Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 368: Echoes of the Past

Ethan gazed at the wooden bridge ahead. It was dilapidated, utterly impassable.

"Let’s wade across," he suggested after a moment of thought.

The riverbed beneath them was quite deep, but the water itself only reached their knees. On both banks, pale marks showed that the water level of this underground river had once risen nearly even with the edges. Now, it seemed to be dropping year by year.

Uncle Jed volunteered to lead the way. Nora Vance followed behind, and finally, Ethan carried Dot in his arms. They crossed the thirty-meter-wide river without incident.

Walking last, Ethan kept his Soul Sense extended, constantly probing for any sign of danger. He stepped onto the far bank, feeling a mix of relief and lingering apprehension. Part of him had half-expected something strange to happen.

Once ashore, he muttered to himself, ’Damn it, too many TV shows and novels.’ He’d almost convinced himself some bizarre creature would erupt from the water at any moment.

When they finally reached the wall they had spotted from a distance, they realized just how massive it was. The sight reminded Ethan of standing before the Gates of the Underworld. But this gate, looming over them, was closed.

They walked closer, and Ethan reached out to touch the weathered surface.

Buzz...

At that moment, something strange happened.

Boom... creak, creak, creak...

The gate swung open with a resounding groan, as if his touch alone had woken it from centuries of slumber.

"Holy cow..." Uncle Jed whispered behind him, eyes wide with disbelief.

Ethan was just as startled. He extended his Soul Sense into the widening gap—but another anomaly occurred. The probing sense that usually felt so reliable simply vanished, as if it had been swallowed by the darkness beyond.

A cold unease crawled up his spine. Without Soul Sense, there were too many dangers he couldn’t predict. For a moment, he wanted nothing more than to turn around and leave. But this was a main quest. He was here to complete it.

He wondered if the person , in his previous life, had stood here too—facing this same threshold—before he claimed the Immortality Divine Ability Scroll.

"Let’s go," Ethan said finally, steadying his nerves as he stepped forward into the shadowed hall beyond the gate.

As he crossed the threshold, a dark shape darted past his eyes. There was something alive in here, and it moved fast. His flashlight beam swung after it, but the creature slipped into the darkness before he could get a clear look.

"What was that?" Uncle Jed asked tensely.

"I don’t know," Ethan said, shaking his head. "Just be careful."

Uncle Jed unslung his spear and held it ready. Nora clutched Dot tighter and followed close behind Ethan.

"It’s too dark," she murmured, her voice tight with fear.

Ethan glanced back at her. He considered telling her to wait outside, but he quickly thought better of it. If they found an exit deeper in, he’d have to come all the way back to fetch her. And there was no guarantee it would be safer out there. If she stayed behind, Uncle Jed would have to protect her, splitting their strength.

He sighed inwardly. Better to stay together. He’d just have to watch over them as best he could.

Nora caught his eye and flushed pink. Ethan frowned slightly. Ever since she had woken up down here, she’d been acting strangely. He couldn’t figure out why.

Remembering the hallucinations, he thought again of how she had appeared to him as that small red snake he dreaded so much. Was there some connection between what he’d seen and this place?

As for Uncle Jed’s visions—whatever they’d been—they clearly dredged up something he didn’t want to remember.

Ethan shook his head, trying to clear the tangled thoughts. He turned back to the path and led them forward in silence.

They had only walked a hundred paces when—

Buzz...

The ground beneath them seemed to tremble.

Ethan froze, scanning the darkness. A moment later, he felt a surge of elemental fluctuation, the kind that rippled through Ethereal whenever a mage began to chant a spell.

He turned toward the source of the disturbance.

In the distance, an eerie scene unfolded. One by one, the ancient structures began to glow with a pale, wavering light. It was as if the entire city had been asleep and was now slowly coming alive.

The illumination spread, moving like a tide until it reached the massive gate behind them.

Creak, creak, creak...

With another drawn-out groan, the gate began to close.

The sudden transformation left them all staring in disbelief. What had been a world of pitch black was now suffused with pale brightness. The light erased much of Ethan’s unease, though not all of it.

They could finally see the terrain around them clearly. The city walls were made of stone, but everything else—roads, buildings, and pillars—was covered in colossal withered trees. Gnarled roots twisted across the ground on either side of their path.

Straight ahead, toward the heart of the city, towered a vast ancient tree. Its sprawling branches stretched up to support the vaulted dome overhead. The glow came from its canopy, casting its strange illumination over everything.

"Let’s go take a look," Ethan said, unable to keep the awe from his voice. Beneath this Sea of Death, an entire city had once thrived—a city built not of stone and steel, but of living things.

Even Uncle Jed looked dazed. No one could have imagined what this place must have looked like millions of years ago.

They began walking toward the massive tree at the center. Apart from the fleeting shadow earlier, nothing else seemed to threaten them. The tree was the obvious place to search for answers.

Though the trunk appeared close, they walked for two hours without reaching it. The scale of the city warped all sense of distance. Ethan eventually called a halt, judging they’d only covered about a third of the way. It was as if they had shrunk while the trees had grown impossibly vast.

He set down his pack and passed out some food.

Dot had remained unconscious all this time, but now she stirred with a faint whimper.

"Mm..."

Her eyelids fluttered open.

Ethan and Uncle Jed moved to her side at once. The little girl blinked up at them, her gaze vacant.

"Dot...what’s wrong? Don’t scare Mommy!" Nora’s voice cracked as she reached for her daughter.

Ethan quickly took out a bottle of peach juice and a banana, trying to coax Dot to react. But she didn’t so much as look at them.

A chill spread through his chest.

Could she have suffered brain damage from inhaling too much laughing gas?

He knew how dangerous it could be. On Earth, countless young people had become addicted to it—and many had died. When laughing gas was first discovered, it had been used in anesthesia, back when medicine had few alternatives. But once safer options came along, it was abandoned—only to be picked up by profiteers who peddled it illegally.

For a while, regulation was so lax that online markets were flooded with the stuff. Authorities struggled to crack down because the damage it caused was hard to classify conclusively. Eventually, the US had stepped in and designated it a controlled third-generation drug.

He remembered all too well the signs of heavy exposure—glassy eyes, nerve damage, paralysis.

Dot’s vacant stare made his heart pound faster.

What if—

Eek... ooh...

A sudden cry yanked his attention away.

Not far off, a dark shadow had appeared, emitting a series of odd, warbling sounds.

Ethan snapped around, eyes narrowing. He braced for an attack.

But when his flashlight caught the creature, he froze.

It looked like a tiny monkey covered in golden-yellow fur, no taller than thirty centimeters.

Uncle Jed raised his spear, but the little creature squealed in alarm and leapt back with astonishing speed. Ethan realized he’d only be able to match it by activating Swift Stride in his Panther form.

"Don’t move," he said quickly, lifting a hand. "It means no harm."

The monkey seemed to understand. It bared its small teeth in a show of defiance and hopped back to where it had first appeared.

Eek... ooh...

It pointed at Ethan, chattering urgently.

Then, without warning, it threw itself down onto the ground and began convulsing, froth bubbling at the corners of its mouth.

Ethan stared, stunned. What was it doing? Was it trying to tell them something?

Or...

His eyes widened as he watched it twitch and shudder.

Did it just die?