Mystical Journey

Bam .

The door of the room closed . Ying Er walked in with a look of suspicion, her red eyes scanning the situation inside the room .

"What kind of mischief are you up to again?"

"What mischief? My trousers weren't pulled up, and I didn't expect you to be standing at the door, so I just blocked it for a while . " Garen combed his hands through his hair to massage his numb scalp .

"That's not true! What's that under your bed?" Ying Er's sharp eyes immediately spotted the suspicious trace . She walked a few steps forward and stood facing Garen . "Move aside, I want to find out what disgusting things you've been up to!"

"What are you trying to do? It's late, stop playing," Garen said with a deliberate frown .

"Move aside!" Ying Er was one of those who ignored everything once her temper got the better of her . When she saw that Garen wouldn't budge, it fueled her suspicion further .

"Stop it!"

"I said, move aside!" Ying Er's voice deepened as her expression became ice-cold . "Looks like you didn't learn a lesson the last time…"

Garen’s complexion slightly changed . "The last time" was the previous Garen; he tried to hide his collection of dirty magazines, but Ying Er found them and beat him up till he cried . Even though it wasn't actually him who experienced that shameful incident, it was enough to make him choke .

But no matter what, the clothes underneath his bed absolutely could not be discovered!

When she saw that he continued to keep silent, Ying Er's expression turned uglier .

"Looks like this time around, I'll have to give you a lesson you won't forget!" She started cracking her knuckles .

"It's not what you think, trust me!" Garen looked up into Ying Er's eyes . He had just killed someone by using too much force, and the last thing he wanted to do now was to fight his sister . He was worried that he might accidentally do it again…

Ying Er stared into his eyes and realized there wasn't a sliver of embarrassment or anger in them for being exposed, but instead a hint of sincerity .

Both stared at each other for a while .

Ying Er slowly breathed a sigh of relief .

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure!" Garen replied in haste . "Apart from this one thing, I'll agree to whatever you want . "

"Fine . I'll ask you a few questions . If you can answer me truthfully, I won't bother you about this," Ying Er paused .

"No problem!"

"Do you like dad?"

"Of course I do . That's easy . "

"Do you like mum?"

"Of course . "

"Do you like uncle?"

"I do . "

"Do you like Ai Fei?"

"Of c . . . Who's Ai Fei?"

Garen took a deep breath . "Good thing my reaction was quick…"

The palpitations that he suppressed earlier resurfaced . Seeing his sister's expression finally turn bright again, he felt as if he just escaped the clutches of death . He would have never thought that she knew Ai Fei, the prettiest girl among the female students around him .

"Alright… I'll spare you this time . But if you bring those disgusting things in here again, don't blame me…" A satisfied smile broke across Ying Er's face . "Okay, I'll go out now . Rest early . "

"I know, I know . Alright, you get some rest too…" Garen breathed a sigh of relief . "See you tomorrow . "

"Yup, see you tomorrow… you wish!" Ying Er cried out . She pounced over and slid under the bed in a flash .

Garen hurriedly crouched down and followed suit, reaching for his bundle of clothes .

The bloodied clothes were shoved deeper under the bed by Ying Er's vigorous movements; he could barely reach them .

"What’s in the clothes? Tell me!" Ying Er squeezed further under the bed, trying to grab the bundle of clothing .

"It's nothing!"

"If I catch you, you're dead meat!" Garen clung onto both of Ying Er's legs while she crawled forward in an attempt to break free .

Garen put his weight on her from behind, but he didn't dare to exert too much force, so all he could do was keep a light hold on her . Incidentally, he exerted too little force; Ying Er managed to free herself, and she lunged forward .

Bang!

"Ouch! That hurt…"

Ying Er hit her forehead on the underside of the bed, and her body curled back .

Behind her, Garen suddenly felt that his head was stuffy—he was inside his sister's skirt .

Round buttocks covered by black pantyhose were inches from his face; he could even see a hint of white underneath . His nose almost touched the skin of her buttocks .

The smell of girly fragrance mixed with a hint of sweat wafted into his nasal cavity, instinctively causing him to inhale .

At that moment, both were completely frozen .

In front, Ying Er didn't dare to move a muscle . A blush spread over her face, neck, and the entirety of her body .

She could distinctly feel Garen's face on her bottom—he had probably seen everything under her skirt .

Garen's mind was in a state of chaos . The most attractive part of a girl's body was all of a sudden right in front of him, and he didn't know how to respond .

Knock knock knock .

Someone knocked on the door .

"Are you two done playing in there? Time for you to wash up and go to bed! You have class tomorrow!" their father, Eisen, shouted from the doorway .

Both their hearts skipped a beat . It was nerve-racking .

If their father saw them in this state…

"Yup, almost done!" Garen snapped out of it and frantically shouted in reply .

They waited until the footsteps of their father leaving gradually faded .

Garen leaped out from under the bed in an instant .

He was then followed by Ying Er, with her hands covering her buttocks . Her face was red as she hung her head low; she didn’t dare look at Garen .

"I'm off to bed," she mumbled softly, then quickly opened the door and left .

Garen took a deep breath and sat on his bed . At this moment, he felt a strange calm wash over him .

That bout of ambiguous tension had oddly suppressed his anxiety and panic from the previous event of having killed someone .

There was still a faint aroma of Ying Er in the room . Garen sat on his bed until the lights in Ying Er's room went out . He then went out to find a clothes-drying pole and used it to hook the bloodied clothes out from under the bed, then crept into the bathroom to wash them .

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

A week later .

"Hey, old man, what's the latest? Any new stock that's particularly good? How about letting me have a look?"

Garen sat bored beside the table, fiddling with a golden button . Apparently, it was from the clothes of the famous Agate Queen who lived three hundred years ago .

"New stock? What new stock? That burglary cleared me out!" The old man was fumbling at the bookshelf . "That's right! I have a book here that you might appreciate . Think of it as the reward for comforting this old geezer in my moment of crisis . "

"What book?"

"You'll see . "

The old man continued rummaging through the bookshelf . Then, he took a stool and stepped on it, pulling out a large black hardcover book from the topmost shelf .

"Here, take it . " The old man struggled down from the stool and handed the book to Garen .

Garen took the bulky black brick from the old man and wiped a thick layer of dust off the cover, revealing some unknown black text .

He turned to the first page .

In that instant, Garen's pupils shrunk slightly .

A huge gust of cool current poured into his palm and flowed to his head through his arm .

"Potential! It's Potential! So… so much energy!"

He didn't know how to react . There wasn't any indication when he first held the book, but when he opened it, he started absorbing Potential .

His heart beat unnaturally fast . Garen glanced over the rapidly increasing Potential figures at the bottom of his vision and looked directly at the content on the page of the book .

The yellowing pages were crammed with an unknown text . Garen flipped through the book page by page . Some black-and-white sketches were occasionally interspersed in between the text .

The pictures were mostly weird, irregular geometric lines, which looked as much like a design for a mechanical contraption as it did a map for a complex terrain . They were densely marked with text and tiny symbols .

Garen didn't have a clue what the content meant, but that didn't stop him from absorbing Potential from the book . Turning it page by page, time slowly crept away .

Half an hour later…

Garen slowly closed the book and let out a long sigh .

"Finished going through it?" The old man squinted to look at the cover carefully; a trace of disappointment flashed over his eyes .

"Yeah, done . This is definitely a precious ancient antique!" Garen definitively said .

"You don't say . " The old man seemed to relax a bit more, as if relieved of a burden . "Alright, I'm closing early today . You go ahead, I still have something to take care of . "

Garen took a look at the sky outside . The sun had completely disappeared below the horizon, and only a residual trace of red stained the clouds .

"Fine, I'll be leaving first then . See you tomorrow . "

"Well, beat it kid!" the old man jokingly added .

"Oh yeah, how's the progress with Detective Quicksilver?" Garen turned to ask .

"There was an explosion in Kyora Town just outside the city, and Detective Quicksilver was injured . He's in the hospital now . " Old Man Gregor shook his head and sighed . "Even the famous Detective Quicksilver has faced a setback; looks like there's no hope of getting my belongings back now . "

"That's not necessarily the case . I looked up Detective Quicksilver, he's no ordinary guy . The mystery of the stolen million-dollar oil painting in New Zealand, the nine serial killings in West Riyadh, and cracking the case of the torch legend, etc . The guy keeps facing new opponents, and keeps heading to new places to solve riddles; you can tell he enjoys solving cases . From how I see it, this golden bracelet won't be an exception," Garen comfortingly said .

"Thanks for your kind words . Get going now, I need to close up . " The old man waved his hand to rush Garen out .

"Alright . " Garen walked out of the store carrying his bag .

He looked at the Potential points at the bottom of his vision .

Potential: 179% . It was around 58% initially, and that was due to the increase after meeting that car on the night he killed someone .

"That book…" Amidst his delight, his eyes showed a trace of doubt . "Something feels off . "

******

After Garen left, Old Man Gregor closed the front door and went back to sitting in front of the bookshelf . He opened the black hardcover and gently caressed the pages as a complicated expression emerged on his face .

It wasn't after a long while before he finished looking through the entire book .

"I should have known this would happen, but surprisingly I can't help but want to cling on to something…"

The old man shook his head and slowly closed the pages .

He kept turning the pages until he finally closed the cover . The black text on the cover had turned dark red, as if fresh blood had flowed through each stroke and coagulated .