Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 863: A Hair from the Monkey King

The moment the dark light swallowed him, Ethan knew what was coming.

’Here we go again.’

The sensation of teleportation, or perhaps of being torn apart and rebuilt molecule by molecule, was no longer unfamiliar. For one terrifying instant, he felt his entire body ionize, his consciousness stretched thin across countless drifting particles.

Then weight returned. Shape returned. His vision slammed back into place as his body reassembled, and a wave of violent nausea rolled through him, so intense he nearly blacked out.

He was on his knees. Lying motionless on the scorched ground in front of him was the withered monkey-creature that had chased him for hours. Its twisted limbs were still. No health bar hovered above it. It was dead.

"Heh... heh... lookin’ the wrong way, kid."

The raspy voice sounded like dry feathers scraping stone. It came from behind him.

Ethan spun around too fast, and the sudden motion sent his stomach lurching. He barely managed to stay upright as the world steadied.

He was standing on a small obsidian platform, smooth and unnaturally black. Beyond its edges stretched a vast lake of molten magma, bubbling and churning as far as the eye could see, casting a hellish red glow over everything.

His gaze lifted.

Two colossal stone pillars rose from the lava like ancient fangs, their surfaces scorched and cracked. Thick chains, each as wide as a man’s torso, wrapped around them in countless layers. Suspended between the pillars, bound by those chains, hung a figure.

It was humanoid, but only barely. Its sharp features were unmistakably monkey-like, its face long and angular, with eyes that burned like living embers. When it grinned, the expression twisted into something grotesque rather than friendly. Four fangs jutted from its mouth, two above and two below, catching the crimson light.

’That’s a person?’ Ethan thought, his instincts screaming at him to stay alert.

"You..." he started, then faltered.

"Heh... so you’re the brat that Dorn Lucan’s little puppet dragged in?" the chained figure cut in, its voice dripping with disdain.

’Dorn Lucan?’ The name sounded familiar but it meant nothing to him. And a puppet? Ethan felt like he had missed several Chapters of a story everyone else already knew.

"Heh... looks like you don’t even know that runt’s real name," the figure continued, eyes flickering with amusement. "He calls himself... what was it again...? Ah. Right. Morzan."

"Morzan?" Ethan repeated, the name hitting him like a hammer. His eyes widened as he seemed to recall something. ’Dorn Lucan... was that the leader of the Abyss Order? The one mentioned in those historical references?’

His thoughts spiraled. Dorn Lucan. The name surfaced from half-forgotten myths. A legendary figure forever depicted with a wine gourd, said to be a ruler from an ancient era long forgotten. The so-called God of Wine. According to legend, he achieved divinity through brewing and ascended, leaving no tomb behind.

"Bullshit!" the chained figure barked, as if reading his mind. "That runt drank a batch of wine some woman brewed, passed out cold, and by sheer dumb luck slipped the bonds of the Path of Ethereal! Too scared to use his real name, he picked a ridiculous title like ’Morzan’! And you idiots worship him as some divine sage of spirits? Pathetic!"

Ethan felt a chill crawl up his spine.

It wasn’t just mockery. The creature really could hear his surface thoughts. Those ember-lit eyes were locked onto him with unsettling precision. The sharp simian features, the voice, the overwhelming presence... his gaze flicked downward instinctively, even though the chains blocked his view. He was almost certain there was a tail.

"You..." Ethan hesitated, then took a breath. "Would your surname happen to be Sun?"

The creature froze for a fraction of a second.

Then it laughed. "Heh! So you’re not completely brain-dead after all. Since you figured that out, you probably want to know why I dragged you here."

The confirmation hit Ethan harder than he expected. A name he had grown up with. A legend, a childhood idol that almost everyone was familiar with, now chained in hellfire before his eyes.

"To... rescue you?" Ethan ventured carefully, forcing respect into his voice. "From this place?"

"HAHAHA!"

The laughter boomed across the magma lake, echoing off the pillars until Ethan felt it in his bones.

"Rescue me? With that scrawny body?" the monkey sneered. "If you could pull that off, this wouldn’t be the Maya Hell. Enough nonsense. Those cowards are too afraid to speak. I’m not. You’re lucky I left a single hair back on the Ancestral Star. Otherwise, Dorn Lucan’s little puppet wouldn’t have been able to stir up all this mess."

As he spoke, a sudden breeze brushed against Ethan’s back.

He turned.

The corpse of the monkey-creature was gone. In its place, hovering just above the ground, was a single strand of golden hair. It shimmered faintly, warm and alive, radiating an unmistakable power.

"Take it," the chained figure said. "One use left. Don’t waste it. As for why you’re here... I wanted to deliver a warning myself. Watch out for the Feathered Ones. If you can kill them, kill every last one you see. Ah...!"

CRACK!

The instant the words "Feathered Ones" left his mouth, the stone pillars erupted with blinding arcs of lightning. The bolts raced along the chains, converging violently on the chained figure. His roar of pain tore through the air, raw and furious.

"Heh..." he growled as the lightning finally faded. "Your granddaddy’s lived as long as heaven and earth. You think a little shock can finish me? Keep dreaming!"

"Foolish ape," a cold voice answered from above. "Even in chains, your tongue remains foul. I have slumbered for centuries. It seems it is time to remind you of your place."

The fiery clouds parted. A shaft of golden light speared downward, and within it descended a figure.

Not a man.

A being with four radiant white wings. A Seraph.

Its presence crushed the air itself. The obsidian platform felt smaller, weaker, as if it might crack under the weight of that divine authority.

"Who were you speaking to, monkey?" the Seraph asked calmly, its gaze sweeping across the platform.

Its eyes passed directly over Ethan.

Ethan’s heart nearly stopped. The Monkey King, bound and tortured before him. A real angel, one the monkey had just warned him to kill on sight. The pressure radiating from the Seraph was suffocating, absolute. Escape felt impossible.

And yet...

The Seraph’s gaze continued onward, It didn’t pause. It didn’t narrow. It didn’t see him.

The chained monkey spat toward the angel. "Pah! If i wasn’t stuck here, a bug like you wouldn’t dare open your mouth! I’d piss you into dust!"

"Insolent beast," the Seraph said, voice hardening. "Your tongue will be your undoing. Heaven’s Judgment."

It raised one hand. A golden sword formed instantly within its grasp. A thunderbolt tore down from the crimson sky, striking the blade. With a sharp, snapping motion, the Seraph lashed the lightning forward.

White light consumed everything. Ethan felt himself dissolve again as the world shattered.

When his senses returned, the first thing he saw was the inside of his VR capsule. He was no longer in Ethereal.

He gagged, the lingering vertigo overwhelming him as he fumbled with the latch. The hatch sprang open, and he spilled onto the floor, gasping and retching as his body struggled to remember gravity.

’That angel... it couldn’t see me?’

The thought cut through the nausea like a blade.

He stayed there for a long time, flat on the cool floor, staring at the ceiling while the room slowly stopped spinning. Eventually, he forced himself up, staggered into the bathroom, and stood under a stream of cold water until his breathing steadied.

Feeling marginally human again, he left his room. The house was silent. Morning sunlight poured through the windows, soft and golden.

Lyla. Amber. Rainie. Uncle Jed. Regis.

No one was home.

Frowning, Ethan extended his Soul Sense, sweeping outward in a wide arc. Ten kilometers. Then more.

Nothing.

No familiar presences. No movement. Just an eerie, suffocating emptiness. The only thing that reassured him was Shatterstar, still hovering invisibly above him, steady and unchanged.

He stepped outside into the garden.

And froze.

’How long was I gone?’

He had missed it during his scan, too focused on people. Now the details hit him all at once. The garden was overflowing with life. Thick grass, lush and vibrant, brushed against his boots. Leaves glistened in the sunlight. He distinctly remembered deep winter when he had logged into Ethereal yesterday.

He knelt slowly and ran his fingers through the grass. It bent under his touch. Cool ive. It was real, not an illusion.