Chapter 79

Chapter 79: Battle with a Star-breaking Realm Expert

The Fifth Defense Line wasn’t tightly sealed. It wasn’t wartime, and outsiders could still enter the Ninth Star Chain.

The Fourth Defense Line was different.

Two months later, they reached it.

Compared to the fifth, there were far more nine-eyed mantises—and they didn’t stay still. They patrolled.

As the ship’s screen zoomed in, Wang Jie saw what lay behind them: a row of planets arranged like a wall across the starry sky, a fortress built from worlds.

Yu Yan addressed everyone. “That is the Fourth Defense Line. Complete the mission I’ve arranged, and you can enter my sect’s Outer Court directly as a specially recruited disciple, receiving the same treatment as Outer Sect disciples.

“Be ready. The mission begins at any moment.”

Yu Yan came to Wang Jie’s room.

As captain, Wang Jie had known it would happen.

The mission was simple in description: Yu Yan would strike the Fourth Defense Line, creating chaos. During that chaos, the Ten Seals cultivators would slip through and reach the Qing Fang star cluster, where a creature waited with intelligence crucial to Frost Bloom Sect.

Bring that intelligence back. Live.

If Wang Jie could do that, his future would change.

Yu Yan leaned back, voice casual. “Becoming a specially recruited Outer Court disciple with Outer Sect treatment is the dream of countless people on the Eighth Star Chain.

“If we wanted, we could throw three hundred Ten Seals cultivators at the line. Three thousand. Thirty thousand.

“But the more people you send, the bigger the disturbance—and the harder it becomes to succeed.”

He added, tone flat, “You should be grateful the mad clan can smell Frost Bloom Sect disciples. Otherwise, this mission wouldn’t go to you at all.”

Wang Jie kept his posture respectful. “This junior will complete the mission seriously and will not fail senior’s expectations.”

Yu Yan nodded once. “When you reach the Qing Fang star cluster, if anyone else gets there too… kill them.”

Wang Jie stiffened. “Kill them?”

Yu Yan’s expression didn’t change. “Only one person can complete the mission. The others are cover.

“If you don’t kill them, they’ll kill you.”

Then he left.

Wang Jie stared into the dark through the ship’s window.

So the earlier “gift” of materials hadn’t been generosity.

It had been bait—and payment.

To Yu Yan, the lives of those Ten Seals cultivators didn’t matter. He only needed one survivor, one carrier for the intelligence.

The rest were already corpses in his eyes.

Wang Jie had fought for ten years on Blue Star, living by a simple rule: don’t provoke me and I won’t provoke you.

That rule didn’t exist here.

Here, life was cheap.

“Attention,” the ship broadcast. “It’s starting.”

Wang Jie climbed into his individual craft like the others and waited.

White spread through the void like a flood.

The Fourth Defense Line exploded into motion. Nine-eyed mantises shrieked, their bodies snapping toward the intrusion.

Ice pillars poured out like rain, shredding mantises, punching through space, even piercing planets. The defense line tore open under overwhelming cold.

A furious roar thundered from within. “Frost Bloom Sect—courting death!”

A powerful figure surged out to intercept Yu Yan.

At the same instant, the front hatches of Wang Jie’s small craft flung open.

A massive force—wrapped in surging frost—launched them forward.

The speed was terrifying.

In a blink, the Fourth Defense Line was behind him.

No normal launch could do that.

In the chaos, Wang Jie caught a glimpse of someone—young, maybe—before a blast lit the darkness.

A nearby craft exploded.

Starry sky behemoths swarmed in, blotting out the stars. From the planet-wall, beams of light swept through space like scythes, carving lanes of death.

Wang Jie clenched his teeth and fought the controls, dodging beams and beasts as he followed the route forward.

His craft shook violently.

One craft after another detonated—each explosion a death.

He saw Lei Cheng vanish into dust and flame.

This was war.

A Ten Seals cultivator didn’t even get the dignity of struggle.

Sweat ran down Wang Jie’s face. His craft jolted again—something slammed onto the hull. A starry sky behemoth clung to the top.

Wang Jie struck with the Luo Xuan Finger. Spiral qi force punched out, blasting the beast away.

These creatures were born to the void. Unlike humans, they didn’t need cultivation to fly among the stars.

Wang Jie kept firing the Luo Xuan Finger, killing behemoths mid-flight, but his attention stayed locked on the beams.

He’d been told the Ninth Star Chain was the realm of starry sky behemoths.

So why were there tech weapons too?

One hit, and he would die.

Ahead, beams crisscrossed into a web. His alarms screamed without pause.

Time lost meaning. Every second was survival.

Then—suddenly—the beams stopped.

Wang Jie had crossed the defense line.

He released a harsh breath.

But he couldn’t relax yet.

Several other crafts had made it through as well—survivors by luck as much as skill.

Wang Jie stared at the screen, made a decision, and veered away from the main path.

Not far from him, another survivor watched him turn in confusion. Before the man could react, a spike punched through his craft, tore through his skull, and the vessel exploded.

The spike came from a starry sky behemoth.

A dense swarm appeared around them.

Of course the Fourth Defense Line wasn’t that easy to breach.

Wang Jie looked back. More and more behemoths flooded in. First priority: live.

He dove toward a nearby planet and landed in a rush.

Behemoths followed, pouring down after him.

Wang Jie stayed in his craft, breathing hard. The screen displayed a sickly green swamp stretching for miles. The craft’s analysis flashed warnings: toxic atmosphere, unsafe for human survival.

He couldn’t leave.

A pair of eyes surfaced through the green haze.

Wang Jie pointed a finger, and spiral qi force erased the beast.

The strike drew more. Behemoths swarmed into the swamp like insects.

Then the swamp itself moved.

A colossal finger rose from beneath the mire.

And another descended from above.

Heaven-and-Earth Luo Xuan Finger.

One blow annihilated most of the swarm.

Wang Jie finished the rest with spiral qi force, then moved the craft away and hid elsewhere.

Behemoths kept landing and searching.

They were certain an intruder was here.

Wang Jie replenished imprint power with disaster materials as quickly as he could, watching the numbers of enemies increase instead of decrease.

Finally, with his reserves stabilized, he launched again and fled into open space.

He dodged through the void, searching desperately for a planet where humans could breathe.

Two days later, he found one.

But the behemoths were still behind him.

At least they were all Ten Seals-level for now. Still, if this continued, it was only a matter of time before a star-breaking realm monster arrived.

He landed.

The hatch opened, and Wang Jie stepped out, drawing in heavy air.

The oxygen concentration was high—much higher than Blue Star’s. Every breath felt thick.

Towering plants spread across the landscape. Huge beasts and insects lurked everywhere.

The moment the behemoths began descending, those native creatures scattered and hid.

Wang Jie concealed his craft and moved on foot.

If they wanted to chase him this hard, then he’d play.

Freed from the craft’s limitations, Wang Jie cut loose. He swung with raw strength, each strike carving through mountains, shredding starry sky behemoths in swaths.

Ten Seals beasts crashed down one after another, but none could withstand him.

He lifted his gaze. More behemoths filled the sky.

Wang Jie exhaled, raised his blade, and unleashed the Star-gazing Sword Form.

Sword light fell like a meteor shower, turning the world dim beneath its brilliance.

Bodies rained down, staining land and river red.

Wang Jie sat by the riverbank, blade resting across his knees, blood dripping from its edge and slipping into the rushing current.

A shadow slowly stretched over him.

Wang Jie’s eyes sharpened. “I expected a star-breaking realm beast to catch up… and you’ve been following all along.”

He turned.

A nine-eyed mantis stood there.

Yu Yan had said most nine-eyed mantises were Ten Seals, but some cultivated beyond that.

Wang Jie hadn’t expected to be unlucky enough to draw one.

You didn’t escape a nine-eyed mantis once it had you in its sight. That was what they were built for.

This one was nearly five meters tall. Two massive scythes flashed with cold light. Its narrow, blood-red eyes pinned Wang Jie with cautious focus.

It had tracked him for a long time—long enough to see the Heaven-and-Earth Luo Xuan Finger and decide not to rush him. It had followed instead, waiting, forcing him to burn imprint power, waiting for him to weaken.

Now, with most behemoths dead and Wang Jie recovering, it finally stepped out.

A red streak cut across Wang Jie’s vision.

He dodged on instinct.

A scythe slammed down where he’d been.

The speed was terrifying—so fast he barely had time to think.

Wang Jie raised his arm, feet already shifting into the Jia Eight Steps.

Clang.

The bracer took the blow. The impact hurled Wang Jie sideways, so hard he couldn’t even complete his next step.

That fast?

The second scythe descended.

Wang Jie didn’t think. He planted one hand, shoved with brutal force, and launched himself into the air.

The first scythe carved empty space.

The mantis looked up, eyes widening, and shot upward, scythes whistling toward him.

Midair, Wang Jie struck with the Star-gazing Sword Form again.

Sword light fell in a dense curtain.

The mantis swept both scythes and batted every strike aside, then flickered out of sight.

Wang Jie dropped, drew a breath, and fused qi and strength together, holding his blade straight out in front of him.

The mantis reappeared.

Twin scythes crossed and struck the blade at the same instant.

The force slammed into Wang Jie’s arms like a collapsing mountain. He bared his teeth, imprint power boiling, and roared as he forced strength through his body.

“Get back—!”

He flung the mantis away with a sweeping strike.

The mantis slid backward, eyes fully open now, staring at him in disbelief.

Ten Seals and star-breaking realm were separated by an enormous gulf.

Unless you were a rare genius, you couldn’t bridge it.

And geniuses that extreme were scarce—forget a star chain, even the entire Third Nebula had only a handful.

How was there one here?

Wang Jie used the recoil to land and retreat, chest heaving.

So this was star-breaking rank.

If his qi hadn’t protected his blade, those scythes would have shattered it outright.

Even so—

Crack.

His sword split.

The blade broke.

The mantis’s eyes narrowed. It attacked again.

Wang Jie’s hand flashed, and a saber appeared—one of the chen artifacts taken from the group he’d killed earlier.

He’d already removed the starforce from it. Otherwise, an imprint power cultivator using a starforce-based chen artifact would only be courting backlash.

Even stripped, it was still a chen artifact. Its material far exceeded ordinary weapons.

Far sturdier than his shattered sword.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

The scythes fell again and again.

Wang Jie couldn’t see the mantis’s movement at all. It was too fast—so fast that even with the Jia Eight Steps, he couldn’t trust himself to evade cleanly.

He could only block with the saber, bracer absorbing impacts, footwork barely keeping him alive.

He needed one thing.

One opening.

One chance to land a hit.

The mantis’s speed was monstrous, its scythes relentless—but its defense had to be weaker.

With Wang Jie’s strength, one clean strike would be enough.