Chapter 149: Don’t force me to kill you all

The space at the far end of the runway shook violently.

The sound itself was not loud, but layer after layer of air ahead contracted and expanded like the surface of water being distorted by an invisible hand. The airships parked around the aviation center simultaneously sounded alarms, while several hastily installed spatial detectors nearby also began flashing continuously.

Ethan stood beside Qing Lian, his gaze fixed on the point where the fluctuations were strongest.

At first, he had assumed an enormous gate would appear directly, but nearly a minute passed, and all that emerged before everyone was an extremely small tear.

Szzzt.

A blue-purple line less than two meters long slowly tore through the air. No scenery could be seen inside it, only countless points of light continuously swirling together. The tear was so thin that from a distance it looked almost like a streak of light, yet the amount of energy radiating from it made the surrounding ground tremble faintly.

Mumu, standing beside Ethan, immediately shrank back.

"Mumu?"

Laira narrowed her eyes slightly, looked at the tear ahead, and asked, "Is that the gate?"

"Not yet."

Qing Zhu walked over beside Ruo Yan, folding her arms across her chest. Her black hair, tied high behind her head, fluttered slightly in the chaotic current spilling from the tear.

"It is only the first fracture point." She explained calmly. "Once the spaces on both sides truly reconnect, it will expand very quickly."

Ethan glanced at the instruments whose readings were continuously jumping.

"How long?"

"Hard to say exactly." Qing Zhu shrugged. "A few hours, perhaps a day or two. With the fluctuations already at this level, it definitely will not take much longer."

After speaking, she turned toward the densely parked airships behind them.

"First, find somewhere to set up a temporary station. Once the gate truly opens, this area will become far more chaotic than it is now."

Qing Lian did not object.

Ethan’s group quickly chose an old airship hangar located more than a kilometer from the spatial tear. Several holes had opened in the roof, but the main structure was still relatively sturdy, enough for them to establish a temporary resting area without squeezing among hundreds of other factions.

However, before they had gone very far, Ethan sensed gazes settling on his back.

At first, there were only a few.

Then more and more.

Ethan slowly turned around.

The people standing in the Elven area to the east were still staring at him. Several Beastkin who had survived the Owin ruins had also stepped out of formation, the hostility in their eyes almost completely undisguised.

And they were not all.

From the southern sky, the heavy beating of wings suddenly rang out.

A flock of Harpies from the nest-shaped airship that had just landed rose into the air at once. Dozens of figures quickly covered part of the sky, led by a female Harpy whose body was clearly larger than the others.

She had silver-gray hair and black-purple wings nearly ten meters wide. A thin layer of armor resembling bird scales extended from her shoulders down her arms, while a dark red metal circlet rested on her forehead with three small crystals embedded in its center.

The moment she saw Laira, the female Harpy’s gaze turned cold.

Then she looked at Ethan.

"At last, I have found you."

Ethan frowned slightly.

That face was completely unfamiliar.

Laira immediately stepped closer beside him. With her height towering well above Ethan, she nearly blocked half his body from the woman’s view.

The female Harpy saw the movement, and the corner of her mouth immediately curled into a cold smile.

"You do not recognize me?"

"No."

The answer was so direct that her expression stiffened slightly.

The female Harpy inhaled deeply before introducing herself in a cold voice. "I am the Third Queen of the Harpies."

Ethan still showed no particular reaction.

That expression made the female Harpy grind her teeth lightly.

"The person killed by your Crimson Dragon in that previous challenge space was my younger sister."

Only then did Ethan understand.

He turned to look at Laira.

Laira had remembered as well. She frowned slightly, then asked quite naturally:

"The very noisy Harpy?"

Ruo Yan, standing nearby, immediately turned her head toward her.

The Third Harpy Queen’s expression darkened completely.

"You..."

"Laira."

Ethan merely called her name.

Laira immediately closed her mouth, although judging from her expression, she clearly did not believe she had said anything wrong.

Ethan turned back toward the female Harpy.

"I remember now."

"And you still dare admit it?"

"Why would I not?"

The Third Harpy Queen’s eyes widened slightly.

Ethan’s voice remained calm.

"She was the one who hunted us first. Afterward, everyone entered a space with restricted levels. She was weaker and got killed. It was that simple."

"You!"

The female Harpy’s aura immediately erupted.

But before she could act, another voice came from the east.

"So you still have the same attitude."

An elderly Elf slowly stepped out from the crowd.

The injury that had once covered half his face had left behind a burn scar stretching from his temple down to his cheek. The bow in his hand had been replaced, but the way he looked at Ethan was no different from when they had been inside the Owin ruins.

Behind him were several other Elves who had participated in the final battle.

One of them stared at Ethan and coldly demanded:

"You stole the inheritance, killed our people, and then used the Thunder Gate to destroy our escape route. Do you truly think that matter is over?"

Ethan looked at them.

"Stole the inheritance?"

He laughed.

"The inheritance chose Ruo Yan."

Ruo Yan, standing to Ethan’s left, merely looked calmly at the other side.

Ethan continued, "You tried to steal it, lost the fight, and then turned around and claimed I stole from you. That is certainly a convenient way to tell the story."

The expressions of several Elves immediately turned ugly.

At the same time, the Beastkin group behind them also stepped forward.

One Beastkin missing half an ear pointed directly at Laira.

"Brakk died by her hand."

Laira glanced at him.

"Yes."

A single word acknowledged everything.

The Beastkin clenched his teeth so hard that his jaw muscles bulged.

Ethan did not continue arguing. His gaze slowly swept across the crowd forming around him.

Harpies.

Elves.

Beastkin.

There were also several creatures from smaller races who had appeared in the Owin ruins.

Far too many familiar faces.

And it was precisely their number that caught Ethan’s attention.

One or two groups coming to seek revenge could still be considered normal, but for so many people who had once clashed with him to appear at the same unopened ruin, at the exact same time...

The scene Ethan had witnessed three days ago immediately appeared in his mind.

The River of Fate.

Black-purple tentacles piercing countless streams of light, slowly dragging points that had originally been extremely far apart toward the same direction.

’Was it that?’

Ethan could not confirm it yet.

But what was happening before him definitely was not mere coincidence.

The Third Harpy Queen took another step forward, the killing intent around her now completely exposed.

"It took me a very long time to uncover what happened back then. Bone Wraith Serpent was merely a false name used to deceive others. The aura of the flames, the wounds on the corpse, and the information about the Crimson Dragon beside you... everything matches."

Ethan had no intention of explaining how he had once hidden his achievements.

Since the other side had investigated to this extent, continuing to deny it was meaningless.

"And then?"

"And then?"

The female Harpy laughed coldly.

"You will pay with your life."

Ethan looked at her.

"If you want it, come take it."

The surrounding atmosphere instantly became tense.

An elderly Harpy standing behind the Third Queen slowly stepped forward. His aura was far stronger than hers, and the moment it appeared, it pressed down across the entire area, causing the metal plates beneath their feet to tremble.

Almost simultaneously, two Elven elders and an old Beastkin also stepped forward.

Clearly, they had no intention of allowing the younger generation to settle these grudges themselves.

Ethan remained where he stood.

"Back then, I was far weaker than I am now, and you still failed to kill me."

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.

"Now you have dragged even more people here, and the result is still that you are standing there talking?"

The expressions of everyone ahead darkened at once.

The Elven elder stared at Ethan, his voice turning cold.

"Do you believe that because Qing Lian is here, no one dares touch you?"

Before Ethan could answer, a woman’s voice sounded behind him.

"Yes."

Just one word.

Extremely soft.

Yet the noises surrounding the runway seemed to sink away at the same time.

Qing Lian walked past Ethan.

The hem of her white-and-red robe brushed lightly across the old metal floor. She had not drawn her sword or formed a seal. Both hands simply hung naturally by her sides as she stepped in front of Ethan and calmly raised her eyes.

"Is there a problem?"

The Elven elder froze.

Even the Third Harpy Queen unconsciously took half a step back.

The younger people here might not fully understand just how terrifying the woman before them was.

But the elders did.

And precisely because they knew, they were even less willing to lose face in front of so many races.

The Harpy elder stepped forward, his aged wings spreading wide. A black-purple gale immediately surged behind him.

The two Elven elders released their auras at the same time, dense green light spreading across the ground. On the other side, the old Beastkin let out a low growl as his body rapidly grew almost half a meter taller.

Four waves of pressure simultaneously bore down on Qing Lian.

The ground began to tremble.

Those standing nearby immediately retreated.

Qing Zhu remained with her arms folded, her expression calm as though the matter before her had nothing to do with her.

Ethan narrowed his eyes slightly.

From beginning to end, Qing Lian had remained standing exactly where she was.

Only when the four waves of pressure reached within a few meters of her did she breathe out softly.

Very softly.

Boom.

The world changed.