Mystical Journey

On the journey back, the sound of the car engine would grumble into the car through the half-open window, allowing cool air to flow into the car.

Garen sat in the back of the car together with Rod without any bodyguards. Rod knew that the safest place to be was beside Garen.

"Frankly speaking, we don't have to make such a scene. He would've accepted our proposal if I'd spoken nicely to him," Rod smiled wryly.

Garen glanced at him and laughed.

"I represent the combat club and the Nighthawks. More importantly, I am representing myself as a powerful individual while you're representing Rexott. No matter if it's you or me, both of us are stronger and have a larger background than him. Do you think he would fight back? He wouldn't even dare to speak up."

"No matter how you look at it, he was once my best friend…" Rod sighed. This was the first time he'd seen Garen's prowess close-up. As a commoner and a man, he was very eager to obtain such an overwhelming strength as well.

"Oh right. Garen, I heard that you are trying to take in the second batch of disciples. I was wondering if you could take me in?" he looked eagerly at Garen, "Your martial art, I was wondering if I could learn it?"

"Of course," Garen relaxed and smiled, "I invented two major sects, which are the Two-Faced Water Bird Fist and Shooting Shadow Secret Technique. You're free to choose either one of them. Didn't I give you a set of information last time?"

"I've studied it for a long time but I still don't get it?" Rod lowered his head in shame, "There are a lot of aspects that I managed to scratch the surface of."

"Coincidentally there's a training meeting soon, you can join us. The two major sects that I've created will require my guidance before you can enter the elementary level. No one can just learn it that easily," Garen nodded.

After interacting with Rod for several days, Garen had a few vague impressions of what kind of person he was.

This guy didn't seem to have any common sense and would act based on his feelings. As a decision maker, he frequently made the wrong decision and the consequences were sometimes dire. Furthermore, Rod didn't have any shrewdness. Simply put in a rather blunt way, he was not ambitious, had no clear objective and would change his mind when he felt like it. It would be impossible for him to achieve something big.

However, the good part was that he treated everyone sincerely and didn't have any hidden intentions.

That was the reason Garen was willing to interact with him. No one would like having a friend who had hidden agendas all day long.

"That's great! Don't worry! I may be bad at everything but I'm very confident in my will!" Rod thumped his chest in affirmation of his confident words.

"I hope so…" Garen shook his head.

"What's with that gaze!?" Rod was unhappy.

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

At a slope by the hill, Kenna and Cole looked at each other as they watched the team of cars and the Halo Base below preparing to go to war. They felt that they'd miscalculated their plan.

"Perhaps the Halo are frightened?!" Kenna couldn't help but speak out.

Cole smiled wryly.

"It's not that… They're frightened of being attacked once more… Didn't you hear the alarm earlier?"

"That owner is the one that will attack if things don't go his way.." Kenna nodded, "What should we do now? The cannibal tree research will be destroyed…"

"It's not that simple. Don't worry about it." Kenna shook his head, "The mask and the Cannibal Tree have fused together as one. In addition to that, based on my initial hypothesis, the Cannibal Tree is using the mask as its core. If one were to remove the mask, it would definitely kill the Cannibal Tree. Allen Hill will not give up this easily, as this is equivalent to taking away his life!"

"Does this mean they will eventually fight?"

"Definitely," Cole nodded in confidence, "I fear that Halo hasn't realized what actually happened. If they were to realize it, they might really fight to the death with the Nighthawks."

"I think we should update the Nighthawks as soon as possible," Kenna inhaled deeply.

"There's no need for that," Cole shook his head, "It's best to let Nighthawks suffer some losses. Once both parties have been weakened, we will have the chance to rise above them!" She smiled shrewdly.

Kenna knew that she had remembered her brother who had been killed by Halo. He reached out his hand and gently hugged her.

"We shall do as you wish. We will wait and see."

"Yeah."

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

Evening hour.

Garen was sitting quietly inside the secret chamber. The blood stains in the room had already been cleaned up by a specialized mute female servant.

He closed his eyes tightly as his body emitted a blue aura invisible to mortals. This aura spread throughout every inch of the room as it suppressed the black aura emitted from the walls.

As a commoner who had trained himself to this level, even if he had the help of his ability, he didn't know how many life and death situations he'd been through. One could say that he was very lucky to be able to reach this state.

It was technically similar to the Nine Head Dragon Queen Nadia. However, her experience was much worse than his.

Garen closed his eyes tightly but he still could feel the token inside the wall before him releasing a faint aura. That aura was weak but tough, like a small stream in a field which flowed steadily without any hint of drying up.

"This is through suppression with the help of the mask. The coin's aura becomes stronger when Nadia is near," Garen muttered.

He opened his eyes, stood up and walked slowly to the other end of the room. He reached his hand out to the usual place on the wall to pull out a small box, where the coin and Magic Code Notebook were hidden.

Furthermore, three additional Sleepless Face Masks were stacked together on top of the coin. With the superposition of the magnetic waves of three masks, the changes became more and more obvious.

He took the two newly obtained masks, closed his eyes and nibbled the corner of the masks.

Two huge amounts of cooling aura immediately flowed out of the mask, as if a flash flood had occurred.

Glancing at the attribute pane in his vision, his potential points were skyrocketing.

It took some time to completely absorb the aura within the mask.

After absorbing the two masks which he’d obtained from Rod, his potential points had skyrocketed from one hundred plus points to three hundred plus points. Although only one of the masks contained potential points, it was able to give him two hundred plus potential value.

Garen dropped the mask back on the table and turned to at his Attribute Pane.

Garen Thomas.

Strength 7. Agility 7. Vitality 7. Intelligence 7. Potential 36248%. Soul Limit 30.

Soul Seed: Northern Trident Frost Fire True Water Evil Technique.

‘Void Hunter: Grade 1.'

‘Hellfrost Peacock Technique: Grade one elementary level (Total of five grades, with three grades of derivative grades, a total of eight grades) ‘

‘Seven Star Life's Secret Point: fourth grade (maximum of seven grades).'

‘Violin Skill: Grade 2, Proficient Grade (Total of three grades).'

The real core that he had been mastering had turned into Seven Star Life's Secret Point and Hellfrost Peacock Technique.

The Hellfrost Peacock Technique required something called White Peacock Stone and he didn't know where to obtain it. On the other hand, he wasn't so worried about the Seven Star Life's Secret Point as all he needed was enough life force and regeneration.

After pondering for a while, Garen realized that the current limit of his Seven Star Life's Secret Point was the fourth star. The fifth star wasn't something he could activate just yet as his body would explode before he could attack. This wasn't the flaw of his technique but the limits of his body.

The theory behind the Seven Star Life's Secret Point was to excite the acupoints of the body temporarily. This allowed a sudden outburst of the potential locked within. It was supposed to be a double-edged sword but for Garen, who possessed extraordinary regeneration and Vitality, he was able to use it consistently.

The other secret methods were no match for this one as it could be superimposed onto Secret Techniques, bringing out his true strength.

However, this secret method had its limit.

When Garen was devising this secret method, it was based on multiple Secret Technique sources and self-discovery. He found out there were nine major acupoints, seven major light acupoints, and two major hidden acupoints. While these acupoints had a trending line, each and every one of them had a limit, which was the body's genetic limitation.

For example, a typical human's genetic limitation was 460kg of strength. Without the Seven Star Life's Secret Point, he could exert about 100kg of force and with it, the maximum he could raise it to was 460kg. In the future, no matter how much stars he could open with the Seven Star Life's Secret Point, he could never exceed this limit. If he were to exceed it, his genes would instantly collapse and his body would implode as it simply wasn't strong enough to sustain such a force.

The Seven Star Life's Secret Point was Garen's accumulation as a martial adept. This horrifying secret method was able to release the limit of a human's latent ability temporarily, giving off an incredible amount of inner pressure. This inner pressure could then be released to increase his body's physical attribute.

Analogically, it was similar to a fully expanded balloon with a hole that slowly released the pressure of the balloon. With every activation, there would be an additional hall which increased the expenditure of his potential points, in return for an incredible increment of his physical attribute.

However, the condition was that he couldn't exceed the total amount of potential points he had stored, which was the genetic limitation. There wouldn't be a second time if it wasn't enough for the first time.

Hence, to the others, this secret method was a technique that should be used when one wished to perish together with the opponent.

Garen was able to create this Masterpiece Demon Technique from the Secret Techniques that utilized the concept of perishing together with the opponent.

"I currently have three hundred plus potential points. It's best to prioritize Seven Star Life's Secret Point and increase my strength and vitality first. This way, my genetic attribute will increase and I'll be able to reach the genetic limitation of thirty points by activating the second star or third star. I don't have to worry about any side effects from going overboard too. If I were to activate the fourth star, even if I were to win by a slight margin at the end, I may be weakened before I am able to kill off the enemy. This may allow the enemy to kill me instead. As my Vitality increases, the number of stars I can activate increase as well. Although I may not be able to exceed the thirty points limit, I at least can hold out longer."

After some consideration, he focused his gaze on Vitality.

Vitality had always been used for regeneration. As Garen continuously added in potential points into it, he was lacking a bit more to achieve eight points. While these minor changes didn't show up in the Attribute Pane, the changes made with his ability were directly applied to Garen's body needs. It would appear when he wanted it to appear and the current leap was from a single digit to double digits. With this increment, it was natural that the small changes wouldn't show.