Mystical Journey

"My only suggestion for you, Garen, is to choose your own path that you think suits you best. Don't focus on the strength and size of the sects. Of course, the strength of a sect can have a positive impact on your growth, but during the distribution of their resources, those who lack the prerequisites would naturally receive fewer study resources, as it would just be a waste of time and resources. It's not worth the candle," Accord answered sincerely.

"That's true. I'm more suited for Frost Radiation style energy machines. Are there any in this list that belongs to that type of style?" Garen asked once more. If he just goes by the information displayed on this map, there would be no feasible way for him to make an informed choice. The characteristics of each sect were not something that could be easily you could search up on the web, there would be a lot of minor details people who are unfamiliar with the sect itself would never understand.

Accord answered while looking at Garen seriously.

"To be honest, Garen, your actual combat prowess is absurdly strong, if you feel the styles that use Frost Radiation suits you the best, then you should narrow it down to the sects that specialize in Frost Radiation. Give me your map, I'll help narrow down the list for you, then you can choose one that fits your style the best. I'll also key in some of the key strengths and weaknesses of these sects for you."

"Mmm, thanks!" Garen nodded.

"Don't worry about it. My actual combat ability was too weak, as you were telling us about your combat experience, I was covered in cold sweat. If you didn't bring up a lot of those tips and common problems, I would most likely be destroyed as soon as the fight started. Let's benefit from each other," Accord calmly said as he adjusted his glasses once more.

He grabbed Garen's map and rapidly pointed out thirteen Frost Radiation based sects and their respective arenas. At the same time, using his PDA, he made minor changes to the contents on Garen's map, displaying the characteristics and styles of these sects.

It could be seen that he was still a baby in the woods, still treating others with a heart full of sincerity.

After a while, Garen was handed back the map, it now displayed thirteen bookmarked locations for the sects and arenas.

"What are you guys doing?"

Nearby, a group of young Level 2 energy machinists seemed to have gotten into an altercation with another Level 3 energy machinist. The noise was loud enough to be heard even from their location.

The Level 3 energy machinists had her hair in small pigtails, her face was showing an arrogant expression.

"How can good-for-nothing trash like you, being only Level 1 and Level 2, even wish to come to Burton Island? Keep on dreaming!"

This person did not release their energy machine but rather lunged over personally. Surprisingly, he used a set of very familiar combination combat skills. Suddenly, two gill-like breathing organs appeared on the back of his hands, continuously spraying out a white gas. In an instant of explosive acceleration, every punch packed he threw packed two to three times the original power.

The group of Level 1 and 2 machinists were only kids, they stood absolutely no chance against him. All of them got knocked to the ground in an instant. Many youths started surrounding them to get a look at what was going on, but none of them attempted to stop the fight but instead, they just stood there looking at the scene coldly.

There were countless similar cases that had happened in this place, a few of strong young energy machinists, to reduce the competition in their arena, would hire an even stronger person to stand guard outside the arena to take care of their competitors.

Garen surveyed the surroundings, he had already memorized the basics of the map in his hand, carefully keeping it back into his pocket.

At this moment, the Level 3 energy machinists who started the fight glanced over, his sights falling on Garen and company.

The others also looked on as if a show was going to happen.

Garen looked around once more and realized that amongst all the people nearby, their Level 3 strength was considered quite high in comparison. Furthermore, the path they were headed was directly past the place where the fight took place.

There were a lot of people coming to this area, most of them seemed to have similar dressing styles, with pale yellowish accessories on them, seemingly all locals. On the other hand, the handful of people in varied clothing all had slightly stronger Willpower and spoke with weird accents. Clearly, they were from a foreign land.

Garen also noticed that it was not just the three of them. Everyone from foreign lands was at least Level 2 or 3, one whole tier higher than the average of the locals.

"Let's not stay here, we need to move," Accord said softly.

The three minded their own business and started to walk away, this made the tense face of the guy who started the fight to slowly relax. He looked over, gave them a smile and left the scene.

The group of knocked out energy machinists was left out cold on the ground.

After walking a bit more, Liz was the first to part ways. The arena she was headed to was just up ahead.

The three exchanged their contact information via their energy machinists key, promising to keep in contact. Briefly, after that, Accord also walked off on his own. He seemed to be quite mature for his age and very introverted, but he might also be slightly overambitious. He had looked down on Liz slightly but was able to see Garen as an equal. His tone towards Garen was very respectful.

Garen had too much life experience and has also seen countless types of people. He had no trouble noticing the slightly hidden intricacies in Accord's shifts in his tones, though he didn't point it out.

A person's life passes by in the flash of his eyes, who knows what type of person Accord would grow up to be, how he would treat others. He would never have a condescending attitude and look down on others, especially towards this group of energy machinists who posses frightful calculation and analytical prowess.

After the two left, he looked up the bookmarks on his map and the sects he was interested in, then he picked out what he deemed to be the most suitable sect and arena for himself.

******

At the far right area of the Star Core Plaza near the outer wall, in a middle-sized sect arena, a long queue of people was patiently waiting to have the judge register their names.

While the queue was still growing, there were also people who left the area dejected, after their application was rejected. On the other hand, those who managed to would proudly or calmly enter the arena into an empty space, patiently awaiting instruction from the staff.

Two middle-aged men in white uniforms stood at the sides coldly staring at the surroundings. They had a sign hanging on their chest, clearly displaying the words "Ice Rainbow Sect".

Garen had been in line for quite some time and it was finally his turn.

Walking to the front, he tapped his energy machinists key in front of the judge in charge of the registration.

Beep.

The key started to light up, the display screen in the hands of the judge also started to display the related information.

'Garen, 21 years old, Level 3 Energy Machinist, Training Method NIS Universal Simplified Version, Place of Birth: Frontier.'

"Level 3… Not bad," the judge nodded, signaling Garen to wait at the side.

Garen breathed out a sigh of relief as he walked towards the group of other participants who passed. The Ice Rainbow Sect was one of the strongest major sects below the Big Three Sects, it was a Southern Sect. The arena over here was used only for preliminary testings. There would still be a secondary testing once they head over the headquarters of the sect where it was intermediate in difficulty.

Garen chose this sect because his current body did not have a good enough Willpower quality. It was at best considered average, if he attempted to head over to even better sects, he would no doubt be rejected instantly, wasting his opportunity.

This opportunity was something that everyone had only once a year. If he gets rejected this time, he would have to wait an entire year for his next opportunity. He did not have so much time and money to afford such a luxury.

It seems like the first batch of selection tests had already been done earlier, he was part of the second batch.

After thirty minutes, the number of registered participants had reached the quota. The people who still wish to register would have to wait till after this batch of selection tests are finished. However, no one was in a rush, the Star Core Plaza was open almost every day of the year, the big arenas are opened based on the schedules, whilst the small arenas are always open. As long as you had the potential, it didn't matter which day you come to take the test.

Garen stood in the middle of the group, he was surrounded by energy machinists' Willpower force. His Level 3 Willpower did not stand out at all in this group. Almost everyone here was Level 3, with the exception of two Level 2s who were extremely young, being at most twelve years old, and a Level 4 young man who was resting his eyes with his arms crossed.

The judge in charge of registration earlier headed up on stage and took out a sign to put on stage. It displayed the rules of the selection tests. It seemed like he was too lazy to even speak, he just pointed at the sign and went off the stage back to his seat.

The sign said:

Second Selection Test -- Elimination Competition. Top three based on actual battles, where ranking are decided based on the number of wins. Those who win 10 consecutive matches may stay. The remaining people will leave the arena.

Third Selection Test. Test for the appraisal limit. Those with high scores may stay, those with low scores will leave.

Final Selection Test. Participate in the combined selection test, those who ranked within the top one hundred will stay.

The rules were simple.

Immediately, two people had already taken the stage. It was a fat boy and a small girl. They familiarly released their respective energy machines, one was a big human-sized spider and the other was a flying swordfish. They were both elite templates. The two jumped straight into an intense battle. The spider's limbs were as sharp as a knife's edge, it could also spit out webs to trap the opponent; whilst the swordfish could instantly use an explosive acceleration to pierce through its opponent and had terrifying firepower. The swordfish was repeatedly weaving through the spider webs set up by the spider.

The judge was below with a computer positioned vertically, with the built-in camera pointing towards the stage, seemingly recording the battle.

Garen was stood at the side, observing the battle while paying attention to the two middle-aged men in white uniforms. The two were clearly men from Ice Rainbow. They did not talk to the judge at all, making the atmosphere very tense.

"What the hell?" The energy machinists on his side started whining.

Garen noticed that a batch of participants consists of 30 people, but they would only take in the top three and the people who managed to win ten battles consecutively. This made the competition very intense. Of course, taking the top three was much easier than to win ten battles consecutively.

Given that the Level 4 energy machinist was definitely going to take a spot, no one bothered even trying to take his spot form him.

As for the remaining two spots…

Garen looked through his belongings. He could not bring the biochemical pond over, it was left in the energy machinists' secret region. Except for his energy machinist key, he did not bring anything at all.

He started to consider how he would rank within this group of people.

He had no way of using energy machine evolved creatures, he did not have an experimental platform, nor did he have a micro-type evolved creature. He was in the same predicament as a lot of the other energy machinists here. There was a specialized public-use biochemical pond somewhere nearby and everyone was allowed to use it once for free. However, he was out of time, the Ice Rainbow Sect mainly targets support-type energy machines, focussing primarily on self-strengthening. Unless absolutely necessary, it would be better to just display his own self-strengthening skills.

Whilst the people on stage were still fighting, Garen saw a few energy machinists coming out from the public-use biochemical pond. There were flower-like items floating around their bodies. Energy Machinists then had countless tricks up their sleeves and he had no idea what those flowers were.

"Black Jade Dragon Beast!!!"

Suddenly, a loud insuppressible roar sounded from afar, almost as if it was the roar of a rhinoceros stampeding towards the arena. This caused everyone to look over at the direction where the sound was coming from.

"Black Jade Dragon?!" The judge's face lost color for a brief moment as he stood up and looked over at that direction, his face showing signs of jealousy.