Chapter 91: The Way Back 1
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Quickly catching up to the carriage that had already pulled ahead, Garen jumped onto it.
The two black carriages rapidly ran in parallel on the winding road. The noise of rolling wheels and horse hooves hitting the cement road sounded especially crisp in the quiet surroundings as if these were the only two carriages around.
With a calm expression, Garen sat next to the driver.
"This exchange was plotted by our enemies and was a mission against the Southern Twelve Gates as a whole. Our opponent could instantly expose each Gate’s internal weakness and combine this with attacks from the outside. They were able to assemble forces from so many different backgrounds…" Garen then thought about his fight against Sylphalan, "Why did it have to be last night? All combat forces have now been eliminated, so they must be planning to overthrow the Southern Twelve Gates …"
He became even more cautious.
"With this situation, the hidden masterminds behind this mission will not let us slip away that easily. However, covered by the military forces, our allied gates are running in different directions and the enemy men would have to split up to chase us as well."
Garen closed his eyes, stopped thinking, and started meditating. In the end, all he could do right now was fight with whoever was in his way. The clowns from earlier were just an appetizer and the real trouble had yet to come.
Having mastered the White Cloud Gate’s secret arts and transcended to a level no man had ever reached before, he knew his own strengths very well. As exaggerated and powerful as it sounded, even he was not sure of what he could do.
Garen could only compare himself to the competition he had met recently.
The only person who could rival him right now would be Celestial Star Gate’s Tenstar Ni. Garen could feel a subtle, yet dangerous, aura from him.
As Garen traveled on the carriage, he organized his thoughts and prepared his body for the next storm.
The other disciples were feeling much more secure after Garen had returned. Carrie was in charge of caring for Fei Baiyun, who was still in a coma. She frequently wiped away sweat from his brow.
"Collin, do you know who our biggest rival is?" Garen suddenly asked.
"It would be the Fighting Association. Their president has held a long grudge against Master Fei for many years, so he won’t let this opportunity slip by!" Collin seemed worried.
"Fighting Association…" Garen was not worried about the Fighting Association, but concerned about the powers behind them. After all, most of Fighting Association’s forces had been wiped out and the rest would not pose a threat to him.
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On the side of the road near the outer edge of the city, an old man with a silver beard and hair stood beside a window on the second floor of a small hotel as he waited for the approaching carriages.
"Looks like the Fighting Association couldn’t stop these three gates, so we’ll have to do it ourselves."
"It can’t be helped." In the shadows behind him, a woman with a pale face answered in a low voice. "A small sect like the Fighting Association didn’t have anyone strong to begin with. They were all second to third class fighters and barely able to make a name for themselves. What did you expect from them?"
While dressed in a black suit, the lady played with a small dagger in her hands. Her suit did not have a left sleeve and her exposed arm revealed a tattoo of a huge spotted python on her pale skin. The dagger twirled and cut through the air, making swoosh noises.
"Any word from the other squads?"
The old man nodded. "We just learned that of the ten squads that went on the mission, three of them were unsuccessful. One of them failed because Eastern Pole Gate’s master woke up and struggled with his last bit of strength to fight off our men. In addition to that squad, the squads that faced off against White Cloud Gate and the Lucene Brotherhood also failed. The Lucene Brotherhood’s master was seriously injured, but his second eldest son showed up. This young man had arms harder than steel and he was so fast that bullets couldn’t hit him, so he must have mastered the secret techniques of the Wind of Lucene and the Lucene Steel Fists."
He paused to take a breath and continued, "White Cloud Gate’s senior disciple Garen has mastered the gate’s only secret technique, the Mammoth Secret Technique. His strength is on par with his master when his master was young."
"Are they both Grade E?"
"I’m sure." The old man nodded.
"Are we going to stop them ourselves?" The woman was starting to doubt herself.
"No need. We can wait and let others deplete their energy first. Only in times of hardship like this can one see the true strengths of a sect. Just look at the Lucene Brotherhood and now the White Cloud Gate. We should remain patient. What if some other strong force was to intervene? Then we’d be in real trouble." The old man sounded like he was speaking to the woman, but also talking to himself.
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In the woods across from the road, it was completely quiet without the chirping of birds or insects. Behind some tall bushes and thick tree trunks, the faint sounds of breathing could be heard.
There were countless men hiding in this forest by the road.
This was the last stretch of road before reaching the city.
Sitting next to the driver, Garen raised his alertness while everyone in the carriages lowered their heads and hid behind the sides. Fortunately, the sides of these carriages were more than a meter tall and more than enough for them to hide behind.
Garen knew that they would be safe once they were inside the city. After all, those people did not dare to kill in public. This was the best place for them to strike.
"Protect yourselves with pistols and jump off immediately if the horse gets shot," Garen warned with a whisper.
"Don’t worry senior brother, we can handle the minions!" Collin responded.
Garen shook his head silently. Two silver carriages were coming toward them and each had two or three passengers. The driver of the first carriage had a sharp gaze, was well built, and looked like a normal driver from his appearance, but Garen could sense danger from him.
The carriage behind them seemed to have a normal family. The father was handling the horse, his wife sat next to him, and two adorable young girls laughed and chatted while sitting in the cart behind them. Wearing white ballet dancing dresses and stockings, the girls looked around the age of 15 and must have just left a dancing class.
Garen frowned slightly. This distance…
The two carriages greeted each other. The driver in the first carriage glanced at Garen, but did not make a move and drove the carriage right past them.
Garen felt a sense of danger from the driver and thought they would attack. To his surprise, they did not do anything and just passed by. His body tensed up and was ready for any attacks.
As the first carriage drove past them, all Garen could hear was the sound of horse hooves hitting the road.
After a few seconds, the second carriage approached them. Knowing that the people from the first carriage were not enemies, Garen let out a relieved sigh.
Shoo!
He heard an abrupt, but soft noise. Opening his eyes, Garen slammed behind himself with a backhand.
Snap!
"Mmph."
The woman who had jumped at Garen from behind was hit by Garen’s slam in mid-air. With a crackling noise, she fell like a broken stick of wood as her waist bent back at a 90-degree angle. Blood spilled everywhere as the woman landed on the road and fainted from the pain.
Sneering, Garen jumped off his carriage to chase after the carriage behind them.
The carriage wasn’t traveling very fast and the driver was trying to accelerate, but Garen had already caught up and he struck the horse in the head.
Bang!
The horse fell right as he hit it and the carriage came to a stop. The carriage’s other horse was startled, pulling at the carriage in a frenzy. Garen slapped the head of this horse, causing it to fall to the ground while frothing at the mouth.
The two remaining men looked malicious and both jumped at Garen with trench knives since they knew there was no way out. These two were extremely fast as they zig-zagged their way to Garen. One aimed at Garen’s cheek and the other stabbed toward his waist.
The two trench knives were like slithering snakes as they punctured the air and stabbed toward Garen. The edges of the knives glowed blue, showing that they were obviously poisonous.
"If the knife cuts into your skin, you are dead!" The two men had the same thought, putting all their might into this attack. The poison they put on the blade was called spider venom No. 9. There was no cure for this venom and one drop of this mixed poison could kill a man in 10 minutes.
The knives were just about to hit Garen when he suddenly opened his mouth.
"Roar!" A thunderous roar came out of his lungs. This sudden roar startled the two attackers, slowing down their attacks.
"Double Shot Form!!"
Garen’s arms instantly shot to his sides. A terrifying explosive force erupted as his arms inflated like two giant pythons before smashing into the two men’s chests.
"Chh, Chh!"
With their chests penetrated like kebobs, the two men stood paralyzed. Garen twirled his arms and threw them onto the road.
After killing the assassins, Garen strode toward his carriage. As he passed the carriage of the family, the four family members were still stunned. The two yellow horses were horrified by Garen and recoiled, neighing out of terror.
"Ahhh!" The lady on the carriage screamed aloud, but her husband quickly covered her mouth. The two daughters were petrified when they saw Garen, crawling deeper into the carriage and closing their eyes.
Garen glanced at them, then walked past them with an unperturbed face.
He had to use more effort on these men than the people from before. These two men were much stronger, close to the level of Golden Hoop Number 10 that Garen had met before.
Garen’s merciless, kill on sight method frightened the hidden enemies. The first ones to strike were always people who fought with their lives on the line, yet Garen dealt with them like trivial matters.