Mystical Journey

After all, the Behemoth Gate provoked First Sister Senior, killed Second Senior Brother, and killed Great Elder. Back then when the White Cloud Gate nearly fell apart, they had also played quite a role in that.

If he really did end up adding another layer of that nature to their relationship, he wouldn’t be able to get over the roadblock in his own heart.

Sitting in the plane, Garen rearranged all the relationships in his head from ground up. At the same time, he twiddled with with a dainty gold-colored seal in his hand. This was the Antique of Tragedy that was causing Fenistine all that bad luck. With his current level of power and influence, all he needed were a few words to get it back.

The seal itself was just a very simple Antique of Tragedy. He absorbed all its potential points in one go, and it gave him 4 points of potential in stock. However, since the Golden Sword Throne was becoming extremely slow, this was still a considerable reward.

Now he had 15 potential points in store. Too bad his body had reached its limit, so he couldn’t use those points.

Even this thing had been relegated to nothing more than a toy in his hands.

With this trip, he had more or less dealt with the Behemoth Gate. No matter how forceful Black Orchid was, she could no longer come out to muddle things up when her condition was so bad. Although there was a storm blowing through the country right now, as long as he had the help of the Nightmare’s group of Sirens, he could find an escape route overseas even if something went terribly wrong.

Now there were the Celestial Circle Gate, the White Cloud Gate, and the Sirens. The three gates had practically become a coalition in both attack and defense, their combined power expanding to almost ridiculous levels. They had more or less become a large-scale martial group that transcended countries.

Even if he wasn’t getting sufficient input, it was still more than enough for him to protect himself.

"Everything is prepared and ready. This might be the final fight." Garen tilted his face towards the airplane window, a hint of anticipation and excitement in his heart.

Perhaps he himself didn’t know why he wasn’t the slightest bit worried about the upcoming conflict, but that feeling of relief that he would soon understand it all was already filling his entire body up to the brim.

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

Brrr…

Outside the glass window of the wide airplane lounge, a blue military plane with stripes gradually lowered onto the ground and landed steadily on the runway, rapidly decelerating.

In front of the huge floor-to-ceiling glass window, two extremely eye-catching men were watching the landing plane through the glass.

Of these two men, one was wearing a black suit with a pitch black tie, holding a sword in his hand wrapped in black cloth. His long hair fell over his shoulders, and he was even wearing a black eyepatch over one eye. It was Andrela, who had rushed over here long ago.

The other person had a seductive looks and an enchanting figure, wearing long white androgynous sleeves and pants, with long hair tied into a ponytail. If it weren’t for that flat chest, no one would think he was a man.

Nightmare leaned their whole body onto Andrela’s shoulder, their beautiful eyes watching the decelerating plane lazily.

"Garen’s so slow, and he arrived so late."

"He had more things to handle than we did, it’s perfectly normal," Andrela replied calmly. "With this trip, I’m the weakest one here. This might be my biggest challenge. If I can get past it, I will surely be able to improve further, and attain the same level as you guys."

"And then?" Nightmare played with their companion’s hair, their interest piqued. "Then you can take the captain’s seat in bed? True, I was always the one on top, it’d be good to change it up once in a while."

Andrela was speechless.

"Don’t you have anything to do? Is it okay for you to be hanging around my place all the time?"

"I got it all arranged nicely." Nightmare smiled. "Oh my, Palosa’s here too."

Before they even finished their sentence, a regular little old man walked soundlessly out of the crowd nearby. He looked just like the old men selling lunch boxes on the street, with his white-grey robes and dusty face. He held a cane in his hand, and slowly limped over to them.

Palosa walked slowly until he was within ten paces of the two, and stopped. He narrowed his eyes and stared at Nightmare, surprise flashing through his eyes.

"I’m not late, am I?"

"No, the last one will arrive in a moment." Nightmare straightened up, holding a golden pocket-watch in their hand to check the time. "It’s 3.14 pm. The weather now is pretty suitable for going out to sea too, so we can leave today."

"That’s good."

Palosa walked up to the rows of seats and sat down, then proceeded to close his eyes and rest while steadfastly ignoring everyone.

For a moment, all three of them fell silent.

Most of the people in the airport weren’t regular people. The ones walking to and fro were either military officials, millionaires, or other even more powerful people. There were only a few people here and there, but once in a while there would be someone hurrying past, surrounded by a group of bodyguards.

The three of them were actually pretty inconspicuous compared to the rest. They didn’t have policemen, guards, or even a female companion. They were no different from other regular citizens.

"Since we’re going there this time, there should be quite a few people arriving, right?" Andrela asked Nightmare softly.

"Not quite a few, there are a ton. Some people want that secret treasure no matter what, while we’re partly in it out of curiosity, and partly in it for the revenge. There are others too, who probably want reduce the Confederation’s power. There are surely many elites heading there." Derision flashed across Nightmare’s face. "I bet many countries will send their elites over. That secret treasure, huh… If it really is that useful, then any person, group, or country would find unimaginable uses and research values in it. No power would be willing to let it go."

"True."

As the two were talking, a man with short purple hair and red eyes walked out of a distant entrance. He was wearing a black suit and a large wool coat, looking just like any regular rich leader. He even had two fully-armed female soldiers in black uniforms next to him.

"Here he is, with two female soldiers to boot. What a textbook example of a military general, tsk-tsk," Nightmare exclaimed.

"We’re all here, so let’s go. The ship’s ready, too," Andrela said softly. "This time we have to get our revenge and our treasure. We can finally end it all."

Palosa seemed to sense something too, opening his eyes to look at Garen calmly. He stood up, and walked to Nightmare’s and Palosa’s sides.

The three of them watched Garen striding towards them.

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

A few thousand nautical miles off Smoke Island, on a deserted patch of sea.

The deep blue seawater roiled under the blue sky and white clouds as a large white ship sailed slowly towards Smoke Island.

The ship was fully armored, with a sharp spike on the helm. There were swathes of navy soldiers in white uniforms running across the deck sporadically, hurrying to adjust the ship’s direction.

On the helm, a stout man with white skin was stepping on the banister with one foot, staring into the distance.

The large man wore the white navy uniform with two white-gold medals on his shoulders. His chest and nipples were bared, revealing a large tuft of black chest hair.

How long more to that What’s Island?" he asked, his words garbled by the toothpick in his mouth.

"We can reach by nighttime. Probably…" a solemn-looking blonde female adjutant said hesitantly beside him.

"How many people are coming this time? Anything worth notice?" the large man asked, spitting out his toothpick.

"This time we’ve confirmed the validity of the secret treasure, and all the countries think it’s very valuable. No fewer than thirty powers are joining in this hunt. The ones we should watch out for are Fivestar Continent’s King of the North Pole, Gyard, and Mare, the Spearmaster. There’s White Peacock from Stonecliff Continent, and King of the Gun, Nikon. Then there’s the Card Clown, and the Three Great Generals from our Weisman. That, and the legendary Immortal Palace." The female adjutant finished explaining, and added, "Seven powers in total, but we can’t be sure if any of them will join forces. After all, we don’t have any skilled telekinesis users, so we can’t find any traces."

"Seven powers? That many?" The large man rubbed the stubbles on his chin. "They all look like formidable fellows…"

"They are indeed. These people and powers coming here are almost all the strongest characters from their respective countries or continents. They don’t usually come into contact with each other, so they’re the apex fighters of their respective areas, dominating without opposition. But this time they’re gathered in one place, or rather, all the elites from around the whole world have basically gathered here," the female adjutant said calmly. "Those who dare to alight on this island all have absolute confidence in themselves. This is no longer a fight between a single country or continent."

"Isn’t that even better?" The large man’s smile was excited. "With all these delicious fellas gathered in one place, would our three generals still have to fight each other? Opponents as far as the eye can see!"

"General Milo, please beware. These aren’t people you can take lightly, they’re all people who can conquer a country or even a continent. They’re the cream of the crop, chosen from countless others. If it weren’t for the appearance of the Black Smoke Pot, there’s no way so many of them would show up. After all, contacting the dead is a small thing, but being able to transcend life and death, to achieve immortality, that’s the real deal!" The adjutant reminded him exasperatedly.

"Relax, do I seem so reckless?" Milo chuckled.

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

At the same time, far away at the shore of Fivestar Continent, Port Bolivia.

A huge black cruise ship was advancing slowly, spitting out a long column of white smoke that reached for the sky. The cruise was a few hundred meters long, and a few hundred meters wide. At the entrance to the ship, many passengers were neatly lined up to board the ship.

"Don’t worry, I’ll be back in no time. This is an international meeting held by the company, it’s just a little longer than usual, otherwise it’s the same business as usual."

A man in a white overcoat hugged his wife, and then kissed his daughter’s little face, his own smile warm and gentle.

"Papa, you gotta bring Yawen back a toy, okay." The little girl was just five, with red lips, white teeth and fair skin that made her look unbelievably innocent and adorable.

"I’ll remember for sure." The man pinched his daughter’s face fondly. "Alright, I’m off."

"Be careful on the road, give way should you get in trouble, don’t pick any more fights than you have to. Your safety comes first," the wife advised him worriedly. Her complexion was unnaturally pale, her beautiful face like white-jade porcelain, without even a hint of color.

She stepped up to kiss her husband’s lips lightly, and then put a large white fox fur coat onto his shoulders.

"I know, I know," the man repeated. "Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon."

He stepped onto the boarding plank, squeezing into the crowd flowing into the ship. He turned around occasionally to look at his wife on the shore, holding their daughter’s hand and waving non-stop.

"Go home!" he yelled loudly.

The wife nodded hard, but had no intention of turning around.

Looking at the wife’s figure, for some reason, the man’s eyes suddenly grew moist.

"Allie… I won’t let you die before I do…" he murmured under his breath.

In that moment, unwavering determination flashed past his eyes. He turned around and disappeared into the crowd, striding towards the ship.

"I will survive and return to you… For I am the God of Spear, Mare!"