Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  One after another, the ferocious, frightful heads of monster were showing on the stone wall, which had now turned as thin as the wings on a cicada. While struggling desperately, they kept roaring savagely at Alice.

  Two crystal clear popping sounds were heard coming from the other end of the long corridor. From either side of the stone wall, two monsters had managed to escape from the trap and fell onto the cold, gray floor with strange fluid splashing around from their body. Their appearance was like a signal, within the next few seconds, a succession of popping sounds started to ring through the place, as one after another monster made their escape from the wall. In an instant, the long corridor had been fully filled with these nasty monsters.

  Magical Beasts!

  They were all magical beasts!

  These were all frightening beasts modified using magic spell by the stationed Adept. Each of them possessed the overall strength of an Advanced Apprentice, and they came in great numbers. If all of them came forth in a rush, even though Alice was a Pseudo-Adept now, she would still fall in the waves of besiegement.

  Alice’s face turned dark, yet she dared not hesitate. She let out a shriek and dashed into this group of savage beasts.

  She was faced with a tough situation, indeed. However, it was most probable that Greem and the other were facing with the situation ten times, or even hundred times tougher than hers! Instead of standing in front of that frightful Adept Anderson, who had revealed all his sharp claws and fangs, Alice would rather stay here and fight a fierce battle with these magical beasts which had the number hundred times more than hers!

  Two huge Spatial Cuts broke through the passage, thrusting into the swarm of magical beasts in an instant. They swept away all obstacles in the way, slicing through flesh and bones, sending sticky fluid all over the places… After all, these were just magical beasts who had received magical modification, though their body had turned near invincible against the attack of ordinary swords and blades, when faced with the Spatial Cut that was extremely sharp and capable of destroying anything, they could only let out miserable howls, while their limbs were ripped apart, and theirs head were removed from their bodies.

  Yet, as there were too many of these magical beasts, a dozen of them had managed to dodge the attacks and came rushing in front of Alice, crazily they started to slam, bite, and rip the paper-thin Protection Barrier.

  Alice tried her best to hold back the uncomfortable feeling of staring so close to these magical beasts, who were ugly, wizened, and had their bodies covered in sticky fluids. Clenching her jaw tightly, she kept unleashing Spatial Cuts in top speed. In front of her Spatial Cut magic spells, any flesh and blood was like a ball of rotten meat, like a hot blade slicing through the butter, they cut through everything on their way, noiselessly.

  Alice was hovering in midair, any magical beasts came in front of her looked like they were jumping into a meat grinding machine. They had instantly been ripped apart, their flesh and blood splashing in all directions. All sorts of broken limbs kept flying past in front of her eyes, there was even a half broken head of magical beast that suddenly flew into her direction, fell onto the Protection Barrier, before slowly rolling off onto the ground.

  Meanwhile, the ground underneath her feet had turned completely into a slaughter house. Countless broken bodies were scattered around, each had an extremely miserable look. The purple and green color blood had stained the entire wall of the corridor, and unknown fluid was dripping down from the ceiling.

  The cute little face of Alice had turned stiff, her eyes filled with a severe murderous look. At this dreadful moment of life and death, she had given up pretending to be a cute and harmless little girl, and had totally revealed her true nature of being treacherous and brutal.

  It was a corridor of less than 30 meters, yet it took Alice a full fifteen minutes to reach the other end. Behind her, was a hell on earth that no one had to guts to take a second look.

  When she used the Spatial Wave and shook away all the colorful blood and intestines that stuck to her Protection Barrier, and countless debris of flesh that no one could tell where they had originally belonged, in front of her was another long corridor.

  There were many colorful oil paintings hanging on both sides of the wall. Some were beautiful sceneries, some were finely painted portraits. But it was a pity that all these paintings had their main object missing, no exception. Yet, inside of this corridor, she saw a large crowd of incorporeal, vague figure of souls and spirit, and many demonic plants, which had twisted and deformed bodies. They were either lingering around aimlessly, or climbing the ceilings.

  Undoubtedly, Alice’s appearance had attracted their attention. All souls, spirit, and demons stopped their movement, turned their heads and looked towards Alice. Under the dimmed light of the corridor, countless crimson ghost flames and greenish glows were ignited, one after another.

  Alice’s face turned dark in an instant.

  Every single one of these bastards had the overall strength of a Pseudo-Adept!

  “Greem, I hate you…!”

  The furious and shrill shriek of Alice echoed throughout the quiet long corridor, lingering in the air for a long time, just like how much she hated that guy!

  …………

  Within the secret space.

  Standing on top of the terrifying altar, Adept Anderson closed his eyes as he tried to sense something. A surprise expression was brought upon his face.

  “I never expect that you had left a helper on the outside. Since Alice is outside, then this one here must be a fake!”

  Anderson pointed out his finger, unleashed a dark beam and shot it into the ‘Alice’s’ body, which was now lying quietly on the floor. After a brief moment of twisting and transforming, the ugly, short and green body of Snorlax had showed up in front of him.

  “Not bad, not bad at all! You do have a complete and thorough plan.” Anderson’s expression turned dark, but he didn’t look panicked at all. Instead, he showed a regretful expression on his face. “Since you had hidden someone outside in advance, I’m sure you must have taken precautions against this. And the only way for you to obtain this information would be…”

  Anderson paused, and suddenly, countless Wind Chains stretched out from around Acteon, who was standing quietly beside the altar and tightly tied him up.

  However, although Anderson’s action had shown a serious hostility, Acteon didn’t put out any resisting behavior. He still looked absolutely submissive toward Anderson.

  “Not him?” Anderson cast a few spells in a row and threw them into Acteon’s body, he didn’t find anything worth suspecting. The blood contract in Acteon’s soul was still intact, showing no sign of being touched by someone else before.

  Pondering hard and with no results, Anderson decided to give up.

  “If I have to give up one Pseudo-Adept, so be it! As the matter of fact, just the three of you is enough for me to break through the threshold of Second Grade Adept. But I’m curious, since you can come out with the idea of arranging someone on the outside, then what is your plan in fighting against me? Don’t tell me that you are going to fight me with just you few Pseudo-Adepts? If that truly is your plan, I’ll really feel sorry for your laughable, naive ideas!”

  Adept Anderson rested his shivering gaze over at Greem.

  Despite being tied up by Wind Chains and lying on the floor, Greem still maintained the same sneer on his face.

  “Even though we had become Pseudo-Adepts, we still cannot get rid of the status of Apprentice Adept. Indeed, we come short in fighting against you! But, what if we are replaced by a few Adepts?”

  The look in Anderson’s eyes became even more stern and cold.

  Chapter 152

  “Aren’t you afraid that I’ll kill you right now?” Anderson roared with rage.

  Hearing what he said, Greem smiled. “You’re welcome to do anything you want! I’ve given up resisting now, and you can just kill me straightaway. But… if you do that, how
are you going to execute your plan of becoming a Second Grade Adept? You have brought so many apprentices here, I’m afraid that only by turning a few of us into official Adepts then it will be the help for you to make your breakthrough. If you are afraid of our resistance, why don’t you just kill all of us now? Then, tomorrow you can wag your tail at the messenger from Sarubo family. Perhaps you’ll still be the same Adept Anderson, but your dream is destined to be shattered!”

  “Since you’ve told me about your plan, do you think that I’ll allow you to destroy my plan?”

  “Does it make any difference if you know about our plan? One way or another, you have to make us into Adept today; then you’ll devour us. This is the path you’ve chosen for yourself, and it is also the destiny that none of us could escape! We’ve arrived at this moment and it is impossible for you to simply change your plan. As for us, we can only put up a desperate fight for our own survival!”

  “If that is the case, you’re not supposed to be so straightforward, so honest with me! Don’t tell me that you still have some backup plans?”

  “Haha… what kind of backup plans could I have? Today, right at this place, I only have three companions. You weren’t being serious when making that puppet slave of yours, so you actually allowed him to save his primary consciousness. But it seems like he is not here with us; it looks like he has made me into his cannon fodder. If that is the case, why should I cover for him?”

  “I knew it was him! Hmph, I’m surprised; that half-bug body does have some incredible abilities, as it actually escaped from the binding of a soul blood contract. Besides this, is there anything else?”

  “Of course! My only helper, Mary, has now become the chip held in your hand. Taking everything into consideration, it seems that I’m the only one who can risk my life with you! I hope you can be more careful later!” After he finished saying that, Greem closed his eyes, completely ignoring Anderson.

  Anderson became silent. He stared at Greem’s face, which was now showing a determined expression. His mind was filled with surprise.

  He had never expected this; a little guy who had borne patiently under him for seven years, an apprentice who he had never paid attention to before, actually possessed such a wild and unyielding attitude and was courageous enough to challenge him face to face.

  If this had happened one month ago, if Greem had dared to be so arrogant and unbridled, Anderson would have definitely countered him with even crueler and fearsome approaches. He would have used the dreadful reality to teach this little kid a lesson; in this world, an Adept was the true master who controlled everything!

  But it was a pity, during the recent months, he hadn’t done anything but pour most of his time into the modification of this bloody altar. Three Pseudo-Adepts, three key nodes of blood sacrifice; not a single one could be omitted. Only when everything was functioning perfectly according to his will, could he obtain the perfect result he had longed for.

  As for the foreign Pseudo-Adept, Alice, because Anderson wasn’t sure of her background, he could only treat her as a backup sacrificial offering. But things had gone a little out of his control; the surviving consciousness of his puppet slave had leaked his plan and had caused all these sacrificial offerings to prepare in advance.

  Alice hadn’t entered the secret space, which meant that he couldn’t afford to lose any one of the three Pseudo-Adepts who served as his sacrificial offerings. Or else, the ritual of blood sacrifice wouldn’t be able to function properly.

  Once the ritual of blood sacrifice began, the first stage would be extracting the life, soul, blood, and flesh of all the Apprentice Adepts and use them as sacrificial offerings to boost the three selected Pseudo-Adepts. Pushed by this evil and twisted life force, they would have at least 70% to 80% odds in becoming an official Adept.

  And once they became Adepts, the second stage of blood sacrifice ritual could begin. At that moment, the powerful and surging blood, flesh, forces of soul from three newly advanced Adepts would become his tonic, helping him in breaking through the shackles and becoming a Second Grade Adept in one go.

  Greem had expressed his plan explicitly; his counterattack would come during the moment after the first stage of the blood sacrifice ritual ended and before the second stage began. No doubt, it was the perfect time to launch his counterattack, if he still had the ability to do it!

  When faced with a fearless young Pseudo-Adept, Anderson only responded with a savage smile. Using one hand, he drew something in midair. A black rune appeared, before it vanished instantly. A dark shadow underneath Greem’s body suddenly came alive.

  The dark shadow didn’t have tall stature and it was as thin as a sheet of goat-skin paper. However, it exhibited extremely dexterous movement. Like a paper-man, it crawled and climbed onto Greem’s chest, pulling out a dagger from its tiny paper-like body. Ferociously, it thrust the dagger into Greem’s chest.

  Greem let out a muffled grunt because of the pain. His blood burst and splashed all over the paper-man’s body.

  Like a real living being, the paper-man stuck out its thin, tiny hand and touched Greem’s flowing golden blood, brought it over to its body, and evenly smeared it onto its body. Once it had completed the task, a soul ripple identical to Greem suddenly emanated from the body of this paper-man. Immediately after that, it smiled hideously, climbed over to Greem’s mouth, pried open his tightly clenched jaw, and disappeared into the depths of his throat.

  Even though he had estimated all of the possible approaches of Adept Anderson, when faced with such bizarre scene, Greem was still struck with chills and had his flesh creep. He was the meat on someone’s chopping block now. Although he had known that the opponent would use some kind of mind-control method, when it really happened, Greem was still shaken by the bizarre approaches of Adepts!

  Before the thought could fade away from Greem’s mind, his body started to struggle and tremble violently. The Wind Chains were so tight that they cut into his flesh, every single one of Greem’s muscles stiffened, and his blood vessels, thick as earthworms, poked up under his skin. These were signs of how violent and intense the battle of consciousness happening inside his body was.

  Too bad, with his Spirit of an Apprentice Adept, there was no way he could fight against a veteran Adept. In less than five seconds, his held up body was once again slammed back onto the ground; cracking noises kept coming out from his throat, but he couldn’t say a single word.

  After a few moment later, Greem finally became completely calm. He now lay flat where he was, motionlessly. If his chest had not still been moving up and down slightly, he would have looked exactly like a dead man.

  “Hahaha… all your consciousness and soul are in my control now. So, with what are you going to resist me later? Hmph, just another pathetic fellow who tried to imagine the frightening abilities of Adepts through some crude books and mere legends! If you had just a little bit more understanding of the mightiness and approaches of an official Adept, you would not have behaved so arrogantly in front of an Adept! The world of Adepts is not something you, a mere chicken, could ever imagine! Hahaha…”

  It was not the end after Anderson gained control over Greem’s consciousness and soul. He stretched his arm and beckoned, every single magical equipment and strange object found on Greem’s body and emanating with elemental aura left his body, flying in a row, like a long snake, towards the altar. Among the magical equipment, Anderson was attracted by a unique object.

  It was a magic spell book Greem had tied around his waist with a silver chain. Under Anderson’s control, it left Greem’s body, but before reaching ten meters away, it flickered and escaped from his control and then reappeared back on Greem’s waist.

  Eh, a Soul Gear? Anderson couldn’t help but feel extremely curious about Greem now. Judging from the behavior of this book, it should be a Soul Gear recorded in ancient books and was a piece of magical equipment tied up with the soul of the owner.

  Frequently, Soul Gear like this possessed
tremendous power that went beyond any ordinary magical equipment. However, each and every single Soul Gear had a very strict external requirement for their growth. Without nurturing them with a huge amount of resources and effort, the Soul Gear would not be able to unleash its full potential and would just behave like an ordinary magical equipment.

  To a certain extent, they could provide some unique approaches! Yet, when faced with an official Adept, the approaches employed by these apprentices could not be more frightening than the bite of a mosquito!

  Though he had found a rare Soul Gear, Anderson simply had no time to further study the secret hiding in it. Now, he could only cast a simple energy seal and let it continue hanging on Greem’s waist. He had no other choice, as every single Soul Gear had the same behavior! Before its owner was completely killed, no one could separate it from its true owner.

  After he settled Greem, Anderson finally moved his glance over to Mary.

  Currently, Mary had crazily sucked all of the blood from four apprentices. Her lower abdomen had bloated, her eyes had turned bloodshot, her fangs had poked out, and her face was fully stained with blood.

  Anderson shouted out with a low voice, “Come over here!”

  Mary’s body trembled suddenly upon hearing his voice. A pained and struggling expression emerged on her face. On one side, a message coming from a consciousness seal hiding deep in her soul was asking her to obey the order, on the other side, within her subconscious mind, the wild and restless vampire instinct was resisting the order.

  Noticing the effect of consciousness seal had become weaker, Anderson’s face started to turn dark.

  In order not to obstruct the possibility of evolution for the vampire innate talent, Anderson hadn’t wiped off Mary’s instinctive consciousness. It was true that Mary had grown quickly into a satisfying sacrificial offering, but after she had advanced into a Pseudo-Adept, it had also caused her to no longer be under his total control.