Mystical Journey

"How did you get to know him?" Garen was curious.

"You don’t need to know about that." It was rare that Andrela’s face was blushing red as he seemed reluctant to answer. "He will definitely come, because he was the one who made me realize this information."

"Alright. Would the three of us be enough?"

"It’s enough" Andrela nodded. "The Immortal Palace has a small amount of people too right? We would be too weak if we want to snatch the item away from them and the Behemoth Gate. If not for the Explosion of Heavenly Spirit that I’ve picked up from you that was perfectly suited for me to increase my battle strength, I wouldn’t even have had this idea in the first place."

"True that. I hope the person you mentioned is as strong as you describe to be."

"He will definitely not disappoint! Furthermore, the members of the Behemoth Gate had already entered the ancient ruins that I’ve marked. We will intercept them when they come out." Andrela said with confidence.

"We’re still short handed. To go beyond the limit…" Garen furrowed his eyebrows and suddenly a name flashed across his mind. "Maybe… He will be interested."

"Who?"

"White Bird Holy Fist."

Andrela’s eyes lightened up. "Didn’t he seal his fist due to personality disorder? Are you sure he will leave the mountain?"

"Do you think it was just a simple spar when I visited him?" Garen pointed at his chest, indicating where he was previously injured. "What do you mean when you say he has a personality disorder?"

"Palosa has a total of three personalities, namely the good, evil and unconcerned. The situation determines the personality he’s in. He’s good when he’s in a non-malicious negotiation, evil when facing his enemies or people who try to ambush or trick him, and finally indifferent is his actual personality, which is when his strength will be at its peak. He developed the good and evil personality when he was training his fists."

It was the first time Garen heard such a saying.

"Looks like he was not at his peak when he sparred with me." He frowned.

It was obvious that Palosa was in his good personality when they met.

After discussing about the procedures, both of them started consolidating Andrela’s information. It was at this time that Garen started to come to the legitimacy of the truth. It was so unexpectedly obvious that there were traces of it, it was just that no one had noticed it until now.

After validating the proof, both of them brought the information and went to find the first person they thought of, White Bird Holy Fist Palosa.

***********

Skylark Mountain Range

Garen brought Andrela, which both of them were in white shirts, along to see Palosa, who was in the middle of barbecuing his fish.

The bonfire was easily noticeable, shining brightly in the middle of the forest during night time.

Palosa sat alone by the bonfire, his gray-white shirt was dyed red by the bonfire’s illumination.

He raised his head and saw Garen and his men coming up to him torch in hand.

The group stopped just short of the bonfire, two of the men clothed in white turned around and started off from where they had come after giving Palosa a courteous, quiet bow..

Only Garen and Andrela wereleft standing, still in a white cloak.

"You’ve come once again." Palosa said coldly and lowered his head as he continued barbecuing his fish. The meat of the fish that was once white had morphed into a golden brown, and with it came the tempting aroma of cooked meat.

Garen walked and sat by the bonfire by himself and gestured Andrela to do the same.

"I’m not here to fight you today." He glanced at the fried fish that was piled onto the bonfire and calmly said, "I think you might be interested in what we are about to tell you."

Palosa glanced at him skeptically and then focused his attention onto Andrela. "Something that will interest me?" His tone was cold and emotionless and not as kind as Garen first met him.

"Let’s hear about it."

With a smile on Andrela’s face, he quickly took out a pile of papers that he had prepared from the cloak and strew it towards him.

Palosa caught it and read it at his leisure. He held a calm demeanor initially, but eventually his expression had started to change.

After some time, he put down the material that was on his hands and closed his eyes, deep in thought..

He soon opened his eyes and stared coldly at Andrela.

"I have seen Garen’s strength, and I do admit that he’s qualified to team up with me. How about you? You don’t have the battle strength. How do you plan to be part of the team?"

Andrela smiled.

"It is true that my current strength is of no match to the both of you. However I have already considered this point since I am the one who suggested this." Again, he brought out something from his cloak. This time it was a small transparent cylindrical glass bottle filled with a viscous silver white liquid. "I have this. At the crucial moment, I can stall up some time even if it’s from the professionals from the Immortal Palace, since my abilities lies in my speed. Furthermore, I have a friend, who is in the same level as you, needs me to be the middleman to communicate between us and him."

"The White Tree’s Sap? I’m impressed that you can still get your hands on a nearly-extinct resource. Have you taken my problems into consideration?" Palosa replied emotionlessly as usual.

"Of course." Andrela nodded. "Where we are going is a deserted place. Even if there were demons, they’re not something we can’t deal with. You can kill anything that moves."

"I need time to validate the information presented. Give me at least a month." Palosa pondered for a while and continued. "What makes you think that I will join your party and not go searching for it on my own after knowing this?"

"Sylphalan of the Immortal Palace will definitely have company." Garen voiced out from the side.

The scene fell into a hush as the group stopped talking. What was left was the faint sizzle of the still burning bonfire.

"Alright. We will take our leave for now. You can send your answer to this address a month later." Garen threw a white name card to Palosa. They stood up, turned around and left where they came.

The duo’s white cloaks slowly disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

Next up was the King of Nightmares. According to Andrela’s intel, his friend had recently went on a vacation on a small private island near the Stonecliff Continent.

This issue was left for Andrela to settle on his own, as Garen had his own problems on his hands.

The connection between secret techniques and the legendary warlock’s genetic ability might be the key to to go beyond the limits. Although Garen was very interested, his current main focus was to improve his own secret techniques.

************

Splash…

A basket of cold water rained down onto Garen’s head.

He stood in the middle of the Fenglin manor’s colosseum clad in nothing but square white boxer and a faint, gold colored oil spread all over his fair skin.

What was already a strong and aggressive body was further defined under the reflection of the oil.

He looked at the skill pane. There was an addition of Three Star Convergence and the Golden Statue Techniques at the back.

Garen looked at the amount of potential points that he had been collecting having not been using them for a long time. The power of the Golden Sand Throne had been continuously transferred into his brain day and night.

His potential point had reached up to 25 points! However, it could be seen that the Golden Sand Throne had decayed for quite a bit as the rate of transfer had been decreasing.

Garen sorted his attribute and skill panes.

‘Strength 2.66, Agility 2.72, Vitality 2.65, Intelligence 2.53, Potential 2596%.’

Secret Technique-----

Mammoth Variation : Explosive (Maximum Grade), Epidermal Hardening Level 1 (Iron Body), Blood Qi Stabilization Level 1 (Boulder Martial Art).

Fiery Claw: Grade 2 (Total of 4 Grades), Burning Strengthen Level 1 (Total of 3, from the Dark Crimson Technique and Red Jade Palm’s training regime)

Golden Statue Technique: Rudimentary Level (Total of 5 Grades), Do you want to merge with the Mammoth Secret Technique.’

The three techniques, Bronze, Silver and Golden Statue, were to Garen excellent techniques. He obviously would not merge them.

As Garen stood in the middle of the colosseum, he ordered a servant to pour down a bucket of water, after which he subsequently left the premises.

He focused his vision back onto the skill pane after his surroundings had returned to calm.

"25 potential points are enough to push a secret technique to its strongest form. The Golden Statue Technique was much more stronger than the Mammoth Secret Technique since it was a third rated secret technique, albeit superimposed with a lot of enhancements. Furthermore, he still could not attain the best effect even though he had mastered it to the point that he was second to none. Although the key to attaining the level of a Grandmaster of Combat was due to the supporting battle skills, its level and power is still too low. To have it as the main skill is disadvantageous."

He looked at the Golden Statue Technique in the skill pane.

With all the time invested in soaking in potions and rubbing medicinal oil all over his body, he had finally entered the Golden Statue Technique’s rudimentary level.

"The Golden Statue Technique’s sects was once a rival of the Crimson Sand Sword. Although its technique was weaker than the Crimson Sand Sword, it shouldn’t be that far apart." He recalled the explanation of this secret technique from memory.

Golden Statue Technique: Extremely effective in attacks and defense. Increase strength, vitality and recovery. Users who have mastered this technique are impervious to attacks that may injure the inner body, as the outer body was seamlessly merged with the inner organs, which result in enhanced regeneration. It was very effective in negating the effects of poisons.

Weakness: Heavy and dense body.

The benefits of the Golden Statue Technique was obvious compared to the Mammoth Secret Technique as it had an additional recovery skill. Even the modified Mammoth Secret Technique couldn’t top this effect.

This made Garen determined to choose this secret technique as his main technique.

He took a deep breath and reorganized his thoughts, his body would definitely have drastic changes from this major shift. He had to be ready.

He focused his vision onto the recently learnt Golden Statue Tecnique.

One point of potential point disappeared.

The Golden Statue Technique had increased to grade 1.

Two points disappeared, Golden Statue Technique had increased to grade 2.

Another two points disappeared, Grade 3.

This time it was five points that disappeared, it had increased to Grade 4.

Finally another five point disappeared.

He ultimately spent 15 potential points and raised the Golden Statue Technique to grade 5, which was its peak.

Garen stood still in silence and prepared himself as he looked at the symbol slowly appearing at the end of the Golden Statue Technique.

The moment the symbol fully appeared, A loud sound came from within Garen’s cranium and waves of cool air rushed into every part of his body.

It felt like his body was suddenly filled with torrents of cold water. However the strange thing was that thought to be a stream of hot blood kept flowing out of his heart and mixed with the cold water. It was similar to when he first learned the Explosive Fist Art, which produced a strong reaction towards the change of the body.

Again, something strange was happening to Garen’s body. His left side of the body was a shade of red whereas the right side became white. The difference was obvious as two opposing fluids, which was hot and cold, reacted inside Garen’s body.

A viscous liquid incessantly secreted out of Garen’s body, covering the whole of iits surface. It was as if he painted himself over with a layer of glue.

Fifteen points of potential points had raised the Golden Statue Technique to its peak, grade 5.