Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 901: A Forced Gift Beneath the Black Lake
Ethan’s eyebrow twitched as he watched Blackie vanish beneath the surface of the lake.
He considered it for half a second, no more, then plunged in after him. He had already completed his own trial, and if that damn feathered bastard was allowed to enter, then there was no reason he could not do the same. This was not about stealing Blackie’s reward or interfering with his outcome. He simply wanted to see. He wanted to know whether the prize waiting below was identical to the one he had received.
From above, the lake looked like a slab of black glass. Beneath the surface, however, the water was astonishingly clear, clear enough that Ethan immediately spotted Blackie thrashing around like he had fallen into the wrong end of a nightmare. Ethan kicked forward and reached him in moments.
"Quit fighting it," Ethan said calmly. "The good stuff’s down there."
He grabbed Blackie by the arm and dragged him deeper. Blackie did not resist. He never did when it came to Ethan. No questions or hesitation, he had absolute trust. Together they dove straight to the bottom.
It was exactly the same.
The same lakebed. The same bubbling geyser. The same pearl hovering quietly above it.
Only the color was different. Everything was swallowed by blackness, as though the world itself had been drained of light.
Ethan felt no excitement this time, or sense of discovery. He simply slapped Blackie on the shoulder and pointed toward the pearl. Go on.
Blackie nodded once. "Got it."
He swam forward, reached out, and grasped the pearl. The instant his fingers closed around it, Ethan felt a strange pulse sweep through the space, subtle but unmistakable, like something ancient stirring in its sleep. The pearl dissolved into light and shot straight into Blackie’s forehead.
Blackie turned back toward him.
"That’s it?" Ethan asked, frowning.
Blackie did not answer. He did not look injured or distressed, either. He just floated there.
Then he groaned. "Aw, man. Man, man, man, man, man."
Ethan blinked. "What?"
Blackie’s face crumpled as if his entire future had just collapsed in on itself. He grabbed Ethan’s sleeve with both hands, eyes glossy and panicked. "Boss, I’m screwed."
Ethan’s expression hardened. "What happened?"
"So I get dragged into this weird white space," Blackie said in a rush, "and there’s this old asshole standing there acting like he owns the universe. He tells me he’s going to upgrade my bloodline and let me train all seven elemental schools. Just like that."
Ethan stayed silent.
"And I tell him no," Blackie continued, with his voice rising. "I tell him I’m not an idiot. I already train four elements. Four. It’s already slowing me down because I have to keep them balanced. Every breakthrough takes forever. Now he wants me to add three more? I’ll never hit Voidbreaker like this. I’ll never break through, never roam the cosmos, never find Reddie again."
Ethan stared at him, genuinely speechless.
He knew exactly who Reddie was, the Blazing Qilin Blackie had encountered before and never stopped talking about. And Blackie was not wrong. Training four elements already meant four parallel paths that had to advance together. The moment one lagged behind, the whole system stalled. Blackie was lazy on a good day. Adding three more elements sounded like a slow, painful death sentence.
Still, a bloodline upgrade was not something you dismissed lightly.
"So," Ethan said at last, "what happened?"
Blackie’s voice dropped into pure despair. "That old bastard grabbed me and forced it. Didn’t ask again. He just did it. Look."
He stretched out his palm.
Seven small flames flickered to life above his hand, each one distinct.
Ethan felt them instantly. Wind. Fire. Water. Lightning. Metal. Wood. Earth.
His eye twitched.
The Five Sovereign Elements, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth, alongside the primal forces of Wind and Lightning. Every foundational energy in existence, gathered in Blackie’s grasp.
And yet Blackie looked like someone attending his own funeral.
Metal, Wood, and Earth were weak, barely awakened, like newborn abilities. Blackie’s original four elements had been honed and balanced through years of effort. He had likely been on the verge of breaking through.
Now he had to drag three fledgling elements up to match the others.
Ethan felt an unexpected pang of sympathy. He clapped Blackie on the shoulder. "Look at it this way. Say you break through with just four elements. You roam the cosmos, find your Reddie. Then what? Some stronger bastard shows up and chases the two of you off like dogs. You want that?"
Blackie hesitated. His eyes shifted as the thought sank in.
"Huh," he muttered. "Good point."
Ethan grinned. Blackie’s mind was strange. Sometimes it lagged hopelessly behind. Other times it locked onto an idea with frightening clarity. This time, at least, it worked.
"So we’re good?" Ethan said. "And hey, you remember those angels’ wings?"
Blackie’s head snapped up, eyes blazing.
"Boss, you mean..."
"Yeah," Ethan said with a smirk. "Not just for the taste, it might help you speed up training those new elements."
"HAHAHA!" Blackie roared. "You’re finished, you feathered freaks! Your boy’s coming for you!"
He shot toward the geyser like a missile, already shouting about slaughtering angels and turning them all into grilled wings.
Ethan watched him go, shaking his head with a helpless smile.
He had been thinking the same thing. Those angels were walking treasure vaults. The idea of eating them still felt strange on a purely mental level, but Garm had explained it clearly. Their brain cores were not human. They were angel through and through, formed of pure elemental matter.
If it was not human, Ethan had no problem.
He intended to cleanse the planet of those winged bastards. But first, there was one more place he needed to investigate.
That strange pull he had felt since entering the lake had not disappeared. It came from the island at the center of the Nine Color Lake, barely rising above the surface, more a stubborn patch of land than a real island.
What was there?
What had his mother taken from his younger self’s body, and why send it here?
Ethan did not trust this place. The closer he drifted, the more uncomfortable the sensation became. The pull remained, but it carried a faint hostility now, not aimed directly at him, yet clearly not welcoming.
’Strange.’
He followed Blackie back toward the surface, replaying the absurd speed of it all. Pearl grabbed, space warped, old man appeared, forced upgrade, kicked out.
It sounded ridiculous and quite funny.
And Ethan was fairly certain he knew exactly which old man was responsible. The same one he had been mounting off to earlier.
---
Somewhere in the Chaotic Realm, two figures sat across from each other with a game board between them and a jug of wine nearby.
The older man was Morzan.
The younger one was Earth’s Order Keeper.
At the moment, the Order Keeper looked thoroughly irritated. "That kid," he snapped, slamming a stone onto the board. "Is he always like that? Talking back without a shred of respect. The nerve."
Morzan glanced down, placed a black stone, and burst out laughing. "You lost again."
"I’m done," the Order Keeper said, shoving the board away. "You old bastard."
Morzan’s laughter cut off. "Who are you calling old? You’re calling me old? Between the two of us, which one’s actually ancient? That brat insults me to my face and I drink my wine. You lose one game and throw a tantrum. You’ve got no composure or integrity."
He slapped his gourd onto the board.
The Order Keeper opened his mouth to argue, then stopped. That kid had backing. Powerful backing. He was not foolish enough to touch that.
Just then, his eyes flickered.
"Wait here," he said abruptly. "We’re playing three hundred more rounds."
And he vanished.
Morzan leaned back, alone once more, calmly gathering the scattered black and white stones and returning them to their bowls. Under his breath, he muttered with something close to amusement, "That little qilin is about to have a very bad day."
