Mystical Journey

Garen snapped the woman’s neck cleanly, and simply threw it aside.

Without that ability to dematerialize, these women figures were not too different from the strength shadows he encountered in the beginning, simple and easy.

Garen searched the other two women’s bodies, and found nothing, so all he could do was twist their necks as well and leave.

In the darkness, the three women’s corpses slowly melted and faded, utterly becoming one with the darkness.

When faced with these swordswomen, if one could not catch that split-second opportunity, no matter how strong a fighter they were, they would be destroyed by time alone. After all, the swordswomen’s speed and strength were not weak by any means, and three had appeared at once.

The battle chance could only be caught by fighters who were extremely nimble in their senses and their speed, and they had to be extraordinarily experienced. Any other type of person would have no choice but to waste away here.

The darkness retreated rapidly, and it became the same pale blue mist once more.

Garen stepped forward and continued on his way.

In the time after that, wave after wave of these beautiful swordswomen kept appearing, and unlike how easily he could dispatch them in the beginning, the swordswomen began growing faster and faster, until they caused him some trouble.

At first these swordswomen appeared in teams of three, then two, and by the end it was just one person at a time.

As their numbers increased, their power increased steadily as well.

By the time he reached the last single-woman team, the swordswoman’s power had already achieved an extremely high level.

The swordswoman’s black sword was like a bolt of lightning in the darkness, it kept turning and slicing, leaving him without a moment to breathe. The onslaught was continuous, the extreme speeds bringing explosive power as well.

After many collisions, the Tower Shield was utterly destroyed. Garen had no choice but to fight with his own hands.

The last swordswoman’s speed was already faster than his, reaching speeds equivalent to about 20 potential points, this seemed to be the limit, the swordswoman’s attacks came at a jumping curve, and the instant the black sword twinkled, the blade was already on Garen’s body.

Garen called this technique the Leap Slash, it was not any particularly special technique, just a terrifying ability born from the swordswoman’s explosive power.

With the price of a deep cut through his shoulder, Garen took the chance to smash the swordswoman to death and win. But he had no choice except to stop as well, waiting for his body to heal naturally.

Although he didn’t have his unnatural powers here, making his healing speeds much slower, but the Nine-Headed Dragon’s Heart still had a powerful recovery speed that normal creatures could not hope to match.

After resting in the same spot for three whole days, Garen’s injuries no longer affected him, so he got up and continued on.

In these three days, he had also understood the swordswoman’s final Leap Slash. The swordswoman’s body was far from as powerful as his, and yet she could demonstrate such explosive speed. That was how valuable that technique was.

After three days of reflection and study, and after so many hands-on fights with the swordswomen, Garen finally understood the key to it.

As an expert fighter who had witnessed many secret techniques, Garen had a far stronger understanding of these secret technique battle skills without any unnatural powers than the Cthulhu King or the Divine God Palace Master. Such techniques naturally held no secrets to his eyes.

His powerful Intelligence came into play in a big way here as well, as he successfully analyzed the principles behind the Leap Slash.

This technique could unleash close to 20 attribute points of speed in an instant, but it required a light and sharp weapon, by controlling the weapon and the rhythm of one’s body, using a special blood qi channeling technique, they could gather all the power in their body, and shoot out their weapon as though it was a hidden weapon.

Although this technique was strong, its limit could not go any further than 20 attribute points in speed, and its power was equivalent to a Form Four battle totem outside. Outside, this sort of technique had no meaning, but in here, in the ruins where he could only use his own body to fight, the Leap Slash had a powerful effect.

This technique may have put a heavy burden on the swordswomen, but to Garen, it was easy as pie. He could absolutely use it like a normal technique, such was the power of a strong Vitality.

Ever since he entered the ruins, this was his second time reaping rewards from it, the first was learning the Doublecast ability, this time it was the simple Leap Slash technique.

Both of these techniques were things he could use by himself, no matter in what surroundings, with or without totem power or Totem Light, they would not be weakened.

Garen suddenly understood, if the legends were true, then the Warlocks definitely had the ability to travel through space, and in the starry space, there were countless planets, some with unique environments, where one could use powerful abilities to leverage on all the power of the surroundings, while others were complete wastelands that could not be leveraged at all, so those leveraging powers would be greatly diminished.

And the only thing they could truly rely on was their own bodies. The channeling of the blood qi in their bodies, to create a tremendous power, that was the true core.

Bringing his thoughts back, Garen finally ate the remaining jerky, and took out the red button.

"Is anyone there?"

These few days he had done this practically every day, asking at least once a day, but there had not been any response from the other two sides.

This time, however, there was finally a response.

"Nine-Headed Snake?" A hoarse voice came from the button. It was the Cthulhu King, he sounded extremely tired. "Are you okay?" The Cthulhu King followed up with a question.

"My body is still okay, it’s just that I ran out of water and food, although I can last several weeks without a problem, my body will still be inevitably weak." Garen voiced out his problem.

"I tried, before those attacking shadows disappear completely, their meat is edible, so you can try it out." As expected of a cult leader, the Cthulhu King had even fewer taboos when it came to food than Garen, a natural born big eater.

"Alright…" Garen also knew that he had no other choice right now, besides the Nine-Headed Snake’s appetite was terrifyingly big, its digestion and absorption speeds also extremely scary, it could change most substances into its energy source, and it excreted its wastes in the form of poison mist, which was naturally extremely dangerous to others, but cleaned up the surroundings for Garen himself.

"Where have you reached?" The Cthulhu King continued asking.

"The swordswomen area."

"Same, that last swordswoman is very troublesome, I’ve been blocked here. According to the information, the third floor entrance should be right ahead, the three tunnels will converge again there." The Cthulhu King reminded, "That fellow, the Divine God Palace Master, is probably already there."

He paused, "According to our intel, other than the three Living Secret Techniques, there should also be a Shadow Demon Mirror in there, it’s an extremely powerful Heirloom that can control all the shadows in these ruins, it’s a War-type Ancient Endor Heirloom, these shadows should be an effect of that Heirloom."

"Why are you telling me all this?" Garen was slightly confused.

"To control the Demon Mirror, you need to fuse with it for a very long time before you can embed your own spirit and will in it, it’s not something you can control in a short period of time. After this, we’ll still meet the strongest shadow creature, but before that I have a proposition."

"Say it."

"I don’t want my portion of the Living Secret Techniques, I just want that Shadow Demon Mirror." The Cthulhu King said straight-facedly.

"That Demon Mirror is linked to the rights to control all of these ruins, right?" Garen chuckled. Looking at it that way, it seemed that the two had the same value, but Living Secret Techniques could be found in other ruins as well, while the Shadow Demon Mirror could only be found here. Obtaining it would be equal to obtaining an extremely powerful shadow army. In truth, the value of the Shadow Demon Mirror was higher.

But Garen was not really bothered with these external items, he placed more importance on upgrading himself. And obviously the Cthulhu King had a different view from his.

"Of course."

"What do you want from me?" Garen mused.

After a long silence from the other side, to the point that Garen thought the line had been broken, there was finally a sound from the other side.

"Get over here and help me settle the swordswoman leader… I… can’t get across…" The Cthulhu King seemed to be clenching his teeth.

Garen burst into laughter.

Breaking off the button’s connection, since he knew that the tunnels would merge very soon up ahead, and there should no longer be any shadow creatures ahead, he hesitated no more, and ran forward at full speed.

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

Far behind the three people in the three tunnels

Each tunnel had a vague black shadow moving forward at high speeds, the Shadow Cores hiding in the corners on the ground constantly swallowed by this black shadow.

His aura was growing stronger and stronger, larger and larger.

From his initial lower Form Four level, he had rapidly grown stronger, and by the time Garen and the others faced the swordswoman leader, this shadow had already swallowed all the other Shadow Cores, growing to Form Five level power.

Three tunnels, three shadows, each of them with Form Five level aura.

All three were the Light God’s clones, he had already been a Form Five fighter to start with, he just had not reached the peak, and the clones he had created using many years only had low-level Form Four power. Just like God Cloud from back then, peak-level Form Five power, but his clones were only at the Form Four peak, a full one level lower.

And now, after absorbing the Shadow Cores in the ruins, the Light God’s three clones were each at Form Five level power, making him exuberant.

If even his clones had such power, if they merged together, just how strong would his actual body become? This was equivalent to absorbing all the power of the shadow creatures in the ruins, and turning them into the Light God’s own reserves.

Just like the Cthulhu King, after accumulating power over such a long time, even the exceptionally talented Phiros could not defeat him. He still forced himself into the ranks of the peak-level fighters.

As his power increased, the Light God’s ambitions grew as well, and when he occasionally sensed the three ultimate fighters moving ahead, an intense and unnamed desire began to rise in his heart.

If the Cthulhu King died here… then the Cthulhuism Society… would see the birth of a new Cthulhu King!

As for the other two, if they would obediently bow down and become his servants, they could be given a chance to live, if they were not willing…

Other than the Cthulhu King, the Light God’s attention was focused on Garen, this terrifying prodigy had achieved such heights in so few years, he was practically a copy of Hellgate from back then.

Such a prodigy must have a huge secret behind him, this speed of growth was no longer something that could be explained away as talent. Just like Hellgate back then. How did Garen get the Nine-Headed Dragon totem, why did he have unlimited lives, unlike what was stated in the information? These were all unexplainable mysteries.

There were far too many smart people in the world, they would also notice how Garen was different, but his overwhelmingly powerful abilities made it so that nobody dared to investigate any closer. Things were different now…

In these ruins, under these circumstances, the Light God was confident that he could take control of the Demon Mirror, and utterly kill the three of them.