Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!

Long Chapter

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The chaos outside the Silverwood grounds continued for quite some time before the Silverwood disciples finally stepped in to restore order.

"Enough! Stop fighting! You’ve made your point already!"

Even as they shouted, however, it was clear they were only going through the motions. Their attempts at peacekeeping were half-hearted at best. None of them were particularly eager to get involved in the brawl that had erupted among the crowd.

By the time things finally settled down, the result was obvious. Almost everyone who had hesitated earlier now stood stripped nearly bare.

The women had gotten off relatively lightly. Most of their clothing remained intact, though a few sleeves and belts had clearly suffered in the struggle.

The men, on the other hand, were in far worse condition.

Especially the elderly ones.

The white-bearded elders who had once carried themselves with great dignity now looked utterly miserable. Robes torn away, belongings stolen, they were forced to squat awkwardly in the middle of the clearing.

A particularly pitiful sight involved several ancient looking figures who looked like they were older than most of the mountains surrounding the territory. Yet there they were, crouched low, one hand shielding their lower half while the other covered their faces, wishing they could simply vanish from existence.

"Alright, alright," someone finally shouted while waving his arms to organize the mess. "Anyone siding with our Matriarch’s man goes to the left. Anyone who wants to stay behind like soft eggs goes to the right."

A rustle swept through the crowd.

People quickly began moving, pushing and shuffling into rough lines. The vast majority headed toward the left side without hesitation.

Meanwhile the newly naked victims remained squatting right in the middle, still frozen in their awkward positions.

"HEY. You. Left or right? Pick one," the organizer barked. "What’s with sitting in the middle?"

If Ethan had been present, he would have recognized the man speaking immediately.

Lars Silverwood.

The same man Ethan had once beaten senseless together with Markham during their very first encounter. Since then Lars had undergone a dramatic transformation. These days he worshiped Ethan like a hero and often referred to him as big bro

"Chief Steward Lars..." one elderly voice called out weakly.

An ancient man with snow-white hair and a beard long enough to reach his knees was squatting among the unfortunate group. His hands covered his face as he spoke in embarrassment.

"We... we want to go to the left. Could someone... please return this old man’s clothes?"

The reason he wasn’t covering his lower half was obvious. His beard was so long that when he hunched forward it naturally draped down to the ground, acting as a surprisingly effective shield.

Lars had risen surprisingly far within the Silverwood hierarchy.

The previous Chief Steward, Liam Silverwood, had been killed by Ethan. The position had remained vacant afterward.

Originally Lars had been managing the Silverwood family’s affairs in Ashwick, handling matters related to the normal world. But after returning alongside Lyla, he had been promoted almost overnight to become the Chief Steward responsible for the entire family.

Of course many people had objected to such a sudden promotion.

Those objections disappeared quickly.

After all, Lyla, Amber, and Rainie had casually eliminated an elder of the Divine Sea Temple with a single strike. Once that happened, the retired elders living inside the territory had immediately fallen silent.

In the supernatural world, strength spoke louder than anything else.

Lyla had effectively become the Silverwood family’s savior. Who would dare openly oppose someone like that?

Yet now, inside the Silverwood council hall, those same elders had suddenly crawled out of hiding.

And the reason for that was Ethan.

More specifically, the trouble he had just stirred up.

"Matriarch! We absolutely cannot fight! The Divine Sea Temple is far beyond our capabilities!"

"Exactly, Matriarch. I have spent years studying our family’s ancient records. The Temple rarely appears in history, but there is one line I remember clearly."

The speaker looked like an ancient scholar, with white hair and a flowing beard that almost touched the floor.

He recited slowly, as if quoting sacred scripture.

"Temple brings annihilation, all races rise, energy awakens, heaven and earth transform."

An elder beside him leaned forward eagerly.

"Ancestor, are you saying this ’Temple’ refers to the Divine Sea Temple?"

"It must be," the scholar replied gravely. "Temple brings annihilation. Annihilation."

He paused, letting the word sink in.

"And the next line says all races rise and energy awakens. Could it mean the Mythic Age is approaching? If that is the case, then our best option is obvious. We should expel everyone currently residing here and seal the territory just like the Wynn and Hargrave families have done. We remain hidden and wait for the transformation to pass."

"Agreed," another elder immediately said. "This is an opportunity. If we conserve our strength and avoid unnecessary battles, we can emerge after the storm stronger than ever."

Nearly a dozen ancient figures had gathered in the center of the hall. Some were so old they could barely stand without assistance, yet none of them bothered to sit down. Instead they argued loudly while waving their hands for emphasis.

The man they referred to as "Ancestor" was not actually named that. He simply happened to be the oldest among them and belonged to the highest surviving generation.

As he watched the discussion unfold, he stroked his beard with satisfaction and nodded approvingly, occasionally glancing toward Lyla.

She sat calmly at the highest seat in the hall.

Silent.

"Ahem."

The old man cleared his throat.

The other elders immediately understood his intention. Their eyes turned toward Lyla in unison.

"Matriarch," one of them said firmly, "we have reached a unanimous conclusion. Sealing the territory is the only reasonable choice. We must preserve our strength and wait for the right moment to rise."

"Yes, Matriarch. You must not listen to outsiders."

"Matriarch, the Silverwood family has a thousand years of legacy. We cannot allow it to fall."

"Matriarch..."

One speech followed another.

They kept addressing her respectfully as Matriarch, yet the tone in their voices carried little genuine respect.

Lyla listened quietly, then the corners of her lips curled slightly. She smiled, but she said nothing.

The elders exchanged puzzled glances, then a laugh suddenly broke the silence.

"Heh."

The sound came from the front row on the left side.

Donovan Silverwood sat there casually holding a teapot. A few droplets of tea had splashed onto his robe, and he was brushing them away while chuckling to himself.

He had apparently laughed so hard that he accidentally spat out his tea.

"Donovan!" the so-called Ancestor snapped angrily. "You are now part of the Elder Council. Even if you refuse to consider the family’s future, at least show some respect!"

Donovan barely looked up.

"I’m laughing because you’re about to get wrecked," he replied casually as he set the teapot down.

"Wrecked? What nonsense are you talking about?" A gray-robed elder beside the Ancestor puffed out his chest proudly.

"The Elder Council has the authority to remove the Matriarch if necessary and choose a new leader. Who in the Silverwood family would dare lay a hand on us?"

"Oh? Really?"

A light voice drifted in from the entrance.

"Of course," several elders responded instinctively.

"Then this nursing home is officially dissolved."

The same calm voice echoed through the hall again.

The elders froze. ’Nursing home?’

Their eyes widened in outrage. At that moment a figure stepped through the doorway. Behind him, something massive scraped loudly across the floor.

Everyone turned to look, even Donovan blinked in surprise.

The newcomer was Ethan. And what he was dragging behind him was a gigantic seashell.

Donovan had known Ethan would eventually show up. He had already assumed these old fools were doomed.

What he had not expected was that Ethan would arrive dragging something like that.

He had broken it off. The massive shell had clearly been ripped straight out of the mountain.

Earlier, Ethan had not come to the council hall right away. Instead he had gone to the forbidden ground deep inside Silverwood territory.

He had heard stories about that place.

According to legend, the forbidden ground contained a gigantic seashell that periodically produced energy cores. At the same time it emitted strange demonic sounds that could distort the minds of anyone who stayed nearby for too long.

Ethan’s grandfather, Caelum the First, had once spent years sealing that object. That event had ultimately triggered the rebellion of the Eight Families.

Afterward Caelum the First had fled with his remaining family members and vanished from Silverwood territory entirely. He traveled to the Umbral Star, the place known as the Sea of Death.

Before leaving the Sea of Death, he had left behind the Four City Lord Seals. Those very seals now rested inside Ethan’s mindscape.

Ethan knew all of this from the stories his father had told him. On top of that, Blackie had once lived alongside his grandfather in the Sea of Death, which meant the two of them had shared many details about the past.

So the first thing Ethan had done after returning to Silverwood territory was investigate this mysterious seashell.

Another clue had also caught his attention earlier.

When Ethan killed Liam Silverwood, he discovered that the man had been carrying a spatial pouch marked with the sigil of Hurricane City.

The pouch itself looked ancient and worn, but the mark was unmistakable. Taken together, these clues suggested that Silverwood territory might have some hidden connection to the Sea of Death.

Inside the forbidden ground Ethan began searching carefully. At first he found nothing unusual. The only visible object was the enormous seashell embedded in the cliff face.

Still, something about it felt strange. The surrounding rock and the shell itself clearly consisted of different materials, so Ethan simply grabbed the shell and pulled.

Crack.

The entire thing tore free. Ethan stared at it for a moment, the shell was nearly ten meters tall and definitely not a natural part of the cliff.

"Still getting used to this strength," he muttered while shaking his hand.

He had barely applied any force, Still, broken was broken. After tossing the shell aside, Ethan focused his attention on the exposed rock wall behind it.

His Soul Sense swept forward.

"Huh?"

Something was different.

When the shell had been in place, his Soul Sense could not penetrate the area behind it. Now the obstruction was gone. Carved into the stone was a massive magic circle.

Arcane symbols filled the entire formation.

Unfortunately Ethan was terrible at formation studies. To him the complicated array might as well have been meaningless scribbles.

He disappeared instantly and reappeared moments later at the guest courtyard where he had stayed during his first visit to Silverwood territory.

There he found Micah.

Without explanation Ethan grabbed him and dragged him straight back to the forbidden ground.

Micah only needed one glance at the formation to understand its importance.

"Can you read it?" Ethan asked immediately. Something about this discovery felt extremely significant.

"It’s an ancient teleportation array," Micah replied after studying it briefly. "But it’s damaged. I’ll need time to repair it."

He had already begun pulling small tools from his pockets. Tiny brushes and delicate scrapers appeared one after another.

"Knew it," Ethan murmured, his heartbeat quickening.

This had to be the path his grandfather once used to reach the Umbral Star. Years later Ethan’s parents had likely returned through the same route.

Only the Caelum bloodline even knew this formation existed, and only they knew how to use it.

If this array could be repaired, Ethan’s biggest problem might finally have a solution.

A year and a half had already passed since Morzan issued his deadline. Only two and a half years remained. Although Ethan had grown much stronger during that time, he still knew it was not enough to face that final threat head-on.

He needed time, he needed a place where he could consolidate his power. The Umbral Star offered exactly that, as time flowed differently there. A thousandfold difference.

If that world still existed in the Second Universe, Ethan might even be able to prepare himself to challenge the Divine Realm from there.

"Ethan," Micah said while examining the formation more closely. "Someone forced this array open at some point. It’s nearly dead now, but the core formation is still intact. The directional coordinates are still preserved."

He paused, frowning thoughtfully.

"There’s also a timed mechanism embedded here. It regularly receives shipments from the other side."

"Good," Ethan said. "Can you fix it?"

"With enough time, yes. But I’ll need Ryan to help. His formation skills are about the same as mine, and he always comes up with strange solutions to tricky problems."

"Then get him."

Ethan did not hesitate.

"Just make sure it works."

He had a strong feeling this formation might turn out to be more important than anything else he had discovered since returning.

"I’ll try," Micah said while continuing his inspection. "I wonder where it leads."

Ethan did not answer.

He did not mention the Sea of Death, He also said nothing about the timed receiving function. Micah assumed Ethan simply did not know the details either.

But Ethan knew.

The story about the seashell producing energy cores had always been a cover. Those cores were not being produced.

They were being sent.

Which meant someone on the other side was still transmitting them.

"Who could it be?" Ethan wondered silently. "Grandfather?"

As he prepared to leave, his eyes drifted toward the seashell lying nearby. His earlier pull must have been stronger than he thought. The entire object had been ripped out cleanly.

The material looked extremely dense and durable.

He decided to keep it. Maybe Shatterstar could analyze it later and craft something useful from the material.

Ethan reached out with his mind to place the shell inside his spatial storage, but nothing happened.

The shell refused to move.

"Huh?"

Ethan grabbed the edge of the shell with both hands. His arm muscles bulged, veins rising like coiled serpents beneath his skin.

He squeezed hard, but still, nothing.

His brows furrowed. That squeeze should have been enough to crush forged steel.

The Twilight War Spear suddenly appeared in his hand. Ethan pressed the spear’s sharpest point against the surface of the shell.

Ting.

Both objects vibrated violently.

"NO, Master, don’t!"

The spear flew out of his grasp and shifted shape. Luna appeared beside him, panic written all over her face.

"If two relics collide like that, we’d both shatter!"

She stared at Ethan nervously, clearly worried he might lose his temper and start smashing things again.

"Wait," Ethan said slowly. "This is a relic?"

It was the first time Luna had ever referred to herself using that term. In Ethereal equipment, she had always been classified as legendary-tier.

Did that mean every legendary item was actually a relic?

At the moment Ethan only possessed one true relic; The Twilight War Spear. And now this seashell appeared to belong to the same category.

"Master," Luna said while circling the shell cautiously, "it’s dormant. It looks like a heritage relic connected to this family."

"Dormant, yes. Its original master was the River Goddess." A weak voice suddenly echoed inside Ethan’s mind.

He froze, then excitement exploded across his face.

"You’re awake? I thought you died!"

The speaker was the Consumption Dragon. The ancient dragon had nearly perished earlier during the battle with the angels.

"Brat," the dragon grumbled. "I’ve lived for millions of years. I’m not so easy to kill. That damned Fortune Dragon nearly finished me though."

"Without the Fortune Dragon you would have been sliced in half already," Ethan replied with a snort.

Before the dragon could argue, Ethan immediately asked another question.

"So who exactly is the River Goddess?"

The dragon, clearly happy to change the subject, answered quickly.

"She was the goddess of the Silver River. Once she ruled this world."

"Silver River... Silverwood... could it be..."

Ethan’s eyes widened in realization.

"Possibly," the dragon replied before disappearing again. "Why else would that relic be here?"

Ethan looked down at the massive seashell and grinned. A relic like this would be perfect for Lyla.

Without hesitation he grabbed the shell again and flew straight toward the council hall.