Mystical Journey

At the foot of the Holy Fist Palace mountain, there was a rather prosperous little white town — Moyo Town.

There were small white buildings all over the town, each house had many colorful fresh flowers. Every time the breeze blew past, there was a waft of sweet floral fragrance everywhere.

The sky was cloudy, and in the middle of the town, beside the river flowing down from the snowy mountain, there was a white three-story house.

“It’s not bad to come for a vacation here, huh?” Arisa ate her homemade ice-cream, her feet propped up on a deckchair. She wore red sunglasses, shorts, and a T-shirt, looking young and pretty.

Beside her, Garen’s little sister, Vivien was lying down, the two girls resting freely under a large sun umbrella.

“We went to all those lengths to trick Mom and Dad over here for a vacation, but we can’t stay long here, either,” Vivien said exasperatedly. “What could it be, why do all of us have to come here?”

“I don’t really know either, but Big Sis and Uncle Pritto should be here soon too. Ask them when they get here.” Arisa sipped some pear juice, smoothing down her hair as she replied.

“Big Sis Isaros is coming? Great, then we can swim together, the river water is really comfy recently.” Vivien had practically partied off her rocker, with Rod from the Rexott group obeying her every desire, there was almost nothing she could not reach. It was only her brother Garen’s side that remained mysterious to her, but she was not one to insist on finding out anyway.

Although Arisa said she did not know, she knew everything.

She was being protected under the Holy Fist Palace. Most of the people living here were families of the Holy Fist Palace’s inner circle members, plus she was in constant contact with her sister Isaro. Nothing was a secret from her there, so naturally she knew everything about the events happening outside.

A war had officially broken out between a large Blood Breed family and the Holy Fist Palace. They had been placed here so that they would stay out of danger, even though they were told to take a two-month vacation, the truth was that they were here to avoid the revenge of the Blood Breeds.

There were powerful fighters patrolling all around the town, as well as all sorts of high-tech security equipment, so it was extremely safe here.

But the situation here was stable for now, instead, she was more worried about her sister’s side.

Her sister and Pritto had gone to investigate whether the secret party’s Scarlet Moon leader was still alive or not, but she did not know how they were progressing right now. Once they found Lord Scarlet Moon, and contacted the number one Death Apostle, Lord Ashen, that would truly be the light party’s best chance.

Arisa knew how hard it would be, and especially after she got to know just how much stronger Blood Breeds were from Pritto, the shadow over her heart just grew darker by the day.

The last time her sister came back to visit her, the scent on her had gotten even deeper, and when they bathed together, Arisa noticed that there were more scars on her sister’s body.

“I wonder when this kind of life will end…” Arisa raised her head to look at the small building next to her, she could vaguely hear Vivien’s parents chatting and laughing inside, while her older brother Jason whined.

“Arisa, Vivien, haven’t you had enough fun? Come on in here to help!”

Trish yelled from inside the house.

“Coming!!”

The two of them hurriedly got off the chairs, and brought their cups into the house.

Trish was wearing an apron, placing dishes onto the table, they were all new dishes that she had just learned to cook.

Emmer was reading magazines at the side with his legs crossed, looking completely carefree.

“I wonder when that punk Garen will come back for a visit, even if he’s gone out to work, he should stop by home once in a while!” Trish complained as she served the food.

“Exactly, he barely even joins us when we go out on vacation as a family,” Vivien agreed hurriedly. “But he rarely even meets us like this, I bet he has something important to handle. After all, he has his own company now.”

“Let him be, as long as he can survive on his own, I can’t be bothered with him.” Trish and Emmer did not know what their son was doing, they just understood that Garen had started his own private company, and was now so busy that they could barely even see him.

“Let’s eat, let’s eat!” Emmer put down his magazine and sat at the table, “Isn’t Garen doing pretty well, forget him!”

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

Wellington Manor, family headquarters

At night, several dark shadows floated out of the darkness lightly, landing beside the manor. One of the shadows pulled something round of his pocket and pressed it lightly, then seemed to wait for something.

The time ticked by.

There was no movement at all in the manor.

“What’s the matter?” the shadow spoke softly, in perfect French. “We agreed to meet here, what is the Wellington Elder doing?!”

“Could it be broken?” another shadow asked in a low voice.

“No way, I used it once just now,” the first shadow said hesitatingly. “Elder Tu Lan and I made an agreement, and the people from Wellington were always quick to greet us. Even if they were attacked this time and are low on manpower, it makes no sense for there to be no reaction whatsoever.”

“The news I got earlier said that they had all retreated into the underground palace for hiding, and are currently trying to recover. Could there be some special equipment blocking the signal?” The other shadow hazarded a guess.

“Let’s go in and check.”

The few shadows floated lightly into Wellington Manor, it was completely empty and silent inside, giving off an air of abandonment.

“Something’s not right.”

The first shadow seemed to have smelled something.

“Come, let’s go down!”

Several shadows floated soundlessly to a piece of lawn in the middle of the manor, and activated some trigger.

The floor immediately moved aside to reveal a pitch-black underground tunnel, with twinkling lights inside, but it seemed to be similarly deserted.

They looked at each other, and quickly entered the tunnel.

They went through various tunnels, pitch-black ash covering the walls and the floor. There was blood everywhere in some places, in both the underground tunnel and connecting underground palace, but there was nobody to be seen anywhere.

The few of them ran straight for the Elders’ Room as though they knew it well, this was not their first time here at Wellington. Now that they noticed something wrong, they sped up despite themselves.

Bam!!

The tightly-shut stone door was knocked open abruptly, and as the shrapnel rained down, it revealed the dim interior of the Elders’ Room.

In the middle of the room, a large long black robe fell onto the ground, but there was no one else in here. At the same time, there was even a considerable human-shaped hole in the wall.

One of the shadows landed in front of the robes, picking them up for a sniff.

“These are the Wellington Great Elder’s clothes…”

He exchanged glances with the Blood Breed behind him, and both of them read a hint of shock in the other’s eyes.

“Who could destroy the whole Wellington without a trace like that?!”

“It’s the light party…! It must be!” The other one clenched his teeth, “They must still have eyes watching this place, let’s go! Now!”

The others were all shocked, grabbing the robes and retreating rapidly.

But none of them noticed the cracking sound made by a small black stone-like object at one corner of the walls, that was a hidden micro camera.

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

Eastern area of America, Wynea State.

14:17 in the afternoon

Heavy downpour

Tu Lan walked on the streets of Benar City with a red umbrella, waiting for the traffic lights with the people who had just gotten out of work. Walking down the pedestrian sidewalk, she would even occasionally glance at the pretty clothes boutiques.

She wore a long pale blue dress and a black silk belt around her waist, her fiery-red waist-long hair straight and smooth, glowing luxuriously.

Her white heeled slippers stepped on the bricks lining the ground, and occasionally she would disturb some puddles.

A few uniformed students had just gotten out of school, wearing raincoats and riding their bikes. When they passed by her on the sidewalk, the boys’ gazes were all gathered onto her, and every one of them was shocked by her beauty.

Boom!

In an instant, Tu Lan’s vision blurred, and everything in front of her turned pitch-black. A huge and long figure, like that of a snake, appeared in front of her slowly.

That was a Serpent Dragon, with the same metallic black copper color!

The Serpent Dragon rose slowly, its joint-like body looking just like a real Eastern dragon. Its huge dragon eyes stared at her slowly, there was a huge door, ancient and dull, behind it.

Her vision blurred again, and Tu Lan returned to her senses, to find herself still standing on the main streets of Benar. The rain pattered onto the umbrella in her hand.

“Is it another illusion?” She touched her right hand, the one that seemed ever so slightly differently-colored from her left eye.

Serpent Dragon, that was the symbol of her achieving the level of Death Apostle. If she could truly break through that Serpent Dragon someday, and enter that door of darkness, that would be the moment she became a Death Apostle.

This was the Black Dragon Tao Technique that she had learned from the East five hundred years ago, when she had gone traveling around the world. She merged it with her family’s holy technique, and after several centuries of perfecting and practicing it, she was approaching the final levels now.

Moving the side of her umbrella away, Tu Lan looked up at the sky from beside the umbrella. The rain came down like silk, floating down endlessly. If one followed the rain silk all the way up to the sky, they would find what seemed to be an endless ocean of clouds.

“Tu Lan Wellington.” Suddenly, someone called her name from behind.

Tu Lan lowered her head, and turned around to look.

It was an Asian girl in a white dress, with porcelain skin, and waist-length pitch-black hair as smooth and lustrous as silk. Her features were delicate and flawless, reminding others of clear jade.

But most strikingly, the girl held a small violin upside-down in her hand, the body of the violin a bloody red.

She held the violin in one hand and the bow in the other. She stood quietly in the flow of the crowd, but strangely, not a single person around her seemed to notice her, treating her as though she did not exist.

“You are?” Tu Lan was very sure that she did not know her, although she had seen many very different types of girls after living for almost a millennia, but not a single one had this type of aura.

“My name is Ninox, I’m here for your life.” The Asian girl held up the violin slowly, and an indescribable, strange scent began to emanate around them.

Before they knew it, in an instant, only the two of them were left standing alone on the streets.

The rain from the sky vanished slowly, and a pale yellow beam of sunlight shone down from the sky, landing on the two of them.

“This is…!?” Tu Lan’s heart gave a jolt. The passersby and cars around her also began to fade slowly, she somehow could not see anyone else at all in this city.

“Fantasy Fist’s Profound…” Ninox said softly, the violin bow sliding across the strings.