Chapter 608: The Suite of Blood and Shadows
"What?" Ethan froze mid-step.
He realized this old man must already know that he and Amber had boarded together.
The elder nodded slightly and gestured to his men. One of them reached out toward Ethan’s chips.
Without hesitation, Ethan handed them over. The two men immediately walked out of the casino.
"Huh?"
The fat man who’d been watching expected a scene—maybe an argument or a fight—but instead, everything ended quietly, with Ethan obediently following the old man.
Curious, he trailed after them out of the casino.
The moment he stepped outside, he saw Ethan waiting for him with a grin.
"Bring him along too," Ethan said to the elder beside him.
The old man frowned but nodded. If Ethan hadn’t been with Amber earlier, he wouldn’t have bothered with the fat man at all.
He had come here for one reason: Amber. When word reached him that Ethan had caused a commotion in the casino, he tried calling her immediately. But her phone was off. Alarmed, he sent people to check her room—only to find it empty.
Surveillance footage showed Amber’s last known location near the Ethereal VR pods. When his men checked the area, she was already gone.
The Zane family had long built its reputation on the mystical arts. The elder had quickly produced a jade medallion—a communication token engraved with spell arrays, carried by every Zane family member. With it, they could contact one another instantly, no matter the distance.
Yet when he sent a message to Amber, it vanished into nothing.
He couldn’t ignore it. Especially since a Quinn family heir had also disappeared on the Flying Dragon ship two days earlier. The pattern was too much to dismiss. Acting on instinct, he came straight for Ethan.
"Bring me where? I was just minding my own business!" The fat man tried to back away as he spoke.
Ethan clamped a hand down on his shoulder. No matter how much the man squirmed, his bulk couldn’t budge against Ethan’s grip.
"Let’s go. I know where she is."
Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly. He had already found Amber’s location.
"You know where she is, so why drag me along?"
The elder glanced sharply at Ethan. His tone, his certainty—he wasn’t just guessing. This young man must be a powerful user of Soul Energy.
Before the elder could speak, the fat man blurted out, "I’m just curious about this ’organization’ you mentioned earlier. Maybe we can have a nice chat—if you don’t mind, that is..."
Ethan smirked. "Follow me closely. If you try to run, I’ll boil you down for lamp oil."
The fat man froze, a nervous laugh escaping him.
Ethan wasn’t joking. He’d already sensed that Amber wasn’t in immediate danger, but time was running short. If they delayed, that could change fast.
The elder followed silently behind him. The fat man trailed after, sulking, muttering under his breath. He knew he couldn’t fight Ethan—maybe not even survive if he tried. So he shuffled along, his small eyes darting restlessly in every direction.
The Zane elder noticed that Ethan was heading toward the top deck, where only four presidential suites were located.
Could Amber be in one of those? Or had she returned to the Honeymoon Suite she shared with Ethan?
"You want to handle this, or should I?" Ethan suddenly stopped at a door, breaking the elder’s thoughts.
"This is..." The old man’s face tightened.
This wasn’t one of the four regular presidential suites. It was the fifth one—the most exclusive on the entire Dragon’s Pride cruise ship. A private room not sold to passengers, reserved only for the ship’s owner, Mr. Kane.
And today, Mr. Kane was aboard. The elder knew that much.
"You’re saying Amber is in there?" he asked, surprised.
"Can’t afford to offend whoever’s inside?" Ethan asked quietly.
"Not exactly," the old man said carefully. "If Amber’s in there, she should be fine. They must be discussing business, maybe we should leave it at that."
He assumed Amber must have come to Mr. Kane’s suite on business. The Zane family had extensive dealings with Kane in the mundane world, and as the family’s worldly affairs manager, it wasn’t unusual for Amber to meet with him privately.
Ethan’s voice cut through that thought, low and cold. "Discussing business requires being drugged and naked?"
The elder froze. "What did you say?"
The Zane elder’s face drained of color.
"I’m saying if you don’t hurry," Ethan said coldly, "that old pervert inside is about to succeed... Tsk"
Beside him, the fat man’s eyes fluttered, his eyes gleaming with a murky light. He was using his Soul Sense to peer through the door.
Smack!
"Don’t look at what you shouldn’t."
Ethan’s backhand sent the fat man spinning in place, twice over, before he crashed face-first into the wall.
BOOM!
A thunderous impact followed. The Zane elder had driven his fist straight into the presidential suite door, blowing it open.
The people inside froze in shock. One man turned pale and stumbled backward.
On the sofa lay Amber, unconscious, her face flushed an unnatural red.
The man who had fallen was Mr. Kane.
And standing beside him was another woman—Quinn.
Startled by the explosion of the door, Quinn turned, meeting Ethan’s eyes. Panic flashed across her face before she masked it with a cold calm.
She had seen him earlier in the casino. She knew this was Zane territory and hadn’t dared to act then. She’d planned to settle things with Ethan later, quietly.
But now he had come straight to her door.
Perfect.
Quinn’s lips parted, ready to shout. Mr. Kane’s bodyguards were next door—powerful men, some more dangerous than she was. If she could just call them in—
’Ethan, you owe me. And now, you’ll pay.’
But before the thought even finished forming, Ethan vanished.
In the blink of an eye, he was behind her, his presence radiating a killing chill that made the air itself seem to freeze.
Mr. Kane looked up, startled, meeting Ethan’s cold eyes. He was about to curse—but something flickered in his mind. He recognized this face.
"It’s you..."
Ethan paused mid-kick, his eyes narrowing. "You know me?"
"Uh... no, I don’t!" Kane blurted out, realizing too late that he’d said the wrong thing.
"Oh."
Smack!
The sound was sickening.
"Spare his—life—"
The Zane elder tried to speak, but he was half a heartbeat too late.
The powerful magnate of Crescent Isle, Mr. Kane, the man who ruled the Dragon’s Pride, had his skull crushed open by Ethan’s kick. Blood and brain matter splattered across the marble floor.
The elder froze mid-sentence, the last word tumbling out weakly.
"...Ah. Murder."
Quinn’s composure shattered. She had planned to use Kane’s influence to deal with Ethan, maybe even destroy him. Now her supposed ally was nothing but a corpse. She screamed, staggering backward in horror.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Outside, chaos erupted.
"Hey—don’t hit me! I’m just a bystander!" The fat man’s voice came from the hallway, followed by a series of meaty thuds.
A dozen figures burst through the door—Kane’s bodyguards.
Ethan’s eyes flicked over them once. Well, well.
These weren’t ordinary men. He could sense it instantly—Mutants, ability users, trained combat specialists. Two of them were foreigners, each holding a short wooden rod carved with faint sigils, waving them like conductors ready to summon a storm.
Ethan’s lips curved. "Panther Form... Energy Fusion Technique... Shred."
His voice dropped into a growl, and power surged through his veins. It had been a long time since he’d used Energy Fusion in combat.
Slash!
Three arcs of crimson light flashed through the air.
The first wave of attackers didn’t even have time to scream.