Mystical Journey

With Si Lan in his arm, Garen dashed through the field with increasing speed, looking for Dale Quicksilver following anywhere that had any signs of fighting.

Four encounters, plenty of followers of the Clown King, but no sign of Dale Quicksilver and White Eagle. They ran for another few hundred meters in the fog, and finally heard some grunting coming from the front.

They approached the sound and greeted with the sight of White Eagle fighting with a clown in red.

White Eagle held a white blade that was glowing some quivering black runes. His face was tense, veins popped, he basically looked like a savage. Even with that, he was quickly losing his ground against the clown.

Dale Quicksilver aimed his gun at the ones fighting but didn’t dare to shoot. They were both so quick in their movements it was impossible to aim.

White Eagle and the clown were both agility-type fighters, the light from the sword and the red clown’s claw kept finding ways to attack each other, but there were only swishing sound of the wind but not from one for clashing.

Srrt! A slash wound appeared on White Eagle’s right arm, but as his eyes were red with fury, he didn’t care.

"Mr. Kelly!" Seeing White Eagle in danger, Si Lan looked at Garen anxiously.

Garen nodded and stepped between the two in an instant, his arms outstretched toward the both of them.

Thud! Thud!

White Eagle and the clown got pushed back simultaneously.

Seeing Garen, the clown turned and ran without a word.

Garen squinted and grabbed at the clown’s head. His hand was as fast as lightning, only a white silhouette was visible.

"Stop butting in!"

A sudden killing intent came from behind Garen. White Eagle roared at him, charging.

Wielding the blade, White Eagle’s eyes were filled with hatred. A slicing air burst out of the white rune blade toward Garen’s back.

White Eagle didn’t expect to find his parents’ killer a dozen years after in the same place! The red clown was the killer who murdered his parents in cold blood! Even though he was being subdued earlier, he was planning to unleash his strongest attack the whole time until Garen interrupted the fight, forcing him to unleash the power earlier than he wanted.

The red clown also repocketed a small ball unwillingly. This ball is an item built specifically to defeat the rune blade. He was waiting for White Eagle to unleash the true power of the rune blade so he could reflect it back with the ball.

"Dammit! If he didn’t cut in so early!" The clown glared at Garen for a bit. "Just a little more, I would have killed White Eagle and tie up my loose ends!"

Seeing White Eagle stabbing at Garen, he felt a rush of schadenfreude.

The white rune blade pierced Garen on his back. Black light glowed on the runes on the blade, emitting a mysterious air.

Different from Flamingo’s sword, the most distinct feature of this rune blade was its sharpness. Whatever it stabbed, a pierce mark would appear, whatever it hacked at, they would be cut in half.

This is Garen’s first sense of crisis since mastering the Divine Statue Technique.

"Ten Thousand Mammoth Retrograde!"

Garen rippled his arm, pushing an invisible force outward.

Boom!

A transparent ripple formed in the air from Garen’s arms.

The ripple spread, hitting both White Eagle and the clown, causing them to fall backward onto the ground and slid some distance before stopping.

Garen flexed his back, the tiny pierce wound quickly closed and disappeared.

He turned back to look at White Eagle.

"What are you doing! Mr. Kelly saved you, and you want to stab him!" Si Lan ran over and propped White Eagle up. At that point the veins on White Eagle’s face had subsided.

Blood rushed to his mouth, which he spat out immediately. He looked exhausted.

"You’re not even a Grandmaster of Combat, and you dared to come to the Smoke Island." Garen shook his head in disbelief. "You guys are too reckless."

"I..." White Eagle didn’t know what to say. He had hurt Garen in his excited state. "I’m sorry... I was influenced by the blade."

Garen shook his head, ignoring White Eagle, and turned toward the approaching Dale Quicksilver.

Dale Quicksilver recognized him and withdrew his gun, flashing him a wry smile.

"Mr. Kelly, I didn’t think we would meet like this."

"Yeah, same here." Garen shrugged, "Were you here for the Black Smoke Pot?"

"Of course not, we are self-aware people." Dale Quicksilver said. "It may sound a little sudden, but I hope to get your help. To be honest, my daughter and White Eagle’s son were both kidnapped onto this island, we were looking for a long time, but we haven’t been able to locate them..."

"You want me to help you find the kids?"

"If there’s anything I could help you with, please tell me." Dale Quicksilver added readily.

Garen hesitated. Dale Quicksilver was an old friend, it wouldn’t be too hard to help him. However, with the time he had left...

Si Lan tied the unconscious clown up and came over. "The one who kidnapped the kids was Clown King. We need to find him, just like Mr. Kelly. So our goal aligns."

"So..." Dale Quicksilver looked relieved. "What do you think?"

Garen thought silently.

"We can’t delay here for too long. If we can’t figure this out by tomorrow, we’ll need to abort."

Dale Quicksilver dropped his head in deep thought, and looked up almost immediately, "Three hours. I can find him in three hours."

"Oh?" Garen stared at him, slightly surprised. "You sure?"

"Of course!"

Garen kept his quiet and led the detective group back, dragging the unconscious clown along. White Eagle kept having the urge to finish the clown off on the way, but he persevered.

In the middle of the pillar jungle was an oval black stone tile, a massive black stone statue was erected in the center of it.

The statue is about a dozen meters in height, posed like a humanoid Lucky Cat*. Its head was large with a kind facial features, but it wasn’t clear whether it’s a male or a female. White smoke continually billowed out of its nostrils, ears, and mouth. Wisps of smoke hung around the air, adding to the mysterious calmness the scene brings.

The Three Major Generals of Weisman Empire, as well as the Werewolf Bedega had already arrived and were resting against the statue, planning to wait until the next day in that position.

Andrela and King of Nightmares stood beside the three generals, and made space as soon as they saw Garen with a number of people following him.

Garen didn’t speak. He led Dale Quicksilver and the others there and sat down, not caring about anything else. Dale Quicksilver and Si Lan couldn’t stay still, they started wandering around.

Some of the other parties had already left, the rest were just people who were trying their luck. With Garen’s fame, Dale Quicksilver had no trouble talking to people. There wasn’t much info, but he finally understood Garen’s influence.

Dale Quicksilver kept his eyes low to cover up his surprise.

"Southern Sky Holy Fist Gate Second Divine Warrior... White Cloud Gate Master? Mr. Kelly had us fooled for so long!"

"What is a ‘Divine Warrior’? What level is he?" Si Lan wasn’t too familiar with the Martial Arts community, and even Yoke and White Eagle was curiously staring at Dale. They weren’t people from that circle, so they didn’t know how intrepid he actually is.

"Is he as strong as the people from Golden Hoop?" White Eagle asked after having a thought.

Dale Quicksilver wasn’t sure whether he should laugh or cry. "He is one of the strongest leaders of Golden Hoop. Under his management, White Cloud Gate was getting so much attention from the government, a province was basically given to him! What do you think?"

Gasp.

It was then that Si Lan and White Eagle finally understand what ‘Divine Warrior’ entails.

"Will he, you know..." White Eagle asked worriedly. "There were tons of people who wanted my sword..."

"If he wanted to target us, it would have been as easy as killing an ant... Your blade is powerful, but I don’t think he wants it. When he saw your blade just now, he wasn’t very surprised, that means he has seen similar things before." Dale Quicksilver analyzed. "Let’s not talk about this. We need to focus on finding the Clown King."

"Isn’t three hours a little tight?" Si Lan asked, concerned.

"It’s alright, I already have some thoughts." Dale Quicksilver replied confidently.

Garen leaned against the foot of the giant statue, watching Dale Quicksilver and the others walk about the area and occasionally stop to check the marks on the ground.

"You think they really can suss out the Clown King?" King of Nightmares asked boredly. "I’ve already hypnotized those clowns, nothing."

"Let’s give it a shot, it doesn’t cost us anything, at least we got someone to help." Garen stated.

"When do you want to get the key?" King of Nightmares continued asking, "The key on the Werewolves are easier to get than the ones on those three from Weisman. If we want it, we can get it easily."

"Don’t worry. Let’s look for the Clown King first." Garen wasn’t in a hurry, "Between the Southern and the Northern Territories, only one side could win the qualification to use the item. We’ll have to fight at the end anyway. If we’ve got the keys but were killed by the people from the North, it’d be pointless. At the end, only one person is deserving of the Black Smoke Pot."

"To break limits... I didn’t think I’d be interested at first, but now I feel like I wanna fight for it." Andrela muttered.

The three stopped chattering and sat quietly on the ground.

The fog started to become darker. Whatever they can see of the sky was turning gray, and the fog had become thicker.

Some people tried to light a torch, but torches were dampened by the fog, they just won’t light up. It got colder, weaker people were starting to feel the chill.

Dale Quicksilver strutted about for a while and stopped. He walked to somewhere quiet and started thinking deeply.

Garen ignored him. He only needed an answer, how Dale Quicksilver came up with that answer wasn’t important. His attention was on the white rune blade in White Eagle’s hands.

The blade is impressive even though it could only break his skin, but it was much more powerful than the one Flamingo had. However it doesn’t seem to have a great range, obviously the makers focused on different aspects of their blades.

Translator’s Thoughts

J_Squared J_Squared

1. Lit. Wealth-beckoning cat. A Japanese cat figurine that has one paw up by its face. Usually mistaken for Chinese in origin due to its popularity in the Chinese community. Look up maneki-neko.