Chapter 531: Slipping Into the Enemy’s World
Ethan kept thinking about what Uncle Jed had said earlier—about a million people. Had this guy really slaughtered countless Blood Clan members in that other realm? And swallowed them whole? The thought left him unsettled. His mind jumped back to the glowing Starlight patterns etched into Uncle Jed’s body, half of which had already turned red.
Ethan glanced at his own markings: tiny silver points, spaced no more than a centimeter apart, covering every inch of his muscular frame. Spread across his entire body, the dots looked like a constellation come alive. And they weren’t just painted on the skin either—the Starlight was layered, three-dimensional, like the adjustable points inside a designer’s 3D model. Even so, Uncle Jed’s density of Starlight was far greater than his own.
When Ethan voiced his question, Uncle Jed simply lifted a single finger.
"Ten thousand?" Ethan guessed.
Jed didn’t lower his hand. Instead, he shook his head.
"Conservatively? A hundred thousand. I just stepped into that portal for a stroll."
He said it so casually, as if recounting a morning walk. Ethan, though, was floored. Uncle Jed had a way of dropping statements that made the air itself feel heavier.
At that moment, the Dragon Child and Bongo appeared, having finished their own business. They arrived just in time to overhear Jed’s last remark.
"That’s impossible," the old Serpent-Turtle said at once, his eyes wide. "Three days ago we tried to enter. The moment we touched the portal, it repelled us. We couldn’t cross—too many powerhouses were standing guard!"
As the three drew closer, Jed’s aura flared, blood-red energy rippling outward like heat from a furnace.
"You’ve got some nerve to talk about that day," he growled. "I was trapped in that cursed ice hole, and you three were strolling around nearby. Did you come to save me? No. Fine, I could forgive that. But I sent out a signal. What did you do instead? You blasted half a dozen attacks into the hole! What the hell was that supposed to be?" His expression twisted with fury, his voice edged like he might throw the first punch if he didn’t get an answer.
The Serpent-Turtle froze, struggling to find words. At last, he ventured, "What signal... did you send?"
"What signal? I fired my Silver Dragon Spear straight out! Don’t tell me you didn’t see it. I saw you grab it right from under the ice!" Uncle Jed’s face darkened, veins standing out at his temples.
"What? You mean this?" The Serpent-Turtle raised a hand, and the Silver Dragon Spear materialized in his grip—the very weapon Ethan had once gifted to Jed.
"Hahahaha..."
"Pfft..."
For reasons Ethan couldn’t fathom, both Bongo and the Dragon Child burst out laughing at the sight of the spear in the turtle’s hand.
"What’s so funny?" Ethan asked, baffled.
The Dragon Child doubled over, clutching her stomach, struggling to breathe through her laughter. "It’s just... we really didn’t know anyone was down there. We were leaving when suddenly this spear shot up through the ice. Do you know where it was aimed?" She turned to Ethan, still shaking with laughter.
Ethan blinked, completely lost.
"It was aimed directly at the Serpent-Turtle’s... most vulnerable spot. And it almost hit dead center!" She dissolved into laughter again.
Ethan’s face shifted slowly as the words sank in. "Wait... not the..."
"Ahem, ahem." Uncle Jed coughed into his fist, his expression suddenly awkward. "Just give me back my spear and we’ll call it even. I won’t blame you for it anymore." He waved a hand, and the weapon flew into his grasp. He rubbed his nose, studiously avoiding eye contact.
"You... you..." The Serpent-Turtle was trembling with rage, pointing at Jed, unable to form a coherent sentence. Finally, with a furious flick of his sleeve, he huffed out a single sound: "Hmph." His thoughts, though, were clear enough. ’You fired at my weak spot, and I haven’t even settled the score with you—and now you say you won’t blame me?’ The insult burned, but all he could manage was a glare and a grumble.
"Cough, cough. Misunderstanding, all of it!" Ethan quickly cut in, desperate to diffuse the tension. "Uncle Jed, just tell us—how did you get in there?"
Jed’s body still trembled faintly, the Blood Clan essence roiling inside him. "How did I get in? I walked in, of course."
"Impossible," the Serpent-Turtle scoffed. "What do you take us for, children? Do you really expect us to believe that? Is this an attempt to full us?"
Jed’s eyes narrowed. "Fool you? I barely crawled out of that ice hole alive. Naturally, I wanted to grab the Tri-City Lord’s Seal while I was there—close the portal behind me, stop the Blood Clan from pouring through. That was the plan!"
"And then?" Ethan pressed.
Jed faltered. His bravado slipped, and he scratched his head. "And then... well, my footing was a little slick. I, uh... slipped in."
The words landed like a thunderclap. The entire group went silent. Slipped in. Somehow, that sounded even more unbelievable than charging straight through.
The Serpent-Turtle’s face turned the color of plum. Even the Dragon Child and Bongo exchanged incredulous looks.
"You..." the Serpent-Turtle started, then clenched his jaw, too furious to finish.
Ethan hurried to intervene again. "Forget that for now. Uncle Jed, what was it like on the other side?"
Jed’s face hardened. "Chaos. Absolute chaos. The moment I landed, I saw an entire legion of warriors in black armor locked in battle with the Blood Clan. I was barely on my feet when one of those warriors split a Blood Clan fighter clean in half. Scared the hell out of me. I thought he’d come for me next, but he just glanced my way and turned back to fighting. That’s when I figured—the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So I joined in and started cutting down Blood Clan members."
He paused, his voice dropping lower. "But then I learned something. Kill one of them, and a cloud of dark red gas rises from the corpse, drifts a short distance... and reforms into a new Blood Clan fighter. Takes no time at all."
Ethan felt a chill crawl down his spine. He knew the red mist was their life essence, but he hadn’t realized it could materialize into fresh bodies so quickly in their own realm.
"What happened next?" he asked quietly.
"I saw the black-armored warriors doing something different. When they killed a Blood Clan, they didn’t let the essence drift. They swallowed it whole. So I copied them." Jed lifted his arms, the veins of red Starlight glowing on his skin. "That’s how I ended up like this."
The Dragon Child frowned. "So you’re saying... the Blood Clan world is in the middle of a civil war?"
"I don’t know if it’s a civil war, but those armored things aren’t normal. I saw them torn apart by the Blood Clan. And you know what? There was nobody inside the armor." Jed’s eyes flicked, haunted, as though replaying the sight in his mind.
Ethan swallowed. "Then how did you make it back?"
Jed let out a weary sigh. "The longer I stayed, the more powerhouses showed up. I just wanted to break through and get back to the portal. After a long, bloody fight, most of the weaker Blood Clan were wiped out. But me? With my strength, I was nothing in that place. I almost died more times than I can count. Then, out of nowhere, a woman in bizarre armor descended from the sky. She didn’t say a word. She just kicked me. Kicked me straight into the portal."
His cheeks colored slightly. He rubbed at his Silver Dragon Spear, muttering, "If I’d had this with me the whole time, I could’ve killed more." Then his gaze drifted toward the Serpent-Turtle, a clear hint of blame in his eyes.