"Cosmic Secret Realm?" Another word Ethan hadn't heard.Yuliu treated it like an eccentric scion of a hidden house who hadn't gotten the galactic memo, and explained at length. The Cosmic Alliance ruled a thousand secret realms, some named, most numbered. Each one held a unique fortune inside — and a unique death. People threw themselves at them every time they opened. The nine original ones had names. Everything else was a number."This one is number 97684609. Deep in the roster. I don't know what's inside, and it's not in the Black Dragon domain at all." He leaned in. "Take the passes. Truly. Nobody trades these unless someone in their house is dying of soul wounds and there is no other way. It means whoever put this up had a family member on the edge."Ethan took both.He didn't need them himself. Zhao Duan and the others wanted out, wanted to see the cosmos. A secret realm was exactly the kind of trial they'd sign up for. He'd ask Chiyou how dangerous these numbered ones were befo

"That building needs Diamond rank." The Bimeng looked him up and down. "This job won't get you there. You're too weak. It's pointless." He paused. "Who are you, kid? And why do I know you?"Ethan's mask had been meant to hold. In front of this man it might as well have been a handkerchief.The Bimeng's eyes narrowed. "You look like— don't tell me you're a Su. You're here looking for the Su survivors."Ethan stepped back, his hand finding the weapon at his belt.The Bimeng laughed — a great, barking sound. "Got you. You got nerve, I'll give you that. Hiding out in the open. And this mask?" He snorted. "The Montoya have viewers who see through that. You walked right in here waving it. First time off a farm, kid?""Who are you?" Ethan let his own mask go. "How do you know the Su? How do you know the Montoya hunt us?""Enough talk." The Bimeng waved it off. "I want the pill. I'll give you the points. And I'll let you through to the back building. But you step out that gate on your own, an

"If anything goes wrong, I answer for it." Noikaisen patted his own chest, and the gesture was supposed to read as honor. It read as impatience. "Every Diamond member we offend, I'll compensate. To his full satisfaction. You have my word."Nuyas could hardly refuse after that, and he knew it. "Then I'll send a few of my own people along. If this is real, we make an example. Kill them where they stand."Noikaisen nodded. He already had the room number memorized.Ethan had cycled off the somber space-documentary channel and onto a combat reel by the time the door caved in.He didn't jump. He didn't even sit up. He lay where he was on the sofa, head propped on one arm, and let his gaze drift lazily toward the breach.Noikaisen stormed in first, a wall of guards behind him. Nuyas trailed with a dozen Alliance members, every one of them a heavy hitter, their auras rolling through the room until the air itself felt thick enough to chew. Ethan's pulse knocked once behind his ribs — even he h

Ethan looked up at the mountain of a man and raised one eyebrow. Yedu winked — an absurd expression on a face that looked carved from granite.Ethan's mouth twitched. He let his voice carry."Brother. You took your time. Another minute and they'd have killed me outright. This Montoya lot didn't just slander me — they came here to murder me.""What?" Yedu's head snapped toward Noikaisen. The shout cracked off the walls. "You declaring war on the Mercenary Alliance, Noikaisen?"Noikaisen had jawed at Nuyas. He had no stomach for this. Twenty years ago Yedu had already planted one foot over the Demigod threshold. That was a level Noikaisen couldn't reach with his whole clan behind him. And the Alliance wasn't what it looked like — this backwater Black Dragon branch was the weakest in the entire organization. Every other hall sat on a Demigod. Several kept True Gods.He wasn't tired of life.He couldn't make it add up. A weak little thing around five-star Star Lord, and Yedu treated him l

Ethan hadn't gone three blocks before he felt the tail.He smiled, cold and private, and didn't quicken his step. He walked the main boulevard like a man with nowhere to hide and everywhere to be seen, and let the Montoya shadow tag along until they reached the Galaxy Guild hall.The shadow's color changed. The Galaxy Guild was a house even the Montoyas didn't poke. The Alliance might give a great family a face-saving nod; the Guild didn't give anyone anything. If this kid was theirs, touching his people became a problem with a whole other weight behind it.Yuliu Tuluo came to the front himself when the message reached him, and spotted the Montoya man loitering across the street. His eyes narrowed. He said nothing. He simply turned and led Ethan upstairs to the private parlor."How are the friends I brought to your auction?" Ethan poured himself a tea and let it sit before he asked."They left after the sale. Don't worry. I sent an escort to deliver them to the Chenlong systems myself