Mystical Journey

Chapter 738: Clue 2

The meeting lasted until nighttime before everyone was dismissed and went to their arranged rooms to rest. However, so much passion lingered in them that they couldn’t sleep due to the excitement.

After a series of instrumental experiments, it was shown that becoming a Blood Breed would lengthen their lifespan and practicing Secret Techniques possessed the same effect as well, though its effect was inferior as compared to the Blood Breed’s lifespan. A few of the group representatives were excited, as they were able to make contact with their respective chief scientists through long distance communication. After some inquiry, they’d found a clue on merging the Blood Breed’s gene in hopes of lengthening their own respective lifespans.

This was one of the very few topics that caught Garen’s interest.

After a more detailed discussion with the representative, he represented the Holy Fist Palace to purchase the high-speed neuro battle suits and its related research results, especially the Blood Breed’s genetic implantation which had piqued Garen’s interest the most.

About two hours later after the meeting ended.

Garen finally brought Tu Lan back to the hall in the inner region of the palace.

The moonlight shone through the glass window at their side and bathed the ground and their shoes.

“That meeting was an eye-opener,” Tu Lan was still in disbelief. “The humans’ accumulated oppression is about to explode.”

“Yeah, and I only gave them the chance to release everything at once,” Garen nodded.

“I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t witness it with my own eyes. I can’t believe that humans would ever be such a threat towards the Blood Breeds,” Tu Lan shook her head. “Luckily, I’m on your side.”

“Even you don’t believe that the Blood Breeds will win?” Garen frowned slightly.

“No. It’s not that. It’s just that there are too many humans and on the other hand… there’re too few Blood Breeds,” Tu Lan shook her head. “Laser weapons and high explosives are enough to threaten the Blood Breeds. The humans are no longer the same as compared to a few centuries ago. Even if you didn’t exist, this strength would accumulate and would explode sooner or later.”

“You’re right,” Garen nodded.

“Report!!” a black figure suddenly appeared behind Garen and Tu Lan. “Marshall Dahm has successfully obtained a mask and is currently waiting in the golden hall.” a Shooting Shadow Secret Technique practitioner reported loudly at the inner zone of the palace.

“Oh?” Garen revealed a smile. “Finally, he hasn’t disappointed me. Do you want to go and see it together with me?” he turned to Tu Lan.

“Of course.”

Tu Lan was very curious, as she didn’t know why this mask was so important to Garen.

Both of them turned around and walked into a corridor on their right. After passing through a few more corridors and a small garden, they entered a silver meeting room which was almost the same size as the golden hall.

The hall was empty inside and Dahm, who was in a black attire, was the only one standing inside with his head down. He was in a thick grey cloak which covered from his head to toe. He also had a white mask with red paint over the eyes, and one could only tell he was Dahm based on his aura.

“What happened to you?” Garen immediately frowned the moment he entered as he saw Dahm’s excessive coverage.

“Forgive me, teacher,” Dahm’s voice sounded from the cloak. “When I was searching for the mask near the Moon River, I encountered an unknown black monster that I’d never seen before. After pursuing it for more than a month, I finally took care of this beast’s leader on top of the cliff and obtained the mask. However, I was injured by the beast leader’s acid.”

“Take off the cloak and let me have a look,” Garen sat on the main seat of the living hall as he ordered impassively.

Without hesitation, Dahm took off the cloak.

He revealed the skin hidden under the cloak, and even though only the skin from his wrist to his neck could be seen, his skin was scarred and it looked like he had recovered from very bad blisters. His skin resembled a person aged between eight to ninety years old, and this made both Garen and Tu Lan grimace.

“A beast that can injure even you to this extent…” Garen stood up and a black streak was seen as he instantly appeared before Dahm.

Boom!!

He punched Dahm’s chest.

Although this punch wasn’t strong, it possessed a strange power, which was Garen’s own aura.

The aura circled Dahm’s body and immediately returned.

Ah!

Dahm immediately vomited out a mouthful of black water. It was very foul-smelling, and he vomited onto the ground between their legs. The cement on the ground started to sizzle, and white vapors formed upon contact with this black acidic water.

“The remaining poisonous water has been pushed out and with your current regenerative capability, it shouldn’t be difficult for you to heal your skin. Where’s the mask?” Garen asked coldly.

Dahm immediately took out the mask under his cloak. What made this mask different from others was that while it looked identical to the one Garen was wearing, there were some pieces of meat at the edge of the mask. It was as if it were alive as the meat bits wriggled about freely.

After receiving the mask, Garen suddenly felt a huge amount of potential aura entering into his body from the mask. At the same time, Tu Lan and Dahm who were at the scene could faintly hear a cry from the mask, as if it was afraid of Garen. The shredded meat at the edge of the mask wriggled wildly all of the sudden as if they were trying to escape from Garen’s grasp but to no avail. Soon the cry of the mask gradually became weaker and weaker, to the point where it could no longer be heard.

The shredded meat at the edge fell to the ground and formed into a pool of black ash or some sort of black powder. It was very strange indeed.

Garen stashed the mask and could still feel the huge amount of potential points flowing into his body.

“Thank you for the hard work. As a reward, I’ll give you this,” Garen extended his index finger and gently tapped Dahm on the shoulder.

Boom!

It was as if Dahm had been struck by lightning as he stood still and didn’t move at all. It was as though he was a device that had been put on idle mode.

Garen then turned around and left the hall with Tu Lan, the latter being very confused as she didn’t know what had just happened. This was applicable to both the strange mask and Dahm’s change in behavior.

That tap from Garen was the remaining level of Slaughtering Hand that had been retained. With that life force, Dahm would able to help to strengthen his inert life force and increased his physical attributes. For Garen, whose physical attribute was so strong, this was naturally negligible.

However, this was not the case for Dahm. He had become this powerful due to his fist techniques, and his body’s physical attributes had not reached their limits yet. This life force would help Dahm master his Secret Technique at a faster rate and bring his own technique to a higher level. He could also quickly recover from a serious wound so that it wouldn’t be detrimental to his vitality.

For Dahm, the greatest effect of this life force was an opportunity to surpass Hochman.

“Continue searching until you’ve found all twelve masks. Only then I will pass down the strongest secret method that will greatly improve your latent ability,” Garen told Dahm before he left.

The latter lowered his head down.

Garen believed that Dahm possessed quite a number of secret methods, and based on his understanding, it shouldn’t be hard for him to develop his own secret method, one similar to the Shooting Shadow Secret Method.

As he left the golden hall, Garen sent Tu Lan back to her room to rest and he went to his specially made secret chamber alone.

The secret chamber was completely dark. There was no light inside but Garen could see everything inside as if it was daytime.

He walked into the isolated round safe and grabbed onto a thick cylinder placed at the center of the safe. He picked it up and revealed a half-meter-thick cylindrical pillar.

The center of the cylinder was hollow, and there were masks stacked on top of one another, all on top of the Dragon Head Coin Nadia had left behind. What was strange was that the dragon-shaped aura that had always appeared on the coin had stopped flowing. There was nothing coming out of it.

Garen frowned as the cylindrical pillar weighed about a ton. With such a heavy item, the pillar itself was a countermeasure for the safe. If no one could lift it up, it meant that no one could even move the round safe that was placed on the floor as it was even heavier than the pillar.

‘Be careful, I have a bad feeling about this…” Black Sethe, who had been quiet for such a long time, finally spoke up.

“I understand,” Garen nodded. He felt a sense of crisis that wrapped around him like a spider web.

Garen stopped thinking about other stuff as he sat on his knees, preparing himself to absorb the potential points from the sixth mask.

***********

Inside a deep cave near the north pole.

Inside a pitch black cave.

An ashen beautiful girl in a white sweater was sitting just beside the stone wall. Her hair was very long and it was as white as snow. Her hair was so long that it flowed and spread about on the ground.

Her white hair was at least ten meters long and was glowing faintly in white inside the cave, giving off a pure and clean vibe.

Her long hair had completely covered her body in such a manner that no one would know whether she was sitting beside the stone wall or merely leaning against it.

“Lion Mother, why have you invited us here?” suddenly, a red blood orb appeared beside the girl in mid-air. What came out from it was a clear male voice.

Soon two more blood orbs slowly appeared at two other spots in the air.

“Scarlet Moon, you’re still alive!” a girl’s voice came from another orb. She was the last one to speak among the blood orbs.

The white-haired girl’s face looked extremely sad.

“I even invited Lord Ashen, but it looks like he’s not joining.”

“The two parties have reconciled and it is his wish whether he wants to attend or not. You can voice out if you have any concern.” a deep male tone rang from the final blood orb.

The Lion Mother nodded her head.

“Have you guys heard of the legend of the Sleepless Faces?”

“The legendary mysterious mask that the mortals spread? I understood a little bit.” the first blood orb responded.

“I’ve heard of it as well.” the girl spoke through her orb.

“Realistically speaking, the Sleepless Faces is related to a secret known to very little being. It is related to the secret of immortality…”