Age of Adepts

Half an hour later, Khesuna flew out of Nightmare Castle and headed toward the North.

Greem’s expression was solemn as he watched the witch disappear into the distance. He was utterly silent.

“What is it? Are her terms unreasonable?” Due to her severe wounds, Mary had not participated in the ‘negotiations’ earlier.

After a quick round of treatment and some feasting on blood, all the wounds on Mary’s body had vanished. She had restored her former beauty and charm.

It was the most fearsome and annoying trait of vampires!

However, the side-effects left behind from the battle had yet to fade. Traces of purple mist still lingered around Mary’s bones and flesh. Mary’s regeneration was completely useless where the purple haze lingered.

A light tearing sound could be heard from her newly healed body. That was the sound of her flesh being torn apart once again by Gloria’s power.

Her body was instinctually patching up the injuries, but the wounds tore apart every time they were healed. The agony that Mary experienced in this unending process was something only she could understand.

Even so, Mary smiled brightly. It was impossible to tell that her internal organs had been shredded to pieces just from her face!

Greem eyes shifted away from the horizon and landed on Mary. A trace of pain flashed in his eyes as he said, “We’ve survived the most dangerous wave of all. Don’t worry about any of the things that come after. Just focus on healing your injuries! I have already extracted a bit of the purple energy. I will help you get rid of it once I manage to figure something out. Go and sleep in your blood coffin in the meantime. It should help lessen the pain you are suffering.”

“The situation has yet to stabilize. Those bastards around us are still watching eagerly. I can endure this for a little longer,” Mary was unusually calm today. It was only further evidence of the dire straits they were in.

It wasn’t until after Gloria demonstrated power enough to crush the two of them that Khesuna and Stephen chose to show themselves and force her away. The result of the battle was a stalemate. Greem and Mary might be badly injured, but Gloria wasn’t doing much better either. Otherwise, she would not have retreated so willingly.

Greem and Mary might have suffered grievous wounds, but they had to put on appearances and pretend to be much less wounded than they were. Who knew if those adepts from the Central Lands they had managed to suppress would try something again if news of their injuries spread?

Greem had already made up his mind. If those Central adepts refused to stay down at this time, he would uproot their clans in the most violent and brutal fashion possible and make an example out of them- after he had recovered, of course.

Until then, he would have to keep a low profile. Until Mary’s injuries had healed, and his Physique and Spirit had recovered. When that happened, their powers combined would be enough to truly make the Central Lands his possession. There would no longer be any enemy who dared to challenge them like today.

After hastily returning to his room to treat his wounds, Greem used his authority as the Crimson clan leader to send a list of resources to Meryl and Emilia.

Nightmare Castle had been badly damaged in this battle. Most of the buildings around it had collapsed entirely, and numerous large holes had appeared in the main castle itself. All of its secrets were now exposed to the world.

When Freed forged this castle in the past, his main consideration had been the toughness and magic resistance of its walls. That was why the castle was mainly made out of steelrock and obsidian. Now that the castle had become Mary’s lair, toughness was no longer as crucial. Instead, the critical trait was its compatibility with blood energy.

That was why Bloodmarrow Stone stood at the top of Greem’s long list of demands. Bloodmarrow stone was a special material that was exceptionally compatible with blood energy. A downright horrifying number was written after the material- 27 tons.

It was the lowest amount required after the Chip’s calculation. Any fewer bloodmarrow stones, and the restored Nightmare Castle would not have the desired effect.

Bloodmarrow stone might not be as rare as spacestones or breeding flowers, but twenty-seven tons of it was expensive enough to ruin most Fourth Grade adepts.

If it weren’t for the Crimson Clan’s rising status in the Central Lands and their authority that was now just short of utter dominance, it would have been impossible to amass such a shocking amount of the material, even if they sold every asset of theirs.

If they didn’t have enough bloodmarrow stone in stock, they could simply search in the stores of other clans. If they still didn’t have enough after scouring all the Central Lands’ major clans, they could purchase from the major organizations. Naturally, he left the details to his subordinates. Greem only needed to make the request.

The Crimson Clan had not placed any unreasonable requests on the various clans since defeating them. If things continued as it always had been, then what would have been the purpose of the Central Lands’ unification? This matter of collecting bloodmarrow stone was an excellent opportunity to figure out the clans’ attitudes toward the Crimson Clan.

The Fourth Grade organizations were some of the most influential clans in the Central Lands. They were used to their freedom and had never accepted control and domination from another clan. Anger, argument, and negotiation were unavoidable. The more important thing was to see how high a price they were willing to pay to maintain the current facade of peace.

That was what Greem most wanted to uncover and understand!

Greem left all the messy details to the Crimson Clan and retreated to his room without hesitation. He then began a serious and detailed examination of the purple energy.

This place was the only magical room that remained intact after the battle.

There were several functioning arrays spread across the center of the room. All of them were specially modified and enhanced containment arrays.

Meanwhile, bits of purple light drifted in the center of each of these arrays.

These sparks of purple light appeared to have an intelligence of their own. They could continuously draw on the magic energy in the air to strengthen themselves and possessed the basic instinct to attack and defend, much like a primal beast.

That was why Greem had modified these containment arrays to completely isolate all energy flow with the outside world. It cut off all opportunity for the purple light to strengthen and enhance itself.

The arrays also cut off the purple light’s soul connection with its source. That made the purple sparks behave in an extremely confused manner. They thrashed about within the arrays, struggling to find a way to escape.

“Chip, have you managed to identify the attribute of this energy? What exactly is it?” Greem asked softly.

[Beep. Examination complete.

[This energy is the result of a combination of life energy and willpower. Its fundamental manifestation is that of incredible Strength.]

“Incredible Strength?” Greem brooded for a moment, “That fits the Strength attribute that Gloria demonstrated in battle! Continue.”

[Due to the combination of willpower during its formation, this energy remains within the control of its owner despite being separated.]

Greem couldn’t help but draw in a breath of cold air, “Doesn’t this mean Gloria can continue directing the energy to attack after sending it into the bodies of her enemies?”

[Affirmative! This foreign energy remains under the owner’s complete control as long as it is within a thousand meters. There is no delay between the owner’s will and the energy’s actions due to its instantaneous connection to the mind. However, such willpower can be weakened and isolated by magic energies. The specific effect will depend on the difference in power and grade between the user of the energy and the opponent.]

Greem’s eyes gleamed after hearing the Chip’s analysis.

This kind of ability to combine life energy and spiritual willpower into a new source of power was the unique privilege of melee adepts. A pseudo-principle adept like himself would not be able to use it.

However, if he could decipher this technique and refine it, it could be very suitable for Mary!

Mary already possessed the ability to manipulate blood. If she obtained the ability to use this strange power, her combat ability would increase drastically.

Now that he knew that the purple light was a combination of life energy and willpower, Greem would be able to find a way to separate them. The pure life energy left behind after extracting the willpower also possessed tremendous research value to Greem.

He had never been able to figure out what the ultra-grade weapon in Gloria’s possession was. He might be able to figure something out by researching Gloria’s life energy. At the very least, he would be able to uncover the attribute and characteristics of her artifact.

It might be very little information, but bit by bit, he would be able to discover Gloria’s weakness.

In all honesty, it was the first time in Greem’s life he had been beaten in such overwhelming fashion!

If he could survive these difficult times, and if he could figure out the enemy’s weakness, Greem didn’t mind retaliating with all his power.

Gloria, in particular. It was high time she felt the might of Central adepts!

There weren’t very many people in the Central Lands who knew of the ultra-powerhouse battle at Nightmare Castle. Those who knew chose to remain silent and assess the effect of this incident.

Firstly, it would affect morale!

Secondly, this attempt by the Adept’s Association to suppress the Crimson Clan had not achieved its desired effect.

The ultra-powerhouse had arrived and was forced to leave, while Greem remained in his Nightmare Castle, still lively enough to send messengers to the various clans to demand resources.

It severely disappointed the fence-sitters waiting for some sort of change to occur. They wanted to reject the Crimson Clan’s unreasonable demands, but without a leader to guide their resistance, no individual Fourth Grade clan or adept dared to disobey the legendary fire adept.

He was a powerful adept that even an ultra-powerhouse could not do anything about, after all!