Mystical Journey

“If I made a move now, even an idiot would know I was the one behind it.” Garen was speechless. “Plus there are two Resonance pilots here, if their Mechs are excellent as well, it will be very troublesome. Even I might be no match for them.”

“True, and Fila is here too. His power is near Two Moons Level, so he’s a huge threat as well.” Celine frowned too.

“Unless, I could mobilize large-scale forces to raid them, bring out the brigade. But that may result in many casualties.” Garen took a deep breath. As a Captain in the army who fought alone, he also had an independent squad under his leadership. After two years of selections and training, the members were now all powerful pilots, at least Level Three or above. Some of them were even Level Five like him, and were just slightly weaker in combat power. And there were many more people in the squad than there were when they raided Red-White two years ago. Perhaps it was due to special wartime privileges, but there were more than seventy members in the squad, more than seventy of the strongest students from all the different schools.

After they were brought together by mutual benefit, Garen also successfully built bonds between these pilots, so that they had the same goals in mind, and all swore loyalty to him.

Such a force, driving Mechs to attack a bunch of Resonance pilots with no Mechs, could easily result in a one-sided slaughter as long as they had good battle ethics. Pilots without Mechs could only rely on their Willpower’s attacking skill, but that had too short a range, and faced with the Mech’s complete dominance in all areas, it would be no fight at all.

Of course, the other side was politically powerful as well, but there was one very important point, being that the area closest to this auction was Garen’s territory.

Garen was slightly hesitant as well, wondering if he should go ahead and rob them of the Ring Light Silver. Once he did that, the conflict now would instantly escalate, and he was not mentally prepared to face off against a Divine Wind General yet.

In the two years, his Living Secret Technique, the Hellfrost Peacock Technique, had already reached a very crucial point. It was now over 90% complete, perhaps he could soon break past this level’s extremely slow progress pace.

But according to the latter part of the Living Secret Technique records, the seventh and eighth levels after the sixth all required a lot of time and devouring to advance steadily, so they were not something he could accomplish in a short time. After all, the peak of the eighth level should be the theoretical Army Level power.

According to Garen’s calculations, the Army Level should be equivalent to Inherited Level and above in this world, but he did not know which level within the Inherited system it would reach.

Similarly, it was not that easy to reach Inherited Level. It required a lot of time and an increase in understanding.

“Once I reach the seventh grade, the Living Secret Technique will probably change completely. And I have the ingredients prepared for my Biochemical Pool, and I finally found the most critical one, the Mila Cells. When I match the Biochemical Pool with the Living Secret Technique, I wonder how they will change…”

Garen had already prepared the ingredients for more than two years, but he never found that key item, the Mila Cells.

That was the main reproductive cell in the Biochemical Pool, it constructed the main body. It always came from the middle of some strange rocks that grew in the radiation belt, so it was also known as Stoneheart Flesh. Eating it could greatly strengthen someone’s vitality, prolong their lifespan, and it could only be kept for a very short time, like five days.

That was why Garen could never find suitable Mila Cells.

“Do you want to grab it or not! I can mobilize some of my family’s forces to help as well, we probably can’t stop them from leaving, but if you want to grab that heavy Ring Light Silver, it shouldn’t be a problem,” said Celine softly.

“There’s no rush, once the auction is over, just pay constant attention to their transport route.” A hint of flint flashed through Garen’s eyes. “I’ll go ask my teacher first.”

“Alright.”

There was a fountain of white light spewing from underneath the leaping point and engulfing the two of them. In an instant, the white light vanished, and the two of them disappeared from the leaping point as well.

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

The radiation belt outside the Blackboard Region

On the wide grey-black grassy plains, the sun was setting, the red twilight rays casting a layer of golden-red all over everything.

A black convoy lined up like a long snake, driving out endlessly from the entrance checkpoint into Blackboard, driving out endlessly into the white veil that separated the region from the radiation belt. It was as though they had come out of a foam filter, the many large heavy-duty trucks rumbling along, headed towards the distant grasslands.

The commanding soldier at the checkpoint waited until the last heavy truck had left before he finally put down the automatic wall behind the veil of light slowly, surrounding the whole Blackboard Region once more.

There were many levitating airships on each side of the convoy, and one black-armored guard standing on each airship. They each held long machine guns in their hands, and had curved warswords in their hands. Their left eyes twinkled with a faint red light, as they constantly scanned the movements around them.

There was no cargo inside the hold of one large truck in the middle of the convoy. Instead, it was decorated into a comfortable lounge for resting and chatting. Looking through the cracks in the windows and the curtains now, you could see some people partying, drinking, and singing inside.

Far away from the convoy, there were several small black dots hiding behind the small hill rising from the plains, watching the moving convoy from afar. These small dots were actually several pitch-black tall humanoid Mechs.

Two of the Mechs were hiding behind the hill, and seemed to be the leaders of the lot.

“It’s confirmed, the mission is to kill Fila and all the Mech guards in there. If you can’t do that, destroy the radiation protection, then they’ll all become radiation people,” said the leader coldly.

“Leader, are we really going to do it? The opponents are Resonance pilots at the peak of Full Moon,” the assistant pilot beside him said quietly.

“Riches come with risks, as long as he doesn’t have his Mech, and he’s not Inherited Level, what’s there to be scared of!? And after that we can get a billion in rewards. Once this gig is over, we call go back and live peacefully, we won’t have to live life on the edge anymore,” said the leader calmly. “So even if I know there’s a high chance we can’t make it back, and we’re being used as scouts to test the opponent, I have no other choice.”

He looked at the convoy moving slowly in the distance.

“I’m forty now, my talents have reached their limit. There’s no point in continuing to fight, so I might as well end on a bang, we’ll take this load and call it quits!”

His Mech gave a jolt, and the faint force of a Level Four pilot was released slowly.

Similarly, all the Mechs around him emitted Level Four forces slowly. They were the elite force that Garen had carefully chosen and gathered over the past two years. At first these had all been killer pilots who had committed crimes, but Garen used his position and the wartime bureaucracy to secretly bail them out with money, so that they were now one of his secret assets.

But now, this force was going out as cannon fodder just to test Fila and the others.

“Move out.” A pale blue light appeared slowly on the back of the leader’s Mech.

Similarly, the other Mechs replied dully, all their Mechs lighting up with a faint blue light from the back.

Boom!!

At the same time, a large amount of blue flames sprayed out of the engine exhaust, more than ten Mechs shooting into the air at once. The Level Four forces rumbled towards the black convoy.

Of these, the three elites, the strongest fighters and the leader, were placed in the very middle of the team, heading straight for the car in the middle, the one Fila was on.

“Enemy ambush!!”

As soon as a guard Mech rang the alarm, it was shot directly in the cockpit, and fell on its back.

Most of the guard Mechs were also dispatched with at the first possible moment, but just as these guards were going to fall completely. A powerful Level Five force quickly rushed out of one of the heavy truck holds.

Barroom, the hold was shattered, and there was actually a clean white Mech curled up inside. The Mech’s eyes lit up with a faint green light, and then it suddenly stretched out, shooting out like a bolt of lightning.

“Insects!” Fila’s voice came booming out of the Mech, with extreme arrogance and contempt.

Several high-powered lasers shot the surface of his cockpit, but they were blocked by a layer of transparent light, so he remained completely unharmed.

Backhandedly, he pulled out a large blade that was completely silver and bright.

“Thunder Snake Slash!”

A bolt of blue-purple lightning flashed across the sky above the convoy. At lightning speed, it landed on three of the ambushing Mechs.

Bam bam bam!

The three Mechs burst into fireballs and crashed down at the same time.

“It’s Fila! Damn it! The Mech was hidden in the cargo hold!” When the three of them including the leader saw Fila appear, they were instantly shocked out of their wits, and turned around to run.

On the other side, Fila laughed coldly, swinging his blade and effortless releasing yet another bolt of blue-purple lightning, demolishing several more black Mechs in the ambush.

The Full-Moon Level powerhouse was practically unbeatable. Forget these average Level Four pilots, even those three strongest ones, at the peak of Level Four, could not even take a hit.

He strode towards the three Mechs, chasing them, the blade in his hand crackling like thunder as he slashed a Mech beside him. He was unstoppable!

Just then, other than Fila, two more Resonance Mechs flew out slowly, slaughtering the black Mechs that were here on an ambush.

Fila laughed coldly as he chased down the three strongest Mechs.

“You’re already here, so why would you try to run? Level Four pilot killers, I wonder if Nonosiva will regret it if they were all lost!”

His Mech quickly caught up to the three Mechs at the front.

But just then, a strange force abruptly spread from the three Mechs at the front.

Ba-thump!

Fila’s expression changed slightly, suddenly realizing that the Willpower force fields around the three Mechs ahead had started to distort violently. Their Mechs instantly froze in mid-air, as though they could self-explode at any time.

He quickly stopped his Mech, maintaining his distance. After all, if their Willpower exploded together with their Mechs, the impact would be terrifying. Even as he was now, his Defense Field would be greatly reduced. For the sake of several regular Level Four pilots he could destroy at any time, it was not worth it.

Ba-thump!

There was another muffled sound from three Mechs. That force field was like a heartbeat, but it was far beyond a normal human pulse, as though it was a giant drum, strangely deep and impactful.

“Ah– Aaaaahhhh–!!”

All of a sudden, terrifying screams came from the three Mechs ahead.

As the screams went on, inside the three Mechs, the skin of the three Level Four peak pilots kept rippling and distorting, as though there were countless insects crawling under their skin. Their eyes kept bulging, extremely bloodshot. As the screams continued, hard black scales began to grow all over their bodies slowly. The many scales covered every inch of their body surface.

At the same time, their hearts all beat once, and their skin simply burst open. Countless blue-black slimy tentacles whooshed out of from inside, waving around in the air.

Instantly, the Willpower inside their bodies began to expand and mutate, increasing madly from the peak of Level Four to Level Five… Mid Level Five… Peak Level Five.

And as they continued to mutate, the nature of their Willpower somehow also began to change drastically in a terrifying way.

Their bodies, including their Mechs, all began to emit a deep blue Cold Radiation.

The three Mechs began to slouch slightly, their arms hanging down, and they panted terrifyingly, like wild beasts.

Fila narrowed his eyes, staring at the strange changes occuring in the three Mechs in front of him. He did not believe that these tiny Peak Level Four pilots could harm him through any methods, but the effect of this strange mutation had stunned him slightly as well. From Peak Level Four, they had instantly reached Peak Level Five, this was such a terrifying increase in Willpower. And the three Mechs had even automatically formed a Level Five Willpower Defense Field.

Whoosh… waves of Cold Radiation blew towards him, and even Fila felt his heart grow slightly cold.

“These are just Level Four pilots, too… What if they were Level Five…?” Staring at the three mutated Mechs in front of him, he could not help but feel a chill, deep in his heart.