Hua…
The cave that Garen was in had its size increased from the original 10 meters’ width to 20 meters.
The White Peacock Stone that formed the wall had also begun to turn yellowish; apparently, its purity was decreasing. The ground had now accumulated a thick layer of fine white powder.
The water snake had been hiding in the lake, circling around while waiting for Garen. Its pair of green eyes stared at Garen’s location with curiosity and awe.
Cough cough…
After a few coughs, a figure walked out from amidst the white powder. It was Garen who was wearing his black protective clothing.
The surface of his protective clothing was covered in white powder and his body had returned to its original state without any abnormalities.
“There’s nothing left to absorb… The quantity this time is very good. But compared to the accumulation that was transported for me to absorb previously, the efficiency is not much higher. The stones that were collected by them were all high purity stones and their quantity was also significant. The absorption from that time was equivalent to a third of what I absorbed here.”
Garen brushed away the powder on his body and compared the harvest this time.
“Even so, the advantage of coming out is that I can freely do the absorption. As long as I find the place, I can absorb straight away without any repercussions.”
Looking at his Attribute Panel, the progress of the Fifth level had increased again.
‘Secret Technique — Hellfrost Peacock Technique: Living Secret Technique, Fourth Level, Fifth Level completion rate: 72%.’
“If I could find such a place again, I should be able to completely break through to the Fifth level,” Garen was in a great mood.
Looking around at the powder on the ground, it was all high-energy fuel powder. Although it was not purified and there were a lot of impurities, it could still be used.
Garen stretched out his hand and blue threads came out.
“Devour!”
The skill was activated fully and the places where the threads made contact, all of the white powder there disappeared soundlessly.
At the same time, Garen felt that the Distorted Seed in his chest was growing heavier and larger.
A few minutes later, the entire layer of white powder, which had been more than a meter thick, was completely absorbed into Garen’s body.
He already had a bulge on his chest.
Rip!!
After a ripping sound, a hole appeared at the bulge on his chest. Garen quickly pulled down the zipper on the protective clothing. With a sticky sound from the hole, a ball of flesh was squeezed out.
The hole in the chest quickly closed up and recovered.
Garen pressed on the wound. There was not a single hint of pain.
“It was as I thought, this Living Secret Technique is a path of evolution, and the more I move forward, the less human I become,” he murmured while looking at the lump of flesh in his hand.
“This is the Distorted Seed?”
The meat ball was the size of a rugby ball. Its surface was smooth but covered with the white and red muscles that branched all over like a web.
“What’s the use of this thing?” Garen did not find a way to use it with the Living Secret Technique. He gently threw it away and took a few steps back.
The Distorted Seed fell on the floor and squirmed for a bit.
Peng!!
A violent explosion occurred and a large amount of blood and transparent liquid burst out, affecting a wide area which was more than half of the cave. All the places that were affected were all covered in a thick layer of blue frost.
“What is this? A portable bomb?” Garen shook his head. “Completely useless. If it was in the ancient times, the power is certainly strong, but in this age of technology, the power is too small, the area it covers is also small and the way to manufacture it is also inconvenient. As expected, the Distorted Seed was a liability.”
Garen looked at the water snake in the lake, where it was trying to shrink itself. It seemed to fear the ice that had been produced from the explosion.
“Come here,” Garen beckoned it over.
The water snake sprang out of the lake’s surface and slithered to the Garen’s side while hissing.
“Bring me to another place that’s like this.”
Without any hesitation, the water snake motioned for Garen to grab on to its tail, turned around and slid back towards the lake.
This time, the water snake took only a few minutes before finding a similar cave.
Garen spent another half an hour absorbing the essence of the cave. The completion of the Fifth Level reached 92%. Then, the third time…
Repeating this over and over, Garen did not know how many times he had let the water snake take him to find the White Peacock Stones. Sometimes it was in caves and sometimes it was at the bottom of the lake, but there was never a time that he returned empty-handed. A large amount of powder was swallowed up by him to form Distorted Seeds that were left at each location.
In this manner, he stayed at the Colorful Lake for two days until the agreed time to leave the border. Garen was reluctant to leave the Colorful Lake. After checking the aircraft, he flew towards the direction where he came from. At the same time, all the Distorted Seeds that he had deposited were all detonated at the same time, forming an ice cold zone at the bottom of the lake. This was to eliminate any potential danger that could come out of others discovering a large amount of highly explosive powder.
That water snake was given a name, Black Line. At the time when Garen was leaving, it circled around Garen many times to display its reluctance. This snake was considered to have quite a high intelligence similar to trained dogs. Now it had some kind of attachment to Garen. After swimming for a long time on the surface of the lake, it slowly dove down. Before Garen left, he had fed it a little bit of his blood as repayment for its help during these last few days. That drop of blood contained the transformation power of the Hellfrost Peacock, but he did not know whether the water snake could absorb it.
********************
The border of the Polar Region
In the red glow of the evening sky, there were milky, translucent circles fluttering about. They looked like smoke rings in the yellowish red sky tinted with light green, similar to someone using a paintbrush to leave traces in the sky.
The land was formed of smooth plains and rolling hills. There was a meandering green river flowing between the hills, like a light green silk belt that grew out of the earth, flat yet reflective of the luster of the sky.
At a place at the riverbank, a single black aircraft landed unsteadily. A man covered in black protective clothing was pouring water over his body in the river, washing away the large amounts of radiation residue and dirt off the protective clothing. It was Garen, who had just come from the direction of the Colorful Lake.
Beep beep beep…
The beeping sound came from the aircraft.
Garen turned around to look at it and then as though he had heard something, he looked up at the sky.
A huge black and gray disk slowly came out from the sky above him. Its body was flashing with black lightning, which was the residual energy from space jumping.
The flying disk was hundreds of meters in diameter and covered in serrated folds. A few white electric lights were flashing and a ring that looked like a suction cup hung below it.
The flying saucer flew to the top of Garen before the ring underneath it turned and slowly opened in the middle, revealing another circular plate within.
Garen pressed on the Watch Terminal within his protective clothing, sending out a message that could be received in an open channel.
Shua…
The second layer of the flying saucer slowly opened and an invisible gravitational attraction was cast over Garen.
Zap!
The black lightning flashed and then Garen turned into a ball of black lightning that shot towards the bottom of the flying saucer.
The two layers quickly closed up and the flying saucer slowly continued to fly into the distance.
Only the aircraft was left behind on the ground beside the river.
*************
“Welcome, guest from Blackboard Region.”
In the dark, Garen heard a pleasant voice ringing in his ears.
He opened his eyes and before him was a big dark blue hall.
The smooth ground looked as though it was made from a translucent material similar to a sapphire crystal, and it clearly reflected his own image.
His surroundings were empty and on top was an image of the huge ring pattern of the flying saucer, though the ceiling was a silvery white color. The entire hall was circular in shape and surrounded by circular windows, through which the sights of the beautiful Polar Region could be seen.
The evening hue of the sky dyed the earth red and the aurora circles in the sky continued moving about as though they were alive.
With a glance, he could see the landscape far away.
However, all of these did not appeal to Garen. What attracted his attention the most was the three one-meter wide silver metal balls that were floating not far away from him.
The three metal balls were arranged in an equilateral triangle and they were constantly floating up and down while slightly rotating.
“Are you Your Highness Mingway?”
Garen looked around but no one was visible around him.
“Yes, I am Mingway. Since you’re Celine’s friend, then you wouldn’t find me for no reason. Say it, what is it that requires me to use a flying saucer to get you?”
The voice said calmly.
“I have a business here, but unfortunately, I cannot support it alone. I need to find a powerful collaborator, so Celine recommended you,” Garen carefully picked his words. “High-energy fuel powder, have you ever heard of this thing?”
“Fuel powder? There are more than ten kinds of High-energy fuel powder businesses in my hands, which one are you talking about?” that voice seemed to be a little interested and asked carefully.
“It’s the powder that is extracted from Rainbow stones,” Garen reminded. Looking at this flying saucer, he knew that this Honorable Noble called Mingway had a high status and was rich to a certain extent.
“Oh, it’s that one… what about the profit margin?”
The middle silver metal ball among the three slowly stopped rotating and the features of a male face slowly appeared on its surface.
The face slowly opened its eyes. They were pitch black and the face silently stared at Garen below.
“I’m different from that Celine; although I also like martial arts, since someone had sent money to me, I will naturally accept.”
Garen’s expression remained unchanged.
“There may be earnings of up to ten millions of Units per month.”
The face then pondered.
“Okay, I accept this splitting. Say it, what kind of help do you need? This is not a small amount, what is it do you want to exchange?”
Before Garen came here, he had already thought it over. Wanting a territory was not realistic, especially after he had gone to the radiation belt’s Colorful Lake, found the White Peacock stones mine and gauged the absorption’s efficiency. He might have a significant increase in a short period of time, but this progress could not be relied upon for long-term improvements. It was better to let others help him collect them. The efficiency of the absorption was still not very good.
Therefore, this territory plan was not that useful. In that case, the deal this time should include diverting attention and greedy people away from himself and also exchanging for some things that were hard to get…like training methods.
“I want Level Four and Level Five of the training method Galaxy Glow.”
Garen thought for a bit before conveying his first intention.