Sovereign of the Ashes

Sein’s retreat lasted a total of four years—a relatively short time for a Rank Two mage advancing to Rank Three grand mage.

This efficiency was largely due to Sein’s solid foundation and meticulous preparations in every aspect.

When Sein finally stepped out of the meditation room, a special gray flame radiated from every part of his body, while a rich swirl of pyro elemental particles filled the surrounding space.

The sight unmistakably marked his successful promotion to Rank Three!

The advancement brought an immediate change to Sein’s perception of the world.

His vision now appeared more three-dimensional, allowing him to observe and analyze his surroundings with remarkable clarity.

He found that he could easily construct a comprehensive analytical map of any subject of study in his mind.

The truths and mysteries accessible to a Rank Three grand mage were leagues beyond those of a Rank Two or Rank One mage.

Only by expanding and enhancing the brain’s capacity and the sea of consciousness to such an extent could mages continue to explore more profound magic.

Despite his excitement to check out his body and test his newfound abilities, messages began flooding in one after the other, demanding his immediate attention.

This was the reality of being the dean of a divine tower academy—constant interruptions, distractions, and administrative burdens that often clashed with one’s training and pursuits of truth.

Yet Sein was a responsible dean. During his tenure, he was determined to avoid actions that would force him to resign in disgrace.

After carefully reviewing the messages, he dismissed most as minor issues except for one that was more troublesome than the rest.

The conflict with the Divine Tower of Astral Sun arose because we poached their initiates huh...?

They’ve sent a specialized team of mages to intercept our operations, resulting in several major clashes over the past three years. In the worst incident, several Rank Two mages were seriously injured...

Sein read the report and fell into deep thought.

The poaching of initiates from the Divine Tower of Astral Sun and other nearby towers had not been Sein’s idea—it was a direct order from the tower master himself.

Sein was well aware of his own limits and even more of the consequences of provoking divine towers.

However, the Rank Five Tower Master of Dark Flame, with his overwhelming strength and resources, clearly did not see the other divine towers in the region as a threat.

It was not just the Divine Tower of Astral Sun that was unlucky in recent years—the Divine Tower of Gray Plume, Flamewoven Sandbox, and Ripple Wheel were too!

Of the various divine towers surrounding the Divine Tower of Dark Flame, only the Divine Tower of Mystic Maze had been spared.

Was this because the Tower Master of Mystic Maze had a better personal relationship with Dark Flame?

Or perhaps it was simply because the Divine Tower of Mystic Maze was located too far from the Divine Tower of Dark Flame to be targeted?

Whatever the reason, one thing was clear: the Divine Tower of Dark Flame had managed to offend nearly all the divine towers in the surrounding area!

This situation brought Sein’s thoughts back to the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring, founded by his mentor, Lorianne.

Lorianne seemed to share strong personal relationships with the tower masters of neighboring divine towers.

During the Wild Gorilla World War, she had even rallied several nearby divine towers to venture into the Wild Star Domain together in pursuit of mutual gains.

The contrast between Lorianne and Dark Flame was striking—they were truly two extremes.

Sein could not help but wonder if Dark Flame had any friends in the Magus World at all.

The only silver lining in this situation was that, despite the Divine Tower of Dark Flame’s conflicts with neighboring towers over initiates, the skirmishes had not escalated to substantial casualties.

Whether it was the Divine Tower of Dark Flame’s mages or those from rival towers, both parties remained focused on disputes over initiate ownership.

No mages had been killed in the process.

In the beginning, the Divine Tower of Dark Flame successfully poached a significant number of talented initiates from other towers, catching its rivals by surprise.

These initiates, many from prominent families, had little choice but to accept their new reality once taken to the Divine Tower of Dark Flame.

After all, individual family power was no match for the might of a divine tower.

Dark Flame’s reputation as a Rank Five mage with formidable strength ensured that even the most prestigious magic families hesitated to challenge him over their descendants’ forced transfer to the Divine Tower of Dark Flame Academy.

In truth, they were not even qualified to do so.

The only entities capable of opposing Dark Flame were tower masters of equal rank or regional overseers appointed by the guardians.

A few years ago, the overseer of the nearby region had summoned Dark Flame for questioning.

For now, it seemed unlikely they would seek further trouble with him anytime soon.

As for the other divine towers in the surrounding area... it was not as though they had not tried to confront Dark Flame in the past.

However, Dark Flame had made his stance very clear: if anyone wanted to challenge him, they had better team up—two or three against one—or not bother at all!

With his strength, Dark Flame had never feared anyone!

For those who could not defeat him, any attempts to reason with him were pointless.

If anyone disrupted his experiments, they would likely receive a severe beating from the short-tempered Rank Five mage.

As a result, the nearby divine towers began intercepting the Divine Tower of Dark Flame’s operations over the past few years.

By last year, the Divine Tower of Dark Flame had been completely unable to poach initiates from other towers.

Worse still, the surrounding divine towers had joined forces to blockade the Divine Tower of Dark Flame, isolating it entirely in its blackened land.

Mages from the Divine Tower of Dark Flame who ventured out—even those uninvolved in poaching initiates—often found themselves ambushed and beaten up by mages from rival towers.

This led to an increase in wounded mages within the academy.

The sight of mages with bandaged arms teaching in the public classrooms had become a common occurrence at the Divine Tower of Dark Flame Academy.

Fighting and killing were entirely different matters.

Sein was not the only clever individual in the Magus World.

Just as he had exploited loopholes in the divine tower laws to poach initiates, the rival towers had found their own way to retaliate.

After all, fighting was not considered a violation of divine tower laws.

Without a higher-level authority to mediate, such actions had no consequences.

Normally, such unreasonable fighting between divine towers was almost unheard of in the Magus World.

The tower masters of divine towers usually valued their reputation and actively cultivated good relationships with their neighbors.

Building alliances and maintaining harmony was the norm for most tower masters.

However, with an eccentric figure like Dark Flame, even the neighboring tower masters had been provoked into fury, plunging the region into turmoil and chaos in recent years.

Having just emerged from his meditation room, Sein was immediately confronted with this mess.

Setting aside the task of resolving the situation, simply seeing the long list of wounded divine tower mages was enough to make Sein frown deeply.

How dare they beat my people up!

For some reason, a surge of anger ignited in Sein’s heart.

Having only recently advanced to Rank Three, Sein had yet to fully stabilize his newfound power.

As his emotions surged, the gray flames surrounding his body flared to life.