Mystical Journey

Lotus Pearl's death had dealt a large blow to him. She'd been one of the spec-ops soldiers on him and his father's side, and she could even be considered the top-ranked in terms of strength in the group. She had been so easily defeated by the enemy. Even if the assailant were Rexott's Seasnake and Seal, it was obvious that Rexott was helping the Nighthawks. The brother of Rod, Garen's friend, was a member of the most feared groups in Rexott, the Big Four, more commonly known as the Four Shadows. Rod's brother was the head of the Four Shadows, and if they were compared to Titan in the Primary Colours, the two were at the same level. They've clashed numerous times in the past, but both were always on par with each other. Against this kind of monstrous existence, Gremlin had no way of countering against it. Unless his father personally joined the fray, there would not be anyone from the group willing to clash with them just for the sake of his family's influence.

Looking at the last underling.

Gremlin forcefully suppressed his rage.

"What is the Nighthawk King doing now?"

"According to our reports, his and Rod's side are currently searching for the Mask of Sleepless Faces from the legends. On the surface, it is said to be because Garen likes to collect these types of antiques, but we think he may have other hidden intentions," the underling answered quickly.

"The Mask of the Sleepless Faces?" Gremlin repeated softly, "According to the legends, there are certain types of mysterious antiques that were said to have some sort of special power, and that kind of power can allow one to achieve superhuman abilities. Is that true?"

"According to our investigation, they most likely have some sort of use for them, but this information was mainly leaked from the Men in Black that recently left after seeing the Nighthawks' new high ranks and it hasn't been proven yet. We also have not developed a fundamental concrete judgment standard for these antiques and relics as of yet," the underling answered, seeing as his boss' mood was slightly improved, he added one more line, "Should we initiate a more practical investigation? If the NIghthawk King is so passionate about this, there must be some correlation."

"Do it, also try to investigate the secrets under Nighthawks' control, whatever they call secret techniques or secret methods. It would become valuable information if we manage to get it in our hands. We cannot let this leak to the public." as Gremlin thought about all the mysterious methods used by the Nighthawks, he started to feel furious again. A way to allow normal humans to achieve the ultimate level of martial arts, it was undoubtedly something he had to get his hands on. Once he acquired the method of doing this, he might be able to rise up even higher within the ranks of the Primary Colors.

******

Bailey Estate, Germany

Kabb was gently cradling her baby, intimately pinching his cheeks.

Sitting on the white semicircular balcony, she could hear familiar footsteps coming from behind her. Kabb looked back, seeing a familiar silhouette.

"Medis, are there any updates?"

"According to the latest reports, Garen goes into a secret room in his villa for a period of time every day, though we have no information on what he does inside."

Medis walked up behind Kabb. This young man was sly and cunning, had a pretty face, and in terms of reconnaissance, he had many tricks up his sleeves. He was even able to gather so much information on the Nighthawk King.

He looked at his boss' son, whose chubby face was looking around in amusement. He then continued to speak.

"We attempted to investigate the internal members of the Nighthawks. According to the results we've gotten , the whole Nighthawks group and the Combat Club should all be under Garen's control alone. These methods seem to be as you hypothesized, boss, it should be the work of the special strength from the masks."

"I heard that Garen is planning to go to Memphis?" Kabb smiled while she continued to play with her son. "Where did you obtain the information about the secret room?"

"Yes, it was said that they were going to search for the masks, and this was also deduced from the movements of Rod's men. This kind of large action operation can't be that easily hidden. They made no effort to hide it as well," Medis nodded, "Regarding the Secret Room, I've used an unconscious investigation method, scheduling my people to observe the movements villa from the corner of their eyes. I told them not to observe Garen himself, but rather to focus the mute maid. As a maid in charge of serving Garen, there are a lot of things she would not be able to hide about the villa."

"Great work. Pay extra attention to Garen's schedules next," Kabb replied softly, "Primary Colour's Gremlin has been suppressed but he will definitely seek revenge, especially since he lost one of his strongest soldiers when Rod started to side with Garen. With the addition of Seasnake and Seal, two experts, alongside Garen himself, this is no longer a force that we can reckon with. We need to remain on Garen's good side if possible. Use the safest methods to continue your investigations of the secret room."

"Understood," Medis nodded slightly to show her acknowledgment.

Kabb pinched her son's face.

Poot!

The chubby kid spat a bit on her face.

"Hahaha, this kid's got guts! I like it!" Kabb started laughing out loud. Medis couldn't resist but to laugh along with her.

******

Writing the Demonic Book proved to be more of a challenge that Garen had originally thought.

Under careful scrutiny and analysis of his memories, these secret techniques he'd once thought he had completely mastered and understood now seemed to have a plethora of minor difficulties and problems. All of these were things that he'd missed in the past, and a lot of the steps that he thought he completely understood had multiple difficulties hidden within them.

When writing about the Northern Trident Frost-Fire True Water Evil Technique, he kept running into problems one after the other, accumulating a total of more than 10 issues.

As he was thinking about how to resolve these problems, the changes in the Demonic Book became more and more obvious.

Now that Garen had already written down around half of his secret techniques, the Demonic Book seemed to have synchronized; almost as if it was a living plant, it started to grow along with whatever Garen wrote.

Maybe once he finished writing this Demonic Book, it would be the most suitable time for him to develop his demonic technique. Then, through his own understanding of the demonic technique, he would be able to master the demonic technique even faster and achieve the creation of the soul seed that would allow him to exceed his limits, which was his ultimate goal.

This was happening abnormally smoothly, unlike his progress on the other side.

Regarding the training, all the volunteer pupils that were recommended by the Nighthawks were all spoiled brats. They were all crying to go home or wanting to give up before the first session of training even ended.

However, they were answered with a slap from Garen, knocking them out.

What a joke, these people were all hand picked by Garen, and most of them had decent innate talent and backgrounds. If he just let them go back, wouldn't that be a waste of his time?

Garen just directly used violence and brute force. He had the aid of the Nighthawks and the Combat Club in the background anyway, and with Rod's Rexott Group backing him as well, he had nothing to worry about.

******

Bam! Bam! Bam!!

A coordinated and rhythmic sound of strikes echoed through the gymnasium.

A group of students, clad in full black training gis, formed an orderly circle. In the middle of that circular formation stood Garen and a female student, Simone.

Simone repeatedly dragged her body back up, persevering despite her cheeks already looking as swollen as two red steamed buns. Trickles of blood were dribbling from the corners of her lips.

Under the bright yellow light, Simone once again lunged towards Garen.

Yaaaa!!!

She let out a deafening roar, almost as if trying to boost her strength. In reality, nothing out of the ordinary happened and in a flash, everything was flipped around and the muffled thump signaled that once again, she was down on the ground.

Simone was again flung to the left by Garen with a single slap. As she tried to stand up once more, she stumbled a few steps before collapsing onto the floor. Her legs could no longer support her own body weight.

"Was this the Close Quarters Combat that you were so proud of?" Garen's top half was nude, and he was wearing only a pair of black trousers secured with a shiny black belt. His pale white skin starkly contrasted his aesthetic, sculpture-like muscular build, and his muscles flowed with every move.

"During these 4 days, I had you guys go through some basic training, it wasn't simply to torture you guys," Garen surveyed his surroundings. These people all had backgrounds in top-ranked families and firms from America and various other countries. They were candidates to become seeds like Dahm and Hochman, but since they were from different locations all over the world, they would bloom into different flowers.

"You guys will have 3 choices: the Two-Faced Waterbird Gate, the Shooting Shadow Gate, and the White Cloud Gate…"

He decided he would once again impart the White Cloud Gate's Mammoth Secret Technique, planting its seed in this world. In reality, the Mammoth Secret Technique should no longer be called the Mammoth Secret Technique, but the Divine Statue Technique instead. It used the Divine Statue Technique as the core and combined it with the essence of the Black Water True Technique to create a shockingly powerful skill. It was a top-class secret technique that he relied on to become the king of the Secret Technique World.

The Divine Statue Technique was a legitimate secret technique with absurd power, but what was strange was that when Garen was writing the Demonic Book, he accidentally wrote in the Divine Statue Technique. Unexpectedly, this technique had some qualities of a demonic technique, and once he used his soul aura as a primer to set the foundation, it would allow the subject to experience rapid growth and reach a very high level of strength. However, it would have very strong side effects, hence its resemblance to a demonic technique.

Garen renamed this technique as the Demonic Statue Technique. This reminded him of the Behemoth Gate.

Everything started from the White Cloud Gate; that was where he started, and that place also had a soft spot in his heart.

"We already know what are the Two-Faced Waterbird Gate and the Shooting Shadow Gate, but what is the White Cloud Gate?" one of the students asked loudly, who had a heroic appearance. His name was Caesar, and he was the second-in-line to inherit his household name, which was one of the oldest and most respected households in Europe. As compared to the stunning achievements of the first-in-line, he seemed to be overshadowed in every aspect. He was one of the few students out of this batch who actually took an initiative in learning.

Recently, word of Garen's Combat Club had sent tremors throughout America. Dahm went all over the place organizing combat-based tournaments. Just a short while ago, he'd even worked together with Hochman to organize the World Fighting Tournament with a 50 million euro grand prize. Participants could even claim their traveling expenses from them. This attracted various experts from all over the world to participate.

Henceforth, the names "Waterbird Fist" and "Shooting Shadow Secret Technique" spread throughout the world.

Suddenly masters of all sorts of various fighting styles from all over the world were coming out of isolation and heading to America to participate in this tournament. There were adverts everywhere advertising this tournament and also the origins of Dahm and Hochman's fighting styles.

The name of the duo's teachers was not openly revealed. He was referred to by the two companies solely by the name "Holy Fist". The only information revealed about him was that he lived up in the mountains at a place called Holy Fist Palace, and was said to be a saint who had exceeded the limitations of Fist Techniques.

No one knew what "Holy Fist" looked like or who he or she was, and only a few core members of the Combat Club knew the true identity behind their master.

Dahm and Hochman were the embodiments of the Waterbird Fist in the rumors.

Some of the students, who had some insider information, understood that this man in the mask was the "Holy Fist" of the legends. Naturally, they would understand how great an opportunity this was. If all went well, they might have a chance to become the next Dahm or Hochman, attaining countless assets and authority.

Garen looked Caesar in the eye. He was a boy who was only 19 years old and looked as if he was filled with heroic spirit as the personification of vigor.

"White Cloud Gate is a sect that uses the Demonic Statue Technique as a foundation. This gate of secret techniques originated from an ancient form of fist style, completely different from the styles of the Waterbird Fist and the Shooting Shadow Fist. It has more of an upfront fighting style."