Mystical Journey

His initial intention for joining this mission was to find more Antiques of Tragedy.

"Among the men here, only I can identify the value of these antiques," Garen said in a low voice.

"It’s not necessary for you to come now. Wait for us to check the surroundings first, then you can join us after we confirm that its safe," Dale Quicksilver replied.

Garen frowned with hesitation. He had a feeling that if he didn’t go down now, he wouldn’t have the chance. This feeling got stronger after he saw the mysterious green-eyed woman die.

"I still feel like I should go down. I can protect myself if I follow you guys."

"Can you really?" Dale Quicksilver turned around and stared at him. "Kelly, you are the antiques expert, your efforts shouldn’t be wasted on the expedition itself. Leave it to the professionals, that’s how this works."

Garen still felt reluctant. He turned to look at Grace and Cynthia. Both shook their heads at him.

"Fine… I’ll listen." He knew he probably wouldn’t be allowed to go down anymore. He shrugged his shoulders and walked aside.

Dale and the sergeant discussed the plan, and the men got ready to go down into the lair.

Garen stood at the door, leaning on its frame, not knowing what to do for now.

"To be honest, seeing a fascinating and mysterious place like this, I would want to go down there by myself and reveal its secrets. But …" Grace said, standing next to him.

"If you were needed, especially for their current mission, I think no one would reject your presence. But I still suggest you do not to explore with them. If this cave has a trapdoor that can seal the only entrance, it would be extremely dangerous."

As she was speaking, she lowered the wet towel covering her nose and mouth. The gas had fully dissipated by now, and everyone had put down their wet towels.

"Right, that emblem!" Garen suddenly remembered the Bronze Cross Emblem. He left the detective and his men, and headed toward the lobby.

A few policemen were still in here, patrolling around while holding their guns. These men were wearing black uniforms with a badge of a silver eagle on the left chest of their jackets. Seeing Garen come back out, they didn’t act surprised. Just casually glanced at him once and moved their eyes off of him.

Garen tried to remember the exact location of the emblem. He vaguely recalled it being at the dead body of the mysterious woman.

He approached the body and squatted down. Lightly, he picked it up and flipped her around.

The body was pushed to the side, revealing the Bronze Cross Emblem that was under it.

Garen grabbed the emblem and checked it, but didn’t see anything different. The potential qi inside was the same. He felt the increase of potential meter, but it had at most one attribute point left in it.

"Better than nothing." Garen shook his head and stood up.

"What are you doing? Who gave you permission to touch the body?" came a voice from a man nearby. The sergeant walked over with a gloomy expression. He was 1.9 meters of height, which was a lot taller than Garen.

"I just wanted to see if I could find any clues," Garen casually explained.

"This is police business, not something a common folk like you could take part in. Go rest on the side! Don’t interfere with us!" Sergeant Rio was impatient and waved his hands.

"Can I watch from the side? I may be able to help," Garen said with a smile. The sergeant’s brusque tone didn’t make upset in the slightest.

"I said this is none of your business, this is not something a private company could take part in! Get out of here and wait for them to come out!" The sergeant got more impatient. "What’s that in your hand? Give me that!"

Garen handed over the Bronze Cross Emblem.

"All right, you can go take some rest." The sergeant took the emblem and breathed deeply. He turned to talk to his policemen in a low voice.

Garen walked to the side with Grace and Cynthia.

"Looks like we are done here," Grace said casually. "If I had known this, we wouldn’t have needed to bring this many men over."

"That’s still to be decided." Cynthia smiled and looked at her wrist watch, then her brown eyes looked toward the hill. She suddenly had a confused expression.

"What’s wrong?" Garen asked.

"Someone is coming, my squad sent a signal. Let’s go check it out." Cynthia’s face turned serious, she led them out of the lobby just as a man in black came in from the gate.

"Captain Cynthia, there are people approaching, quite a few of them! They have lots of weapons," the man whispered.

"What kind of people? Can you hold them off?" Cynthia asked.

"Don’t know, but they’re all wearing golden rings in their ears. The guy leading them is wearing a white trench coat!"

"They’re the men from the Golden Hoop." Garen realized and said, "Did you see the numbers on their earrings?"

The man in black nodded. "They must all be together, the leader is a number 9."

Garen froze for a second. He just fought off a number 10 with a loss-loss result, and immediately comes a number 9. By the looks of it, their numbers were based on strength, so this number 9 had to be a lot stronger than number 10.

"What kind of weapons did they have?" Cynthia asked again.

"From pistols and rifles to daggers and swords. It’s really strange."

"Tell the two guys on the hill to stay alert, don’t let them see us. As long as we have the snipers in the vantage point, there shouldn’t be too many problems." Cynthia nodded. "We have the police on our side this time, I dare them to openly strike against the police."

The others started laughing, but Garen wasn’t convinced. Silversilk castle had to have an important meaning to the Golden Hoop for number 9 to show up so soon after number 10.

His White Cloud Combat Arts got enhanced to intermediate level, so he was confident that he could fight number 10 without trouble now. Even if she was cautious, he could still beat her with his speed and not trade her blow for blow. But this number 9, there was no information on him. Though he was definitely stronger than number 10. Thinking of this, Garen was a little hesitant.

Even if the police were with them, the Golden Hoop’s stance….

"S**t! The signal on the hill is gone!" Cynthia’s face turned cold as she glanced at the hills. "Little Seven, tell the other brothers to get back here! Our enemies might be tough this time!"

"Yes, captain!" The man in black jogged away.

"You think your men can handle them?" Garen asked in a deep voice.

"I’m not sure." Cynthia shook her head. "Our enemy is familiar with sniper tactics! We will cover your retreat."

"We will notify the sergeant." Grace was nervous too.

Garen nodded, he turned around and walked toward Sergeant Rio. The tall police officer was discussing the situation of the dead body.

"Sir, there are people coming, I’m afraid they’re up to no good!" Garen walked up and whispered.

"Our men didn’t see anything. How do you know?" Sergeant Rio frowned.

"My bodyguard accidentally saw them." Garen thought carefully before he spoke. "The Golden Hoop is up to no good, but the detective is still in the lair, right? You have to send me to get them out immediately! This is our safest plan."

"No need, our whole police department is out on this mission. If there really is someone coming, we can handle them without a problem." He waved at a police officer on the side. The man jogged over.

"Sir, what’s the order?"

"What’s going on outside?"

"What? Everything’s normal outside!" the policeman casually replied, chuckling.

"Are you sure?" the sergeant asked again.

"I’m sure, you can see for yourself sir. Our men are still on guard at the top of the hill." The policeman took out a pair of binoculars and handed it to sergeant Rio.

The sergeant took up the binoculars and looked through them at the gate. A policeman on the hill was waving to signal everything was okay.

"Our expert’s bodyguard said there are enemies approaching, what’s up with that?" The sergeant laughed and handed the binoculars to Garen. He turned around and went inside the lobby.

Garen put up the binoculars against his eyes and gazed, the officer on the hill was yawning out of boredom.

"Cynthia, are you sure someone is coming?"

"I’m sure!" Cynthia replied. "They are hiding in the shadows. My men were hiding at vantage points that could see every corner of the surroundings, and they haven’t sent back any signals in two minutes!" Her face was pale. "They are most definitely experts! Trained in assassination and camouflage techniques! Just as we speak, another two of my men went missing!"

"What do we do now?"

"Tell everyone to gather up at a vantage point, such as top floors of this castle! We should be able to hold the castle from the top. I’m already gathering my men!" Cynthia said with ferocity. "We cannot afford to spread out and go outside. Against assassins that are hiding in the dark, we must avoid our shortcomings and suppress their advantages! Otherwise our men will get eaten alive!"

Right as she finished speaking, they heard a loud command coming out of the lobby.

"Everyone! Spread out into the woods outside the castle! Report back immediately if you find anything!"

"F***!" Garen and Cynthia both cursed.

"This idiot!" Cynthia exclaimed.

"These well-armed policemen are our main force right now, we can’t afford to send them out to die!" She looked at Garen. "Sir, you have to tell the sergeant to get his men back to the castle! Otherwise we’ll be in big trouble!"

"I’ll try."

He knew how dangerous the situation was. Cynthia’s men were all well trained and extremely well equipped. If the enemy could silently take them down, then they would have an even easier time dealing with these policemen.

Even with his strength he would barely be able to take down number 10 since his wounds hadn’t fully healed yet. So if sergeant Rio and his men ran into the Golden Hoop’s men…

He turned around and walked up to the sergeant again.

"Golden Hoop?" The sergeant laughed aloud. "You sure?"

"I’m sure, one hundred percent sure!" Garen nodded. "Sergeant you must…"

"Very well, brothers! Let’s get out there and take out these little boys that call themselves the Golden Hoop! I’ve been longing to meet those rampant bastards. This time I’ll show them the might of the top fifty sharp shooters in the entire confederation! Hahaha…."

The sergeant wasn’t finished speaking when he pulled out his pistol and walked out of the lobby.

He obviously sensed something was going on and told his men to spread out just as a precaution.

The policemen answered by flooding out of the lobby, following their sergeant outside. Leaving one man behind to guard the entrance to the lair.

"These idiots!" Cynthia was irritated. "Face to face combat, the Golden Hoop might not be their match, but they are experts trained in assassination! Sir, leave them be, we have to get out of here! The Golden Hoop must be setting up an encirclement!"

Garen was also getting a headache from the sergeant and his men. He watched as they went outside and started patrolling the castle, not taking their opponents seriously.

"Sergeant Rio seems to be confident, maybe he knows a thing or two, let’s just wait and see…"

Peng! Peng! Peng!

Suddenly, the sound of heavy gunfire came from outside, immediately followed by the policemen’s screams.

"RETREAT!!"

"WHERE ARE THEY!"

"PROTECT THE SERGEANT!"

"RETREAT, RETREAT!" Sergeant Rio’s voice shouted with anger. In the continuous gunfire, he staggered as two men covered him and backed into the castle. One of the men quickly closed the half of the gate behind them.

Two more policemen ran in.

"We must retaliate! These Golden Hoop bastards! Hiding behind the shadows like cowards!" Sergeant Rio furiously reloaded his pistol with ammo.

Garen followed the sergeant to hide behind an obstruction. Black Panther came out of the backroom after hearing the gunshots. He pulled out his gun and ran to the door after seeing the sergeant’s situation.

The windows on the first floor were all shattered. Bullets were flying in from the gaps, resulting in chaos in the castle’s lobby. There were four policemen left, bent down behind the door next to sergeant Rio. They all occasionally reached for their guns and made a few blind shots.

Garen hid behind a statue of an angel, the two women behind him. Cynthia was about to charge out, nodding toward two squad members on the opposite side.

Bang!

A bullet hit the edge of the statue, scraping off some rubble from it and barely missing Cynthia.