Mystical Journey

Screech!!!

A huge white dragon flapped its wings slowly, creating large, whistling gusts as it glided through the grey skies.

Garen, who was in his gray robes, gazed at the Petrifying White dragon gliding by as he stood by the window. His focus didn’t change at all as he seemed lost in his thoughts.

He was standing in a new study room.

The room was entirely white, including the walls and floors. The wall cloth and carpets smelt like newly washed, moist laundry.

After standing for a while, he turned and looked at Lala who was rearranging things.

"Have you moved everything that was in the previous study room?"

"Yes sir." Lala returned the cloth to the basin. "Do you have any other orders? The time now is 3 o’clock in the afternoon. If there is nothing else, I will fix the hole in the study room."

"You can just nail up a few layers of woods." Garen ordered.

"Okay." Lala hesitated. "Air will leak it though."

"Don’t worry about it."

"Then, I will go now."

"Alright."

Garen turned around and sat at the desk with his gaze out of focus, as though he was looking into the distance.

Lala gave him a strange look before walking out of the new study room, gently closing the door.

Her footsteps slowly faded.

Garen sat by the table without moving.

After some time, a clear clicking sound was heard from his arms.

Garen refocussed his vision as he blinked and rubbed at his temple points.

"Hmm… This Tactic, Sight Sharing still requires more time before I can get used to it… The situation and the sound it makes doesn’t tally up, much like those soundless movies in the theatre."

He started to feel suspicious after he’d rested for a while. He took out the exquisite golden pocket watch from his pocket and realized that the clockwork had stopped.

Garen wound up the pocket clock gently so that it could run again.

"It’s been so many days. How long has it been since I met Goth? Ten days? Twenty days? I can’t help but feel that something’s weird about Elielan." He put down the pocket watch as he frowned.

Suddenly, Garen’s face was filled with surprise. He stood up and looked at the white abandoned building through the window.

Among the abandoned city walls and buildings, a black beetle as tall as half a man was swiftly scurrying towards the villa.

A black pants leg could be seen in its mouth, and it was dragging a weak-looking dark human body.

This body which was in long black clothes had all of its hair burnt out. The hand and legs that could be seen were covered in blackish red ulcers. The body left an obvious, dirty trail as it was dragged along by the beetle.

The beetle scuttled on the flat terrain towards the villa hastily as it dodged a few large craters.

Garen opened the window, and lightly leapt out of it as he exerted some force with his legs. He landed in the villa’s garden daintily. As he regained his balance, he personally greeted this black beetle which had dragged a person along with it.

As he took a step forward, a foul odor wafted in his direction.

Garen frowned as he carefully inspected the body.

The body was completely burnt black and literally all visible skin was coated in blackish red blisters. These blisters of all sizes appeared in clusters, morbidly similar to grapes. Some of them had already burst due to the friction and a yellowish black viscous substance could be seen flowing out of them.

Furthermore, its hair was completely burnt off and half of the skin on its head appeared to have been ripped off with great force, as the underlying flesh could be seen.

Garen narrowed his eyes as he observed this body, and he was suddenly cautious.

"Interesting. Let’s assume you found me on your own accord instead of me finding you. I will not believe in such a coincidence. Out of this enormous range, you chose to faint in my territory."

He muttered to himself. He then walked closer, squatted down and pulled open the person’s shirt.

He pulled off the outer black shirt and without any underwear, a pair of half rotten breasts, covered in purple red blisters, was revealed.

"A woman?" He covered her body with her clothes and stood up as he tried to resist the horrendous smell. "Since you found me on your own, I really want to see what you’re going to do."

Garen turned around and walked into the villa. A Deep Swarm Croc gently flicked its tail and rolled the girl on its back, carrying her while following Garen.

The villa’s entrance was already opened by Lala, who stood beside it. Her expression was completely calm; she had seen too many strange scenarios and it was obvious that she was used to it already.

She followed the Deep Swarm Croc which was following Garen and she couldn’t help but feel shaken at the horrible state of the body. She was unable to resist covering her nose as she got closer to the eye-watering stench.

Nauseous couldn’t begin to describe the foulness of the odour.

"Go bring some clean towels and water and help clean her up." Garen ordered quietly.

"Okay. I will go get some warm water!" Lala rushed towards the kitchen.

With his left hand on the person’s shoulder, Garen turned around and easily picked up the giant croc with his other hand to provide support for the girl.

"Who are you?! Are you not Jess!?" Her eyes fluttered open in shock as she stared at Garen.

Even though she’d finally spoken, her voice was that of a broken wind-box as most of the words that came out of her mouth were just noise. Unexpectedly, her accent was a pure Daniela accent.

She suddenly got up and shrunk away from Garen.

"Jess? You sure do know a lot." Garen squinted at this girl who’d been balded by a fire. "What fearsome vitality. With such an injury, if you were a normal human you’d be a fried corpse . By the way, your Daniela accent is very accurate."

"Daniela accent?" The girl was puzzled. "What is that?’

"Tell me, why are you looking for Jess?" Garen asked softly in the Daniela language. He had picked up these commonly used languages during his time in the inner city. He didn’t have to worry about wasting potential points as he had a lot right now. The current him looked very intelligent.

"Jess?" The girl was suddenly baffled. "That’s right… Why am I looking for Jess? Who is Jess?" Her eyes were clearly filled with confusion.

She then suddenly covered her head with her hands and squatted down as her face twisted in agony.

"My head… It’s hurts…!!" She tumbled to the floor and squirmed about like a disgusting worm, leaving a pool of sticky viscous substance on the tiles.

The stench started to spread and Garen, who had a supersensitive nose started to feel nauseous.

As he scanned the woman’s blood and qi’s circulation, he could clearly see it.

Her blood and qi were mostly stagnant in her brain and the remaining parts of her body were incredibly weak, so weak that she was just barely surviving.

It looked like a very messy tangled red thread and the only place to unknot everything was her head.

"What is your name?" Garen asked softly as he used a secret martial art to send the message directly into her ears.

"My… My na.. Name?" The girl’s head was in complete chaos. "I can’t remember! My head hurts so much…"

She grabbed her head tightly as she curled up on the ground like a caterpillar about to burn to death.

At this moment, Lala came in with a silver basin and a black towel, but was stopped by Garen.

Garen was baffled. "Let me handle this. You can go and do the other tasks."

"Yes." Lala didn’t enquire further and turned around with her head down as she proceeded to do her remaining duties.

Garen gently picked the woman up and carried the towel and basin with one hand as he went up to the vice bedroom on the second floor.

Along the way, he tried to ask this person some basic questions and found out that she had forgotten everything. Furthermore, based on her qi, she didn’t seem to be lying.

This woman seemed to have suffered severe head damage. Through her qi, Garen found out that her brain was damaged; a quarter of her brain had already turned into a mush. Amazingly, she hadn’t died and had survived.

"This is a miracle!" Garen exclaimed as he lay the woman’s head down and gazed down at her unconscious body. Her face could’ve been from a horror movie. It was ugly, swollen, smelly and rotten. It was literally purple rotting meat. If not for her breasts that left persuasive evidence, nobody would’ve been able to make out her gender. As a matter of fact, no one might’ve even see her as a human.

With just a light touch, Garen’s palm was filled with the stick and smelly substance. "With this look, those dead babies by the roadside would have classified themselves together with you. Severe infection throughout the body and purulence. You’re as good as dead had I not discovered you."

He locked the door and soaked the towel in the warm water. He then wrung out the towel and gently wiped off the sticky substances on her face.

With fingers that were as sharp as blades, he cut off the woman’s long shirt and pants to reveal the swollen body underneath it.

Garen then cleaned the girl’s body with the utmost care as he removed the dirt and blood clots. He managed to clean up her body after changing a few basins of water through Lala.

He then closed the door firmly to ensure that Lala would not enter the room no matter what.

Alone, his palms started to glow red, resembling a sculpture made out of gem.

Garen took a deep breath as he stood in front of the woman.

"Buzz!!!"

A loud buzz emitted from Garen’s mouth as he moved his fingers swiftly across the woman’s chest, head and legs.

The sound waves constantly vibrated her body. Garen felt like he was treating a burnt corpse as he placed his fingers onto pressure points that felt like rotten wood.

It was a secret technique used to temporarily activate the life potential, which would enhance physical recovery. This skill was similar to the Polaris Fierce Arts. Although this activation method would affect the body’s lifespan, this woman would have died if she couldn’t endure this so there wasn’t much of a difference.