Mystical Journey

Garen’s hood did not get shaken off his head when he got hit and was sent flying, but fortunately, he did not suffer any injuries.

Both parties were now entangled with each other, and had seemed to sense the toughness of their opponents, causing the situation to end up in stalemate.

Time passed as the minutes and seconds ticked by.

After an unknown duration of time, the sunlight lessened gradually, while the sky began to darken slowly.

The Underworld Carriage finally let out a long cry as it moved backwards slowly and merged directly into a small area of shadows behind it.

Mars!

Its bloodshot eyes glared at Garen, as if it was remembering this bastard that rendered itself helpless for the first time.

Quickly, its body and the carriage entered the shadows together and suddenly, it turned around and galloped even faster in the shadows, before leaping off.

With pin-drop silence, the Underworld Carriage merged into the wall directly, and disappeared completely.

The continuous cries of ‘mars’ could be heard softly from a distance, and it continued echoing throughout the library. However, the further it went, the softer the noises became, until they disappeared completely.

Garen stood in his initial spot quietly, as impatient feelings began bubbling up inside him.

He had tried all of the Secret Techniques inside the pressure box, but the speed that had been extracted from him was too great, and had almost reached 80%, resulting in him being able to keep up in regards to his reactions, but unable to keep up when it came to his body movements. However, this was not a big deal, because as long as he had the ability to predict, it was not an issue.

The most important thing right now was that the speed of the Underworld Carriage had become too fast, almost like a flash of yellow lightning, and in the blink of an eye, it had already struck Garen’s body again.

Moreover, the Underworld Carriage was also completely immune towards Totem attacks. With Garen unable to keep up with the physical attacks while his Totem attacks were completely unusable, there was no way for him to fight!

Garen fought until his head was filled with rage.

Looking at the empty library hall, Garen sighed in relief and turned around to walk outside to see if the silver-faced man was still there.

His footsteps stopped suddenly, and he stood frozen in place.

The entire hall had suddenly undergone a strange transformation.

The gravel on the floor began to float upwards, flying towards the ceiling, and embedding themselves into their initial places that were once cracked grooves.

The large silver sphere that had rolled off was now moving on its own, as it floated gently back to its original position, like rewinding footage in a video, as it orbited and rolled back in the exact same manner in which it rolled down.

A large pile of dust and sand flew everywhere and landed on the statue next to the wall, gathering there again.

Shrouds of dust began to float again, rising up continuously without a single sound. The world seemed as if it had inverted itself, as dust and gravel began to rise up from the ground like a weird kind of rain.

The wooden chairs and tables that were smashed to ruins earlier also began to move on their own, as they rolled back to their original positions, before a large pile of wood shavings flew back unto their surfaces, making them whole again, as clouds of dust covered them once more, becoming thicker and thicker.

The large pits on the ground were instantly filled up again, as the cracks disappeared and were covered by the initial black marble, before a thick layer of dust covered the surface.

The entire library seemed as if it was undergoing a silent time reversal, as all of the damaged areas quickly returned to their initial states.

Finally, everything returned to order.

The library was finally restored to the firs moment when Garen stepped inside. There were no traces of the Underworld Carriage’s movements.

A confused expression appeared on his face as his eyes scanned across the library hall. At this moment, his mind was at a complete loss.

"What’s going on here?"

Garen walked towards the area where he had first been hit, and stood below a large pit in the wall, looking upwards at the place where the large pit had been formed earlier.

It was perfect without any damage, and he could even see a little spider web in the corner of the wall, with a translucent spider shell on the surface.

It was not in a high position, so Garen reached his finger outwards and pressed it against the wall.

It was straight and smooth, and the surface was covered with a layer of white dust, while the black dust from earlier was now gone.

Unconvinced, he pressed down harder this time.

Ka-chak!

Multiple depressions appeared on the wall suddenly. Moments later, they were quickly restored to their initial states. Garen pulled his fingers back and looked at his surroundings, as a thoughtful look appeared on his face.

He turned around and walked out of the main door. Once he had exited the main door, he looked at the silver-faced man who was sitting on the stairs at the doorstep. This guy had apparently fallen asleep, and it seemed as if he had relaxed for a moment, and allowed everything to go downhill from there, to just do what he was supposed to do. He was even snoring.

The black clothes on the man’s body were dirty and full of dust, while some parts of it were even torn.

On the floor beside him, a black badge was discarded there. A peculiar image had been engraved on the badge. It was a silver sun that was releasing countless light rays, and in the middle of the sun was an eye with a black pupil.

Garen kept the badge.

He walked over to kick the silver-faced man.

"Wake up. Hey!"

The silver-faced man toppled over, and woke up instantly. He stood up abruptly.

"It’s done?!" He turned around and looked at Garen frantically.

"What do you mean ‘it’s done’?" Garen was speechless. "We’ll need your strength now. Take me to the Obscuro bases, all of the bases that you know."

He wanted to make a move now. His agility was slightly short of perfection, and his Secret Techniques needed to be increased.

"Bases… I know where the other two fugitives must be headed towards!" answered the silver-faced man immediately. His reaction was completely abrupt, without any hesitation.

Garen glanced at him unconsciously again.

"Remove your mask then."

The silver-faced man smiled bitterly, and removed the mask from his face.

He exposed his unpleasant, middle-aged face. It was a regular, unassuming face with a black beard that contained a few strands of white hair. His eyes were sunken, and he looked severely sleep-deprived.

"What’s your name?" Garen asked immediately.

"Windling. My name is Windling," answered the middle-aged man honestly.

"Windling?!" Garen nearly vomited when he heard that. Looking at that unpleasant face, Garen could not help but think where he should vomit. His name and face did not suit one another at all.

"Alright, Windling," said Garen as he begrudgingly accepted the contrast. "The precious heirlooms that you stole from me during the siege yesterday, bright them all out now."

Windling took an item out honestly, it was an exquisite black pocket watch, and passed it to Garen.

Garen took it and turned it over in his hand.

The pocket watch was extremely small, and only half the size of a regular pocket watch. There were neither numbers nor words on its face, not even a scale. Instead, there was only a needle that was constantly moving around in a circle.

"What is this?"

"It’s the Clouded Crow front," Windling explained. "We call it the Cloud Crow front. It can catalyze more than ten thousand Spiritualized Black Crow Totems to form a cylindrical front to isolate and detain one’s enemies. The cost of its imprisonment ability is extremely great, and after you smashed it to pieces yesterday, a part of this precious heirloom’s structure was also destroyed. All that is left right now is its catalyzed black crow abilities."

"What level does this precious heirloom belong to?"

"It’s a replica of a level two precious heirloom," Windling explained. "You know it as the ultimate precious heirloom replica. Inside Obscuro, we separate our precious heirlooms into categories such as regular, ultimate, and original. We categorize them into levels one to three, to simplify the process of organizing them based on their power, such as the original precious heirloom being equivalent to a level three precious heirloom. The Cloud Crow front is used an Obscuro imitation of a defense front, and is considered as a level two precious heirloom. There are many level two precious heirlooms, and almost every powerful leader possesses one. This was also the reward that we received after our first contribution in Obscuro."

Garen’s eyes flashed.

"So you’re saying, that the Obscuro Society also has a level three original precious heirloom?"

"Yes, this is a precious heirloom that can be reused, and it’s most powerful strength is equivalent to a form four Totem," said Windling as he stared at the pocket watch somewhat painfully. "Now, it belongs to you."

Garen smiled and flipped the pocket watch over to look at the line of silver words that had been engraved in its black-coloured back.

‘If giving up means being wide awake, then I will always choose to persist.’ It was written in Ender words.

"That line of words was engraved by the creator. He was my best friend, and also a top-level forger and researcher in Obscuro, but he has been dead for many years already." Windling had quietened down.

"How do I use this?" Garen flipped the pocket watch over in his hand.

"Imagine the Totem power flowing inside it, and every time you use it you will need a purple crystal. Just a reminder, the Totem power needed for this is extremely great, but of course, you can use your Totem Light to make up for it. The natures of both these things do not differ that much," reminded Windling quickly.

"Oh?"

Garen held the pocket watch in his hand, and tried to make his Totem power and Totem Light flow inside.

"The power of this precious heirloom is determined by how much Totem power and Totem Light you pour inside. The upper limit is form four. The range can be extremely broad," explained Windling as he moved backwards further away. This made it easier for Garen to experiment with the precious heirloom.

"The Cloud Crows that you forged will only have the mindset to attack, and will not be able to do anything else. Thus, you need to be careful when using this."

His voice trailed off.

Garen’s surroundings began to be filled with black mist instantly.

Large clouds of black mist began to diffuse from his surroundings, and the source of the mist apparently came from the pocket watch in his hand.

The mist circled above Garen’s head and finally froze there, before quickly transforming into little black crows. Some of them perched on Garen’s shoulders while other flew above his head. A few others searched around their surroundings with their little eyes for targets that they could attack.

The clouds of black mist continued to freeze, and the number of Cloud Crows increased rapidly and gradually, the entire main doorway of the library was completely covered in black mist.

Windling’s mouth gaped open for a while, but no words came out.

This momentum was similar to the momentum that they had created yesterday. The large cloud of black mist began to flow throughout the air in the library, resembling a long black river that came together and then separated.

Cawing noises filled their ears. It seemed as if the abandoned city had suddenly become lively again.

"How much Totem light does he really have…" murmured Windling, with an unreadable expression on his face.

Moments later, after the scene remained for half a minute, the Cloud Crows turned into black mist again, and flowed back into the pocket watch in Garen’s hand.

The black mist disappeared, and out came Garen’s calm face.

"This thing is not bad, its power is excellent, and its cost is not too high." Garen was extremely pleased with this precious heirloom.

The Eight Headed Dragon was his strongest Totem, as the remaining Totems could not be compared to it at all, because they were far too weak, and he planned to give up his control of them after a certain period of time, so that he could exchange them for other resources, to avoid wasting them.

The Eight Headed Dragon was too strong, if he took it out without thinking, it would not be long before others realized that his Totem was unlike everyone else’s. But once he obtained the Cloud Crow front, it made up for the shortcomings that he faced on a daily basis in this aspect.

Once he Spiritualized it to its final form four powers to adhere it completely to his daily needs, the stronger Eight Headed Dragon would not need to always show its face anymore. The current Eight Headed Dragon would always be in an imaginary form when it was released, as if its entire body had been Elementalized already. During a short span of time, he could pretend that it was merely in a spiritualized possessed form. However, after a long time, even a Totem user would know that this was abnormal.