Garen sat on his seat, looking at Master Sabik of the Mokso Sword Sect with a calm expression.
But his heart had already moved to where Cece was, far in the distance. Ninox was someone he had started raising ever since the combat club, she was one of his first students together with Hochman, Dahm and the others. Her talent was the best among them, and he had the highest hopes for her.
Her powers had raised up to terrifying levels as his own power evolved tremendously, but none of that was the most important. The crucial key was that Cece had never faced an opponent as powerful as an upper level Blood Breed on her own before.
Thankfully the previous two elders of the Wellington family were not much, they did not really have any combat awareness at all. They merely had the physical qualities of a powerful fighter, but had none of the power, their combat awareness was lower than even some middle levels, so they were perfect to train her with.
“Do you plan to accept my challenge just sitting there?” Sabik’s expression grew more distorted. His opponent’s pride and arrogance were making his chest heave slightly, unlike the East Pole Gate, his techniques were not meant to raise his attitude as well as his power.
“Be it sitting or standing, they are all the same,” Garen said calmly.
“Arrogant fool!”
Before Sabik even finished speaking, he retreated backward abruptly, the sword and gun in his hands making a sudden sound.
Brr!!
Bang!
The sound of a single gunshot and a flash of silver, blurred the eyes of everyone present.
Garen blocked with one hand in front of him, smiling slightly. There was a mangled bullet caught between his fingers.
Sabik’s expression changed, he had used the sword’s movements to hide the angle he truly intended to attack from, but he did not expect his opponent to predict it anyway.
And he could actually catch a bullet with his bare hands…
Without changing his expression, he pushed the power of his gun up another notch.
“One more time!!”
With a low roar, he transformed into a blur of spinning silver light.
Bam!!! A hint of firelight blinked amidst the silver light.
Everyone around them looked slightly shocked, only the East Pole Gate Master remained unmoved, his expression calm.
Smack!!
Garen’s right hand blocked an area slightly to the left in front of him, his expression unmoved.
“Thank you for allowing me.”
He said calmly, reaching out his hand and opening his palm. It was not just one bullet, but there were three complete black bullets in his hand, as well as a piece of the silver blade tip that had been broken off.
The silver light stopped, and Sabik was as pale as mud, he even stumbled back a few steps, looking at Garen with an expression of shock. Even if he had used harmless rubber bullets, the explosive power and speed of his gun were already the strongest power he could muster to kill his opponents, and yet Garen acted like he was playing with a child, not using any of his true power at all.
“Lord Holy Fist… You truly are powerful, we of the Mokso Sword Sect admire you.” The female master beside him stood up and spoke frankly, but there was still a hint of unhidden shock in her eyes.
Only then did Sabik recover, but he had no idea what to say, pulling back his gun and sword as he retreated to his seat, flushed red.
Garen replied with a polite smile, placing the bullets and sword tip onto the table lightly. The people present all noticed that his palm showed no hint of any scratches despite catching a bullet, and were even more shocked at that.
To these fighters, who were the strongest in the world, such power was already as extreme and terrifying as that of the Blood Breeds.
They were powerful, but humans could naturally be hypnotized and controlled by Blood Breeds, and even the strongest wills would be influenced to some degree, so their powers deteriorated. Everyone seated here had tasted that disadvantage to some extent.
It could be said that the people present here were the very pinnacle of humanity, the strongest in the world. They looked young, but people such as the East Pole Gate Master were already more than seventy years old. Nobody else here was younger than sixty, they had all used their entire lives and all their talent to work hard and persist, before they could achieve such dominating power.
This time they came here especially to meet Garen, mainly because they were shocked that Garen could join the extermination of the Wellington family.
They believed that their individual explosive power was not weaker than that of upper level blood breeds, but with the power of human hypnosis and the Blood Breeds’ terrifying physical capabilities, they were unable to resist the oppression of upper level Blood Breeds.
“Now I believe that Lord Garen truly did join the Wellington raid,” the representative of the Sandt Fist, Thams, said slowly.
The atmosphere in the room was slightly heavy.
“Don’t be formal, we are all members of the same family. How about this, will Lord Garen tell us about the battle when you raided the Wellington family?” the East Pole Gate Master spoke softly.
Garen smiled slightly and clapped, and the pretty girls who had just stepped down came up again, standing behind the guests and serving them wine.
The atmosphere calmed down a little as well.
Only then did he speak slowly.
“All of you have come here to the Holy Fist Palace together this time, so this makes this quite a big event for our fistfighting world. Let us first eat, everyone, and then we can go to the arena to exchange techniques.”
He was actually quite curious as well, masters like those from the Mokso Sword Sect were not as powerful as middle level Blood Breeds, and they relied completely on their guns in battle, so there was not much to see there. On the other hand, he could not quite see through the power of the East Pole Sect Master and the representatives from Sandt.
They seemed to be trying to become one with nature, using the human limits to activate the power of nature, thus indirectly transcending the obstacle that was the inadequacies of the human body.
Garen had always been taking the path of strengthening his own body, so he paid extra attention to these naturalistic techniques that reminded him of the Tao practitioners back home on Earth. This also represented a path completely unlike that of the Warlocks.
*********************
America, Wynea state.
The amber-colored sunlight fell onto Ninox and Tu Lan.
The two of them stood, alone, in the middle of the city. Tall buildings surrounded them, cars frozen, but there was not a single person to be seen.
Tu Lan stared at the Asian girl in front of her.
“That’s a very interesting fist technique, very unique, and very impressive.” She looked around her, and seemed to have noticed the key to this fist technique.
“To be able to such a powerful hypnotic power with a human body, that really does impress me. However…” Although she was in an illusion, she did not seem panicked in the slightest.
“However, I had already overcome such a hypnotic illusion several hundred years ago…”
Psst!
Tu Lan’s figure instantly appeared where Ninox was, one palm stabbing mercilessly into her stomach. But immediately after that, the person in front of her slowly faded and vanished. It was merely an illusion.
Slowly, the soft sounds of a violin playing rose around her, the music was soft and gentle, but had a hint of suppression to it, as though it was going to explode but kept pulling itself back, it made the listener feel upset.
A figure abruptly appeared behind Tu Lan, palms slicing towards her waist like swords, her form soundless.
Bam!
The figure was struck apart by Tu Lan’s palm, turning into countless black shadows before vanishing.
And then another figure pounced down from above, sharp and unrelenting.
Bam!
Tu Lan burst it apart as well
Immediately a third figure appeared, and the violin music surrounding them grew gradually faster.
The fourth, the fifth, the sixth…
As Tu Lan destroyed the shadows one by one, more and more appeared around her, each stronger than the last.
A hint of coldness began to appear in her expression and in her gaze.
Her body spun abruptly, her arm pulling out a short sword that glittered with silver light, and she cut apart three of the figures pouncing at her with a single whoosh.
She had vaguely noticed that the figures all around her were all shaped like that girl Ninox, but these figures were all just pitch-black shadows, they had no true form at all.
Smack!
Suddenly one of the figure’s palms hit her forearm, and in that instant alone, Tu Lan actually felt the blood in her arm jolt harshly, as though there was an energy trying to pull it out of her skin.
“Waterbird Fist?!” She retreated rapidly and abruptly, leaping into the air and landing in another empty spot, but before she could steady her footing, two more figures pounced from behind her.
“Would you quit it already!” Tu Lan’s expression sank, her eyes widening abruptly, and her pupils began to spin slowly, beating like a heart.
“Illusive Counter!!”
Woo…
A strange sound disturbed the violin music all of a sudden.
The scenery around her twisted and spun, like an overturned bucket of dye, making a complete mess of things.
Tu Lan vaguely sensed a powerful wind approaching from ahead, she closed her eyes and opened them again abruptly, and found herself looking at a small city alleyway.
That Asian girl Ninox was rushing at her like a rocket, her body suspended in mid-air, something red beating in her palms as she shot straight for her chest.
Tu Lan raised her hands, her arms seemed to teleport in front of her chest, her palm slicing forward like knives.
Bang bang bang bang bang!!!
A series of palms hitting each other erupted between the two of them, Ninox faced Tu Lan while suspended in the air, the blood around her heart boiling.
Her Fantasy Fist Profound had been broken, and this seriously damaged her own spirit and blood. She had thought this opponent would be easy to beat, just like those few middle level Blood Breeds from before, but to think she was this troublesome. How was this just slightly stronger than the other two elders that Senior Brothers Dahm and Hochman were talking about?!
Boom!!
Ninox’s palm suddenly missed, landing on the wall to the left. She immediately left a large handprint there, and her hand somehow crashed through the entire wall. Thankfully there was no one inside, so she did not cause any commotion.
But immediately after that, her heart gave a jolt, her vision blurring, and she suddenly felt a pain in her right rib.
Pff!
An enormous force slammed into her right ribcage, and Ninox was thrown into the air, shooting backward, moaning once in pain.
Tu Lan had no intention of pursuing her, and instead leaped in the opposite direction, easily jumping across the alley walls. Within a few leaps, she had disappeared down the entrance into another alley.
Only then did Ninox fall hard onto the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
After she stood up with some difficulty, Tu Lan was already nowhere to be seen.
“So powerful…”
She looked at the direction Tu Lan had vanished in and murmured softly. At the same time several men and women in tight black clothing also rushed out of the alley behind her, they all had the words ‘Holy Fist Technique’ sewed onto the right side of their chests.
“Is this the power of true upper level Blood Breeds?” Cece knew that her two senior brothers had probably met regular upper level Blood Breeds with no combat awareness, that Great Elder had even been obliterated by a middle level Blood Breed using witch poison. But this one, the only female elder among the three Wellington Great Elders, was surprisingly the only one who was truly powerful.
Seeing that her subordinates were still going to give chase, Ninox waved her hand to stop them.
“Don’t chase them! Retreat!”
She allowed them to help her up calmly, giving the direction Tu Lan had left in a long look.
The opponent was much stronger than her, only such an upper level Blood Breed could demonstrate how strong Blood Breeds were meant to be.
Looks like even if they had been rotting for a thousand years, these Blood Breeds still had some hardy roots.
She did not know why Tu Lan did not kill her, Tu Lan was evidently one level, or even several levels higher than her in power, so if she gave chase now, she would just be running to her death.
“But Captain, our mission…” One of her female subordinates still tried to protest.
“We are no match for her.” Ninox interrupted her, “The opponent has no intention of spilling blood, she probably has some other motive. Now is not the time to engage her in combat.” Ninox had always been a decisive person, just like how she dared to stand up against Garen’s pressure way back then in the combat club. She did not lack courage, but continuing on now would only anger the opponent, resulting in their meaningless deaths.
“Cece, you’re fine, right?” Amidst the rushed sound of footsteps, Quentin rushed up to her, all dressed in black. She held Ninox up, her expression somewhat worried. “I can’t believe it, is this Tu Lan really so strong, so much so that even your successful Fantasy Fist could not take her down?”
“It’d be very hard…” Ninox shook her head, “The opponent’s Illusory Counter is too powerful, it’s practically a hundred times that of a normal middle level Blood Breed, my illusion was destroyed in one go. And that’s because she was being cautious from the start, so she did not show her explosive power at the very first opportunity.”
“Your injuries are really serious, we need to return to the palace now!” Quentin checked her injuries, and instantly frowned.