Ethan Brooks mocked himself, “For someone like me, whose martial arts have stagnated, maybe swallowing the dragon pearl is the best choice. After all, it’s a chance to leap over the dragon gate.”

“Could this be a gift from the heavens?”

Ethan Brooks looked down at the dragon pearl in his hand, its radiance flowing, and hesitated for a long time. Finally, he sighed, “But I really can’t accept this! I, Ethan Brooks, don’t need a ‘gift’!”

Looking back on the past, Ethan Brooks felt a bit lost.

Before the age of sixteen, he was praised as a martial arts prodigy, his skills improving by leaps and bounds, and he was considered the “number one” among his peers. However, that was the beginning of his nightmare. No matter how hard he worked, his cultivation never improved again. His family’s secret technique even regressed from the second level’s grand completion stage to the first level’s intermediate stage. Watching his peers surpass him one by one, he felt an incomparable sense of loss and bitterness. Although he vaguely suspected that his decline in martial arts was related to some “external factors,” he was unable to uncover the truth.

After the aura of genius faded, countless voices of ridicule overwhelmed him from behind, but he couldn’t say a word in response. Public opinion, the family’s mission... the immense pressure weighed on his heart like a heavy mountain. His own incompetence made him feel like a mediocre person, unworthy of being born into such a family.

From sixteen to twenty, he felt that living was exhausting, and even had thoughts of ending it all. During this period, his heart was filled with confusion. But deep inside, there was always a belief: he firmly believed that one day he would break through his shackles and shatter the current barrier in his cultivation. This was the motivation that kept him practicing the family’s secret technique without pause.

Reborn after ten thousand years, Ethan Brooks’s martial arts cultivation still hadn’t improved in the slightest, but the heavy pressure from his family had completely disappeared. After a year of adjustment, he had already integrated into this society. He had freed himself from the pain of the past and regained his original nature.

“Maybe today I missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but I will never regret it!”

The once radiant dragon pearl gradually dimmed, its light finally withdrawing completely. Its color changed from golden to emerald green, becoming an ordinary luminous pearl.

Ethan Brooks put the dragon pearl away and retraced his steps, not wanting to linger for even a moment, afraid that the little demon princess behind him would catch up. He climbed a high mountain and looked into the distance. The little princess and her group were still at the volcano’s crater. He let out a long breath and said, “Phew~~~ I’ve finally gotten rid of that little demon, my nightmare.”

Ethan Brooks had been wandering in the mountains for three days and awkwardly discovered that he was lost. The endless mountain range stretched as far as the eye could see. If he couldn’t find his way out, he would have to become a wild man in the mountains.

A wisp of smoke rose from the distant forest, and Ethan Brooks was overjoyed, heading toward it. When he was about a hundred yards away from the smoke, he stopped. He didn’t dare to approach rashly—if it was the little princess’s group, he would be doomed.

After careful observation, he finally confirmed that these were strangers, and they seemed to be looking for a way out of the mountains. For the next two days, he quietly followed behind this group.

But luck seemed to always elude Ethan Brooks. On the afternoon of the third day, as he was following the group at a leisurely pace, suddenly seven or eight figures sprang out from all around him, surrounding him completely. From their sharp eyes, it was clear that each one was an expert, and the cold murderous aura they exuded suggested that they had all experienced life-and-death battles.

The people ahead all doubled back, making a total of more than twenty. The leader was a young man, quite handsome, with a faint air of dominance about him. He sized up Ethan Brooks and frowned, “Who are you? Why are you sneaking around behind us?”

Ethan Brooks explained, “I’m a lost hunter, hoping to follow you out of these mountains.”

“A hunter dares to venture into the depths of these mountains?”

“I was chasing a white deer and unknowingly wandered in here, and now I can’t find my way out.”

The young lord pointed to a burly man beside him and said, “You, go.”

From the commanding tone, it was clear he was used to giving orders. Ethan Brooks guessed that this young lord must be someone of great background.

The burly man held a large sword, broad and long, and after walking over, slashed at Ethan Brooks. Ethan Brooks quickly dodged to the side. The first strike missed, and the second came immediately, the blade emitting a faint blue light as it slashed diagonally at Ethan Brooks’s waist and abdomen.

Ethan Brooks cried out in his heart: No way, a materialized sword aura! Isn’t this a grandmaster-level expert? How could someone like this be willing to serve as another’s subordinate?

Shocked as he was, he still dodged in the nick of time.

“Hiss—”

The faint blue blade light carved a shallow groove in the ground.

Ethan Brooks felt very strange. The power of a materialized sword aura shouldn’t be this weak; even ordinary sword energy should be much stronger than this strike.

“Could it be Western battle energy?” After carefully observing the burly man’s sword technique, he confirmed his suspicion.

The burly man’s fierce slashes came again, forcing Ethan Brooks into a fight. The battle energy came in waves, and the faint blue blade light put Ethan Brooks in a perilous situation.