Chapter 990: Alternate Timeline: The Zheng

She truly felt like she narrowly escaped disaster.

Originally, she considered introducing Wester as a seven-star expert, yet ultimately discarded the idea because such strength would immediately attract unnecessary attention from the Imperial Palace. 7-stars are indeed Elites after all...

So instead, she carefully built the identity of a foreign mercenary from Celestra whom she hired because of Wester Silver’s escape from prison.

The cover story fit perfectly.

After all, the Imperial Palace already knew that Kiara had visited Celestra previously and indirectly caused a change in its ruling structure.

Everything aligned naturally.

Still, the opinions of outsiders mattered less than one thing.

Arceus’s trust.

And because he accepted the arrangement calmly, Kiara finally relaxed.

***

The next morning arrived and the streets of the Business district slowly awakened with the sounds of merchants opening shops, carriage wheels rolling over stone roads, and distant conversations blending into the atmosphere of early morning life.

"Alright, I will return by evening."

Kiara casually waved her hand while approaching the attack helicopter parked behind the store compound.

"See you later."

This time, she intentionally left Baltrow and Zion behind for Arceus’s protection.

Even though Wester appeared repentant, Kiara still preferred caution.

Trust was one thing.

Preparation was another.

Noah already sat inside the helicopter cockpit, waiting patiently. He was excited to go on the journey with Kiara. Last time, he was left behind, and she took Zion with him. Now, it is his turn.

And most importantly, there wouldn’t be Arceus around for his Big Sister to keep giving attention to.

Noah couldn’t wait to leave. A faint smile was seen on his face.

Soon the rotors began spinning.

The sharp chopping sounds tore through the morning air as dust and loose leaves spiraled outward violently beneath the machine.

Then the helicopter rose into the sky.

As Kiara previously rejected the instant teleportation function when accepting the emergency quest, the system instead provided her with a tracking map that continuously displayed the target’s location until the mission concluded.

Several hours later, after stopping once midway to refill fuel using Kiara’s ether energy conversion method, because this attack helicopter is an ether vehicle and not a simple military vehicle like the panzers or the LMVs, the helicopter finally reached the Desmont Mountain Range.

Towering peaks stretched endlessly beneath the clouds like ancient stone giants sleeping across the land.

Eventually, the helicopter descended toward one particular mountaintop.

The peak looked unnaturally flat.

Almost as though some colossal blade had sliced away the summit centuries ago.

The area itself was neither enormous nor small, roughly one square kilometer wide, filled with ruined buildings scattered across the silent plateau.

Broken walls.

Collapsed houses.

Ancient stone pathways cracked by time.

And yet strangely...

The place remained clean.

There were no weeds.

No unnecessary rubble.

No dust accumulation or so whatever.

It looked abandoned but not neglected, as if someone was maintaining it properly.

At one corner of the ruined settlement rested a graveyard filled with countless burial mounds arranged in quiet rows beneath the grey sky.

An old man with grey hair and worn white robes slowly swept the area with a broom, moving so calmly that he resembled someone entirely detached from the passage of time itself.

Naturally, the roaring sound of the helicopter reached him quickly.

The old man stopped sweeping.

Then slowly raised his head.

His brows furrowed deeply.

"What is that thing..."

Muttering softly, he placed the broom aside and began walking toward the landing area.

By the time he arrived near the ruined buildings, Kiara and Noah had already stepped out of the helicopter before storing it away instantly.

The old man narrowed his eyes.

"Stop right there."

His voice sounded low and rough.

"Leave this place, strangers."

Kiara became genuinely surprised.

According to Guinvere’s information, the Church of Thanatos had attempted to occupy this mountain range for decades without success.

She never expected an actual guardian to still remain here.

To confirm her suspicions, she immediately activated Sage Eyes.

And the information that appeared before her nearly stunned her.

Juren Frost

Status: Humanoid

Grade: Emperor

Species: Zheng

Rank: 9 (peak-stage)

Type: Offensive

Attribute: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Lightning

Description: Zheng is a beast emperor from the Undying Lands. A pet of Lysander Frost, it is very loyal to its master even after his death, acting as the gravekeeper of the Frost Clan’s graveyard.

Kiara’s eyes narrowed subtly.

"So this beast can assume human form..."

She had heard legends about pure dragons transforming into humans, but witnessing another beast possessing similar abilities still shocked her.

What frightened her more was the cultivation level.

Peak nine-star in humanoid form.

Which meant...

Its true form would likely be even stronger.

A demigod-level beast emperor?

Kiara instantly understood that even with the Peak Potion, defeating such a creature by force would be absurdly difficult.

And even if she somehow won...

How exactly was she supposed to establish a contract with a demigod beast using an Advanced Spirit Beast Contract?

No.

Violence would not work here.

Acknowledgment.

That was the only viable path.

Fortunately, the manuscript gifted by Juren Frost previously helped her understand beast behavior considerably over the past ten days.

Even Baltrow’s loyalty increased significantly because of that knowledge.

Suppressing her surprise carefully, Kiara took a slow breath before bowing sincerely.

"Greetings, Juren Frost. My name is Kiara, and I came from the Imperial Capital."

The middle-aged man looked visibly surprised.

Very few living people still remembered his name.

And anyone who knew it would naturally know he was not human.

When he took another look at this girl, he suddenly saw an illusion of a silhouette of a familiar person on her. "Arianna?"

For a moment, suspicion toward the Church of Thanatos surfaced in his mind immediately.

His expression darkened, thinking that they might be playing a trick on his mind.

"Whoever you are," he warned more aggressively this time, "outsiders have no business here."

"Leave."

Normally, even the slightest threat would irritate Kiara immensely.

But this situation differed.

She restrained herself.

Calmly, she replied, "I came here for three reasons."

"First, I wish to pay respects to my grandparents."

"Second, I came to claim the inheritance they left behind."

"And third..."

Kiara’s gaze sharpened slightly.

"I came to revive the Frost Clan."

Juren Frost’s brows tightened instantly.

"Grandfather?"

"Revive the House?"

His voice grew colder.

"Who are your grandparents?"

Kiara answered directly.

"Lysander Frost and Arianna Frost."

"They are my maternal grandparents... if what my granduncle, Ares Frost, told me is true."

She intentionally mentioned Ares Frost’s name, hoping it would earn some degree of trust.

Instead—

It touched a festering wound.

"How dare you speak that traitor’s name!"

Juren Frost suddenly roared.

The sound exploded outward like invisible thunder.

Terrifying sound waves burst across the plateau violently.

The air itself trembled in the surroundings.

Kiara instantly felt overwhelming pressure slam against her chest as if a mountain had crashed into her body.

Her boots scraped harshly across stone.

The force nearly hurled her straight off the cliffside.

But Noah reacted immediately.

Black Protos chains exploded outward from his back with sharp metallic sounds before wrapping tightly around Kiara’s waist and pulling her sideways.

Both landed heavily across the ground.

The moment Kiara regained balance, Noah immediately stepped in front of her protectively while dark Protos daggers materialized around his hands like condensed shadows.

"Big Sis, are you alright?"

Kiara gave a nod, although her gaze was on the old man.

Juren Frost abruptly halted, and his eyes narrowed sharply, gazing at Noah’s daggers. "What is that corrupted energy..."

Wariness appeared across his face instantly.

His gaze continued to be fixed upon Noah.

"A peak-quality life puppet... There is no way humans from this backward world possess knowledge advanced enough to create something like that... Not even those dwarves were capable..."