Mystical Journey

Garen had never heard of such a poison.

"Anyway, let’s leave this place first! We’ll have our revenge on the Enchanter later."

"Right. They most definitely will be here soon." As Windling had already betrayed the Obscuro Society multiple times, he’d long been named upon the Obscuro’s bounty list. The reason they’d not met any danger so far was due to their elusiveness and speed. It was hard to grasp their position, hence they have managed to avoid any crisis or pursuit.

Their strategy was actually dependent on time - Quickly destroying the strongholds before the opponent’s backup arrived, then fleeing.

Now the Obscuro’s assassins had finally caught up to them.

The Enchanter’s illusions were far stronger than any illusion totems Garen had ever encountered. Whether it was the five senses or human’s basic instincts, all of it were within the opponent’s calculations. Even when he was poisoned at the end, the Enchanter did not show any form of malice, or Garen would’ve noticed immediately.

Without hesitating, the two of them quickly left the place. They were swept up by the black crows and headed towards Garen’s teacher Emin’s location.

Along the journey, Garen was constantly on guard against the Enchanter’s illusion environment.

Even he himself could not tell the difference. It was evident that the Obscuro Society was serious. The team they’d mobilized was abnormally powerful.

He was also trying to experiment with Red Jade Palm, a poison removal martial art.

He was in luck. The Red Jade Palm did have some effect, although it wasn’t very strong. It mildly soothed the corrosion on the dragon’s skin, but there was still no way to restore the two weakened dragon heads.

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

In the maple forest where Garen and Windling were previously standing.

"I have already poisoned him." A voice came out of thin air. No figure could be seen, but there was a neutral voice. It sounded like neither a man nor a woman.

"Thank you Your Excellency. What was the effect?" A black-robed girl with a graceful figure walked out from deep within the forest and stood in front of where Garen previously stood. Her voice was enchanting and clingy. There was some form of respect in her question.

"Nothing much. Eight Headed Cloud Crow has a strong resistance towards poison. He has consecutively destroyed so many of our strongholds, humiliating the entire elite department." The neutral voice spoke again. "The rest depends on you guys. I still have another mission. This is your father’s final favor. Don’t bother me again."

"Many thanks. From now onwards, you and my father no longer owe each other." The black-robed girl spoke in a calm voice.

"Good." The neutral voice could no longer be heard.

The black-robed girl waited for a moment until the voice was completely gone. She instantly relaxed her tensed body. It was only then that she noticed the abundant beads of sweat coating her forehead.

Briskly, a black-robed figure strode out from behind her.

"Has the monster left?" The black-robed figure was a man with a sharp voice. From his tone, he sounded somewhat relieved.

"He left." The girl let out a long sigh. "Facing that guy requires 120% of energy every single time. If we’re not careful we’d fall into his tricks. Why is it me who has to face him every time!?"

"Since you’re the only one that can move him?" The guys shrugged helplessly.

"If it wasn't my father who specified me to get rid of him, I wouldn't even want to come!" The girl said with lingering fear. "That Eight Headed Crow Cloud destroyed father’s plan in Ender. If the opponent wasn't removed, it would be a difficult obstacle to overcome for our family."

"Where's your brother? He hasn't arrived?"

"Soon." The girl answered softly. "After getting the news that father was almost wounded, he dropped his mission immediately and rushed back. He also brought along some friends who might be of assistance."

"That's good. The team for the headquarters should be reaching soon. Let’s go and meet up with them."

"Alright."

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

Bang!!

The shapeless whirlpool in front of Garen violently collided with a ball of white lightning.

He walked through the blizzard of countless white lightning orbs and raised his head to look up at the white giant birds rapidly spitting them out.

These giant birds each had a wingspan of more than 10 metres wide. There was not a single feather on their full-white bodies. Their wings were fleshy, like dragon wings.

Thousands of them flocked together and filled the whole sky. They appeared like white feathers waltzing in the sky.

Numerous of lightning orbs accurately homed onto Garen and battered at his body. They were like guided homing missiles, twisting and turning.

Garen took out his black pocket watch and gently rubbed its surface with his fingers.

Copious amounts of black fog flooded out from the watch and formed into black crows. They let out strange cries and soared towards the strange white birds in the air.

The black and white birds were engaged in a tussle. From time to time, there would be white birds falling from the sky, and crows dissipating into black fog. They were unable to recondense together, as the electricity from the lightning orbs had a strong numbing effect.

After summoning the cloud crows, he promptly ignored the sky to directly survey his surroundings.

He was standing on an empty grassland. The green grass swayed to the wind. Green hills were everywhere and nothing seemed unusual. Golden sunlight glowed from above, gilding everything with a touch of gold.

Windling followed behind, looking bored.

"Where shall we head to now?"

"A small town near the borders of Kovitan." Garen raised his head. More and more white birds were killed. The rest of them panicked and cried out as they fled into the distance like broken white clouds.

He glanced at the gain in potential points. It was decent.

A creature group that could defy his aura and challenge him, such as this flock of white birds, wouldn’t be an average group. They could spit out homing white lightning orbs which would follow their enemy. Each ball was as big as a soccer ball with terrifying power. It could electrocute any second form totem in a split second.

This allowed the white bird flock to reign over the region between the forest and the plains.

Garen’s intrusion had enraged them which caused them to attack. However, they were badly defeated and ultimately fled.

"Let’s move on." Garen withdrew the black cloud. Two balls of black fog picked up the duo and carried them forth.

They were floating in the air a meter above the ground as they swiftly headed towards the red river along Kovitan’s borders.

Two days had passed since they left the forest. When they were not travelling, they killed creatures all day. Along Garen’s flight, he would relentlessly try to remove the poison during his break, but his efforts were futile.

A single Enchanter had eliminated his underestimation of the Obscuro Society. He was once again on his guard, surveying his surroundings at all times.

The swamp night lizard’s poison was already overwhelming. If there were a few more types of poison, could he still survive?

Along the journey, he consistently interrogated Windling on the level of the other Elemental Generals.

He managed to briefly grasp the Obscuro’s distribution of power among their top ranks.

In the East Continent, the Obscuro was led by two Marshals, God Cloud and Hack. Under them were three departments - the Elite Department, the Military and the Black Sky. The other departments like the Intelligence Department and the Logistics Department were under the Black Sky, which was where Windling was previously from.

This was also the reason he was familiar with the Obscuro Society’s situation.

Under the two marshals were their two strongest subordinates, known as the Elemental Generals. Hack’s subordinate was the Enchanter, while God Cloud’s subordinate was a man named Ice.

The two elemental generals were the two strongest members in the whole of Obscuro on the East Continent. The Enchanter was ranked at number two.

In comparison to the West Continent, the East Continent’s bureau was slightly weaker. Hence, they only had two marshalls leading it. The Enchanter’s strength would still be ranked among the top three if the two Continents combined. At times, even the marshals would have problems commanding him. Furthermore, the Obscuro was an organization completely driven by benefits. Every single member had huge family forces behind them. The strength of the members themselves and the power of their families were complementary.

As Garen was removing the poison, he was memorising the Enchanter’s name by heart.

Along the journey, Garen continuously increased his intelligence with his potential points. Slowly, he realized that the lump of the eight headed dragon’s final head was enlarging. As he checked his core totem, he also realized that the poisonous gas that he released was getting thicker.

The thing that delighted him the most was that the totem’s poison was slowly easing with the eight headed dragon’s evolution.

He believed that by increasing his intelligence to its limit, the eight headed dragon would evolve into the nine headed dragon. That would be the time of neutralising the swamp night lizard’s poison.

The both of them consistently changed routes and soon they arrived at the edge of a muddy river.

On the grassy plains, the red river was like a curved centipede, stretching towards the horizon.

At the river bank, there were groups of animals playing in the water.

Garen and Windling were surrounded by the black fog and headed forward along the river. As they passed overhead, the animals below panicked and fled.

From afar, both of them could faintly see the small town of Vinker.

The town was still standing among white and yellow flowers. But the houses within had collapsed. Some of them were in shambles, and the atmosphere appeared silent and empty.

A few mutated rabbits with spikes on their back were running around on the streets.

Garen and Windling landed on a bridge at the entrance to the town. They quietly looked at the deserted town.

"A new food chain has formed within such a short time?" Windling studied the grey rabbit with white spikes. He had a complicated expression on as he pondered.

"Let’s go in and have a look." Garen entered the town first.

Although he knew from history that teacher Emin was definitely alive and would appear in the final war, he wasn’t reassured and wanted to confirm it.

Very quickly, with Garen at the lead, both of them directly headed towards the familiar building by the end of the town.

It was a completely wooden red-brown building. Miraculously, it was in perfect condition, identical to the moment Garen left after his learnings.

Garen pushed open the gate outside the building. There was a loud creaking sound. Garen directly entered the yard.

The flowers in the yard were as dazzling as ever.

A relaxing smile reappeared on Garen’s face. He walked towards the entrance of the building, raised his hands and gave it a light knock.

Suddenly, he froze.