Mystical Journey

An individual's true perseverance could only be seen when their life teetered on the fine line between life and death. It was truly a terrifying sight.

Garen had undoubtedly achieved this. He had faced his fears calmly and had even looked down upon them without the slightest care in the world as he'd already encountered too many life-or-death situations.

Perhaps he wouldn't have been able to restrain himself from trembling when he'd first encountered death in the Secret Technique world. However, his current self was no longer the weak and useless normal person he used to be in the past.

Black Sethe was completely unable to understand Garen's feverish excitement. He could never resurrect into a living being with a physical body again as he was merely a set of incomplete memories.

‘You…' He opened his mouth and attempted to say something, but was unable to speak in the end.

Garen inspected the state of his body once over. Although his right eye could not be restored anymore, more than half of the other wounds on his body had healed.

"Nadia…" he murmured quietly before reaching his hand up and brushing his empty right eye socket.

This was the first time he had suffered such serious injuries ever since he'd accomplished his martial arts. Nadia was truly an ancient master, and the slight difference between their powers allowed her to injure him to this extent.

However, this battle had allowed Garen to understand one of the desires in the deepest part of his heart.

Fighting with strong opponents, fighting determinedly with every ounce of his willpower, raising the stakes between life and death, scaling to even higher peaks, enjoying fights, and pursuing battles. All of these were the natural instincts that he had been concealing within the deepest part of his heart all this time.

Garen stretched out both of his hands and looked at the scars that marked his arms. The physical pain in his flesh continued to reverberate inside him, but the intense stimulation and joyful feelings had disappeared completely by now.

The first time he saw the difference in power between Army Level masters clearly, according to Black Sethe's descriptions, he understood that there were separated into five different levels in Ancient Endor which included Soldier, Team, General, Army, and the highest level of Demon King.

This was determined by the Void Creatures' levels. He was currently at the third level of the General level while Nadia belonged to the Army level, meaning that they were only one level apart.

Within the Void Creature world, a difference of one level represented absolute suppression. Numbers were utterly meaningless as the suppression of the levels were fatal and ultimate, without any leeway for resistance.

"Even if I did manage to almost restore my powers to their peak levels in the Totem world, there would still be a large gap between me and Nadia." Garen finally understood that although Form 6 levels of the Totem world seemed to possess extremely powerful strength ranges, these results were tied to the strength of the world itself in reality. The strength of the Totem world was far from the strength of this current world. Therefore, the Form 6 levels of the Totem world were merely equivalent to the strength of the General level.

"How great is the actual difference between a single level?" Garen asked suddenly.

Black Sethe became silent for a moment as he knew what Garen was about to ask.

‘The difference between you and Nadia lies in your inability to integrate all of the strength in your body properly, making it impossible for you to unearth your full potential. In reality, you also have the same Nine-Headed Dragon's Soul Will that produces Nine-Headed Dragon's Blood naturally. However, unlike Nadia, you were unable to unearth the terrifying resurrection abilities and talents.'

"Unearth all of my abilities and talents?" Garen asked again.

‘Yes, your abilities are varied. Nine-Headed Dragon's Will, the Living Secret Techniques that you practice, and the numerous martial arts that you learned in the past have not completely fused together in reality. You need to get rid of the weeds and keep the flowers. The Secret Techniques in your memories are one of those "weeds". You understand them thoroughly but are unable to fuse it with your own martial arts fully. Therefore, your only choice is to create a Secret Technique that you can fully call your own. Pay attention, since this is something that will be fully yours, deciding on a direction beforehand is the right way to find the path that is most suitable to yourself which will lead you on your way.' Black Sethe was not lying to Garen this time but was answering his question honestly instead.

Garen began to ponder.

Indeed, it was true that he had been learning everything in an extremely varied manner all along. Meanwhile, he had always been drifting with the tide, without a true main thread. One of the reasons was because he was unable to find a path that would constantly allow him to go in the way of justice. However, another reason was that he had not persevered through from the beginning to the end.

In the Secret Technique world, he had learned a lot of Secret Techniques and modified them many times. Although his power and strength had increased, they were actually not pure enough and were extremely varied instead.

In the Totem world, he learned about various Totems and modified himself to the point where he seemed like neither man nor monster, and even fusing his soul with the ancient Nine-Headed Hydra's (1) will. This made it even more varied, and he was only able to reach peak levels in the end because of a lucky coincidence.

The things that Black Sethe had said were not wrong. Garen had not found a path that he could walk on continuously all along.

"Do you have any suggestions?" Garen muttered to himself for a moment before finally asking his question.

‘Ancient Endor has disappeared for many years. However, the Void Creatures have flourished vigorously once again. Perhaps this is predestined,' Black Sethe sighed. ‘Although my suggestions may be suitable for others, they may be unsuitable for you. Therefore, you should just fuse everything you have learned so that you can truly grasp your future in your own hands.' This sentence sounded as though he was speaking from the heart, without concealing anything.

‘Ancient Endor views the Demon King level as its peak, leaving us with three paths. Each path is sufficient to lead you there.'

"Which three paths?" Garen's mind stirred while he continued asking.

‘Life, death, and chaos,' said Black Sethe softly. ‘Living Secret Techniques, Dying Secret Techniques, and the Chaotic Secret Techniques that can be found between life and death. These three paths hold everything, cover everything, are vast and boundless, and contain our knowledge and understanding of the universe and the world.'

He continued, saying: ‘If I'm not wrong, the unknown Living Secret Technique that you are altering now should be the Hellfrost Peacock's Living Seed.'

"Hellfrost Peacock?" This was the first time Garen had heard of such a creature.

‘Yes, it is the 32nd strongest Void Creature that went extinct long ago. It is a legacy seed that was extracted and purified by the Warlocks from Mother Stream's True Soul imprint in exchange for paying a heavy price. Your Secret Technique uses its seed as its core, allowing it to continuously develop and evolve while growing. Its final road is actually the final growing stages of the Hellfrost Peacock.'

"In other words, this Living Secret Technique allows people to emulate powerful Void Creatures and evolve like them?" Garen seemed to detect certain hidden meanings.

‘It can be said like that. The Warlocks' observation and research allowed them to identify the existence of the strongest beings. While learning to emulate them, some of the extremely tyrannical Void Creatures also became their modeling subjects. This Secret Technique became the Living Secret Technique seed that the Warlocks released later, and is considered as the strongest path to walk on the road of life.'

"Will it be able to reach peak levels?" Garen asked.

‘It's possible. The Hellfrost Peacock is strongest at the Demon King level. However, the probability of this is extremely low as there is only a very low probability that the Hellfrost Peacock itself will be able to achieve the Demon King level. It is impossible to compare a real Hellfrost Peacock with a human body that is practicing to be and modeling itself after a Void Creature. Therefore, the peak of this Secret Technique should be Army level,' explained Black Sethe.

‘Without vast knowledge and a deep understanding of the true terrors of the Demon King level, you will never be able to reach that realm. Each of the Void Creature's grades is extremely strict, and leaping across them is frankly more difficult than touching the sky. Have you finally understood how precious my Slaughtering Demon Technique is?'

Garen's expression remained unchanged. Getting rid of the Slaughtering Demon Technique was something that he did not regret at all. Regretting past actions and being half-hearted were meaningless, a waste of time, and not part of his nature at all.

‘That was actually a high-level Demonic Technique that was equivalent to the Demon King level! It's hopeless to even think that you'll be able to find a Secret Technique like that ever again!' Black Sethe began to bewitchingly persuade Garen again.

Garen shut himself off from Black Sethe's nonsense immediately. He focused his attention on his own state instead.

He glanced across his Attribute Pane where the name of the unknown Secret Technique was now changed to the Hellfrost Peacock Technique. Meanwhile, while his knowledge regarding high-level Secret Techniques increased, he was gradually able to estimate the limits of Living Secret Techniques. Hence, the contents of his abilities in his Attribute Pane had gradually increased as well.

‘Hellfrost Peacock Technique: Level one beginner (There are five foundation levels, three evolved levels, and eight levels in total). Once the exercises of each level have been accomplished, the bloodline will be purified to allow one to gradually draw close to the Hellfrost Peacock's physical qualities before finally achieving the highest state, which refers to its limit, the Army level.'

Although the other information was still unknown, this was still much better than before.

He glanced at his potential points and noticed that there were only ten points left. He had used two or three points to heal his body but did not pay attention to the exact number, as the injuries that he'd sustained this time were too serious. Not just the injuries from fighting Nadia, but the terrifying consumption from forcefully releasing the fourth star was a fatal consumption as well. If he didn't have potential points to make up for it, he would've had to give up ten years of his lifespan in exchange.

He stood up and walked to the doorway of his room before opening the lock gently and pulling the door open.

On the other side of the door, a maid ran over hurriedly. Her face was confused at first, but when she saw the horrible condition of Garen's mangled right eye…

Ahh!!

Alarmed cries and terrified screams rang out continuously. The other maids in the villa stared at Garen with petrified expressions. They had gathered over from his surroundings. Some of them came from downstairs while others rushed over from the backyard. A large crowd had gathered around Garen instantly.

Garen furrowed his brow and watched as a few of his subordinates parted the sea of people and walked over. He retrieved the Black Copper Mask that he had placed on the bookshelf earlier and wore it on his face at once.

He raised his right hand slowly and spread all five of his fingers outwards.

"Fantasy Fist, forget…!"

After a low rumble, mysteriously alluring and gentle noises could be heard from Garen's right palm suddenly. These noises sounded like both the rippling of a harp and the tremors of a violin that released the seductive melodies of sea sirens.

Within the entire villa, all of the maids and subordinates were attracted by this music. Soon, their attention was unconsciously diverted towards Garen's right hand.

The entire second floor of the villa turned deathly quiet at once. Nobody made a sound and all of their faces remained dazed while they stared at Garen's right hand, unable to move their sight.

When he closed his palm gently, the music stopped suddenly. Garen put his hand down and touched the mask on his face.

Clap clap.

He clapped both of his hands, making crisp noises. Suddenly, all of the dazed people on this floor woke up instantly.

The crowd was obviously somewhat confused and unsure of what to do. Some of them were completely unaware of the reason why they had arrived at the second floor suddenly. They hesitated for a moment before two maids stepped forward.

"Master, do you have any requests?" asked one of them softly.

Everyone noticed the traces of blood that were sputtered on Garen's body and the Black Copper Mask on his face. However, no one could remember why he was wearing a mask. Their memories of Garen's blinded right eye had disappeared from their minds completely as if they had never seen it.

Translator's note:

(1) 九头龙 here refers back to the Nine-Headed Hydra, because Garen is reminiscing about the Nine-Headed Hydra in the previous Totem world, and not referring to the current Nine-Headed Dragon.