Age of Adepts

In all honesty, Greem really didn’t dare to venture out again!

He was undoubtedly the wealthiest he had ever been in his life, but he was as weak and vulnerable as a sheep in terms of combat prowess.

These weren’t words of humility, but genuine and sincere opinions of his own ability.

A principle crystal, the corpse of a Fifth Grade minor Scourge Lord, a fragment of divine authority- any one of these would be enough to move Fifth Grade powerhouses to action, let alone the more desperate and greedy Fourth Grade predators.

Greem was nearly invincible within the World of Adepts due to the blessing of the planar consciousness. No one could stand up to him in his current state of half-advancement, as no one could endure his unbelievably powerful Undying Flames.

The moment he stepped out of the World of Adepts, he would be little more than a Fourth Grade adept who had yet to advance to Fifth Grade completely. He was probably the ideal prey for the numerous predators out there with all the treasures he was carrying on his person.

His enemies would no longer be high-grade adepts fighting for power and authority- they would be sinister hunters that lurked in the darkness. That was why Greem did not intend to take a single step out of the plane until he had actually advanced to Fifth Grade.

Death God’s Tomb? Heh. Greem’s current assets were probably worth half of the entirety of the Death God’s Tomb!

Those liches had invited him to excavate the Death God’s Tomb, but who knew if their real target was actually him?

Greem politely declined the invitation with some excuse and proceeded to decline the invitations by Sshina and Sand King as well. He then sent them away.

Once Greem had dealt with all the guests, Mary finally walked in, having been made to wait all this while. She grabbed him by the collar and asked sternly in a quiet voice, “You…what’s your condition now?”

In truth, Greem was a humanoid formed purely of light at the moment. He didn’t really have a collar for Mary to grab! However, for the sake of placating Mary, he had no choice but to materialize a collar for her to hold.

Greem could only shrug in the face of Mary’s interrogation. He sighed and said, “As you can see, this is my current condition. My body’s trapped under Fire Throne. It probably can’t come out for a while still. Therefore, this body of light is the only means by which I can walk around outside!”

Mary lifted her nose and sniffed. She frowned. “Why is there the smell of different blood on this body. Like blood that doesn’t belong to you?”

“That’s because the origin blood used to create this body was taken from Geraldine of the Adept’s Association. I’ve tried my best to mix its contents, but the body still maintains a subtle spiritual connection with the light elementium adept,” Greem said with a bitter smile on his face.

“You mean to say…he can sense your mind and the fluctuations of your emotions.”

“Well, not that bad. However, if we get too close, we can sense each other’s location and approximate mental state.”

“How close is too close?”

“About five thousand kilometers! That said, he is weaker than me, so he might only be able to sense my presence within fifty kilometers.”

“Isn’t that a serious side-effect? If the Association tries to capitalize on this and do something, you might run into trouble at some crucial moment!”

“Haha, don’t worry about that! I’m willing to bet that Geraldine must be suspicious right now, but he won’t be able to figure out what exactly happened. If he dares come to the Central Lands, I don’t mind devouring him whole. In doing so, I can further improve the power of this light clone of mine.” Having said that, Greem couldn’t help but let out a self-assured laugh. His right hand also slid toward Mary’s waist silently.

Unfortunately, Mary scratched his hand before he could reach all the way. Five terrible wounds that reached into the bones could be seen. This body of light had no blood to speak of, only endless light elementium.

After the skin was sliced open, there was no flesh to be seen within either, only semi-translucent bones and transparent, glowing muscles. Light elementium was best used for illusions and purification. As such, the wound instantly vanished in a flash of white light.

Mary flashed her fangs and threatened, “Don’t even think about touching me while you have someone else’s smell on you. Don’t try and trick me with your clone in bed. Hmph!”

“Ah,” Greem yelped in shock. “Then…then you might have to wait a hundred years!”

“So be it! I can wait a hundred years! The point being, if you dare touch me with a clone before your actual body comes out from under Fire Throne, I will tear you apart. If you can’t stand it any longer, you can try and go looking for Alice. See if she will let you enter her sheets with a clone,” Mary warned sternly.

If even Mary couldn’t accept this clone, then it was even more unlikely for the always shy and embarrassed Alice!

Greem felt as if he had just been struck by lightning. Despair swept over his mind.

However, he quickly adjusted his emotions and called after Mary before she left.

He took out a storage ring from his body and put it in his palm as he said, “This body of mine still needs to protect my actual body. I can’t stray too far from Fire Throne. I will have to leave the affairs of the Central Lands to you for the next hundred years. These are some things I got from the Association last time. They should be quite useful for you. Here!”

“Take Shadow Demon back with you then! It’s more important to keep your actual body safe.”

“There’s no need. No one will dare go close to my actual body. Anyone who dares to do so is likely not an opponent that Shadow Demon can fend off. Rather, it would seem like you need more powerful individuals on your side to hold the whole situation together. Keep Shadow Demon with you!”

Having said that, Greem went utterly silent. Mary turned back, only to find that he had already left, leaving behind a small and intricate ring where he had been.

Mary picked up the ring and sensed the jars of Fifth Grade blood stored within. A hint of sorrow flashed over her face.

Once upon a time, they had both been apprentices, struggling together in adversity, became adepts together, and rose to prominence step by step, together. Now, he was walking faster and faster into the distance. Could she…still catch up to him?

The ever-prideful Bloody Queen Mary couldn’t help but feel a sudden loss of confidence!

As a special blood adept, her advancement was limited by the potential of her bloodline. According to the adepts’ records, a vampire of Fifth Grade had yet to appear anywhere in the multiverse.

There had never been a vampire god, nor had there been a Fifth Grade vampire adept from any of the planar worlds. It seemed almost as if vampires were destined to be planar creatures, incapable of surviving beyond a planar world.

That would mean Mary’s path forward as a blood adept would have come to an end. There were no bloodline legacies for her to turn to. If she wanted to improve any further, she would have to rely on her current power to find a completely new path forward.

After all these years of exploration, she realized that there was only one path that could allow her to continue growing in power– the blood principles!

Vampire adepts were individuals that constructed their power system around the blood principles to begin with. The only problem was that their bloodline talent was so overwhelmingly powerful that the planar consciousness rarely blessed them. There were very few vampires who could extend their powers from the blood laws to the principles.

After all, sustaining the rise of a peak Fourth Grade vampire would probably require millions of other lifeforms in the planar world to have their bloodlines corrupted. The amount of blood essence that a vampire would have to absorb to advance to Fifth Grade was so tremendous that it was impossible to imagine.

Anyone with half a brain could understand why a planar consciousness would not want to favor a tumor like that.

If Mary had not listened to Greem’s advice and limited her conversion to beings from other planar worlds, the planar consciousness might already have begun rejecting her.

Now, with the Fifth Grade blood that Greem provided her, Mary no longer needed to collect blood essence from within the plane bit by bit.

In doing so, she could alleviate the planar consciousness’s hostility toward her and have more time to experience the blood principles.

The reason she was doing all this so seriously was simply to catch up with that gradually distancing figure!

…………

The only advantage in having a body of light was a faster flying speed and stronger illusions.

With a flash of light, Greem left the tower. He hovered above Ironwood City for a moment before flying toward Fire Throne as a beam of light.

Given his current Fourth Grade powers and the unusual traits of his soul and body, no one could see him as he cut through the air.

Greem proceeded forward in complete silence, flying past one region after the next. He watched as the dirt-yellow ground beneath him slowly turned black as more and more trees came into view.

Finally, after flying for five thousand kilometers, not a single person could be seen on the ground. Instead, there were all sorts of beasts, fowl, fish, and insects.

After flying another fifty kilometers through the Black Forest, the green vanished and what appeared was a vast and scorched land.

This scorched land was about fifty kilometers in radius. The outside of the land was black earth, withered and burnt. The closer you got to the center, the more cracks you could see in the ground. Once you reached within twenty-five kilometers of the center, you started to see spots of lava pools and tiny volcanoes here and there.

You could even see numerous fire creatures here. These fire creatures lived like wild beasts without worry. They played, lived, and wandered this land filled with fire and the smell of sulfur, all while rejecting the presence of any non-fire creatures.

Because of this, Greem did not choose to exterminate them. Instead, he left them here to wander and serve as the eyes and scouts of Fire Throne.

Greem finally stopped when he reached the giant, two and a half kilometer wide lava lake.

A Mothership with the Crimson Clan’s giant emblem on it hovered in the clouds above the lake. Greem could faintly sense the presence of hundreds of adepts and apprentices there.

It was the garrison that the Crimson Clan posted above the lava lake. A Third Grade adept was constantly on standby here. However, given their power, there was no way they could sense Greem’s presence!

Greem shook his head and sighed. He then dove down out of the sky and into the lava lake.