Chapter 578: . He said wait, didn't you hear?

Book 578. “Wait,” he said, “Didn’t you hear it?”

Saya stood amid a shattered starfield, one hand raised, methodically gathering the severed limbs and broken fragments of monstrous beasts before him. Occasionally, he encountered corpses belonging to the Star-Realm humans.

At such moments, he would retrieve another storage ring, handling it with solemn reverence as he carefully enshrined each fallen body within.

These were comrades-in-arms—fellow warriors from the Hundred Great Star Regions’ battlefield—who had perished in the sacred defense campaign.

Their names once echoed with thunder across their native constellations, yet here, on this alien battlefield, they had been reduced to mere cold, indifferent numbers.

Those who did not return alive from the Alien Void Battlefield were, in truth, already dead.

Saya knew well that many noble star-clan families, upon learning a member had departed for the Star Battlefield, immediately treated them as deceased.

He had once deemed this excessive.

Now, having endured so much firsthand, he understood: the cruelty of the Alien Void Battlefield surpassed even his darkest imaginings—by tenfold.

*Will I ever make it back alive?*

Saya pondered silently within.

From the moment he stepped onto the conscription vessel bound for the Alien Void Battlefield, reality had blurred into a dream both vivid and illusory—a liminal state he still questioned, even now, as he drifted through this frigid void.

Was any of this real?

Had he truly entered the Alien Void Battlefield?

Had he truly—

Once been fortunate enough to meet a comrade capable of effortlessly slaying Thirteen-Level foes, bold enough to strike at Fourteen-Level beings?

As he continued his grim task of battlefield clearance—assigned such menial work precisely because his martial cultivation stood only at Eleven-Level, placing him at the very bottom rung of the Hundred Great Star Regions’ base—he let his thoughts wander aimlessly.

Suddenly, a corpse drifted past his vision.

A Star-Realm human.

Remarkably intact.

At first glance, only minor damage marred the combat armor; limbs and head remained whole, no obvious wounds marring the flesh.

Saya moved swiftly toward it, intending to seal it within his storage ring.

But inexplicably—perhaps nudged by unseen currents of energy coursing through the void—the corpse began drifting rapidly in one direction.

Saya hurried after it.

After a short pursuit, the body finally halted.

Just as Saya prepared to activate his storage ring—

The corpse lying motionless among the stars abruptly rose upright.

Saya recoiled in shock, frozen in place, staring at the grotesque spectacle before him.

The reanimated corpse was an unremarkable middle-aged man: flat-cropped hair, average build, sallow complexion. Beneath his tightly shut eyelids, his eyeballs rolled ceaselessly.

Saya heard the dull, rhythmic *thump-thump* of a heart restarting within that icy frame, felt the gurgling rush of blood surging through veins once dormant.

Within seconds, the corpse had fully revived.

Its eyes snapped open.

The instant those eyes opened—those eyes belonging to the man who had just risen from death—Saya finally recalled his name.

“Huang Ji! You’re Huang Ji!”

The words burst from Saya’s lips.

Huang Ji had been among the “new recruits” dispatched to the Alien Void Battlefield.

He had once displayed power rivaling that of Sara before her corruption—stunning all who witnessed it.

Later, when a Thirteen-Level beast-commander targeted their group, Huang Ji had vanished early, evading the ensuing catastrophe.

Saya had long assumed Huang Ji had been lost forever on the battlefield.

Never imagined he’d returned to base, participated in the Sacred Defense Campaign—and even *died* there.

Yet now, inexplicably, he had risen again.

As Saya wrestled with confusion, Huang Ji offered a faint, knowing smile.

“Unexpected indeed—that the eldest son of House Lairsas still remembers a humble nobody like me.”

At the mention of *Lairsas*, Saya’s face darkened instantly.

“You were sent by them?”

He clenched his jaw, voice hoarse as he spoke.

Huang Ji merely smiled, silent—but his meaning hung heavy in the void.

Saya scanned the surroundings. They were far from the Hundred Great Star Regions’ base. No third party in sight.

Clearly, Huang Ji had feigned death deliberately—to lure him here.

Huang Ji, a Twelve-Level cultivator who had fused three Laws, ranked among the elite even among his peers.

Whereas Saya—mere Eleven-Level—stood no chance.

His fate seemed sealed.

A wave of sorrow washed over him, and he let out a bitter laugh:

“Even after I volunteered for the Alien Void Battlefield… they still don’t trust me?”

"In this world, only the dead can truly put a mind at ease," Huang Ji said indifferently. "Do you not understand such a simple truth?"

Saya gritted his teeth. "How much are they paying you? Enough for you to willingly take the risk of chasing me all the way into the Alternate Space Battlefield just to kill me?"

"One hundred thousand secondary resource planets," Huang Ji replied with a smile.

Saya froze, his face twisting into an expression that was neither a cry nor a laugh.

"They are truly generous. This is the first time I have realized my life was actually worth so much."

"Young Master Saya underestimates his own value, and he also underestimates the wealth and heritage of the Laisars family."

"What if I say I am willing to offer one million secondary resource planets? Just to have you spare my life!" Saya's eyes flickered as he suddenly proposed.

Huang Ji let out a short laugh, one filled with sarcasm and mockery.

"My dear eldest young master, if there is a next life, I suggest you read fewer of those boring novels on the Star Net."

Saya's last shred of hope was completely shattered by Huang Ji's teasing words.

His handsome face turned crimson with frustration.

"Alright, my eldest young master, the question-and-answer session ends here."

Huang Ji cracked his neck, his body exuding the powerful aura and bone-chilling intent to kill that belonged to a twelfth-level powerhouse.

"It is time for you to prepare for your journey."

Huang Ji's gaze was aloof, looking down upon Saya as he spoke flatly.

Overwhelmed by immense terror, Saya instinctively retreated.

A primal desire to survive forced a shout from his lips: "Wait, just wait! I still have questions to ask!"

"I said, the time for questions has passed."

Huang Ji struck down fiercely with a palm toward the crown of Saya's head.

This single palm contained the immense might of Huang Ji's twelfth-level martial artistry, a power derived from mastery over the laws.

Beneath this palm, Saya, who was merely at the eleventh level, was like an egg blocking the path of a tumbling boulder.

In the very next breath, his fate would be to be crushed into a bloody pulp.

"Die, my dear eldest young master of the Laisars family!"

A harsh gleam flared in Huang Ji's eyes as he prepared to smash Saya to pieces with his palm.

Yet at that exact moment, a long and powerful hand suddenly reached out from the side, gently grasping Huang Ji's wrist.

The twelfth-level might contained within Huang Ji's palm disintegrated and vanished in an instant.

Not a single trace of it remained.

To his absolute horror, Huang Ji discovered that his hand felt as though it were rooted to the other person; he tried desperately to pull it back, but he could not even manage to control the muscles in his arm.

"He said to wait. Did you not hear him?"

A cold voice echoed right beside Huang Ji's ear.

In the next second, the figure of a young and handsome man slowly reflected in Huang Ji's eyes.