Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Challenge

On Blue Star, Chu Yao lay sprawled on the back of a giant insect like a corpse. After a long while, he finally lifted his head and rubbed his forehead.

“Brutal,” he muttered. “Shu Mu Ye is truly brutal.”

He looked around, sat up, and exhaled slowly. “Where is he…? That Blue Star native actually fought him.”

His mouth curled. “Building the bridge is hopeless, but if I drag that native back to Corpse Sect… that could be fun. Star Vault Vista would probably be interested too.”

He slid off the insect and walked south as the insect sea streamed past.

After only a few steps, he stopped.

He looked up.

A projection hovered in the air—an image from the Martial Hall.

Chu Yao stared at it and said clearly, “I refuse.”

At the same time, on the flying insect’s back—

“I refuse,” Wen Zhao said.

“I refuse,” Insect Ruo Ruo echoed.

Wang Jie and the others turned toward them, confused.

“Refuse what?” Qing Zheng demanded.

Wen Zhao lifted her gaze. “The sect is recalling us. The trial is over for us.”

Wang Jie’s eyes narrowed. “Jia Yi Sect is going to handle Shu Mu Ye directly?”

Wen Zhao shook her head. “The trial is over for the Trialists. The trial itself is still ongoing. It cannot be ended.”

Insect Ruo Ruo clicked her tongue. “Meaning we withdraw. After that, it’s just you Blue Star natives versus Shu Mu Ye.”

She paused, then added, voice sharper, “Oh—and the mutant creatures.”

“What does that mean?” Qing Zheng asked.

Wen Zhao didn’t answer immediately.

She looked up.

The sky was burning.

Streaks of fire fell like meteors, smashing toward them—toward Hua Xia’s land.

Wang Jie stared at the flaming trails.

“More Trialists?” he said, then his expression tightened. “No. Heavenstone.”

His voice went heavy.

In the year 2200, Heavenstone had fallen. Blue Star’s modern weapons and the entire production chain that supported them had been shattered. Humanity had been forced into the cultivation era overnight.

He had lived through it.

He would never forget it.

Back then, only a handful of Heavenstone had fallen.

Now there were countless.

Heavenstone after Heavenstone crashed into the earth like a rain of extinction.

Insect Ruo Ruo jerked her insect mount aside. A Heavenstone slammed down not far away. The shockwave tore through the land, flipping debris into the air and flattening everything in its path.

Wang Jie’s gaze locked on Wen Zhao. “What is Jia Yi Sect doing?”

Wen Zhao’s face was pale beneath the veil. “They’re raising the mutant creatures’ strength. Using them to fight Shu Mu Ye.”

A chill crawled up Wang Jie’s spine.

Jia Yi Sect had stopped caring whether Blue Star’s people lived or died.

The trial had become hell.

Humans could no longer stop Shu Mu Ye—so the sect was betting everything on monsters.

With Heavenstone falling in this quantity, Imprint Power would swell beyond anything Blue Star had known. Mutant creatures would evolve rapidly. Not a few—many.

Ten Seals would appear in clusters.

The bases wouldn’t survive it.

Blue Star itself might not survive it.

This wasn’t a strategy.

It was mutual destruction.

Perhaps Shu Mu Ye would fail to build his bridge—but Jia Yi Sect would lose the chance as well.

And in that game, the ones who would die first, always, were Blue Star’s people.

Old Nine’s teeth ground together. “Animals.”

Qing Zheng stood and jabbed a finger at the sky, cursing until his voice cracked. “Jia Yi Sect! You bastards! You don’t care if Blue Star lives or dies—may you rot!”

Insect Ruo Ruo and Wen Zhao didn’t argue.

The truth didn’t need defending.

Blue Star was about to become a true hell.

How many would live?

Humanity had already sunk to the bottom of the food chain.

Wang Jie’s voice was low, dangerous. “Why aren’t you leaving?”

Wen Zhao hesitated. “I… don’t know. I refused without thinking.”

Insect Ruo Ruo’s jaw set. “I’m waiting for my brother. He won’t leave. I know him.”

Wang Jie turned to her. “Insect Ruo Ruo.”

She looked back.

“Help me,” Wang Jie said. “Please.”

Insect Ruo Ruo met Wen Zhao’s gaze. After a moment, she gave a stiff nod. “Mm.”

Many Trialists accepted the recall without hesitation—Yun Lai among them.

But many stayed.

Wen Xing Ru’s group didn’t leave.

Not one.

Elsewhere, Bai Yuan stood with Qi Xue Yin and Qi Wu.

Qi Wu looked miserable. “Young Lady… why can’t I leave?”

Qi Xue Yin’s voice was cool. “If you leave, who will serve me?”

Qi Wu sighed. “Then you should leave too. Shu Mu Ye isn’t something humans can fight.”

Qi Xue Yin looked toward Tian Fu Base’s direction. “He’s Eighth Seal. No matter how strong he is, there must be a limit. I want to see it.”

Then she glanced at Qi Wu. “And the trial has been raised to the highest level. Anyone who survives and returns earns an A-grade result. Aren’t you tempted?”

“Life is more important,” Qi Wu said bitterly.

Bai Yuan’s face was grim. “Imprint Power is increasing. A lot.”

Qi Wu rubbed his forehead. Blue Star was cursed. Chosen as trial grounds, chosen as a bridge-building world, then attracting Shu Mu Ye on top of everything.

If this planet didn’t die, it would feel like a mistake.

Qi Xue Yin watched the burning sky and smiled faintly.

For her, Shu Mu Ye wasn’t even the point.

The point was attention.

Star Vault Vista would be watching. Shu Mu Ye. A bridge-building world. A native with absurd strength. Even rumors of Dead Realm.

Anyone who survived and returned would become famous.

And in business, fame was everything.

At Tian Fu Base, Shu Mu Ye searched and failed to find the infiltrator from Dead Realm.

In silence, he lifted the base again and continued toward Shan Cheng.

The next day, Wang Jie’s group reached Jin Ling Base.

Insect Ruo Ruo could gather an insect sea around Jin Ling Base easily. The path between Jin Ling Base and Tian Fu Base had already been harvested by Insect Xuan before—there weren’t many insects left along that route.

Jin Ling Base felt wrong the moment they arrived.

The air was heavy. The streets were quiet. People moved like ghosts.

When Wang Jie learned why, his throat went tight.

The altar at Shan Cheng had reached three hundred meters.

Everything above the first hundred meters was corpses.

Blood aura stained the sky.

Millions were dead.

Tian Fu Base was gone.

And Shu Mu Ye had recorded it—sent it to the Five Major Bases. A declaration.

Blue Star would be sacrificed.

No one even had the strength to rage. Despair had turned into something mute.

The base’s old vitality vanished.

Cultivation felt meaningless.

Death waited for everyone, and everyone knew it.

Wang Jie stared at the screen. Among the dead were lords. Among the dead were children. People who had been alive yesterday, reduced to stacked flesh today.

All to fulfill Shu Mu Ye.

He sat atop the altar, looking east, expression unreadable.

No one knew what he was doing.

No one wanted to know.

Even Trialists who didn’t view natives as human felt uneasy watching it.

Insect Ruo Ruo’s face was paper-white.

Wen Zhao’s veil hid her features, but the blood had drained from her voice.

And the disaster didn’t stop there.

With Heavenstone still falling, Imprint Power surged and mutant creatures evolved relentlessly. Jin Ling Base’s safe zone began shrinking. Mutant creatures pressed closer and closer.

Jin Ling Base wasn’t unique.

Every base was the same.

Blue Star’s greatest calamity had arrived.

Humans had become prey.

Wang Jie walked out of Jin Ling Base without a word and went straight into the danger zone.

Old Five and the others followed.

Insect Ruo Ruo controlled her insect sea to assist—killing mutant creatures on one side, collecting disaster materials on the other.

The materials meant nothing to her now. The trial was over for them. When they returned, they would purge Imprint Power from their bodies. Disaster materials no longer held value.

But they mattered to Wang Jie.

He needed them.

The more, the better.

Under moonlight, he hunted alone. Working in a group only slowed him down.

Others hunted too, gathering materials for him wherever they could.

Two full days of slaughter. Countless mutant plants cut down.

On the third day, Wang Jie began his exercises again.

Sixty-three times.

The increase was small—smaller than before.

He was nearing the limit.

He wanted to break through to Ninth Seal, but something in him refused. Shu Mu Ye stood at the true peak. If Wang Jie reached Ninth Seal and could fight him, what if Shu Mu Ye did the same?

The outcome wouldn’t change.

If Shu Mu Ye could reach the extreme, why couldn’t he?

He needed the limit.

He needed the limit now.

Then Jin Ling Base received a new broadcast.

Bai Yuan.

On the screen, Bai Yuan stepped forward and sank to his knees.

Everyone watching froze.

Wang Jie stood on the second floor of a building, eyes locked on the distant projection.

“I, Bai Yuan,” Bai Yuan said, voice hoarse, “kneel and beg all Trialists who haven’t left.”

He bowed his head to the ground.

“Give us one more chance.”

He raised his face again, eyes red. “We will slaughter mutant creatures. We will gather disaster materials for you. We will do anything you ask.”

His forehead slammed down again.

“Just… please… give us one more chance to fight Shu Mu Ye.”

He kept kowtowing. Each impact sounded like a hammer, echoing in the ears of everyone across the bases.

Four major bases watched.

Despair seeped into their bones.

But so did something else.

That pleading stubbornness—the refusal to lie down and die without trying—spread like fire.

“We may never escape being sacrifices,” Bai Yuan said, voice shaking, “but even if the chance is one in a billion, we must try!”

“All Blue Star people—listen!”

“I haven’t given up. You shouldn’t give up either.”

“The despair we’re living through now… we lived it ten years ago.”

“And we’re still alive.”

Another image appeared on the screen.

Wang Jie, fighting Shu Mu Ye outside Tian Fu Base.

Wang Jie’s breath caught.

Someone had recorded it.

The angle was different from what Bai Yuan had seen—filmed from within Tian Fu Base—but the impact was the same.

Everyone stared, stunned.

Bai Yuan’s voice rang out, fierce with conviction.

“He is Wang Jie.”

“Many of you know him.”

“He is one of us—Blue Star’s own.”

“The Trialists couldn’t withstand Shu Mu Ye. But he could fight.”

“So why not give him time to grow?”

“Before he can defeat our enemy, protect yourselves. Protect your bases.”

“Don’t let it end with him defeating Shu Mu Ye—only to find there’s no one left on Blue Star to speak to him.”

“How tragic would that be?”

“We are not without hope.”

In Jin Ling Base, Hui Zhua shot to his feet, pointing at the screen like a madman. “Wild Grass! That’s Wild Grass—I know him!”

“Wild Grass is that strong?”

“Do you remember that giant finger outside the base? That was his technique!”

Voices rose across the base.

Feng Yu. Liang Dong. Da Hu.

“We’re not without hope!”

“Protect the base! Protect ourselves!”

“There will be a chance!”

A mother grabbed her child and sobbed, “We won’t die. Mom will protect you.”

“Protect ourselves,” the crowd chanted, ragged and fierce.

Wang Jie watched the base ignite with a kind of desperate life.

And he smiled.

In the footage, he looked powerless against Shu Mu Ye.

Yet to others, his struggle was proof.

From that angle, he even looked… almost impressive.

He turned his head. “Qing Zheng.”

“Yes, Old Boss.”

“Record me,” Wang Jie said. His voice was calm, steady, and frighteningly clear. “I’m going to challenge Shu Mu Ye.”

Qing Zheng clenched his fist, eyes blazing. “You got it.”