Age of Adepts

Mary couldn’t be considered a pureblood vampire.

She wasn’t created through a superior vampire’s Embrace. Instead, she was born in the biology lab of an adept. As such, she more obviously suffered from the limitations of bloodline shackles compared to true vampires.

Under ordinary circumstances, her advancement to Second Grade should have come way before Greem, considering her frenzied slaughter in the Knight’s Plane.

It was the existence of the bloodline shackles that caused her power to remain stagnant for such a long time.

This time, they had successfully captured the source of her blood– Leicester. The shackles that bound Mary to the ground would no longer exist once she completed this blood transfusion and purifying ceremony. Advancing to Second Grade was a certainty with her talent!

Greem had initially intended to personally host the blood transfusion ceremony for Mary and witness her rebirth into a path without bloodline limitations. However, Alice was a far better choice compared to him when it came down to both experience or qualifications. Thus, Greem had no choice but to step down and hand over the hosting of the ceremony to Alice.

Greem retreated to a corner of the secret room and silently watched as the fairy waved her magic wand. Light shone in the room as Mary’s armor was removed, and her naked body slowly floated into a semi-translucent casket.

The casket appeared to be carved out of a massive piece of emerald crystal. It shone with unmatched crystalline beauty.

Leicester, on the other hand, was placed above the cover of the casket. The four copper dragon heads on each corner of the coffin extended forward and took a deep bite into the vampire’s body. The fresh blood flowed through the hollow pipes within the dragon heads and slowly filled the casket beneath.

The blood level in the casket rose slowly at a pace visible to the naked eye. It flowed over Mary’s arms, stomach, breasts, and face. Soon, the peacefully sleeping Mary was completely submerged in blood.

Alice, who usually took great care of her appearance, untied her hair at this moment. She went barefoot and started dancing a strange and sinister dance around the blood casket with an odd soul lamp in hand.

This… why was this so different from the blood transfusion ceremony he read from the books?

Greem kept his doubts to himself while opening his eyes wide and enjoying this entirely different side of Alice. Of course, he didn’t forget to turn on the Chip’s scene memorization function so that he could refer to it in the future.

However, the small fairy Helen once again flew into his face with her hands on her hips the moment the ceremony started.

”Hey, shameless guy, what are still doing here?” The fairy seemed to be in this sour mood perpetually, ”You want to watch two girls naked and dancing around in the room? Get out quick and don’t disturb Alice’s Blood Moon Prayer ceremony.”

”Blood Moon Prayer ceremony? Isn’t it a blood transfusion ceremony? Why did it turn into a Blood Moon Prayer ceremony? Are there blood moons in the World of Adepts?” There were a million things that Greem didn’t understand right now.

”Hmph! If it was just an ordinary blood transfusion ceremony, even an idiot like you could do it. Why would Alice need to specially teleport here? This is a promotion ceremony that Alice specifically prepared for that female vampire. Also, isn’t it a just simple thing if you wanted a blood moon? Alice is the Witch of Fate. If she says there’s a blood moon now, then there’s a blood moon now. What’s strange about that?” A certain question seemed to have picked at Helen’s wounds when the conversation reached this point. The fairy was still scolding Greem, but tears had welled up in her pretty little eyes.

Greem’s expression dimmed. He nodded his head silently and quietly removed himself from the room.

Greem had heard of the Blood Moon Prayer ceremony before. It was a grand ceremony usually only held for high-grade dark creatures when they were advancing. Dark creatures that successfully passed this ceremony could possibly obtain special skills in addition to purifying their bloodline and advancing.

Moonstalking Stealth, Moonshade Messenger, Shadowblade, Moon’s Illusory Wings, Moonlight Recovery.

These were all abilities that someone was most likely to obtain through the Blood Moon Prayer ceremony. They weren’t incomparably powerful, but they were practical abilities that could be used in any combat situation. It didn’t matter whether it was the ability to remain invisible in the night, the critical damage of Moonshade Messenger, the hard-to-defend nature of Shadowblade, the high-speed escape afforded by the Illusory Wings, or even the tremendous healing of Moonlight Recovery. Any one of these skills would significantly increase Mary’s combat prowess in the night.

However, everything came at a cost!

A hefty price had to be paid to obtain these additional powers.

Apart from the massive amounts of rare resources that it required, the ceremony would place a considerable strain on the host. The World of Adepts had no blood moon. Alice needed to exhaust her powers of fate to make her prophesy a reality if she wanted to allow Mary to successfully complete the ceremony.

As the Witch of Fate, the only thing Alice could afford to pay were the powers of fate that she had gathered after so much difficulty, along with her life force.

The price was indeed a tremendous one!

While Greem was anxiously waiting outside the room, he suddenly stopped his footsteps and looked up. He cast his gaze through the solid walls of the tower and the two hundred meter layer of earth above to the sky in the distance.

It was supposed to be the dead of night right now. The moon should be high up in the sky, crowded with stars.

A thin layer of blood mist had somehow enveloped half the horizon, causing the silvery-white moonlight to turn into a dizzying and sinister crimson color when it shone down upon the ground.

The mountains were the color of blood, as was the earth, the trees, and even the giant moon in the sky.

The entire world had been turned into a blood-colored place.

This unique scenery only existed within five kilometers of Fire Throne. The black forest and the silver moonlight; everything was normal beyond this range.

While the people in the tower were celebrating, only Eva, Dana, and a few high-grade dark creatures vaguely sensed a trace of abnormality in the air. It felt as if their bodies were lighter, the flow of the energy within them smoother, and as if there was an indescribable fragrance of blood spread in throughout the air.

Apart from the few of them, someone else in a room on the third level of the tower sensed the change in the surroundings. A cute-looking girl climbed up a narrow stone window with much difficulty. She remotely sensed the brilliance of the moon shining down from the blood moon, even through the layers of the earth.

All the blood moon brilliance was being guided by a strange force and poured into the top level of the adept’s tower. It seemed some sort of special ceremony was being held up there.

The girl looked to be only three or four years old, but she had a mind and intelligence that far surpassed her age.

The little girl tilted her face as she felt the pure inviting energy in the brilliance of the blood moon. She bit her white thumb as she thought to herself. Finally, the girl could no longer suppress her desire for the blood moon energy and waved with her hand.

The next moment, the blood moon energy that had been continually pouring into the top level of the tower like a beautiful ribbon suddenly split off into a much smaller stream. This smaller stream directed the energy toward the body of the little girl.

The girl immediately jumped up in joy with a huge smile on her face when the crimson light entered her body.

”The big sister on the floor above has such a good physique. I’m sure she won’t mind if I take a bit of her stuff. If she really does, I still have dumb-dumb dad and silly-silly mom to help me gloss over the matter. Mm. I’m sure nothing bad will happen.”

One couldn’t be sure if the little girl was scheming or merely speaking aloud to herself, but she immediately started to absorb the energy with no restraint after some thought.

The change in the blood moon stream couldn’t possibly have escaped the attention of Greem and Alice.

Alice was the host of the ceremony. Naturally, she had the clearest sense of the changes happening to the blood moon energy she was guiding. Alice raised her head and looked doubtfully into the horizon the moment the little girl started stealing the blood moon radiance. She then turned and looked toward the location of the girl.

After some thought, Alice chose not to take any direct action!

The other one to sense the changes besides Alice was Greem. As the owner of the tower, he was the most sensitive to all energy flows within it.

Greem immediately discovered the abnormality when the blood moon energy split off. He flew into a rage.

To think that someone dared to intervene in a magic ceremony that he was protecting!

Greem would be furious beyond belief if this interrupted the ceremony and caused Mary to fail!

Greem suppressed his emotions and had his Spirit follow the energy flow. He passed through the walls of the tower, made it past magical defenses, and quickly locked onto the strange little girl.

Who was she? Why hadn’t he seen her before?

The question had just arisen in Greem’s mind when he immediately understood the situation thanks to the Chip’s reminder.

It was Eva’s room, and Greem knew this girl as well, for he was the one who helped her deliver the child. However, ordinarily, the baby girl that Eva gave birth to should only be four to five months old. Yet this girl was clearly four to five years old.

If it weren’t for the soul flux and mental consciousness information recorded by the Chip matching with the girl, Greem would have suspected the baby girl being swapped with another person while he was away from the tower.

What shocked Greem even more was the fact that the girl already possessed the Spirit of a pseudo-adept.

To possess pseudo-adept level Spirit a mere four to five months after birth! How shocking was this girl’s talent!

Though the girl was odd, she was still Gargamel and Eva’s daughter.

Greem understood this and had no choice but to suppress his anger. He used his authority as the tower’s owner to cut off the blood moon energy that the girl had redirected toward herself.

”Little person, did your parents not tell you it’s bad to take someone else’s stuff?” Greem’s cold spiritual pressure was remotely projected into the soul of the girl, ”It’s only a warning this time! If there’s a next time, you can be sure I will punish you.”

A Second Grade adept’s spiritual pressure couldn’t possibly be something that a five-year-old girl could endure! Even as talented as she was, there was no way she could square off against a powerful Second Grade. Just the aftershock of Greem’s Spirit was too much for her.

The little girl was jolted into tears. She immediately fell to the ground on her butt.

Eva sensed the disturbance in her room and quickly hurried back from the banquet hall on the second level. She hugged her child the moment she entered the room.

”Emelia, my sweetheart, my baby, what happened? Did some jerk bully you?” The anxious and protective Eva didn’t mind her words at all. Greem felt speechless as he watched with his mental consciousness in the room.

”Eva, keep a close eye on your kid! She already interrupted Mary’s Blood Moon Prayer ceremony earlier… Hm? It seems the ceremony’s concluded. We will talk about this matter at a later time.” Greem’s mental consciousness hurriedly left halfway through the conversation.

The frightened little girl Emelia pouted and mumbled to herself as she lay in her mother’s embrace, ”I just took a little bit, and he came chasing over. What a scrooge.”

However, the little girl’s expression had been changed into a terrified one when Eva lifted her up to look at her.

Eva had wanted to scold her a little, but she could only shake her head, sigh and start consoling her baby.