Chapter 65

Chapter 65: The Universe Is Huge

“Which one is this?”

“Twenty-three. Keep going.”

Jun Tang narrowed his eyes. Why did this man insist on humiliating people to their faces?

Bian Qi gripped his mining shovel and swept it out. A storm of shovel shadows burst into the air – clearly some kind of weapon technique. Wang Jie moved the instant they formed, his hand sliding through the blur to catch Bian Qi’s fingers with uncanny precision. He pinned them to the handle, twisted, and hurled him away.

Before Bian Qi even hit the ground, Wang Jie yanked hard and snapped him the other way.

Inside and outside the mine, everyone watched in a stupor as Wang Jie flung Bian Qi back and forth like trash, as if it took no effort at all.

Was this man really that strong?

Bian Qi’s vision spun. His body was dragged and yanked against his will, then slammed into the ground so hard he nearly blacked out.

Wang Jie grabbed a chunk of ore and flicked it casually – straight at Jun Tang.

Jun Tang didn’t move. The ore skimmed past his ear and punched into the gray stone wall behind him, sparks bursting.

A provocation.

Jun Tang stared at Wang Jie for a long moment, then looked toward the mine entrance.

No one moved.

The people outside just watched. They didn’t stop him. They didn’t help. It was as if nothing was happening at all.

Wang Jie blinked. Still not interfering?

Something was off.

He strode straight toward Jun Tang.

Bian Qi lurched up, pale with alarm. “Do you even know who this is-”

Wang Jie slapped him aside without looking, then kept walking.

He watched the crowd outside as he went. He could feel their tension rising, but they still didn’t move – right up until he sat down beside Jun Tang.

Then Wang Jie lifted his hand. Under countless locked stares, his palm came down and settled on Jun Tang’s shoulder.

“I heard you’re rebelling?”

The mine went dead silent.

Everyone stared, faces blank.

Jun Tang stared too. In all his life, he had never experienced anything like this.

This man… had put an arm on his shoulder?

Insolent.

Utterly insolent.

Jun Tang forced down his rage, keeping his voice as even as he could. “Who are you?”

“A nobody.” Wang Jie sounded almost cheerful. “Tell me – who are you rebelling against?”

“Your father?”

“Your second uncle?”

“Your third uncle?”

Bian Qi twitched like he wanted to move, but Jun Tang stopped him with a glance.

Jun Tang’s gaze returned to Wang Jie. “My sister.”

Wang Jie looked genuinely surprised. “You’re rebelling against your own sister?”

Jun Tang’s brow lifted. Killing intent flashed through his eyes.

Wang Jie had been raised in slaughter. He felt killing intent the way other people felt a cold wind.

Jun Tang wanted to kill him.

Wang Jie changed the subject instantly, grinning. “How did your sister end up as emperor? You seem pretty decent to me. Good-looking, too. And your attitude’s not bad.”

“None of your business,” Jun Tang said.

Wang Jie gave his shoulder a heavy pat, making Jun Tang’s jaw tighten. “Don’t be like that. We’re stuck in this hellhole together. That makes us comrades.”

“Try being a little warmer.”

Bian Qi stared at him from a distance like he wanted to tear him apart.

Jun Tang’s eyes were flat and cold, resisting every word.

Only then did the men outside finally file in. Mining for the day was over.

When Wang Jie walked ahead, Bian Qi stood behind Jun Tang and bowed. “This subordinate is useless. I couldn’t stop him. Please forgive me, my lord.”

Jun Tang’s voice turned icy. “No matter where someone comes from, there are always a few geniuses. He cultivates lockforce, doesn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“When this is over, kill him.”

“Understood.”

“And those people outside saw him approach me and still didn’t move. They should die too.”

Jun Tang’s gaze didn’t change. “I ordered them not to move. No matter what happens here, no one moves.”

His mouth curled, not quite a smile. “How do you know that man wasn’t sent by that bitch to test me?”

Bian Qi’s spine went cold. “Yes, my lord. This subordinate understands.”

“I’ll endure the next few days. Nothing will go wrong.”

The planet was dim and colorless. The mine was barren. Strange insects crawled everywhere across the ground.

Wang Jie had thought he’d be in for a brutal stretch of days. On his first day, he’d used qi sight to check whether anyone here was stronger than he was.

Instead, after beating Bian Qi and his men once, his life became absurdly comfortable.

No one demanded he hand over ore. No one bothered him. He even sat with Jun Tang and watched other people dig, as if he’d become the mine’s second-in-command.

“You failed your rebellion,” Wang Jie said one day, watching the workers. “Yet these people still treat you with respect. That’s bizarre. Doesn’t a failed rebel get executed?”

Jun Tang’s gaze stayed on the mine. “My sister has been cultivating at Frost Splendor Sect. I’m the rightful heir of the Silver Radiance Empire.”

“If it weren’t to curry favor with Frost Splendor Sect, Father Emperor wouldn’t have passed the throne to her.”

Wang Jie whistled softly. “So the empire’s people actually have their hearts with you?”

Jun Tang didn’t answer. He drank water instead.

Wang Jie leaned in. “Tell me about the Silver Radiance Empire.”

Jun Tang glanced at him. “You don’t know?”

“Passing through.”

“Where are you from?”

“I’m the one asking,” Wang Jie said blandly.

Jun Tang stared at him for a long moment, then began explaining the empire anyway.

Wang Jie had stepped into the universe and immediately stumbled into a nightmare: terrifying giant beasts, then a mining camp, then shackles. If he was going to be unlucky, he at least wanted to squeeze something out of it.

In his eyes, Jun Tang’s greatest value was basic knowledge.

Chances like this were rare.

So he asked. And asked. And asked.

Jun Tang’s patience frayed quickly, but there was nowhere to escape. The mine wasn’t big, and Wang Jie wouldn’t leave him alone. In only a few days, Jun Tang was at the edge.

He was convinced Wang Jie was playing him.

The man didn’t even know what starforce or slaughterstone were.

Yet he carried a Combat Power Detector – an up-to-date model.

A damned lowly bastard.

One evening, Wang Jie sat on the rocky slope and stared up at the starfield. The universe really was huge.

He’d thought that once he left Blue Star, he’d hear news of Jia Yi Sect. Instead, Jia Yi Sect was a legend here – something people had heard of, but no one could describe, no one could reach.

Cheng Yi Dao, Third Zen Heaven… even less.

This place was the Third Nebula, within the Frost Splendor Star Chain, inside the Congealing Splendor Domain, territory of the Silver Radiance Empire.

Jun Tang, a prince stripped of his inheritance, knew only the Third Nebula – and even that knowledge was thin. As for Jia Yi Sect, he described it as being “on the other side of the universe.”

Not distance.

Status.

Jia Yi Sect was unreachable.

Much of what Jun Tang told him matched what Wen Zhao and the others had said: heavenstone and slaughterstone were the same thing; imprint power was lockforce; ordinary cultivators used starforce. But plenty didn’t match.

Jun Tang simply didn’t know enough. He’d never even heard of the Dead Realm.

Watching Jun Tang struggle to hide it and still look honestly lost, Wang Jie became certain: Blue Star’s position had changed.

Jia Yi Sect’s trial shouldn’t have dropped them somewhere this remote. This place made Wang Jie feel like he’d gone from the edge of the universe to an even lonelier edge.

“So we’re mining to give the empire something to trade for slaughterstone?” Wang Jie asked.

“Yes,” Jun Tang said.

“And slaughterstone can rapidly increase the number of cultivators, for the battlefield?”

“Yes.”

“How much slaughterstone does the empire have?”

“Not much. One slaughterstone can produce several hundred thousand low-level cultivators, or several dozen high-level cultivators. And when I say cultivators, I mean Ten Seals and below.”

He paused, then continued with a cold calm. “Before that woman returned, the empire’s reserves wouldn’t have exceeded a hundred.”

Wang Jie’s brows shot up. “That’s it?”

Jun Tang gave him a look and drank water.

Wang Jie remembered the early days on Blue Star – eleven years ago, several slaughterstone were dropped. Later, when the trialists arrived, especially to restrain Shu Mu Ye, they threw down more than a hundred like they were worthless.

Yet this empire only had around a hundred in reserve.

“A war on the interstellar battlefield doesn’t rely only on cultivators,” Jun Tang added, as if it annoyed him to have to explain the obvious. “More of it is starships and weapons.”

Wang Jie hadn’t seen starship weapons firsthand. But beyond Ten Seals was the Star-Breaking Realm, power enough to destroy a planet. No matter how terrifying weapons were, there couldn’t be many that could casually wipe out a world.

That day he squeezed Jun Tang dry for information, and when mining ended, he even thanked him.

Jun Tang looked like he’d run a marathon with knives in his lungs.

This guy had to die.

They slept twenty to a room on stone slab beds. Jun Tang did too – and he was grateful he wasn’t in the same room as Wang Jie.

This planet had no day or night. There was no sun at all.

Wang Jie stared at the nearly unobstructed starfield beyond the window and slowly fell asleep.

He didn’t know how long passed before his eyes snapped open.

A tiny black grain floated in through the window and landed beside his hand.

He didn’t move. Still lying there, he pinched it between two fingers and studied it.

Mechanical. Tiny.

What could this possibly do?

After a moment, he placed it in his ear.

“Wait for a chance to kill Jun Tang.”

Wang Jie’s gaze sharpened. That voice.

It was the old general.

He would never forget it.

That old man had crushed Bian Qi, a Star-Breaking Realm expert, as easily as stepping on an ant. He’d suppressed a battleship alone. Wang Jie hadn’t even dared entertain the idea of resisting; the gap was too wide.

So why target him?

Because he’d beaten Bian Qi and the others?

Yes. In this mine, no one was more suitable.

Kill Jun Tang?

Wang Jie lay there, thinking.