Mystical Journey

"You want to buy more than ten millions' worth of gene essence with two million? A favor sure costs a lot with you..." Garen just decided to say it out loudly, raising his voice.

His voice spread, and instantly more or less everyone present heard it loud and clear.

"Trying to buy more than ten million with just two million? Nice try, haha!"

"That's exactly what the Scarlet Snow Sect is like, they bully the weak. If they get the good stuff but don't have the power to keep hold of it, they'll be liberated of it sooner or later."

"It's an old trick of the Scarlet Snow Sect, they oppress the newbies. I've seen it happen once before, but I didn't think they would try it again this time. Looks like you gotta be careful if you join the Scarlet Snow Sect, there's no point in joining a sect like this that bullies the weak without a shred of compassion."

The Energy Machinists start to say sarcastically, without bothering to lower their voices. It was just a few words, and usually they did not dare say anything when the Big Three Sects oppressed them, so naturally they wanted to make full use of this opportunity to get back at them.

"Now, we at the Nine Owl Sect are different, our disciples are the most united, unlike the Energy Machinists at Scarlet Snow who don't have any sense of belonging to the same sect at all. If anything drastic happens, I bet they would all scatter to the winds as soon as they can," said a female Energy Machinist from Nine Owl loudly.

Wade had no intention of stopping her.

Standing in the line of disciples, March did not look pleased at all.

"Those two idiots!" He began to bear a grudge towards Yiling and Joey, and Garen was pulled into his vengeful sights as well.

The other disciples were also barely suppressing their anger. Thanks to Garen's announcement, their Senior Brother March's reputation would surely be dragged through the mud.

"You can't even do something this simple!" March's gaze turned cold.

"How dare you!" Yiling and Joey were also standing stone-faced in front of Garen, it had not occurred to them either that Garen would so unafraid of offending them, to the point that he would just announce it loudly like that.

Most Energy Machinists lived for a long time, after they reached Level Four, it was very common for them to live up to several centuries. By offending a powerhouse like March over something so trivial, Garen was practically committing suicide, as though he had a death wish.

"Don't think I can't hurt you just because we're from the same sect! If Senior Brother March wants to kill you, he has at least a thousand ways to do it!" Yiling decided to just threaten him.

"Then let him try." Garen splayed open his hands. "Don't be shy, come at me, try to kill me however you like." His expression looked completely unconcerned.

"You!" Yiling's face turned from stony to red.

"I don't know where your confidence is coming from, so much that you aren't afraid of offending Senior Brother March, and offending the rest of us as well," said Joey coldly beside them.

"I have no such confidence. Senior Brother March is so powerful, I would never dare offend him. Actually, if it was anyone else asking, I might have sold it a long time ago, but since it's the two of you—Heh." Garen's smile was cold.

"You better make sure I don't meet you outside!" Yiling's chest was rising and falling hard.

"Would you dare kill me if we meet outside? Haven't you forgotten the rule that we can't kill or maim members of the same sect?" said Garen contemptuously.

Yiling did not even look at him, turning around and leaving.

But Joey looked at Garen as though he was looking at a fool.

"Idiot!"

He turned around and followed Yiling back into the team.

Garen watched the two of them leave, the cold smile on his face slowly fading back to normal.

"It's a matter of time before I offend the two of them, looks like I better find an escape route soon, otherwise it really would be troublesome if they caught me."

It was true, there was a rule that said no killing or maiming was allowed within the same sect, but injuries from sparring were totally fine. They could very well injure him first, and then toss him to the opposing Dragon Eye Sect, that was the easiest way to go about it.

Garen knew extremely well that, as he was right now, he might not even be able to beat Joey, much less Yiling. These Level Five Energy Machinists were all at least Resonance-level fighters, their Experimental Energy Machinery were all usually one level higher than his. They were equivalent to a Resonance Level pilot, and add that to their own existing power, it meant that in an actual fight, they were even stronger than Resonance Level pilots even though they were only Level Five.

And individual Energy Machinists would never have just one Experimental Body, they might have two, even three, resulting in battle power that far surpassed regular Resonance pilots.

In comparison, those Resonance pilots in Blackboard were far inferior to the Energy Machinists here.

Garen was never afraid of offending people, but he would not be so uncooperative without reason. The main problem was that, to him, this essence was too valuable.

One vial of liquid essence should be enough to raise two of his standard units, or four points of his Agility attribute, in other words. Such an increase was downright terrifying, four points of Agility was equal to consuming sixty potential points. To him right now, that was an astronomical sum.

He picked up the test tube lightly, twisted the metal cap off, touched some of the liquid essence with his fingertip, and licked it.

Immediately, there was an extremely spicy sensation gushing down his throat, making his whole mouth burn. The sensation was almost unbearable.

In an instant, Garen felt as though his body had somehow grown lighter.

"Just as I thought, it's effective. I just tasted a tiny bit, and the effect is already so obvious!" Garen was absolutely sure now. "It's too bad that even if my Vitality is much stronger than regular Energy Machinists, I will still need at least a week to fully absorb this. If I drank it all at once, I might even burn a hole through my stomach lining."

He stoppered the vial regretfully, and kept it away.

The incident where Garen was nearly coerced into a deal was just a small side-event.

The invigilator waited for a while. More than an hour later, when everyone was fully recovered, he began the second phase of the test.

Only thirty people or so had passed the first phase, and these were mostly the elites from the large sects. There were only two independents, indicating a huge imbalance.

"The second phase of the test, Premonition."

The invigilator waved his hand, and the remaining people all automatically vanished from underneath the silver sphere, as though they had been teleported out. The beams of red light vanished completely, and most of the people disappeared as well.

The flat area underneath the silver sphere instantly became a lot emptier.

"In this second phase of the test, you can obtain some resources and items from inside, and I will determine the proportion to be deducted from these resources based on your test results. The deducted resources will not enter my own pockets, but will instead be used to run the Spirit Mothership's daily operations. You can be rest assured," said the invigilator evenly, while he turned to look at Nora, March, and Wade.

"You three, your results last time were decent, so your proportion of deduction will be reduced to 40%."

The three of them nodded slightly to indicate that they understood.

March glanced at Garen, who was nearby, his expression unchanging as he telegraphed a message from his lips to the people beside him.

"Watch that guy Garen, and take away his essence as soon as he leaves the Mothership, don't let the people from Dragon Eye get a chance."

"Yes, Senior Brother." Beside him, Yiling and the rest nodded solemnly.

That was a sum worth more than ten million, after all!

Even to them, that sum was astronomical. Their daily expenses only amounted to several hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million, over a year, and here was something that could give them ten million in one go. If it was not for the fact that March had called dibs on it, they themselves would have been raring to go.

Out of everyone from Scarlet Snow, only one person frowned slightly, and wanted to stay out of it. This person was slightly dark, as though they had used something to disguise themselves, even their hair and eyebrows were all pitch black. Their body was tightly wrapped, to the point that even their gender was indiscernible. They stood inconspicuously in the line, and no one talked to them of their accord, as though that person was constantly forgotten.

After arranging the matters that rose as a result of that little conflict, March calmed down, his gaze moving to Wade and Nora.

This second test was the true test in actual battle, and it was the key to increasing the distance between them. The reward last time was the gene essence, and that did tempt him, but the reward this time was completely different.

"According to the results, the second test will allow you to choose your corresponding mutated beast gene transfer surgery!" The invigilator's voice was calm. "Each person will have their own individual space, the longer you last in there, the better the things you can obtain. Judge your own limits well, because if you're not careful at this stage, you could die."

"We could die!"

Garen's heart gave a jolt, and he turned his gaze to look at the others.

The remaining Energy Machinists were all mentally prepared, and they were not surprised to hear that at all, or if they were surprised, maybe they would not show it on their faces.

Only a few of them had their pupils dilate slightly, as though this was their first time here.

"Alright, the second test, starts now!"

As soon as the invigilator said that, a limitless darkness descended upon them all from above.

Garen just felt his vision go black, and he could not see anything.

It was as though he had lost his sense of sight in an instant, he could not even see the outlines of any light around him. There was nothing but darkness.

"This is the second test?"

Garen also felt the sounds he could hear vanishing quickly into the distance. Since he could not see anything, all he had left to rely on was his sense of hearing.

He had undergone this kind of training back in the Secret Technique World as well, many secret techniques had training regimes like this.

He tried to use the equipment and lighting tools he had brought with him, but it was useless. Nothing worked, as though no light could exist in this space.

"How mysterious..."

Garen sighed in admiration. Even the darkest place should have the faintest trace of light by which he could discern silhouettes, and lighting tools would work there too.

Hah!

Suddenly, a sharp object pierced towards him, coming directly in front of him.

There was no whoosh of a breeze, nor the sound of it cutting through the wind. In fact, there was only one-thousandth of a second between its appearance and its reaching the surface of Garen's skin.

But as though he had predicted it in advance, Garen tumbled and turned away at the last moment. As his clothes fluttered, he dodged this pierce by the thinnest of hairs.

The piercing object appeared abruptly, and disappeared just as abruptly.

Garen fell to the ground with a thud. Since he had used too much power in order to dodge at the quickest possible speed, he had not been able to control his strength properly. In fact, in that second just now, his muscles and tendons had even taken some minor damage.

"What was that just now? A test?" Confusion flashed past Garen's heart.

Psst-psst!!

There was another attack.

This time it was not one, but two.

Garen could clearly feel two sharp objects pierce straight for his chest, coming directly for him where he lay on the ground.

He rolled away from that place, and heard two clear clangs. Two things had crashed onto the floor where Garen had been.

"There's no sound of the wind, no light, and we can't use our equipment. Is this a test of our sensitivity towards the changes in the air?" Garen got up quickly, and the hairs on his back rose suddenly. Three piercing thorns came at him in a triangular formation at a high speed, soundlessly.

And this time they were much better hidden than before.

If it was any other Energy Machinist here, unless they were a combat powerhouse that had undergone this kind of special training, there was no way they would be able to remain unharmed under these circumstances.

Without all their Energy Machinery, facilities and equipment, this test forced an Energy Machinist to avoid the danger with their own power alone, and truly tested one's talent.

This time, even Garen was completely tense, doing all he could to keep himself in his optimum condition, before he abruptly dove towards the right and then forward.

Psst!

There was the sound of intense friction beneath his feet, a faint smell of something burning between the soles of his shoes and the ground.

Garen could only sense the three sharp currents flash past his left forearm, but as soon as the currents touched his arm, he felt an intense, burning pain.