Mystical Journey

Immediately, the people at the bottom bowed and silently left the hall, and only Ninox remained. She had the same style as back in her student days; she was in a pair of white skinny jeans and a knotted white T-shirt that flaunted her curves. However, her face was a bit pale, as she was still recovering from her injuries.

She looked over at Tu Lan who was standing behind Garen. Recognizing her, she had a displeased expression. However, since Garen was there, she didn’t say anything and quietly stood there awaiting her orders.

She was the most loyal person to Garen out of all the members of the Combat Club. Regarding the manipulation via the Soul Seed, she didn’t mind at all. On the contrary, she was extremely grateful for what Garen did for her, as it turned her life around.

Although she would have to face a lot of dark and gory predicaments, the Fantasy Fist wasn’t as bloody as Waterbird Fist. By using Waterbird Fist as a support for Fantasy Fist, she could easily render the opponent helpless. This also meant that she had also killed a lot of people, but most of the time blood wouldn’t be spilled.

Garen had never forced her to do anything though. Just like Dahm and Hochman, she’d started off merely as a martial arts hobbyist who had some basic training in the East. If not for her gratitude towards Garen and the influence of the soul seed primer, there was no way Ninox could’ve adapted to her current job and lifestyle at the Holy Fist Palace.

Garen stood up from his throne. After everyone else had exited the hall, he finally walked down, with Cece and Tu Lan following closely behind him. The trio headed to the palace, towards the common resting facilities used by Garen and the members of the palace.

Ninox had the utmost admiration towards Garen, and so she eagerly followed behind him. Tu Lan hesitated for a brief moment but reluctantly followed the two.

“How is the training going for your Fantasy Fist?” Garen asked while he continued to walk.

Cece politely answered.

“I’m only one more level away from reaching the maximum level.”

“Oh?” Garen was somewhat surprised. “That’s fast progress. Looks like your innate abilities are great after all.”

The three walked to a darker corner. Garen suddenly stopped and turned around.

“I have a task for you.”

“I await your orders, master,” Ninox immediately lowered her head.

“I want you to protect someone in secret back in my hometown of Grano,” Garen calmly said. He opened up his mouth, a name immediately rang in Cece’s ears.

She was stunned for a moment, and her eyes held a hint of disappointment. However, she quickly composed herself once more.

“I will complete your orders.”

“Out of my apprentices, I’m most worried about you,” Garen let out a sigh, “Relax your whole body.”

Ninox was once again stunned, not understanding what her master meant.

In an instant, she saw Garen’s palm fly towards her chest. Her face immediately flushed red, and she forcefully suppressing her urge to dodge his hand, closing her eyes.

Poke!

Almost as if numerous sounds merged together, it created a loud sound.

Garen’s index finger lightly poked a pressure point in between Cece’s breasts. He then slowly pulled back his hand.

At that moment, Ninox’s chest started to boil up, almost as if her entire body was being entirely enveloped by the warmth of a hot spring. This feeling only lasted for a brief moment and it faded away almost immediately.

“I left something inside your body that in the case of emergencies, such as when you face a life-or-death situation, it will automatically activate,” Garen’s calm voice could be heard once again.

“Apprentice…” Ninox suddenly realized that it was all her dirty imagination, and she immediately blushed. She slightly lowered her head, her heart beating rapidly.

“Alright, I’m counting on you!” he patted her shoulders, “Don’t let me down.”

“Yes!” Cece frantically nodded and turned around to escape from this situation. With a few huge leaps, she even used her secret techniques to escape this embarrassing situation.

“She likes you,” Tu Lan said in a soft voice.

“Is that so?” Garen didn’t seem surprised; Cece’s reactions were easy to read even for a normal person.

Tu Lan could also understand Garen. After all, his existence was on a whole new level.

An unparalleled position, monstrous strength, a handsome appearance comparable to Apollo, the God of Sun himself, he had every masculine trait that one could ever want. It would be even weirder if someone didn’t like him.

Garen also understood how Cece felt, but a young girl’s emotions were constantly changing. She was still young and might not understand what she was feeling yet, might not know what she actually liked yet. She would only find out more when she matured, and it was still too early to tell.

This mission he gave was also a form of training for Ninox. In the end, she still didn’t have much experience in killing and so she was still very naive.

What Garen left inside her was the aura to unlock the first star of his Seven Star Life’s Secret Point Secret Method. That small amount of aura could allow Ninox to obtain the burst potential of the first star in emergencies. That would allow her to double all of her stats, at the cost of collapsing in exhaustion for one entire day after.

This was his protection for her. Out of all his apprentices, Ninox had the purest intentions towards the Holy Fist Palace.

“You can go back and rest,” Garen looked Tu Lan in the eye. “Remember, you are not allowed to leave the Holy Fist Palace.”

“Yeah yeah,” Tu Lan made a dejected face. “It’s not like I could leave even if I wanted to, right?”

Her body was planted with Garen’s soul seed primer, as she’d given in to the temptation and started learning the Fantasy Fist. Even if it was the Blood Breed, after learning Garen’s secret techniques and demonic techniques, they would expectedly start to get engrossed in it. It wasn’t because the training brought them pleasure, but it was mostly because they had to find Garen every so often for him to personally refill the energy of the soul seed primer.

Without Garen’s soul primer to suppress the effects of learning the Fantasy Fist, even if she was a death apostle, there would still be numerous side effects of migraines and even memory loss.

However, with the pleasure getting stronger from learning the Fantasy Fist, Tu Lan, who had been bored for thousands of years, couldn’t help but delve deeper and deeper. She started taking the initiative in her training even without the orders of Garen.

Garen also found it strange, as the Fantasy Fist didn’t always have this type of effect. Ever since it had been written into the Demonic Book, it started to have the same effects of the Waterbird Fist, a weird pleasure in learning the technique and soul resistance. Similar to the other secret techniques, it became a demonic technique with rapid progression rates.

He guessed that this had something to do with the Demonic Book.

After Tu Lan left, he headed towards his reading room alone.

After closing the door, he saw the boiling hot glass of green tea freshly made from the kitchen. Inside the glass wasn’t just normal green tea leaves, there were also countless valuable herbs, all for the purpose of replenishing one’s vitality, qi and blood. The water had turned a bright shade of green due to an excessive amount of a certain ingredient used. However, if a normal person were to ingest this, it would undoubtedly have the same effects of drinking a poisonous tonic. Its frightening concentration could easily be made out from the intense aroma slowly enveloping the entire room. If a normal person were to drink this, they would definitely collapse immediately.

However, Garen was completely used to this, he just grabbed the glass and chugged its contents down.

“Is there any way for my right eye to recover?” Garen asked as if talking to another person.

At that moment, Black Sethe’s voice softly rang in his ears.

‘I’ve checked, the wounds left by Nadia has a special ability to cause permanent damage. To put it simply, after you get wounded and certain parts of your body completely stop functioning, there will be no chance of recovery. In other words, I can’t do anything else to help your eye.”

Garen lightly touched his right eye.

“As a Void Pursuer, can’t I use the core of void creatures to repair my wounds?”

‘That is the case, but those only apply to average wounds from normal void creatures. This ability of Nadia is something more like gene erasing. It looked as if she only attacked your right eye, but in reality, she attacked your body’s cells, removing all genes linked to your right eye in the cells, making it seem as if you never had a right eye in the first place. Naturally, there is no way of recovering from that,’ Black Sethe explained.

‘A better plan would be to get a transplant, attaching another creature’s eyes to your body, using it on your own. However, that requires major alterations in the brain, making it risky and troublesome.’

“Speaking of which, Nadia hasn’t appeared for a while now. Has she given up?” Garen frowned.

‘Impossible. After being silent for such a long time, there’s a high chance she has developed a strong attack tactic. You’d better prepare yourself,’ Black Sethe flatly denied Garen’s hypothesis. ‘As for your right eye, if you plan on hiding it from your parents, your best bet is to use your Fantasy Fist.’

Garen also understood that. He just sighed and moved on.

He shifted his sights to his own attribute pane.

‘Garen Thomas.

Strength 7. Agility 7. Vitality 10. Intelligence 11. Potential 7989%. Soul Limit 30.’

The attributes with more than 10 points now required more than 100 potential points just to increase them by one point. This frightening point requirement made Garen give up on raising the other attributes. He thought it would be better to save up his points to get to 12 points of Intelligence, gaining the double hit ability.

On the other hand, he had not met his family in a very long time, which was very weird for a child. Since his right eye couldn’t be repaired, he had no choice but to use his Fantasy Fist.

The information on the Fantasy Fist flashed in his mind.

His vision swiftly shifted towards his skill pane, in the panel filled with different abilities and skills, he found the Fantasy Fist.

‘Fantasy Fist: Level 1 — Memory Loss (Total of 4 levels)’

‘A mysterious and scary ancient form of martial arts. Uses sound and air flow to damage or vibrate the opponents’ brains, creating a confusion effect on the opponents. Once hailed as the most feared secret martial arts.’

The Fantasy Fist, as a top-tier martial arts technique, naturally required quite a lot of potential points to level. The system behind learning this technique was absurdly complex. Every level was as tedious as decrypting a code, and it wasn’t something a normal person could achieve.

However, Garen was different; even his lowest attributes were at 7 points and as his Intelligence was at 11 points, his memory and comprehension level had reached an inhuman level. Furthermore, he was once a researcher back in the Totem World and had a good understanding of advanced neurology. Naturally, this made learning Fantasy Fist a simple task for him. A lot of the theories and principles behind it were nothing but just a refresher course for him.

For a top tier martial arts technique, the first level should require 5 points…

Garen’s vision was focussed on the icon. After 3 seconds, the icon flashed, then once again turning clear, the text displayed also changed.

‘Fantasy Fist: Level 2– Delirium (Total of 4 levels)’

‘An increased effect duration, causing confusion on all 5 senses.’

Glancing at his potential points, he’d used up 5 points. That didn’t faze Garen, and he continued to focus on the Fantasy Fist.

Except for his Flight of the Waterbird’s Profound, there weren’t any moves from the Waterbird’s Profound that required his full potential. Even Flight of the Phoenix was the result of combining Flight with West Phoenix Fist, or else it would merely be a third-rate secret technique. It could never reach that level on its own.

If he leveled Fantasy Fist now, he would be able to widen his arsenal. After all, Fantasy Fist was a top-class technique.