Mystical Journey

Ca-clack!!

The glass cup in his hand suddenly had multiple cracks in it.

Garen put down the glass in his hand and calmly lifted his head to look at his subordinates who were reporting to him.

His three subordinates were all muscular, strong and looked vicious but right now, they were all shivering and dripping with cold sweat as they bowed in front of him without the courage to stand straight.

"Vivien… was ambushed?" Garen showed a calm expression, but the calmer he looked, the more people felt that Garen was suppressing his anger internally.

One of his subordinates' scalp had gone numb. He felt as though Garen's gaze was gliding across his scalp like a sharp knife, which was painful in a sense.

"According to our intel, she was ambushed by a mysterious man at a gas station in Natiya State, and was subsequently rescued by another group of people, her current location is unknown."

He quickly yet softly reported the issue to Garen as he endured the pain.

Garen nodded

"You may leave now."

The three subordinates felt as though they obtained amnesty as they quickly turned around to leave the room. They closed the door of their car, and one could hear their sighs of relief from afar.

The room suddenly fell into silence.

Garen looked at the dishes presented before him, but even his favorite boiled snails in tomato soup were not attractive anymore.

As he pushed the plates away, he picked up the phone on the table to make a call.

The number was slightly long, and he put in a few prefix numbers before dialing the actual phone number.

Duu….

After a few ringing tones.

"Garen? Why are you free to give me a call?" an elderly, husky voice could be heard from the receiver of the phone.

"AG, how did the plan go on your side?" Garen lightly tapped the table rhythmically, producing some soft tapping sounds. These sound waves dispersed across the room, and as some of those minute soundwaves bounced back, he could ascertain and sense if there were any unwanted things listening in on him.

"I knew it," AG laughed, "Blood Breeds crossed you? You wouldn't have proactively contacted us if things didn't affect you."

"You know me quite well, it seems," Garen's face had an odd smile, "It is as you said, things revolving the Blood Breed didn't concern me previously as I stay in the northern region of America and was largely unaffected, so naturally, I didn't need to take an active stance with you. But…"

"But now things are different?"

"Indeed, things are different now," Garen confirmed.

His original plans for a trip to Memphis were also affected due to this news. After receiving the news on the internal conflict among the Blood Breeds, he needed to re-evaluate the plans again.

"What do you plan to do? We would welcome you with open arms if you decided to join us," AG chuckled.

Garen pondered.

His original main focus had been to look for the masks and settle Nadia's problems first, as those imitation masks could only provide a short-term suppression. Then, he would use this time to write his very own Demonic Book to try to form a second soul seed. With regards to Blood breeds, witches, and the likes, their actions didn't concern him as long as they did not affect him, and he would assume them to be non-existent.

"The reason why the northern region that you're in has never been invaded by any Blood Breed is that it was the holy site where the witches negotiated with the Blood Breeds, and also the place where Lion Mother rests," AG explained briefly through the phone, "But such peace is not permanent; following the need to expand, both forces may not care that much after all."

Garen understood this point, as the book AG gave him before had mentioned similar contents. Through that book, he could conduct academic discussions and communications with AG in absolute secrecy, and it had also given him a much more in-depth understanding of the Blood Breeds.

However, soon after, AG had repeatedly invited him to participate in the planning of assaults against the Blood Breeds, which were all rejected by Garen. He was already occupied with the issues revolving the Nine-Headed Dragon King Nadia, as well as the training of his own dream realm techniques.

"Now, Secret Party is in an advantageous position, if you would like to join the fray, now would still be considered a good time. We can discuss more in the book for detailed plans."

"Alright."

Garen hung up the phone and stayed silent for a while before he stood up and walked towards the bookshelf. He crouched and pulled a small black hardcover book from the lowest row of books.

As he gently flipped through the pages, there was nothing but blank tallow pages.

'Light Party Leader Ashen Castine has been bound by the Secret Party leaders, another Death Apostle-level Secret Party member is currently pursuing Scarlet Moon, we will need to pay close attention to two of the strongest people among the remaining forces,' AG's words appeared on the book's page, 'One would be the Crimson Spear, and the other would be the Radiant Pond. These two people are both the strongest Blood Breeds under the Death Apostles while being a mastermind of the Secret Party and a Light Party Sect mastermind respectively.'

'I don't want to know such useless intel,' Garen interrupted him, 'Help me find out this thing, what forces were the ones who ambushed my sister?'

'I'm afraid I can't help you with this,' AG rejected his request, 'In America, my influences aren't any stronger than yours. Plus, you should be getting more news on this soon. Believe me, very soon….'

'Is this a hint from you?' Garen distrusted this kind of superstitious prophecies.

Ding… Ding…

Suddenly, the phone on his table began ringing. The monotonous yet serene bell peals were coupled with the vibration of the phone, and the phone kept moving with every vibration.

The screen flashed and it showed an incoming call from Isaros.

Garen squinted his eyes and accepted the call with the press of a button.

"Hello?" he tried to sound as gentle as possible.

"Is this Garen? I'm Isaros."

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

In Natiya State, far away.

At the midsection of a road in the middle of some deserted area, a white car was stopped on the left side of the road. With the car doors flung open, Isaros was standing by the car while her hair was tousled by the wind. As the sun shone upon her face, a slight sheen was reflected off her face.

Isaros was holding her phone as she spoke to Garen.

Meanwhile, Vivien was staring blankly at her phone like a bedraggled cat, with a gaze revealing an obvious yearning for a conversation with her brother.

Arisa was still hugging her arm, as she had no clue what the best course of action would be either.

The two Blood Breeds, Pritto and the lady, were sitting in the front seats.

The two of them were observing Isaros as she made the call, and Pritto was forcing a smile while the lady blatantly looked impatient.

"Garen wants us to change directions and send his sister in the direction of Saint Francs," Isaros suddenly put down the phone, and looked towards the Blood Breed duo with a frown.

"why don't he just go and die!?" without waiting for Pritto's response, the Blood Breed lady just cussed without holding back. "What are we, her nanny? Should we even need to fucking escort his sister to Saint Francs? Has his brain rusted through?"

"Don't you dare talk about my brother like that!" Vivien couldn't help but shout back.

"Your brother is an idiot!!" the female blood breed seemed to have passed an anger threshold and was shouting in fury.

Vivien was so angry that her cheeks were ruddy and she stared at the woman with watery eyes. Her little mouth was open but yet she didn't know how to refute, so she could only shiver in anger.

"The backup that we were waiting for still hasn't arrived, perhaps this is a choice. Using people's influence to flee the Secret Party," Pritto tried to calm the situation on both sides.

"Three low-level Blood Breeds, hundreds of vampires, do you think we can rely on regular humans' powers to flee their pursuit? Stop joking!" the female Blood Breed said as though she heard a really funny joke.

Isaros was speechless, only slightly shook her head, and then continued listening to the phone.

"His people will be here within half an hour."

"For what? To die?" the apoplectic lady snorted.

"Okay, stop talking Kaya!" Pritto immediately held her shoulders to comfort her.

Isaros, on the other hand, was confident in Garen.

To be able to kill vampires and injure Lars with the Silent Killing Technique was all thanks to Garen's teaching. In her eyes, Garen was a mysterious yet strong, weird martial artist. She could say he was half her teacher.

"In any case, we needed to stay here until evening. It's okay, it's just half an hour."

"That's good too, we could dump these burdens on his people and their life and death will no longer be of our concern," the lady Blood Breed Kaya conceded.

"Mind your words!" Isaros couldn't help but shout, "My sister is not a burden."

"Words? What words? You're a burden too, and you dare talk back to us?" Kaya had long been dissatisfied with Pritto's trust in them.

"You!?" Isaros couldn't stand this crazy b*tch's nonstop barking any longer.

"What? Wanna pick a fight?" Kaya was out of the car in an instant.

"Enough! Stand down!!" Pritto finally got angry and shouted. The cheerful guy had finally snapped, and both Kaya and Isaros didn't dare to retort after that instance.

Isaros didn't understand either. Kaya always seemed to be a rational person, why was she raging at everyone she saw?

In that instant, everyone was stunned by Pritto's words and were speechless.

Kaya snorted before she returned to the car.

Isaros' chest kept heaving in fury.

"Arisa, we'll head over to Brother Garen's place once he comes."

"Sure." Arisa nodded; she'd long despised being with Kaya. This lady Blood Breed was hot-tempered and completely despised her and her sister. The arguments have not happened only once or twice these days.

"Ugh…" Pritto couldn't help but sigh, and everyone didn't know what to say.

"Alright, don't be so angry, Kaya's temper is a bit more short-fused, but she's still a kind person. The people who're picking them up will be her uncle, so let's not make things too awkward."

"Did you think I was joking?" Isaros gave him an odd look, "I was seriously considering to go to Vivien's brother's place. My martial arts were partially taught by him, and he definitely has a plan."

Things have turned out this way and a joke had evolved into a fight. If they were indeed going to the Blood Breed's area of influence, even Kaya's territory, then wouldn't she become Kaya's puppet, to be played any way she desired?

"You're not joking?" Pritto finally began speaking to Isaros seriously.

"Of course."