Mystical Journey

"1% huh, getting 1% improvement just from the 1st training, that’s not bad." After all, all the secret techniques he picked out of his expert memory were not just any random simple secret technique. If they weren’t one discovered by the ancients, it would be a high-leveled secret technique developed by the major gates in the world of Wushu.

Not only that, all of the selected secret techniques had a common trait; they are all secret techniques that Garen could not "see through". At his level of expertise, an average secret technique could be effortlessly mimicked by him, even without training. Only secret techniques that were at an extremely high level or self-pioneered in a field that Garen had no experience in could not be "seen through" by him.

The Black Claw of Sethe was what he accidentally discovered from his travels with Andrela when he returned to the Secret Technique World. It was one of the 20 gates of secret techniques that made Garen hit a brick wall when trying to mimic.

Based on his own experience, he tweaked some minor details of it to improve the overall effect of it, but even then, he was still excited to witness the tangible effects of this skill.

This secret technique should at least be a God-tier level advanced secret technique, since even with his expertise he still couldn’t see through its secrets, the effect must be well above average.

After finishing his 1st training, Garen didn’t dare to be greedy. No matter how good the food was, eating excessively would still lead to indigestion. Everything must be done in moderation.

After cleaning up a bit, he lied down and went back to bed.

******

As the days passed, Garen continued his routine of eating, drinking, sleeping, training, then repeat.

This dull and mechanical lifestyle, along with having to pretend to be a baby in light of his dad’s early education, he had to find ways to seek pleasure in this miserable life. His only joy in this lifestyle was trying to play with Lil’ Serin, who was occasionally brought over, or just bullying his brother Jason Thomas.

His mother Trish would occasionally be busy with a website for posting her theses. This was her primary source of income, for a good thesis, every time someone bought, downloaded or read it, she would get a large portion of the earnings.

His father also recruited a new research student recently, every day he went out with this young lady, running around, claiming it was in the name of research.

Garen couldn’t believe his mother was worried about his father getting along with that beautiful young lady. In fact, she was completely calm about it.

This household was still calm as usual.

Garen steadily practiced the Black Claw of Sethe every day, and had consistent improvement, with almost a 1% improvement every day. He felt that the rate of growth really was absurdly quick, it must have had something to do with this modified body being extremely compatible with this gate of secret techniques.

According to the records on this Secret Technique, finishing level 1 would at least take 10 years.

However, at his rate of growth, he only needed slightly more than 100 days to complete the level 1 foundation training. He was truly a genius of geniuses.

In such a peaceful environment with no threats or safety issues, even Garen started to become fully immersed in his training.

About three months swiftly passed.

Lil’ Serin, who was occasionally brought over, had also learned how to crawl, making intelligible sounds while frolicking in the crib.

In comparison, Garen was already able to stand up steadily in the cradle and walk on two feet. He also started to grow blonde hair like his mother’s.

A blue-eyed blonde, with skin as white as milk. Except for his dislike of speaking, Garen was no different from a normal baby. His pretending was largely based on Lil’ Serin’s actions, who should be slightly older than him, thus he should be considered normal.

His mother also found an early education cartoon from somewhere and played it on loop in Garen’s room every day.

Garen was also living quite the carefree life, no one was paying much attention to him, so he could focus completely on his internal body. Whenever there seemed to be a problem with a part of his body, he could immediately use his aura to manipulate his vital energy and blood to regulate the area. As a top-level Grandmaster of Combat, he had no problems in completely understanding the structure and inner mechanisms of his body.

His life was very relaxing, occasionally having his parents’ friends or neighbors coming over to pay a visit. Garen was also occasionally brought outside to get some fresh air and sunshine. This allowed him to gain some information about the town.

The whole town is in the shape of a gigantic circle, surrounded by luscious greenery. In the middle of it all was a town center. Every night, there would be a gathering among the seniors of the town to banter or play cards and chess.

The town was deep in the woods, and it was said to be the originally built up by the natives. However, due to external influence and the advancement of technology, the scale of the town kept expanding. Now it was a small town with a population size in the millions.

The town had a church, with the Reverend Father and the Mayor being the most respected people in this town, every major decision would be made by them. The town also has a Public Security Team, in charge of the security of the town and also to drive out the wildlife from the forest that entered the town.

Garen also discovered that most of the townspeople were hunters or lumberjacks, and most of them also had their own land and use to farm their own grain and vegetables for food. There was also a beach nearby with a decently sized fishing market, and the fishermen often sent some seafood over to the town for sale. Occasionally, there would also be tourists who came here to visit. It was even considered a decent source of income.

To put it simply, this seemed like a Heaven on Earth, everyone living here was content and law-abiding, while foreign businesses attempting to enter for profit were all driven out by the locals.

The townspeople locals, permanent residents, and foreigners who were brought back by locals, like wives who married in. This included doctors, lawyers, restaurant owners, teachers and all sorts of other professions, creating the unique structure and exclusivity of this town.

Garen’s was reborn into the Thomas household, who were considered quite well-known within this area. After all, it was a university professor and a psychologist who decided to move into this small town to settle down. In the eyes of the townspeople, this was major news.

Many people wanted to speak to this group of intellectuals, hoping some of their genii would rub off on them.

Every year before Christmas, they would also receive countless gifts.

Garen was still unsure about this world, but not only did it contain America, it also had holidays like Christmas. He even heard a few mentions of England and other terms.

This made him wonder if he had returned to Earth.

However, there was once his parents left him alone, he immediately seized the opportunity to use his mother’s laptop, pretending to randomly press stuff, while searching for information like the world map.

To his surprise, he found a map of this world. It looked similar to Earth, but at the same time, there were major differences.

The area of the 5 continents were much larger than Earth’s, the sea as well, it was almost 2 times the size of the Earth. Just as he was staring at the map in shock, Trish walked back in.

"Don’t go so near, there’s radiation." Trish quickly took away the laptop in fear of harming the child’s eyes.

Garen was placed back into the cradle, allowing his mother to freely change his diaper while he was thinking intently.

After all, he was quite free every day. A baby’s energy seems to be limitless with no place to expend it on. Except for his Black Claw of Sethe - LV1 Heart of Frost training every night, he had nothing else to do.

"Putting all information together, this world might be a planet similar to Earth but in a parallel universe, but I have no idea why the planet would be so much bigger in size."

Garen refused to believe that there would be 2 planets with so many similarities within one universe, and there was also the matter of the laws of physics being different in this world. He started to confirm his suspicion.

"This world and this universe, might not even be my original universe anymore…"

He felt that continuing on doing nothing would be too boring, so he sneakily took the laptop and started to look up more information about this alternate earth.

As compared to the pile of early education resources his dad had found, doing self-learning online courses was much faster.

Kindergarten, primary school, lower-secondary school, he swiftly breezed through these courses. All he needed to do was vaguely skim through it, his soul’s memory could remember every image it saw with just a glance.

However, as he was about to start his upper-secondary school course, his parents confiscated the laptop with the reason being they were afraid him using it too much would affect his sight and health.

Even though he had just been playing around with the laptop for a couple of days.

As such, his boring life continued on. Soon, Garen was already 2 years old.

From the cradle to his first running steps, to being able to dress, eat and use the toilet all by himself, the 2-year-old Garen was exhibiting terrifying early maturation and independence. He never threw tantrums, and was not a picky eater. Coupled with his glowing blonde hair, milk-white skin and big blue eyes, he became a hot topic around the town.

A lot of his parents friends liked to come visit and play with Lil’ Garen.

Garen also started to show his talents in speaking, at 2 years old, while other children were childishly speaking, his sentences seemed to be deliberate, complex and well-structured, all whilst still being fluent in his expression.

Even his height was just slightly shorter than his 6-year-old brother Jason. Jason’s face was filled with acne and he was filled with energy every day. He spent his time causing trouble, whilst his brother Garen preferred to read quietly or listening to music. The two formed a stark contrast.

Obviously, the younger Garen naturally became the favorite of his parents. This seemed to cause a mental imbalance in Jason.

Whoosh...

With one swift swipe, Jason took all the lollipops given by the neighbors into his pockets, then cheekily walked over to Garen looking at him.

"All the lollipops the Uncle Walter gave us belongs to me!" he loudly exclaimed.

"Idiot."

Garen expressionlessly said as he walked past his brother.

Jason stood there motionlessly, as if he was struck by lightning. After a long while, he looked over in the direction his brother left.

"Garen how dare you insult me! I’m your brother! Let me come punish you right now!"

He shouted as he charged over towards Garen.

Two minutes later...

"Mama..." Jason left Garen’s room in tears, running towards their parents’ room.

"How many times has it been? He still had no improvements…" Garen said condescendingly while shaking his head.

On the surface, his current body’s seemed to be comparable to a 5 or 6 year old boy, but in reality, his body has far exceeded that of a child, all his stats are already almost at 0.8, almost at an adult’s level of strength.

This was one of the advantages of the Heart of Frost, all of his organs had an abnormal, but steady pace of growth, becoming stronger and stronger, effectively working with the Living Secret Technique’s constant modification of the blood cells and his heart.

He did not know how long these kinds of modifications will require, but with the effects of the Heart of Frost, his heart has started to show signs of frosting. This sense of cold usually concentrated in his chest, but it would occasionally split and move through the bloodstream.

Once the modification of his heart is complete, this 1st level would have completely reached its peak, then it would be time for him to start his training for the next level.