Age of Adepts

Greem had fantasized about what a principle battle would look like countless times before this.

Due to the lack of information, he’d never had reliable resources with which to conduct research on this topic.

Today, this elderly adept was giving him a serious lesson on how to conduct a principle battle, just as a proper mentor would.

Still, the price Greem was paying for it was simply too high!

Mixing principle power into elementium spells would undoubtedly increase their lethality and penetration power. That was how Greem had always utilized his principle powers. However, this was the first time he was engaged in a battle purely on the principles’ level.

A strange principle power that was gentle as water and unusually resilient extended from the elderly adept. The energy reached into the principles of the World of Adepts and leveraged them. The elderly adept guided the principle power toward Greem’s soul through the fire powers that he emitted.

This action caused Greem to immediately break out in cold sweat!

Even as prideful and powerful as he was, there was no way he would ever fight back against the entire principle system of the World of Adepts with his power alone!

If he did not have a method to deal with this attack from his opponent, the leveraged principles would wash over his mental consciousness and soul origin like a devastating flood. When that happened, the self-consciousness that was Legendary Fire Adept Greem would cease to exist.

Fighting a principle powerhouse was truly a terrifying experience. Through his familiarity with the principles and the means by which to fight with them, the elderly adept was overwhelmingly crushing Greem.

In a fraction of a second, Greem communicated rapidly with the Chip in his mind while all this happened.

“Principle Crushing:  An effective means for veteran principle adepts to deal with rookies by taking advantage of their more refined technique and experience. The specific method is as follows: Using rapid principle-skipping and willpower-infiltration, the opponent guides their principle attack into the planar system. The resulting backlash from the principles is used as a means of attacking the opponent.] The Chip silently recorded how the elderly adept manipulated the principles. It then used all the data and its rapid calculations abilities to deduce the expected outcomes.

“How can I deal with this principle-crushing?” Greem couldn’t be bothered with the details at the moment. All he wanted was a solution.

[There are seven potential solutions.

[One: Cut out part of Host’s Spirit in the form of a flame clone and severe Host’s mental connection to it. That will turn the flame clone into a decoy and draw away the principle backlash.

Note: This solution only has a 63% probability of success.

[Two: React with the same principle-skipping and willpower-infiltration to guide the opponent’s attack toward the world system. In doing so, we can borrow the world system’s power to resist the principles controlled by the opponent.

Note: This solution only has a 45% probability of success.

[Three: Use the powers of the Tome of Corruption and the Orb of the Fire God to forcefully take the principle backlash.

Estimated probability of success: 79%. Host’s soul will have to endure impact from the principles.

Probability of minor injury: 21%.

Probability of major injury: 77%.

Probability of death: 2%.

[Four……]

The Chip listed seven solutions, but most of them involved dodging or enduring the attack in some manner. Given the lack of information on principle battles, the Chip could only make deductions based on the available information. It could not make accurate predictions that allowed for domination of the fight as it always had.

After a brief instant of weighing each option’s pros and cons, Greem made his decision.

“We will go with the second option and clash with him directly. Furthermore, make preparations for using the first and third options. Should the attempt at retaliation turn sour, immediately put the backup options to work!”

Greem had already gained some understanding of the world principle system’s structure after all these years. He knew that everything in the world was derived and manifested by principles and laws of varying levels.

What formed the world itself were the principles, but laws were what manifested in a form that mortals could access.

This planar world structure meant that an individual’s mental consciousness would have to endure constant disruption by the various laws while traveling through the principles. It created an innumerable number of variables.

Principle-skipping, put in more comprehensive words, referred to the act of skipping from one layer of principle to another while two principle adepts clashed with their mental consciousnesses.

The medium in which the conflict occurred changed and shifted rapidly at every moment. The means of triggering the various principles was also very varied.

With their respective principle powers as the medium and their mental consciousness as a guide, the two opposing adepts clashed within the world’s principle system like two surfers. Should either of them trigger a backlash from the principle system due to a mistake, this conflict of principle and mind would instantly put them on the backfoot.

If Greem didn’t want to engage the elderly adept in this little dance within the principles, then this battle would become very one-sided. The elderly adept was backed by the horrifying monstrosity that was the World of Adept’s principle system. Any principle attacks he directed at the adept could be directed into the principle system.

In doing so, the elderly adept could freely attack Greem by leveraging the principle system, while Greem could hardly retaliate.

Through this method, the elderly adept would be able to crush and defeat Greem with minimal energy exhaustion. It was a fearsome strategy!

However, the elderly adept never expected Greem to leap into the principle system after him without a moment’s hesitation.

A rookie adept who had not even completed his Fifth Grade advancement wanted to engage him in a principle battle?

The elderly adept laughed out loud and controlled his water principle to launch a vicious attack at Greem.

The fire giant that Greem had turned into refused to back down against the elderly adept’s water giant. They furiously beat and lashed at each other. Horrifying flames that seemed as if they could burn down the whole world clashed against blue waves that filled the skies. The energy explosions resulting from the conflict sent shockwaves all over, threatening to rip even empty space into pieces.

Meanwhile, within the intangible and imperceptible principle layers, the two adepts’ mental consciousnesses were locked onto each other. They controlled the principle powers and wildly skipped from principle to principle.

As they caused chaos and havoc, ripples spread throughout the principle systems. The functioning of the principles, which was as strict and perfect as tens of thousands of interlocking gears, gradually became disrupted.

There was no doubt that Greem would have to endure more of the principle backlash in this battle of principles. However, to the elderly adept’s surprise, Greem was able to put up a fight, despite being a rookie.

Greem wasn’t as familiar with the operations of the principles and their minute variations, but he was able to do a proper job and prevent the elderly adept from finding a lethal weak spot. The two of them continued to battle in the principle layer, slowly causing a massive disturbance within the principle system.

At this point, both of them were starting to regret their actions!

The planar consciousness might have shown Greem tremendous favor, but it came at a cost. As one of the two individuals responsible for the disturbance, Greem could feel the plane’s feedback seeping away as he fought.

Indeed, as punishment for his disruption of the planar principles, he was losing a portion of his feedback from repelling the abyssal invasion every second he remained within the principle system. It wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen if he didn’t stop by the time all the planar feedback was exhausted. His life force would be next on the chopping block!

That said, the planar consciousness was a fair and just entity!

Even while it punished Greem, it did not spare the elderly adept either.

Greem could easily imagine what the elderly adept was feeling when he saw his face slowly turn green and purple with frustration. What he didn’t know was what price the elderly adept had paid to deal with this backlash from the planar consciousness.

Greem was genuinely very curious about this!

This fearsome principle battle ended up as a battle of attrition, with both sides suffering heavily. It was undoubtedly beyond both their expectations, though Demigod Lich Kanganas was having a blast watching them fight.

In all honesty, this battle between principle adepts was so terrifying that all land within ten kilometers had turned into a death zone. However, the phenomenon was clearly not a threat to Kanganas, who was protected by his reliquary.

He erected a blue and white barrier that blocked all attacks from the elementium, law, and principle levels. It allowed the lich to witness this intense and mighty principle battle at close distance!

He was also at a critical moment of advancing from peak Fourth Grade to Fifth grade. Understanding and grasping the operations of the principle level would certainly be beneficial to his future development.

No matter how intense the fight got, no matter how much their surroundings were destroyed and the world quaked, Kanganas continued watching with excitement. He wanted nothing more than for the battle to grow even more intense.

“I’m done…done, I say,” Finally, the elderly adept caved before Greem’s feedback had been exhausted.

He was the clone of a Sixth Grade adept, after all. Sneaking back into the World of Adepts had only been possible at great cost. For him to maintain this level of power within the World of Adepts required him to pay a tremendous price, far greater than what Greem had imagined.

The limit of everyone’s power had been constrained to peak Fourth Grade. However, the elderly Adept Douglas had originally believed himself capable of crushing Greem through his advantage in the principle layers.

Unfortunately, even though Greem was technically a rookie, his technique was unbelievably refined. To think, he was able to grasp the methods of a principle battle without guidance and force the fight into a war of attrition!

That pushed Douglas into a corner!

He was only a peak Fourth Grade clone. How many resources and energy reserves could he possibly bring with him? A war of attrition was just too costly.

It didn’t matter how strong he was; he was far away in the realms beyond and only able to transmit a limited amount of energy into the World of Adepts. If this battle continued, the principle system might devour his clone. That would be a loss far too severe to bear.

He had no choice but to call a stop to this principle battle!