Mystical Journey

Garen made up his mind . He remembered seeing low-level Secret Martial Arts in the library of the White Cloud Dojo . Although he didn’t see too many of those, it would be enough for him .

No matter how weak a secret technique was, there had to be something special about it .

Garen opened the door and walked towards the library . He did not see many people around in the Dojo; the place was no longer busy . There were only about seven or eight people wandering around, and he could still see the blood stains on the floor .

Garen didn’t really care, and he headed straight to the library . It took him several minutes to reach the entrance and notice that the old bald man, who guarded the gate, was already gone . He could see the signs of the fight from the walls, and he knew the Elder was fraught with grim possibilities .

Garen was a bit relieved after he found the method to improve, but he became depressed again after seeing the scene before him .

He entered the library, and everything inside was still well organized . Although Senior Sister betrayed the White Cloud Gate, she did not touch any of the low-level Secret Martial Arts since she probably had already read everything in the library .

He closed the door, lit an oil lamp, and started to check the books on the shelves . It only took him several minutes to find all the low-level Secret Martial Arts . Garen put them down on a desk that was used for making copies and sat down . He kept the oil lamp on the side for light .

There were four books on the desk:

Iron Body, Dark Iron Palm, Lark Blade and Flame Fist .

Those Secret Martial Arts were common and almost all the Dojos had them . They were usually taught to the normal disciples, but the White Cloud Gate had the Explosive Fist Arts as the basic and the four low-level Secret Martial Arts were just kept in the library as part of the collection .

The four Secret Martial Arts were very similar to the Red Hand Fist Garen encountered before . They could not be put into skill combos, and it would take him a very long time to master them, so the benefit wouldn’t justify the cost .

Although they were put in the library, disciples read them just for fun . Secret Martial Arts like the four could be found anywhere, and they were just like the Iron Tunic that was in almost all the martial arts novels .

Garen grabbed the Iron Body and opened it:

‘Iron Body can increase one’s body defense . It is an average Secret Martial Arts that can be learnt by taking hits while maintaining a special way of breathing . It is easy to learn, but it takes a long time to master . Five years to complete the Level One Mastery, 10 years to complete the Level Two Mastery, and 15 years to master it . If one could master the Iron body, his body would become as hard as iron, and he would be able to resist small caliber pistols . ’

Garen read through the instructions, but did not find them important and quickly finished the book . It was short, and the training method did not need to be paired with drugs . There were no complex techniques involved, and the person did not need to be talented . The only requirement was the will to handle all the pain during the long training years .

The most important thing in this whole book was the special breathing technique .

Garen remembered everything quickly and put the book down . "That’s why it’s called low-level Secret Martial Arts…"

He then finished the other three books, and all of them required a lot of time for one to master . Disciples needed to spend at least five to seven years on the Level One Mastery of those arts . Even more so, Flame Fist required eight years for the Level One Mastery . It had four levels in total, and the required time doubled for each level, which meant it would take 64 years for one to finish the last one .

"One won’t become any stronger if he can’t master one Secret Martial Art before the age of 25 . No one is going to spend 120 years to master the Flame Fist . No wonder no one touches these low-level Secret Martial Arts…" Garen wasn’t too happy with what he found, but he still finished all four books .

He did not realize it was already afternoon .

Garen closed his eyes, and he could clearly see the skill bar of the light red statuses . He thought for a second, and slowly the four low-level Secret Martial Arts’ names appeared on the skill bar:

Iron Body: Not Started .

Dark Iron Palm: Not Started .

Lark Blade: Not Started .

Flame Fist: Not Started .

Various signs appeared behind the four Secret Martial Arts, and those signs told Garen about the requirements for each of them . Only Lark Blade required relatively high Agility, but it was still within the range that a normal person could reach . Garen could easily meet the requirements of all four .

"The Lark Blade is an Agility Secret Martial Art and requires external support . It doesn’t fit my style . I guess I will start with Iron Body . "

He wanted to use his special ability to see if he could speed up the training process .

Garen’s special ability could boost up his learning speed significantly . He tried studying history the last time he applied potential points to Intelligence, and he could easily memorize everything he saw . As long as his Intelligence was high enough, and there were no external restrictions to it, he could learn the subject at an incredible speed .

He wanted to try it on the Martial Arts . It would be very helpful for him if it worked the same as when he was studying .

The Level One Mastery of the Iron Body required the special breathing technique from the book . Garen needed to imagine himself as an inflated balloon, and once his skin turned grey, he would be able to start the Level One Mastery .

Huff .

Garen slowly inhaled as the book said . He needed to inhale once and exhale nine times in a specific rhythm .

It would take him 20 minutes to finish one set of inhaling and exhaling .

He stood up and started practicing the special breathing technique beside the desk .

The first time he could feel his muscles and skin tighten, and they also became denser . Garen was excited about the change and decided to start the second try right away . His muscles and skin tightened again .

His skin turned red on the third try, and he felt like it was extremely tight .

He tried the breathing technique six times in a row and felt relaxed after the last try . His skin’s temperature was very high, and he felt like he’d just left a hot bath .

He closed his eyes and looked at the Iron Body skill:

Iron Body: Level One (Two Levels) .

"I knew it! It changed!"

Garen opened his eyes and tore off his collar . He could see his skin turning darker . Although its hardness hadn’t reached the level of metal, he believed he would finish the Level One Mastery after a bit more training .

"It’s valid!" Garen hit his chest with his fist .

Bam!

Besides the normal sound of flesh, there was the sound like hitting a piece of metal .

"It’s definitely working . I wonder if I can reach the next level . "

Garen tried to use the special breathing method again . However, nothing happened after more than ten tries . He knew he needed to do the hit training and that the breathing technique alone would not do much, but he just wanted to give it a try .

"I easily learned the fundamentals after I fulfilled all the requirements, but why can’t I apply the method to the basic combat techniques and the basic sword skills… Wait! I already knew the basics of the skills when I was trying to level them up, which means this ability only works when I try to learn the Level One Mastery of the skills or fundamentals . Maybe it only works with the theories that only need to be memorized?"

Garen recalled the days when he was learning the identification skill with the old man . He had studied it step by step, and his ability had only worked with the first book he read . His identification skill did not level up after finishing the other books .

His identification skill never leveled up after that . Although he studied a lot and acquired a good amount of knowledge, that skill was still at the first level .

"I’m probably correct about this . "

Garen was now sure about his guess . His special ability could only help him quickly learn the basics after the requirements were met, which was still extremely helpful when he used it on Secret Martial Arts .

No matter how weak a Secret Martial Art was, it would still be much stronger than any regular martial art . He could easily finish the Level One Mastery of any of the Secret Martial Arts, and those skills would definitely be useful to him .

Garen decided to use his ability to learn more Secret Martial Arts since he wanted to know what would happen after .

"I‘m not sure if Iron Body will help me become stronger, but I can try it later," Garen thought and started to prepare for the Dark Iron Palm .

He did not need any external support to learn the Dark Iron Palm . All he required was to learn a special stance and support it with his consciousness . It was a skill that gathered all the venom in his body into his palms, and then allowed him to use it to poison opponents .

It would take Garen some time, but he started the Level One Mastery with ease . He used the special stance he learned from the book and supported it with his consciousness .

After about two hours, he felt like his hands were paralyzed, and it meant that the venom in his body had gathered into his fingers .

Apparently, the Level One Mastery of the Dark Iron Palm would not do too much for him . He only needed to gather all the venoms from his body into his palms . The more Garen practiced the skill the more venom he would be able to handle .

The technique only had two levels just like the Mammoth Secret Techniques .

The next one he decided to learn was the Flame Fist, which was different from the other ones . Garen could feel the actual effect of the skill, but the feeling was weak, and Iron Body progressed much faster .

It was dark outside when Garen practiced several more times, and most of the disciples had already gone back home . Garen did not eat anything besides breakfast and just stayed in the library the whole day .

"Andrela will be here in ten days . I hope I’ll be able to finish the Level One Mastery during that time," Garen said in a light tone .

He had three different Secret Martial Arts .

He needed to do the strike-resistant training for the Iron Body, and he would be able to finish the entry level after that . The other two needed time and he wasn’t sure if he could finish all the Level One Masteries before Andrela came .

But he was still satisfied with the results . Compared to normal people, his learning speed was already extraordinary .