Blind Box World - SSS-Rank Eye of Truth

Inside the Primordial Armor, the light from the Limit Mystery Box still hadn’t fully faded.

Ethan stood motionless for a long time before the thin mist swirling within the box. The Eye of Truth had already filtered through far too many choices: combat skills, rare talents, items that would drive any Awakened mad with desire. Yet after already possessing the Primordial Armor, the Cataclysmic Thunder Gate, Thunder Wing, and the Return Gem, he no longer lacked a simple means of killing enemies.

What he needed was a path to keep walking alongside the people beside him.

Finally, amid countless points of light, Ethan’s gaze stopped on a small silver box. Its surface bore no patterns, only two lines of text that stood out clearly in his vision.

[Partner Mystery Box -- Partner Contract.]

Ethan frowned slightly, then opened it.

Inside was a sheet of paper as thin as a cicada’s wing, its edges shimmering with a faint silver. Despite the complete absence of wind, the paper’s surface swayed slowly, as though an invisible thread connected it to somewhere very far away.

The information appeared immediately after.

[Partner Contract.]

[Rank: SS.]

[Function: Can form a contract with a deceased existence or creature, turning the target into your Partner. After the contract is completed, the target’s bloodline will be activated and elevated to SS rank.]

Ethan stared at those lines, and his heart, which had been steady since the breakthrough, beat several beats harder.

A deceased existence.

Turned into a Partner.

He unconsciously gripped the contract tighter. It wasn’t a Partner that could immediately stand by his side, nor could it directly solve the problem at hand, but its value was absolutely no less than an ordinary Partner’s.

In a sense, it was even more terrifying.

A dead creature typically had no future left to choose. If this contract could truly pull such an existence back, while simultaneously activating an SS-rank bloodline... Ethan barely needed to think to understand what that meant.

’Now this is a Limit Mystery Box reward.’

The corner of his mouth lifted. After one final consideration, Ethan reached out and grasped the paper.

Silver light immediately dissolved, transforming into countless luminous particles that burrowed into his palm. A very faint mark appeared on the back of his hand, then quickly faded. The Primordial Armor also fell silent, as though nothing had ever happened.

Ethan looked down at his hand.

He wasn’t in a hurry to find a target for the Partner Contract.

This was too precious. Once used, he couldn’t afford to waste it on just any existence. Besides, the Trial Gate still awaited him ahead, and his strength had only just entered Gold tier one.

He needed to stabilize his realm first.

After deciding, Ethan sat down in the center of the stone room, drawing crystallized energy blocks from the Primordial Armor one by one. Streams of pure energy flooded his body, running along meridians, slowly filling the capacity that had expanded after the breakthrough.

A day passed in silence.

When Ethan opened his eyes again, the light outside the window had shifted to a pale gold. The aura around him no longer fluctuated like before. Instead, it had stabilized to the point where it resembled a deep lake, seemingly still on the surface but concealing enough force beneath to drown anyone.

Gold tier one.

This realm was now firmly in his grasp.

Ethan stood and rotated his wrists and shoulders. His body felt lighter than before, yet every movement carried an indescribable sense of power. If he met his former Silver tier ten self again, he could end the fight in just a few moves.

Right then, the stone door opened.

QingLian walked in.

She still wore the simple white dress, black hair hanging down her back, not wearing too many ornaments. Morning light fell upon her, making the otherwise cold room seem to brighten by several degrees.

Ethan turned to look at her, spacing out briefly before speaking:

"You have perfect timing."

QingLian swept her gaze over him. Those calm eyes rested on the aura around Ethan for a moment, then she gave a slight nod.

"You’ve stabilized."

"Yeah." Ethan smiled. "Good thing the resources you provided were high quality."

QingLian didn’t respond immediately. She waved her hand, and spatial rings and jade boxes appeared one after another on the stone table nearby. Within seconds, the tabletop was covered with medicine vials, crystallized energy, and various medicinal ingredients Ethan had never seen before.

Their presence spread through the room, making the air grow heavy.

Ethan looked at the pile of resources, the corner of his eye twitching slightly.

"More?"

"Yes."

"QingLian." Ethan looked at her, scratching his head helplessly. "I know you want to invest in me, but isn’t this a bit much?"

"It’s not."

Her tone remained detached, but this time her eyes were more serious than usual.

"Before entering that Trial Gate, you need to reach Platinum tier ten, or higher if possible."

Ethan fell silent.

He knew the gate ahead wasn’t simple. The mere fact that QingLian and QingZhu had to stay here personally was proof enough of how dangerous it was. Even so, hearing that he needed to reach Platinum tier ten still made the pressure settle onto his shoulders.

From Gold tier one to Platinum tier ten was a very long road.

Especially when he still had to share energy with Laira and Ruo Yan.

However, Ethan didn’t shrink back. He looked at the resources on the table, then at QingLian standing before him, and finally just nodded.

"Alright."

QingLian watched him for a few seconds, as though confirming he wasn’t just putting on a brave face. Then she lightly raised her hand.

"But before you continue absorbing resources, there’s another matter."

Ethan raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Combat training."

Ethan paused.

"I’ve been training."

"You’ve been training how to use strength." QingLian replied. "That’s not combat."

She walked to the window. From here, part of the distant mountain range was visible, along with layers of white cloud billowing beneath the peaks. On the other side of the mountain, Laira and Ruo Yan were still being dragged through training by QingZhu. Despite the great distance, Ethan could sense through the Partner bond that Laira’s mood wasn’t the best.

No need to guess. She’d probably just been thrown to the ground again.

The thought made the corner of Ethan’s mouth twitch upward.

QingLian didn’t notice his expression. She extended her hand, and a vivid green leaf drifted down onto her fingertip. A perfectly ordinary leaf, so delicate that the slightest squeeze would crumble it.

Ethan looked at it, puzzled.

"What are you going to do with that?"

QingLian didn’t answer.

She simply flicked her wrist.

There was no sword in her hand.

No blinding flash of light.

Only the leaf leaving her fingertip, drifting slowly forward.

The very next second, Ethan felt his scalp go numb.

A line of sword energy so thin it was nearly invisible slashed straight into the sky. The cloud layer in the distance was torn apart from the center, the split stretching all the way to the edge of sight. Space trembled for a brief instant, revealing a dark gash so deep it looked as though the sky had truly just been cleaved in two.

No explosion.

No thundering aftershock.

But that silence was more terrifying than any detonation.

The green leaf drifted down onto the stone floor before Ethan, still perfectly intact.

Ethan stood frozen in place, his throat bone-dry.

He had seen plenty of powerful abilities and had personally killed his share of monsters. Yet a casual slash like that made him feel so insignificant he was barely worth mentioning.

QingLian turned back to look at him.

Mountain wind blew past, gently swaying the hem of her white dress. Her face remained as serene as ever, showing no trace of showing off, as though she had just done something utterly mundane.

"Strength isn’t only for breaking through realms."

She looked straight into Ethan’s eyes, her voice not raised, but every word perfectly clear.

"You have many abilities. But if you don’t know how to use them at the right moment, you’ll only ever be a person holding a lot of weapons."

Ethan drew a deep breath, forcing the shock in his chest back down.

"Then how do you plan to teach me?"

QingLian curled her fingertip. The leaf on the ground flew back into her palm.

"I won’t teach you how to win."

Ethan went still for a moment.

QingLian closed her hand, the leaf vanishing between her slender white fingers.

"I’ll teach you how to survive when you can’t win."

With that, she turned and walked outside.

Ethan watched her retreating figure, was silent for two seconds, then immediately followed. Before stepping through the door, he still couldn’t help glancing back at the sword mark lingering amid the distant clouds.

’Training with her... probably won’t be any more comfortable than what QingZhu’s putting Laira through.’

QingLian stopped outside the door and tilted her head to look at him.

"What are you standing there for?"

Ethan immediately pulled his thoughts together and quickened his step.

QingLian looked at him, her voice still calm.

"Let’s begin."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!