Chapter 51

Chapter 51: Once Is Enough

Wang Jie smashed into a cliff face. Before he could even breathe, Shu Mu Ye appeared in front of him.

“Struggle,” Shu Mu Ye said. “Don’t let me waste a month waiting.”

He punched.

Wang Jie dodged. Behind him, a mountain shattered into dust. The force tore across Hua Xia like a wound, splitting the land all the way toward the sea and pulling seawater inland in a violent surge.

Wang Jie struck back, a finger-force landing squarely on Shu Mu Ye.

Shu Mu Ye didn’t dodge. He let it hit.

His power flared, his defense surging so high that even Heaven-and-Earth Luo Xuan Finger barely scratched him.

Shu Mu Ye swept his arm. Wang Jie was flung again, slammed toward the altar—

And there was Shu Mu Ye’s blade.

Shu Mu Ye drew it and cut down—One Blade.

Wang Jie met it with Rainbow-Drinking Sword Form.

Before the slash could fully fall, Shu Mu Ye caught the blade between two fingers and stopped it dead. Slowly, he bent the edge, as if crushing steel were nothing.

“My blade,” he said softly. “You can’t use it.”

Force rippled down the weapon.

Wang Jie’s eyes snapped wide. He tightened his grip and forced a horizontal cut—no technique, no flourish, only brute strength.

Even Shu Mu Ye couldn’t ignore it completely.

Wang Jie’s strength wasn’t that far from his. The real gap was control and application. But now, with Wang Jie gripping the hilt and putting everything into one savage swing, Shu Mu Ye had to release.

His fingertips were cut, a thin line of blood appearing.

That was all Wang Jie’s One Blade earned—one thread of blood.

Shu Mu Ye answered with an elbow to Wang Jie’s chest.

Wang Jie nearly suffocated. He spat blood as he was blasted backward.

Before he could land, Shu Mu Ye appeared behind him and drove a punch down from above, aimed straight at his head.

Wang Jie couldn’t dodge. Inertia pinned him. He could only raise his arms over his skull.

The punch landed.

The ground detonated and the destruction rippled outward for a hundred kilometers, nearly burying all of Shan Cheng.

Wang Jie was driven deep underground, far beyond sight.

In the distance, Wen Zhao and Qing Zheng stared, helpless. They couldn’t help. They couldn’t even get close.

Only now did Wen Xing Ru and the others truly understand how absurd Shu Mu Ye’s dominance was. Against them, he used “one move”—not because he needed one, but because the instant he moved, it was already enough.

This gap wasn’t something numbers could measure.

Shu Mu Ye stood on the ruins. Wind lifted his hair and let it fall.

He drew back his fist and looked almost lonely as he spoke. “In the end, you still can’t satisfy me.”

“But for a native to reach this point… not bad.”

He glanced toward the shattered altar. He would need a new place now.

Then he turned, looked back once without interest, and walked west.

The moment he left, Old Five and the others rushed in and started digging with their hands.

“Old Boss! Don’t die!”

“Old Boss, don’t you die—please!”

They dug frantically, even though they knew the chances of Wang Jie being alive were nearly nonexistent.

That punch had been meant to kill.

Wen Zhao stared at the broken earth, her expression tangled and dim.

Chong Ruo Ruo and the others fell silent too.

No one dared look down on Wang Jie. To fight Shu Mu Ye to this degree—how many of the same generation across the universe could do that?

If he hadn’t met Shu Mu Ye, if he’d been allowed to step into the stars, he would have blazed across an entire region.

Instead, he met the one person he never should have met.

Mo walked to the edge of the ruins and started digging as well.

Not a word.

Wen Xing Ru and the others left. That native had only given them one thing: a month of delay. The outside world would already know about this trial.

Their names would only grow louder.

As for Blue Star—and Wang Jie—both would vanish soon enough.

“Zhao’er. Let’s go.”

Wen Zhao looked at Wen Xing Ru. “I want to see him off.”

Wen Xing Ru shook her head. “After that punch, there might not even be a body.”

She didn’t wait for an answer. She left.

The Jia Yi Sect’s side fell quiet too. They had seen battles that destroyed planets and worse, but this one still shook them.

Gu Yue sighed. “If he could’ve lived and stepped into the stars, he would’ve been perfect material for you.”

He was speaking to Ting He.

Ting He’s eyes dulled. The young man who had walked into the sunlight would be buried in blood after all.

Shu Mu Ye’s punch—no one on Blue Star could stop it.

Not far from the battlefield’s ruins, Chu Yao scratched his head, circling. “It was right here… where’d he go?”

He wandered, glancing toward the distance again and again.

The ground split.

Wang Jie crawled out, ruined and shaking, blood dripping as he coughed.

Chu Yao’s eyes lit. He hurried over, dragged Wang Jie free, and propped him against a tree.

Wang Jie exhaled, face ashen, his whole body hanging by a thread.

Chu Yao looked him up and down in disbelief. “Brother… you’re something else. How did you not die?”

Wang Jie forced his eyes open. His words came in broken pieces. “Was it… that thing you gave me?”

Chu Yao rolled his eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

He reached into Wang Jie’s clothes and pulled something out—an eye. The eyeball still turned, looking utterly confused.

“Look at it. You think this thing could block Shu Mu Ye’s punch? It would’ve been smashed flat.”

“You held on yourself. I’ll say this—you’re ruthless.”

Wang Jie gave a bitter smile that tugged at his injuries. He coughed blood again.

The last punch had been blocked by the wrist guard. Without it, forget his head—there wouldn’t even be a corpse left to bury.

That monster’s strength had definitely passed eightyfold. Close to ninety.

Wang Jie was still far behind.

“Where is he?” Wang Jie asked.

“Looking for a new bridge site,” Chu Yao said.

Wang Jie tried to push himself up. His body wouldn’t listen.

Chu Yao watched him. “What are you trying to do?”

“Don’t think about saying goodbye to your friends. It’s pointless. Right now you heal, then you come with me.”

“I’ll give you a way out.”

“As for your friends and family on Blue Star—forget it. They just took the blow of losing you. If you show up now, what does that change? They’ll only lose you twice.”

Wang Jie breathed out shakily. “If I don’t go with you… and I die with them…”

“Then they won’t lose me.”

Chu Yao sneered. “Brother, what do you take me for?”

“I finally dragged you out. You think I’m letting you die?”

Wang Jie stared at him.

Chu Yao stared back. “Whatever you want, I’m taking you. Now decide if you want to see them.”

Wang Jie turned his head, looking off into the distance.

If Chu Yao really could take him away, then meeting everyone now would only twist the knife. That was only if Chu Yao could actually take him.

Right now, Wang Jie couldn’t resist. Even if he wanted to go, he couldn’t.

“All right,” Chu Yao said, as if concluding the matter. “We wait.”

“We wait while Shu Mu Ye builds the bridge and see if we can mooch a bit of Bridgeway Art. It’s a chance. After that, we leave.”

“Mooch?”

“Yeah. Almost impossible, but it’s happened before. Otherwise, why do you think those sect prodigies hang around? For fun.”

Wang Jie barely had the strength to speak. “Can you… help me heal?”

Chu Yao shook his head. “Hard. Your injuries are too heavy.”

“But that’s good. Makes you easier to carry away.”

Wang Jie stared at him in silence.

Chu Yao’s scalp prickled. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Wang Jie forced a faint smile. “Before my duel with Shu Mu Ye… do you think I believed I could win?”

Chu Yao answered honestly with a shake of his head.

Wang Jie’s smile widened, even as his face grew paler. “Then you know… I walked into that fight ready to die.”

“If I want to die… do you think you can stop me?”

Chu Yao sighed. “I told you, there’s no point saying goodbye to your friends. They—”

“Take me to the Shang Jing City Base,” Wang Jie said.

Chu Yao paused. “Not going to see your friends?”

Wang Jie looked into the distance. His voice was barely more than breath. “No.”

Chu Yao exhaled. “I really owe you.”

He lifted Wang Jie onto his back and started toward the aircraft.

“What are you doing?” Wang Jie asked.

“You said Shang Jing City Base.”

“Don’t touch the aircraft,” Wang Jie said. “Leave it for them.”

Chu Yao stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Then how are we supposed to get there?”

“That’s your problem.”

Chu Yao stared for a beat, then muttered, “I want to beat you to death.”

In the end, Chu Yao caught a mutated beast larger than an eagle and rode it toward the Shang Jing City Base.

They landed close to the base.

Lu Yin had come here to find Doctor Si Yan.

Doctor Si Yan had been brought from Jin Ling Base to Shang Jing City Base. If Wang Jie wanted to heal, Doctor Si Yan was the first person he thought of.

Not because Doctor Si Yan’s medicine was unmatched—mostly because it was fast, and paired with the calisthenics, it worked.

And now, with so many Ten Seals disaster materials around, the medicine wasn’t anything like it used to be.

The next calisthenics was only days away.

The noon sun was no longer as punishing as it had been months before.

More than four months had passed since the trialists first descended on Blue Star. The weather was cooling.

Wang Jie sat in a small courtyard and watched Chu Yao tease Liu Ying. He looked up. Even in the old peaceful days, the sky hadn’t been this blue, this clean.

When Doctor Si Yan had been brought from Jin Ling to Shang Jing City, Liu Ying had come as well.

For these past days, she had been caring for Wang Jie.

Chu Yao liked teasing her when he was bored. She seemed calm, but there was unease under her skin—wary of the world, yet curious about it, like a startled rabbit. Chu Yao found it entertaining.

Doctor Si Yan stepped out of the house, hair a mess. “Bai Yuan and the others are back.”

“Your good brothers are still digging in Shan Cheng.”

“You’re not going to tell them?”

Wang Jie’s gaze dimmed. “If we’re going to part anyway… once is enough.”

Doctor Si Yan rolled his eyes. “Now you’re getting poetic. Do whatever you want.”

“Oh. A guest is coming. You know him too.”

Wang Jie frowned. “Who?”

“Qing Sheng.”

Wang Jie was surprised. “What’s he here for?”

“To bring me materials.”

Wang Jie nodded without another word.

Doctor Si Yan turned back inside.

That afternoon, Qing Sheng arrived with a heap of materials.

They weren’t disaster materials. They were pieces of the oval device the trialists used to descend on Blue Star.

Doctor Si Yan had been collecting them.

He was obsessed with alien technology.

That set him apart from the people in Shang Jing City Base, who mostly studied disaster materials to raise cultivator strength and resist the apocalypse’s creatures.

Doctor Si Yan didn’t care about the greater plan. He researched what he liked.

And the only group that could consistently supply him was Shou Qing Group—the super conglomerate that spanned the Five Major Bases.

In every corner of Hua Xia where humans still lived, Shou Qing Group had people.