Mystical Journey

Minutes passed. Both parties stood still without movement.

Windling stood behind Garen and kept yawning, evident to how suited this place was for a nap.

Soon, noon arrived. The scorching hot golden rays came from above and bathed the whole forest in sunlight.

At this moment, the old tree opened both of its eyes. It opened its mouth, and an old voice came out.

"It has eight legs, and is able to hold water. While its speed is slow, it runs very steadily."

"It's a repetition from the previous riddle." Beckstone muttered.

Garen heard it from afar as well. It was as if the voice had directly entered into his mind. Although he didn't know what language it spoke, he somehow knew what it said.

He started thinking about the riddle.

"This is the Spirit Tree's Riddle, one of the only two strange phenomena that could be understood." Windling said from his back as his face was filled with excitement. "I can't believe I can experience the Spirit Tree's Riddle in my life. As long as we can guess the riddle, we will be able granted a drop of Life's Dew by the Spirit Tree."

"What's the use of it?" Garen looked at Windling even though the sound is transmitted through the magic mirror.

"It's very beneficial. It's most useful trait is lengthening ones' lifespan. One drop of Life's Dew is able to extend your lifespan by forty years! This is a recently discovered mysterious phenomenon. Naturally, the Black Sky has already calculated this data in detail, but I didn't expect this group of people to know of its existence as well." Windling cast a surprised look at Beckstone and his team. He didn't expect other people outside of the Black Sky to know of this place.

"Even I have only heard of it. I do not know the exact location of the Spirit Tree's Riddle. This is one of the Black Sky's top secrets."

Suddenly, Beckstone's eyes glowed, as if he remembered something and said a phrase.

"The answer is the Spider Teapot!!"

The old tree was stunned. Its face melted into the tree's bark and soon disappeared.

Soon the old tree wilted. The large amount of branches that littered the tree followed suit, its leaves curling up and turning into a dark brown. Then the leaves started shedding water.

Swiftly, a black branch arched down in front of Beckstone.

There was a black petal on it, and it slowly opened up, layer by layer, showing off the countless petals revealing what was encased and hidden within. It was like a black Peony flower, complicated yet beautiful and delicate.

At the center of the black petals laid a clear and sticky dew.

"That's the Life's Dew! We've gotten hold of a drop of Life's Dew! This is very exciting indeed!!" Windling was cheering with happiness. "Quickly boss! Kill them and grab hold of the Life's Dew! They have lived long enough!!"

"We haven't kept it properly yet, why are you so excited?" Garen looked at Windling with a speechless look. "You should try and go against them."

He had already felt that the restriction within the surrounding had been lifted as the old tree's face disappeared.

"I am just a clerk.. A clerk… Hehe" Windling quickly retreated with a ridiculous smile on his face.

Beckstone put away the Life's Dew and turned away quietly.

"Next, we should pick up from our previous business."

"I think so too." Garen smiled.

Slowly, black fog and golden light started surrounding them.

Two intense powers collided with each other as the black fog and golden light kept disappearing and reappearing.

Two different energies emanated within the forest.

Black and gold, separating the forest into two different areas.

"Your Sunflower has grown gain." Garen took out a black pocket watch as he looked at Beckstone with interest.

Beckstone looked at him coldly and raised his hand. Goldenl light suddenly appeared by his side, forming Golden Whirlpool Beasts. It was different from the Whirlpool Beast from the past as the current Whirlpool Beasts were golden, as if they were forged from gold. As they formed into solidified bodies, these Whirlpool Beasts started growling at Garen.

Growl!!

The golden light kept shaping the Whirlpool Beasts one at a time completely surrounding Garen and Windling.

Garen flicked his pocket watch.

Ding!!

With a soft ring, a huge column of black fog spilled forth from the pocket watch, forming countless numbers if Cloud Crows as they started revolving around his body.

Kaw!!

The Cloud Crows confronted the Whirlpool Beasts with its strange cries.

"Impressive Technique!" Beckstone's eyes were filled with surprise, but he didn't express it thoroughly. "That's to be expected. If you were to be taken down by me this easily, won't my hardship and pain be all wasted?"

Somewhere during their conversation, a green seed the size of a thumbnail found its way into his right hand.

With all his might, he crushed the seed into his left shoulder.

The seed was thoroughly embedded within his skin.

Szz Szz… A shivering sound came out of the wound. The seed had started to sprout and grew directly from Beckstone's left hand.

The green bud dug out of his skin and grew rapidly as it became tall, thick and sturdy.

Soon it grew to the point where it was as tall as Beckstone.

The green plant soon sprouted a black bud. The bud slowly opened up, revealing a human eye inside it.

As the eye opened, it instantly looked at Garen.

Suddenly, Garen couldn't see anything else as his vision went pitch black.

At the same time, the Golden Whirlpool Beasts leaped towards Garen and attacked. Each of the Whirlpool Beast were much stronger and bigger than last time. They had already reached Spiritualization, and went toe to toe with the Cloud Crows.

"Sight Vision, stolen!" Beckstone stared coldly at Garen, as a giant golden tree slowly appeared behind him. A golden pupil could be seen in the middle of the big tree.

A transparent strong bending force landed onto Garen's territory.

Boom!!!

A large part of the Black Fog was pushed away, even the Whirlpool Beast had no choice but to step back as they did not dare to go closer to it.

Large amounts of grass and dirt were flung away, leaving a huge crater in the forest.

The whole levitating stone trembled violently and a hole was created underneath. A shapeless ray of light burst through the rock from the top.

Garen landed just beside the crater with a smile on his face.

"Impossible!!?" Beckstone shivered as he took out another seed and planted it once more in his left shoulder.

After a series of horrifying noise of the seed being planted into the hand, the new seed sprouted and out came a new bud. This time, a human ear was inside it.

"Hearing! Stolen!" Beckstone's face was getting more and more pale.

"Beckstone…" Berlina stood at one side and couldn't do anything but to worry for Beckstone's wellbeing. She knew the horrible side effects of these Secret Tactics. Although its effect was potent, it was extremely damaging to the caster's body!

"I can definitely kill him!" Beckstone's eyes were filled with confidence.

Pew!!

Another shapeless bending light pillar was shot out again.

However, Garen moved slightly to the left and was merely grazed by the light pillar.

Pew pew pew!!!

Beckstone didn't believe his eyes and started to attack nonsensically with his Sunflower. He was the only one who knew how strong the opponent was after the fight in the manor. Hence he knew that this high density attack was the only way to damage him.

However…

Garen would occasionally move to the left, jump, and leap forward. Each of his actions allowed him to perfectly dodge the light pillar.

"Impossible!! Impossible!!" Beckstone focused his light pillars once again and the golden tree behind him would shoot out a high speed light pillar every two seconds or so.

However all was in vain.

Beckstone took out the third seed.

"Beckstone stop!! You've gone crazy!!" Berlina attempted to grab hold of Beckstone's hand.

"Get out of my way!"

She was pushed down to the ground.

Beckstone had completely gone insane. His humiliation back in the manor where Darian was killed right in front of his eyes and combined with cruel and bloody scenes in the experiment laboratory, these images incessantly flooded his mind.

He planted the third seed into his chest.

The silver light in Beckstone's eye suddenly glowed brighter.

A new black plant sprouted once again, giving birth to a new black bud. As the bud opened up, A human nose was revealed.

"Smell! Stolen!!"

Garen's body nudged slightly.

Beckstone was ecstatic and decided to attack him with his sunflower erratically.

A near infinite amount of shapeless light pillars burst forth.

The explosions entirely covered the surface of the levitating stone.

The explosions were nothing short of thunderbird roars in the sky.

Both Berlina and Windling had ran far away as they didn't dare to stay close to the battlefield. Everyone had their attention on this battle it unfolded in front of them.

However, everyone could see that there was too much of a difference in their strength.

Beckstone was still at the spiritualization level but Garen had obviously gone up to another new level.

Beckstone's lips started to crack, as his original, smooth skin had started to dry and shrivel up.

"Impossible!! How is this possible!!?? Where did I go wrong!!?"

He was unwilling to accept the reality.

The holes on the ground kept appearing, but Garen still slowly walked towards him without difficulty.

Garen didn't even activate his defensive totem light and he walked towards him with ease.

The light pillars passed through his legs, but he did not take any damage whatsoever.

Beckstone couldn't help but to feel a fear in him as he looked at the approaching Garen.

"I will not lose again! Never…" He muttered as he took out the fourth seed.

Boom!

Suddenly, all of the budded flowers exploded and Beckstone took a few steps back.

Garen opened his eyes and all his stolen senses were given back to him.

"The Life's Drew… It's a rare item indeed. You won't be able to protect it if you don't have enough strength." He put on a smile on his face once more.

"You!" Beckstone was defeated but he took out a golden diamond crystal once more.

"Is that the item you're going to rely on this time?" Garen looked at the crystal in his hand. "You're really weak."

He shook his head.

"I once killed thirty two Field-level members and three General-level members of Black Sky in Victoria. I killed five middle-class general-level in the Long Northwest Slope. I have battled the Giant Divine Statue in Ender Kingdom and intercepted the Underworld Carriage in the abandoned city. I have faced hundreds of battles and I have yet lost one of them."

"I thought that you would have achieved something after such a long time but I didn't expect you to improve just this little bit." Garen's face was emotionless and the three markings on his forehead was brimming brightly in red color. "If you only have this amount of strength, I'm afraid you won't be going back today."

"I will not accept defeat!!" Beckstone held the golden crystal tightly as he stood back up. Tte silver light in his eyes glowed brighter and brighter to the point it was unbearable to see.