Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

  If mining type Secret Techniques regarded the vertices of blood vessels as their endpoints, then evolving Secret Techniques in the foundations of blood vessels would be able to take a step forward and improve the body, in order to create a method for new life methods.

  Certainly, the Myriad Water Jasper Technique was an evolving Secret Technique like that.

  It would swallow and absorb Totem abilities to reach its goal of evolving itself. For an ancient martial art like this to exist in this world, only a stepping stone would be required.

  Garen concentrated and felt the powers of the Myriad Water Jasper Technique for a moment.

  This set of Secret Techniques possessed its own set of attack methods but was obviously impractical in the Luminarist world. Garen used cloud exercises, and his own Ten Thousand Mammoth Battle Skills to attack. But the Ten Thousand Mammoth Battle Skills were a form of martial arts that used the Divine Statue Technique as its core, thus, using the Myriad Water Jasper Technique with it felt wrong, as its power would be insufficient.

  "If I was able to train my New Moon Sword Skills to the highest level, I would definitely break through Form 5," said Ivycius quietly, as he stood on the sidelines.

  "New Moon Sword Skills?" Garen was slightly shocked.

  "I named it myself," Ivycius nodded. "I obtained this set of sword skills from some relics, and they were once used to practice strengthening one’s body, but I never expected that, once I combined it with a Form 4 Totem, there would be an immensely strong effect."

  "Could you let me see it?" Garen’s heart trembled.

  "Originally, I had destroyed it, but I could relay the information to you verbally," Ivycius nodded, because for Garen, he was instinctively unable to reject him from the depths of his heart. Although he was slightly surprised at first, he immediately understood that this was probably the consequences of the Demon Dragon.

  Both of them told all of the Black Fire Guards to fall back, before they began to pursue Beckstone and the others by following the tracks that they left behind, while Ivycius told him about the origins of the sword skill practices.

  The more he listened, the more frightened Garen felt.

  If all the normal people of this world were practicing a normal, auraless Secret Techniques, then the sword skills that Ivycius possessed, were obviously exercises that closely resembled high level Secret Techniques.

  Except that he was unlike himself, without the ability to absorb Totems, in order to strengthen the effects of his original Secret Technique exercises.

  Or perhaps this fusion upgrade, was originally just an effect of Garen’s abilities.

  Sudden realisation flashed through Garen’s mind, if it was like the previous world, superimposed strength like this would be able to allow him to start off at a lower starting point, and upgrade to a higher level quickly.

  When comparing the Myriad Water Jasper Technique and Ivycius’ New Moon Sword Skills, Garen shockingly realised that the former was not as complicated as the New Moon Sword Skills.

  Regardless if he was looking from the description of the Secret Technique, or the difficulty to practice it, the New Moon Sword Skills exceeded the former greatly. Of course, the most likely probability was that the level of the New Moon Sword Skills was higher than the Myriad Water Jasper Technique.

  "Looks like this world is also filled with high levelled Secret Techniques." Excitement began to bubble up slowly inside Garen’s heart.

  "Have you passed these sword skills to anyone else?" He looked at Ivycius.

  "Only one previous disciple," Ivycius shook his head. "Unfortunately, I don’t know his whereabouts anymore. However, it is not only myself but many other Ultimate Form 5 strong individuals, that possess their own types of attack methods. The Form 5 level is the level where the Totem and main bodies fuse, and the Totem User themselves will be affected by the Totem, and while some of them use it to get rid or suppress these effects, others use them to strengthen the effects, Thus, these ancient attack methods that were obtained from the relics became more popular to this day."

  "You’re saying, that there are people in Form 5 who have these kind of Secret Techniques?"

  "Secret Techniques? This phrase is quite suitable. That is true, from my knowledge, there are some people in Form 5 who have these Secret Techniques," Ivycius nodded. "Secret Techniques were truly the best method for us to unleash our abilities."

  The two men spoke as they walked through the palace quickly.

  Inside the black palace, the Beckstone trio left a rotting bloody stench along the way, that kept appearing throughout the ruins.

  Under the large Magic Array that covered the palace, they were apparently unable to exit the palace grounds.

  After they left the ruins caused by the fierce battles, Garen and Ivycius led the Black Fire Guards to pursue the path that carried the bloody scent.

  Beckstone and the others had obviously suffered serious injuries, and along the way, they would often see palace guards that had been shot dead. However, although the situation was such, every time they moved, the smell of blood from the three people would become stronger.

  Fortunately, Avic had dispersed a large amount of the palace’s Tactical Defense Formations before he took action so that each palace had a specific Tactical Defense Formation, and although it was not extremely powerful, it was enough to deflect some of the effects of the fierce battle. Thus, most of the royal family hid in the deeper parts of the palace.

  The palace grounds were completely quiet; those who wanted to hide were hidden already, while only a few of them remained outside.

  Garen and Ivycius ran over, and noticed that the corpses of the guards and maids had decreased.

  The palace area was at the back of the royal palace and was connected to mountains and cliffs. The area was full of slopes and led towards the Yellow-Eyed Black Crow’s nest.

  Going up the sloping grounds, Garen suddenly caught wind of their plan.

  "They’re trying to ride the Yellow-Eyed Black Crow to escape!"

  On top on one of the palace walls, Garen crouched down and reached his hand out to reach for a trace of blood on the ground gently.

  He placed it in front of his nose and sniffed.

  "It’s right in front." He stood up, as his eyes looked towards a black palace in the top right corner of his vision. "This is the women’s quarters, they left no longer than two minutes ago."

  "What are you planning to do?" Ivycius asked quietly. "Kill them?"

  "For publicly kidnapping the Eleven Royalties and the royal family members, regardless of who they are, they are doomed to die," said Garen sternly.

  He looked around his surroundings and noticed that the Yellow-Eyed Black Crow’s grey nest was in a faraway area front of him.

  "Let’s go. The Magic Array is still untouched, a sign that they haven’t found a way to escape yet, so as long as they remain within the Magic Array, everything can go as planned."

  Both of them walked towards the middle of the palace slowly, one in front of the other, and began rushing when they reached the stone steps. Every step seemed to be excruciatingly slow, but in reality, they were both crossing great distances, at a frightening speed.

  At every moment, Garen would pay attention to the movements in his surroundings, to see if the three people were hiding inside the palace grounds.

  Suddenly, a ray of silver light burst out of the ground on his right, and from the corner of his vision, Garen could see it shooting towards him, as if it was about to pierce through the back of his head.

  Tch! Bang!!

  Garen raised his fingers and clasped the silver light gently, before realising that it was a thin, sharp silver needle.

  He increased the force applied by his fingers, and slapped them together, causing the silver needle to break suddenly. It fell on the ground.

  Garen realised suddenly that a large black shadow had appeared right in front of him.

  The black shadow covered him completely, and the last sliver of moonlight from the night sky was concealed as well.

  In a nearby area in front of him, a large grey stone man burst out of the ground suddenly.

  The body of the stone man was entirely grey, and his body was made up of countless huge rocks, as it many grey stone balls had been glued together. Its large body was at least ten meters tall.

  Roar!!!

  The stone man turned towards Garen and let out a fierce roar suddenly, and although it was silent, its large black mouth kept spitting out strong winds.

  "Giant Stone Formation? Looks like the person on Beckstone’s side is a formation professional," Ivycius sighed behind him.

  "Giant Stone Formation?" Garen sneered.

  The stone man raised his right fist suddenly, and the giant right fist, with a diameter of five to six meters, suddenly came crashing down near Garen, as if it were trying to crush him into meat sauce all at once.

  At the same time, Garen brandished his right fist as well, and waved it openly.

  Bang!!!!

  The ground was reverberated with strong quakes, as the floor beneath Garen’s feet split down the middle, spreading large unruly cracks everywhere.

  Roar!!

  The stone man’s loud painful roars sounded again, as his entire right arm broke into fragments instantly.

  Banging sounds were heard twice, as he took two steps back, while his entire body shivered continuously, as if something was shaking him continuously.

  There was a crash, and the stone man collapsed instantly. A large number of boulders came crashing down, smashing the ground, and overturning a large pile of rubble and dust.

  Garen sighed and brought his right hand back, while most of the heavy black armor on his body had cracked already. His entire body had been shaken up, so his armor flew off suddenly and fell to the ground in the distance.

  While only wearing a layer of black tights on the inside, Garen walked past the stone man’s body and rushed over towards the Yellow-Eyed Black Crow’s cliff again.

  Ivycius followed closely behind, and glanced at the stone man on the ground, and although this was not his first time seeing it, he was still shocked by Garen’s frighteningly powerful strength.

  In between the black palace area, two people who were dressed in black and white respectively, were like two small dots who were rapidly passing through the palace, and they passed the plaza, forest, and statue garden without stopping at all as they rushed towards the Yellow-Eyed Black Crow’s nest on the cliff hurriedly.

  Lots of stone men appeared endlessly, and each time they were obliterated with one of Garen’s punches. This was only able to delay Garen momentarily.

  *********

  On top of the cliff

  The Beckstone trio surrounded a gigantic Yellow-Eyed Black Crow. The exterior of the Black Crow was covered by a thin layer of golden light that resembled a piece of protective film.

  Beard heard the dull ramming noises that were constantly coming from below, and his eyelids jumped around madly. Whenever the sound echoed over, it meant that one of his Giant Stone Formations were being violently destroyed.

  "Here! They’re here already! They must have realised our intentions by now! We need to hurry up and resolve the Magic Array screen!!" He turned his head and looked towards Beckstone frantically.

  This young genius’ face was now becoming pale, and his chest was rising and falling violently.

  "Don’t panic…… Don’t panic! You absolutely cannot panic!!" he seemed to be murmuring to himself, while he took deep breaths continuously. "There is definitely a way…… This golden screen is also part of the Magic Array’s cover, and I remember seeing it someway before…… I remember……!"

  Beard could hear that the exploding noises from below were getting nearer, and it wasn’t just him; the Eleventh Royal Daughter had been frightened ‘til her face turned white.

  "All of you need to get on the Black Crow King’s back now!!!" Beckstone yelled loudly.

  "Brother Stone!" yelled the Eleventh Royal Daughter tearfully. She was swooped up by Beard in one swift movement, as he dashed towards the empty slot on the back of the Black Crow.

  Beckstone did not hear anything, and his eyes were illuminated by flashes of silver light continuously, as if countless messages were flowing in rapid calculation.

  From the beginning when the White Bird was obstructed, and unable to fly out of the palace, he had already begun to hurriedly search for a way to get rid of the giant Magic Array above the palace. Until now, he was still unable to locate the thinnest part of it.

  Upon hearing that the explosions from below were getting nearer, Beckstone’s mind grew more panicked.

  "Don’t panic! We will definitely find a way, surely!!"

  "Eleventh Highness, please don’t be tricked by those two treacherous villains, their goal is to capture you to coerce His Highness into becoming Terraflor Society’s bargaining chip! In this world, His Highness is your only relative, and the person who has truly treated you the best," said a man’s voice in an unusually sincere voice, and while his tone was cordial, for some unknown reason, he gave off a cold, snake-like, terrifying feeling.

  "Come back…… Your body is already covered with protective Spritualized Tactics, and once you stimulate it, I will protect you immediately!"

  Upon hearing the voice, Tina widened her eyes, and felt chills throughout her whole body while she was locked tightly in Beard’s grasp.

  "To think that a genius like that would actually be placed under the command of the Royal Alliance of Luminarists!" Beard’s face was pale, as he smashed his fist against the Black Crow King’s feathers, but was steadily blocked by the golden halo. "He’s relying on Spirit Light to determine our location!"

  Although Tina had seen Garen many times, the other man was always smiling and welcoming, and his actions were always polite and warm, he also had a handsome appearance, gentle attitude and manners, and powerful strength. All of these were enough to capture the heart of an average girl. But nobody knew why, every time Tina saw Garen, she could feel a cold, terrifying, and suffocating feeling coming from him.

  She knew that this was part of her royal bloodline, as she had inherited premonitions and talents that would lead to warnings.

  "He can’t find us now! The Yellow-Eyed Black Crow King has four heads in total, and each head has been designated to four different areas of the cliff, making it the bird with the fastest speed. Even if he were to use the fastest way to get here, it would take him five minutes at least!" Beard said quickly. "Stone!"

  Beckstone stood beside the Black Crow King, as the silver in his eyes had increased, and had almost accumulated into one pile.

  Tch!

  Blood spurted out of both his eyes.

  Woo!

  He closed both of his eyes tightly, as his figure staggered backwards.

  Suddenly.

  "I’ve thought of it!!" A joyful look appeared on his face, and he could not help but yell loudly.

  ************

  On the ground below the mountain, Garen raised his head suddenly and looked towards a cave at the extreme right corner. His bright red eyeballs were like terrifying dragon’s eyes.

  "Found you…… Hehe."

  There was a hissing noise, as he turned into a black shadow instantly, and dashed towards the cave.

  Ivycius stood at his original spot without following him, pursed his lips, and smiled bitterly.

  "What terrifying five senses…… President, this time I really cannot help you anymore……"