Mystical Journey

Joey's combat power was actually at the peak of Level Five, even an average Level Five would stand no chance against him. This was because Joey had kept a lot of other backup tricks up his sleeve.

Absorption Dragon was one of them. This move required the user to continuously accumulate force, then finally bursting in the end, causing speed and power to be twice the original level. Twice the strength of a level five would have reached the resonance stage. If it was used against her, she would barely be able to survive, much less a random level four energy machinist.

Not even bothering to look at the gory scene that was about to ensue, she turned around, bent down and picked up the two flying platforms on the ground.

Bam!!!

A loud sound could be heard behind her.

Yiling was in shock.

"This sound… Something's wrong…"

She rapidly turned around.

In the distance, Joey stood there with his eyes wide open, his palms had been knocked to the side by Garen's fist. The two were standing face-to-face and he could clearly see the cold emotionless expression on Garen's face.

"Interesting!?" The energy fields from Joey's Absorption Dragon whirled past Garen into an empty space, breaking through a few giant pine trees behind him, piercing through the air.

His face revealed an amused smile as he licked his lips.

"Seems like the recording device didn't record your full capabilities. To think my Absorption Dragon would fail to annihilate you and to be able to even knock it off course. Garen, you sure are full of surprises…"

"You aren't Level Four…" Garen uttered softly.

"Of course… I'm the same as Yiling, a Level Five," before he even finished the sentence, he pulled apart his palms, slashing towards Garen's head like two blades. A few small sonic booms could be heard in the air, but the palm blade was nowhere to be seen. Seems like it had reached the maximum speed.

At the same time, Joey's Tenth-Grade Scarlet Snow Technique whirled up a ferocious gust of cold air, completely covering his palm blade.

"Die!!"

"Multiple Speed Fist!!!" Garen roared in his heart. Although he was activating the full power of his Eighth-Grade Scarlet Snow Technique, he was still being pressured by his opponent's cold air.

He relied on his Multiple Speed Fist to knock away the Absorption Dragon in an instant earlier, but now the Tenth-Grade Scarlet Snow Technique could seep in with Joey's every move and attack. There was no way he could completely counter it with only the Multiple Speed Fist.

Using his fists and elbows to block the bursting air pressure behind him, Garen faced his opponent's palm blades. His eyes suddenly flashed.

Clank!!!

The two collided head-to-head, with fresh blood splattering all over the place.

Garen's two fists revealed two deep cuts, blood dripping down his arms. However, Garen did not seem to care much and he started to take a deep breath, almost as if a whale inhaling air.

"Again!!"

He roared in a low voice, lunging towards Joey who just managed to regain his balance.

Multiple Speed Fist suddenly burst, charging towards the target along with the strong cold air. Garen's right fist was almost as if a sharp drill, fiercely moving towards Joey's neck.

"Hmph!!"

Joey coldly spat, his eyes revealing a similar killing intent. Utilizing his Tenth-Grade Scarlet Snow, he concentrated it on his hands as he lunged towards Garen as well.

Bang!!

The white mist cold air was followed by blood splattering in the air.

The two had collided with each other, arms interlocked. Garen's bones in his arm started cracking, but he completely ignored it. He knew that if he did not force Joey to retreat, he would have no chance of leaving this place alive today.

The energy machinists of Planet Nagadako was different from other places. Their strengths lie in the Energy Machinists themselves. Yiling and Joey's relationship seemed to not be as simple as they made it look. They seemed to be a lot more intimate.

Originally, Garen was only suspicious of the two, but now, he was almost fifty percent certain.

Joey was almost definitely Yiling's younger brother. Although their facial characteristics had no doubt undergone some form of concealment, after the activities with them these few days, he got a closer look at the two of them. The two definitely have very similar facial characteristics.

"Multiple Speed Fist!!!"

Garen used his third Multiple Speed Fist. He started to feel the pain from his muscles starting to tear. He knew that the excessive usage of Multiple Speed Fist within such a short time had started to affect his body.

This move was quite amazing because it allowed the user to increase his speed by three times in a short burst, allowing him to keep up with Joey's Level Five potential. However, the burden it puts on the user's body is too harsh.

"Let's see how you block this!!" Joey blocked Garen's Multiple Speed Fist, seeming as if he had seen though Garen's concerns. He revealed a sly smile, leaping backward, his palms together once more.

"Absorption Dragon!!"

With a roar, the formless twisted energy field charged straight towards a groggy Garen.

"This is the time!!"

Garen's eyes suddenly flashed, he now had something in his hands, throwing it at the Absorption Dragon.

"That's!!!" The originally calm Yiling suddenly burst out, "Dodge it Joey!!"

However, it was too late.

Joey only felt that his Absorption Dragon seemingly collided with something. In the next instant, with a huge roar, a fearsome and unimaginably powerful concussion storm whirled at his direction.

As if getting hit by a ten thousand tonne ship, Joey's body was flung back like a cannonball as he got struck by this silent energy field explosion. His body breaking through countless pine trees without losing any speed, his body disappeared into the pine woods. He was completely knocked out, his blood and shredded clothes leaving a trail through his crashing trajectory.

With Garen as the center, the surrounding area more than ten meters in radius looked as if it was struck by a freak windstorm, leaving nothing behind.

"Joey!!" Yiling's face started to lose color. She clenched his fists, staring daggers at Garen, yet she was more concerned about the wellbeing of her brother.

She stomped her feet and raised her hand to release a gray shadow.

"Kill him!" After leaving that sentence behind, she turned around and rushed towards her brother's location.

Without even looking at the paper box that had burst to shreds, Garen leaped back rapidly. With a few backflips in the air, he dived into a nearby river.

With a splash, his open wounds started to freeze shut, stopping the blood. He continued to swim down the river, almost looking like a fish.

He once stayed under the sea for a few decades back in the Totem World. Naturally, he would have high affinity with water.

Looking back, he saw the gray shadow that was still closely pursuing him. Garen just let out a sigh and ignored it.

In his earlier confrontation with March, he already had an escape plan arranged. His duel with Joey was only to test out what level his actual combat potential could reach. The results of a test gave him an estimation, without that Instantaneous Paper Box, he might have actually lost to Joey. The killing power of a Level Five Machinist was quite fearsome. Especially for someone like Joey with so much hidden potential. The outcome this time exceeded his expectations, but next time, it would not be so easy.

After swimming for a distance, a Giant Blue Wolf appeared in the water ahead of him.

Without hesitation, Garen swam directly towards the wolf.

As Garen approached it, the giant wolf started to reveal his obedience towards Garen, voluntarily moving under Garen to carry him. Then, with a shake of his fur, the Giant Blue Wolf shot through the water like a swordfish, leaving the gray shadow in the dust.

"Grr!!" The gray shadow growled in dissatisfaction, appearing to continue its pursuit. However, within half a minute, it had completely disappeared from sight.

This was one of Garen's arranged escape plans.

This Giant Blue Wolf was one of his Big Wild Wolf's Experimental Body. After exhausting a lot of his resources and skills over the years, it had finally taken form. This time around, although he did not keep it with him as a bodyguard, he had it follow him all the way to the pine forest and had it remain hidden.

The Giant Blue Wolf's speed was extremely fast, it was 1.6 times the maximum speed of a flying platform in its normal state. If it used its maximum speed burst, it would be at least three times the speed of a flying platform.

However, this amazing speed came at the cost of other sacrifices in the form of the reduction of strength, recovery ability and lifespan.

This type of Giant Blue Wolf's strength was only half of that of the Big Wild Wolf's strength, it also has a limited lifespan of fifty years. For an experimental body that accompanies the Energy Machinist, that was far too short.

If the other Energy Machinist found out about this, to exhaust so many resources just for this measly increase in speed, they would no doubt call him crazy.

However, to sacrifice other attributes for speed was Garen's goal all along. As long as one had enough speed, one would be able to escape from any sort of predicament, which was his ultimate goal. Purely with this, a lot of Energy Machinist would still be able to catch up. After all, energy machinists like March had a lot of savings and intrinsic foundations. However, this all changes if he added something else to the equation.

With the addition of the Distorted Seed, the Giant Blue Wolf's speed would skyrocket. As per Garen's estimation, it would be impossible even for an Inherited Level Energy Machinists to reach these speeds. This speed had exceeded Inherited Level limits.

This was the key reason why he dared to confront March. With this as a backup, he could retreat as he pleases, so he would not have to worry about being surrounded by March's men.

He originally planned to retreat on his Giant Blue Wolf as soon as he left the mothership, but since he met Joey and Yiling, he thought he might as well do a test to find out out the baseline of his potential.

At the end, it was not far from his expectations.

With Multiple Speed Fist, his combat power effectively increased by a level. This allowed him to have a temporary explosive potential, reaching approximately the peak of level five. He was able to defend against level five attacks, being a little stronger than before, but not too strong. After all, Multiple Speed Fist is a skill of a low-level mutated organism.

Furthermore, Joey was a level five and had multiple tricks up his sleeve. Garen would lose his advantage in long battles if he could not defeat his opponent with his explosive power at the start of the bout he would have no choice but to retreat. This was the ultimate concern of such extreme battle tactics.

He had no chance of defeating Joey in a fair fight. In addition to that, facing an old-school level five like Yiling, if the two combined their powers, besides fleeing he had no other possible option.

Luckily the energy machinists in Planet Nagadako focuses more on their physical selves, their Energy Machines were not strong as they were mainly used as supports. Otherwise, the gray shadow pursuing him back there might have been able to catch up to him easily.

"I still can't guarantee my win with these extreme measures. Furthermore, if it was an Energy Machinist from another place, I would expect them to send their Energy Machines to battle and not to personally take part in the combat. Seems like there's still a lot of risks in my gameplan…" Garen lied on top of the Giant Blue Wolf, lightly breathing and allowing his vitality to naturally heal his body back to its original status. He swallowed a piece of high energy content nutrition jerky he had prepared earlier in order to speed up his healing process.

"I wonder how that fellow Joey is doing? Heh, after getting a direct hit from the Instantaneous Paper Box I kept for so long, even if he survives he would at least need to shed off his skin," Garen quickly swallowed the remaining jerky in his hands and slowed down his breathing. He felt his body had almost completely recovered within such a short time.

Looking at the bones in his arms, the broken bones from earlier had already been fully healed, with only a couple of external wounds on his body that has not fully been healed. There were still two long red lines left on both his wrists.

This was the fearsome power of the Hellfrost Peacock Technique along with a strong vitality level. For most wounds and injuries, as long as they were not near-fatal, they would heal almost as easy as drinking a sip of water, it gave a terrifying recovery speed.

"Too bad I didn't manage to test out the effects of activating the Red Eagle State," Garen seemed regretful that he did not manage to test out the Red Eagle State in the end.

"With this incident, Joey and Yiling would basically hold a grudge on me. I better do my best in training when I get back. As long as I remain in the Sect Headquarters, they wouldn't dare to take action," after planning everything in his head, Garen patted the Giant Blue Wolf as it increased another level in speed.

Splash!

One person and a wolf shot out of the water, headed straight into the sea of trees. It looked almost like a trail of blue smoke that disappeared instantly.

With the genetic modification of essence and the Red Eagle Gene Transplant, although he did not get enough points this time, what he gained had already far exceeded his expectations.

He had to rush back quickly, in case he got stopped by March or his men.