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

Long Chapter

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Ethan scanned the analysis again and confirmed that Shatterstar had not provided any notes or solutions.

"Really no way?" he asked, his tone probing.

[Correct. My database contains no solution. The First Universe’s demise occurred precisely because of this. Otherwise, I would never have been created.]

Shatterstar’s answer was absolute, delivered without hesitation or ambiguity.

Ethan slowly nodded as he absorbed that. It made sense when he thought about it. Shatterstar itself existed because the First Universe had failed to solve the problem. If they had found a solution, they would never have needed to pour all their remaining resources into building a desperate distress beacon like Shatterstar in the first place.

Which meant one thing.

He was stuck. This was not a problem he could fix alone.

Ethan turned to leave, already planning to gather the others and discuss the situation with them. Two heads were better than one, and the people around him were far from ordinary. Now that he understood how dangerous this thing truly was, they needed to start thinking about how to deal with it before it spiraled completely out of control.

More importantly, Ethan had always been clear about one thing. The greatest threat Earth faced did not come from its own world.

It came from the Divine Realm. And if this was their doing, then it was almost certainly only the opening move.

What Ethan really wanted to understand now was how the Divine Sea Temple connected to the Divine Realm. The temple had clearly chosen its side, willingly becoming their lackeys.

Just thinking about it made Ethan’s blood boil.

He was fighting for this world with everything he had, risking his life again and again, while some of the people who actually lived here were selling it out from the inside.

A slow, simmering rage spread through his chest.

In Ethan’s mind, the Divine Sea Temple had already become enemy number one. If he had the chance, he would wipe them out completely without the slightest hesitation.

And then there was Zachary. Originally, that man had been the first name on Ethan’s kill list. But now... Ethan almost felt a strange hint of pity for him.

A man who had clawed his way up from nothing, only to be replaced by his own father at the critical moment.

Earlier, Ethan had nearly killed Harrison himself. Then that mysterious figure in black had appeared and taken him away.

Harrison was probably still alive. Still salvageable. As for that black-robed figure, Ethan was almost certain of their identity.

One of the Temple Masters of the Divine Sea Temple.

Rumor said there were four great temples controlling the seas of the world. East, South, West, and North. The so-called Four Seas.

Ethan did not know exactly how those territories were divided, but he was fairly sure the man who had appeared earlier was the Temple Master responsible for the waters around the US.

And if the Divine Sea Temple could create something like this... Then they must have some method behind it.

Which raised an important question. Did they also know how to shut down this energy leak?

The more Ethan thought about it, the clearer it became that the Divine Sea Temple had to be his next target.

But the longer he dwelled on it, the angrier he became. The anger built in his chest until it felt like it might burst.

If a member of the temple appeared in front of him right now, Ethan was fairly certain he would tear them apart with his bare hands.

Then something unexpected happened.

The light clinging to the Twilight War Spear suddenly erupted outward without warning. Gold and pink light exploded from the weapon and spread in every direction around Ethan like a sudden wave.

The burst was brief but intense.

In the blink of an eye, the light expanded to cover nearly a kilometer before vanishing just as suddenly as it had appeared.

Ethan stood there in complete shock.

"What the hell?"

His anger disappeared instantly, replaced by confusion. He stared down at his arm as he felt the strange Magnetic Light that had flowed from the spear into his body.

After that brief eruption of light, the energy had traveled through the hand gripping the spear, moved into his arm, then through his chest before finally settling between two ribs near the lower part of his ribcage.

There it pulsed faintly, brightening and dimming like a quiet heartbeat.

Ethan blinked several times.

"Seriously? Am I some kind of trash can now? Why does everything keep crawling into my body?"

Right then, a sharp rushing sound cut through the air and several figures appeared almost instantly.

Uncle Jed and the others.

They had been stationed several kilometers away, but they had all seen the strange burst of light coming from Ethan’s location and immediately rushed over, assuming something had gone wrong.

"What happened?"

"Damn, boss, did you just unleash some kind of ultimate move?"

"Ethan, what was that just now? That was a pretty impressive light show!"

The group gathered around him, their eyes scanning the surroundings. Then everyone gradually realized something strange.

The entire landscape had changed.

Their camp had originally been located deep within a dense forest filled with ancient trees so large that two people would struggle to wrap their arms around a single trunk. At this time of year the forest should have been lush and vibrant, filled with thick green foliage.

But now there was not a single trace of green anywhere.

Everything around them had turned gold and pink.

The enormous trees, the grass, the flowers, even the fallen leaves scattered across the ground had all been transformed into a strange crystalline material in those same shimmering colors.

Markham walked over to one of the ancient trees with curiosity and tapped the trunk lightly with his knuckles.

Ding. Ding.

The sound that echoed back was sharp and metallic. The trunk no longer felt like wood at all.

Curious, Markham drew his massive sword and swung it down against the trunk.

CLANG.

The blade bounced off violently.

Only a tiny chip appeared on the surface of the crystalline trunk, and several glittering fragments fell to the ground.

"Whoa... this thing’s that hard?"

While Markham stared at the trunk in surprise, Dragon Child had already floated up into the air. She reached out and pinched a leaf between her fingers.

With a gentle motion she snapped the stem.

Crack.

A gold-pink leaf broke free and fell into her palm, glittering faintly. She studied it quietly for a moment before raising her gaze and looking at the entire kilometer-wide area surrounding them.

A faint confusion flickered across her eyes.

Nearby, Evelyn activated her mech and floated upward as well.

"Wow... it’s so pretty!"

Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she reached toward a nearby leaf.

Dragon Child suddenly snapped out of her thoughts the moment she heard Evelyn’s voice. Just as Evelyn’s fingers were about to touch the leaf, Dragon Child shouted sharply.

"Don’t move!"

"Ahh!"

Evelyn jumped in fright and froze mid-reach.

"Dr... Dragon Sister, what’s wrong?"

The girl quickly switched to her usual sweet tone. She had long learned that calling her "Dragon Sister" tended to soften Dragon Child’s temper.

Dragon Child looked slightly awkward for a moment. Everyone else was staring at her in confusion.

She hesitated briefly before speaking.

"Um... I said don’t touch it, so don’t touch it. These shiny things are mine. Yes... all mine. Nobody gets any."

Her voice started off a little uncertain, but by the end her tone had turned completely firm.

Possessive. Almost greedy.

Evelyn blinked in confusion. The rest of the group exchanged puzzled looks as well.

What was going on with Dragon Child? Had something possessed her?

Only Ethan, Markham, and Maria seemed to understand what was happening.

Markham finally cleared his throat and spoke.

"Evelyn, girl, dragons are hopeless when it comes to shiny but completely useless things. Don’t compete with your Dragon Sister for them, or she might just eat you."

He grinned up at Dragon Child as he said it.

Dragon Child glared down at him sharply, but she did not deny it.

Markham instinctively rubbed the bridge of his nose. This woman’s mood was notoriously unpredictable.

For a brief moment he regretted opening his mouth at all. Had he just offended her? Unfortunately, old habits were hard to break, and his mouth kept moving.

Seeing Ethan watching him with a grin while everyone else gave him sympathetic looks that clearly said "good luck," Markham quickly added another line.

"Hey, if you really want more of this stuff, just have Ethan make it for you."

He pointed toward Ethan casually.

"He could probably build you an entire palace out of this kind of crystal. Should be easy for him, right? Right, boss?"

Markham even turned to Ethan expectantly.

Ethan’s smile froze instantly.

’Easy my ass.’

He kept that thought firmly inside his head. Dragon Child’s eyes, however, nearly lit up the moment she heard Markham’s words.

She slowly turned to look at Ethan.

Ever since their previous argument, she had barely acknowledged his existence. Their relationship had felt colder than that of complete strangers.

But now...

Ethan suddenly felt every pore on his body open as if a cold wind had passed over him. The way Dragon Child looked at him now made him extremely uncomfortable.

Her gaze reminded him of someone discovering a new favorite toy. Her eyes clearly asked the question.

Was Markham telling the truth?

"Uh... I’m still working on it," Ethan said cautiously. "Not very proficient yet."

His answer lacked confidence.

Ethan suspected that the phenomenon around them was related to the power of the Buddha-Demon Magnetic Light. But the strange energy had settled in his chest and was simply pulsing there.

He had tried to communicate with it but there had been no response.

Vasuki had claimed earlier that the energy had already been subdued, but if that was true then why could Ethan not control it?

And what exactly had just happened?

Hearing Ethan’s answer, Dragon Child slowly turned her head and fixed her gaze on the enormous crystalline tree nearby. Everyone assumed she was about to start collecting more leaves.

Instead, she calmly raised one hand, then she swept her palm horizontally through the air.

A ribbon-like wave of energy spread out like flowing water.

Everything in front of her that had been transformed into crystal, the trees, the grass, the flowers, instantly disintegrated into fine powder.

What Markham’s sword had failed to damage, she erased with a single casual motion.

Her strength was terrifying.

"If we can’t take it," she said lightly, "then we destroy it all."

Her voice sounded calm, but the meaning behind the words was anything but gentle.

Especially for Ethan.

A faint chill ran down the back of his neck.

"Hah... just as I thought."

Uncle Jed’s voice suddenly broke the tense silence. Everyone turned toward him.

He was crouching near the Energy Sphere and examining the ground closely.

"Find something?" Ethan walked over and crouched beside him.

Earlier Ethan had already scanned the area with his senses and had not detected anything unusual, even a kilometer underground.

"Have you noticed how unusually rich in energy the soil here is?" Uncle Jed asked.

Ethan nodded.

"That’s not strange, though. With such a powerful energy leak nearby, it’s normal for the soil to absorb some of it, right?"

Uncle Jed tilted his head and looked at Ethan with a faint smile. It was the exact expression someone used when staring at an idiot.

"Something wrong with that?" Ethan asked.

"Tell me something," Uncle Jed said. "What’s the energy concentration like in the Sea of Death?"

"Uh... about the same as around this sphere. Maybe slightly weaker," Ethan recalled.

"And if you went to the Sea of Death and ate a handful of dirt... would you absorb energy from it?"

The question caught Ethan completely off guard. How the hell would he know that? Before he could answer, Regis spoke from behind them.

"Energy exists within heaven and earth, but it does not normally exist inside physical matter. Soil, ordinary plants, mountains, rivers, none of them actually contain it."

Ethan blinked.

"Huh?"

He genuinely had not known that.

"But here it’s abnormal," Regis continued as he crouched down and let a handful of soil run through his fingers. "The energy density in this top layer of soil is already approaching the point where it’s starting to crystallize."

"Hmm... even a kilometer underground there’s still energy present, though it gradually thins out."

Ethan extended his senses again and confirmed that observation.

"Remember the dragon veins I mentioned before?" Uncle Jed said. "My guess is that this whole process is meant to crystallize the ground and create artificial veins that can connect with the real dragon veins beneath the earth."

He paused briefly before continuing.

"If my guess is correct, once the entire area finishes crystallizing, they’ll build something here designed to drain the power of those veins."

Leo frowned slightly.

"Then why not just dig straight down? Why go through all this trouble?"

Uncle Jed rolled his eyes.

"You think dragon veins are easy to capture? Those things are the condensed power of heaven and earth itself. They may not be alive, but they’re more formidable than most living creatures."

"Hey, old man," Leo shot back immediately. "I’m not some burrowing beast that digs underground all day. I’m allowed to ask questions, right? What’s with that look?"

Leo clearly had no intention of backing down. If Uncle Jed’s theory was correct, then the Divine Realm had two separate objectives here.

The strange contaminant inside Shatterstar targeted living creatures, while the erupting energy was meant to crystallize the earth itself.

They had used some special method to inject that energy underground, yet there were no visible traces of any formation arrays or magical constructs.

Someone pointed out that since the energy clearly did not belong to this world, there should logically be some kind of spatial breach where it was leaking in from elsewhere.

But no one had been able to detect any such disturbance.

That was the strangest part of all.

Even Ethan’s senses had not detected the slightest spatial fluctuation near the epicenter of the eruption.

"Let’s move on to the next location," Ethan finally said. "This time try to capture prisoners if you can. You all push through the sites one by one. I’ll bring Micah and Ryan with me. Those two are knowledgeable when it comes to formation arrays. Maybe they’ll notice something we’ve missed."

Since they were making no progress here, continuing to stay would only waste time.

"Boss, meeting up later?" Victor asked while everyone began preparing to leave.

"No," Ethan replied after marking a point on the map. "We rendezvous back here."

He pointed at another direction on the map.

"I’ll take Micah and Ryan and clear the remaining sites from this side. Move quickly."

After giving those final instructions, Ethan immediately headed toward the hidden territory of the Silverwood family.

The others watched him leave and exchanged glances.

"The kid’s grown wings," Hank muttered while taking a swig from his flask.

"Yeah," Uncle Jed sighed. "Already looking down on us and running off solo."

"Hope he still remembers the promise he made to me," Dragon Child added quietly. "Otherwise..."

Far away, Ethan suddenly shivered while flying at high speed.

He glanced around suspiciously. Who the hell was thinking about him just now?

Not long afterward, Ethan arrived at the Silverwood family’s hidden territory and quickly found Lyla gathering the remaining forces.

Earlier, those people had been stirred up by Ethan’s mental influence and were supposed to be filled with fiery determination for the coming battle.

But now that the moment of departure had actually arrived, hesitation and fear had begun creeping back into their hearts.

Ethan’s sudden return happened to coincide perfectly with this drop in morale.

His figure streaked through the sky from the outer entrance to the restricted area in moments, and everyone present noticed him immediately.

Whispers spread through the crowd.

"Why is he back already?"

"He’s moving so fast... did something happen?"

"Wait... he’s not fleeing, is he?"

"Yeah. He left with so many people but came back alone!"

"Should we even go anymore? I don’t want to become cannon fodder."

The crowd, which had already been hesitant, grew even more suspicious. Ethan landed while two men followed behind him.

"Hey, you’re still here?" he said calmly while hovering slightly above the ground.

Lyla, Amber, and Rainie, dressed in tight combat gear, rose into the air to meet him.

They quickly explained the situation.

This group of fighters was like scattered sand, impossible to unite into a single force. Managing them had already given the three women a serious headache.

"Seriously?" Ethan said, raising an eyebrow. "You cowards actually dare to question my ability?"

He turned toward Lyla.

"I’m sending you some footage. Show it to them. Actually... Rainie, you project it."

He paused slightly when he noticed that Lyla’s mech control band was now on Rainie’s wrist.

Rainie nodded and prepared to activate the projection.

At that moment, Ethan’s gaze slowly swept across the crowd below. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"I’ll tolerate this one doubt," he said calmly. "But if it happens again... the penalty is death."

For a brief second his killing intent surged outward like a blade.

Then it vanished.

But that single moment was enough, everyone who had still harbored doubts felt cold sweat running down their backs.

Not a single person dared to speak anymore.