Mystical Journey

"Lotus Pearl…" Garen put down his phone, staring at the forehead of the girl's head that had been placed on the table with her eyes wide open.

This girl's appearance was extremely hideous, with a huge sarcoma growing on her right cheekbone, and due to the lack of blood circulation, her face was excessively pale. Her eyes were very small, and there was still a hint of the ruthlessness from when she was still alive.

Stretching out his hand, Garen lightly caressed Lotus Pearl's cheeks. They were soft, almost indistinguishable from a real human's.

"Bury it in front of Jay's grave."

"Understood," the baldy nodded, then wrapped the head back up before leaving.

Garen rested his chin with one hand and knocked on the table with the other.

Knock knock knock.

Almost immediately a bell could be heard from outside the door, and the mute maid Marquilli opened the door, pushing in a white service cart. The cart was covered with a white piece of cloth and was emitting a mouthwatering aroma. All the dishes had been recreated from Garen's memory, made by the gourmet chefs handpicked by Garen himself and the dishes were specially made just for Garen in his favorite oriental style.

Following behind the service cart, a black-haired girl walked in. The girl was wearing a black latex bodysuit, had smooth and silky shoulder-length hair, and a pretty face. She was the female leader of the Primary Colours team, who had led the way for Garen from before.

Underneath her disguise, she was actually a young girl who was not even 20 years old.

After she'd brought Garen to the White Phoenix base, allowing Garen to destroy it, the Primary Colours put a bounty on her head. Hence, she didn't dare to go anywhere else and had no other choice but to stay with Garen. Ironically, the most dangerous location had now become the safest for her.

The hostility between the Primary Colours and the Nighthawks was mainly due to the conflict between Gremlin and Garen. However, after the merger between Garen and the Rexott Group, the Nighthawks have become a monstrous force on the same level with the Primary Colors, which put a lot of pressure on them, especially since Rod's brother was an influential member in the top ranks of the Rexott Group.

The Primary Colours had internal factionalism, as Gremlin's strength was growing increasingly isolated, it became much safer to stay by Garen's side.

"Simone, how's it going?" Garen smiled at this young chief. Although she was only 19 years old, she had been one of the Primary Colour's top elite reserve members.

"What do you mean 'How's it going'?" Simone sat in the chair placed in front of Garen's table, "Those kids you have to train have already arrived outside, when are you going to go and meet them?"

"There's no rush," Garen shook his head, "So, what are your plans?" Simone was one of the elites picked out by the Primary Colours, meaning that her talent and foundation was not something other average humans could replicate. Luring this kind of talent to his side, it was perfect for an assistant and a successor. Since Jay's death, Garen had started to feel the void of not having an assistant.

"My plans?" Simone was taken by surprise with that question. She didn't have parents and had been raised by her aunt since she was young, and her step-brother was a drug lord so their relationship wasn't close. In the Primary Colours, everyone suppressed their emotions so there weren't many friendships, and she only had a friend in London. After considering all of this, she didn't have any good locations to take shelter in and therefore had chosen to stay by Garen's side.

"If you don't have any plans, why not just stay here and train with me?" Garen raised his arms into a fighting stance while smiling at her, "Your innate talent is great. As long as you manage to control it, you'll gain access to that hidden strength."

Simone stared at Garen, almost as if his two hands were glowing, giving off a warm, mesmerizing halo that held her full attention.

"You're trying to manipulate me again!!!" she tried her hardest to look away, but she couldn't take her eyes off of him.

"This isn't manipulation," Garen murmured tenderly, "I'm only trying to help you make a decision."

Simone started losing all strength in her body and her mind was getting a bit hazy. After a while, she passed out.

The maid at the side was looking on with a weird look, though she still continued to place the dishes on the table. She could not understand the language and the accent the two were conversing in.

Garen had a habit of eating in the reading room, one that he'd had for a long time.

"Carry Ms. Simone out for some rest," Garen ordered.

Marquilli nodded, then propped Simone on her shoulder and walked out of the room.

Garen was once again alone in the room.

Everything was going according to plan. Most importantly, the suppression of the Nine-Headed King Nadia was starting to have an effect; the masks were proven to have a suppressing effect on his coordinates. Unfortunately, either the coin's strength was too great or the mask mimics' strength was too weak; after Nadia started to get used to it, her strength had slowly been returning and she was slowly becoming stronger again. These days, the continuous confrontations with her and her suppression had put him in an unfavorable position.

'You need to find the remaining masks,' Black Sethe's voice started ringing, 'At the same time, you need to finish the Demonic Book as soon as possible as it may be able to construct your second soul seed. Once your second soul seed has been constructed, you might be able to break through your current strength limit, reaching an even higher level. Remember, no matter what, your soul is your foundation.'

"This I understand, the two must be done at the same time," Garen answered softly while starting on his meal. Beef strips with gravy, steamed minced meat, stir-fried potato floss, braised eggplants...

All these dishes made Garen feel as if he was back on Earth. Every time he has meals like this, he would always get this strange mixture of familiarity and unfamiliarity.

Outside the window, it seemed that it has started to snow again, although it was almost completely silent, Garen could make out the sounds of the snow landing on the pavement on the road outside.

He looked out the window at the white, bubble-like snow was slowly drifting down towards the earth.

In the blink of an eye, more than 20 years have passed while living in this world, a world where Blood Breeds, Witches, and technology could coexist. The threat of void creatures was slowly approaching, complicating the overall situation of this world.

After silently finishing his meal, Garen had the maid clean up. He sat in the room for a bit more before slowly getting up and walking out of the room, up to a pure white wall on the same floor. He then lightly tapped it a few times.

Bam!

The wall started to move to the left, creating a doorway into a dark, hidden room.

Closing the room door, Garen turned on the light, illuminating his surroundings.

He walked up to the wall at the other end of the room and lightly pressed his palm on the wall, which started to vibrate.

Abruptly, a hidden drawer compartment sprung out from the wall.

Inside the compartment lay the Demonic Book and the dragon-shaped coin placed under the mask.

The Demonic Book was placed on top, and while the paper quality was obviously average material, it seemed to have been corrupted by his soul's aura when he was writing. The entire Demonic Book now appeared to have the texture of human skin, almost as if it was made from human skin itself.

Grabbing the pen sandwiched between the pages of the book, Garen walked back to his reading room and closed the door. He started to flip through all the things he had written down up till now.

Two-Faced Waterbird Fist, Shooting Shadow Secret Technique, Fantasy Fist, Slaughtering Hand...

He'd only just started writing on Slaughtering Hand; after all, this was a demonic technique from Black Sethe that even he had not fully mastered. When he was writing, he only wrote down the parts which he had a mastery of, something like a categorization of his self-understanding and knowledge system.

'Write down the secret techniques from your dark side, and by combining them and creating one true core, that will be the demonic technique seed, one that is most appropriate for you. Once you manage to master this created demonic technique, you'll most likely be able to construct your second soul seed,' Black Sethe uttered in a low tone. Recently, he sounded more and more silent, didn't talk much and would constantly cut straight to the point.

"This is a process for removing all impurities," Garen nodded.

He picked up his pen and started jotting down his knowledge on the Slaughtering Hand.

As the clock continued to tick, two hours passed quickly and Garen's notes were more or less completed; he'd finished recording down the way to train and develop the Slaughtering Hand and his own understanding on the technique.

Just as he finished writing his last statement, he felt as if the entire Demonic Book has transformed into a beating heart.

Lub-dub!

It was almost as though the entire room was beating along with it, making even Garen feel like his heartbeat was being affected by it. He felt as if at that moment, his heartbeat has synchronized with the Demonic Book.

He closed his eyes, and the Demonic Book within his mind seemed to have done the same. As the remaining vibrations slowly dispersed, the two covers of the Two Demonic Books started to emit a dark aura.

Garen decided to record all of his secret techniques from his dark side as well.

He started to cautiously count the amount of dark side secret techniques he had trained before in the past.

One of the most invincible evil techniques from his past life suddenly popped up in his mind.

"Northern Trident Frost-Fire True Water Evil Technique…"

Picking up his pen once more, Garen wrote the name of this technique into it. As soon as he finished writing, the Demonic Book seemed to start glowing blue, the blue of glacial ice.

******

Crash!

A vase was shattered on the floor.

Gremlin's face was lined with veins. As he gulped in deep breaths, his throat was quivering constantly, and he looked so furious that he almost looked deranged.

In a golden room illuminated by numerous lantern lights, two of his underlings were standing right in front of him. Despite being suavely dressed in suits, the two were sweating bullets; their foreheads were completely soaked in sweat as they both bowed down, not moving a muscle.

"Lotus Pearl died?! I just had a call with her less than half a day ago and now you guys are telling me she died?" Gremlin did not suppress a single iota of his rage.

Lotus Pearl was one of his best soldiers, and despite weird personality, her talents as an assassin were one of the best. Even when compared to others, her skills would be considered unparalleled.

But now, she'd died…

It felt like a fire was scorching his heart.

"Garen… Thomas!!" he roared in fury.

"Team leader… The top has sent down a notice, do not clash with the Nighthawks anymore…" one of the underlings stated, cautiously choosing his words.

"Scram!!"

Gremlin lashed out in a fit of rage.

With a loud slap, this underling was knocked to the floor, and he scrambled out of the room while holding his cheek in pain.

"Do you think I'm out of ideas just because you kissed up to Rexott?" Gremlin chuckled with a manic expression.