Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!

Chapter 974: The Star Beast’s Gaze

Time passed. How much time? Ethan had long since lost the ability to tell.

"Last one."

He stared at the final dim seed floating inside his Energy Core.

Around it, thousands of stars already blazed into existence, illuminating the dark expanse within him like a miniature universe. It was beautiful in a terrifying sort of way, but none of it had come easily. Every single star had demanded an enormous amount of Soul Power to shape, and even after they formed, they remained unstable. The slightest lapse in concentration caused them to tremble and begin collapsing back into seeds.

Right now, the only thing keeping those thousands of stars intact was his will.

He had to lock onto every single one of them constantly, never relaxing for even a moment. His Soul Power was nearly exhausted, and the Source Energy lake within his Mindscape had almost completely dried up. A brutal ache pounded through his skull in waves strong enough to make him feel like his mind was splitting apart.

Ethan still didn’t fully understand what he was doing. He only knew there was something deep inside him, a faint instinct buried in his soul, urging him forward over and over again.

Finish it. Complete them all.

Several times he had nearly given up. Several times he had reached the edge of collapse. Yet that strange whisper inside him kept dragging him forward.

Now only one seed remained.

His nearly transparent spiritual body drifted toward it with obvious strain. Even moving felt difficult.

He reached out toward the final seed.

BOOM.

His entire Core shook violently. For a terrifying instant, his control over the other stars almost slipped.

Ethan’s eyes narrowed.

"Is this... the limit?"

Another tremor followed, stronger than the first. Then his expression changed.

"No..."

The shaking wasn’t coming from inside his Core.

It was coming from outside.

---

Beyond the asteroid, deep within the endless gray void, Yaya fled through the darkness with panic written across her face.

She glanced back toward the floating rock behind her, the disguised asteroid she had pieced together from cosmic debris to hide Ethan while he remained unconscious inside.

How much time had passed since then? Even she didn’t know anymore. In this place, time barely seemed to exist.

After Ethan fell into his deep sleep, she had spent most of her time meditating quietly atop the asteroid. Then, without warning, an enormous wave of cosmic energy slammed into it, sending the entire mass tumbling through space.

Yaya had immediately jumped to her feet and looked toward the source.

Then she froze.

If Ethan hadn’t been sleeping inside that asteroid, she would have run without hesitation.

Far off in the void floated a monstrous figure so enormous her mind struggled to comprehend it.

At first glance, it resembled a whale, but calling it a whale felt absurd.

Its body stretched across the cosmos like a moving continent, thousands of times larger than anything that had ever existed on Earth. Black scales gleamed like forged steel beneath the dim cosmic light, radiating an overwhelming pressure that made her instincts scream.

And the worst part was that it had appeared without warning.

One moment the void had been empty, the next, it was simply there.

The gigantic creature twisted violently through space, and another burst of cosmic energy exploded outward from its body.

Yaya’s expression tightened.

The asteroid wouldn’t survive another impact like that.

She immediately raised both hands. Countless vines burst outward and intertwined at blinding speed, forming a massive shield in front of the asteroid.

BOOM.

The shockwave slammed into it, and the shield shattered instantly.

Yaya coughed up a mouthful of green blood as the force sent her staggering backward, but behind her, the asteroid remained intact.

Ethan’s hiding place was safe. For now.

Yaya wiped the blood from her lips with a trembling hand before slowly lifting her gaze toward the colossal creature again. Fear spread through her chest like ice.

She recognized it.

Not from experience, but from the inherited memories buried deep within her bloodline.

A Star Beast.

"Seriously..." she muttered weakly.

The Star Beast clearly wasn’t behaving normally. It twisted and thrashed through the void, smashing its tail and fins through space itself as though enduring unimaginable pain.

Then realization hit her; It was giving birth.

The creature had probably used some instinctive spatial ability to teleport itself into this isolated region so it could deliver its offspring in peace.

And somehow, out of the entire universe, it had landed directly beside them.

Yaya didn’t even know whether to call herself lucky or cursed.

A Star Beast giving birth was an event so rare most civilizations would never witness one even after millions of years. Yet of all possible places, why did it have to happen here?

As if sensing her earlier attack, the Star Beast suddenly stopped thrashing. Then its enormous eyes slowly shifted toward her.

Yaya’s heart nearly stopped.

"Oh no..."

Star Beasts were among the most terrifying lifeforms in existence.

Under normal circumstances, they rarely attacked anything without reason. Most simply drifted through the cosmos like living disasters. But childbirth changed them completely.

During that period, they became violently protective and unstable. If they couldn’t find an isolated enough location, they would annihilate every living thing across entire star systems until they had enough space.

According to ancient legends, adult Star Beasts could swallow planets whole and shatter space itself with a single strike of their tails.

And now one of them was staring directly at her.

Every inherited memory inside her screamed danger.

"I’m not trying to bother you..." Yaya said nervously as she rose into the air, foolishly attempting to reason with it.

The Star Beast opened its mouth.

"Human... die."

The words alone created a devastating shockwave of cosmic energy that blasted toward her.

Yaya hurriedly summoned another shield of vines.

This time she barely managed to withstand the attack. But the Star Beast had already started moving.

Toward the asteroid, and toward Ethan.

Yaya’s face paled.

Without hesitation, she shot sideways through the void, deliberately drawing its attention away.

’Please wake up, big brother.’

That was the only thought left in her mind.

Compared to the fifteen-thousand-kilometer-long Star Beast, Yaya was less significant than a grain of dust. But after blocking two of its attacks, the creature’s frenzied maternal instincts had completely locked onto her presence.

It turned and gave chase.

Despite its immense size, the Star Beast moved with horrifying speed. Star Beasts stood at the absolute top of the cosmic food chain. Their defenses were monstrous, their attacks catastrophic, and even their speed ranked among the greatest in the universe.

The reason their species remained so rare was reproduction.

Every Star Beast could only give birth once during its lifetime. They were hermaphroditic creatures, and after reproducing, the parent would survive for at most another ten thousand years before dying.

As for the offspring, they were born weak and vulnerable. Most never survived long enough to mature.

That single flaw kept the species from dominating the universe entirely.

The Path of Ethereal was fair to all things.

Yaya fled desperately through the void. She wasn’t faster than the Star Beast, not even remotely close. The only reason she survived was because of her agility. The creature possessed overwhelming straight-line speed, but turning such an enormous body took time.

Even so, several moments nearly killed her.

At one point she narrowly skimmed past the creature’s open jaws as it twisted through space. The surrounding void fractured from the pressure alone.

She avoided the direct hit, but the shockwave from its tail still smashed into her moments later.

Her body spun helplessly through space like a butterfly caught inside a hurricane, and the force tore parts of her clothes apart.

---

Meanwhile, back on the asteroid, Ethan remained completely unaware of the chaos outside.

Every remaining ounce of strength he possessed was focused on the final seed.

"Almost... there..."

His spiritual body flickered violently. It looked as though it might collapse at any second.

Outside, his physical body had become horrifyingly thin, almost corpse-like. Layer after layer of black impurities coated his skin like dried mud, expelled from his body every time another star formed inside his Core.

Thousands of purifications, thousands of transformations.

Yet beneath the cracked black shell, his skin now resembled flawless white jade, translucent enough for faint seven-colored light to shine through from the Quintessence Bone hidden within him.

Anyone who saw him now would immediately understand.

He was evolving. Only one final star remained; but his Soul Power was gone.

Completely empty.

A cold feeling spread through Ethan’s chest.

"Was it all... meaningless?"

He floated weakly above the final half-formed star, his nearly transparent spiritual body trembling with helplessness.

The unfinished star had already begun collapsing.

Slowly reverting back into a seed.

And once that happened, everything else would collapse with it. Every star he had painstakingly formed would unravel one after another until all his work disappeared.

Could he even attempt this again?

He didn’t know how long he had already been trapped here. There was no natural energy to replenish himself within this barren void.

If he failed now, this might truly be the end.

Even with food stored inside his Mindscape, how long could he survive without energy?

Despair slowly swallowed him whole. Then suddenly—

"Master! I’ll help you!"

A loud, honest voice echoed through his consciousness.

Beastie. The artifact spirit had finally awakened.

"Beastie, don’t..."

Before Ethan could finish speaking, another voice interrupted him sharply.

"Are you insane?!"

It was Aqua, the spirit artifact of Clearspring City’s seal, one of the Four City Lord Seals.

Beastie had followed Ethan longer than any of the others. He was the spirit artifact belonging to Beastfall City, and unlike Aqua, his thoughts were always straightforward and simple.

Ethan didn’t know what Beastie intended to do, but the panic in Aqua’s voice immediately told him it was something dangerous.

Unfortunately, Ethan no longer had enough focus left to properly enter his Mindscape and stop him.

Then Beastie spoke again, his voice quieter this time.

"Aqua... don’t cry. If Master fails, we’re all dead anyway. And maybe... if it’s just me..."

He paused briefly.

"You’ll figure something out. I’m going first."