My Children’s Gifts Give Me 1000x Returns!

**ARC 3: THE SOVEREIGN CLAN FOUNDATION & MARCH TO THE CORE**

The mountain air grew frigid as the academy convoy entered the narrow, winding mouth of Blood-Pine Gorge. Towering rock faces rose hundreds of feet on either side, casting deep shadows over the pine trees that clung to the jagged cliffs.

Inside the lead carriage, the atmosphere remained tranquil. Ethan sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, practicing the internal breath-control of the Nine-Bones Iron Dragon Method, while Elena quietly adjusted the leather wraps on her boots.

Across from them, Seraphina looked out the window, her brow furrowing as she noticed the eerie silence of the pass.

"It’s too quiet," Seraphina muttered, her hand shifting toward the hilt of her rapier. "Usually, the mountain trade routes have merchant caravans or guild scouts passing through. We haven't seen a single soul for five miles."

Lucas tightened his grip on his twin daggers. "The terrain here is a death trap. If an ambush squad takes the high ground on those cliffs—"

"There won't be an ambush," Ethan interrupted calmly, opening his dark eyes.

Lucas blinked. "How can you be so sure?"

Ethan offered a small, knowing smile, glancing briefly at the obsidian Sovereign Teleportation & Protection Amulet resting against his collarbone. "Because the shadows are already working."

High up on the pine-covered cliffs overlooking the pass...

Ten minutes prior, forty heavily armed mercenaries clad in dark gray leather armor had been crouching silently behind the granite boulders. They held heavy black crossbows loaded with Grade-3 spirit-piercing bolts, their tips dripping with blue, paralyzing viper venom.

Their leader, a scarred Late-Stage Martial Scholar named Captain Vane, had been staring down at the gorge entrance through an eagle-eye spyglass.

"Remember the order," Captain Vane had growled under his breath to his men. "Ignore the academy guards. The moment the white ironwood carriage enters the kill zone, fire all forty bolts directly into the left window! House Zephyrus pays double if the Sterling boy dies in the first volley!"

"Aye, Captain," his second-in-command whispered, aiming his heavy crossbow. "Easy money. They’re just kids riding in a—"

SWISH.

A sound softer than a falling pine needle brushed past the second-in-command’s ear.

Before the mercenary could even turn his head, a slender, dark shadow blade emerged silently from his throat! A hand clad in dark dragon-scale leather clamped over his mouth, dragging his limp body quietly into the dense bushes behind the boulder without making a single sound.

Captain Vane, still looking through his spyglass, felt a sudden cold draft brush against the back of his neck.

"Hey, keep your head down..." Vane grunted without turning around.

No response came.

Frowning, Vane turned his head—and his heart nearly stopped.

All thirty-nine of his veteran mercenaries were already lying motionless on the pine needles! Beside each corpse stood a tall, silent figure wrapped in pitch-black shadow armor, wearing a dark iron dragon mask that reflected no light.

Standing directly in front of Captain Vane was Viper, one of House Sterling's newly summoned Martial Master shadow lieutenants.

Viper’s dark crimson eyes burned through his iron mask like two coals in the dark.

"H-House... Sterling..." Captain Vane stammered in absolute horror, his hand trembling so violently he dropped his heavy broadsword onto the dirt. "W-Who are you people?! How did you get behind us?!"

Viper didn't answer. He simply reached out a dark-scaled gauntlet, clamping his fingers around Vane’s throat like a vice of cold iron, lifting the Late-Stage Martial Scholar three feet off the ground with effortless physical force.

"Who paid for the contract?" Viper’s voice echoed directly inside Vane's mind, sounding like rasping metal.

"H-House Zephyrus... Senior Manager Kael!" Vane choked, gasping frantically for air as tears of pure terror streamed down his face. "Sixty... sixty thousand spirit stones! Mercy—!"

CRACK.

Viper casually snapped Vane’s neck, tossing his lifeless body into the brush alongside the others.

"Clear the ridge," Viper ordered softly. "Collect their spatial rings for the Clan Master's treasury. Erase the bloodstains."

"By your command," the twenty shadow assassins whispered in unison.

Within two minutes, all forty mercenary bodies vanished into shadow storage, the bloodstains were neutralized by cleansing powders, and the cliffside returned to pristine, untouched mountain silence.

Five minutes later...

The white ironwood carriages of the academy convoy rolled smoothly through the center of Blood-Pine Gorge.

The silver-plated academy guards held their shields high, their eyes nervously scanning the high cliffs above, fully expecting an arrow volley to rain down on them at any second.

Yet, as the carriages passed safely through the narrowest point of the canyon, not a single arrow flew. The only sound was the rhythmic thud of the spirit-beast horses' hooves and the gentle mountain breeze rustling through the pine trees.

Inside the lead carriage, Lucas let out a long breath, slowly releasing the grip on his twin daggers. "We... we made it through? No ambush?"

Seraphina looked up at the quiet cliffs, thoroughly puzzled. "That’s impossible. My family's intelligence explicitly reported that black-market mercenaries had taken contracts for this route..."

Elena looked at Ethan, a quiet, amused gleam in her azure eyes.

"Sometimes," Elena said smoothly, leaning back against her plush seat, "the obstacles are cleared before you even know they existed."

Meanwhile, far above the clouds...

Inside the Celestial Commerce Hall on the Floating Cloud Island, Gabriel sat behind a heavy desk carved from thousand-year spirit wood.

Before him floated a spatial ledger displayed by the System, tracking the influx of resources.

BZ—T!

[Ding!]

[Subordinates (Shadow Assassin Hall) have successfully eliminated an ambush squad and secured spoils of war!]

[Triggering 300x Critical Return on Captured Spoils!]

[Host receives: 18,000,000 High-Grade Spirit Stones!]

[Host receives: 1x Grade-5 Rare Poison Manual — 'Seven-Nights Venom Scriptures'!]

(Automatically deposited into the Sovereign Martial Library under System-Bound protection).

"House Zephyrus spent sixty thousand spirit stones to send mercenaries," Gabriel murmured, tossing the poison manual into the virtual library slot. "And in return, they just funded my family's treasury by eighteen million."

Gabriel raised his gaze toward the spatial mirror floating in mid-air, which displayed the convoy emerging safely from the mountain pass into the sprawling, sunny plains of the Central District.

At the far end of the vast plains, towering high into the clouds, stood the massive, white-and-gold walls of the Core City—the epicenter of the Southern Realm's absolute power.

"Two more days," Gabriel whispered, his dark golden eyes glowing with unshakeable dominance. "Welcome to the Core City."