’t need to say it aloud. In their eyes, giving disaster materials to someone like him was a waste.

Three more days.

The insect sea arrived.

Mutant insects were fast by nature, and Insect Xuan wasn’t far. Three days was more than enough.

Tian Fu Base had never seen anything like it.

Insects.

A sky-swallowing tide, painting the world in crawling color.

It dwarfed every beast tide that had come before.

Insect Ruo Ruo alone could gather enough insects to surround Shang Jing City. With Insect Xuan added to the mix—

Insect Xuan was a prodigy brought in alongside Mo and Qi Xue Yin to fight Shu Mu Ye. Far beyond Yun Lai.

“We’ve fought him once already,” Wen Xing Ru said. “The gap is enormous. We need your insect sea.”

Insect Xuan was pale and ordinary-looking, except for the black tattoo on his face—a stylized insect.

He turned to Mo. “Lord Mo of the Third Zen Heaven is here as well. Insect Xuan pays his respects.”

Mo glanced at him, gave a small nod, and went right back to turning a disaster material over in his hand as if nothing else mattered.

Insect Xuan didn’t take offense. He swept his gaze across the gathered crowd. “Who is Wang Jie?”

Wang Jie was there, of course—among Blue Star’s strongest and the Trialists’ elites.

“It’s him,” Insect Ruo Ruo said, stepping forward to point with exaggerated arrogance.

Insect Xuan looked Wang Jie over. “So you’re the one who beat Ruo Ruo?”

“Luck,” Wang Jie said.

Insect Xuan smiled. “Escaping her insect sea is hard enough. Capturing her too? That’s not luck.”

Insect Ruo Ruo’s face darkened. She leaned in and hissed, “Old brother, you came to teach him a lesson. Why are you praising him?”

Insect Xuan chuckled. “You chased him for days. He didn’t kill you. What lesson is there? You should thank him for sparing you.”

Insect Ruo Ruo bared her teeth and snorted.

Yun Lai cut in sharply, voice dripping contempt. “He didn’t even have the courage to fight Shu Mu Ye. What does strength matter then?”

Insect Xuan frowned and turned to Wang Jie. “Were you afraid of death?”

“Observing,” Wang Jie said.

Yun Lai sneered.

Insect Xuan studied Wang Jie for a moment, then nodded. “I hope that’s true.”

He looked out beyond the base. “My insect sea still isn’t large enough. The last siege was too reckless. The best method is ugly but effective—use the insect sea and beast tides, plus human-wave tactics. Surround him. Exhaust his Starforce. Make him fight without rest. Then we strike.”

“It’s disgraceful,” he admitted, “but he is Shu Mu Ye.”

Wen Xing Ru nodded. “Agreed. Rest for now. Once the insect sea reaches full scale, we move.”

She turned to Bai Yuan. “Your Five Major Bases should send more cultivators. Don’t fear sacrifice. The more you die now, the better your odds later. Better than all of Blue Star being nailed down.”

Bai Yuan fell silent.

No one dared promise something like that.

Wang Jie, unbidden, remembered Jiang City’s human wall. His chest tightened.

Wen Xing Ru didn’t force it. She gave Bai Yuan a few days to consider. They would face Shu Mu Ye with the most complete plan they could build—every shred of Blue Star’s strength gathered together.

Even then, it came down to one thing:

Gamble.

But Shu Mu Ye didn’t give them the time.

In only a few days, the altar at Shan Cheng had reached a hundred meters.

Shu Mu Ye stood atop it, looked toward Tian Fu Base, stepped onto the void, and walked closer.

Drones streamed the footage back.

The base erupted.

“Shu Mu Ye is coming!”

“Where’s Insect Xuan?”

“Still outside gathering insects!”

“Get him back. Now. The war has begun.”

Calling it a war against one man sounded natural to the Trialists.

On Tian Fu Base’s wall, everyone gathered—Trialists and Blue Star’s elites alike, Wang Jie among them—staring north as the black dot grew larger.

Under a vast clear sky, Shu Mu Ye walked closer without hindrance, smiling faintly as if he were taking a stroll, eyes calm as he looked down on everything.

Mo tightened his grip on his broken branch sword.

Qi Xue Yin’s aura turned icy, sharp enough to sting the skin.

Wen Xing Ru’s palm wind trembled, and the outline of a mountain seemed to form in the air.

Auras surged upward, pressing toward Shu Mu Ye like a stormfront.

Shu Mu Ye paused and looked up at them. “Can I take this to mean that the fifty-eight of you are challenging me?”

There were fifty-eight people on the north-facing wall.

Fourteen were Blue Star cultivators. Forty-four were Trialists.

Every one of them stood above the Eighth Seal.

Beyond them, no one dared face Shu Mu Ye at all.

Wen Xing Ru’s expression hardened. “Yes.”

Shu Mu Ye nodded. “Then we’ll see if you can stop me. Because right now, I intend to—”

His gaze lifted.

“Use the lives of everyone in this base to build my altar.”

Wang Jie’s pupils constricted.

Tian Fu Base was one of the Five Major Bases. Millions lived inside.

Shu Mu Ye meant to slaughter them all.

Bai Yuan gripped his broad-bladed sword until his knuckles whitened.

Sister Tang, Hong Jian, and the others suppressed their auras—an unmistakable sign they were about to strike.

Wen Xing Ru’s eyes tightened. Insect Xuan hadn’t returned yet. They needed the insect sea to drain Shu Mu Ye’s Starforce first. Until then, they couldn’t afford to act.

She looked at Bai Yuan. “Don’t move. Losing one base is better than losing all of Blue Star.”

Hong Jian stared at her, rage coiling. “You want us to watch Tian Fu Base’s people die?”

Qi Xue Yin’s voice was cold enough to frost breath. “In the universe, planets are destroyed. Billions die. These few million are only numbers.”

“If you insist on charging in,” Wen Xing Ru added, “then fine. But when you die, who protects the remaining people of Blue Star afterward?”

High above, Shu Mu Ye raised an arm and swept it lazily through the air.

The earth split open. A chasm gouged through the land, deep enough that no one could see the bottom.

Then he shifted position and continued, carving the earth again and again as he moved.

“What is he doing?”

“Cutting the ground—he can’t be trying to move Tian Fu Base to Shan Cheng, can he?”

“That’s impossible.”

“He can’t slaughter millions and carry them away,” someone said, voice thin with shock. “So… he’s going to carry the base itself.”

“It can’t be done.”

They followed Shu Mu Ye like puppets on a string, turning as he turned.

It was absurd.

Shu Mu Ye completed a circle around Tian Fu Base, severing the foundation from the surrounding earth. Then he landed to the east, sinking down and down—

Until he lifted.

Tian Fu Base shuddered.

Inside, people didn’t know what was happening outside. They only felt the ground and sky trembling.

An earthquake?

Heat thickened the air. Panic spread like fire. People clung to pillars and walls, eyes wide, mouths open in soundless fear.

Hundreds of thousands of cultivators looked around, helpless.

Then the base rose.

Tian Fu Base—millions of lives—lifted into the air.

Shu Mu Ye stood beneath it, supporting the entire weight as if he were holding up a toy.

Wang Jie stared, stunned beyond belief.

That wasn’t strength.

It couldn’t be.

“Chen Art,” Mo said, his voice compressed into something almost inhuman.

Wen Xing Ru and the others went cold. “Senior Brother Mo… you’re saying Shu Mu Ye is using Chen Art?”

“Jump,” Mo said.

He leapt down from the wall.

The others followed in a wave.

Bai Yuan and the rest did the same.

Fifty-eight people hit the ground.

Around them was a boundless insect sea—mutant insects shifting and hissing, restless in the presence of something they didn’t understand.

Yet not one dared move.