Odin Town.
Outside the town, on a forest path.
Long Xuanye carried a heavy bundle of firewood on his back, his steps light.
The weight on his shoulders was solid.
It pressed down until his bones faintly creaked.
But his mood was good.
The mountain wind passed through the trees, carrying the fresh scent of leaves.
It brushed away the thin sweat on his forehead.
His thoughts drifted with the wind.
Toward a place much farther away.
He was not from this world.
He was a transmigrator from a blue planet.
And now, his identity was the twin elder brother of Long Haochen from the novel Divine Throne.
According to the original path, the two of them should have relied on each other in this remote border town, living a poor and difficult life.
But that man, Long Xingyu, had come to them two full years earlier than in the original story.
The family was reunited.
As a transmigrator whose mind was far more mature than other children his age, Long Xuanye had long since pulled his younger brother, Long Haochen, into the most basic training of the Knight Temple.
Their days became much easier.
Their mother, Bai Yue, smiled more often.
He and Haochen no longer had to save every single drop of the precious Essence-Nurturing Liquid for their mother.
But whenever he thought of Long Xingyu…
Long Xuanye felt helpless.
Toward this so-called “father,” he could not feel even the slightest closeness.
All he maintained was surface-level respect.
A transmigrator’s foreknowledge made him very clear about that man’s true thoughts.
From the very beginning, Long Xingyu had never treated the two brothers as his biological sons.
The Demon God Emperor’s bloodline.
Those words were like a mountain pressing on that man’s heart.
They had also crushed his mind into paranoia and distortion.
Raise the two brothers into talents, and then what?
Send them to kill each other with the Demon God Emperor as father and sons?
Long Xuanye was speechless.
What kind of brainless idea was that?
Long Xingyu really was exactly the same as in the original work.
Paranoid.
Cold-blooded.
Because his own mind had problems, he insisted that the children were not his.
In the novel, Long Haochen, the rising star who represented humanity’s future, fell into desperate danger several times.
And that man could still ignore it.
Just then.
A dazzling light suddenly lit up before his eyes.
Inside the light, a line of words slowly appeared.
[God-Level Choice System Triggered]
Within the light, two new lines appeared.
[Choice One: Return home with the firewood.
Reward: External Spiritual Power +1000.]
[Choice Two: Throw away the firewood and wait in the forest until night before returning home.
Reward: Innate Internal Spiritual Power +1.]
In an instant.
Long Xuanye’s face turned deathly pale.
This system, called the God-Level Choice System, was the golden finger he had awakened several years ago.
And it had one iron rule.
The richer the reward, the greater the danger behind that choice.
Long Xuanye still remembered the scene when the system first awakened.
That day, two options had clearly appeared before him.
One was to stay at home.
The reward was Innate Internal Spiritual Power +1.
The other was to go shopping in the neighboring town.
The reward was Innate Internal Spiritual Power +20.
A twentyfold difference.
After thinking for only a moment, he chose the first option.
“You only have one life.
If the reward difference is this huge, there has to be something wrong.”
Facts proved that his caution had saved his life.
Not long after, terrible news arrived.
The neighboring town had been attacked by a small demon force.
The whole town was wiped out.
Not one person survived.
From that moment on, Long Xuanye completely understood this system’s nature.
And now…
His eyes locked onto the light screen in front of him.
One thousand points of External Spiritual Power.
One point of Innate Internal Spiritual Power.
The difference between these rewards was more than heaven and earth.
It meant one thing.
Going home carried a terrifying danger.
Long Xuanye froze.
A chill rushed from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.
What was at home?
His mother, Bai Yue, who treated him extremely well and was gentle and kind.
His younger brother, Long Haochen, who shared his blood and was very close to him.
They were the family he cherished most in this life.
How could he watch something happen to them while hiding in the forest to save himself?
Long Xuanye instinctively opened his status panel.
[Name: Long Xuanye]
[External Spiritual Power: 107 — Quasi-Knight]
[Innate Internal Spiritual Power: 87 — Unawakened]
[Abilities Mastered: Thrust — Proficient, Sweeping Slash — Proficient, Pure White Blade — Skilled, Guard — Skilled…]
Over the past few years, he had relied on careful choices again and again to accumulate his current strength.
Although he had not undergone the Sacred Awakening, when it came to a knight’s basic combat techniques, he was already far beyond children his age.
But this bit of strength was laughable before the system’s reward of “External Spiritual Power +1000.”
That reward was almost an open warning.
If he went back, he would die.
No.
Wait.
At home…
There was still that man.
Long Xingyu!
Although Long Xingyu had no real fatherly affection for him or Haochen, he was sincere toward Bai Yue.
With that man’s strength, who in all of Odin Town could harm his mother and Haochen?
Demons?
Even more impossible.
That was a God-Seal Knight.
So the terrifying danger from the system’s warning was not aimed at his mother or younger brother.
It was aimed at him.
Then that was fine.
That was fine.
Long Xingyu must have temporarily taken Bai Yue and Long Haochen away from home.
As long as he did not return, nothing would happen.
Long Xuanye’s mind quickly steadied.
Crack.
He threw the bundle of firewood from his shoulders to the ground, then walked into the depths of the forest without hesitation.
The light screen before his eyes quietly changed the instant he made his choice.
On the panel, the number representing his Innate Internal Spiritual Power gently jumped.
…
Night quietly descended.
Odin Town.
Inside the familiar wooden house, no lamp was lit.
Long Xingyu stood with his hands behind his back before the window, his figure straight like a sword.
Moonlight fell upon him.
But it could not enter his dark, deep eyes.
His gaze fell on the bed.
Bai Yue and Long Haochen lay there quietly.
Their breathing was steady, as if they had fallen asleep.
He had used a special method to knock them out temporarily.
Long Xingyu’s eyes were cold.
There was no trace of warmth.
The Demon God Emperor’s bloodline…
There could be no mistake.
For the past two years, he had observed them at every moment.
Haochen was pure-hearted.
His talent was one in ten thousand.
He was a perfect uncut jade.
With a little carving, he would become the sharpest blade in his hand.
A blade sharp enough to pierce the Demon God Emperor’s heart.
But that Long Xuanye…
Long Xingyu’s eyes turned toward the empty doorway.
That child’s mind was too deep.
So deep that he did not seem like a child.
The way he looked at him always carried a faint caution and judgment that he could not fully hide.
That feeling made Long Xingyu very uncomfortable.
“This child cannot be left alive.”
Long Xingyu muttered softly.
Long Xuanye’s talent was not as good as Haochen’s, but it was still far beyond ordinary people.
If he was allowed to grow, he would become a serious hidden danger.
Long Xingyu had already set up the trap.
He only needed Long Xuanye to step through the door.
Then he would cripple all of his spiritual power and cut off the future trouble.
After that, he would take Bai Yue and Haochen away to the Temple Alliance and begin his real plan.
Time passed bit by bit.
The moon reached the middle of the sky.
Then it fell.
One whole night passed.
Outside the door, the familiar footsteps never sounded.
Long Xuanye did not return.
Long Xingyu frowned slightly.
The sky changed from pale white to dawn.
The last trace of patience in Long Xingyu’s eyes vanished with it.
“Forget it.”
“A useless thing with barely a dozen points of External Spiritual Power.”
Before this, Long Xuanye had never shown the extra strength he gained from the system.
After all, he could not explain it.
In Long Xingyu’s eyes, that “rebellious son” was at most a little stronger than Long Haochen.
He snorted.
In this border town, he had already arranged backup plans.
Cut off all supplies.
Remove his family’s protection.
How could a powerless child survive?
Within three days, he would either starve to death on the streets or become food for the beasts in the forest.
Long Xingyu no longer thought about it.
He bent down and picked up Bai Yue from the bed.
With a light wave of his other hand, a gentle spiritual force lifted Long Haochen and made him float at his side.
In the next moment, his figure turned into a faint shadow and silently passed through the wooden house.
But several minutes later…
Long Xingyu’s figure appeared again.
A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.
His original plan was to cripple Long Xuanye first, then let him starve to death.
Now that the plan had gone wrong, Long Xingyu decided to make a repair.
With a casual throw, he tossed a pitch-black magical beast to the ground.
Its eyes were blood-red.
It was a hungry Shadow Leopard, already on the edge of madness.
Its strength was at the peak of the first rank.
Even an excellent Knight Squire with less than 80 points of External Spiritual Power would die if they encountered it.
Only then did Long Xingyu seem to settle the matter.
He let out a long breath.
The Demon God Emperor’s bloodline had to be eliminated from the roots.