Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat - Chapter 688

Chapter 688: Playing with Death

“He’s going to get himself killed… He’s really going to do it…”

Back in the void dimension, the Order Keeper stared, first at the sealed lightning pool behind it, then in the direction of Ethan. It couldn’t stop the muttered litany of despair. This time, it wasn’t alone in its shock.

Morzan’s jaw was hanging open. He knew the kid had a talent for seeking death, but this was on a whole other level. Taunting the tribulation was one thing; actively attacking it was sheer madness. Even here, deep within the void, he could feel the Path of Ethereal’s righteous, universe-shaking fury. The lightning pool behind him churned and boiled, and the seals containing it groaned under the strain, cracking audibly. It was as if the pool itself wanted to shatter its bonds and descend in its true form to deliver judgment.

That was the unthinkable horror of it. The tribulations faced by energy users were mere projections of a world’s lightning pool, echoes of its power. If the pool’s true form were to manifest… it wouldn’t just annihilate the person. It would scour the entire world clean of life.

***

Out on the ocean, the spectators of Ethan’s spectacle were beyond words.

Blackie, Regis, Uncle Jed, Hank… all were struck dumb. Those among them who had survived their own tribulations felt their very souls quake.

Hank, who was usually halfway to drunk, was now stone-cold sober, his mouth agape. He struggled to find the words to encapsulate his feelings about Ethan’s actions. The phrase “is this guy a complete moron?” hovered on the tip of his tongue, but he bit it back, remembering all the fine liquor he’d mooched off the kid. It felt wrong to insult his benefactor.

After a long moment of stunned silence, he fumbled in his spatial pouch, pulled out a small white flask, and took a long, desperate swig to steady his nerves.

‘Don’t you dare die, kid,’ he pleaded silently. ‘Where the hell else would I get a drink like this?’

***

Ethan’s tribulation was sending ripples across the entire globe. At first, weather satellites had detected anomalous atmospheric activity over the region, dismissed by public forecasts as a severe storm. But now, the event had escalated. Global satellite networks were failing, communications were breaking down, and even ordinary people, completely unaware of the cause, felt a heavy, inexplicable dread settling in their hearts—a pervasive, unnerving pressure.

The unknown nature of the fear was the most torturous part. And the relentless, booming thunder that echoed in everyone’s ears was a constant, terrifying reminder.

***

BOOM… BOOM…

The pressure emanating from the thunderclouds intensified in waves, each stronger than the last, hammering down onto the ground. For miles around Ethan, the earth was compacted, forced downward relentlessly. The area had effectively become a high-gravity zone.

To Ethan, the very air felt thick and syrupy. He knew this crushing pressure wasn’t directly targeting him. It felt more like… a side effect. A byproduct of something immense preparing to make an entrance.

WHUMP!

Another violent shockwave hit him, causing him to stagger. His eyes remained locked on the clouds above. After this latest impact, the swirling vortex within the clouds vanished. Then, the hundred-mile-wide storm front did the impossible: it contracted.

The massive, lid-like cloud cover convulsed and shrank at an alarming rate, all of its terrifying energy funneling downward, concentrating directly above Ethan’s head.

“What’s this? Giving up already?” Ethan frowned. After all that buildup, was it just going to leave?

“Oh no you don’t! Get back here! Devour!”

Battling the immense pressure, Ethan stomped down hard.

CRUNCH!

The ground, already compressed to a smooth, mirror-like finish, shattered under his foot like glass. The reaction launched him upward like a cannonball, shooting straight toward the coalescing cloud mass.

HUMMMMM…

In the span of a few heartbeats, the hundred miles of storm cloud contracted into a dense, obsidian-black sphere barely ten meters across, hovering in the air like a malevolent egg.

Ethan, rocketing upward, whirled the Twilight Warspear above his head, creating a vortex of sucking force with his Devour skill, trying to latch onto the thing before it could vanish.

“NO! Don’t!” the Dragon of Consumption within his Energy Core finally screamed, its voice shrill with panic, unable to watch this suicidal act any longer.

ZZZAP!

The moment the words left its metaphysical mouth, a single, hair-thin arc of lightning snapped away from the black egg. It moved with impossible speed, bypassing Ethan’s defenses entirely and aiming directly for his core.

Ethan braced for impact, but the bolt never struck him. Instead, it simply… vanished.

“GYAAAAAH!” The Dragon of Consumption’s agonized shriek echoed in Ethan’s mind. A quick internal scan revealed the creature curled in his core, smoking and twitching, looking half-dead.

Ethan blinked. ‘Damn. The tribulation doesn’t play around.’ Any external entity, even one just speaking up, was judged as interference and struck down directly, passing straight through his own body to deliver the punishment.

He had thought the tribulation was fleeing, hence the Devour skill. But now, up close, he realized this egg wasn’t a retreat. It was a crucible, and something of absolute, final terror was being forged inside.

“The final blow? About damn time,” Ethan muttered, a wild, excited gleam in his eyes despite the primal fear coiling in his gut. “All these tedious waves… let’s see what you’ve got for the finale, you bastard.”

He dismissed the Devour vortex, floating directly beneath the obsidian egg, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

“Did I… maybe bite off a bit more than I can chew?”

He could feel it now—a distinct pulse of life emanating from within the egg. A life that radiated pure, terrifying power.

Lub-DUB… Lub-DUB…

A heartbeat. Deep, resonant, and slow. The moment it started, Ethan’s own heart fell into sync, pounding in a painful, jarring rhythm that made him want to vomit. A cold dread, starting at his scalp, began to creep down his spine.

The hundred-kilometer-wide storm was gone, the sky once again a clear, brilliant blue. The sunlight should have been cheerful. But for Regis and the others, staring at the distant, bizarre egg and the man floating beneath it, the atmosphere was suffocating. The egg continued to compress, and each pulse of its aura made it hard to breathe even from a hundred kilometers away.

Just as Ethan, spear held defensively, decided to circle the egg for a better look—

CRACK.

A fissure appeared on its smooth, dark surface. Arcs of lightning spilled from the breach.

Ethan instantly brought the Twilight Warspear to bear, holding it crosswise in a defensive stance, every muscle taut.

BOOM.

The egg exploded.

Not with sound, but with light. A light brighter than a supernova. For one blinding instant, the entire Earth was illuminated with the intensity of a second sun. People on the opposite side of the world saw a flash in the sky, and strange, ethereal lights—auroras—danced in heavens where they had no right to be.

And then, it was over.

The tribulation clouds were gone. Satellites, their functions restored, immediately tried to lock onto the coordinates. But when their lenses focused on that patch of sea, they found nothing.

Nothing at all.