Mystical Journey

From the corner of his eye, Garen glanced at the numerous Saber Art Dojo members who were grimacing in pain. Although he already knew from the start that these people were really weak, he never anticipated that they would be so bad to this extent. This was truly beyond his expectations.

Frankly, he was initially preparing to trail Lincoln and see what was going on exactly. However, the situation over here seemed more urgent hence he decided to come here first.

Even though this organization’s sole purpose was to allow him to practice legitimate saber skills, he would not allow anyone to simply snatch his position as the leader and force him to become their subordinate instead.

“Then you should attack.”

He noticed that a crowd of leaders from various branches was already standing outside the doors and windows, looking as if they were about to watch a show.

The others pulled back quickly and moved aside to leave an empty space for the two people.

“Perhaps we should do it instead.” A voice squeezed past from the other side of the door suddenly.

Two more people walked in. They were the newly appointed Saber One and Saber Two who were also the siblings recommended by Lincoln. Neither of them was around in the department previously but once they had heard of this news, they worried that it would be difficult to explain the incident to Big Brother Lincoln if their other boss here was injured in the fight. Hence, they rushed over quickly and prepared themselves to take over the fight.

“You guys came to do this?” Garen grasped the hilt of the saber at his waist. He had imitated the katana to smith a supposed single-edged saber. The body of a saber like this was advantageous when used for chopping because it was incomparably sharp. However, the drawback was that it was not flexible enough. Nonetheless, it was very suitable for his current Saber Art. Weapons like these that resembled sabers but were actually single-edged swords were unanimously well-received by everyone in the Saber Art Dojo quickly.

“That’s good. Coincidentally, I have some matters to attend to now so you guys can stand in for me. No problem, right?” Garen patted the shoulders of both people.

“This guy…” Saber One and Saber Two were completely speechless. By looking at his manner, they had initially assumed that he would reject them frankly and start the fight immediately. In the end…

“Is he merely getting out of an embarrassing situation because he knows that his opponent has the upper hand and he can’t defeat them?” Saber One pondered silently. However, he was still forced to say the necessary formalities.

“Great Saber, you can leave without worrying because you have us here.”

“I’ll leave this to you then,” Garen nodded earnestly. He took a few long strides and rushed out of the classroom door before suddenly recalling a possibility. What if Lincoln was one of the supposed Four Great Cornerstones? This was not impossible.

Pfoo!

Suddenly, a little object flew towards his face quickly. Some unknown person had shushed at him intentionally. They were obviously extremely disdainful towards his actions that indicated cold feet.

Clang!

His wooden saber moved on its own calmly and hit the front of the little object immediately before cutting it in half like a block of tofu.

There was a brief whooshing noise before a faint ray of light that resembled a red thread appeared when his reddish-brown wooden saber sliced through it. The people around him could only see the red light flashed faintly while Garen’s saber still remained in the sheath on his waist. It seemed as though he had not moved his saber at all. He continued rushing out of the classroom and running into the faraway distance as if nothing had happened.

The object fell to the ground. It was actually a black eraser that was sliced cleanly into two halves by the saber.

Oh!!!!

A crowd of leaders from the Unrestricted Combat Department burst into an uproar suddenly.

“Such fast sword strokes!” praised the Head Minister while standing up. “That was definitely Saber Art that was trained through actual combat. The drawing and sheathing of his saber were almost instinctual. Amazing!!”

Every single leader that possessed proper judgment could naturally see the terrifying nature of his saber, including Saber One and Saber Two. Both of them looked at each other, before turning to gaze at Wild Boar who was on the opposite side.

This person was also dumbfounded before she finally reacted and scratched her head.

“We don’t need to fight anymore. Saber Art and Staff Art have the same roots. I think that it would be better if my Saber Art Society merged with your Saber Art Department,” said Wild Boar readily, throwing her stick away.

“…”

In the end, all of them were merely students who did not value victory or defeat highly.

After all, the Unrestricted Combat Department’s various branches were always either coming into being or merging with one another messily. Incidents like these were common occurrences.

“Is there anyone else who wants to swap pointers?” Saber One stood forward and yelled.

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

Other matters were still on Garen’s mind after he exited the classroom. He had no time to pay attention to the surprised gasps behind him. He hurriedly made a phone call to inquire about Lincoln’s whereabouts. Strangely enough, no one knew where he had gone to now.

However, he had yet to walk much further away before he heard the sound of commotion echoing from inside the Saber Art Dojo behind him. Soon after that, Saber One and Saber Two rushed out frantically.

Once they had exited the school gates, they hailed a cab and traveled into the distance.

Garen was standing in a slightly remote area. Moreover, the two other people were in anxious states and did not notice him when they passed by. Nonetheless, this was still very strange.

He remembered suddenly that both of them were introduced to him by Lincoln. Hence, they would probably be aware of some news that was related to him. When he thought of this, Garen called a cab hurriedly and followed them.

The car drove speedily towards another remote place. Garen asked the driver to follow them from behind at a reasonable distance that was neither too far nor too near. Perhaps the impatient feelings that the two people in front were experiencing had caused their anxiety to increase as well. Thus, neither of them had discovered this additional car that was tailing them.

Once they had exited the city area, the cab quickly stopped in front of a small building in an area that was filled with abandoned factory workshops.

Saber One and Saber Two got down from the car swiftly and rushed towards the factory workshop. Before the first cab could even turn the corner, Garen had caught up to them already.

He looked at the small building from afar. Garen had yet to alight from the car before he saw the other two people carrying Lincoln out from the building. His older sister Kong Xinxue was next to them as well. They seemed to be fairly messed up with blood traces on them.

“Oh… Could it be that the general trends have started?” Garen rubbed his chin. It looked like he was one step too late because it seemed like the incident had ended by now. He glanced at the four people as if this was not a big deal.

“Mister, please rush back to the city quickly. These four people don’t seem like decent individuals and I don’t want to provoke them,” said Garen hurriedly.

“You have a point.” The driver turned and sped off towards the city decisively. “Really, the ways of the world have become more chaotic. It’s a good thing that you were here to remind me, bro. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to shake off these troubles if we had really encountered them.” The driver started to share stories on a few uncommon murder cases that he had previously witnessed. He sounded perpetually sorrowful.

Garen merely smiled but did not reply because his thoughts were still somewhere else.

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

“Four Directional Winds!”

Ring!!

Four rays of white light illuminated every single side around Garen’s body simultaneously. Four wooden pillars were chopped in half at the same time respectively before they slid down slowly.

Wow…!

Suddenly, the members of the Saber Art Dojo clapped vigorously with feverish looks on their faces.

The entire main classroom of the Saber Art Dojo was bustling with excitement.

Garen sheathed his saber slowly.

“These are all of the contents. Your final goal is to learn this basic delicate saber move that I used earlier.”

More than two months had passed since the sudden incident previously. Unconsciously, Garen had now obtained the position of the Head Minister of the Unrestricted Combat Department despite being uninterested. The previous Minister unashamedly forced the position unto him, leaving him no other choice. Fortunately, this position allowed him to skip classes legitimately and this satisfied him greatly.

Since he was now assigned to this position, he was naturally forced to become slightly more responsible. A large group of people would stare at him with hopeful gazes every day while the previous Head Minister had become his eagerly attentive ‘little brother’.

It would be rude if Garen had not displayed some of his skills to allow the others to learn and reach their goals.

Up until now, his physical fitness had improved once again. He had basically achieved more than twofold of an average person’s fitness level now. Since he was always using the Energy Machine Imprint’s help to train the various aspects of his physical qualities, it was unlikely that it would not improve.

Thus, he simply chose a few people from the group as examples for close range teaching. After that, he allowed them to guide the others.

The people that were selected included Saber One, Saber Two, Wild Boar, and the previous Head Minister.

“Alright. Step forward, Saber One. We’ll use the usual simulated attack routine.” Garen looked at Saber One listlessly.

“Head Minister Great Saber, could you call me by my name?” Saber One stood up helplessly.

“You’ve already learned the basic saber skills and grasped them quickly as well. It’s time for you to continue your actual combat training now. Come, attack me.”

Garen held the hilt of the saber in one hand. After possessing this body for such a long time, his current figure was far beyond his initially average and feeble state. Instead, he became sturdier and more muscular now. He rolled up his sleeve single-handedly and exposed the contours of his muscles underneath his white shirt. His current self-was like an abnormally sharp blade.

When he compared himself to Saber One who was standing on the opposite side of him, Garen’s body was clearly two sizes larger. When he looked at him directly, Saber One sensed a bout of pressure that was moving towards his face suddenly.

Hup!

His movements were skilled. He drew the saber and swung it towards the other party. He was using the most basic slaying techniques.

Clang!

The edge of the saber was a real blade. It was instantly blocked by the back of Garen’s saber that remained there steadily without quivering at all.

“Left!!”

Saber One swung his blade towards the left and made another clanging noise. However, he could not see how Garen had managed to block it at all.

“Another few more rounds,” said Garen calmly.

Suddenly, a few more people leaped up on the side, including Saber Two and Wild Boar.

There were five people in total who were simultaneously attacking Garen from all four directions now.

Clang clang clang clang…

All the blades fell two meters away from Garen’s body after they were blocked. Despite how hard the five people tried, none of them could advance to the next step.

This type of Saber Art was simple enough to make people gasp in amazement.

Garen could only see twinkling stars in the space around him that lit up occasionally. He could not see anything else.

“Alright, sheathe your sabers!” Garen commanded.

Everyone kept their sabers quickly and stuck them back in their sheaths at different times. All of them were panting in exhaustion. Garen stood in the center and remained indifferent.

“His physical strength is simply insane!” Saber Two could not help but whisper softly to her older brother on the side.

Saber One smiled bitterly. It was not a big deal for a girl like his little sister to say something like that. However, he was sure that Garen’s ear had definitely twitched earlier. Definitely! It was highly likely that he had heard that…

He looked at Garen’s arms that were almost twice as broad as his own. They were almost the size of an average person’s upper thigh. Garen and the guy from earlier were both similar deviants…

He unconsciously recalled that guy named Silver Chain whom he had encountered previously… Despite activating a certain skill, he had almost died at the hands of that person nonetheless.

“That’s all for today. Everyone is dismissed,” said Garen indifferently. He took his clothes and water bottle before leaving at once. He was completely unconcerned because everything else was the responsibility of the previous Head Minister.

Some people who refused to accept this ended up picking a quarrel with about a dozen other people. However, everything calmed down again after they were beaten up and bruised to the point where they were unrecognizable.

While watching Garen leave swiftly, Saber One told his younger sister to go home with him. The sky outside was getting slightly darker now.

“Let’s go, Xiaojie.”

“Okay.”

The house that they stayed in was not far from here. Their journey home from school only required a ten-minute walk because it was very near.

After exiting the Unrestricted Combat Department, both of them walked side by side past the stream of scattered students. They left the school gates before passing through an intersection.

They continued walking forward past the edges of a shopping street. This was the road that they frequently used to go home.

The road seemed somewhat calmer today as there were only a few pedestrians. However, it seemed to be too quiet.