Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 892: Gold Against Gold

The woman remained frozen on the ground, Ethan’s cold words hanging over her like a blade poised to fall. She did not dare hold anything back, not when one wrong sentence could end her life. The problem was that she truly did not know. Even so, her thoughts raced desperately as she searched for anything that might keep her breathing.

She looked up at him. "I honestly don’t know who placed the contract—"

She stopped mid-sentence. Ethan’s presence shifted, turning sharp and glacial, and killing intent poured off him without restraint. Her pupils shrank to pinpricks as instinct screamed at her to keep talking. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"But I know how Dark Net works," she rushed out. "They collect payment upfront and hold it in escrow. When the job’s completed, the reward gets released to us. If—"

Ethan cut her off before she could finish.

"Interesting idea," he said calmly. "Using Dark Net’s own system against me?"

A faint smirk tugged at his lips. The woman’s heart lurched as panic flashed through her eyes. He had seen right through her train of thought. Ethan rubbed his chin, considering it.

"Not a bad angle, actually. These pay-to-kill networks aren’t exactly saints. Probably should be wiped out sooner or later anyway."

Despite everything, Ethan was not some born psychopath. He had grown up under the weight of law and rules, a reasonably decent young man at his core. He did not harbor some deep, obsessive hatred for illegal organizations, but he certainly felt no attachment to them either. And they had come for him.

He turned his back on her.

Behind him came a wet, rhythmic sound. Slurp. Slurp. Slurp.

Ethan glanced over his shoulder. The massive black dog stood there with its tongue lolling, happily lapping at the water, its posture relaxed and satisfied. Something about that expression felt oddly familiar. He opened his mouth to ask about it when a voice cut in sharply.

"Brother, the Dragon of Consumption can’t hold much longer!"

Yaya’s shout snapped his attention forward just in time to see the Dragon’s massive, hundred-meter-long body hurled through the air by a colossal golden sword.

The fleeing Dark Net elites were already far away, clustered behind the angels. Ethan’s spirit artifacts had not chased them. Not without his permission. The survivors wore expressions of stunned relief, half-expecting death and instead finding themselves alive. Now, standing behind the Angel Squad, their confidence began to creep back.

They knew what the Angel Squad was. Real angels.

They watched the catfish-like monster battling one of them, its sheer scale impressive, every movement steeped in sacred presence. That monster was clearly stronger than the spirit artifacts by a wide margin, yet the angel appeared to be toying with it, just as casually as the hunters had toyed with the children earlier.

The unspoken question spread through the crowd. Could these angels kill that terrifying kid?

If not, they would still need to run, and then there would be nothing left to hide behind. Some already began thinking about slipping away. Bounties and treasure meant nothing if you were dead.

But the moment they arrived, the seven angels glanced at them.

The contempt in those eyes was unmistakable, and beneath it lay something far colder. A chill sank into their bones, freezing their thoughts. Every single one of them felt it. Turn your back on these beings, and you would be dead before you took two steps.

They had escaped hell only to land in a deeper fire.

Bitterness flooded them. Before coming here, every one of them had felt invincible. Now their lives dangled from someone else’s fingers. The reversal was brutal, but there was nothing they could do except endure it.

"Ethan, you little bastard! If you don’t save me, I’m dead!"

The angel had noticed the shift in the battlefield and decided to end things. His gaze sharpened as the golden greatsword in his hands blazed brighter, its form expanding with terrifying power.

The Dragon of Consumption’s purple vortex dimmed, flickering weakly. Those dead, bulging fish-eyes now held genuine fear. For a creature as proud as him, begging for help was an unimaginable humiliation. If death had not been pressing down on him, he would never have shouted like that in front of so many witnesses.

Ethan stepped forward instinctively, then stopped short.

An unseen binding force held him in place. He could not stray far from the white lake. His eyes narrowed as realization struck. He could not help.

The Dragon saw Ethan flicker forward and then freeze. He understood immediately that something was wrong. Above him, the golden sword carved an arc across the sky. All of its attacks carried a homing effect. No matter how you dodged, they would find you. The Dragon had learned that lesson early in the fight.

Now, facing this overwhelming strike, he had nothing left.

Even Ethan’s expression changed. The Dragon was dead. Ethan almost looked away, but then something shifted.

A faint golden light shot up from beside the Dragon.

"Get the hell away from me!"

The Dragon saw it first. His eyes bulged, those lifeless pupils nearly popping from their sockets as he roared in rage, despair, and disbelief. His shout did nothing to slow the rising light.

"It’s Goldie!" Luna cried.

Goldie was another of her impulsive names she had given this time to the Fortune Dragon.

In legends, it barely existed as more than a concept, a manifestation of luck itself, a multiplier of fortune. It was said to be the perfect counterpart to the Dragon of Consumption, a being that hated conflict and avoided battle whenever possible, yet coexisted alongside him. The Dragon of Consumption had always dreamed of devouring the Fortune Dragon. Even he did not know why. It was simply a primal urge.

And now, at the very moment of his death, the Fortune Dragon appeared, clearly intending to take the blow meant for him.

Unacceptable.

Boom.

The Fortune Dragon’s tiny body shot past the Dragon of Consumption and expanded in an instant, swelling to colossal size. It caught the falling golden sword head-on. That small, earthworm-like dragon erupted with blinding radiance as its form grew, becoming a majestic golden five-clawed divine dragon coiling through the void.

Dragonfire burst from its jaws and slammed straight into the descending blade.

The moment that breath was released, the world itself seemed to change. Ethan’s expression shifted sharply, and across from him, the angel’s eyes widened with fury. No one had expected that casual, untelegraphed breath to warp heaven and earth itself.

The angel had been holding his sword with one hand. Now his other hand snapped to the hilt, gripping it tightly as he drove it down with full force.

Boom.

Golden sword met dragonfire, gold against gold. And at the instant they touched, the blazing colors died, swallowed into silence.