Age of Adepts

Fire Throne

Greem carefully processed the corpse of a starbeast in a brightly illuminated magical room.

Greem occasionally cut off a piece of the starbeast’s body under the Chip’s instructions. He then put it in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. These pieces of flesh still flowing with purple blood were incredibly pungent and foul-smelling. The texture of the meat was also tough and leathery. It was hard for Greem to slice the flesh, even with an enchanted scalpel.

An ordinary person would not have been able to digest such a piece of starbeast flesh, with all its intense elementium poison. It was likely that a mortal would be instantly corrupted into a monster the moment they swallowed the meat.

However, Greem’s stomach was completely different from a mortal’s. The walls of his stomach were tough and resilient. A golden fire, thousands of degrees hot, also burned within him. The starbeast flesh was engulfed by the golden fire almost immediately, vaporized and disassembled into magical particles of varying elementium traits.

However, his stomach absorbed the unique gene factors found in the flesh and transferred them to a specific region in the body through specially constructed channels.

There, the starbeast bloodline genetic sequence that Greem was attempting to construct spun slowly. The gene factors that he had just absorbed were added to this genetic sequence, complimenting the damaged and missing portions.

Of course, most of the starbeast gene factors he absorbed overlapped with the genetic sequence already present. Most of the gene factors were only strengthening what was present rather than patching in the missing portions. The progress bar of the genetic sequence inched forward, bit by bit.

98.8965%.

Greem was only able to detect the minute changes past the fourth decimal point due to the Chip’s detailed senses. It was almost as if he was trying to piece together a puzzle, except the puzzle was a genetic sequence consisting of millions of tiny genetic sequences.

At this moment, Greem had managed to piece together over 98% of the starbeast bloodline. The remaining 2% might not seem significant, but it was no easy matter to complete it.

Other adepts did not have the aid of such a handy Chip. Most of the time, they could only experiment and test through instinct while relying on luck. If they got it right, they would make progress. If they got it wrong, all the progress they had achieved up until then would be in vain; they would have to start all over again.

Though there were many powerful individuals amongst the adepts, their research on bloodlines remained in a rather primitive state. Moreover, most high-grade adepts conducted their own research. They would never share their results with other people.

It resulted in a magical system surrounding bloodline research that was fragmented and barred behind numerous barriers. It was impossible to sustain a bloodline clan with a stable legacy.

Most bloodline clans that appeared in the World of Adepts were transient. They fell from greatness after their powerhouses left the World of Adepts or died. The bloodline would weaken over generations until it finally died out.

Of course, there might have been some degree of intentionality from the Great Adepts in creating this scenario. By preventing consistent bloodline research, they could stop any single bloodline clan from growing too powerful and dominating the World of Adepts for extended periods of time.

That, in turn, gave elementium adepts and adepts of other disciplines the chance to shine!

Of course, this was only Greem’s conjecture. There was no firm evidence that supported this theory.

Greem could hardly care about the intentions of the Great Adepts. All he wanted to do was make up for the insufficiencies in his starbeast bloodline and allow this bloodline power he had been cultivating to show its true might.

99.1365%.

As Greem scarfed down the meat in big gulps, the progress bar on the starbeast bloodline’s completion rose steadily.

A Third Grade starbeast might not be enough to sustain the construction of an entire starbeast bloodline, but it would be more than enough to fill in the 3% he was missing!

Finally, with a crisp notification ring from the Chip, the light blue progress bar in Greem’s mind reached 100%.

The next second, Greem let out an abrupt sneeze. His entire body shivered violently.

It was almost as if a singularity had opened in the depths of his mind. His mental consciousness had merged with some vague principles of an unknown world for a brief moment. Then, a mountain of experience, inherited knowledge, and unusual understandings flooded his consciousness like a tidal wave.

[Beep. Detecting foreign data stream. Initial estimates suggest this is a world legacy from the starbeasts. Requesting instructions from Host. Receive data?]

“Receive…now…immediately!”

Greem was practically howling at the Chip when he gave his order.

It was important to note that most starbeasts accepted this instillment of knowledge from birth. There was a gradual process to it. Naturally, they could easily endure all of it. Moreover, most starbeasts were terrifying creatures of untold resilience. Their spiritual resilience was also probably a hundred times stronger than a human consciousness like Greem’s.

That was why they suffered no pain when accepting such a legacy of knowledge!

However, Greem lacked the buffer that they had from First to Third Grade. He was accepting the legacy modifications and inheritance of a Fourth Grade starbeast as a human, all at once. In all honesty, if the Chip had not endured part of the legacy’s impact for him, Greem would probably have been the first idiot in the World of Adept’s recorded history to have his mental consciousness sundered by the legacy of his bloodline.

Even so, just enduring the shockwaves of the bloodline legacy was enough to cause Greem to yelp in pain. Blood flowed out of every orifice and even his pores.

The blood came out thick and without stop. One couldn’t help but wonder how Greem had managed to contain such ridiculous amounts of blood in his two-meter-tall human body.

It wasn’t just blood. Large spouts of pure fire energy blasted out of Greem’s body along with the black blood.

The red flames surged out of Greem’s body and vaporized everything around him. Even the obsidian floor beneath him was scorched red, despite being protected by magical arrays.

The light robe that Greem wore instantly turned into ashes when the flames erupted.

Greem moaned loudly, enduring the pain that came from the genetic level of his body as he silently waited for the Chip’s analysis.

There was far too much information from the starbeast’s legacy. Even a real starbeast would require a tremendous amount of time and energy to digest all that knowledge.

However, Greem did not have a dozen years to waste away, absorbing this information and legacy. Thus, he had to rely on the Chip’s powerful data storage and organization ability. The Chip would chart the tremendous sea of knowledge and plot out the most straightforward and efficient route of bloodline inheritance.

The Devouring Fish!

One had to admit that the starbeast bloodline that Greem had chosen for himself was quite the rare creature. It was called the Devouring Fish and possessed a stomach that could devour all lifeforms and energy.

Anything it devoured could only quietly be turned into chaos energy and become part of the fish.

The reason Greem had taken on the legacy of a Devouring Fish was directly related to the fish-shaped starbeast that Mary had sent to him. After all, the main reason why Greem’s starbeast bloodline had managed completion so quickly was solely due to the ice dragon heart and the fish-shaped starbeast.

These two things had stimulated Greem’s bloodline power to grow so rapidly!

Greem lay down in a pool of boiling red lava. Tremendous changes were happening both inside and outside his body due to the modifications from his inherited legacy. It was impossible to see what was happening in his body, but the surface of his crimson skin began to grow translucent, crystal-like scales.

These scales covered almost every inch of Greem’s body, with the exception of his eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. As Greem breathed heavily, streams of invisible fire spouted from his nose before gathering together to form sparks of golden principles flames.

It was obvious that even the starbeast bloodline modification that was affecting his entire body had not managed to suppress Greem’s original talent for fire. On the contrary- with the bloodline power suppressing and expelling the fire energy in Greem’s body, most of the impure origin flames had been scattered. What remained of the purest fire energy gathered around the fire principles and concentrated into the Undying Flames that Greem had been pining for.

From now on, the Undying Flames were both a magical ability at Greem’s disposal, as well as a fire principle that he had assimilated with the depths of his soul!

From now on, the Undying Flames were a part of him. No one could separate them from his soul.

While Greem’s mind was starting to blur from the fatigue, a notification from the Chip rang out.

[Beep. First starbeast bloodline patch completed.

[Host has obtained first starbeast bloodline legacy. Listed below are the abilities obtained.

[Devouring Fish Transformation: Host can transform into a Devouring Fish, gaining access to all its combat prowess and bloodline abilities.

[Berserk Devouring: Devour a creature that is no more than twice the size of the Host, converting said creature into chaos energy for the Host’s use. This special ability can only be used once a day. (Note: Enemies more than two times larger than the Host cannot be devoured!)

[Devour Magic: Bloodline ability. Able to devour a spell no more than 6,000 points in intensity and convert it into chaos energy for retaliation. Said ability can only be used three times a day.

[Host’s Strength and Physique will be improved after transforming into the Devouring Fish. Every 10 points of Spirit will sustain an additional 2 minutes of bloodline transformation. Host will revert from transformation when Host has less than 10 points of Spirit remaining.]

[……]

[……]

Greem was both surprised and overjoyed to read the countless rows of numbers and statistics.

Finally, this bloodline modification that he had been undergoing for the past two hundred years had concluded. It could finally be of use on a battlefield. The unusual powers of the starbeast bloodline truly surprised him!

Perhaps, this was the real reason why the starbeasts were able to roam the galaxy uncontested and instilled fear upon all planes!