Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 844: Clung to the Wrong Leg

The three of them made their way through the eerily quiet city toward the animal shelter: Ethan, the Mad Engineer, and Xenon, the Direwolf. Streetlights flickered overhead, casting long shadows that stretched across abandoned intersections, and the absence of people made every footstep feel louder than it should have been.

During the walk, Ethan slowly pieced together the full story.

Half a year ago, the Direwolf clan’s princess had vanished without warning. Somehow, she had crossed vast oceans from the Extreme South and ended up in the Sablon Republic. At first, the elders assumed it was nothing more than another reckless outing. The princess had always been curious, always testing boundaries. But as days turned into weeks, and then months, concern hardened into panic. A full-scale search was launched across their territory, yet no trace of her remained, not even the faintest hint of her scent.

Desperation drove them to their final option. The clan’s eldest shaman performed a great divination, a forbidden ritual that cost him a full decade of his remaining lifespan. The result confirmed that the princess was alive and pointed vaguely northward. The revelation stunned the entire clan. How could a youngling cross such an impossible distance? And more troubling still, how had she passed through the Seal that surrounded their polar sanctuary?

Xenon spoke of the Seal with reverence, describing it as a sacred barrier meant to protect their people. Ethan interpreted it differently. To him, it sounded less like protection and more like containment, a quarantine designed to keep powerful non-human entities from bleeding into the human world. The thought unsettled him. Within supernatural circles, sentient beasts were believed to be rare anomalies, creatures born from centuries of accumulated Energy, and prized targets for hunters seeking their valuable cores.

Xenon’s account shattered that assumption. His kind had never been animals that gained intelligence over time. They were born sentient, a distinct race unto themselves. Their young simply lacked the ability to take human form until they matured. Ethan realized his earlier misunderstanding. Xenon was not a man who had become a wolf. He was a wolf who could become a man. The half-human, half-beast state was merely a combat form. His true body, the massive lupine form he claimed as his natural state, was far too large to reveal in the human world. He even invited Ethan to witness it someday in the Extreme South.

Ethan tucked the invitation away. He had his own reasons to travel south eventually.

The Mad Engineer, however, nearly vibrated with excitement at the idea of such a journey. He accepted the invitation on the spot, loudly begging Ethan to take him along when the time came. Ethan responded with a vague grunt that could generously be interpreted as noncommittal. In reality, the answer was simple. Not a chance.

When they arrived at the animal shelter, they found the front doors locked just as expected. Peering through the glass, they saw rows of empty cages inside, their doors hanging open.

"Shit," the engineer muttered. "The little guys must’ve starved and busted out."

"I don’t think so," Ethan replied, his Soul Sense already telling a very different story.

Xenon leaned closer to the window, his expression sharpening as his gaze fixed on a doorway at the back of the shelter. Almost immediately, a chaotic chorus erupted. Dogs barked, cats meowed, paws scraped against the floor as a swarm of animals poured out of the back room, alerted by their presence. They crowded the inside of the door, rearing up on hind legs, whining and yapping in excitement.

Yet standing at the threshold of that back room, separate from the frenzy, was a single, small figure.

A husky puppy.

It didn’t rush forward like the others. Its stance was stiff, its attention focused, its eyes calculating rather than eager.

"That’s her," the engineer whispered sharply, pointing.

Ethan didn’t need the confirmation. The puppy’s soul signature stood out immediately, a bright, intricate knot of awareness and power that bore no resemblance to the simple, flickering sparks of the other animals.

The puppy’s gaze flicked to the engineer first, recognition flashing briefly across its eyes. Then it turned to Xenon.

It took a step back.

Fear, raw and unmistakable, surged through its expression. In the next instant, it spun around and bolted back into the darkness of the room.

"No!" Xenon snarled, his patience snapping. "She’s running again!"

Claws erupted from his fingers as he seized the thick chain securing the doors. With a violent crack, the metal split apart as if it were brittle glass. He shoved the doors open and charged inside, Ethan following close behind, with the engineer scrambling after them.

The animals didn’t flee into the street. Instead, they swarmed around the trio’s legs, a noisy, chaotic mass that made forward movement difficult.

Xenon skidded to a halt at the entrance of the back room. Ethan stopped beside him. The engineer, lacking their reflexes, slammed into Ethan’s back with a breathless "Oof!"

What awaited them inside was not what any of them had expected.

Where the puppy had been moments ago now stood a little girl.

She appeared no older than three, with wide, terrified eyes and a mess of silver-white hair that framed her pale face. She trembled as she stared at the intruders, small hands clenched tightly at her sides.

Xenon froze. Then his expression cracked open with stunned joy.

"Xeisha," he breathed. "You can shapeshift?" He took a cautious step forward, his voice soft, almost reverent.

The girl let out a piercing shriek. "No! Don’t come near me! You’re a bad man!"

Instead of running for the exit, she suddenly darted sideways, straight toward Ethan. She wrapped both arms tightly around his leg, burying her face against his thigh before jabbing a tiny accusing finger at Xenon.

"Mister, save me!" she cried. "That man is bad! I’m not Xeisha! I’m just a normal little girl! I don’t know him!"

Ethan very nearly laughed.

The little schemer had vanished from sight just long enough to change forms, then immediately played the oldest trick in existence: the lost human child seeking protection from a frightening stranger. More impressively, she had chosen the strongest person in the room as her shield.

It was clever.

It was also painfully naive.

Her denial was far too specific, far too dramatic. If anything, she was trying too hard.

’Methinks the lady doth protest too much.’

"Xeisha, please," Xenon said, his voice heavy with exhaustion rather than anger. "This isn’t a game. Do you even understand what you’ve done? The elders are in chaos. The High Shaman came out of seclusion for you. He gave up ten years of his life just to find you."

The girl flinched.

For a fleeting moment, genuine shock and guilt surfaced on her face before she forcefully buried it beneath stubborn defiance. She looked up at Ethan, her eyes wide and shimmering with carefully practiced innocence.

Ethan met her gaze, a faint, knowing smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

When she saw it, her brave little act faltered. Panic flickered beneath the surface, but she doubled down anyway, her lower lip trembling as she launched into a flawless display of theatrical misery.