Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The divination only lasted three seconds, but that was more than enough for Alice.

  She didn't dare hesitate. She immediately took out a translucent, fist-sized crystal ball and silently recorded the image in her mind.

  Finally. All of today's divination slots had been used up. Alice's Spirit had also been completely exhausted.

  Alice covered her mouth as she yawned. She fell asleep before she could even finish stretching her body.

  Her curled hand loosened in her sleep. The shining crystal ball clattered to the ground and rolled away from her.

  It only stopped when it ran into the foot of a towering figure.

  Greem bent to pick up the crystal ball and placed it against his forehead.

  "Beep. An unknown mental passage is detected. Connect?"

  "Connect!"

  The three-second recording ended almost as quickly as it started. Greem wasn't even able to get an accurate look at its contents. Thankfully, the chip had dutifully recorded everything and saved the scene in its data library.

  "This must be fate's feedback from Alice's divination! Chip. Analyze this recording with all your power. Dig out every single bit of information that we can use to our advantage!"

  In the next second, the chip had split the three-second recording into a thousand static images. They drifted into Greem's mind one by one.

  Greem felt his Spirit plummeting. He had instantly lost 2 points of Spirit when the chip converted it all into mental energy to sustain its massive operation.

  Two points of Spirit, at Greem's current level, meant two complete First Grade spells. If these spells were Fire Core Explosions, a single one would be enough to kill an ordinary adept. And if they were Meteor Showers, two points of Spirit would be enough to turn an area of five hundred meters into a hell of fire.

  Even Greem couldn't help but frown at this drastic and sudden decrease in his Spirit.

  Greem gave the chip free reign in processing the static images in his mind. Meanwhile, he walked to Alice's side and picked her up. He carried her in his arms and brought her to the bedroom next door.

  Greem put her on the bed, helped her remove her shoes and socks, then covered her with a blanket.

  Once everything settled, he left the room, rubbing his head as he did so.

  The exhaustion of Spirit caused him to be unexpectedly tired. It was best to get some sleep! Perhaps the chip might be able to draw an initial conclusion by then.

  Greem yawned as he returned to his room.

  …………

  At this moment.

  Several hundred thousand kilometers away, in the distant Northern Lands.

  Snowlotus opened her eyes.

  She was a beauty that looked as if she had been carved out of the most pristine block of ice and snow.

  Her features were delicate and beautiful, yet held a cold edge to them that caused them to look stiff and unyielding. When she opened her eyes, a torrent of chilling aura surged through their depths.

  A crystalline ice armor had formed around her body. Traces of frost enveloped her body, crackling with the sound of moisture in the air freezing into ice. Even the light around her seemed to have become dimmer due to this.

  Snowlotus glanced around this world of ice and snow.

  Sharp ice pillars and jagged spikes littered the cave. It was a patch of brilliant white wherever Snowlotus looked. There was no other color to be seen. It was deathly quiet her.

  There was no one around her, and no possibility for anyone to be around.

  This frozen realm had formed through the use of a tremendous number of resources. The temperature in the air had reached a hundred and forty-five degrees. If an ordinary person stepped into this environment, they would die in an instant. Their blood would freeze within moments, and their heart would stop. Even a pseudo-adept with a talent for frost had to protect her internal organs with ice particles to survive.

  If there were no outsiders or onlookers, where had that moment of shock and fear come from?

  Could it be…that someone was scrying her?

  Did this have anything to do with grandma's prior arrangements?

  Snowlotus didn't approve of the assassination of her competitors. She had absolute confidence in her abilities from such an extended period of training and cultivation. Sweeping aside those enemies would have been no problem, even without the help of the clan.

  Snowlotus had a growing feeling of unease as the body count of candidates increased. She sensed that fate's blessing was slowly distancing itself from her.

  Such scrying attempts by unknown enemies had mostly failed in the past. Even those that succeeded hadn't gone unnoticed. Fate would always send her a vague hint that reminded her of what was happening. When had something like today's event occurred? The fear from her soul had sprung out of nowhere, without any prior indication or warning.

  If she continued to have the candidates of fate slaughtered without restraint, fate itself would one day abandon her!

  Perhaps it was time to speak with Grandma Angelina.

  …………

  Feidnan City, Adept's Tower.

  Snorlax was hiding in his room. He stepped onto a tall wooden bench and had a 'friendly,' 'warm,' and 'intimate conversation' with the despicable, perverted, stingy, ungenerous, gold-hoarding Duke Gazlowe of the Goblin Empire.

  "No way," Snorlax leaped three feet into the air. He waved the 'Elementary Golem Creation Handbook' as he roared, "You should know that this is a top-tier secret tome that I stole from the evil adepts at the risk of my life! And you want to exchange it for only two hundred magical crystals?"

  "Little brat, you should know how much two hundred magic crystals is in our Goblin Empire. It's enough to buy ten square kilometers of land and everything on top of it. Even if you didn't want to purchase land, two hundred crystals could allow you to hire a squad of fifty magical mechanical mercenaries. That's why two hundred magical crystals are already…" Gazlowe's voice suddenly turned sharp before he finished speaking, much like a chicken that had just gotten cuffed at the throat.

  He could see very clearly what Snorlax was doing through the light screen. He was taking out handfuls of gleaming, shining magical crystals from his belt!

  Clink. Clink. Clink.

  The crystalline, magical crystals fell from Snorlax's hand like raindrops. They let out a crisp sound as they crashed into the solid stone floor. The clinking was so soul-stirring and attractive that Gazlowe's rage bar filled to the max in a single instant!

  Duke Gazlowe pushed his monocle aside and pressed his ugly face against the screen.

  "Goddamn Snorlax, you freaking jerk. Remember to never, ever, ever, ever flaunt your worldly wealth before the great Duke Gazlowe. As the greatest inventor, most respected engineer, and lord of the Goblin Empire, my mind filled with infinite knowledge is the only wealth that a clever goblin should be proud of."

  Snorlax betrayed an expression of disdain at the opponent's outburst.

  He grabbed yet another handful of magical crystals and pressed it against the screen. He asked tauntingly, "Then may I ask the greatest lord of the Goblin Empire how much his brain is worth?"

  "Not the greatest lord, but the most respected lord." Gazlowe angrily corrected Snorlax's mistake, "Moreover, my brain is priceless!"

  "Priceless? Doesn't that mean it's worth nothing?"

  "It's priceless! Not worthless!" Gazlowe's shouts filled the entire room.

  "Tsk, doesn't that mean the same thing!" Snorlax held the crystals in his hand as he snickered, "If you aren't willing to pay with magical crystals, what are you going to use to exchange for this top-tier secret tome?"

  Gazlowe quickly calmed down once it came back to the transaction.

  "We are a low-magic plane over here. The number of magical crystals we produce is meager. Moreover, you don't seem to be lacking in crystals over there."

  "Mmhmm…continue…"

  "Then I will use…the spider tank to trade with you!"

&nb
sp; "Spider tank?"

  "Didn't you mention that your master was crafting a spider-shaped golem beast recently? We have something similar in the Goblin Empire. The equally powerful and mature machine– the spider tank." Once the conversation turned to his profession, Gazlowe instantly transformed into the most passionate and devoted magical engineer.

  "It is made entirely of tungsten alloy and has superior toughness and malleability. The main body of the machine has the form of a spider and possess four pairs of metallic limbs, a three hundred and sixty-degree rotational magic cannon, foldable metallic saw claws, a close-range flamethrower at its tail and…"

  Snorlax immediately interrupted Gazlowe before he could finish. His face was extremely hostile.

  "Your Transportation Tool can only transfer five hundred grams worth of items. Are you sure you can send me the stuff you promised? Or are you going to open a small spatial wormhole like the last time? If you can't accomplish this task, what does it have to do with me regardless of how powerful your machine is?"

  "Er," Gazlowe froze, "That sort of spatial wormhole can't be used too frequently! Even the magic-generator furnace in my lab was damaged to get the golem heart the last time. I used so many resources to fix my furnace."

  "Magic-Generator Furnace? What's that?" Snorlax's big ears immediately perked up.

  He might not understand what the words meant, but his greedy goblin nature had already smelled the scent of gold!

  "Do you know why I, Gazlowe, am unashamed to call myself the greatest inventor of the Goblin Empire? It is precisely because I invented the magic-generator furnace, a device that can continuously extract energy from the galaxy. We of the Goblin Empire might not have mountains of magical crystals, but we have an endless supply of magical energy with this magic-generator furnace. The future advancement and rise of the Goblin Empire will be forged by my hand alone." The slightly passionate Gazlowe instantly become a zealous believer when his magic-generator furnace was mentioned.

  "There's such a great invention?" Snorlax's beady green eyes opened wide. He immediately put up a fawning expression, "Then… o' greatest inventor Sir Gazlowe, can you let me take a look at this great, epochal invention of the ages?"

  At this moment, Snorlax's green face filled with excessive admiration and adulation!

  Chapter 329 Bloody Sorceress

  "Magic-Generator Furnace?" Greem contemplated in silence, "Are you sure this is the name he mentioned?"

  "I am, master! I am one hundred percent certain!" Snorlax still had that fawning expression on his face, but a sly and scheming light glowed in his beady eyes, "I even gave him the book for free to win his trust. I didn't ask for anything in return, but a chance to take a look at this unusual item he described!"

  "And?"

  "He lifted the light screen and brought me on tour around his magical lab. We saw the spider tank."

  "And the magic generator furnace?"

  "Of course I saw the furnace as well!"

  "Mm, you've done well!" Greem nodded in satisfaction, "You must have recorded it, didn't you?"

  "Of course, as long as it's your orders, this goblin Snorlax will do everything in his ability to accomplish it." Snorlax quickly took out an image-recording crystal the size of a button, "I recorded everything inside!"

  Greem once again smiled in approval.

  Snorlax's obedience and smarts surprised even Greem.

  He had expected Snorlax to be opposed to betraying his race. Who knew that he would accept all this without any hesitation? In fact, Snorlax had even taken the initiative on his own. He was actively helping Greem uncover the secrets of the goblin duke.

  Naturally, Greem couldn't be stingy with such a loyal subordinate.

  Greem instantly rewarded him with a considerable number of magical crystals. He even gave Snorlax a storage belt. Not even Alice owned one. Snorlax no longer needed to wear seven or eight belts on his body with this new gear.

  Greem instantly projected his Spirit into the image-recording crystal once Snorlax left.

  His expression changed in less than seven minutes. He slowly placed the crystal on the table with a feeling of utter shock.

  Goddammit! This wasn't some magic generator furnace! It was a space furnace!

  No. More accurately, this was a kind of prototype for a space furnace!

  Greem suppressed his excitement and replayed the image from the crystal in his mind. He paused it upon seeing the towering 'magic-generator furnace' in the goblin-hall.

  It was quite an intimidating giant steel monstrosity.

  An initial estimate, judging from the recording, put it at three hundred meters tall and one hundred meters in diameter. It was practically a giant metal can. It looked like a giant capsule when it stood in the hall like that. However, some unique alloy composed the outside of the container, and it gleamed with a desolate blue light. Also, its insides didn't contain a material substance, but unstable, roiling, and ravaging space energy!

  Goblins might be ignorant, but the adepts hailed as the slaves of knowledge couldn't be as ignorant as they were.

  Even with a light screen between the device, even with five hundred meters of distance between the screen and the furnace, the recording still perfectly preserved the complex spatial flux and forcefield lingering around the entire hall.

  This flux meant that the goblins were mistaken. What burned inside the furnace wasn't the elementium energy they thought it to be, but chaos energy from space.

  Space energy was chaos energy, not elementium energy.

  The two were distinct existences. Their names were similar, but they were two remarkably different things.

  According to ancient knowledge, the multiverse they lived in was encompassed by an endless sea of space energy. The higher realms, material planes, elementium planes, the lower realms… the infinite, swirling sea of spatial energy permeated everything within.

  Chaos energy possessed incomparable instability and ferociousness. Moreover, it seemed to have an evil ability to twist and distort souls and personalities. There were way too few races and beings that could directly harness this energy. However, every individual or race that mastered control over chaos energy were powerful beings that stood atop the universe!

  Almost all material planes naturally developed planar barriers to block out the spatial energies and prevent the beings residing within from being corrupted and polluted by the chaos energies in space. These plane barriers were like fetal membranes that cultivated and nurtured millions of living creatures. They would calm and tame the space energies that made it through the defenses and turn them into gentle elementium energy. They would then disassemble and reduce the elementium power into different elementium particles with their respective traits based on the planar laws.

  Adepts, magical creatures, elves, spiritualists…the supernatural power they possessed came from this ubiquitous elementium energy. This power was tame, gentle, and could be controlled and manipulated through the use of the spiritual consciousness! It was the source of an adept's strength, and one of the only powers that adepts could directly harness and absorb.

  Chaos energy, on the other hand, was feared by all adepts. They treated it like poison. Any involvement with it meant death!

  Alice had suffered at the hands of chaos energy before when she assimilated the chaos energy of the spacestone in her ignorance. If the accidental advancement hadn't stopped this process of assimilation, Alice would have transformed into a spatial being.

  However, it wasn't as if there was no chance of harnessing chaos energy.

  The adept's tower was able to absorb chaos energy and break it down into elementium energy, which the tower stored in an elementium pool. It was then used to power the tower's functions.

  However, this was a process conducted through the adept's tower.

  A single tower could easily reach several hundreds of meters in height. The space within the tower could fit hundreds and thousands of adepts. Only a magical building of this scale
, crafted from numerous rare resources, could come into contact with chaos energy without suffering any damage to itself.

  That was why Greem was shocked to find a bunch of otherworldly goblins that could harness chaos energy with crude machines despite having no elementium talent.

  This…how could this not surprise him?! How could he not be shaken by the wonders of the world?!

  Greem looked at the coiling wires and steaming constructs, as well as the goblin engineers with their 'space helmets' on their heads. He felt the world turning upside down.

  The most ignorant were the most fearless after all!

  Were they not afraid of the space furnace exploding and completely razing the Goblin Empire? How could the violent and destructive chaos energy be tamed by a bunch of goblins that couldn't even cast an elementium fireball? It wasn't scientific!

  Countless curses and swear words thundered through Greem's mind.

  That said, this turn of events had also caused Greem to develop a far more significant interest in this goblin plane.

  If he were able to create an army in the future, this Goblin Empire would be his first choice for an invasion. As long as he was able to get his hands on their technology and thoroughly examine this 'magic-generator furnace,' he would easily be able to create a magical mechanical empire for himself! The strange and varied powers available to the adepts made this a straightforward task.

  Greem couldn't help but get excited at the prospect of possessing such power.

  …………

  The Knight's Plane.

  The cries and calls of bugs continued within the primal green forest. The sea of trees waved as the winds blew across the place.

  A small group was traversing through the woods with much difficulty.

  The one standing at the very front was a muscular man in chainmail. A double-edged war axe in his hand swung about like it was weightless. He carved a broad path before them with every slash of his axe.

  However, even though a makeshift path had been created, there were still many bushes, vines, and brambles by the sides. It made their movements exceptionally difficult and tiring.