Shortly after, he reached the 3rd level.
‘Level 3 –Memory Alter.’
‘Changes memories, creates illusions and disrupts the opponents’ senses of their surroundings. At this level, one will obtain the prerequisite to learn the first Profound for this technique — Radiant World.’
This was the exact move that Ninox used against Tu Lan last time, forcing her opponent into an illusory world. However, because she didn’t have enough energy, she was countered by Tu Lan’s Blood Breed ability Illusive Counter, who then managed to break out of her world.
If it managed to succeed, Tu Lan would be stuck in an illusory world fighting against an undying Ninox. No matter how many times she killed her, Ninox would just revive again at full strength.
This would continue until Tu Lan exhausted all her energy. However, even though the Ninox in that world was just an illusion, if she got hit, it would still damage her physical body. This was the textbook case of how one’s mental state could affect one’s physical condition.
Lastly, there was the 4th level.
Garen once again focused for 3 seconds. The icon for Fantasy Fist blurred briefly once again, then immediately cleared up. There seemed to be slight changes to the icon as well.
‘Fantasy Fist: Level 4 –Vanish.’
‘All enemies being suppressed by this aura will momentarily lose their consciousness, falling under the control of the user. This effect will be automatically applied. Any opponent that comes into physical contact with the user lose partial control over parts of their body. Against weak-willed opponents, it may cause them to enter an eternal slumber, causing brain damage, and more.’
‘Final Profound –Reincarnate (Eternal control over a weak-willed opponent, forcing them to unconsciously obey your commands) – Not Learned. The user requires 1 or more Pearl Flowers.’
Looking at the effects of the final Profound, even Garen was in utter shock.
The strength of Fantasy Fist had already reached such a frightening degree. However, the last material required was a Pearl Flower. Garen knew about this flower, but unfortunately, it did not seem to exist in this world; he’d read about it in a botany book back in the Totem World under the category ‘Special Plants”.
At this moment, he suddenly realized that all the moves he usually used worked with the Waterbird Fist as their base. This third-rate fist technique, when combined with the West Phoenix Fist, could achieve a whole new height. Adding to the effects of the Demonic Book, its progress rate was drastically increased, its final strength largely increased and training period shortened, making it an advanced-level technique.
He also understood that the things he learned at this point were getting more and more diverse. The four big killer moves he created in the Secret Technique World were no longer enough to meet the requirements of the current level of combat, causing him to be unable to activate the full potential of the fifth star of the skills.
Having an excessively diverse arsenal was a troublesome thing for normal people. However, for Garen, he sorted out every single ability and technique he had, and only had to care about which secret technique he should select.
Now that Fantasy Fist had reached level 4, its strength could also be considered to be a level higher, and so his choices have also increased.
Reincarnate was undoubtedly strong, being able to forever alter a person’s consciousness. However, to Garen, this skill could not reach its full potential in a battle scenario. Furthermore, it even required a rare material.
His fighting style was largely based on brute force, fitting his strong and fearless personality. However, the combat style that best utilized Fantasy Fists was a more stealthy style. Unlike his other secret techniques, it did not enhance the user’s physical abilities and was purely a control technique used to gain an advantage over opponents. It was the polar opposite of his brute force style.
“Well… I still need to fuse the Fantasy Fist into my fighting style somehow,” Garen started to brainstorm. He went back to the table he usually used to write the Demonic Book and pulled out a pen, slowly twirling it between his fingers.
‘The Fantasy Fist’s effectivity relies on the mental and spiritual strength of the user. Except for Nadia and other void creatures, who do you think has a stronger mental and spiritual strength than you?’ Black Sethe said.
“That’s true,” Garen nodded, “but the two are still different secret techniques. One can only use one secret technique at any point in time because of the multiple overlapping variables within the meridian system. When I use Waterbird Fist, I won’t be able to use Fantasy Fist. Being able to learn both Secret Techniques was only because of my current strength, and because the parts of the meridian system for Fantasy Fist and Waterbird Fist don’t overlap too much. If it was an average person, they would’ve already suffered internal damage when they started to train.”
Garen frowned.
‘Then, how about you try fusing them?’ Black Sethe hinted.
“Fusion?” Garen suddenly remembered the days back when he’d first arrived in the Secret Technique World, where he kept trying to combined different martial arts. Those fusions created terrifyingly strong results. “That’s worth a shot.”
His vision returned to his Skill Pane.
Waterbird Fist had already reached Level 4, and there weren’t any requirements displayed for its Profounds.
Garen’s vision moved repeatedly from the two secret techniques with the intent of fusing the two. Suddenly, the two icons started to slightly vibrate, creating a miraculous result.
The two icons started glowing red and started to beat like a heart, one stronger than the other. This seemed to insinuate which technique would become the main and which the sub. After a while, contrary to Garen’s expectations, the far superior Fantasy Fist’s red glow started to fade, whilst the third rate Waterbird Fist started to glow even brighter.
The icon for Fantasy Fist slowly started to blur out. Together with the text detailing the technique, it slowly disappeared. On the other hand, the icon for Waterbird Fist started glowing even brighter. The icon almost looked like it was stained with bright red blood.
Pak! A soft sound could be heard, something like a steel wire being cut in half. Garen could now see that Fantasy Fist had completely disappeared.
Waterbird Fist also had some new changes.
‘Mirage Waterbird Fist: Level 4 (Total 4 levels)
A top class technique created by fusing the Fantasy Fist into the Waterbird Fist. The user can affect an opponent’s state of mind through his movements. It has 4 Profounds. The final Profound –Joyous Reincarnate.’
This new secret technique wasn’t like his previous results, where the fusion had led to the strengthening of one of the techniques. This time, it merged the effects of both techniques.
As Fantasy Fist and Waterbird Fist didn’t have too many overlapping variables in the Meridian system, this allowed them to support each other. The two secret techniques managed to merge and become a completely new technique.
However, when Garen attempted to follow the blood and qi circulation of the new technique, he felt that the blood flow used by this technique was similar to what both Fantasy Fist and Waterbird Fist used. There was one trouble that he noticed.
The areas with overlapping blood flows.
Even though there was very little overlapping, two of the overlapped areas have already started to hurt.
The first area was at the center of his left inner wrist, while the other was right in the middle of his lower back.
These two areas were coincidentally the areas that require the most blood flow for this new technique.
Hypothetically, if both the original techniques will require blood flow in a certain area, by merging the two techniques it will require blood flow to the same areas twice. This indirectly doubled the burden on the user’s body.
“If even a body like mine would feel discomfort, looks like this new technique can’t be taught to others, I have to train it myself…” Garen frowned.
‘Can you tweak it in any way?’ Black Sethe suggested.
“Sadly I can’t…” Garen shook his head, “These two overlapping areas are key areas, they can’t be replaced.”
‘Well you win some you lose some,’ Garen lightly chuckled, comforting him. ‘Let’s find a place to test out its strength.’
Garen nodded and walked out of the reading room. He walked down the corridor slowly but swiftly, he moved more than 10 meters just with a couple of steps.
Passing through the student training hall, he saw a few silhouettes engrossed in their training. Upon closer inspection, it was the students who had slower progress, and the sight made Garen happy and satisfied.
After the 2nd batch of students, this 3rd batch of new students was no longer directly under his control as he felt no need to control this batch of students. He left it up to his 3 best pupils, Hochman, Dahm, and Cece to choose who to guide. The remaining would then be left to Quentin, Xander, and the others to deal with.
All of his students from the 1st batch of students in the Combat Club now had the ability to release their own soul seed primer, as they have all reached a certain level of proficiency in their Secret Techniques. Although it was much weaker than Garen’s, it still managed to establish control to a certain extent.
This also helped further develop their own strengths.
Silently passing through the training hall, Garen walked past a few more areas to finally arrive at the pet feeding area of the palace.
This was a circular empty atrium area, with cages of different sizes placed all around. Some of the cages had an animal, and some were empty. Occasionally, you could hear the sounds of dogs and cats.
The air conditioner was set to a higher temperature here, unlike other areas where the temperature was lowered to train the students.
Garen looked through the cages one by one. He stopped at a cage with white cats with an unknown owner. Inside the cage was a nest of 3 kittens, all of them pure white. They looked like 3 cute little furballs from afar. As Garen went closer, the 3 palm-sized kittens all started mewing softly and snuggled close to each other, as if they were cowering in fear.
Garen reached his finger out with a smile, lightly poking the cage.
Ting…
A shapeless wave started rippling from the part of the steel cage that Garen touched.
The wave rapidly covered the three kittens, then quickly disappeared.
The steel cage cracked; the Waterbird Fist’s monstrous power had somehow managed to break through the steel bar, creating a small gap just enough for the kittens to wriggle out. However, the three kittens completely did not notice the newly created gap and remained motionless in the cage.
Garen stood up with a satisfied smile on his face.
“Mirage Waterbird Fist seems to be able to affect animals, though it’s not very strong,” he looked at the gaze of the kittens, they completely did not notice that the cage was broken, almost like they felt that they were still locked in the cage.
“What’s sad about this is that the effects weren’t completely intentional. As the illusions induced were natural, this cannot be used against void creatures.”
‘You can take the initiative and try it out on Nadia, it’s also a good opportunity to go check on her movements,’ Black Sethe suggested.
“Good idea.”
Garen agreed. Nadia hadn’t made any moves for such a long time that it almost felt like the calm before a storm.
He stood up and left the pet area, heading straight to the secret room in the palace.
After he left, the three kittens still did not move. In the reflection in their eyes, the cage was still completely intact…