Chapter 96

Chapter 96: Blood for Blood

“Watch out!” Feng Yu shouted, seeing the creature’s other hand lash out.

Wang Jie’s gaze snapped over.

He kicked.

The kick slammed into the creature’s stomach, sending it flying through wall after wall. It smashed through the outer city wall and crashed outside the base.

All around, the Luo Kingdom creatures surged forward at once.

“Save people,” Wang Jie said, voice low.

Then he drew a sword from his storage ring.

His body flowed with his blade as he used Jia Eight Steps. Only afterimages remained where he’d been.

He raised the sword and slashed.

Each strike took a head—or several.

Seventeen Luo Kingdom fighters had landed inside Jinling Base.

Wang Jie struck eight times.

All seventeen were dead.

Three seconds.

Outside the base, the Star-Breaking Realm Luo Kingdom creature still hadn’t recovered. It clutched its stomach and retched. That single kick had nearly killed it.

It stared into the base, mind reeling.

How could a Ten Seals human have that kind of strength?

Wang Jie flicked his sword.

Blood spattered the ground in a long diagonal streak.

He turned toward Hong Jian, still sprawled in the dust, half his face swollen, his skull seeming cracked. “Don’t worry.”

Then he bent his knees and launched himself toward the bone boat.

Outside the base, the Star-Breaking Realm creature snarled and sprang after him.

Midair, Wang Jie swung casually.

Power erupted.

Sword qi tore through space and crashed into the pursuing creature. It tried to endure it.

It couldn’t.

The force inside that sword qi crushed it and slammed it into the ground like a meteor.

Wang Jie landed on the bone boat and began to slaughter.

He cut again and again.

The strongest among them was the Star-Breaking Realm one he’d just knocked down. The rest were below the Ten Seals.

But there were so many.

If humans built this vessel, it would hold three hundred people at most.

This one was crammed with over a thousand Luo Kingdom fighters.

They didn’t care about space. Some crouched in corners, curled like animals, waiting their turn to die.

A civilization willing to walk into death.

Blood seeped from the seams of the bone boat, spilling into open air and turning into a rain of red.

Below, Hong Jian was being treated. Everyone else inside the base… didn’t need saving. They’d died in a single slap.

A million people in Jinling Base looked up at the sky. As the rain of blood fell, no one spoke.

The Star-Breaking Realm Luo Kingdom creature clawed its way up, rage already beyond reason.

A Star-Breaking Realm fighter—thrown aside twice by a Ten Seals human.

If word of that reached its clan, it would be humiliation death itself couldn’t erase.

It had to eat this human.

It smashed up through the bottom of the bone boat and charged inside.

Wang Jie stood ankle-deep in blood.

The moment the creature lunged, Wang Jie stepped with Jia Eight Steps and appeared directly in front of it.

It roared and slapped.

Wang Jie slapped back—faster.

Smack.

The blow landed across its face and stunned it so hard its body crashed through the side of the bone boat, half hanging out over open air where countless eyes could see it.

Wang Jie raised his sword and brought it down.

No sword qi. No edge.

Only raw force, traveling through the blade like a hammer.

He smashed the creature through the bone boat and sent it dropping straight toward the earth.

It hit hard enough to blast a deep crater into the ground.

The bone boat shuddered—then began to break apart, shattered and ruined.

Wang Jie stood atop it as it fell.

At the last instant, he dodged away.

Boom.

The explosion shook the world, the shockwave sweeping outward and setting a wide area ablaze.

Under the sunlight, beside the flames, Wang Jie walked to the crater’s edge and looked down at the Luo Kingdom fighter inside.

Its combat strength was only eleven thousand. It hadn’t been at Star-Breaking Realm for long, and compared to Wang Jie, it was painfully weak.

Half its face was shattered. It barely breathed.

There was no fear in its eyes—only unwilling disbelief.

A Ten Seals human…

How?

Wang Jie jumped down into the crater, seized it by the throat, and hurled it back toward the base.

The creature carved a deep groove into the ground as it skidded, then collapsed inside Jinling Base—right among the bodies it had created.

Feng Yu and the others stared, shaken.

The monster that had pinned them in place with terror now looked utterly helpless in Wang Jie’s hands.

The broken bone boat. The headless corpses.

Everything screamed the same truth.

Wang Jie was different now.

Standing atop the city wall, Wang Jie said, “This thing came from the Third Nebula, the Sixth Star Chain—Luo Kingdom. Now you can have your blood for blood.”

Bloodshot cultivators surged forward and tore into the creature until it finally died.

Wang Jie’s expression stayed complicated.

If he hadn’t rushed back the moment he heard…

If he’d delayed even a little…

Blue Star would have been wiped clean.

These things hadn’t come to negotiate. They hadn’t even tried to talk.

They had come to slaughter.

Brutal. Savage. Cruel.

High above, a ship descended.

Not like a fire meteor—this was a controlled, slow landing.

Everyone looked up, unease crawling through them like cold water.

Wang Jie understood the feeling.

Two years ago, every time a fire meteor fell from the sky, it had brought death.

And now Luo Kingdom had shown them something worse—the cruelty of the universe itself.

Blue Star had no safety at all.

A calm voice carried over the base from above, amplified by the ship’s systems. “Don’t worry. Everyone is safe for now. Silver Radiance Empire will protect you.”

It was the second time Feng Yu had heard the words Silver Radiance Empire.

She wanted to ask what it meant—but her throat felt glued shut.

Not long after, in Jinling Base, by Hong Jian’s bedside, Wang Jie stood at the window, staring out into the late-night quiet.

Lian Qin, Sister Tang, Qing Sheng, and the others were all there.

Old Five and the others were still rushing in from outside.

No one spoke as they watched Hong Jian breathe.

His injuries were severe, but the ship Wang Jie had arrived in carried medicine far beyond anything Blue Star possessed.

His life had been saved.

“Old Boss!”

Old Five and the others burst in. Their faces were lit with raw excitement as they grabbed Wang Jie, hugging him hard.

Wang Jie felt a warmth he hadn’t felt in a long time.

Only two years had passed, but in those two years he’d crossed a distance most people couldn’t imagine.

He’d lived on the edge of life and death.

Blue Star was home.

“Why are you so late?” Wang Jie asked.

Qing Zheng leaned in, grinning. “Old Boss, guess what gift I brought you.”

Wang Jie eyed him warily. “What?”

Old Nine produced an envelope.

“A proposal letter!” Qing Zheng yelled.

Wang Jie stared.

Then everyone burst out laughing.

Wang Jie lifted a hand, fingers curling. “If you want a beating, just say so.”

Qing Zheng folded instantly. “Old Boss, calm down! I’m kidding—kidding!”

As he spoke, he shot Old Nine a look.

Old Nine turned and brought something in from outside.

Wang Jie’s eyes widened.

Egg tarts.

“Old Boss, try one,” Qing Zheng said. “See if it tastes right.”

Wang Jie took it, breathed in the sweet aroma, and bit down.

“It’s good,” he said quietly.

Qing Zheng laughed like a madman. “I knew it! Old Boss, you have no idea—ever since you left, the three of us studied this whenever we weren’t cultivating. We even worked on soy milk and fried dough sticks, just waiting for you to come back and taste them.”

He jabbed a thumb at himself. “Old Two tested it a bunch of times, catching mutated chickens everywhere for eggs. People even gave him a new nickname out there.”

“Shut up,” Qing Zheng snapped. “Don’t talk nonsense.”

Old Nine murmured, barely audible, “Chickensnatcher.”

Qing Zheng exploded, grabbed Old Nine by the neck, and shook him.

Wang Jie laughed, and the heavy mood in the room finally cracked.

Even Hong Jian managed a grin—then winced as pain caught him.

After that, Wang Jie told them what he knew about the outside world.

They listened like they were hearing myths.

Especially when he spoke about the Ninth Star Chain.

The room stared at him in awe and disbelief.

You could imagine how furious that True Disciple must be.

Outside Blue Star, aboard the ship, Xuan sat calmly and took another sip.

So this was Blue Star’s baijiu.

It wasn’t spicy to him at all, but the cigarettes were… interesting.

He smoked one after another, and somehow even managed to get a little dizzy.

He’d take some with him when he left.

He didn’t know how much time passed before an alarm suddenly blared.

Xuan’s face changed as he snapped his gaze to the screen.

The alarm came from a Silver Radiance Empire warship stationed far away.

That warship had encountered a powerful enemy.

Moments later, the alarm cut out.

Xuan checked the logs, exhaled, and connected to Wang Jie’s personal terminal.

“We’re in trouble,” he said. “The warship guarding one direction of Blue Star has been destroyed. A strong enemy is coming.”

On Blue Star, Wang Jie’s gaze went cold. “Details.”

“I only saw one Full-Star Realm,” Xuan said, voice tight, “but based on what we know about Luo Kingdom, there should be a commander even stronger. Conservatively, two Full-Star Realm are coming.”

He paused, then added, “There are at least three Star-Breaking Realm with them. And they’re headed this way.”

“Got it.”

Wang Jie left the room without mentioning any of it. He only said he needed to return to the ship to fetch medicine for Hong Jian.

On the ship, Wang Jie stared at the light screen where a new flashing dot had appeared.

“We can’t fight on Blue Star,” he said. “If we do, Blue Star will be destroyed.”

“Then we lure them away,” Xuan said. “I can do that—but I can’t withstand two Full-Star Realm.”

Wang Jie understood.

Xuan was only an ordinary Full-Star Realm cultivator. Even in the Silver Radiance Empire, that was rare.

But Luo Kingdom stood on the same level as Frost Splendor Sect—higher in status, richer in battlefield experience, and monstrously savage.

“You hold off the Full-Star Realm you spotted,” Wang Jie said. “Leave the rest to me.”

Xuan looked at him sharply. “Can you do it?”

Wang Jie clenched his fist. “I’ll try.”

Then he met Xuan’s eyes. “If it doesn’t work… you’ll die with me.”

Xuan let out a careless laugh. “I should’ve died the day I tried to assassinate Jun Hua. I stained the name of Silver Radiance Empire’s war god.”

Then, as if remembering something important, he added, “Can you get me some cigarettes?”

Farther out from Blue Star, another ship lay in waiting—positioned between Blue Star and the approaching Luo Kingdom forces.

So it saw the incoming Luo Bone even earlier than Wang Jie and Xuan did.

“It’s Kui Yan,” Wu Mian said, watching the screen. “The sect has records. His last combat rating was sixty thousand. Now it’s at least seventy thousand.”

Xuan can’t hold him, he didn’t say aloud.

He didn’t need to.

Jin Chu stared at the Luo Bone. “Looks like we still have to act ourselves.”

Wu Mian’s eyes flickered. “Kui Yan is mine.”

Jin Chu nodded once.

Time ticked by, second after second.

The Luo Bone didn’t notice Jin Chu and Wu Mian. It didn’t notice Wang Jie either.

It was only searching for its target.

It had confirmed where its subordinates died—so its target was Blue Star.

But when it spotted Blue Star, it also saw the spaceship parked nearby.

That ship turned and fled in another direction.

The Luo Bone turned as well.

Kui Yan’s deep-red pupils fixed on the distant starfield. “That planet is ordinary. It couldn’t possibly kill a Star-Breaking Realm. Chase that ship down.”

The Luo Bone accelerated.

Seeing it take the bait, Wang Jie finally released a tight breath.

Not long after, their ship stopped above a barren planet some distance from Blue Star.

The planet was harsh and empty, but it had water and plants—enough to support human life.

And this was where Wang Jie chose to fight.

The ship landed.

Soon after, the Luo Bone landed too.