Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 351: A Swarm of Trouble

Ethan watched the man’s half-dead state, his mouth running without pause.

"Well, well... you don’t have tuberculosis, do you? Why are you coughing up your lungs?"

He looked around, pointing at the elders standing next to Tribe Leader Butcher. "Tuberculosis is contagious... you, you, you—quickly get away from him!"

The elders blinked in confusion. Of course, they had no idea what tuberculosis was. Someone parted their lips to speak but swallowed their words.

"You beast," Tribe Leader Butcher rasped, sinking to the ground and glaring at Ethan with clenched teeth, "who exactly are you? What is your purpose, feigning closeness to my tribe?"

At that moment, he genuinely began to suspect Ethan’s intentions were anything but pure.

As soon as the accusation left his mouth, the other elders looked stunned. But seeing the suspicion in his eyes, they began to grow uneasy themselves.

"You damn old geezer," Ethan snapped, his smile disappearing. "Your own heart is rotten, and you’re trying to blame me!"

"You... you hid your strength and mingled with our team," Butcher gasped, barely able to catch his breath. "If that’s not scheming, then what is?"

"Heh..." Ethan let out a cold laugh. "Did I hide it? I stopped the scorpion swarm. I killed over four hundred of them to buy you time to escape. And you claim I concealed my strength?"

He swept his eyes across the gathering . "Every single one of you ran faster than rabbits. If Uncle Jed hadn’t stayed behind with forty people to hold off the last three giant scorpions, would any of you even be alive to spit your nonsense at me?"

His gaze landed back on Butcher. "Speaking of hiding, wasn’t it you who fled first? Why didn’t you use your precious Ancestral Spirit? Abandoning your tribesmen and bolting—tell me, is that what a tribe leader does?"

As Ethan spoke, memories began to stir among the Butcher Tribe members. They exchanged looks, then slowly nodded, some pointing accusing fingers at their leader.

"You... you little brat!" Butcher’s face turned purple. "You’ve ruined my great plan! Even if I die, I’ll curse your entire family to a terrible end!"

Uncle Jed felt his heart lurch. It’s over, he thought, dread settling in his chest.

Sure enough, Ethan had been waiting for any excuse to finish this old man. Rage twisted his expression.

Ethan moved.

Puff.

A single muffled sound rang out.

He vanished from where he stood. When he reappeared, he was face-to-face with an old man behind Butcher.

Tribe Leader Butcher’s body remained upright for a breath. Then, as if someone had lopped a melon in half, the upper part of his head slid off in a spray of blood and yellowish fluid.

Ethan’s right leg dripped gore where it had smashed Butcher’s skull to pieces.

[Ding... System Notification: Task [Blood King’s Trial – Human Malice 2 – Kill or Not Kill] completed. Reward item: [Bloodline Map Fragment]. Please proceed to Tribe Leader Butcher’s dwelling and search under the bed for it.]

The notification flashed across his vision. The system seemed unwilling to hand rewards over neatly—it now made him dig for them himself.

Ethan sighed inwardly, thinking it was finally over. He turned, ready to walk toward the tribe leader’s tent.

"Grab him!"

"Kill him!"

"Avenge the tribe leader!"

A wave of angry shouts rolled through the camp like a tide.

Ethan’s steps froze.

Apparently, decapitating their leader right in front of everyone had stirred up some resentment.

The elders who were likely former tribe leaders looked ready to step in and stop the crowd. But before any of them could open their mouths—

Boom.

The bonfire at the camp’s center erupted, sending a shower of sparks skyward. Yellow sand billowed around it.

From beneath the earth, something enormous surged upward and the angry shouting stopped in a heartbeat.

A breath later, a deafening scream tore through the night.

"Sandworms... it’s sandworms!"

"Run!"

Panic exploded across the camp. Uncle Jed and the other elders stood frozen. Dot’s mother clutched her daughter’s hand.

Uncle Jed snapped back to himself first. He looked from the chaos to Ethan’s retreating back, then turned to Dot’s mother.

"Didn’t the tribe leader say he’d pour the Tiger-tailed Centipede’s fluid around the camp?"

Dot’s mother shook her head. She glanced at the tent where Ethan had vanished.

"Damn it!" Uncle Jed smacked his thigh.

Just earlier, Tribe Leader Butcher had insisted Uncle Jed patrol the perimeter, so he could safely take some men to pour the centipede fluid, which repelled sandworms by mimicking their predators’ scent.

Once it seeped into the sand, sandworms avoided the area entirely.

But Tribe Leader Butcher hadn’t done it at all. Instead, he’d wasted time trying to pin some imaginary scheme on Ethan.

And now the entire camp was paying for it.

"Follow me!" Uncle Jed barked, gripping his spear. He skewered a juvenile sandworm that writhed up through the sand.

"Ethan—" he started to call. But when he looked toward the tent, Ethan was already gone.

In the distance, he spotted Ethan slipping inside Tribe Leader Butcher’s dwelling.

’What is he doing?’

But there was no time to wonder. The ground convulsed as more sandworms burst forth.

"Quickly! Pour the centipede fluid!" Uncle Jed yelled over his shoulder. He ushered Dot and her mother closer to Ethan’s location while shouting reminders to any tribesmen still within earshot.

Some people, jolted by his words, scrambled for the clay jars of repellent, but it was already too late. The sandworms had tasted blood.

Pouring the fluid now would do little to turn them back.

These creatures only moved at night, hiding underground by day to avoid the scorching sun. They feared fire—touching flame could ignite the oil that coated their bodies.

But their weaknesses didn’t matter much. In the desert, they were top predators.

And worst of all, they never forgot a grudge. If someone killed one sandworm, the rest would swarm in, hunting the killer relentlessly until it died. Then they’d feast on the corpse—or lay eggs inside it.

No one knew exactly how the worms embedded their eggs in human bodies. Some believed it was through the air itself.

Which was why everyone with a shred of sense had covered their faces. Uncle Jed and Dot’s mother had pulled scarves over their mouths.

Meanwhile, inside the tent, Ethan knelt and tugged a leather bundle from under the bed.

[Ding... System Notification: Obtained item: Bloodline Map Fragment x1.]

He didn’t bother unwrapping it. Gripping the bundle, he stood just as Uncle Jed burst in.

"Ethan—hurry! The Butcher Tribe is finished—"

He stopped short when he saw what Ethan held.

"Bloodline Map... you..."

A look of realization flickered across Uncle Jed’s face. Ethan opened his mouth to explain, but Uncle Jed spoke first.

"I thought I lost it before I passed out. So Butcher hid it all along!"

He muttered the words almost to himself, sounding oddly relieved.

Ethan hesitated, trying to make sense of it. But before he could respond, the tent shuddered violently, sand raining down from above.

Uncle Jed backed out, shouting, "Hurry!"

Ethan didn’t need further convincing. He slipped the bundle into his spatial storage and sprinted for the exit.

He burst out of the tent just in time to see a sandworm erupt from the ground.

Its gaping maw, the size of a water barrel, yawned open. Rows upon rows of jagged teeth gleamed wetly.

Ethan felt his stomach lurch.

’Thank god I don’t have trypophobia’, he thought. If he did, he might have been too paralyzed to move.

[Ding... System Notification: Detected lethal microorganisms in the air. You have been infected!]

’What the hell? Microorganisms?’

His pulse hammered. He’d already been infected—and he had no idea how quickly it would worsen.

"Ethan, over here!"

He twisted around. Uncle Jed was waving him over, fighting off a sandworm while Dot and her mother huddled behind him.

All three had scarves over their faces.

Ethan rifled through his spatial storage, fumbling out a mask. He clamped it over his nose and mouth—anything to slow the infection. Then he broke into a run, catching up with them.

Together, they fled the camp.

As he fought to protect Dot and her mother, Ethan glanced over his shoulder at the surging mass of sandworms.

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