Mystical Journey

Celine struggled for a while, but Garen’s strength was much stronger than hers, so she failed to escape .

"Help! He’s trying to…" Garen put his hand over her mouth and greatly muffled her voice, but he could still understand what she was trying to say .

Garen’s head ached . People would consider him a pedophile if they saw what he was doing to this little girl and he did not know how his parents and sister would think of him .

"Let me go…!" Celine shouted .

"Stop saying random sh*t and I’ll let you go . " Garen felt his temples were throbbing .

"I won’t say it anymore!" Celine nodded like a chicken pecking at its food .

Garen slowly released her after hearing her words .

Celine wiped the dust off her clothes and stepped back . "Pervert!"

Garen’s expression changed again . "Well, I already gave you the chance…" He spoke in a gravelly tone and pounded his fists against each other several times .

"Fine, I’ll stop . " Celine finally had a serious look on her face . "You were planning to take Erudas in even if I didn’t come, right?"

"You already knew?" Garen nodded . "He has talent and perseverance . Actually, if he’s trying to learn from me, perseverance is much more important than just talent . "

He stared at Celine . "I think you already knew a lot about me, but I still know nothing about you . "

Celine hesitated for a second . "I’m the heir of the ancient Martial Arts, Neptune Fist, and I think you already know that I’m much older than my appearance . I used the Essence Locking Techniques to keep myself in a peak state . As an apology, I can give you the secret techniques if you want .

"Neptune Fist…" Garen scrunched his eyebrows . "I didn’t know that there was still a heir of that sect . "

"I’m the last one," Celine answered in a light tone . "By the way, I’m still a virgin . "

Garen was speechless . "Well, I don’t care about that! Please don’t change topic or else I can’t follow . "

"Virgin Grandma, someone’s coming," Erudas suddenly said .

Garen was surprised and had not noticed the footsteps until Erudas told him .

He turned around and stared at the young boy Erudas . "Your sensory perception is keen… I didn’t notice at all…"

Garen thought for a second and glanced around . He noticed that Celine was getting nervous .

The footsteps were getting closer, he could hear people swearing, and the tension was building up .

"Follow me," Garen finally spoke . He turned around and walked toward the manor . Celine felt relieved, grabbed the boy, and followed behind Garen .

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

After resting in Su Lin’s manor for three days, Garen felt much better and had recovered from the injury .

Angela asked for a courtyard close to the lake and moved in . Garen spent most of his time training the Mammoth Secret Technique and he wanted to make sure that his body was in the best condition . He also started preparing the equipment needed to learn the Firestream Fist .

Celine and Erudas stayed with Garen the whole time and did not go to any other places . They lived in a temporary tent beside the courtyard and the army brought them supplies every day .

Garen helped the boy recover by invigorating the blood circulation around his arms, but Garen did not mention anything about teaching him Martial Arts .

However, it seemed like the two did not care . They looked happy living in the tent provided by the army and probably had not had a good rest in a while .

It was afternoon, the setting sun decorated Lake Saima with rays of red sunlight, and the golden reflection on the surface of the lake was breathtaking .

Inside the rectangular yard beside the lake, Garen dangled from a black iron frame . Garen’s hands and face turned purple due to the exertion .

He inhaled deeply and his stomach rose . The purple color disappeared slowly from his face and hands as he inhaled .

Hoo!

Garen exhaled all the air in his torso and started hitting his palms with his fingers . This repeated process was how he learned the Dark Iron Palm . In order to practice this low-rank Secret Technique, he had to hang from the frame .

The Dark Iron Palm was a low-rank Secret Technique and a lot of people tried to learn it . Martial Artists or people who were just interested in Martial Arts would try to learn it after obtaining the Secret Technique . No matter how weak a Secret Technique was, it would still be stronger than average Martial Arts .

Of the many people that practiced the Dark Iron Palm, the best of them had palms harder than iron and their palm skills could deal damage with their evil power . However, they were only slightly stronger than normal Martial Artists .

Low-rank Secret Techniques were created by Martial Artists that broke past their limitations . The Dark Iron Palm was a bit better than the Iron Body because it could convert the toxins and useless substances in the body into evil power .

By practicing the Dark Iron Palm, Garen could better maintain his health . Garen kept repeating the procedure and would hit his fingers against his palms every time he exhaled all the air from his abdomen .

His long purple hair blocked his view, so he decided to close his eyes and check the skill bar . After practicing the basic training method for a while, some changes finally occurred to the bar .

The row for the Dark Iron Palm started getting blurry .

"Finally…" Garen was excited . He started practicing this morning and finally made some progress by the afternoon .

The words behind the Dark Iron Palm changed quickly: "Dark Iron Palm: Beginner Level (Two levels in total) . "

Garen felt something heavy and muddy inside his body that quickly travelled toward his hands . His body was relaxed but his hands became heavy .

He opened his eyes and looked at his palms . Garen’s hands had already turned grey as if they were soaked in ink .

Garen looked at the attribute bar unintentionally and noticed that some of the attributes had changed as well .

209215

His Stamina increased from 2 . 09 to 2 . 15 .

"Nice, I didn’t expect the Dark Iron Palm to help increase my Stamina," Garen observed his hands carefully .

"I wonder how much damage it can do . Let me give it a try first . " Garen looked around and found a small white tree at the corner of the yard .

Garen reached at his feet and untied the rope . He landed on the ground and walked toward the tree quickly .

He raised his palms and pressed them against the surface of the tree . Nothing spectacular happened, but there were two black handprints left on its surface after Garen lowered his hands .

Two black ants were climbing up the tree and they slowed down right after reaching the handprints . Their legs trembled, their bodies curled up, and then they fell from the tree after several seconds .

"That’s the poison from the Dark Iron Palm?" Garen glanced around . "I need something more than the ants . Umm…"

Angela called the guards and asked them to find some cats or dogs . Then, Garen started forcing them to touch the handprints on the tree . The handprints disappeared after killing a dog .

Garen finally had a general understanding of the strength level of the poison from the Dark Iron Palm . "Way too weak . Killing some small animals is the best it can do . Maybe it’ll work on a normal person, but all of the Grandmasters of Combat have high resistance and Dark Iron Palm will do no damage to them . "

"Well, let me see what the Firestream Fist can do . " He asked the guards to bring him the equipment for practicing the Firestream Fist .

It was a whole basin of black iron sand and the basin was placed above a large pot of burning charcoal . Garen stood in front of the basin and rolled up his sleeves .

"The Mammoth Secret Technique can be combined with the Iron Body, but I’m not sure if the Dark Iron Palm can be combined with the Firestream Fist . I hope I still have some Attribute Points left . If I do, I’ll be able to level them up to the highest level!" Garen shook his head and stopped thinking . He quickly put his hands into the sizzling sand and then immediately took them out . Garen kept repeating this process .

He also used the special breathing and blood circulation methods from the Firestream Fist technique to ensure that the blood flow in his body was correct .

Garen’s hands slowly turned reddish . Although he reached the master level of body hardening techniques, his hands were still burning after constantly contacting the heated sand . His skin had turned black due to the Dark Iron Palm and the resulting dark red color looked like rust .

The size of his hands doubled and dense maroon patterns slowly rose from the skin of his hands .

He could feel the heat from his hands and a chill rushed down to them from his brain . This chill started to slowly neutralize the heat from the iron sand .

Garen closed his eyes and stared at the skill bar . After a while, changes appeared to the row with the Firestream Fist .

The text became blurry: "Firestream Fist: Beginner Level (Four levels in total) . "

Another change appeared on the skill bar after he reached the beginner level of the Firestream Fist . The Firestream Fist and Dark Iron Palm’s text became blurry at the same time .

"I knew it! The Firestream Fist and Dark Iron Palm were all Secret Techniques that train people’s hands . Learning them together will create a new combination, just like the time I trained the Iron Body and Boulder Martial Art!" Garen stared at the changes with excitement . This was the reason why he had decided to learn these two Secret Techniques first .

The Firestream Fist and Dark Iron Palm disappeared from the skill bar simultaneously and were replaced by a new skill .