Mystical Journey

Garen waved his hand, telling the servants to leave on their own.

"What I will teach you now, is an extremely powerful secret skill that I know, a so-called secret skill, is a powerful skill that should be kept secret. The reason why it should be kept secret, and in fact should not be used often, is because it is too powerful, its destructive power is too brutal, and in ancient times it was considered evil or demonic, a terrifying form of martial arts invented specifically to hunt down and kill people. Of course, times have changed, and as the years passed, this secret skill had also slowly cut down on the killing techniques, and become more focused on strengthening the user’s own body, eventually turning into this peak-level skill I have here."

"Killing martial arts… I like it… Hehe." There was a nearly perverse passion rising in Hochman’s eyes behind the glasses. "Isn’t the very fabric of martial arts and combat meant to kill others?"

"That is true." Garen nodded, "I’m telling you all this, just so that you understand the roots, and the strength of this secret skill lies in that it can maximize the potential within the human body, turning it into destructive power."

Looking at the little lambs in front of him, a hint of sympathy flashed through Garen’s heart.

The passion in their hearts had already been utterly ignited by his words, when Garen designed this secret skill, he had sacrificed some of the agility in order to create that intense feeling of pleasure, and now it seemed to be worth it, even the weakest-willed Dahm had instantly thrown away everything else, becoming a rabid fan of this secret skill.

Seeing the hesitation in Cece’s eyes, she seemed to be hesitant towards evil or demonic arts.

"Actually, in the society now, the true power lies in guns, and there’s less and less place for martial arts to survive, as the heir to an ancient martial arts, even if it is evil or demonic, I can’t stand to see it disappear just like that, and be lost forever to history." Garen said, his tone sad and pitying.

"That’s why I plan to break the rule that it can only be passed down to one person at a time, I will pass it to you all, so that this ultimate skill is not lost from my hands." He heaved a long sigh, his glowing image immediately causing the others to idolize him.

"Now, I will officially teach you the basic moves of this martial arts, remember, you must channel that wisp of force in your bodies as you practice these moves, and continuously make it stronger, there’s also a breathing method here to match, you all must remember it carefully."

"What’s the name of this skill we’re learning? Is it the Two-Faced Extermination?" Quentin asked.

"The Two-Faced Extermination is just one of the moves." Garen smiled mysteriously, "It’s called, the Two-Faced Waterbird Fist…"

"Waterbird… The Two-Faced Waterbird Fist…"

Garen waved his hand suddenly.

After two crisp sounds, the two servants at the side directly collapsed on cue.

The rest of them were shocked, and looked at Garen in confusion, they had all noticed that the two servants had merely fainted.

"Don’t worry, I just put them to sleep for a while." Garen’s eyes curved, like two crescent moons, and they seemed to be emitting a unique magic to all eight of them here.

He spoke in a hoarse, magnetic voice.

"Look carefully…"

"This is the basic core of the Two-Faced Waterbird Fist…"

He raised his arms slowly, drawing out two straight lines in front of him, and when he reached his lower abdomen, his forearm suddenly folded outwards, as though he was hugging someone, or as though he was a veiled woman slowly spreading open her arms.

In that instant, they watched his arms move at a speed that was neither fast nor slow, yet it seemed to bring out countless after-images, blurring their eyes, making them extremely dizzy and nauseous.

"Illusory Spinning White Jade." Garen’s voice seemed to come from the distance, floaty and unfocused.

All eight of them watched his movements with bleary eyes, in that instance, it was as though all of Garen’s skin was glowing with a white light, they knew perfectly well that it was a trick of the mind, but they still could not help but hallucinate.

In that instant, the eight of them felt as though time had slowed down, their senses instantly slowing and dulling, as though they were in a dream.

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

On the grassy field, next to mirror-like privately-owned lake.

There were many grey-white man-made hills nearby, with clumps of green grass amongst them, some dark-green or brown-yellow little trees scattered about sparsely.

Hochman wore white casual clothes, standing quietly by the lake, looking at the surface of the lake, completely void of any ripples.

It had been half a month since the day Garen taught them the Two-Faced Waterbird Fist, and in this half a month’s time, the eight of them did not get any more pointers from Garen, they were just asked to keep remembering the images they had of that moment. The Two-Faced Waterbird Fist was a basic secret skill, it had some strange killing moves, but it was not the full set of martial arts, so it was perfectly capable of absorbing their individual comprehension and combat styles, forming their own personal Two-Faced Waterbird Fist.

Hochman pushed the glasses on his nose, narrowing his eyes as he remembered the core of that perfect stance Garen had demonstrated that day.

"Illusory Spinning White Jade…" he murmured softly, but strangely, no matter he thought of that posture, he just could not picture it clearly. Similarly, no matter how he tried to ignore it, the memory just would not go away.

Like a seed covered in a white veil, it was planted deep in his heart.

For some reason, he only had one impression of that stance in his heart, that of danger, a bewitching danger.

"Interesting… How very interesting, hahahaha…" Hochman could not hold back the excitement in his heart, it was as though there was a brand new world in front of him. That feeling of discovery and anticipation, and that intense pleasure from that first guidance, all of it made him sink deeply into it, as though hooked.

Before he knew it, he began to stand by the lakeside alone, mimicking Garen’s pose from that day. But no matter what, he simply could not trigger the internal force inside his body into moving.

The foundation of the Illusory Spinning White Jade was being able to feel the internal force in one’s body that seemed to channel and flow, but it also seemed to be an illusion, both there and not, after the force was successfully guided, all of one’s skin would glow with a bleary jade-like color.

Hochman stood on by the lakeside reminiscing over and over again, mimicking Garen, and slowly, his stance became more and more similar, more and more strange.

Only he himself did not notice, unlike Garen’s Illusory Spinning White Jade, his stance was less demonic and strange, but slightly more domineering.

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

"Cece, why are you always so distracted these days?"

In the large classroom, Cece sat in the back row, her eyes rather unfocused, when she was suddenly shaken by her good friend beside her.

The lecturer teaching fervently on the podium had already pulled the mobile blackboard to him several times, erasing it and writing again, writing and erasing. She herself, however, had been unprecedentedly distracted, and the notebook in front of her was completely empty, white as it began.

"Cece, what’s the matter with you? Haven’t you been a bit out of it recently, is it that time?" Her good friend Tian Jing asked quietly.

"It’s… nothing, I just haven’t been sleeping that well recently, maybe I have too much on my mind." Cece forced a smile.

After that day, she often dreamed of that beautiful and dangerously bewitching stance. In her dreams, Garen’s face could no longer be clearly seen, all that remained was a blur.

As her mind wandered, the Illusory Spinning White Jade seemed to become to become a white-veiled woman, or a beautiful white bird spreading its wings.

Sometimes, in that instant when she woke up, even Cece could not tell the difference between dreams and reality.

"Cece, I think your skin has been getting fairer and smoother lately." Her good friend Tian Jing gasped suddenly.

"Really?" Cece reached out her hand, and looked at the back of her hand, as expected, her skin had clearly gotten fairer and smoother, there was a faintly familiar feeling about it, like she had seen it somewhere before.

"White Jade…" Cece’s expression waved somewhat distractedly as she murmured.

That was right, her skin right now was just like white jade, emitting a faint smooth and warm glow.

She had not noticed it at all, but as she kept delving into the knowledge about the Illusory Spinning White Jade, the aura around her whole body had also changed slightly.

"I’m so jealous, your skin gets better even when you don’t get enough rest…" Her good friend’s voice came from beside her, but she sounded so very far away, as though she was at the horizon…

Cece’s aura slowly began to become colder, gentle, pure…

Suddenly she felt as though someone was staring at her, and she turned around abruptly, the door behind her was completely empty, there was no one there at all.

A boy who had snuck in after coming in late was caught in her stare, hugging his books to his chest, and looked left and right in confusion, trying to figure out if he was wrong in any way.

"What’s the matter?" Her friend asked beside her.

"Nothing, I just felt as though someone was staring at me just now."

"You think too much, with a beauty such as me sitting next to you, it’d be weird if no one was staring." Tian Jing grinned wide.

Cece smiled, it was true that she was not as pretty as her friend, but she had a rare quiet and pretty air about her.

"Alright, let’s talk later, lend me your notes later after class."

"Come get them yourself."

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

Garen stood outside the large classroom, his back against the wall and his arms crossed in front of his chest, quietly listening to the lecturer’s loud voice teaching inside the classroom, and there was the occasional question or problem from the students.

"What rapid progress…" There was a satisfied smile on his lips.

These past few days, he had been occasionally observing Cece’s progress, and he was very comforted to find that even if Cece’s talent was not as good as his, it was not too far behind. It had barely been half a month, and she was already on the way to the Two-Faced Waterbird Fist’s true first level.

He had divided this simple yet overpowering secret skill into four levels, extending from the Illusory Spinning White Jade, they were Jade, White, Illusion, and Spin, the words representing levels one to four in reverse order.

Cece was now nearly entering the first level, Jade. As a normal person who had never learned any secret techniques or skills, her progress was not the result of any verbal teaching, and she had reached this level merely through that one demonstration and explanation Garen had given them that day.

"Truly, a genius…"

Straightening up, Garen slowly left the large classroom, following the mahogany wooden corridors downstairs.

Cece was the most innocent of the eight, and she came from Asia as well, so Garen felt strangely closer to her, and thus he paid slightly more attention to her.

Compared to the others, perhaps this girl was worth putting more effort into.

Garen started to wonder if he should continue releasing the follow-up secret skills that he had invented, so that he could properly train Cece up.