Chapter 95

Chapter 95: Luo Kingdom

Jun Hua and Yu Dong were stunned.

Jin Chu was one of them, Wu Mian the other—and both were top-tier experts.

Xia Zhen Zhen was only at the Star-Breaking Realm, yet she was a True Disciple. In status, she stood far above Jin Chu even though Jin Chu was a Full-Star Realm powerhouse.

And Wu Mian… Wu Mian was Lockforce’s undisputed number one across the Frost Splendor Star Chain, past and present.

All this, mobilized for Wang Jie.

Was it really worth it?

On the other side, Wang Jie found Xuan for the third time.

“What do you want from me, exactly?” Xuan snapped at last. “Just say it.”

“Do me a favor,” Wang Jie said. “Protect me.”

Xuan blinked. “Protect you? You’re stronger than I am.”

“But I’m fighting alone.”

Xuan frowned. “What do you mean?”

Wang Jie told him what was about to happen.

Instead of resisting, Xuan’s eyes lit up. “Thank you. Whatever the reason, dying on the battlefield is still better than dying here.”

With one order from Jun Hua, everything moved at breakneck speed.

The moment Xuan agreed to accompany Wang Jie back to Blue Star, the empire’s fastest ship was already prepped. Every route along the way was sealed off, and they forcibly cleared a straight corridor from Imperial Capital Star to Blue Star.

No stops. No slowdowns. A straight run.

Wang Jie sent Jun Hua a brief message of thanks, then left with Xuan, heading for Blue Star.

Not long after they set off, another ship of the same speed launched as well. Aboard were Jin Chu and a middle-aged man—Wu Mian.

It had taken Wang Jie nearly half a year to leave Blue Star and run into Jun Tang’s warship.

This time, the return trip would take a little over a month.

He couldn’t recognize the starfield around him anymore, but a glance at the star chart told him the truth.

Blue Star was close.

And around Blue Star—Blue Star as the center—battles were already raging on multiple fronts. Silver Radiance Empire warships fired beams in all directions, while a boatlike vessel made of white bones circled, weaving through the volleys and striking back.

That was a Luo Bone.

It was how Luo Kingdom traveled through the universe.

Every bone in that vessel came from a Luo Kingdom person.

They took pride in death. For them, there was no such thing as being laid to rest. Only combat. Only battle. Only slaughter.

Even in death, they did not retreat.

That was why people called them the Third Nebula’s troop pool.

Warships were being destroyed one after another, and reports kept streaming back to Imperial Capital.

Jun Hua could only grit her teeth.

Those ships didn’t have to die. The most effective strategy would have been to regroup, consolidate firepower, and face the enemy head-on.

But because of Wang Jie, they had to scatter around Blue Star, forcing the enemy’s attention to splinter.

They were terrified Blue Star itself would be noticed.

Compared to Blue Star, the Silver Radiance Empire was a giant.

But compared to Frost Splendor Sect, the empire was an ant.

And Wang Jie had already risen beyond that ant.

A few days later, Xuan’s voice came over the comms. “We’re almost there.”

The ship was enormous, yet only two people were aboard—Wang Jie and Xuan. It made the vessel absurdly easy to run.

Wang Jie stared at the light screen as a blue planet slowly emerged in the distance.

He was back.

Two years.

He’d been away from Blue Star for more than two years—and in that time, he’d lived through far more than most people would endure in a lifetime.

He’d nearly collided with Jun Tang’s warship. He’d mined ores. He’d hovered at the edge of life and death. He’d entered the lakeside residence. He’d been unlucky enough to be thrown into the Ninth Star Chain.

Now he was returning, and everything was different.

So much had happened… and yet, looking back, it had only been a little over two years.

He was still at the Ten Seals—the same realm he’d been at when he left Blue Star.

But his strength had become something else entirely.

This time, Blue Star would change too.

“No—wait.” Xuan stared at the star chart, shock sharpening his voice. “What’s that?”

On the chart, only two points had been blinking before: Blue Star, their destination, and their ship.

Now a third point had appeared, flashing nonstop.

It was moving.

And it was heading toward Blue Star as well.

Worse—it was closer to Blue Star than they were.

Wang Jie’s gaze hardened. “Zoom in.”

Xuan worked the controls, magnifying the display again and again. His brow knit deeper by the second. “I can’t make it out. It’s not a planet. At this distance it’s just a dot.”

He swallowed. “But it’s moving fast. Either it lands on Blue Star… or it hits us.”

Wang Jie clenched his fists, eyes locked on the screen.

At that speed, if it struck, Blue Star would be annihilated.

Second by second, time dragged.

Then—the flashing dot stopped.

Xuan exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for a lifetime. “It didn’t hit. It stopped.”

He leaned forward, eyes narrowing. “It’s probably a spacefaring tool like ours.”

Then his voice dropped, heavy as stone. “That isn’t an imperial warship. If it were, we’d be getting a signal.”

Wang Jie said nothing.

If it wasn’t the empire…

Then it was the enemy.

Luo Kingdom had still arrived at Blue Star ahead of him after all.

Still—a small mercy.

He was almost there too.

Blue Star had spent two years recovering, and humanity had clawed its way upward.

Two years ago, Shu Mu Ye had slaughtered the creatures, leaving a vacuum among the strongest mutant beasts. That gap—paid for in blood—had finally given Blue Star room to breathe.

Now, people at the Seventh Seal and Eighth Seal were everywhere. Ninth Seal cultivators were no longer rare. Even the Ten Seals were too many to count on two hands.

Hong Jian, Lian Qin, and the others had long since reached the Ten Seals.

During those two years, they kept reclaiming land from mutant beasts, pushing further and further toward the ocean.

And then, on this day, a long-forgotten despair settled over Blue Star again like a collapsing sky.

A giant boat made of white bones blotted out the sun, casting a shadow over all of Jinling Base.

Those pale bones spilled an endless chill beneath bright daylight.

On the ground, everyone looked up—stunned, motionless, unable to process what they were seeing.

The bone boat looked like it had crawled out of hell.

Nan Guo Base and Shang Jing City saw it too, through their screens.

All of Blue Star fell silent.

A humanoid creature stepped out onto the bone boat’s edge.

Its body was dark red, nearly two meters tall. It stood at the very front, looking down on Jinling Base as if the clouds themselves were beneath its gaze.

Deep-red pupils turned, sweeping across the entire base.

Then it bared sharp teeth in something that wasn’t quite a smile, leaped down, tore through the clouds, and slammed into the base like a falling star.

Boom.

The ground caved in.

Dust and smoke billowed upward.

Just like when the Trialists had descended.

People scattered in panic as cultivators surged forward.

Hong Jian led the group, Feng Yu and the others at his side. Every one of them had reached the Ten Seals.

They stared at the creature walking out of the dust, shock draining the color from their faces.

What was this feeling?

It was eerie. Crushing. Even breathing became difficult, like its presence had wrapped a hand around their throats.

Those deep-red eyes swept past.

Everyone it looked at felt their skin might split. An indescribable fear spread through the crowd like plague.

Gray-white air hissed from its mouth. Its teeth were sharp as knives. When it spoke, its voice was low and hoarse.

“Is this the slaughterstone planet? The Silver Radiance Empire’s slaughterstone planet?”

Hong Jian forced himself forward. “This is Blue Star. May I ask who Your Excellency is?”

Those dark-red pupils snapped to him.

In a single step, the creature was in front of Hong Jian.

It was only a head taller, but it felt like a mountain. All Hong Jian could see was its rising chest and the killing aura that poured off it in waves.

His instincts screamed.

He stepped back—

The world spun.

His face went numb.

His vision went black.

He remembered nothing after that.

The others watched, frozen, as the creature slapped Hong Jian away like he weighed nothing.

Its split mouth curled wider.

It stepped again, slapped the nearest person.

Bang.

Blood exploded.

That person died on the spot.

Feng Yu and the others went pale.

The killing aura pressed down so hard they didn’t even dare move. It was a deathly presence forged in battlefield hell, mixed with endless screams.

It crushed them by sheer realm difference, driving the air from their lungs.

They could only watch as the creature slapped people to death—one after another.

It wasn’t just killing.

It was savoring.

Savoring the terror.

Its laughter grew louder.

More creatures of the same size stepped onto the bone boat, then jumped down, smashing into Jinling Base in a cascade of impacts.

In an instant, blood painted the base red.

Drones broadcast the footage to Shang Jing City and Nan Guo Base.

People in both major bases stared blankly at their screens.

They watched Jinling Base’s cultivators—strong by Blue Star’s standards—die like insects, slapped apart one by one.

The helpless despair dragged them back to that blood-red beach, back to the memory of that man sitting above death.

These creatures were from hell.

In the distance, Hong Jian lay on the ground.

He wasn’t dead. Blood splashed across his face, jolting him awake.

Through the scarlet haze, he watched his people being slaughtered.

He tried to rise.

He couldn’t move.

He was hurt too badly.

What kind of creature was this?

A familiar stench, mixed with gray-white breath, flooded Feng Yu’s nose. She stared at the dark-red monster that had appeared before her.

Run. Run. Move!

Her body wouldn’t listen.

All she could do was watch its hand rise—then come down.

Suddenly its arm stopped.

The creature turned its head to look up.

The others looked too.

A fire meteor was streaking toward Jinling Base, aimed directly at their area.

“Intercept.”

It was the second time the creature had spoken.

The bone boat lashed out thick chains that spanned the sky, whipping toward the meteor to bind it.

Outside Blue Star, a beam of light shot toward the bone boat.

The chain swung violently, smashing into the beam.

The collision exploded into fierce flames, brighter than the sun.

The creature in front of Feng Yu narrowed its eyes, deep-red pupils fixed on the falling meteor. It lowered its arm and watched, calm as a butcher.

Dozens of the creatures didn’t move.

They waited.

Feng Yu panted, forcing down the urge to scream.

She had never wanted Blue Star to become the Trial Grounds again so badly.

Please… let that meteor be the Trialists.

She didn’t know where the beam had come from. She didn’t know whether the meteor was the Trialists at all.

She only knew she was a breath away from death.

The meteor kept falling.

Just as it was about to hit the ground, the creature yanked up a chain and slammed it into the shards scattering from the beam’s collision.

Those shards punched into the meteor.

It exploded.

A nearby creature leaped straight into the blast, fearless, charging through the flames—

There was nothing.

Feng Yu stared at the empty fire, and her heart sank.

The creature bared its teeth again, turned back to her, raised its arm, and slapped down.

Feng Yu’s body finally moved.

Too late.

The blow was already there—

And then the arm stopped again.

This time, it hadn’t stopped on its own.

Another hand had seized it, gripping the thick, dark-red forearm like iron.

Feng Yu twisted her head.

A familiar figure stood beside her.

“Wang Jie?”