Mystical Journey

"There you go again!" Hathaway glared at her mildly.

"I don’t have work today either, so I got the day off. That’s why I came to see you." Sylvia was all smiles.

"You sure are free." Hathaway shook her head.

"Where’s the little girl?" Sylvia looked left and right, but still didn’t see Dani.

"I don’t know either, recently she’s still been the same as ever, going out early and coming back late, playing like crazy." Hathaway’s gaze was slightly helpless.

"She’s still young, c’mon."

"But you sure are lucky now, with such an impressive cousin." Sylvia said enviously.

"What’s so lucky about that? My life still goes on the same every day." Hathaway smiled sweetly. Now she had achieved everything she wanted to, the family business was on Garen’s shoulders, and she didn’t have to worry about that at all. Her only aim now was to raise Dani properly.

The Trejons’ branch families had just come to visit her a few days ago, Garen was the Trejons family chief now, and these branches really wanted to return to the main family.

Speaking of which, these few branch families had been doing pretty well for themselves, and when Garen’s reputation hit rock-bottom before he actually achieved anything, they didn’t kick him while he was down, and instead they all reached out a helping hand, it was just that Garen didn’t respond to them back then.

All their invitations had been ignored.

Hathaway was mulling over when she should mention it to Garen, there were two people from the Silver Palace standing right outside her door, she could easily pass any messages to Garen through them.

Hearing Sylvia’s chattering voice next to her, she suddenly felt as though life was extremely peaceful. A calm taste of happiness began to spread in her heart.

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

Three days later…

In the sealed room--

Garen abruptly opened his eyes, the red light in eyes shooting out far, leaving two streaks of red behind them.

The red strings stayed in the air for a few seconds, before slowly fading away.

On his brow, the scarlet dot on the furthest right was vaguely becoming slightly darker.

Raising his arms slightly, the red shadows of two salamander dragon heads appeared on each of his palms.

Roar…

The deep dragon’s roar reverberated slowly in the sealed room.

"The second dragon head."

Garen murmured, his gaze once more falling onto his attribute pane.

‘Black Water True Technique (Originally Myriad Water Jasper Technique): Sixth Level (six levels in total). Forcibly controls all liquids.

Poison Enhancement level two, Recovery Enhancement level two.’

"I knew there would be a change, at first five levels was the limit, but after merging in the second dragon head, it actually automatically reached the Derivation’s sixth level. The Poison Enhancement and Recovery Enhancement were both originally my abilities, it doesn’t really make a difference if they get stronger."

Garen frowned slightly, the Black Water True Technique was the technique he himself trained in, it was the true full version, and not the one he was teaching others. At first he had created and merged this secret technique, only he had used the simplified secret technique as the base, but he was surprised to find that it successfully merged with his own martial arts essence, forming this peak-level secret technique.

But now, after merging the second dragon head, the final result wasn’t what he had expected.

The Nine-Headed Demon Dragon had lost two dragon heads, both merged into him, but all he got in return were some not very efficient enhancement effects.

After absorbing the Nine Headed Dragon, his secret technique shouldn’t have been that weak.

He fell into deep thought.

He absorbed his totem in order to advance his secret technique, and then he meant to merge his totem and secret technique so that he could reach the peak of evolution.

Could it be that something was wrong with my secret technique?

But according to theory, there should never have been a problem.

"Since I’m already on this road, I don’t have to worry anymore, I might as well walk to the end and then see how it works." Garen settled his heart.

After that, it was time to go out and check how the forgers were doing with their research.

Right now, he was forging Obscuro’s crystal ball Derivator, he had quite a few on hand, all gained from the Silver Palace’s elite warriors’ recent raiding of Obscuro everywhere. But they were all Field-Level.

The forgers were trying to decipher the secret locks inside, but unfortunately, without a truly substantial researcher on board, their progress was minuscule.

If he could forge this thing, Garen’s potential point problem would be happily settled. Using the Derivator to control the Silver Totems, he could hunt monsters and totem users, obtaining large amounts of potential points. To Garen, that was an irresistible temptation.

Upon leaving the sealed room, the maid waiting on call outside hurriedly offered up some drinking water.

Garen drank some clean water, went to freshen up, hurriedly finished his meal, and then went to check on the progress of the forgers, but instead he saw an old geezer with white hair surrounded by a large crowd among the forgers’ experiment tables on the second floor, he seemed to be person-in-charge here, it was no longer the fatty from before.

The old man’s expression was solemn, and when he saw Garen arrive, he was stunned for a moment before he came up to greet Garen of his own accord.

"Palace Master Garen."

The others also wanted to bow and greet him, but Garen waved his hand and stopped them.

"Your work is more important, don’t mind me. I just want to ask a few questions, then I’ll leave." He said with a smile.

After the second floor gradually calmed down, the geezer finally led Garen to a sealed crystal greenhouse.

"Master Calingan, after sending people to invite you so many times, I finally managed to get you over here." Garen smiled.

"You exaggerate, Palace Master, I also meant to join the Black Swamp Palace, it was just that something came up on the way, so I was blacked, but the problem has been solved now." The old man, Calingan, waved his hand. "I know why you are here too." (1)

He walked into the middle of the greenhouse, and the floor there began to make a wailing sound, as three white cylindrical pillars rose from the ground in a spiral.

In the middle of the cylindrical pillar, there was a hollow crystal container, and three pitch-black crystal ball floated inside.

"This is the success of our forgery, thank goodness there was some residual information and progress left behind from the royal family, it’s just even so, the Crystal Derivator that we forged still lacked the core techniques. Even I can’t do anything about that. So our progress now is only at about eighty percent."

Calingan replied, frowning.

Garen, however, looked slightly happy. "Very good, not bad at all! As expected of a Master, before you came, Master Calingan, our forgery progress was not even at the halfway point, but now we’ve reached eighty percent in no time!"

"You flatter, Palace Master…" Calingan was slightly guilty, he had planned to really buck up and gloriously display his own worth and importance, but he hadn’t expected to fail at the very first step.

"This is not your fault." Garen shook his head. "At the center of the Crystal Derivator, there is a core made with a special mineral, the principles involved here are more complicated, and really hard to decipher in such a short time, there are principles involving resonance, and high-level transmission equations may not work here, you guys need to change your mindset. Perhaps it might help if you research the structure of the hideouts."

"Hideouts?"

"That’s right." Garen began to explain some of the information he knew to Calingan in detail. These were the Obscuro techniques and systems he had learned from Windling and Reylan.

He also had quite some expertise in this field, with the encouragement of his potential points, he could match what others took a decade or two to learn in one year, his natural capital was extremely considerable. He was a Master at all sorts of subjects.

The two of them discussed a bit in the greenhouse, and it was Calingan’s first time meeting such a knowledgeable research sponsor. This made him even more excited, and he was starting to feel as though coming here was, without a doubt, the wisest decision of his life.

A researcher’s biggest hope was to meet a boss who provided the funds but also knew the field, and not just an outsider who only wanted to see results.

Only then would the other party understand your research to the largest extent.

After the two of them exchanged some ideas, Garen noticed that it was getting slightly late, so he ate an employer’s meal together with the researchers while encouraging them to continue their research without worry, ensuring they had no psychological pressure. Only then did he slowly leave.

When he left the Technique Hall, the sky outside was already turning vaguely red. A warm breeze blew past, feeling all warm and cozy, and there was the crisp chirping of the sparrows in the surrounding trees. Some of the researchers’ families and children were taking strolls and resting nearby, some of them even leading pets like puppies and kittens.

On the way out of the garden forest, there were some elderly gathering together and playing chess, while others played with their little birds in cages. There were even two old geezers sparring energetically.

This was the biggest source of income for normal people Masters in the regular world, teaching the elderly to train their bodies and prolong their lives. Here, the power of martial arts seemed unbelievably weak.

Garen sighed inwardly, not saying anything, and many people around here didn’t recognize him at all either, thinking he was just another researcher’s family member.

When he left the garden forest, he saw Maxilan waiting outside. Once he saw Garen approach, Maxilan went up to him first.

"What’s the matter?"

"The First Princess’ side sent a message over, they’re inviting you to a banquet." Maxilan paused, and continued, "Her First Highness also sent a letter."

He handed Garen a red envelope that he had already prepared beforehand.

Garen accepted it, and saw the very high-class Totem Light seal on it, unless you knew the password order and method, there was no way you could open it safely, to prevent others from peeking at the contents.

Garen tore apart the envelope sealed by Totem Light directly.

On a piece of white paper inside, there was just one line of small elegant writing.

‘The thing you’re looking for, is here with me.’(1)

Garen snorted coldly. With a pinch of one hand, the letter paper instantly became powder, that flew and scattered with the wind.

"Looks like I really do need to make a trip there."

The First Princess had obviously already guessed his intention, the forgery of Caeserton should probably be in her hands.

Garen wouldn’t dare hope for the real Caeserton, after all it had already merged with the previous emperor’s will, and was activated now too, so the situation now would be that anybody without a royal bloodline couldn’t even think about controlling it.

And the next-level forgery would at least be an Ultimate Heirloom, if he could obtain this heirloom, then his abilities would rise by a huge leap. The Black Crow Formation pocket-watch from back then could already display Form Four power, and even that was a lower level Ultimate Heirloom forgery.

Now, a true Ultimate Heirloom would most probably achieve Form Five power.

Translator’s note:

Both instances use the respectful word for ‘you’.