Mystical Journey

Garen’s current plan was to make use of the excuse of need to identify the eye shaped stone for a while, and keep the stone in his hands a bit longer; that would count as a way to absorb the potential.

To get away from getting suspected, he voluntarily asked Number 8 to chase after Golden Loop Number 9 with him, because the opponent intentionally pushed the blame onto him.

No matter what happened, he had to find Golden Loop Number 9 to clean himself from the blame. However, he knew that even if he was clean, Number 8 still won’t let him go; maybe that his identification technique would protect himself, but it wasn’t secure enough.

"The best case would be that they two kill each other during a fight!" Garen rushed down as a vicious expression flashed though his eyes.

Golden Loop Number 8 followed behind him closely. He had a small torch in his hand, and he used his cape to block off the wind that might extinguish the fire. The two of them were only about a meter apart; they could barely see what was in front and behind them.

Soon, a white stone gate that was half open suddenly appeared on the stairwalls. Peeking into it, Garen wouldn’t see anything; it was pitch dark and cold breezes were blowing out of the gate.

Garen quickly stopped his steps, and caught up on his breath.

"It’s the natural wind! They probably left from here!"

Golden Loop Number 8 had thought everything through by this point. He knew that he was tricked. Garen didn’t have to say much; Golden Loop Number 8 dragged opened the gate and entered.

A few strange expression flashed by Garen’s face as he followed Number 8.

There was a stone room behind the stone gate. There was a thick layer of dust on the ground, and there was a series of clear footprints leading forward, and these footprints disappeared as they got to wall on the right.

Golden Loop Number 8 walked up to the wall and rubbed it, however, he wasn’t able to find any mechanisms on the wall that would open up any hidden paths.

"Shit!" He punched the wall, and it made a loud "Bam" sound.

"There is still wind! There must be a way out!" Garen said calmly: "We need to find the ventilation exit."

Number 8’s eyes shined; he was very anxious and didn’t think out that. He started to look for the ventilation exit after he was reminded.

Garen stood there and didn’t move; he just watched as Number 8 searched.

What’s the use for the stone? Do you Golden Loop folks know?"

"Hehe, aren’t you afraid that you will die sooner knowing more?" Number 8 searched as he laughed. It seemed like he suddenly found the mechanism; he lightly pushed into the wall.

Crack! A small door flipped open on the wall.

At the moment where the door flipped out, a short sword pierced at Golden Loop Number 8 quietly.

Tink!

The short sword hit the barrel on Number 8’s Gun.

Number 8 took a big step back and raised his gun to shoot.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

After four shots, there weren’t any more movements inside the darkness behind the small door.

"He escaped, we have to chase!" Number 8 roared, but he didn’t move. He looked at Garen who was standing beside him; his intention was obvious, he wanted Garen to go first.

"The stuff isn’t mine, I don’t really care!" Garen sneered. His strength wasn’t as strong as these two people; with the injuries, he was only able to use 80% of his strength. There was no way that he could win against any one them. If he chased into the darkness, he won’t get used to it at all.

Although it was also dark in the stone room, but there was still some light, unlike the space inside that little door. At least Golden Loop Number 8 had a torch.

For a moment, the two of them froze inside the stone room. Number 8 knew that he wasn’t able to order Garen around, but he didn’t dare to rush in recklessly.

"If we delay it longer, he would be gone!" Garen said coldly.

Golden Loop Number 8 stared at him, bit his teeth, took of one of the two guns he had, and threw it into the space behind the small door.

The gun swirled in the air as it entered the darkness.

Bam!

After a gun noise, a small red flame lit up darkness inside the door. The gun exploded instantly! At the same time, there was a vague humph sound, followed by staggering footsteps.

Golden Loop Number 8 sneered. He didn’t say anything and rushed into the door. He used the cape to protect his body against the flame, and disappeared into the darkness.

Garen didn’t follow up. He saw what happened clearly; Golden Loop Number 8 shot the handle on the first gun using the second gun! The handle of the first gun was filled with explosives, and it acted like a bomb when it was shot.

Although the explosive was weak, but the sound of the explosive would shock and temporally disable one’s ear in that small space. Golden Loop Number 9 must have been hurt by that.

Therefore, Golden Loop Number 8 had no time to deal with Garen. He rushed in and chased after Number 9; he had to kill Number 9 before he recovered.

Garen knew that there was nothing for him to do anymore. He didn’t want to get involved in this in the first place. Since now both of Golden Loops were fighting again, it was time for him to leave.

As he was about to turn around and leave, he suddenly felt a familiar flow slowly drilling through his skin.

"This is..... Potential?!" He glanced around in surprise. There wasn’t any light, the surrounding was dark, he couldn’t see anything.

Garen slowly walked around as he leaned against the wall; soon, he arrived at the place where the potential energy was the thickest.

He slowly squatted down at the corner of the room; there was a piece of black cloth nailed against the ground, and it was covering something.

Because it was dark, and it was at the corner, both Golden Loop Number 8 and Garen didn’t see it. The potential energy as very thin at where Garen was standing at; Garen didn’t feel it at all when he was all tensed up. After calming down, he just noticed it. Apart from the Black Jade Disk, there was this source of slowly flowing into his body.

"Could it be?" Garen’s heart started racing. He slowly uncovered the black cloth, and a white stone revealed itself. The stone was in an eye shape; it also looked like a fish. It quietly laid on the black floor. Garen picked it up and rubbed it. Although he couldn’t see it clearly, but he knew that this was there the potential energy was coming from. From the shape of it, he knew that it was probably that white eye shaped stone.

"If it wasn’t the potential energy that helped me locate it, anyone else wouldn’t have been able to find it!" Garen quickly put the "white eye" into his pocket.

He stood up and walked toward the entrance.

There was still the smell of gas and smoke that came off of the torches left it the air; it was thick.

"It’s probably the detectives who just passed by."

Standing at the entrance of the stone room, Garen turned his head around and looked behind him as a sneer appeared on his face.

"One intentionally framed me, one wanted to kill me casually. Both of them are bad eggs. Unfortunately, I could get rid of them if I’m a bit stronger! I won’t let them get away easily."

He rubbed the white eye shaped stone in his shirt pocket as he thought of something. At the same time, he quickly ran up.

After a few minutes......

A black shadow suddenly rushed out of the little door in the stone room. The black shadow didn’t light up anything; he rushed to the corner of the room, uncovered the black cloth and reached for something.

The black shadow was stunned as it didn’t find anything. He quickly swepped around with his hands, but he still didn’t find anything.

"That Kelly....!!" He bit his teeth and said.

Vague footsteps behind him, and the black shadow quickly stood up and rushed out of the gate.

As soon as he rushed out, he felt a wind gusting at him as a man jumped at him from the side.

Bam!

The two of them instantly separated, and the black shadow hit the gate forcefully. The whole wall shook as a result.

"Damn!!" He continued his rolling on the floor as he dodged the second attack; the frame of the gate behind him was smashed by a punch, and it let off a deep boom sound. A ton of stone chips crackled down the wall.

"Golden Loop Number 9, you deserve this!" Garen’s voice sounded in the darkness. "How dare you shift all the blame onto me? Do you think I’m scared of you?"

Golden Loop Number 9 grabbed onto the handle on the stairs as he tried helping himself up; he was only able to half kneel on the ground. He looked pale as blood flowed out of his ears, nose, and mouth; there were many thin blood streams all over his face.

He wasn’t practicing Body Hardening Technique in the first place; after getting injured by Golden Loop Number 8, and getting sneak attacked by this, he felt sick to his stomach, and his head felt a little dizzy.

"Where is it?" He endured the pain and asked with his hoarse voice.

"It’s on me of course." Garen sneered. "I will give it to the Golden Loop, it will help relieve the tension between us. I will give it to Golden Loop Number 8 later."

"Idiot." Number 9 suddenly laughed reluctantly. He stood up straight and was about to speak; however, he suddenly opened his mouth and puked up a mouthful of blood.

The thick smell of bloody instantly dispersed into the space.

At this time, another black shadow dashed out of the stone room, and appeared in front of the gate; it was Golden Loop Number 8.

He was holding onto a small torch that was still lit, and the torch barely lit up the surroundings. Under the vague light, the three faces appeared red and looming.

"Do you really have it?" Golden Loop Number 8 looked at Garen: "Give it to me!" He said as he reached out his hand.

"I can give it to you, but it has not been identified yet. I think I’m the only one who is able to identify to see if it’s fake or not. You guys know how long it takes to identify."

Garen didn’t hesitate. He knew that he couldn’t protect this item. Although he didn’t like the way Golden Loop Number 8 talked to him, he threw the white eye shaped stone to him. The latter caught it in mid-air; he nodded in satisfaction after he checked it.

"It’s ok. I misunderstood you before. This item has no value to you, so you have no reason to jack it. In terms of identification, we will have to bother you on that. Everything here is a big misunderstanding."

"I only like identifying all sorts of strange stuff. I actually do hope that I could identify the stuff that you Golden Loop get," Garen spoke his mind.

Golden Loop Number 8 swirled his eyes and said: "The organization is always looking to treasure and protect talented people. The henchmen didn’t know much, and caused a lot of trouble for you; it is our fault. But I’m sure you know that you are on Dale Quicksilver’s side, and a lot people in the organization is not happy about that. But if you Kelly could join Golden Loop, then everything won’t be a problem." He just tested Garen’s strength and was impressed. Since Golden Loop Number 9 just betrayed the organization, a new person had to be added to the top ten Golden Loops, he had an idea.

The two of them started talking and actually ignored Golden Loop Number 9 who was severely injured temporarily. Number 9 was happy to see that too; he needed the time to recuperate, his body couldn’t handle it anymore.

"What can I get by joining Golden Loop?" Garen asked as he lowered his voice.

"Although we are not a Secret Martial Art Organization, we are not a pure Force Organization as well." Golden Loop Number 8 laughed proudly: "Detective Dale knew the reason why we, the Golden Loop exist, but he didn’t tell you."

Garen squinted his eyes.

"For us to like collecting this much, someone must need them."

"When what kind of a person like these Antiques that are stolen and hard to sell? After all, these items are small and incredibly old; they only have minute historic value." Golden Loop Number 8 continued with his hints.

Garen was shocked.

"Nobles!" He shouted out.

"Actually," Golden Loop Number 8 started laughing. "Golden Loop represents not just an ordinary underground force. We are backed by many influential people in high places! Strength is actually our weakest link, what we have is power and influence! There are only benefits and no harms by joining us."

Garen was relieved, and he knew there weren’t any problems; he said all of that to Golden Loop Number 8 Intentionally. He still had his families, relatives, and master; he wasn’t a single person who was isolated. Although Golden Loop wasn’t scared of Manuyllton Corporation or his master Fei Baiyun’s status and influence, they wouldn’t come and provoke him for no reason, as long as there wasn’t any conflict of interest.

"No wonder the detectives couldn’t do anything about you guys, so it turns out that Golden Loop’s influence is this strong!" He murmured.

"We just need an identification expert that could identify ancient and mysterious items. This is your opportunity!" Golden Loop Number 8 was getting more and more satisfied with his idea. All of Garen’s strength, background, and talent were what his organization was looking for. If he was able to add Garen into their organization, then the small conflicts they had prior could be solved easily. So only a few people died? They weren’t any of the top twenty Golden Loops, anyone after the twentieth position were pretty much useless, and their positions could be filled easily! At this day and age, experts and talented individuals are the most important resources.