Mystical Journey

Instantly, the atmosphere in the hall seemed to have changed somewhat, the various Elders all looked rather interested, and even Ivycius, who had his eyes closed before, opened them now, looking at the three disciples who stepped out of the line.

The first two were the two masters that Garen had recruited as his disciples before, and the other was a young guy of about fifteen or sixteen. Unlike the polite respect of the other two, this young fellow respected him but tried hard to keep his head up, meeting Garen’s gaze head-on, even if this determination made his whole body tremble, and slightly more than ten seconds was enough to cover his head with a cold sweat. But he still clenched his teeth and held in there.

"Who’s Ansapello?" Garen asked calmly, but his gaze was already fixed on the young man whose face was growing paler and paler.

"It’s that little idiot who just refuses to bend his head." Amidst the Elders, Wukang couldn’t help but laugh. Instantly, the whole hall burst into fond laughter.

"I heard that you meditated under my statue, and said you would surpass me?" Garen was not laughing in the slightest, though. His tone instantly affected the atmosphere in the whole Grand Hall, and the other Elders’ laughter also slowly quieted down.

The pale young man still held his head stubbornly high, his originally short brown hair soaked with sweat and plastered onto his forehead, while there were visible sweat stains on his clothes, but he still had no intention of lowering his head.

"Yes...!" He forced the word out of clenched teeth, under the pressure of Garen’s gaze, even though Garen did not mean to pressure him at all, he was born with an innate and acute sensitivity towards danger, this was a talent, and this talent allowed him to travel thousands of miles, escaping death countless times, finally arriving at Kovitan and entering the Black Swamp Palace.

Right now, this talent had instead become his biggest burden, this sensitivity towards danger was making him shake like a leaf, his body and heart on the brink of collapse, as though he was at the bottom of the water, trying to float upwards to obtain oxygen, but there were seaweed and whirlpools holding his feet down.

This unbelievably overwhelming sense of suffocation made him almost want to lower his head and give in.

Whoosh...

The young man seemed to hear the sound of the tide retreating, the pressure all over him suddenly disappearing, his whole body shook slightly and he just nearly fell to the ground. His senior brother beside him held him up secretly, finally helping him steady his footing.

Evidently Garen had discovered the reason why he was shaking, and had taken the initiative to pull back the aura and energy emitting from his body, which finally let the young fellow return to normal.

"Good... very good!!" Everyone could see the smile on Garen’s face clearly. His eyes showed his appreciation of the young man without hesitation. "The fourth level of the Black Water True Technique, you’ll need to trade for it using quest badges, the Black Swamp Palace won’t teach it to you for free, the first three levels are the most basic benefits for disciples and scholars, but after enjoying the privileges, you would naturally have duties you need to fulfill. For the fourth level, you’ll need to complete a certain number of quests to obtain quest points yourselves, only then will you obtain it, and you are not allowed to teach it to each other privately. There’s no problem, is there?"

"Of course!" The young man replied loudly, and panted once. "If we want to get something, we need to give something equal in return, that’s what you’re trying to tell us!"

"Go down and rest." Garen waved his hand, and there were instantly maids coming up to help the young man stand, bringing him down.

Garen’s attitude had affected the attitudes of all the Black Swamp Palace higher-ups to some extent, and most of the Elders still looked friendly, only the Seven Night Tower’s Angel looked slightly displeased, though she did not say anything, that young fellow had probably offended her at some point.

Garen did not bother with her, the Palace was not one fixed entity, there would be some slight conflicts between members, and he would ignore those, as long as they did not cross a certain line, everything could be considered the obstacles and trainings between Palace members.

After that, it was the Four Directions Sky Warriors in charge of various matters who came up to report on their respective areas, although these conditions had already been summarized and given to Lala for organization, now they reported to him again in detail, in a way to fill up the details.

The Four Directions Sky Warriors were peak-level fighting geniuses chosen from outside, after testing their qualifications and endurance, in the two short months since Garen left, two of these four positions had been challenged by outsiders, and the people in the positions changed. The challengers were from the prodigy training camps, these camps included the cream of the crop from among the competition of many normal scholars, and these elite members were once more divided into the possible candidates for the Four Directions Sky Generals as well the core scholars and disciples.

The whole Black Swamp Palace had formed a complete system, albeit one in the early stages.

The whole Black Swamp Palace was divided into five levels.

The first level was the Palace Master.

The second level included three powers: the Elders, the head manager Lala, and the Technique Hall, each of these was equal in power.

The third level had the core scholars, the Four Directions Sky Warriors, the prodigy training camp’s instructor totem users, and the managers of the outside businesses.

The fourth level had the prodigy scholars.

The fifth level was the lowest level, and included the normal scholars, they were just one level higher than the regular maids and servants, or the domestic help.

Of these five levels, just in the fourth level itself, the Black Swamp Palace’s prodigy scholars already had countless connections to the outside world, the higher-ranked scholars had already become future investment targets from many of the large and small factions outside, and these scholars had gathered many powers, some more and some less, big and small, behind them.

The power of the entire Black Swamp Palace was like a giant spider web, covering the whole Kingdom, and rapidly spreading to cover the entire Protection area.

This had already become a huge economic group with the Black Swamp Palace in the middle, and Garen at the very top.

The Four Directions Sky Generals came up to report on their different missions, the black-armored guards had been renamed from the Black Fire Guards from before to the Black Swamp Guards now, these Black Swamp Guards were more powerful than before, and the Four Directions Sky Warriors’ powers combined, added to the power they had under their control, was more than capable of matching four peak-level Form Four totem users. Although this was the effect of using all sorts of methods, and disregarding all costs, but from here the terrifying power of the Green Vine Sphere was made evident, it was enough to make a normal person achieve the level of a peak-level fighter, as expected of the Green Vine Sphere, the heights of Vanderman’s achievements throughout his lifetime.

Garen listened carefully from above, the Four Directions Sky Warriors were in charge of their relations with outside martial powers, they had two hundred members, and added to the totem users they had recruited from outside, they were now approaching eight hundred people, and were the Black Swamp Palace’s most populated division.

These people were also in charge of the safety of the Black Swamp Palace’s property, going out to hunt and gather all sorts of ingredients and Aberrated monsters, patrolling the perimeter, punishing intruders, performing troublesome tasks and the like, they were basically the whole Black Swamp Palace’s cornerstone.

This power was also the one Garen had the most faith in, because the Green Vine Sphere only recognized him alone, all the power of these Black Swamp Guards came from the Green Vine Sphere, so this was also the largest inheritance left for him by Vanderman.

One by one, the Four Directions Sky Warriors reported their situations, and soon enough, the third West Sky General came up.

"Regarding that Poison Hag totem user from the Secret Service that we had apprehended, may we know how we should deal with her?" The West Sky General’s voice was clear and crisp, it was actually a young woman, and she was also a prodigy scholar who had just successfully challenged the seat.

"The Poison Hag?" Garen touched his chin, he had also remembered that poison expert from the Secret Service who had messed around and tried to poison him to death, back at the headquarters, she sure was cocky, but now that the Black Swamp Guard had caught her, even she couldn’t do anything. This was especially because the innate ability to resist poison increased as one’s level of training in the Black Water True Technique increased, after all, this was based on the veins and blood transport pathways inside the Nine-Headed Dragon’s body, although it had been adjusted to suit human use, that still did not mean that it had lost all of its initial usefulness.

Although it would not grant near immunity to poison like Garen had, it was still enough to attain an extremely high resistance to poison. To a poison-element totem user like the Poison Hag, this was basically a natural breeding ground for nightmares.

"Is there any news from the Secret Service’s side?" Garen still cared more about the attitude of his previous boss who had protected him before.

"The department’s vice president sent someone to enquire about the reason for her capture, and then they didn’t send anyone else." The West Sky General replied respectfully.

"Then kill her. It’d be best if you can get the totem legacy from her before you do it. Any problems?" Garen nodded.

"I understand." The West Sky General retreated respectfully.

The North Sky General came up next to report.

"I am in charge of the supplies and defense, recently some of our mining veins have shown small-scale depletion, some veins that should still be rich in resources mysteriously went dry, we do not know the reason behind it. I have investigated it before secretly, but came up with nothing."

"Depleting veins?" Garen frowned, "Has anyone else investigated this?"

"There was Elder Skyharp." The North Sky General replied with respect.

Garen looked at Skyharp, who nodded lightly, indicating that she had a certain hold of the situation.

"The Technique Hall will also investigate this, Elder Skyharp, I’ll be bothering you with this."

"I should be happy to help. The Nine Snakes System has been up and running for some time now, I’d like to earn some merit points as well." Skyharp smiled.

Garen nodded, the fact that this matter could reach all the way up to him meant that the people underneath had tried many times, and could still make no headway, only then did they present it to him.

"I’ll stay in the Palace for some time, all matters will be arranged and handled by Lala, large matters can be decided by Elders Ivycius and Blizzard after discussion, alright, everyone go back to your respective jobs now. Master Calingan, please bring me to see the Nine Snakes System."

"It is my honor." Calingan hurriedly stood up.

Garen got up and left first, Calingan following with two of his apprentices, only then did the rest leave in turn.

The Nine Snakes System was a new generation management system Calingan had created by upgrading and incorporating the previous Palace totem system. It created a new mechanism, with some virtual units called merits as the core to everything.

Anybody who contributes to the Black Swamp Palace would have their contributions recorded down as the corresponding number of merit points, these merit points could be used to exchange anything, be it totems, knowledge, supplies, or information, equipment, techniques, even hiring muscle or buying people.

Of course, there were only things that could be traded in theory, in reality there were not many things that could be traded right now, they were mostly from that huge haul Garen had gotten from the Royal Treasury previously, these items were used as the start-up capital, to attract disciples, scholars, the Elders and the Sky Warriors to constantly contribute to the Palace, any supplies, legacy information or treasures they had gotten from the outside world and was not suitable for their own use could be handed to the Palace to trade for merit points, and then these could be used to exchange for things the Palace did have, things they needed.

This was the optimized organization of supplies, Master Calingan had the people from the Technique Hall organize all the complete totem legacies, and came up with thirteen high-level legacy systems, these being one of the Black Swamp Palace’s bases.

"Thirteen types of totem legacies?" Garen was thoughtful. "That’s good too, after activating their totem user qualifications by achieving the fourth level of the Black Water True Technique, the scholars need to choose the legacies suited to them and continue training, organizing the systems like this won’t only increase our knowledge about totems, there will also be information about the supplies needed for all sorts of evolutions, while also increasing the detailed technical experiences. As expected of Master Calingan, you really have set the strongest foundations for the entire Black Swamp Palace."

Calingan hastily waved his hand.

"You flatter, Palace Master, if it weren’t for your generosity, bringing out all of the legacies in your personal treasury to become the start-up capital, the Nine Snakes System might not be able to move so smoothly. I’m just doing what I should."

"Let’s go, let’s see the Nine Snakes’ core." Garen nodded.