Mystical Journey

"That seems to be the case . Although the Celestial Circle Gate and the Crimson Sand Sword have been training a few potential candidates that could become Grandmasters of Combat, there are too little of them that might actually manage to become one . " Corbella nodded with confidence .

"If this keeps up, both the public and the secret martial arts worlds would become dimmer and dimmer . " Gate Master Luther of the Crimson Sand Sword nodded as he frowned .

"Don’t the governments that value them not raise ones themselves?" Garen asked curiously .

"They don’t have what it takes to raise one . " Gate Master of the Crimson Sand Sword smile wryly . "A Grandmaster of Combat requires huge amount of herbal resources to provide nutrients and enhance the body . It takes a long time to train them as well . Excluding talented ones like you, a Grandmaster of Combat normally requires to train the secret martial arts since young for at least a decade before they qualify to become a Grandmaster of Combat . "

"The problem lies in the qualification itself . The success rate is too low . It would be considered impressive if one out of a hundred candidates qualify as a Grandmaster of Combat . " Corbella continued . "A low success rate combined with the long duration required to nurture them to reach the utmost limits of a human being . Only the crazy ones are daring enough to try and train their bodies for that . Furthermore, they would need to maintain the training for long periods of time as well to prevent the body from regressing . In short, producing one is extremely difficult .

"That’s true . A country can nurture a few sharpshooters within the time and resources required to nurture one Grandmaster of Combat . Furthermore, sharpshooters pose more threat on the battlefield . All three of us here would be helpless if we go up against a canon, right?" The Gate Master of the Crimson Sand Sword sighed .

The atmosphere in the living room had started to stale up .

"The technology of missiles and the power of firearms are getting stronger and stronger . This means that an individual’s effectiveness diminishes as the day goes by . Each country’s military armor and air force are exceedingly powerful . The current role of a Grandmaster of Combat is mainly protection and assassination . This is one of the main reasons why The federation does not value the Grandmasters of Combat as much . " Luther explained .

Garen nodded in agreement .

It’s true that even if he had already mastered the body hardening technique, he would still be injured if he go against a person with firearms . If it were to be other Grandmaster of Combat, they would be torn in half in no time .

However, he felt that this was because the countries were not aware of the value the importance of special operations yet . Once special operations similar to that of Earth’s were in motion, the importance of having a Grandmaster of Combat would be obvious .

"Let’s not talk about this . The military has already arranged an airplane and I will leave two days later . " Garen looked at the Gate Master of the Crimson Sand Sword .

The Gate Master was skeptical . "Looks like you’re here purely to gather information?"

"Yes . There’s no problem, I assume?"

"Of course . "

On the other side, Corbella stood up and said: "Then we shall pardon ourselves . "

"See you . "

Garen sat as he looked at Corbella and his two disciples leave . After that, he chatted with the Gate Master of the Crimson Sand Sword for a while and went to their headquarters .

They embarked with a convoy of well guarded red carriages as they left the courtyard of the headquarters that he visited a few days ago .

The house located in the middle of the courtyard was charred black, and most of the place was in a mess . The houses which were on the left looked fine, however .

"This way . " The Gate Master of the Crimson Sand Sword lead Garen into the the left side area of the courtyard and passed through a few houses, reaching another small courtyard again .

This courtyard had a small garden, a false mountain pool and a huge locust tree . The courtyard was densely packed with trees and shades .

Garen followed behind the Gate Master and saw the same row of houses and a small courtyard across from the pool . He saw servants walking to and fro carrying water and a used bandages .

The Gate Master smiled and explained as he saw Garen’s gaze, "Beo lives in that courtyard . He is still resting as he was heavily injured from the mission given by the Federation’s government . "

"Is that so?" Garen replied .

Both of them kept walking passing through the small courtyard and reached a small remote house .

There were two old women sitting in front of the red-brown door, facing each other . Each of them were holding a book on their hand as they muttered gloomily .

Both of them stood up as they saw the Gate Master approaching them .

"Is he here?"

"He’s here . Please open the door . " The Gate Master of the Crimson Sand Sword nodded his head .

They proceeded to swing open the wooden door .

After giving some simple precautionary instructions, Gate Master Luther left the place alone .

The door was then closed, leaving Garen alone inside the house .

The room had the same rectangular reddish brown, wooden floor .

A row of bookshelves was placed by the wall opposite the door . There was a spiral staircase on the right side of the bookshelf that lead to the second floor of the house .

There was a table and chair in front of the bookshelf, with a stone carving of a big black man on it .

The statue was a man with curled hair, wearing a black coat . He wore a stern facial expression and seemed to be in a walking position with a book in his hand .

Garen walked passed the statue and stood in front of the bookshelf .

There were a total of four bookshelves and the books were categorized properly .

They were categorized into experience, practice, methods and low grade secret martial arts .

The bookshelf was sparse; most of them were strewn this way and that . At most, there were about ten to twenty books per bookshelf .

Garen went directly towards the low grade secret martial arts category and ignored the first three .

The secret martial arts bookshelf was once again sub-categorized into physical movement, palm method, kicking method, finger method and weaponries .

Among them, books related to the weaponries were the most abundant, amounting to about seven to eight books . Garen picked them up and glanced through them .

Kris Dagger Technique, The Sword of Glory, Twin Sword Art, Trio Sword Art, Double Handed Sword, Single Handed Sword, Heavy Sword .

He glanced through all of them . As they were all low grade secret martial arts, they did not require high physical attribution . Now that he had maxed out his physical attribution and reached the utmost limit of a human being, he effortlessly memorized everything on the book by giving them a cursory glance .

While he did not need it now, that didn’t mean he won’t be needing it in the future . These secret martial arts were at the most, third rated, which was on par with the Iron Body and the Boulder martial arts .

After scanning through the weaponry secret martial arts, he set his gaze upon the physical movement category .

He gently brushed over the physical movement column with his finger .

Seasnake Walk, Greenwood Impact, Raid, Stella Assassination Step .

There were only these few books . Garen picked them up and flipped them open . Although most of the training methods made use of special techniques that require a sudden release in muscle and qi, they did not mention the methods in making up what it lacked . They were just very strong techniques with great power and Garen found most of them overbearing .

"These styles were all very different . Is this the secret techniques of the Galantia that I hear about?" He memorized all of them .

He took only a few minutes to memorize one whole book .

The important ones were the Palm Method and Finger Method .

However they were not a lot of them .

Finger Method: Wicked Claw, Double Finger Method .

Palm Method: Hundred Compound Palm, Javier Punch .

These were not so helpful towards Garen . However he could learn from the different training methods and perhaps he could gain some useful effects .

He walked up to the second floor as there was nothing interesting on the first floor .

There was only one bookshelf on the second floor . Similarly, there were only ten plus books scattered about .

However, Garen’s eye was burned with excitement as he laid his eyes upon them .

Most of the secret martial arts books on this bookshelf were much more suited for him .

He simply picked out a book called the Lion King Fist . It was a secret martial art that hardens the user’s fist, which suits his fighting style . It was rumored that it could enhance one’s self-confidence through exercise . It would be very helpful in changing a person’s personality . It was considered as one of the Magic Fist Art .

He memorized the Lion King Fist down in detail and continued looking for more .

Boulder martial arts, Iron Body and Firestream Fist could be seen on the bookshelf too .

Garen took out all the secret martial artss that he had yet to know and placed them on the second floor’s table .

Speed Shifting Palm, Bronze Statue Technique, Steel Statue Technique, Gold Statue Technique, Hodman’s Gun Jabbing Fist, Ember Claw .

There were a total of six secret technique books that Garen had never seen before, and they were all complete sets . They were all second rated or third rated secret techniques, which were the same grade as the Mammoth Secret Technique and beyond .

The Crimson Sand Sword seemed to not keep anything other than techniques with complete sets .

Garen then reread the secret techniques such as the Firestream Fist that he already knew to see if there was anything different from what he knew . After that, he memorized the remaining six new secret techniques .

Bronze Statue Technique, Steel Statue Technique and Gold Statue Technique was obtained by the Crimson Sand Sword by eliminating body hardening factions . It was obvious that they had prepared this for Garen since they hadn’t taken them away .

Although these three techniques were strong, their differences in power were not that far apart . However, there was one crucial factor .

Although the three levels, namely Bronze, Silver and Gold were not much of a difference to an outsider, there was a difference between the users . The Steel Statue users could restrain the Bronze Statue users and the Gold Statue users could restrain the Steel Statue users easily .

This was an obvious way to form a hierarchy within the Gate .

The Speed Shifting Palm Technique could be use to increase the agility of the palm techniques, which could be considered as a small secret technique regime .

On the other hand, the Hodman’s Gun Jabbing Fist was a secret technique with a powerful force . It was a palm technique derived by a fighting form mimicking the gun . It could produce at least three times the power of a commoner .

However, Hodman, who had invented this technique died before reaching forty due to this technique . Whoever practiced this technique had either died of young or possessed huge prowess . There were no exceptions .

The age of the users when they passed away was recorded in the book . None of them died from disease .

"This could be used to train sacrificial pawn . " Garen memorized this secret technique as well .

The last one was Ember Claw .

It was a simple secret technique that trained both hands . Although it was able to increase the temperature of both hands to very high temperatures, its power was average . It was invented by a mediocre Grandmaster of Combat who wanted to improve himself in his late forties . However, he died from the fire he created . .

As Garen was reading the secret technique, he was tempted . He closed his eyes and looked at his attribute pane after memorizing the whole thing .

Strength 2 . 66 . Agility 2 . 72 . Vitality 2 . 65 . Intelligence 2 . 53 . Potential 626% .

Secret Technique ----

Mammotth Variation: Explosive (Max Level), Epidermal Hardening Grade 1 (Iron Body), Blood Qi Stabilization Grade 1 (Boulder martial arts) .

Red Jade Palm: rudimentary level (Grade 1), Burning Strengthen Level 1 (Dark Crimson Technique), Vitality Enhancement Level 1 (Dark Crimson Technique)’

"Another point from Potential . " Garen smiled in satisfaction . "The Golden Sword Throne is indeed a good item . It was worth my time to take the risk and obtain it . It’s good to be able to obtain one potential point per week . "