Mystical Journey

Vanderman froze for a moment and then smiled slightly, feeling as though a little something had filled the hole in his heart.

"Sure. Speaking of which, it seems like a long time since we’ve had a proper talk, as father and son."

He put down his pipe and watched Garen sit down, reminiscence in his eyes.

"Speaking of which, when I was young, I also did many wrong things in order to achieve my ideals. I hurt a lot of innocent lives. Thinking back on it now, my heart aches with the pain of it."

He paused.

"In truth, even now, no matter how much I want to make up for it, the effort I had already sunk in forces me to continue to the end. If it weren’t for you and Du Qian, I’m afraid…"

"In order to achieve their ideals in life, people need to step over countless corpses, isn’t that the principle of life?" Garen leaned onto the sofa, saying calmly. "The weak pay the price for the ideals of the strong. The desires of the strong need to be filled by the weak, that’s why countless people chase after the strong, and idolize them. If the strong are merely a unit that services the weak, nobody would want to reach that pinnacle."

"Where did you hear such theories from?" Vanderman frowned. This was natural selection, plain and simple, the theory of the Phantom Lights. Although Vanderman himself admired the Phantom Lights, not even he was this extreme.

"Isn’t that only natural?" Garen shrugged. "The ladder of the world is decided by strength. While the strong perform their duties by protecting the world, they should also enjoy the service of the weak. Everyone should do what they are supposed to. But some people always think that everything is under their control. Even if the chances of an accident occurring are low, that doesn’t mean there definitely won’t be any accidents."

"What are you saying?" Vanderman’s expression was slightly surprised.

Garen smiled imperceptibly.

"What am I saying? There will always be many accidents in life, some of which can be avoided. But others can’t be avoided no matter what. What we need to do is maintain a calm heart even in the face of accidents, so that we never regret anything. What do you think, am I right?" His gaze went across the room in an instant, penetrating through the door, and focusing on Beckstone, who was outside, in a moment.

Stone had stretched out his hand to grab the doorknob, but stopped. He stood outside the door and clearly felt that intense gaze penetrating everything, landing straight on him.

"Interesting…" His lips curved ever so slightly. He loosened his left hand slowly, his eyes faintly glowing with a silver light. There almost seemed to be a shapeless beast roaring in his pupils.

Grooowl!!

It was almost simultaneous. The roar of the beast, the sparkle of silver light.

A huge black shadow pounced at the door!

The door smashed into pieces in an instant, the black shadow colliding into another with a crash. In that instant, nothing could be seen clearly, and there was only the explosion of silver light, blindingly bright.

Barroom!!!

The whole building collapsed with a boom, large clouds of dust and wood dust scattering everywhere. The smoke and dust floated up, completely obscuring everyone’s vision.

In the center of the estate, the whole main block had come crashing down directly. Huge amounts of white smoke rippled out from the center, and nothing could be seen clearly. Some of the servants and patrolling totem users nearby quickly ducked to avoid the scattering debris of stone and wood.

Slowly, the wind blew the dust off the ground.

Garen’s figure slowly appeared on top of the rubble. He stood on the spot quietly, his gaze looking straight ahead.

There, Beckstone had silver blood leaking from the corners of his mouth. His eyes were like rapidly rotating silver whirlpools, constantly sparkling with blinding silver light.

"I misjudged…" He glared at Garen, squeezing the words out of clenched teeth with a hard expression.

"Cia… You!!" Vanderman stared blankly at the son in front of him. This child, who was once so familiar to him, was suddenly so foreign right now. The strength he displayed in that moment just now was enough to make Vanderman’s body go numb. Such terrifying strength…

"Leave this to me, Father." Garen chuckled lightly, transferring his gaze onto Beckstone. "Let us have a fair duel." He clapped his hands lightly.

Clap-clap.

As he clapped, the earth began to tremble.

Phwah!

The floor next to him immediately bulged out. A huge Dual Headed Salamander suddenly popped out from the ground. It was more than ten meters long, seven or eight meters tall. When it crawled out of the ground like that, it instantly sent the surrounding servants screaming and running in all directions.

Screee!!!

The Dual Headed Salamander settled beside Garen with two tapping sounds. No matter how you looked at it, it was a huge grey-green monster. Even its two heads alone were as tall as a person, and that mouth could swallow an adult in one go.

But Beckstone wasn’t paying attention to that, he was looking instead at one of the creature’s mouths. It was biting an unconscious woman, Berlina. The girl in red armor was being lightly held in the Dual Headed Salamander’s teeth and seemed to have completely lost consciousness. She was covered in wounds, her armor was damaged in many places, and her body was a mess of blood and flesh in several areas as well. Her Totem Light was extremely faint, which meant her totem had been destroyed.

By then, Vanderman had already blocked the others who had come rushing out at the sound and retreated to a distance. Looking at the unbelievably powerful Garen, he didn’t seem to have recovered his senses yet.

He still couldn’t understand what was happening. How did his son suddenly end up so powerful!? His brain was a mess.

Andel and Hathaway ran in from another recreational building and stood at the other side with different expressions. Andel looked like she was seeing Acacia for the first time, her gaze on him filled with surprise and confusion.

"What… what on earth happened? What is that monster!? When did Acacia get so strong!?"

Hathaway opened her little mouth slightly, completely unable to answer. She was herself utterly confused and had no idea what was happening.

"Lord Beckstone is a Form Three Spiritualized totem user! Cia actually… actually…"

The two of them looked at the huge Dual Headed Salamander beside Acacia and felt weak in the knees just looking at that enormous body. Judging by its size, it was at least a Form Three monster!

"Form… Form Three? …" Andel’s eyes looked lost. She had only ever seen the power of Form Two totem users, so even Form Twos were the pinnacle of strength as far as she was concerned. As for the even stronger Form Threes, she could not even conceptualize them, so she just grouped them together with the rumored greats.

Du Qian, who was grievously hurt, hid in the shadows and was surrounded by some strange-looking low-level experiments. Watching the drastic developments in the field, her gaze was complicated, dazed, and comforted.

"My master, you finally have an heir…" Looking at how Acacia’s strength right now, she could almost remember how strong the Viscount was back in the day.

On the other end, Leila, Angel and the rest were hurrying over.

"Wow!! As expected of Big Bro! He still has such an impressive trump card!" It was Leila’s first time seeing the huge Dual Headed Salamander hiding behind Garen. That mountain-like beast was the most striking image on the scene, and so of course was the woman in red armor in its jaws.

Angel glanced at the huge Dual Headed Salamander, a flash of understanding and shock in her eyes. Thinking back to how calm Garen had always been, she instantly had her answer for everything, and she quickly swept her gaze over the other places.

Everything was normal on the Viscount’s side, and it wasn’t the girls who just came either. The focus should be on that young man standing opposite Garen.

"Move aside, all of you, and focus on maintaining the safety and vigilance of the estate." She connected it to what Garen said before. "Vicky! You go outside, and stay aware of the movements outside!"

"Okay, Big Sis!" Vicky received the order and left without hesitation. Hearing Big Sis use this sort of tone for once, she instantly knew that this was no joke, and something big must have happened.

"Leila, you go to the back, outside, and keep watch as well. If there’s anything you can’t handle, send out a signal immediately!"

"Yes yes yes!" Leila left reluctantly. "I wanted to see more of Boss’ cool presence, why you gotta chase me away so fast…"

"Ansa, you stand further back, and take care of your own safety." Angel raised her right hand. Soundlessly, five pitch-black panthers walked out from the shadows. These panthers were sitting or standing, walking around Angel like guards glaring at the surroundings.

Two of the black panthers had limbs made of black mist, as though they were covered by a cloud of black air.

Looking at the two men standing off in the center, Angel’s eyes flashed with calm.

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

Garen looked at Beckstone, standing opposite him. This unnaturally calm young man was now already pale as death, his eyes filled with unconcealable bloodlust.

"How is it? Anything you want to say?"

Garen could feel the gazes on himself. Like so many moving spotlights, they were all gathered around him and Beckstone opposite him.

He smiled nonchalantly.

"Fight me fair and square, just the two of us one-on-one. Whaddaya think?"

Pitch black Deep Swamp Crocs floated up next to him, and these crocodiles were surrounding Beckstone.

"Fine…" Beckstone squeezed the word out of clenched teeth. His gaze on Garen was getting darker and darker.

"Don’t look at me like that, we just have different stances." Garen smiled. In his past life, too many people looked at him like that, and not one of them didn’t die by his hand.

"Fine. No more chit-chat." Garen waved his hand.

Groooowll!!!

More than ten beasts roared in rage.

The Dual Headed Salamander swallowed the woman in red armor and kept her under its tongue. With heavy stomping steps, it walked up to Garen.

Garen’s feet tapped the ground lightly and floated into the air lightly. Finally, he landed on the Dual Headed Salamander’s back, high up above.

Pssshew!!

The first Deep Swamp Croc turned into a black line, pouncing at Beckstone.

And then the second, the third, the fourth!

All twenty Deep Swamp Crocs were there, attacking and biting from all angles. They fell over Beckstone like so many black threads.

Each black thread brought along a pungent current of foul air.

When the black threads brushed past stone debris, a chunk instantly disappeared from them, as though it vanished into thin air.

"Once Deep Swamp Crocs attack, they’ll burst with instantaneous energy exceeding that of a Form Two totem. They are super fast, and don’t stop until they’ve bitten their prey." Garen said smilingly, "Don’t dodge now, your pretty partner is still in my hands. Let me see your true power."

The Salamander at Garen’s feet revealed Berlina in its maw once more, lying under its sharp teeth.