Chapter 98

Chapter 98: Final Showdown

Jin Chu stared into the distance, breath caught.

Wang Jie’s movement was awkward yet terrifying—so similar to Luo Kingdom’s Power-Storing Method it made her scalp prickle.

But how?

Wu Mian’s eyes were dark. “Power-Storing Method looks simple, but it demands extremely precise control of power. It’s second only to Chen Art.”

He spoke as if trying to convince himself. “Every Luo Kingdom cultivator who trains it suffers greatly. And if an outsider wants to master it, the suffering is even worse—because Luo Kingdom people’s bones are much larger than normal.”

His jaw clenched. “If an ordinary person can master Power-Storing Method, that means he can train Chen Art.”

He exhaled sharply. “What kind of genius capable of Chen Art would waste time on Power-Storing Method?”

Wu Mian couldn’t understand Wang Jie anymore.

Had he learned it just by watching once?

Even if someone taught it step by step, it would still be brutally difficult.

Yet Wang Jie was already using it.

He didn’t even need Jia Eight Steps anymore.

His pupils shifted constantly, tracking every motion Kui Yan made.

Not Kui Yan’s body.

The qi.

Kui Yan attacked again and again, but still couldn’t land a blow.

Kui Yan roared, “Human! You don’t even dare come out and fight a decisive battle?”

Wang Jie sneered and didn’t answer.

Instead, he tested Star-Gazing Sword Form again.

Star-Gazing Sword Form was one of the materials for Sword Steps—the move that destroyed the stars.

There was no better time to refine it.

He’d use Kui Yan as his whetstone.

Wang Jie kept using branches as swords. Since he wasn’t clashing head-on, the weapon didn’t matter.

What mattered was the form.

Training Star-Gazing Sword Form under Kui Yan’s relentless pressure improved him faster than any peaceful practice ever could.

In a short time, he pushed his sword sequences from twenty moves to forty.

And by using lockforce as efficiently as possible, he reduced the drain of Power-Storing Method.

The improvement was obvious.

Kui Yan suddenly turned—charging straight toward Xuan again.

Again.

Wang Jie surged after him, tossing something mid-run.

Xuan caught it.

“The Three-Wraith Formation scroll,” Wang Jie said. “Use this.”

Xuan’s eyes widened. He didn’t expect Wang Jie to have it—much less hand it over in the middle of a fight like this.

“Thank you.”

He opened it without hesitation.

The world around him warped.

Colors bled. Sounds twisted. Smells became wrong.

Everything turned into chaos.

Three-Wraith Formation could confuse even a Full-Star Realm cultivator.

And it was especially effective against Luo Kingdom fighters, who weren’t skilled in formations and relied on brute force.

Once it spread, the Full-Star Realm Luo Kingdom opponent fighting Xuan could no longer find him.

Even Kui Yan lost track of him.

In that moment of confusion, Wang Jie pointed and pierced Kui Yan’s left leg bone joint.

Starforce spilled out.

Kui Yan dropped to one knee, snapping his head toward Wang Jie.

Wang Jie pointed again—toward the right leg.

Then he retreated.

Another Luo Kingdom fighter charged in—the Full-Star Realm that had been fighting Xuan.

Both were Full-Star Realm. Even if this one was weaker than Kui Yan, it still outclassed Wang Jie by two realms.

Wang Jie dodged back at once.

The Luo Kingdom fighter chased tight, swinging a huge iron rod.

Then its body jerked backward.

Xuan struck from the shadows, Three-Wraith Formation enabling a clean ambush.

Kui Yan lowered his head.

The anger in his eyes curdled into madness.

Wang Jie didn’t hesitate.

The iron rod came down—Wang Jie caught it with a backhand and kicked.

The rod slammed into Kui Yan, nearly knocking him flat.

The Luo Kingdom fighter roared, “Human, shameless!”

Kui Yan roared too.

He grabbed the iron rod, snapped off the spikes embedded along it, and—before Wang Jie and Xuan’s stunned eyes—stabbed them into his own body.

Blood sprayed.

Wang Jie froze.

What was he doing?

Clang.

Another spike snapped free.

Kui Yan looked at Wang Jie, deep-red pupils filled with slaughter, and drove it into himself again.

In the distance, Wu Mian shouted, “No—Blood-Prick Art! Save them, now!”

Jin Chu’s eyes sharpened. “Blood-Prick Art?”

“A Luo Kingdom method for boosting battle power,” Wu Mian said grimly. “They prick their blood to speed circulation. Their bones and meridians are thicker than normal, so the effect is fast. It boosts both speed and strength.”

His gaze went hard. “Kui Yan is going all out. Fighting to the death.”

Jin Chu threw open the ship door, ready to intervene at any moment.

Kui Yan stabbed four spikes into himself.

A blood mist boiled over his skin, and his body shrank again, muscles compressing like a beast preparing to pounce.

Inside him, something seemed to writhe—his blood, surging violently.

Wang Jie’s pupils flashed. “Move!”

He and Xuan attacked together.

Kui Yan bared a savage grin and burst forward.

His left leg joint being broken didn’t slow him at all.

He was faster.

Much faster.

Wang Jie twisted his body, but still couldn’t fully dodge.

A blow slammed into his side and threw him away.

Kui Yan leaped up and slapped down at him.

Wang Jie was suddenly shoved aside—by Xuan.

The slap missed.

Even so, the shockwave blasted both Xuan and Wang Jie backward.

Wang Jie’s vision blurred.

He didn’t hesitate. He stepped Jia Eight Steps, dodging first.

Boom.

Kui Yan appeared, blood qi surging into the sky.

He swept an arm across.

Wang Jie could only raise his left arm to block.

He was sent flying.

He couldn’t block it.

Not even close.

Speed and strength—both completely outclassed him now.

Two figures rushed in.

Jin Chu and Wu Mian.

The world turned icy.

Snowflakes drifted down.

Kui Yan turned, and a bone-deep chill flooded his vision as frost spread upward to seize him.

Wu Mian swung a horizontal blade at Kui Yan’s frozen legs.

A roar shook the air.

Kui Yan shattered the ice and kicked.

The kick landed on Wu Mian’s blade, sending Wu Mian and his weapon flying.

Kui Yan spun and punched at Jin Chu.

Jin Chu frowned and raised both arms.

The void condensed into solid ice—

And shattered under the punch.

All around, Luo Kingdom fighters rushed in.

Jin Chu and Wu Mian were both Full-Star Realm, yet even they were being forced back by Kui Yan in this state.

Using Blood-Prick Art, Kui Yan had pushed himself to peak Full-Star Realm battle power.

Fearless of death.

Wu Mian retreated, face tight. “We can’t trade blows head-on. Even if we kill him, you and I will pay a heavy price.”

Jin Chu searched for Wang Jie.

The Guest Elder could not be harmed.

Kui Yan’s roars grew louder.

Two more spikes appeared in his hand.

He stabbed them into himself.

Blood qi surged again.

Wu Mian’s scalp went numb.

Damn it—he could still get stronger?

Was he really not afraid to die?

In the distance, Wang Jie exhaled.

He raised a hand.

Gray airflow churned in his palm as the void spread flat.

The IOU slip appeared.

Signed: Qing Feng Bu Gui Ke.

Kui Yan waved and shattered the ground and mountains. Magma rolled back like a tide toward Jin Chu and Wu Mian—then Kui Yan turned and charged straight at Wang Jie.

Wang Jie kept his head down, feeling power flood his body.

Unfamiliar… yet strangely familiar.

Borrowed power was still power.

“Guest Elder, be careful!” Jin Chu shouted.

Wang Jie looked up.

A dark-red fist was already there.

He clenched his own, two streams of qi fusing like transparent flames that shot into the sky.

His muscles nearly burst as he threw a punch.

Boom!

The collision shook heaven and earth.

A shockwave ripped outward, and the ground split from the point where they met.

A massive crack spread down through the planet in a blink—crossing its core.

In the distance, heat surged, blotting out the sky. Black smoke rose like a monster.

Jin Chu and Wu Mian staggered back, breath almost stopping.

They stared in horror.

Was this… power?

Kui Yan stumbled back step by step, staring at Wang Jie like the universe had betrayed him.

His entire arm exploded into fragments.

Wang Jie’s hand bones were shattered.

He only took one step back.

Lockforce gathered along his arm, stabilizing it.

He grabbed another branch and unleashed Star-Gazing Sword Form.

Sword qi slashed down again and again.

Kui Yan retreated.

For the first time in his life, he felt fear of the unknown.

Luo Kingdom didn’t fear death. They took pride in it.

But fear of the unknown—no creature escaped that.

He couldn’t understand how a Ten Seals cultivator could wield power like this, leaping two levels to fight him at peak Full-Star Realm strength.

It was impossible.

There was no record of it in Luo Kingdom history.

Sword qi tore past Kui Yan and carved into the ground, piercing through the planet again and again until it finally burst out from the far side.

The planet split in two.

The earth broke open. Far away, seawater poured into the widening cracks and rushed into the depths.

Kui Yan stared at Wang Jie.

Humiliation—burning humiliation.

He was afraid now.

Only death could wash away that shame.

Wang Jie’s sword qi fell again.

Kui Yan stared at it.

Two spikes appeared in his hand.

He drove them into his chest.

In the distance, Jin Chu saw it and shouted, “Guest Elder, run! He’s gone beyond his limit—he’s bound to die! The planet is cracking too. We have to escape!”

Wang Jie gritted his teeth, turned, and ran, shouting, “Xuan, run!”

He had no intention of dying with Kui Yan.

Kui Yan had no intention of letting him go.

His deep-red pupils tracked Wang Jie. He spat blood and sprang after him.

With his right arm gone, he would use his left.

Humiliation had to be cleansed.

Wang Jie stepped Jia Eight Steps to dodge.

Kui Yan’s punch shattered the ground again.

The planet broke into four pieces.

The other Luo Kingdom fighters rushed back toward the Luo Bone.

Luo Kingdom people might not fear death, but that didn’t mean they wanted to die for nothing.

Xuan appeared from another direction and ran toward Jin Chu’s ship. The ship he and Wang Jie had arrived in was already destroyed.

Kui Yan chased from behind.

At Wang Jie’s current speed, he could outrun them and board the ship first.

But so what?

Kui Yan could still destroy the ship.

And the ship needed time to escape the planet’s collapsing debris zone.

Jin Chu’s face tightened.

If she’d known it would come to this, they should’ve stepped in earlier instead of letting Kui Yan push himself so far.

Now, unless Kui Yan died, none of them would survive.

Wang Jie stopped.

He looked back at Kui Yan.

“You go,” he said.

Jin Chu froze.

Wang Jie charged straight at Kui Yan.

Magma shot up like waterfalls around them.

He wasn’t throwing his life away.

He wasn’t sacrificing himself for others.

It was simply that right now, only he could stop Kui Yan.

Kui Yan was doomed, and he knew it.

He didn’t plan to live.

He only wanted to drag them with him.

Wang Jie could only gamble too.

“Kui Yan—”

“Human—”

Two terrifying forces crashed together, speeding up the planet’s collapse.

Jin Chu and Wu Mian boarded the ship and ignited the engines immediately.

“Where’s the other one?” someone demanded.

They realized Xuan hadn’t boarded.

They looked back.

Xuan was blocking the other Full-Star Realm Luo Kingdom fighter.

That fighter had been ignored earlier—yet now it was right beside the ship.

If Xuan hadn’t intervened, the ship might have been destroyed before it ever launched.

“Go,” Wu Mian said, voice hard.

They didn’t hesitate.

The ship shot away, escaping the planet’s reach.