Mystical Journey

April 25th

Lord of Immortal Palace was killed in combat in Dongzhou by Demon God General Garen. Including Weisman Assault Team, Immortal Palace’s Grandmaster of Combat elites and Elders, nearly half were annihilated.

Fifteen days later

Southern Sky Gate was renamed back to Southern Sky Holy Fist Gate. Garen summoned back all the disciples, rebuilt the place and restored the techniques to be inherited. White Cloud Gate returned back to White Dew Gate and Garen became White Dew Gate’s Great Elder. Together with Celestial Circle Gate, Crimson Sand Sword, and Demon Gate, an alliance was formed. Together, they maintained the Combat Festival.

When the news spread out, the combat world was shaken. Numerous martial artists went to Immortal Palace to verify the authenticity.

Weisman Empire’s higher-ups declared Garen as a terrorist, gathered the remaining forces in Immortal Palace and dispatched more than ten thousands of people to subjugate the Dongzhou’s Southern Sky Holy Fist Gate.

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

The sky was clear.

From the endless blue sea, on the horizon, numerous white navy ships slowly appeared as tiny dots. Among the densely packed dots, a middle-aged man wearing black aristocratic clothes and a captain’s hat was looking through his binoculars on the largest navy ship.

Huala!

The sea water crashed ashore against Garen’s legs and droplets splashed around. He stood in the sea with the sea water passing by, remaining motionless.

Gazing at the emerging fleets of Weisman navy ships, Garen slowly raised his right hand.

Silently, a white fog materialized and spread through his surroundings. Within seconds, the fog grew thicker and larger and soon covered an area of several hundreds of meters.

Halberds crystallized and appeared from the mist repeatedly, suspended in mid-air with their tips aiming at the distant navy ships.

Boom!

Fiery red dots appeared among the navy ships. The dots flashed, and waves and jets of water splashed around Garen’s position.

Peng Peng Peng Peng!!

The incessant bombardment appeared like rain, but strangely, in the area of fog surrounding Garen, every single shell that went in disappeared soundlessly, as though there was a bottomless abyss swallowing up everything.

Red dots lit up again on the navy ships. A second bombardment began.

"Go."

Out of nowhere, a crystalized halberd appeared in Garen’s hand and he gently pointed it at the fleet.

Weng...

Countless crystal halberds trembled, as one by one, they were covered in bluish light.

Bang!!

At that instant, all the halberds disappeared. In the distance, numerous fireballs appeared above the sea.

Garen absentmindedly gazed at the sea of fire across the sea then turned around and walked away.

Between the rocks on the shore, the people from White Dew Gate and Southern Sky Holy Fist Gate, elders from Celestial Circle Gate and representatives from Crimson Sand Sword all kneeled down. Their faces showed passion, excitement, and amazement.

This kind of combat martial arts realm was not something a human could do. This was the highest realm that all martial artists coveted; using the force of an individual to crushed every single resistance.

Those numerous crystal halberds were like legends and myths coming to life, piercing through the heavens and crushed all the Weisman navy ships instantly.

Garen glanced at the crowd that kneeled down. In his heart, there was no delight in defeating the Weisman navy ships. He did not even see clearly that fleet of ships that came full of enthusiasm and had simply annihilated them dozens of miles away.

To him, it was only materializing tens of halberds through his Secret Techniques and throw those out. After that, he only needed to enjoy the spectacle of fireballs that appeared one by one.

Totally meaningless.

Back on the shore, he tuned out the passionate cheers from the crowd and turned his gaze at Andrela who was standing at the right.

In a complex mood, Andrela looked at this once-best friend of his. That kind of overwhelming strength that could not be concealed had already left the realm of martial artist and reached the point of a legend. At his peak, he knew himself that settling this fleet of navy ships was no big deal but when there were numerous elites from Immortal Palace on board, it became a different matter, not to mention there were even hidden masters from Weisman Empire and customized heavy artillery in the hands of specialized Grandmasters of Combat. Not even he could resolve all of that.

They looked at each other and nodded simultaneously.

After a few simple sentences, the figures of Garen accompanied by Andrela disappeared on the shore.

After this battle, the alliance had an all-new experience on the terrifying combat strength of Garen. Some people who had conflicting views about him had let go altogether. Any and all sorts of undercurrents that emerged died down completely. In the face of absolute strength, everything else paled in comparison. Any schemes would be crushed effortlessly.

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

A few days later...

Endless seawater with no land in sight splashed around, while seagulls soared up in the sky and sunlight glittered off the surface of the sea.

Garen and Andrela were boarding a small blue boat with a white trail behind it heading towards the same place as the seagulls.

One was sitting at the front and the other at the back with their hair tousled by the wind.

Some time ago, the sea wind had begun sounding like the weeping of a lady.

"There’s a small island in front. The islanders all called it the Sea Demon Island, and the island is surrounded by winds that are harsh and piercing on the ears. Normal people have no way of approaching it." Andrela introduced while controlling the boat.

"The island has caves that are like honeycombs on the mountain. When the sea wind blows, it creates a sound like how we whistle. Maybe because a special frequency was created, those piercing sounds can mislead senses. If you lose concentration, you will lose your way."

Garen turned serious. The sensation from Living Secret Technique made him become slightly alert.

Standing up, he stared far ahead across the sea.

A U-shaped green island appeared on the sea in front.

Seagulls flocked around on the island. On the desolate yellowish green beach, not a trace of humans could be seen.

"That’s the Sea Demon Island." Andrela also stood up. Both of them looked at the island.

"More than ten years ago, under certain circumstances, I heard rumors about this island. The descriptions of this island’s environment and topography resembled a hidden sacred place that I found in a book from a religion."

"Hidden sacred place?"

"That’s right." Andrela slightly recounted, "In the record, this Sea Demon Island was once one of the places the Ancient Endor’s Mother Stream runs through."

"Mother Stream? You are talking about the origin of streams described in the legend?" Garen recalled.

In the legend, all the Ancient Endor’s origin of life and great warlocks such as Mother Earth would return into the embrace of the Mother Stream when their life depleted.

"Yes, that Mother Stream." Andrela nodded. "After years of researching, guess what I found?" There was yearning in his eyes but mostly helplessness.

"No way, did you found that Mother Stream?" Garen was stunned, "On this island? A place surrounded by the sea?!" He felt it a bit unbelievable, this place was in the middle of a sea a few days away from Dongzhou and considered a place where no one cared. Now, someone told him that there was a river on this island and it was the legendary Mother Stream, the origin of life.

"Wait until you take a look at this Mother Stream, then you will understand." Andrela smiled bitterly.

The both of them no longer spoke and waited in silence for the little boat to reach there, nearer and nearer.

The sight of the yellowish green beach was getting clearer.

After about half an hour later, the little boat stopped in a crevice between some rocks on the island. Garen froze a big chunk of ice and stoppered the crevice to stop the boat from getting washed away by the sea.

The two of them stepped down from the boat on the island.

The area of shallow water was of crystal clear blue. It could be seen that in the water, there were blue lights reflected on the ripples.

Shells, marine fish, black reefs, translucent shrimps, and crabs were vibrant all around.

Garen stepped on the soft sand beach and picked up a white conch wrapped in seaweed. To his surprise, a few white tentacles came out of the opening of the conch and started struggling around.

"The organisms here is a little weird, take note," Andrela whispered after tying the rope on the boat.

Standing on the island’s beach, in front of them was a lush green forest.

From the direction of the shore into the island, the trees became even more closely compacted with their colors getting darker from light green to dark green. This showed the distribution of the plants on the island

Standing on the beach, the weeping sounds of the wind became even clearer and even sounded demonic.

Garen wrinkled his eyebrows; for him, the sounds had started became piercing.

For the normal people or even average Grandmaster of Combat, this might be the limit for them. Heading in any further would become dangerous for them.

For him and Andrela who had reached the level they stood at now, even the most vulnerable eardrums would have a certain degree of enhancement, not to mention their internal organs which were a lot tougher than the normal people. This little bit of sound was no different from listening to a radio.

Wearing black tight-fitting cloaks, both of them headed deeper into the island.

Andrela led the way as he was the most familiar with this island. He led Garen on a barely discernible forest trail and advanced into the dense jungle.

The forest felt slightly hot and humid. Whether it’s the top, bottom, left or right, all around them were plants. Some plants grew crooked to the left and right, barring their way and were snapped by the both of them.

From the gaps that could be seen, there were small insects that flew here and there, among which some of them had a blood-sucking ability and were buzzing around.

A mixture of sour scent with the fresh scent of the plants was in the warm and humid air, making the whole thing quite strange.

Following the trail and winding left and right, the terrain was getting lower as though they were walking into a humongous basin.

In the forest, excluding the chirping of birds and the sounds of unknown animals, there were only the swishing sounds of both of them traveling through the forest.

After some time, a yellow mountain was revealed before them and a small dark cave was nestled among the vines climbing around.

Andrela stopped in front of the cave.

"It’s here." He whispered.

"We’re going in?"