Chapter 62

Chapter 62: Are You Sure?

Wang Jie stared at the note in his hand.

Zuo Tian.

Bai Yuan.

And Shu Mu Ye.

Shu Mu Ye wasn’t dead. With the methods those sects had, they would heal him easily.

He had come to Blue Star, slaughtered millions, then left.

Blue Star’s people hadn’t even had the right to kill him.

Why?

The anger had been trapped in Wang Jie’s chest for too long. If the wrist guard hadn’t kept him alive, he would have died while Shu Mu Ye walked away to fame across the universe, high above all of them. Wang Jie would have been nothing more than a blemish—a tiny stain in someone else’s legend.

And then there was Jia Yi Sect.

Peace had been destroyed simply because they wanted disciples. Tens of billions had lived on Blue Star. Only a few million remained.

What did human lives mean to them?

Wang Jie remembered the director who had once treated him kindly—feeding him good food, laughing with him. Dead at the beginning of the apocalypse.

Why?

The more he thought, the colder his eyes became.

He looked up. The bridge hung faintly in the sky, untouchable and relentless.

That dark-gold armor. That vast universe.

This was only the beginning.

He wanted to go out and see it.

A gust of wind swept across the windowsill and knocked the paper down. The words Starry Sky Martial Tournament stared up at him like a challenge.

You’ll be there too, won’t you, Shu Mu Ye?

Wang Jie stood.

He left.

A flyer landed at Shang Jing City Base.

Wang Jie’s arrival caused an uproar. People gathered in crowds, craning their necks, whispering, watching the man who had fought Shu Mu Ye and lived.

Sister Tang escorted him into the Underground Research Institute.

Si Yan’s eyes lit up the moment he saw him. “Why are you here? You really recovered? Let me check you.”

Wang Jie had come for one reason: the tool the trialists used to enter Blue Star. He wanted to know how far Si Yan’s research had gone.

Si Yan led him into a massive lab.

In the center sat something like an eggshell—an oval structure five meters across. Screens and data surrounded it.

“Look,” Si Yan said.

Wang Jie stared. “This is…?”

“A spaceship.”

Wang Jie looked from Si Yan to the egg again. “Are you sure?”

Sister Tang answered before Si Yan could. “The trialists used something like this to arrive, but they were pushed here by external force. Si Yan added our own propulsion device.”

“With this special material, you can call it a spaceship… it’s just small.”

“If we tried to build one from scratch without that material, it would take decades, and it would have to be enormous.”

Si Yan scratched his head. “To be precise, I didn’t build it. I used what we took.”

“This material can release propulsion in the vacuum. I just found a method to extract and guide it.”

Wang Jie had always known Si Yan was best at machines. Back in Jin Ling, mechanical eyes had been everywhere outside the base, and no one had detected them even now.

Jia Yi Sect’s “trial” had destroyed modern weapons and the equipment to manufacture them, but it hadn’t erased everything.

Si Yan’s skill had survived the end of the world.

“This thing can lift off and fly in the universe,” Si Yan said. Then he grew serious. “But it has two fatal flaws you need to understand.”

“First: you can’t control the speed. Once it starts releasing propulsion, it keeps releasing. My ‘control’ is only at the start. Once it moves, you can’t dial it back.”

“Second: it can’t stop. You can turn, but it takes tremendous force, and you have to start early. You’ll need practice.”

He pointed at the egg. “You can think of it as a rock thrown into a storm.”

“The chance of dying is high.”

Wang Jie stared at it for a long moment. Then he said, “I’ll take it.”

Sister Tang’s eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

Wang Jie nodded.

He’d decided before he came.

He had to leave Blue Star.

Not only because his enemies were out there, but because the universe was the true stage. He couldn’t grow old here, safe and bitter, doing nothing.

Once you knew a greater world existed, how could you pretend you didn’t?

Besides… the wrist guard was forcing him.

The Holy Star Linked Bridge.

He had to go.

He could feel the heat rising again, as if a hand were tightening around his bones. If he refused, that golden figure might not need to come in person to kill him.

And Wang Jie wanted the full set of armor.

Even if the odds were slim.

He looked at Si Yan. “If you can make something like this work, you must have some confidence.”

Si Yan grinned. “You do understand me.”

“Come here.”

He pulled Wang Jie to a bank of screens.

“Before, Blue Star couldn’t detect alien signals,” Si Yan said. “But look now.”

The screens were dotted with flickering points of light.

Si Yan’s expression turned grim. “Our position changed.”

“That hand moved Blue Star. It moved the moon, the sun—everything. We’re not where we used to be.”

“That’s also why Blue Star wasn’t destroyed. It wasn’t hammered into nothing. It was moved.”

“We don’t know why. But the result is this: alien civilizations aren’t that far from us anymore.”

“As long as you get out into space.” He pointed at a direction. “Based on my estimates, you’re likely to encounter something over here.”

“And what happens after you meet them… that’s another question.”

Wang Jie’s stomach tightened. “If we can see them, then they can see Blue Star too.”

Si Yan nodded. “No way around it.”

Then he smiled—thin, weary, stubborn. “But after everything we’ve lived through, what else is there left to make us despair?”

He clapped Wang Jie on the shoulder. “And you want to go out anyway. Perfect. Scout ahead for us.”

“If Blue Star gets destroyed again, you’ll be a spark.”

Wang Jie looked back at the crude egg of a ship and nodded.

Si Yan would handle the ship. Wang Jie’s job was to strengthen himself.

The universe had pressure, radiation, and countless things that could tear a human body apart. The ship could only keep him breathing and fed. It had one purpose: keep him alive long enough to reach something.

If Wang Jie left Blue Star with his current body, he might die before he ever met an alien civilization.

Si Yan’s words forced Wang Jie back onto a path he didn’t want.

He had no choice.

Imprint Power.

Because Blue Star only had Imprint Power.

So he gathered disaster materials. He gathered Heavenstone. He cultivated.

The other bases prioritized sending him resources. Shou Qing Group sent shipments without end.

And then, with the next routine…

From Single Seal to Eighth Seal took only the time of one session.

The speed of his recovery shocked everyone.

More than that, Wang Jie felt something else: the limit he’d once slammed against had loosened.

Was it possible that dying—almost dying—shattered a ceiling?

It shouldn’t be.

If it were, Shu Mu Ye wouldn’t have been ignorant of it.

Wang Jie pushed the thought away and focused on what he could control: cultivating, sharpening Qi Sight, practicing his sword, adjusting to his rebuilt strength.

A month later, he climbed from Eighth Seal to Ten Seals.

And with disaster materials, he broke through ninety times strength—not because his Imprint Power grew, but because his body’s limit had shifted after the third battle with Shu Mu Ye.

Without that final duel, Wang Jie knew it: even with Ten Seals cultivation, he never would have reached ninety times.

The body had its ceilings.

Just like how his cultivation could be smashed, yet his physical strength still remained.

On Blue Star now, only he and Hong Jian had reached Ten Seals cultivation. Lian Qin and Sister Tang were Ninth Seal—close, but not there yet.

Once he stabilized his realm, Wang Jie began sweeping Blue Star, hunting down the strongest mutated creatures.

He couldn’t kill them all. The world was too big, the monsters too many.

But he could remove the worst threats and buy Blue Star time—time to rebuild, cultivate, and regain some control over its fate.

Then, at Nan Guo Base, his flyer touched down.

Wang Jie stepped out.

Lian Fei hurried to greet him. She looked at him with a faint flush and said, “Brother Wang, please.”

Wang Jie nodded. “Where’s Lian Qin?”

“In the base,” Lian Fei said, casting him a quick look. “She’s waiting for you.”

After food and drink, Wang Jie asked to speak with Lian Qin alone.

Lian Qin looked uneasy. She’d changed—more restrained now, more careful. And she’d hoped her daughter might end up with Wang Jie, which made this private conversation feel… dangerous.

But she couldn’t refuse him.

When they were alone, Wang Jie said directly, “Give me another swimsuit.”

Lian Qin stared at him. “…Too direct.”

“Didn’t I already give you one?”

“Give me another.”

“I don’t have any left.”

“Buy one now. Put it on now.”

Lian Qin rubbed her forehead. “Wang Jie… I’m much older than you. This isn’t appropriate.”

“You’re overthinking,” Wang Jie cut in. “I’m asking for someone else.”

Lian Qin blinked. “Someone else?”

Wang Jie nodded, thinking grimly, For the green sprouts. Who knows what they want this time.

Lian Qin looked like she’d bitten down on a headache. “Fine. One. But don’t ask again.”

“We’ll see.”

He didn’t know whether the sprouts would demand something else. Probably not. And if they did, he was leaving soon anyway.

“Oh, right.”

Wang Jie walked to the table, picked up a piece of meat, and held it out to her.

Lian Qin stared at it. “What…?”

“Take five bites,” Wang Jie said. “Give me the rest.”

Lian Qin stared at him for a long beat, strangely unbothered. With him, this felt… normal.

She did it.

In the invisible field beyond sight, three sprouts flared with light.

Wang Jie exhaled quietly. It worked.

Star-Gazing Sword Form.

The third requirement was Rainbow-Drinking Sword Form’s hundred-combo, and he could already do that.