Mystical Journey

"Lala, you’ve been with me for many years, haven’t you? Garen changed the subject suddenly.

"Yes." Lala adjusted her attitude quickly, and relaxed again, except that an irrepressible ecstasy was still present deep within her eyes.

She had always took care of everything for Garen behind the scenes, and had never complained. Even when she was held captive and had almost lost her life, she had never asked Garen for rest or remuneration.

Now she had finally received her due reward.

She had her own friends, and relatives too. During the period when she came to the Kingdom, as Garen’s influence expanded, she used this opportunity to find her lost relatives as well. As these people gathered beside her, they naturally became her source of strength.

To outsiders, she was the Black Fire Palace Master’s spokesperson.

Her position was respected, except among the Gargantuans, and everyone in the Kingdom regarded her with status and respect.

In the days when the Kingdom calmed down, she would receive many banquet invitations daily. Some of them would be rejected, while others would be chosen to attend.

Countless people fawned over her and flattered her, in hopes of getting some of the power and profits from her hands. As long as one formed a relationship with her, they would be able to gain the favour of the fearsome Black Fire Palace as well. Everything she did was done with confidence.

In that moment, Lala had thought of many things.

She suppressed her excited emotions, and bowed in front of Garen seriously.

"I will not let you down."

Garen nodded, and watched her turn around to leave. He had given a large amount of his authority to Lala. With the protection of the Black Fire Guards and his namesake, no one would dare to make things difficult for her. Even the other three Gargantuans would need to give her face.

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

In the weeks after that, Angel recuperated completely, and her body finally healed. When she knew that Garen had saved her, she immediately fell into an absent minded state. It was obvious that the person she had always been trying to catch up to, was actually Garen.

She had initially swore that she would protect Garen in Iron Tank City, and had never expected that she would be overtaken by Garen, as she once assumed that she would be able to catch up.

But the brutal reality completely shattered her remaining bits of pride.

Although she had never admitted defeat, and had never given up, now that she could see that she was being pushed further behind, and in the end, she could not even reach the borderline. This feeling made her remember the first thing she had said in front of Garen when she slapped the table.

She was a person with high self-esteem, and she had always felt that she could never be worse than others. Initially, she thought that she could never catch up to the geniuses because her talents were different, and they were treated in different conditions.

She never expected to encounter a living example like Garen.

For some time, she could not face Garen, and could only continuously force herself to become stronger, and this attitude brought her to the wrong path, and caused her Totem cultivation to become stagnant, forming consecutive failures. Later, after receiving encouragement from some friends in her circle, she attempted to find a shortcut, only to end up in an almost fatal coma in the end.

After she woke up, she did not come to see Garen properly.

But every morning, when Garen practiced his daily Myriad Water Jasper Technique exercises, she would always watch him from afar, but would say nothing.

It started as a coincidence, but after awhile, she would always wake up on time, and would always observe Garen from afar while he sat cross-legged on the ground, practicing his Secret Techniques.

Although she felt that it was weird for Garen to merely sit on the floor motionless for a period of time, she never came over to question him.

When Garen practiced his Secret Techniques daily, he could always feel the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon being absorbed and fusing with his body slowly. Through this specialized Secret Technique method, he could operate the Nine-Headed Demon Dragon’s blood flow and his own Totem Power, allowing both of them to fuse, and adapt to one another.

He practiced day and night, and during breaks in between, he would play with the open communication device, and soon Garen had started to call it a radio. It made him nostalgic about his days on earth.

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

Many weeks had passed.

Angel finally came to face Garen properly.

In the morning while Garen was practicing his Secret Techniques, she finally walked over to him.

Garen, who was still sitting cross-legged on the floor, suddenly opened his eyes.

"You finally decided to come."

"I just couldn’t face you," Angel bit her lip, and her face was still slightly pale. "My main wish for the longest time, was not to let anyone feel that my achievements came from other people. Thus, I never mentioned our relationship to anyone."

"You’re quite extreme," Garen smiled, and got up from the ground.

"The War Chain’s abilities, are they still useful?" he asked casually, before taking a cup of mouthwash tea from a servant girl’s hand.

Angel did not answer, but the unhappy expression on her face clearly showed her emotions.

It was not useless, instead, it was extremely useful. But everytime the War Chain’s abilities increased, it meant that the distance between her and Garen was widening. The insulting part, was that she had always wanted to surpass Garen, but many times outside, the key moment that saved her life, was always reliant on the Chain’s abilities.

She had relied on these abilities when she had a disagreement with another Form 3 Totem User, and neither of them would give in to the other, and because this happened in the small scale mercenary community in the Kingdom, it also affected certain reputations.

Kovitan Empire was unlike Iron Tank City. This place was extremely powerful, and if it was not for the Chain’s abilities, she would have been swallowed without a trace already. Moreover, she would not be standing securely right now.

Garen drank a mouthful of tea, swirled it in his mouth, and spat it out immediately.

"You’re too preoccupied with strength, and your reputation. Put down your reputation. Sometimes, a friend’s strength is also a part of your strength. You need to understand this, strength that is borrowed and made your own, is the mark of a true victor."

Angel nodded unwillingly.

She looked at the twenty-something year old young man that stood before her, at this young age, he had already become the famed Kovitan Gargantuan. Unknowingly, he had already become a true genius that had left his youth behind.

Some people even compared him to the Three Heroes of the Three Main Domains.

Each of the Three Heroes stood firmly in the endless sea of monsters, and had built a powerful presence of illustrious feats.

Garen himself, had deep contacts with Black Field’s Hawk King, Goth.

This background, this strength, and these battle records quickly made Garen one of the biggest influencers of Kovitan’s situation.

His each word and command, would lead to actions of the people around him, and would unconsciously bring a surge of hidden movements.

"The situation in the Kingdom is unlike the past, and although many aristocrats have left, remaining soldiers from the defense line after the defeat flooden in instead, forming three major garrisons, meanwhile the common people from the border areas flooded into the outskirts of the Kingdom as well, and as their numbers increase, our food storage has become insufficient, and now that it is summer, more support will be needed for the arrival of summer."

As the main Gargantuan in the parliament, Garen would naturally receive sufficient news regarding the current situation.

The parliament had took over the previous imperial system, but the ministers below them remained, and were tasked with managing their own problems, and summarizing the messages from the bottom before they were sent to the higher ups.

The difference between the two systems was that Avic used to rule on his own previously, but now the parliament of the Four Gargantuans were the rulers. Only issues that were deemed too serious for the Four Gargantuans, or situations where there were similar vote numbers, would require them to hold large parliament votes again.

"Currently the elite soldiers are flooding inside, and have robbed the livelihood of you mercenaries to a large extent. Competition within the mercenary world will become greater in the future." Garen looked at Angel. "I’m getting ready to establish a school-of-thought-like organization, to receive more disciples. I happen to have a powerful method in my hands, but the danger is far too great."

"What method?!" Angel suddenly had an unrepentant feeling in her heart, she did not care that she had been saved by Garen anymore, and although the war Chain was dependent on the mercy of Garen and many others, she knew that she would never be able to surpass this man in her lifetime, and had simply relaxed her mind.

She was no longer tangled in the incident that required her to rely on Garen.

"It’s very dangerous, and you could be inflicted with an intense amount of pain. I’ll let you have a taste, and if you can handle it, I will let you try," Garen said earnestly.

"I'll do it." Angel answered without hesitation.

She had always been a persevering person, she had once been pursued for a thousand kilometers, and had been fled the Northern Region for her life. Even then, she had never once given up.

Garen nodded, as Angel’s reply was just as he had expected.

"Be careful."

Just as he finished speaking, his fingers shot out like lightning, and touched Angel’s forehead.

Angel felt as if she had been caught in thunderstorm, and was frozen on the spot, motionless.

Her face contorted, and the skin on the entire body gradually became red, while both of her hands were tightly balled into fists, and her fingernails had pierced directly into her palm, but she felt nothing.

Pap!

Garen stretched his fingers out and touched her forehead again.

Whoosh!!

Angel suddenly bended at the waist, while her entire body was covered with sweat, as if someone had just pulled her out of the water, as her clothes were completely soaked through. In those few seconds, the sweat that was expelled from her body was enough to form two wet footprints on the ground.

She began panting violently.

"How is it?" Garen looked at her worriedly. "This kind of pain, if we really begin, it will be one level stronger, as this was just a slight example."

"It’s… Amazing!!" Angel raised her head, and saliva was beginning to dribble out of her mouth, while a joyful, blushing expression appeared on her face.

"This feeling… It’s simply wonderful!!" She seemed to have enjoyed it, and was panting continuously, while she moaned quietly and alluringly.

Garen’s mouth gaped opene. He wanted to say something, but finally settled on closing his mouth and exhaling a deep breath.

He never expected that Angel would have these attributes, as the world was truly full of mysteries.

No wonder she was so strong-willed. She was a true masochist…

Frankly, he could already see that Angel’s Luminarist talents were slightly stronger than his own, but because she had diverged on the wrong path, and attempted to take a shortcut, she had ultimately lost her conscience. On the path towards Totem cultivation, when one’s original adaptability with their Totem decreased, it would finally become completely stagnant in the end.

Thus, he thought of allowing her to use the path of the Green Vine Sphere. In this chaotic world, the ones that were least likely to be lacking were the regular people with strong wills.

Extreme hatred, extreme desire, extreme madness, and extreme hurt. All of these were factors that could strengthen one’s spirit and will.

In this chaotic world, these things were definitely not lacking.

"Alright, you should go and get ready. After three days, I will publicly announce that I am officially looking for disciples." Garen had already decided that he would make the official public announcement after three days.

This time, his main aim was to find regular people, especially those who excelled in fighting but were quickly declining. They were lacking a lot of master-level fighters, and this was a good chance.

After getting modified by the Zibane Power, they would soon become strong, peak-levelled masters.

"Besides this, your revenge…"

"I’ll solve that on my own!" Angel interrupted Garen, and said decisively.