Ethan felt the ground beneath his feet become a suggestion rather than a law. His body drifted upward, toes dangling inches above the scorched earth. A wide, predatory grin spread across his delicate face.

"Can I fly?" he whispered, tilting his head. "I didn’t think I was at that stage yet."

[Analyzing...] Crul replied. [Theoretically, Master, you are far below the cultivation realm required for true flight. Your current power level should keep you firmly grounded. However, the Void energy within your Amethyst Body is actively nullifying the planetary gravitational pull. Void Nightmares are anomalies of physics; it stands to reason their host would be as well.]

Ethan laughed and tried to swim through the air, but he remained stationary, bobbing like a cork in water. "I can’t move forward... yet." He dropped back to the ground, his eyes sparkling. "I have an idea."

He crouched low, coiling his compressed muscles like high-tension springs. He triggered his weightlessness and leapt.

The ground beneath him shattered into a crater as he was launched like a surface-to-air missile.

[Analysis: Master, you have just surpassed Mach 4,] Crul’s voice remained steady despite the staggering data. [Your current travel velocity is comparable to a cultivator at the Spirit Soul realm.]

The wind didn’t bite; it caressed his new skin. The world below—the jagged mountains, the desolate forests—was a blur of vertical speed. It was exhilarating. Ethan threw his head back and laughed, the sound lost in the sonic wake he left behind. In a matter of seconds, the target coordinates loomed ahead.

He prepared to brace for a long, messy deceleration, but as he willed himself to stop, he came to a dead halt. No sliding, no tumbling, no internal organs slamming against his ribs. He simply stopped in mid-air, dead silent.

"Impressive," Ethan muttered, looking at his hands. "Crul, why didn’t the inertia turn my brain to mush?"

[[ The Void power within you nullifies external forces, ]] Crul explained. [[ Friction, inertia, and momentum are being absorbed or bypassed. You can perform maneuvers that are physically impossible for any other biological entity. You are moving like a true Void Nightmare—the most feared predators of their realm for a reason. ]]

Ethan smiled, but the three men below weren’t smiling. His arrival at Mach 4 had triggered a localized sonic boom so violently it sheared the face off the mountain. The hidden cave collapsed, turning their sanctuary into a pile of jagged rubble.

From the dust and debris, three figures emerged, coughing and radiating killing intent. They looked up, expecting a Royal strike team or a celestial dragon. Instead, they saw a youth floating in the sky.

His shoulder-length hair swayed in the high-altitude breeze. Its features were so ethereal and perfect they seemed painted onto the sky. The three elders stood frozen. They didn’t recognize him; this wasn’t the rugged, scarred warrior who had humiliated them. This was a being of pure, terrifying beauty.

The Deacon stepped forward, masking his shock with a mask of forced humility. He could sense the aura—it was different, deeper, and infinitely more dangerous than anything he had felt before.

"Friend," the Deacon called out, his voice echoing through the valley. "May I ask who you are and why you have graced us with such a... violent entrance?"

Ethan’s laughter rang out, a melodic sound that chilled the air more than the mountain wind. "Deacon... you’ve spent so much time trying to end me, and now you don’t even recognize your own obsession?"

The Deacon’s eyes widened, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks. The voice was familiar, but the presence—the sheer, crushing weight of the aura—was alien. "No... it’s not possible... that power shouldn’t exist! You aren’t that brat! NO!"

The Deacon spiraled into a visible panic attack, his breathing coming in ragged gasps. Ethan only laughed harder. Even if his formal cultivation rank hadn’t jumped to a new realm, the *quality* of his power was on a different plane. Comparing his old self to his current state was like comparing a candle to a supernova.

"It seems your memories are as frail as your bones," Ethan said, his smile sharpening. "I want to see what ’Trump Cards’ you’ve been hiding in this hole. Don’t disappoint me."

Before they could even blink, Ethan blurred.

He moved so fast that the laws of physics seemed to snap. He appeared directly in front of the Celestial Ancestor. Panicked, the old man reached for a glowing talisman embedded near his heart—a last-resort weapon of mass destruction. But as his fingers brushed the paper, his entire world went cold.

Looking down, the Ancestor saw Ethan’s pale, elegant arm buried deep in his chest. Ethan retracted his hand with a violent jerk, leaving a gaping, cauterized hole where a heart used to be. He stood there, casually holding the bloody talisman as the Celestial leader slumped to the ground.

The Scavenger Ancestor didn’t wait. He turned and bolted, his feet treading the air in a desperate escape. But his speed was pathetic. In a flicker of amethyst light, Ethan was in his path.

"Don’t kill me! I can be useful—!" 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The plea died in his throat. With a casual swipe, Ethan decapitated him. However, strange, worm-like threads immediately erupted from the neck and head, lashing out to stitch the body back together.

"That strange ability again..." Ethan mused, watching the squirming meat. "I really wanted to know where you scavenged that from, but I don’t have time to waste on monsters like you."

Ethan’s palm opened, and a localized black hole—a true Void singularity—manifested. The action felt as natural as breathing. The two halves of the Scavenger Ancestor were sucked into the darkness. As the matter collapsed, Ethan felt a bizarre sensation: he could *taste* it. It was viscerally disgusting, yet underneath the gore was a flavor so rich and potent it made his new cells hum with ecstasy.

"Damn," Ethan muttered, licking his lips. "Having the lineage of that Void monster is weird. Now you guys actually look... appetizing."

In another flash, he was back at the Celestial leader’s twitching body. Without the talisman, the man was harmless. Ethan extended his hand, and the void swallowed him whole. Again, that flavor hit him—like perfectly seared meat. He could feel his own physical foundation strengthening, absorbing the refined essence of the fallen elders.

This is beyond bizarre, Ethan thought to Crul.

[Master, the increase in your cultivation from devouring them was minimal due to the vast difference in quality, ]] Crul reported. [[ Furthermore, your progress is currently bottlenecked. The World Matrix has you under a total lockdown. We could force a breakthrough, but I am not certain we would survive a second direct confrontation with the Laws.]

"There’s no need for that," Ethan replied, watching the last of the dust settle. "The Matrix is weakening on its own. I have no desire to fight the remnants of its power yet; it’s still too dangerous."

What Ethan didn’t realize was that the Matrix had already detected him. The lightning dragons were coiled in the upper atmosphere, watching his every move. But they didn’t strike. The sentient core of the world’s defense was paralyzed by fear not of Ethan, but of the Lord Amethy legacy now flowing through his veins.