The last points of light from QingLian’s projection dissolved into the snow wind, but Ethan still hadn’t immediately looked away from his left arm. Beneath the Primordial Armor, the warmth that had just appeared was already gone. The Void Flame hadn’t erupted violently like previous times, only leaving a faint warmth around his shoulder, as though something had briefly stirred awake before sinking back down.
Ethan clenched his left fist several times. After confirming nothing was wrong with his body, he turned to Laira.
She was still holding the Cataclysmic Thunder Gate. The Mythical gate, many times larger than her body, leaned against the snow, electricity running along the frame and causing her long red hair to sway ceaselessly. At nearly two meters twenty with her imposing frame, Laira was already striking enough. Now she looked like a war goddess who had casually picked up a weapon on the battlefield.
"Put it down."
Laira looked down at Ethan. "I think it handles pretty well."
"It’s a gate."
"But it can also hit people."
Ruo Yan, standing nearby, heard this and the corner of her mouth curved. "I think she has a point."
Ethan looked at the two of them for a few seconds, then decided not to argue. He simply extended his hand toward the Cataclysmic Thunder Gate, and the electrical lines across it immediately contracted, ultimately transforming into a streak of light that flowed back into the Primordial Armor. Laira looked at her empty hands, a hint of regret crossing her face.
"Let me use it again next time."
"...We’ll see when the time comes."
The moment Ethan finished speaking, the snowfield around them began to tremble. The wind abruptly stopped, and the falling snowflakes froze in midair. A pale golden light appeared before the three of them, quickly condensing into three chests of different shapes, while the trial’s announcement rang out simultaneously.
[Final trial round completed.]
[Victor: Ethan Ashford.]
[Comprehensive evaluation being finalized.]
[Champion rewards have been issued.]
The three chests lit up in sequence.
[Weapon Mystery Box Chest.]
[Minimum rarity: Rank A.]
[Random Mystery Box Chest.]
[Minimum rarity: Rank A.]
[Resource Mystery Box Chest.]
[Resource reserves sufficient to sustain the development scale of a mid-sized city for an extended period.]
Ethan looked at the three chests but didn’t open any of them. Laira leaned slightly toward him. "Not going to look?"
"We’ll deal with it once we’re out."
"You’re not curious?"
"I am." Ethan placed the Weapon Chest and Random Chest into his storage space, while the Resource Chest was kept in the most accessible position. "But they’re not going anywhere."
He remembered the deal with Xue Ji very clearly. One thousand C-rank Energy Crystals in exchange for him representing Silver Moon City in the trial. If he won the championship, the Resource Chest belonged to Xue Ji, while the other two rewards were his.
Xue Ji had placed her bet.
He had won.
The transaction ended as simply as that.
Ruo Yan watched him stow the rewards, then said: "I thought you’d open them right away."
"No rush. Xue Ji has been waiting for this for a month." Ethan looked at the teleportation light beginning to appear beneath their feet. "I’ll hand it to her first, then I’ll be in the mood to check the other two."
Laira nodded immediately. "Give it to her, then go eat."
Ruo Yan glanced at her. "You just finished fighting and you’re already thinking about food?"
"I used a lot of energy."
"You picked up the Thunder Gate and hit people with it."
"It was very heavy."
Ethan turned to look at her. Laira immediately corrected herself: "A little heavy."
The corner of Ethan’s mouth curved slightly. After all those fights, he genuinely wanted to return to Silver Moon City, collapse onto the new large bed he’d bought, and sleep. But just as white light completely enveloped his body, an unease of unclear origin suddenly surfaced in his chest.
Very faint, like the sound of a bell ringing somewhere far away.
Ethan frowned slightly.
’What is this feeling?’
Before he could think it through, the snowfield had already vanished.
...
At the same time, several kilometers from the Trial Gate area, a squad of soldiers was waiting in a stone plaza that had been completely sealed off. The location where participants exited the trial wasn’t adjacent to the observation room. The two areas had been built separately to prevent outside representatives from directly interfering with those who had just finished, so reaching this place from the conference hall required passing through several layers of security checkpoints and a spatial corridor.
Normally, Council forces would be in charge of securing this area.
Today, there was an additional group.
Over thirty soldiers wearing Safe Zone 7 combat armor stood in an arc formation. On the energy pylons surrounding the plaza, a transparent barrier nearly invisible to the eye had been erected beforehand.
Marcus Vane stood at the center of the formation.
He was no longer wearing the delegate’s formal attire but had changed into a set of black combat armor, the shoulder plates bearing old scratches that had never been repaired. His posture was perfectly straight, both hands clasped behind his back, his eyes fixed only on the silent teleportation gate ahead.
The vice-commander beside him had been quiet for a long time but finally couldn’t hold back. "General."
Marcus didn’t turn around. "Speak."
"This has gone beyond the line." The vice-commander lowered his voice, his gaze resting on the energy barrier. "Ethan Ashford just won the championship under Silver Moon City’s banner, and Lady QingLian is personally presiding over this trial. Intercepting someone right at the exit gate is no different from openly confronting the United Council."
Marcus remained calm. "I know."
"Then you still..."
"I’ll apologize to QingLian myself afterward."
The vice-commander froze. Only then did Marcus turn to face him. There was no madness on his face, nor the kind of hatred Cassian had shown before dying. It was precisely that composure that made the vice-commander feel even more uneasy.
"You saw him in the trial."
"I saw."
"Cassian absorbed the energy of nearly every other participant, then used the burst item I gave him. His combat power briefly touched peak Gold." Marcus paused, his voice dropping lower. "One strike. Cassian died without even seeing who attacked him."
The vice-commander didn’t respond.
"After that, Ethan defeated QingLian’s projection."
"But that was a projection from many years ago."
"I know." Marcus looked at the gate ahead. "And that’s precisely the problem."
The vice-commander frowned. Marcus spoke slowly: "I’ve lived long enough to see far too many people called geniuses. Some became pillars of humanity, some died on the battlefield, and some others..."
He paused. Behind his eyes flickered images the person beside him couldn’t see: burning cities, shattered walls, and those who had once been admired by millions only to eventually turn their weapons against their own kind.
"...became catastrophes."
Hearing this, the vice-commander’s tone softened slightly. "You’re worried he’ll lose control?"
"I’m not gambling millions of lives on the assumption that someone with too much power will always keep his reason." Marcus turned fully toward the gate. "Ethan has already drawn the Void’s attention. He possesses items that even we don’t understand, a Mythical Partner, a Necromancer woman who received a strange inheritance, and he himself is growing at a pace that completely defies normal patterns. Today he’s still just a young man who can stand and talk with us. What about five years from now?"
"That’s only a possibility."
"I can’t wait for a possibility to become reality before I act."
The vice-commander looked at Marcus for a long time. He understood. And precisely because he understood, the weight felt even heavier.
Marcus Vane truly wanted to protect Zone 7. He had spent nearly half his life on the frontier, had personally held the gaps in the protective barrier while civilians retreated, and had lost thousands of soldiers because of a decision made just a few minutes too late.
He was afraid of catastrophe.
So afraid that he could no longer distinguish between someone who might become a catastrophe and someone who had already caused one.
The vice-commander clenched his fist. "General, we’re killing him for what he might do in the future."
Marcus didn’t look at him. "I’m eliminating a threat before it grows too large for anyone to eliminate."
"But what if you’re wrong?"
For the first time, Marcus fell silent. After a few seconds, he answered: "Then I’ll bear the sin."
The vice-commander wanted to say more, but the gate ahead had already begun to glow. Every soldier immediately tightened their grip on their weapons, and Marcus turned back, his gaze going cold.
"Ready."
...
White light appeared in the center of the plaza.
Ethan was the first to feel the ground beneath his feet. The moment his vision recovered, the warning bell from earlier instantly transformed into a sharp sense of danger.
He didn’t take another step.
Laira had just appeared to his right and was already scanning the surroundings, while Ruo Yan also noticed the anomaly immediately.
Over thirty people.
A barrier.
And Marcus Vane standing directly across from them.
Ethan exhaled very slowly. "Looks like we don’t get to go rest just yet."
Marcus looked at him. "Ethan Ashford."
"General."
No further greetings were exchanged. Ethan glanced over the formation surrounding the plaza, then looked at the energy barrier sealing off the entire space.
"You prepared quite thoroughly."
"Because the opponent is you."
Marcus raised both hands. The space beside him trembled, and then the deep resonance of dragon song echoed throughout the plaza. Two streams of white light appeared, and when they faded, each of Marcus’s hands held a longspear over two meters in length.
The shafts were ivory-white like bone, but inside ran veins of gold along their length. The spearheads, one black and one white, were shaped like elongated dragon fangs, and the moment they appeared, the air around them grew heavy.
Ethan recognized them at once.
The Twin Dragon Spears.
Safe Zone 7’s two legendary Epic weapons.
As a child, he’d seen Marcus wield them on battlefield broadcasts. One clip had been replayed for years, showing Marcus using the Twin Dragon Spears to pierce through a high-level Dire Beast that was assaulting the city walls. The main material was said to be the bones of two mature dragons.
He never imagined that today, the spear tips would be aimed at him.
Right then, an explosion sounded from outside the barrier. Xue Ji appeared, one hand pressed against the energy shield, her expression colder than Ethan had almost ever seen.
"Marcus Vane!"
The General only glanced over. Xue Ji took in the formation inside the plaza and understood everything immediately. "Do you have any idea what you’re doing? This is United Council territory. Ethan just completed the trial under QingLian’s authority."
Marcus calmly spun one of the spears. "I know."
"Then open this barrier!"
"No."
Xue Ji gritted her teeth. "You’re openly defying QingLian."
Marcus looked at her, a very faint trace of contempt appearing in his eyes. "I’ll atone to her afterward."
He turned back to Ethan. "Before that, I must eliminate this catastrophe."
Ethan looked at him. "Catastrophe?"
Marcus said nothing more. The Twin Dragon Spears in his hands trembled in unison, two dragon songs layering over each other, and the terrifying pressure pouring across the plaza caused the stone beneath Ethan’s feet to immediately crack.
Laira stepped forward.
Ruo Yan also summoned the Necromancer.
Marcus looked at all three, showing not a hint of underestimation. On the contrary, his hands gripped the spears even tighter.
"Don’t blame me."
Elite-level aura erupted.
"If you want to blame anyone, blame yourself for growing too fast."
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