Chapter 46: The future Changes

Ethan turned his head slightly, casting a sidelong glance toward Rose, who hovered quietly in the air beside him. "If I decide to kill Lumian right here and now, would you have any objections?"

Rose’s breath hitched for a fraction of a second. Her sharp eyes darted to Ethan, reading the cold, probing look in his gaze. She instantly realized he was testing her loyalties.

Keeping her voice steady, Rose replied, "No. He shares no true blood relation to me, and as you well know, he isn’t even my real son. Do as you wish."

Ethan chuckled softly, a genuine note of amusement in his tone. He *had* been testing her. If Rose had shown even a shred of misplaced maternal affection or hesitation, she wouldn’t have survived the next five seconds. Even so, Ethan had already milked her for all the strategic value she possessed, leveraging her authority to expand his own hidden influence. The only reason Rose was still breathing was because she held a vital position as a high-ranking elder within a powerful, illicit organization that Kael was destined to join later in life—an infamous villain faction that Ethan intended to subvert and control.

Down below, Arthur, Seraphina, Kael, and Lumian finally bowed respectfully toward the old man.

"Thank you for saving us, Grand Principal," Arthur said, speaking for the group.

The Principal chuckled, waving a dismissive hand. "Think nothing of it. I certainly didn’t expect you brats to stumble into such a chaotic mess—and through a spatial tear, no less."

His gaze drifted back toward the swirling void in the sky, which had already sealed itself shut, leaving behind only ripples of displaced ether.

A sharp, assessing glint crossed the old man’s eyes. *These kids are undeniably special. Destiny itself must be guiding them, or they would never have been dragged straight into a high-tier secret realm holding such colossal opportunities.*

Suddenly, a low, ominous rumble echoed from the heavy clouds above.

The Principal and the gathered crowd snapped their attention skyward. Cutting through the upper atmosphere came a massive flock of ethereal, violet-plumaged raptors known as **Shadow Pigeons**.

Their bodies burned with a eerie purple aura, trailing streaks of dark mist as they descended in unison. Atop the lead beast sat a cloaked figure wearing a sharp, three-pointed triangular hood and deep purple ceremonial robes.

"The Purple Pigeon Organization?!" gasps echoed through the sea of rogue adventurers below. "That’s one of the most notorious underground assassin guilds in the empire! Why are they here? Aren’t they afraid of a bloodbath with the kingdom’s forces?"

"You fool," a seasoned mercenary spat back, his voice trembling. "Do you think you can just fight them? They have peak Rank 5 assassins hidden in their ranks! Even the royal court has turned a blind eye to them, so what gives you the right to act?"

Before the murmurs could die down, a second deafening shockwave shattered the silence from the western horizon.

A monstrous, colossal entity materialized from the clouds, plunging the valley into an immediate state of paralyzed dread.

It was an apocalyptic **Abyssal White Python**, stretching over a hundred meters in length. Its massive scales shimmered like polished bone, and its crimson eyes—each the size of a carriage wheel—scanned the gathered thousands with absolute, predatory apathy.

Dozens of figures leaped gracefully from the serpent’s crest. They wore seemingly ordinary traveling clothes, save for one distinct, chilling feature: every single one of them wore a polished silver monocle over their right eye.

At their front stood a tall, immaculate man leaning heavily on a cane, wearing a broad-rimmed gentleman’s hat and a tailored dark coat. A polite, razor-sharp smile curled his lips as he surveyed the valley.

"My, my," the gentleman chuckled smoothly, his voice carrying clearly across the winds. "I had no idea so many high-profile figures from the kingdom would grace this wasteland. Had I known, I would have brought a few more heavy hitters with me."

The surrounding crowd scrambled backward in absolute terror. They immediately recognized who he was—the grand leader of the kingdom’s most powerful underground merchant guild and intelligence network, the **Gleam Syndicate**.

Rumor dictated he was a terrifying peak Rank 5 Grand Magus whose signature abilities were tied to a nightmarish, spatial mirror-world domain, rendering his physical body completely intangible and untouched throughout his entire life. If the Purple Pigeon assassins hadn’t arrived, this man would have likely established an entire monopoly over the region’s black-market trade.

As if the sky couldn’t grow any more crowded, a third, thunderous roar tore through the firmament—sounding less like a beast and more like an ancient dragon’s war cry.

Charging straight out of the eastern cloud cover came a trio of **Dragon-Steed Chariots**. The beasts possessed the scaled bodies of armored warhorses paired with the terrifying, horned heads of drakes, their manes burning with crimson fire.

They pulled a magnificent, gold-plated imperial chariot adorned with intricate runic gold plating, followed closely by a full century of elite guards clad in immaculate golden armor.

These weren’t ordinary guards. Every single suit of armor was forged by the empire’s grand master blacksmiths, costing thousands of gold coins per set. Famed for their absolute structural toughness and lightweight enchanted flight capabilities, they were the exclusive, terrifying insignia of the **Imperial Royal Vanguard**.

Watching the royal military march onto the field, the gathered adventurers grew pale with despair.

"Even the imperial royal family has dispatched their own forces?" someone whispered in horror. "With so many peak-tier factions converging on a single secret realm, a massacre is inevitable. We don’t stand a single chance at the treasures."

High above, hidden within the folds of space, Ethan stared down at the golden royal chariot.

His blue eyes suddenly fractured, swirling with intricate, microscopic golden and blue geometric patterns as he activated his higher-tier spiritual sight. His gaze pierced straight through the enchanted, light-refracting curtains of the carriage interior.

Inside sat two distinct individuals.

On the left was a young prince of the kingdom—a striking youth with snow-white hair, pitch-black eyes devoid of white sclera, and a heavy suit of golden-steel battle armor resting beside him, propped up against the cushioned wall, was a colossal, terrifying warhammer known as the Earth-Shatter Titan Maul. Its massive, brutal head was forged from abyssal meteorite iron, etched with glowing yellow gravity-runes that hummed with enough compressed mass to crush a mountain peak into dust with a single swing.

Opposite him sat a young woman whose face was entirely concealed beneath a delicate, shimmering veil woven from starlight silk.

She wore an exquisite, floor-length gown of interwoven gold and crimson fabric that radiated an ethereal, noble aura. Like the prince, she too possessed flowing white hair, though her features were obscured by the veil, making her expression impossible to read.

Even Ethan’s divine sight struggled to cut past the veil’s anti-espionage wards, though two heavily armored female maid-servants stood rigidly at her flanks like statues.

A soft, synthesized chime rang out in Ethan’s mind:

[Target Identified: Princess Vespera.]

[Future: Core Heroine (Associated with Chosen One: Kael).]

[Special Trait: Possesses the dormant ’Starlight Sovereign Bloodline’, destined to become a pivotal pillar in Kael’s future harem and a primary catalyst for unlocking high-tier imperial ruins.]

Ethan frowned slightly at the sudden appearance of Vespera. In his past life, throughout all of Kael’s numerous romantic entanglements and wives, a princess of this specific kingdom had never once been among them.

The Future I now is shifting to much?

If that’s the case, taking opportunities from these Heaven’s Chosen would be even more difficult.

But a smile soon appeared on his face.

"The more difficult this becomes, the more it means the Heavens is protecting their Heavenly Chosen and giving them even greater opportunities."

A faint smile appeared on his face.

"And the greater those opportunities are, the more powerful I can become by taking them for myself."

"So it doesn’t matter how difficult it gets."

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