"There is a mission that I require you to head out to."
As Garen was training on his own, the Elder's voice traveled around the Black Wolf Mansion.
"First Elder," Garen stood up and bowed slightly to pay his respect.
"The Blue Frost Sect has perished… I want you to investigate and search for any clues. Furthermore, I want you to kill a renegade of the Dragon Light Sect along the way as a way of lending them a hand," the first elder's tone was rather strict and he was clearly shaken by the massacre of the Blue Frost Sect.
Garen lowered his head slowly.
"Understood. When should I leave?"
"The sooner the better and it's best if you can stay hidden. Once you've returned, I will reward you with a piece of Secret Frost Seed's Inspiration."
"A Secret Frost Seed? Alright," Garen replied as he assessed his current situation. He had been absorbing a lot of items but the gap between him and the Fourteenth Grade of Scarlet Snow Technique was still very wide apart. The Fourteenth Grade was the so-called Non-Falling Level.
The biggest obstacle between the Inherited Level and the Non-Falling Level was to form a wheel, a Crystal Wheel. It could be formed by using the Inherited Level's source and form the crystals in the shape of a wheel. The more crystals one collected, the stronger one's strength became.
This was the so-called Non-Falling Level, where the wheels kept perpetuating on its own, producing endless energy. It was completely different from the techniques and Willpower from before where it could be exhausted.
The Secret Frost Seed item seemed to contain a very huge amount of energy. Perhaps it could…
"Looks like I'll be heading out. The supplies given by the Sect aren't enough for me to absorb and I won't be able to create the wheel of the Non-Falling Level," Garen cut off the first elder's communication as he looked around his garden which was filled with powder debris. They were all useless trash which contained no energy. This was his result for the past few days.
"Fortunately the Nine Layers Body Shattering Technique has been learned, but the skill with the fastest progress is still the Destructive Impact Fist."
Garen reached out his right hand.
"One Time Fist Pressure."
Whoosh!!
A strong wind gusted around him with him as the epicenter.
Garen as the epicenter, the surrounding area spanned hundreds of meters away in the mansion had uniformly sunk down at least ten centimeters.
Garen experienced the intense pressure in the area. It was the strength of the static pressure within the vicinity which increased by multiple multitudes. The items within the Pressure Fist's area of effect would experience an extremely strong pressure. This was the Destructive Impact Fist.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Two Times Fist Pressure," Garen said calmly.
Boom!! Boom boom boom!!
In an instant, the items around him started exploding, including the big ice pillar tree which exploded into debris as they landed on the ground.
The air whistled as it seemed to have formed into a solid glue hundreds of meters around Garen.
Garen then quickly put away his Pressure Fist as the pressure which was double its original was almost enough to destroy his entire garden. The Destructive Impact Fist was definitely a fist technique most suited for people with high vitality. With his current physical attribute, it was as if a fish was introduced to the water as he was able to reach the tenth layer, the Ten Times Pressure Fist from the very beginning.
"This Secret Technique is literally tailored for me. Perfect!" Garen said excitedly as he looked at the mess around him. As he was too lazy to clean it up, he walked out of the garden and headed towards the small Flying Ship since he had to go there covertly.
The biggest obstacle to mastering the Destructive Impact Fist was to have enough Vitality. This was only the foundation as the future pieces of training were very similar to self-torture. With every increment in the Fist Pressure, the user's body would become much denser and at the same time would suffer great injury to the point of near death. Perhaps a typical person wouldn't dare practice this technique as they might not be able to recover from such heavy injury every time. Even if they were able to recover, there would be many hidden injuries that technology wouldn't be able to fix. However, this was not the case for Garen.
He had potential points, which could perfect restore his physical body. This was the reason why he stated that this Secret Technique was created for him.
Once one reached the Tenth Grade, the Ten Times Pressure Fist would have ten times more self-destructive power. It was the pure increment of the fist's strength to the limits. It also represented the practitioner's strength which had been increased by tenfold.
**************
Garen went on to attend Senior Sister Rainy's funeral before he departed. The corpse had already been taken off but the face and flesh were in a complete mess as it was obvious that she was tortured to death.
The cold corpse was placed inside an ice coffin which was surrounded with decorative white flower crystals. The coffin was being slowly placed into the ice tomb just behind the Scarlet Snow Sect.
Garen covered his face as he stood among the crowd, looking at Rainy's coffin being buried. He was at a loss for words.
Although Rainy didn't give him much guidance, she was also one of the few who didn't have any ill intention towards him. Her death and funeral made Eva hate him even more as she stared at him to the point where it seemed as if she was about to kill him.
No one dared to go near Garen as they were not willing to interact with someone who was ungrateful. His reputation had really sunk into the abyss.
Garen stood outside of the Ice Cemetary as he looked at Rainy's burial from afar. He placed his hand softly on his sword without saying a word.
"Despite her being a criminal to my Scarlet Snow Sect, she was still without a doubt who contributed a lot to my Sect when she was still alive," The Second Elder, who was Rainy's teacher, was the only elder who attended the funeral.
Carthage and the remaining two elders didn't attend the funeral.
The other Three Hearted Disciples had fully arrived.
"Go back to the cosmo peacefully," the master of ceremony sang loudly.
The Second Elder sighed as he turned around and left the area slowly. He patted Eva's shoulder without saying a word before he left.
Eva's eyes were red and tears started flowing down as she could not hold it in anymore. Aloran then immediately walked towards her and held onto her hand tightly.
"Why are you here! You ungrateful man! Pfft!!"
Salivas were spat at Garen's face but they were blocked off by an invisible field. The salivas then turned into ice cubes before landing on the ground.
Garen looked at where the noise came from and saw a few young men and women. The one who spat saliva at him was no other than the golden-haired Hong Guo, who was standing at the front and beside him was Conan and a weak youngster.
All three of them were younger than seventeen years old. They were all staring at him with an unfriendly expression.
Rainy was the most important person to them.
Garen kept quiet for a while before speaking up.
"Are you the one who inherited the Secret Frost Seed?" He looked at Hong Guo, the youngster who didn't intend to hide his hatred towards him.
According to the intel, he should be Senior Sister Rainy's grandson.
However, he was currently very weak…
Garen started laughing.
"How can you prove that I am the one who killed Rainy? You can't simply make up stuff kid. Be wary of what you say…"
Whoom!!
A powerful Energy Field was pressed onto them. In that instant, the sound of bones cracking could be heard from the three of them. Their faces turned red and kneeled down on the ground due to the intense pressure.
"Damn it!! Ahh!!!" Hong Guo shouted in anger as he tried to stand up with all of his might. As he exerted a huge amount of force, his knees exploded and blood started flowing out from them.
However, he did resist Garen's pressure.
Perhaps the others were inspired by his courage or they were as strong as him. The short golden-haired girl and Conan didn't kneel down even though her bandages had broken apart and blood started to stain her entire body.
"Interesting," Garen smiled as he started to increase the energy field.
Pew! A white line suddenly drew across the air and went towards his face.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmClang!!
As the white line was approximately half a meter away from Garen, it completely lost its momentum and dropped to the ground.
It was Garen's Condensation Energy Field, which was a passive technique that had been greatly enhanced due to his Inherited Level Willpower. If this Defensive Energy Field could only be extended half a meter away from his body, Hong Guo and the other two might not be able to get within a hundred meter range of Garen.
The white line was shot by Aloran from afar. Her gaze was as cold as ice as she walked in big steps and stood in front at Hong Guo and the others.
"What are you doing bullying these kids!?"
As Hong Guo shouted earlier, he had already attracted the attention from Eva and the others. The Second Elder's pupils were staring at Garen as if he was an enemy.
Garen shrugged as he put away his Energy Field.
"I was only standing here."
"Get lost!" Eva walked towards him and shouted.
Garen maintained his smile as he looked at the crowd before turning around and leaving the area quietly. He didn't care whether the others knew the truth or understood him.
Whatever he had done had not betrayed his own conscience. The friendship between him and Eva, her effort in raising him into a Three Hearted Disciple, her care towards him. He would return all of this favor eventually.
He was not able to save Rainy's life but he might able to return the favor by helping these three kids.
Although he had been isolated by everyone, had he really mixed himself with anybody from the beginning until the end?
He had already gotten used to such a lifestyle.
***************
It was time for him to leave for his mission.
The Dimensional Tunnel was already opened and the teams assigned to this mission had already been arranged beforehand. Garen was in the Frost Hell as he attempted to be inspired by the Secret Frost Seed when he received the notification. Unfortunately, since the distance was rather far away, he was unable to touch the Secret Frost Seed. Hence, he didn't really obtain any huge reward but instead the only thing he gained was a surface knowledge of the strength and characteristics of the Scarlet Snow Sect's ancestors. Perhaps this knowledge would be useful to those who had not decided their path. However, this knowledge was completely useless to the current Garen.
Hence, he left the Frost Hell and rode the Flying Ship and went towards the gathering point the moment he received the call.
As he drove the Flying Ship to the Dimensional Tunnel, he analyzed his own body.
Although there were no changes in his Vitality Attribute, he could feel that there were no changes in his defense, toughness and hardness as well. It seemed that his starting point, being having 40 points of Vitality was so overwhelming that he could resist the body's increasing density caused by the Ten Times Pressure Fist.
This also meant that he had not reached the limits of the Destructive Impact Fist and could still increase the pressure of his Pressure Fist.
The Flying Ship soon arrived at an icy field and there was a black hole swirling slowly on it. There were a few ships of difference sizes parked beside it and at least ten people from the Scarlet Snow Sect were standing on the icy field, waiting for him as they looked at Garen's ship.