Mystical Journey

Even among the people there, only Beckstone understood well how heavy Garen’s words were. This was especially true if it were the Underworld Carriage. If it really was pointing towards that item, he didn’t even dare to imagine how powerful his current opponent was!

Suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind Beckstone.

"Garen?"

The person, one of the two who stood behind Beckstone, hadn’t spoken up until now.

Garen was stunned as he heard the familiar voice and looked at where the voice came from.

The opponent came out from the shade. He was in long grey robes and had a black wooden ring in his hand. He gently took off his thin hood with his hand, revealing a pale and old face.

He was Teacher Emin that Garen had been searching this whole time!!

"Garen... is that really you?!" Emin couldn’t believe himself as he stared intensely at the incredibly powerful man in front of him.

The image of the opponent overlapped with the face he had recognized when Garen was still under him.

"Teacher..." Garen’s tone was fused with shock, yet relief, and bitterness as well.

With this reply, Beckstone, Berlina and the little boy behind Emin had their eyes wide open.

This meant that Garen had admitted to his identity and he was indeed the sole student of Emin in the past.

Emin was the person who guided Beckstone to the Spirit Tree’s Riddle. He was also the luminarist who joined Beckstone’s team in the middle of the expedition. Although he didn’t have much strength, his knowledge was unparalleled as he was the successor of the famous Tasura Academy. No one expected that he was the teacher of the Eight Cloud Crow Garen.

Emin looked at Garen with a complicated look.

"I once believed that you would become a very powerful totem user, but I didn’t expect it to be this soon..."

He pondered for a while as his eyes filled with sadness..

"You finally ended up in the Royal Alliance..."

Garen stayed silent. He didn’t have any choice. Vanderman’s territory determined that his only path was to side with the Royal Alliance.

However, the Royal Alliance would eventually collapse in the future...

From the very beginning, he had no choice but to become a member of the Royal Alliance.

Vanderman had seriously offended the Terraflor Society, and the Obscuro Society had been trying to assassinate Vanderman. Eventually his relationship with them turned out to be incompatible.

However, the Royal Alliance was different. Vanderman had contributed a lot towards the Royal Alliance, and he had gave the result of his life long research to its Monarch as well, which formed a very solid relationship with them.

Perhaps it was due to the increment in his Intelligence attribute that caused him to think more than necessary.

Was his only path to follow the Royal Alliance until its collapse? This belief once again appeared in his mind as he saw Teacher Emin.

As he came back from his thought, he looked at the little boy behind Emin. The little boy had a delicate red butterfly on his shoulder. This butterfly was the one small scaled poisonous type totem that he had discussed with his teacher before.

He didn’t expect him to create one.

Emin noticed Garen’s gaze and pushed the little fellow out.

"This is your junior that I have recently recruited. His name is Bertin and he is quite talented."

"Bertin, please call him senior."

Bertin was a small boy with red short hair and had freckles on his nose.

"Sesesese...nior!" He stuttered, not because he was afraid but overly excited. "Can.. Can I be as strong as you someday!??"

"You can as long as you keep working your way up."Garen revealed a gentle smile.

Bertin’s eyes glimmered as he felt his senior was easy to talk to, yet he hesitated and seemed rather slow in voicing up.

"Big brother Beckstone is a good man, can you not make his life difficult?"

Beckstone couldn’t hold himself from his anger and tried to speak up but he vomited a pool of blood instead. Berlina immediately rushed towards him and pulled him up.

"Big brother Beckstone was coming after the Spirit Tree’s Riddle because of teacher’s health. Senior please stop making things difficult for him. Teacher is already ninety four years old and without the Life’s Dew..." Bertin couldn’t finish his sentence as his eyes turned red.

The teacher and disciple had different allegiances. One was of the Terraflor Society, and the other, the Royal Alliance. Although they had no conflict in their current standings, Garen knew that these power players would eventually collide against each other, and they would have to face against one another someday.

Garen understood well what Bertin’s words, and Emin’s intention was.

He didn’t expect that the Life’s Dew to be something requested by Emin. Furthermore, he didn’t expect Beckstone to come here to find the Life’s Dew just for Emin.

As he looked at the current situation teacher Emin was in, he couldn’t help but to feel remorse.

He focused his sight gaze on Beckstone. He knew that Beckstone’s hatred towards him would never be resolved when he killed his friend Darian in front of his eyes. Furthermore... The opponent was the seedling the Terraflor Society had been nurturing with everything they had, and so wouldn’t go down quietly.

However, he was here to find a solution for Emin, yet his teacher’s intention was to...

Garen calmed down.

Berlina and the others stared anxiously at Garen. He would be the one to decide whether they would be at war or make peace with each other.

A shapeless pressure slowly caged everyone, as if the air had solidified.

Berlina felt that she started to have trouble breathing. She would try her best to inhale but didn’t dare to make any sound. This feeling, where her life was in the hands of someone else, she didn’t want to experience it any longer...

Beckstone... She couldn’t help herself but to look at Beckstone in that moment.

This man who was usually calm and quick witted turned overactive when he faced with that man. It was obvious that Garen had scarred him for good.

Sweat started to form on Beckstone’s nose, and he couldn’t even use his hands to wipe them off. He could only continue his deadly stare at Garen. He had fallen into a defeat he had never tasted before since he was firmly defeated last time.

The taste of the sun turning into grey ash was still very fresh in his memory.

He was muddling along listlessly for days, and didn’t want to achieve anything at all. He daydreamed inside his home everyday like a zombie. He slept after eating, and daydreamed after his sleep. It was as if he had totally forgot everything.

The effort and sacrificed he had poured out was a total waste.

After that, his teacher had sent someone to deliver a white shelled diary to him. It was sent by Leanna’s parents, and inside were descriptions of Leanna’s everyday life.

Then he heard about his teacher’s terminal illness. Even as he rushed to see him, he was too late to see his teacher for the very last time. It was raining heavily that day, and he kneeled in the rain. Whether the water droplets on his cheeks were that of the rain or his tears, he didn’t know..

From that day onwards, he vowed that he would fulfill his teacher’s ambition.

No matter how much anger he had that dangerously obstructed his rationality, Beckstone finally restricted his urge, the irresistible urge to fight Garen with his life!

A breeze blew and leaves whistled.

The broken sunlight landed on each person present.

"Teacher... When did you join the Terraflor Society?" Garen suddenly asked.

Emin hesitated for a moment but he eventually answered.

"I have been a member of the Terraflor Society from the very beginning. The whole Tasura Academy is actually part of the Terraflor Society’s setup academy."

Garen closed his eyes as he lost himself in his thoughts.

On the other hand, Berlina and Beckstone were completely shocked, as if they just found out that Emin was actually a member of the Terraflor Society.

"In respect to my teacher’s wish, you guys can leave now." Garen finally came to a conclusion. "As the chaotic era came upon us, I didn’t come to see teacher Emin immediately, so I’ll use this as a compensation. Beckstone, don’t let me see you again."

Beckstone vomited another pool of black blood. As he was being carried by Berlina, his lips trembled and it was obvious that he was heavily injured. Every breath he took seemed bear the weight of the world.

"If you let me go today, I will make sure I’ll be the one letting you go once in the future!"

He was a man of arrogance, and yet he was humiliated by Garen twice. This made his desire grew ever stronger than before.

"Let’s go!" Beckstone barely pushed Berlina away as he turned around and leave.

Emin and Bertin looked at Garen one last time before turning around and leaving the scene as well.

The four of them walked to the edge of the levitating stone. A green light flashed and a giant Jade Hawk appeared.

The hawk’s wing span was at least twenty meters wide, and his back was close to six meters wide. The party climbed up onto the hawk.

Garen looked at them from afar until they ascended beyond his sight

***************

At the other peak of the mountain valley inside the red fern forest.

There were a few figures in green shirts, each of them were in tight white full body armor, with their heads fully covered, the only visible parts of their bodies being their eyes.

The white armored men had a well trained air about them as they stood silently in the forest. Two of the white armored men who stood at the front observed the situation unfold between Garen and Beckstone from afar.

"Interesting. I didn’t know that Eight Cloud Crow was actually Emin’s disciple." The green armored leader whispered in a male’s voice.

"Beckstone must be very angry to be humiliated by this fellow twice in a row. What a pity." The other person was a female, her voice was rather frivolous.

"If you feel pity towards him, why didn’t you help Darian out back then?"

"We only care about Beckstone not dying. All this other stuff is very exhausting!" The lady complained.

"Then stop complaining." The male leader said impatiently.

"Don’t you feel excited when you look at this kid’s battle? Isn’t it good to feel excited?" The lady said. "Oh right, take a look at that Garen kid, isn’t he a character? He facial figure looks good and has a good fitness as well. He’s clearly a few times stronger than you! I wonder how good he tastes..."

"Stronger than me? I can squash him with just my finger!" The man started to become angry.

"A finger? You can squash him with just a finger?"

"Perhaps two fingers!" The male said angrily.

He stared at Garen in rage as he planned when he wanted to teach Garen a lesson to let him know that there were much stronger people above him.