Chapter 66: The Fake Savior Of Valemont

Chapter 66: Chapter 66: The Fake Savior Of Valemont

Adrian had therefore made his choice. For the sake of protecting Jonathan, he was willing to sacrifice Mira.

After all, in his mind, she had already been expelled from the Sinclair family. If she continued growing stronger, she might eventually return for revenge.

Handing her over to Collins would solve both problems at once.

"Thank you, Master Collins! Thank you!" Adrian bowed repeatedly, his face filled with excitement.

At least Jonathan’s safety was now secured. As for Mira, to Adrian she was simply a resource that could be exchanged for something far more valuable.

He had already heard about her awakening several days earlier, but instead of feeling proud that the Sinclair family had produced someone with such extraordinary potential, Adrian had immediately considered how her existence could benefit Jonathan.

"Don’t worry, Master Collins," Adrian promised eagerly. "I’ll make sure everything is arranged within three days. At most, three days."

Collins’ smile widened.

"See that you do," he said. His tone remained casual, but the warning underneath it was unmistakable.

"If you fail to keep your promise, the consequences won’t be something you or the Sinclair family can handle."

Adrian’s expression stiffened.

"Yes. Of course. I understand," he said.

Collins gave a satisfied nod. After exchanging a few more words, he finally turned his attention toward the enormous spatial portal ahead, his eyes carrying a trace of disdain.

"These Foundation Establishment Realm martial artists from Valemont really are disappointing," he scoffed.

"The Hunting Ground Secret Realm has been open for nearly a week, yet they still haven’t dealt with the final threat." His expression became arrogant.

"If my father hadn’t sent me here personally, I wouldn’t even have bothered coming."

Adrian immediately nodded along.

"Exactly! Those people simply aren’t capable of handling something like this," he said, seizing the opportunity to flatter Collins even further.

"It’s only because Master Collins is willing to help that Valemont has any hope of surviving this crisis. Without you, who knows how much destruction this secret realm would have caused?" Adrian’s smile became even wider. "You are practically Valemont’s savior."

"Savior?" Collins laughed, clearly enjoying hearing that.

"I like that title." He looked toward the enormous portal.

"Don’t worry. Once I enter, dealing with this secret realm will be—"

His words abruptly stopped. The smile vanished from his face. Something had changed.

The enormous spatial portal towering several dozen meters above the ground had begun to tremble.

Then, under the stunned gazes of everyone present, it slowly faded. The gigantic portal disappeared, and in its place, hundreds of bewildered martial artists suddenly appeared.

The entire area fell silent.

Collins’ expression darkened. The meaning was obvious. Someone had already completed the conditions necessary to close the Hunting Ground Secret Realm.

The secret realm was over.

Just moments ago, Collins had been proudly accepting the title of Valemont’s savior. Now someone else had already accomplished what he had come here to do. How could he possibly be pleased?

Collins might have been arrogant, but he was not stupid.

He understood exactly how difficult it was to conquer an inheritance type secret realm. If someone had managed to end the Hunting Ground Secret Realm before he had even entered, that person was certainly no ordinary martial artist.

They were almost certainly an exceptional genius.

And Collins had always been accustomed to being the center of attention.

He was not willing to accept that someone in Valemont, or even the wider region, could accomplish something this impressive before him. His eyes gradually became cold.

Beside him, Adrian was sweating. What terrible timing!

He had spent all this effort praising Collins and calling him the savior of Valemont, and now the secret realm had closed before Collins had even entered.

What was he supposed to say?

Even Adrian could not understand what had happened. The reports that arrived that morning had clearly stated that the exploration of the secret realm was still ongoing.

How had everything suddenly ended by evening?

Around them, the hundreds of returning martial artists were just as confused.

"What happened? I was fighting a lone wolf beast a second ago!" one man exclaimed.

"Did someone kill the final monster and trigger the closure?" another asked.

"Who could possibly have done that?" a third wondered aloud.

"I was counting on the reward for surviving the secret realm! Why did it end so suddenly?" someone complained.

"Are you crazy? You’d rather keep fighting those monsters just for a reward?" another shot back.

"Hahaha! I was being chased by three beasts and thought I was finished," a woman laughed. "Whoever ended the secret realm just saved my life!"

The once orderly area quickly descended into chaos. Some people laughed in relief.

Others complained bitterly about losing their chance to earn rewards.

A few were visibly envious, desperately trying to figure out who had accomplished something none of them had been able to do.

But most of the martial artists shared the same question.

Who had ended the Hunting Ground Secret Realm?

With so many martial artists talking at once, there was no chance of anyone reaching a reliable conclusion. Before long, the crowd gradually dispersed.

Those who were entitled to government compensation went to collect their payments, while everyone else simply returned home, still trying to make sense of what had happened.

Grant Mercer, however, knew far more than most of them. The moment he returned, he went straight to the Extraordinary Division.

Because the information he was about to disclose was highly classified, he requested a private meeting with Vice Minister Samuel Bush and personally recounted everything that had happened inside the secret realm.

Samuel Bush’s expression changed several times as he listened.

"Wait," he said. "The Hunting Ground Secret Realm was actually an inheritance-type secret realm?"

He stared at Grant in disbelief. The moment the secret realm disappeared, Samuel had already received the official report, and naturally he had been eager to learn what had caused it to close so suddenly.

But Grant’s account was far beyond anything he had expected.

As the senior official overseeing the Extraordinary Division’s affairs in Valemont, Samuel understood better than almost anyone what the discovery of an inheritance secret realm meant.

It could contain powerful martial arts techniques. Rare weapons. Lost cultivation methods. Ancient knowledge.

And, perhaps most importantly, clues about the mysterious origin and operating principles of secret realms themselves.

If humanity managed to obtain even one major inheritance, the benefits could extend to countless martial artists.

And if researchers could study the inheritance closely enough, they might even uncover the principles governing how secret realms appeared, remained active, and eventually disappeared.

If that happened, humanity might one day gain the ability to control secret realms rather than merely react to them.

That possibility alone was extraordinary.

The last known inheritance secret realm had appeared in a city several hundred miles from Valemont six months earlier, and according to the information that had reached them, the martial artists there had obtained an 8th-grade martial technique of tremendous value.

Humanity had benefited enormously from previous inheritances as well.

So when Grant revealed that the Hunting Ground Secret Realm had secretly been an inheritance secret realm all along, Samuel could hardly remain calm.

"Start from the beginning," he ordered. "Tell me everything you remember from the moment you discovered that palace."

Grant nodded.

"When Mira, Timothy, and I reached the palace, a massive bell suddenly rang," he began, and carefully went through the entire sequence of events.

He described the palace, the strange bell, the monsters, the sudden attack by the Bloodshadow Cult’s assassin, and, finally, the mysterious Mr. X. ℯℯ𝑙.

Samuel listened without interrupting. When Grant finally finished, Samuel leaned back and spent several moments thinking.

"Based on everything you’ve told me, it’s possible that either Mira or Evelyn received the inheritance," he said, pausing.

"There is also a chance that both of them received something."

Grant nodded.

"That’s what I thought too," he said. "But there’s one more possibility."

He remembered the mysterious figure who had repeatedly appeared at critical moments. "Mr. X."

Samuel frowned.

"Mr. X? Who is he?"

"According to Evelyn, he’s an alchemy master, and he admitted as much himself," Grant said, his expression becoming serious.

"But his strength is even more unusual. He’s far stronger than me. I’d say the difference is at least tenfold. And he possesses some kind of technique capable of freezing space."

Samuel’s face gradually became blank. A young man who appeared to be barely twenty years old.

A high level alchemy master. A martial artist possessing combat power vastly beyond Grant’s.

And, somehow, he could perform an ability resembling the spatial powers associated with much higher realms.

If Grant had not been someone Samuel trusted completely, he would have suspected that the young man was telling him a ridiculous story. It was simply too extraordinary.

"There’s no way he’s actually reached the Star Sea Realm," Samuel finally said.

"If he had, the Hunting Ground Secret Realm would never have allowed him inside." He tapped his fingers against the table.

"The spatial freezing was probably produced by a martial technique or some kind of secret art."

Samuel’s experience was considerably greater than Grant’s, allowing him to reach that conclusion almost immediately.

Still, he could not recall a known martial technique capable of producing such an effect. Whatever it was, it could not possibly be an ordinary technique.

"It must be at least a 6th-grade martial technique, perhaps even higher," Samuel said.

"And judging by what you described, he’s already cultivated it to an extremely profound level."

The more Samuel thought about Mr. X, the more intrigued he became.