Mystical Journey

Amidst the splashing of the water, Garen's voice reached the other person's ears clearly.

"True… identity…" Chinande repeated once.

He was quiet for a long time, and then he crouched down again, actually deciding to ignore Garen.

"If you want to see it, come see for yourself." Finally, he pointed at his own forehead, closing his eyes slowly. He continued to hold the fishing rod, and just like that, he sat down once more. As quiet as a statue.

Garen frowned.

This was not how Chinande's original records were like. In the past, he was never like this, but it seemed that after that war with the Finite people, he had changed into the strange person he was now.

Garen had always wondered how Chinande ended up becoming the White King's Royal Star. That had all been a myth.

Until now, he only had one motive for coming here, and that was revenge.

Revenge for the Second Elder of the Scarlet Snow Sect back then, and for the time Chinande tried to control him. And now they were at this level, he was a Regent Level facing off against Chinande, a Perpetual Motioner. Therefore, no matter what, there would be no accidents for a short while. Be it the White King, or the actions of the nearest Regent-Level fighters, Garen was completely aware of them all.

"See for myself?" Garen repeated.

Without any hesitation, he strode forth, and lightly pressed his hand against Chinande's forehead. The memory data connected immediately, and countless memories surged at him madly from the depths of Chinande's mind.

Bam!!

In an instant, a world of light, white light, exploded from the point of contact.

Garen was immediately drowned in the sea of light.

The ocean's worth of memories kept flashing past at incredible speeds, and finally stopped on a scene in space.

It was inside a floating metallic palace, and the White King's hand was pulling away from Chinande's forehead.

There was a corpse in white robes lying beside them.

Garen looked at it closely, and discovered, to his shock, that it was another Chinande.

"Starting from today, you are the new Light of Justice." The White King's voice reached his ears. The child-like White King still looked like a young boy, his smile gentle and clean.

Garen looked at Chinande's body within his memories.

It was just a mass of bloody red flesh, that did not even resemble a human!

Boom!!

Amidst the loud explosions, the memories began to recede rapidly, and everything around him became a mess of colors again.

Garen pulled his hand away slowly, looking at Chinande in front of him. It had never occurred to him that this so-called Royal Star would be an artificial creature that the White King created with his own hands.

"In that case, the White King knew that I would come looking for you?" asked Garen in a low voice.

"How many more times can you come out?" Chinande asked quietly.

Garen paused.

True, the person who knew his condition best, except for himself, was none other than the White King.

He instantly understood the White King's intention.

Chinande was no more than one of his creations, it did not matter much to give him to Garen. This way, he could prevent Garen from finally going berserk as a result of never being able to find Chinande.

This was no more than a deal.

Garen's eyes turned, and he stared straight at Chinande in front of him.

"Are you fine with this?" he asked, a question that seemed meaningless at first glance.

Whether he was fine with it or not, Chinande could not disobey the White King's orders.

Chinande widened his eyes.

"I am merely an artificial creation, His Majesty's lapdog." His eyes were dry and completely devoid of light.

Artificial creation?

Garen suddenly found that slightly funny, the enemy that destroyed so many Energy Machinist Sects and troubled him for so long, turned out to be no more than one of the White King's artificial creations. And what was worse, it seemed to have given up on living a long time ago.

Then what about his many years of intense training to strengthen himself, what about his long search for Chinande's whereabouts? What was the point of all that? It was completely meaningless!

Inexplicable rage surged up within him, and Garen pressed his palm down hard.

Bam!!

Blood splattered everywhere.

Chinande's head exploded immediately, and there was nothing left above his neck. The flood of blood and brain matter was instantly condensed together, mixed with his bone and flesh, suspended above Garen's palm.

Chinande's corpse slowly slanted to a side, but his breathing continued. His powerful life force showed that this body was in fact the body of a Holy Lord, Chinande's actual body.

Just like that, everything was over.

Garen had a feeling as though none of this was real. Holding in his hand a bead of flesh and blood that had been condensed into the size of a fingernail, he did not even give Chinande's corpse a second glance. Turning around, he leaped lightly, and his whole body shot into the air, the ice-crystal wings, as pure white as jade, unfolding behind him. They layered onto each other, growing larger and larger, wider and wider.

Within a few seconds, they had almost covered the entire sky above the waterfall.

Countless scarlet snowflakes scattered down. Within a few short seconds, the whole planet had instantly changed from summer to winter.

The enormous waterfall gradually slowed down, gradually freezing over, until eventually it became completely motionless. It had turned into a beautiful ice sculpture.

Chinande's body was in there as well, frozen into the ice. The barrage of red snowflakes covered it, and soon dyed the white waterfall a pale red as well.

With a rumble, before anyone on the entire planet could even react, the ice-crystal wings had vanished in an instant. Other than the cold red snow, there was no other trace of it.

In the waterfall, beside Chinande's body.

The White King's silhouette appeared slowly. He crouched down, putting his hand on the spot where Chinande's body had been covered.

"I'm sorry…" he spoke softly, in a voice only he could hear.

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

Garen unfurled his wings, flying in the Negative Space. He could occasionally see the cracks in the Void Battlefield around him, and starting a few years back, these cracks seemed to have increased in number.

He was like a large white bird, flapping wings the size of half a planet as he flew at rapid speeds, the frustration in his chest pent up with nowhere to go.

It was true, he had no reason to fight anymore.

Chinande had waited for him on his accord, and leaped to his death without any resistance. Garen had no more reasons to harm other, innocent parties.

The strongest Royal Star, Chinande, was just another Perpetual Motioner in the eyes of the White King, just one who was slightly stronger than usual. If his death could calm a Regent-Level extremist's quest for revenge, how hard would it be to let Chinande kill himself?

Hiss…

From a black crack in space, a giant black snake poked its head out, its sun-red eyes staring at Garen.

This was one of those Void Boas that had been showing up more frequently recently. Void Boas like these were mostly made of space dust and other regular materials, but they survived by constantly eating high-energy objects, so each one had at least Non-Falling-Level power.

Recently, wild creatures such as these had been increasing in number.

The Void Boa was just about to approach Garen, but it seemed to smell an unprecedently dangerous scent. Quickly, it pulled its head back, and soon vanished without a trace.

With a few flashes, Garen stopped on a small planet at the edge of the Negative Space.

Like a pair of hands, the wings on his back tore apart the void in front of him, revealing a large crack big enough for him to pass through.

The huge wings quickly shrank, returning to Garen's back. The white robes and golden helmet appeared on his body once more.

Garen flew into the crack lightly.

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

Scarlet Snow Alliance, Scorching Sun Galaxy

This day, an all-enveloping red snow fell all over the entire galaxy at the same time.

An enormous presence with clear white ice-crystal wings had descended upon them. Every regular person in the galaxy could see the transparent white wings flapping constantly in the air above the planet, that was an extension of the Alliance Leader, the Crystal King's true body.

Because the Crystal King was there, the entire Scarlet Snow Alliance could remain safe and stable.

Suspended in the middle of the galaxy, on the edge of the star, Garen did his best to showcase his strongest, most dazzling power. He was not showing off just for the heck of it, but now, just before he left, he was also telling those small-fry hiding in the woodwork that he was still here. He, the Crystal King, Garen, still lived.

"This might be able to protect the Scarlet Snow Alliance for another few centuries. But that's the extent of it… A few centuries later, Clint and the others would have grown up." Garen looked down, at the four planets surrounding the star. He had done all that he needed to, Chinande was dead, his Will, flesh, and blood condensed into a bead that Garen now squeezed in his hand. The Scarlet Snow Alliance would become Clint's strongest ally, until he grew up.

Now that he was protected by the humans, it was too late even if the White King wanted to go back on his decision. The general trend was set.

Slowly folding his wings back up, Garen shot down, and flew straight toward one of the main planets.

Everything around him was rapidly magnified, flitting past, and the surface of the blue planet quickly expanded into a lake.

The green lake was surrounded by a forest, and there was a tall white tower with a sharp tip beside the lake. Clint, Baylon, and the others stood on the top of the tower, along with the Two-Faced higher-ups.

All of them looked up, at the direction Garen was approaching from.

"Alliance Leader!""Sect Master!"

"Big Brother!"

Several different voices called out at the same time.

Garen slowly reduced his speed, and landed on top of the tower. He steadied his footing, and finally looked at Baylon as she was now. It had been many years since they last met, and there were even more white hairs on Baylon's head now. She was looking at him with concern.

"Bro…" Baylon took one step forward. "I received your message, and we got here as soon as we could. Did something happen?"

In front of outsiders, she was the cruelest, most cold-hearted murderess, but faced with the people she cared for, she was only cold on the surface, in her expression. Even that was merely a result of the muscles on her face stiffening, such that she had forgotten how to soften her features.

"Exactly! I was eating dinner together with my daughter! You know what they say, the daughter is the father's lover from the past life, as I thought…" Beside her, Clint was saying with a creepy expression of bliss.

"Ew!" Not far away, White Winter looked at Clint with an expression full of contempt. "You won't even spare your own daughter! You monster!"

"Hey hey, I'm just close to my daughter, it's not what you think!" Clint's expression instantly blackened. "It's been a while since I saw you, White Winter, are you itching for a fight because you haven't been getting laid?!" He started rolling up his sleeves.

"What, just you!" White Winter flipped him the bird. His once-gentle personality had made a complete one-eighty. "Lonnie, give him a one-arm handicap!"

"Don't pull me into your squabbles!" Baylon glared at them irritably, and the few of them instantly went silent. Clearly, her influence in this group was still increasing by the day.