Mystical Journey

Garen ran forward hurriedly. His enhanced physical qualities allowed him to move at a great speed for an hour and a half without any difficulty.

He could vaguely see the edges of a dilapidated village in front of him.

Suddenly, he stopped, thinking and muttering to himself for a moment, before his Willpower shifted again and concealed his entire body completely before he fumbled towards the fence at the side of the village.

This village resembled a ferocious-looking fortress that was covered in sharp spikes. It was completely grey and there were puncture marks and holes that were left behind by cannons everywhere. He could vaguely hear the sound of human cries echoing from the inside. Meanwhile, a few stray dogs with festering bodies that were leaking pus from the sides roamed around the empty areas outside. The ground was barren and filled with potholes formed by cannon balls and explosions.

This was the true portrayal of most of the villages in the radiation belt. As the people here had neither strong nor sturdy protective measures, it was completely impossible for them to confront the powerful mutated creatures. Furthermore, it was even harder for them to withstand the various types of strong and abnormal radiation.

Garen circled the fortress once while evading a few peep holes.

The sky darkened gradually while a large cluster of grey clouds floated across the sky. They gathered closer before becoming denser above his head. He could hear the sound of thunder vaguely and realized that it might rain soon.

Garen carefully altered the footprints that he had left behind when he arrived and rearranged them as if he were walking in the direction of the fortress. Next, he looked for a smelly yellow pond and immersed himself inside it gently.

Just as he entered the water, a large swarm of underwater blood-sucking insects that resembled flies made buzzing noises beside him and flew over. However, they collapsed when they were killed by the tremors that were formed when Garen used his Secret Techniques.

He could not smell the disgusting stench from the water due to the filtration system in his hazmat suit. The Cold Radiation that was released from his palms blocked off the parts of the water that it touched and froze the liquid into ice immediately.

Garen entered the pond gingerly.

He felt the sticky liquid submerge his legs, lower abdomen, and finally his chest. It felt as if he was soaking in a pool of glue.

Finally, his neck was the only part left. Garen relaxed his breathing and hugged the Staff of Absolute Yin tightly while sinking downwards slowly.

Shh…

“Warning! Warning! Warning! A large amount of toxic radioactive liquid has entered the face’s gas filtration system! Please change your hazmat suit quickly within one minute! Please change your hazmat suit quickly within one…” the sound stopped abruptly. The hazmat suit’s simple intelligence system had been completely eroded and destroyed.

A pungent stench corroded through the hazmat suit suddenly before completely enveloping Garen’s entire body within it.

A huge colony of radioactive mutated parasites was present in this liquid. These tiny creatures that resembled maggots writhed around constantly while attempting to burrow their way into Garen’s pores.

However, they were destroyed and killed by the tremors that he produced constantly.

Garen maintained this vibrating state slowly while concealing his qi.

Earlier, his exceptionally sensitive five senses had been detecting serious threats all this while. He understood from the first moment that his strong opponent had definitely caught up to him. Therefore, he chose to escape quickly and immediately.

However, the extremely thick radiation and venomous insects in the smelly pond where he was currently inside had cut him off from his sense of crisis completely. At the same time, it obscured his qi fully as well when he fused with the whole pond.

Rare feelings of excitement filled Garen’s mind. A long, long time had passed since he had encountered and felt nervousness like this. He had not experienced the feeling of being suddenly and almost fatally pursued by an enemy or the adrenaline that came from the likelihood of a sudden death for an extremely long time. Stimuli like this allowed him to truly feel like he was living in this world on this planet.

Despite hiding inside the pond now, he could still faintly feel thin shrouds of qi that guaranteed that a crisis was about to happen. Although it was much weaker now, it was definitely still present.

“I’ll take a gamble. Since I can’t detect my opponent’s qi, it’s very likely that he can’t sense my current location either!” Garen’s mind became quiet while he tried to subdue his qi as best as he could.

After a few continuous quakes, he soon realized that it was more convenient for him to use the Cold Radiation to speedily chase the harmful radioactive mutated insects away. Instead of suppressing a part of his Cold Radiation, he might as well allow it to disperse freely while lowering the rate of his heart beats simultaneously.

As expected, these initiatives were extremely effective and it was clear that his opponent was securing his tracks according to his life qi.

“If he still manages to discover me despite everything or chooses not to appear at all, the only thing I can do is lose a Soul Seed and reincarnate once again…!” Garen made up his mind and fell into a deep sleep as his heart rate slowed itself down gradually. This was the most effective way of preventing himself from being detected by the other party.

His heart fell into a state of complete stillness quickly. Layers of ice and frost covered Garen’s body from head to toe fully. He was frozen into a large block of ice that sank into the depths of the pond. As his heart stopped beating, Garen’s consciousness became completely still as well and he became fully comatose.

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

In front of the fortress beyond the pond, a spotless White Mech soon emerged slowly. It looked as if it had blinked out of thin air and was now standing upright at the head of the fort.

Within Nottingham’s gaze, a light green silk thread that only she could see was constantly directing her towards the tracks of the escapees in front.

“Huh?” the light green silk thread in front of her eyes trembled suddenly. It had been pointing towards the back of the fortress when it broke abruptly and became blurry before it was no longer able to detect directions anymore.

“You can’t even find lifelines? Something’s up.” an expression that indicated that she had discovered her opponent appeared on Nottingham’s face instantly.

Her gaze fell on the fortress in front of her while she waved her hand casually.

A white chain of light flew outwards suddenly and pierced through the numerous layers of defensive boards around the fortress continuously while making crackling noises. The sound of numerous human cries and moans of pain echoed from the inside. She could faintly hear a bout of flurried noises.

Boom!

The fortress’ heavy black metal main door was yanked and sent flying at once.

Motley groups of soldiers with looks of despair on their faces were revealed inside. These people held firearms and simple cannons. All of them aimed their weapons at Nottingham but none of them dared to shoot.

“Respected Mech Pilot, sir! We never…” an elderly man with white hair came forward and spoke loudly but was sent flying by one of Nottingham’s slanted chains before he could finish speaking. He fell on the faraway plains with a ‘bang’ while the flesh on his body became a bloody mess. It looked as if he was no longer alive.

“Of course I’m aware that you’ve already paid sufficient protection fees, but what does that matter?” sneered Nottingham. It was obvious that this was not her first time doing this as she was extremely familiar with this set of excuses.

Terrified looks appeared on the crowds of men and women of various ages inside the fortress. A few soldiers who were clad in Miniature Mechs carried ray guns and old-fashioned cartridge firearms but could only stand on the spot helplessly as they were too afraid to even raise the barrels of their guns. Women who were carrying their children could only cover the mouths of their young tightly to prevent their cries from escaping.

Some people were praying to God or a certain Forbidden Mech Pilot.

Boom…

The sound of thunder became clearer while dark clouds filled the sky as if a storm was about to begin at any time.

While looking at the group of people that resembled lambs that did not even dare to breathe in front of her, Nottingham was filled with a sense of boredom suddenly.

“How boring… Hey kid, if you still refuse to come out, how about I kill every single person in front of me here?”

After waiting for awhile, there were still no movements at all.

“You’re doing this on purpose… To think you were able to hide from my Lifeline Tracking!” Nottingham looked at her surroundings while cruel thoughts stirred in her mind.

“If it’s going to be like this, I’ll just destroy this whole area completely!! Let’s see how you’ll hide then!”

She sneered while her Body soared into the sky suddenly. Numerous pure white chains flew out of her hands continuously and dispersed throughout all four corners of the area while constantly charging towards the ground below despite the terrain.

“Resonance Skill! Hurricane Chains!!!” Nottingham stretched both of her arms out widely while countless white chains flew out of her hands suddenly at once. They formed numerous white silk threads when they dispersed and flew downwards.

While glancing over at these countless dazzling chains, one could see that there were actually more than thousands upon thousands of them!! Compared to Anda’s family’s Endless, it was clear that she had exceeded their numbers greatly. Endless could only make it seem like there was an abundance of a certain thing for a short time. In reality, Endless could only create a few hundred more of that item while the Hurricane Chains were able to create more than ten thousand of them at once. Moreover, every single one of these chains could overshadow the fully released Willpower of an average Level Three or Four Mech Pilot.

While floating in the air, Nottingham removed an outer shell-like layer that covered the interior of her Cockpit slowly before exposing the inside of the Cockpit that was protected by transparent crystal glass.

A cold-looking woman with white hair that resembled a lion’s mane sat upright in the driver’s seat. Both of her hands were pressing the buttons on the control panel while her fierce eyes that resembled that of a goshawk gazed on sharply and threateningly.

She was appreciating the scene that was formed by the large amount of Resonance Skills that she had released. There was a terrifying hurricane comprised of 9999 chains of light which could destroy an entire area of a range of a few hundred meters within moments.

Within the light chains, the fortress was constantly being pierced through and exploded before it collapsed. Some of the people inside were stabbed while others were killed by the explosions. Most of them were trampled to death by the panicked crowds. Fresh blood and the remains of the building flew everywhere while the fields outside became bumpy like the crater-filled surface of the moon instantly.

Suddenly, her gaze was drawn towards a strange pond immediately.

There were two light chains that clearly exploded within the vicinity of the pond earlier but it had not destroyed the pond at all. It seemed as though extremely cold air was being released at the bottom of the pond continuously while she could vaguely see something that was resisting the repercussions of the light chain explosions there.

“Hiding here?!” the corners of Nottingham’s mouth curled up into a savage arc.

She held both of her hands together before a pure white Light Sphere appeared there.

She threw it downwards violently.

Boom!!!

The intense white light exploded suddenly while countless rays of light dispersed and scattered everywhere. The polluted pond water evaporated instantly during the explosions before a pale blue block of ice within the large amounts of gas exploded into smithereens. There was nothing else besides that.

“Huh?”

Nottingham furrowed his eyebrows.

Inside the pond, Garen’s body had become extremely muscular. Actually, he had sunk further into the sludge at the bottom of the pond after the tremors from the last two light chain explosions before he was buried deep inside.

Due to this, the following Light Sphere that exploded against his back violently now formed a large bloody wound there.

He furrowed his brows slightly. He had regained consciousness for a moment because of the intense pain but continued to suppress himself determinedly.

He knew that fighting an Inherited Level master with his current powers would undoubtedly be like countering a rock with an egg as the difference between their strength levels were too great! He could only have a chance of defeating his opponent if he either possessed his own personal Mech, grasped the Resonance Skills, achieved higher levels of his Living Secret Technique or upgraded his physical Attributes to thirty points on average.

In this universe and age, Inherited Level Mech Pilots were top class professionals that could dominate their opponents. They would always be a highly ranked army general within the main forces.

Nottingham’s eyebrows were knitted together tightly while a pure white Light Sphere appeared in her hands again. He wanted to continue probing this strange pond for awhile.

“Nottingham! Would the genius that was known as the fifth-ranked member of White Light show such shameful behavior?” a faraway voice echoed over suddenly.

Within the blurriness, a gust of pitch black wind blew over from a distance like a gigantic sandy tornado. The black wind pulled everything from the ground and everything that it sucked inside seemed to disappear without a trace as if it was a deep bottomless pit. It swallowed everything around it continuously and formed an ebony tornado that grew more and more violent.

“Black wind? Is it someone from the Black Flood Party?” Bloodthirsty intentions appeared on Nottingham’s face immediately. “What good timing… I heard that the Black Winds of the Black Flood Party possess terrifying powers. What a rare chance for me to encounter it today…”

She glanced at the blue ice block in the pond below her and sneered coldly while furiously flinging another Light Sphere that was even bigger than the previous one.

Boom!!!

While the sound of the Light Sphere’s explosion rang out, another loud noise could be simultaneously heard from the Mech that he was piloting when it collided frontally with a gigantic black tornado.

Within the sludge at the bottom of the pond, the Light Sphere exploded suddenly and caused a large amount of mud to gasify. The icy blue ice block was blown to pieces instantly, vaguely exposing Garen’s body below.

This surprise attack that was amplified by Nottingham’s Inherited Level strength had cracked the ice block above Garen’s body instantly and pushed him further into the ground violently after the explosion.

Garen opened his eyes gradually and exhaled resolutely while detecting the two Inherited Level Mech Pilots that were flying far away from the fight while white light and black winds intertwined in the sky and whizzed constantly.

He withdrew his Willpower and crawled out of the deep pit with much difficulty. Although his body was badly damaged from the explosion, his restoration abilities from his Potential Points and his automatic healing from the Peacock’s body were currently repairing his bodily wounds at a speed that could be seen by the naked eye.

As long as he was not completely killed in one hit, he would always have the ability to heal himself and his serious injuries.

Garen patted his body and removed the Staff of Absolute Yin that he was holding against his chest tightly. Suddenly, the expression on his face darkened when he looked at the Staff of Absolute Yin in front of his own eyes.

More than half of the gemstone at the very top of the staff had been destroyed!

He used his hands to rub the remaining gemstones quickly and did not move at all after that.

Garen’s emotions sank to an all-time low instantly!