Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  It was difficult to analyze the actual power of an adept by what they were wearing!

  To avoid unnecessary trouble, Greem did not wear the red cloak he usually wore. Instead, he chose an ordinary black robe enchanted with Fly.

  Consequently, ordinary people would easily mistake him for a low-grade adept from his appearance!

  Greem had no interest in talking with other people. He placed his hands on the railing as he silently looked at the scenery below. His mind was still recalling all the private conversations he’d had in the past two days.

  No one would talk about more private matters in public locations.

  However, once Greem returned to his room, many adepts had come to visit him, two of which were representatives of the two Third Grade adepts.

  It had seemed like these people were all optimistic about the Crimson Clan’s development. They proposed all sorts of extremely favorable cooperation and trade agreements as representatives of their clans. In fact, some of these offered agreements were so favorable that they were providing the Crimson Clan with benefits without any strings attached. They were likely in hopes of establishing a relationship with this quickly rising clan.

  However, most tempting baits typically had the hardest hooks to swallow. These people, who were trying to associate themselves with the Crimson Clan at great cost of resources and magical crystals, definitely carried massive trouble on their backs. If Greem were to take the bait, he would essentially be shouldering a certain degree of the burden for these people.

  If the enemies and rivals of these parties were only medium and small clans, the Crimson Clan could agree to their offers without any hesitation. However, if their troubles involved any high-grade adepts, then the Crimson Clan would be finding problems for themselves!

  That was why, during his two-day stay in the adept’s tower, Greem had no spare time at all. All of his time was spent talking with these people from all sorts of backgrounds.

  With all the information in his hands and the guidance of the two Third Grade adepts, Greem naturally knew how to deal with these uninvited guests.

  He directed them to Crimson Majordomo Gargamel, who was in Fire Throne, and left alone to board the flying ship.

  The distance from Ailovis to Skettis was almost fifty-five thousand kilometers. Even with the speed of the flying ship, it would take them half a month to arrive. Greem had more than enough time to relax and enjoy this trip.

  When the ship reached a high altitude and started cruising through the clouds, the temperature on the deck fell abruptly. Those ordinary nobles couldn’t endure such cold temperatures, no matter how influential they were. As such, they had long since retreated into the cabins that were protected with elementium barriers.

  At the moment, those who could stay on the deck were all official adepts!

  It was a loose crew of one dozen adepts. Judging from the way they dressed and their spiritual fluctuations, most of them were First Grade adepts and no one he had to watch out for.

  Only an old adept with white, balding hair in a corner of the deck discreetly nodded and bent down when he saw Greem’s eye sweep across him, putting on a flattering smile as he did so.

  Greem had the Chip’s assistance and immediately understood what was happening.

  It seemed this person had the opportunity to participate in the tower’s banquet and had seen him before.

  Greem had no time to deal with a small fry like this. His gaze paused on the old adept for a second before moving elsewhere. The old adept knew his status well enough and didn’t dare disturb Greem. Instead, he turned and started talking with another adept.

  The adepts were a large group. Naturally, there were all sorts of people among them, all with different personalities and interests. Some were interested in conversation, while others preferred to keep to themselves.

  After running into a wall twice in a row, he finally managed to strike up a conversation with a pair of young male and female adepts. The two adepts were clearly a couple, and their relationship was enviably intimate.

  Greem stayed on the deck for a bit longer before getting bored of the scenery and turning to walk into the cabin.

  The old adept who was still engaged in conversation followed Greem with the corner of his eye. He finally let out a breath of relief when he saw Greem leave. It was an honor to run into such a legendary adept, but the pressure was immense as well.

  The couple seemed to have noticed the behavior of the old adept and secretly assessed Greem.

  A fiery look of infatuation appeared in the eyes of the young female adept when she saw Greem’s tall silhouette disappear into the cabin.

  “He looks like a strong adept! Could he be a body-refining adept?”

  It seemed like the male adept was not satisfied with his partner’s behavior. He frowned and said, “What’s good about body-refining adepts? They’re always soaking themselves in all sorts of weird juices. They always have a weird stink on them.”

  Goddammit! Truly a bunch of rookies and amateurs that have never seen the world. To think they dared to make comments about an unknown adept in public. These are really two brats that have no idea how ‘death’ is spelled.

  The old adept quickly interrupted the couple’s ‘ramblings’ and continued to passionately describe his previous mission to them, “That ruin was on the edge of the Black Forest. It had been scoured by people a few times before, but there were still some things left in there. As long as you listen to me, I guarantee you can get some decent resources from there.”

  The old adept continued on his rant. However, by this time, Greem had already entered the cabin. The magical array around it kept him from hearing the rest of the conversation.

  Greem was only listening casually to the conversation of these small fries. He wouldn’t take any of their words to heart.

  The old adept was a useless adept with no chance of advancement, only barely reaching his current level through the sheer passage of time. Moreover, Greem could sense a very well-hidden trace of hostility in the old man’s eyes and slick promises.

  It seemed like those two young adepts had become his prey. If he managed to trick them into that so-called ‘ruin,’ they would either walk into traps or be betrayed. It wasn’t hard to imagine what their outcome would be.

  Still, what did this have to do with Greem?

  …………

  As the elders of the adept’s tower had previously notified them, the adept managing the flying ship made sure to leave the largest and most luxurious room on the ship to Greem.

  The space inside the flying ship wasn’t large. Apart from the warehouse at the bottom-most level, the rooms left for the passengers were exceedingly narrow and small. Even the official adepts typically stayed in those tight rooms. However, Greem had a completely different feeling when he was led to his quarters by the managing adept.

  The room before him was not only broad and brightly-lit, but was also clearly split up into two sections.

  The outer section was the living room and the study room, while the inner part was the bedroom and a separate workshop. There was even a small alchemy platform in the workshop.

  This way, Greem would be able to process some simple alchemical items even during this journey.

  At this point, ordinary First and Second Grade magical golems could not provide him with any help. However, Third Grade elementium cores were not so easily obtained. Greem could only try his best to forge some lower-grade magical golems to bolster the combat power of his clan adepts.

  The clan’s resource sites were already starting to come online. Combined with the massive dragon resources of Lance, the Crimson Clan had a very stable resource-harvesting system. Under such circumstances, the convenient and practical elementium golems, as strategic resources, were no longer sold to the outside world. Instead, they were kept as exclusive benefits of the Crimson adepts.

  On this boring journey, reading books, looking at the scenery, and taking some time to create speci
al elementium golems; all this became a daily routine for Greem!

  The effect of meditation on improving Spirit was insignificant for Greem as he was now. However, after hundreds of years of developing this habit, four hours of daily meditation was a fixed routine for him.

  The improvement from such meditation might be minor, but if Greem persisted over the years, he might be able to obtain decent results.

  It was impossible to become a powerhouse without such routine hard work!

  Even during this seemingly leisurely trip, the Chip in Greem’s mind was still operating at high speed, analyzing one task after another in an orderly fashion.

  Ever since becoming Third Grade, the increase to his Spirit had caused an unprecedented improvement to the Chip’s calculation and organization abilities. Greem also discovered that his mind could now manage large amounts of data at a fast and efficient rate, even without the help of the Chip.

  He roughly estimated that his mind, as of now, could compare to the Chip when he was First Grade!

  It indirectly explained how high-grade adepts were able to deal with those complex, multi-layered three-dimensional arrays. With their powerful Spirits, every high-grade adept’s brain had been developed tremendously. Their minds were no weaker than intelligent computers from Greem’s last life.

  In fact, for the sake of increasing the capacity of their minds, some adepts would even use special magic to stimulate the wild growth of their brain, before cutting off a part of it and storing it in their own adept’s tower. This way, with the inherent connection between their brain and their split-off brain, these adepts would possess extraordinary memory and nearly infinite memory storage.

  It was almost as if they had a more rudimentary ‘Chip’ regularly assisting. If Greem ran into such individuals, his advantage of having the Chip would be leveled, and there would be no advantage to speak of.

  That was why the Chip was a tool and not the master. Greem had to fully unleash his own power and potential aside from relying on the Chip!

  Chapter 878 - Adept Civilization

  It was an entirely different world!

  This intense feeling would wash over Greem every time he traveled in the World of Adepts, giving him a unique experience every time.

  On Earth from his previous life, all of the photosynthetic energy for plant life came from the sun alone. Consequently, the weather, environment, humidity, and temperature of the region were all layered predictably and uniformly.

  However, in this strange high-magic world, every lifeform and geographical feature was affected by the flow and current of magical power, resulting in manifestations of all sorts of strange and bizarre features.

  Overall, the effect of the high-magic environment caused the plants and animals to be robust and large. Towering plants measuring over a hundred meters were everywhere. Moreover, many of them were showing signs of turning into magical plants. Meanwhile, the animals were shockingly ferocious and terrifying. Even the cute rabbits that people on Earth loved could evolve into carnivorous magical creatures. Such creatures were so violent that they even put the wolves on Earth to shame.

  Though the humans in such a high-magic environment had also evolved to be stronger, faster, and had more stamina than their Earth counterparts, they were still at a massive disadvantage compared to wild magical creatures.

  If it weren’t for some of the humans breaking beyond their physical and mental limits and taking hold of new supernatural powers, they would never have been the rulers of this plane.

  The environment where humans lived had also been changed significantly due to the abnormal flow and gathering of magical aura.

  There was the vast and boundless Black Forest, magical swamps constantly obscured with dense and thick fog, deserts that spanned for eternity, wild and untamed jungles, dangerous and gigantic mountain ranges, and white kingdoms of nothing but ice and snow.

  The Continent of the Adepts as seen from above the flying ship was like multiple massive yet different continents. From a distance, one could always find some exotic locations in the unpopulated swamps and mountains. The climate and environment in these locations were discordant from the surrounding area. They were like magical gems scattered across the continent, breathtaking and astonishing.

  These places were largely created due to abnormal magical aura currents caused by the unique development of geographic features. Then, as the adepts put in the effort to modify these places, they were turned into resource sites advantageous for magical plants and creatures to grow.

  From then on, the adepts gained a stable, long-term source of the incredible amount of adept resources they required!

  One could say without any reservations that the adepts’ stable growth had an inseparable relation to their development and use of such resource sites.

  As such, when the flying ship cruised above the layer of clouds, and Greem saw all the mountains and rivers below him, a strange emotion slowly grew within his heart.

  The geography below him wound and stretched with mountain ranges everywhere. Some extended for tens of thousands of kilometers, while others were steep and dangerous. The specks of human villages, towns, and cities were scattered all across them. Throwing in the dots of lakes and rivers in-between, a perfect human world appeared before Greem.

  Yet, this perfect human world was, in truth, controlled by adept organizations of various sizes.

  In the World of Adepts, the vast number of undeveloped wildlands and the boundless Black Forest meant that human kingdoms required the protection of powerful adepts. Without the adepts, the humans would have a hard time defending against the invasions of these powerful magical creatures, wild races, and mutated monsters.

  There was no pure human kingdom. The rulers of most city-states would choose to be subordinate to a powerful adept organization, providing yearly offerings in exchange for protection. The two forces benefitted each other and formed a system of their own.

  As such, the true owners of this seemingly peaceful, calm, and beautiful land were not the ordinary humans working hard upon it, but the massive group of adepts that resided at the top of the golden pyramid of the human world.

  Supposedly, the difficulty of advancing to become an adept meant that this peak of the pyramid should be a small minority that possessed tremendous power. However, with the massive extension to their lifespans upon advancing, the adepts had turned from a ‘small minority’ into an extremely large group after tens of thousands of years had passed.

  If these people remained in the World of Adepts, the world itself would have had a hard time satisfying their incredible amount of needs. Out of consideration for the long-term development of the World of Adepts, these powerful adepts all left their homeworld, both voluntarily and involuntarily. They ventured into the outer realms and created a whole new kind of world in the depths of space.

  Those who remained in the World of Adepts, truthfully speaking, were only seeds of the adept faction!

  Every hundred years, the World of Adepts had to send a new batch of fresh blood to the adept faction in the outer realms. That was how they continued to extend the adept civilization!

  …………

  Greem slowly closed the book in his hands.

  He closed his eyes and gradually reflected on his understanding of the entire adept civilization.

  He might not know much about the secrets of the ancient adepts, but it didn’t stop him from observing and thinking about the development of the adept civilization from the perspective of a third party.

  It was also one way and one method by which high-grade adepts got to know themselves and the world around them.

  Trying to break through the limits of the plane and obtain the law powers of a higher grade were impossible if a higher-grade adept didn’t first understand the development of the planar world, or have their path align with the origin consciousness of the world.

  Take Greem, for example!

  Since he chose fire specialization, he co
uld only try his best to master the laws of fire.

  There were two paths available to him if he wanted to achieve this goal.

  One was spending years to research and practice, continually refining his origin compatibility with the laws of fire, and using time and experience to break through the threshold of those laws.

  Most creatures of the Fire Elementium Plane advanced through this method.

  However, this method had both upsides and downsides.

  The upside was that whenever an adept broke through the thresholds of these laws, their power would improve rapidly, allowing them to become a member of the principle adepts. The downside was that such a process required so much time that it was depressing. It was impossible to bear through that long and painful timespan if you were not an elementium creature who lacked any concept of time.

  Greem might have an extremely long lifespan now, but it was still far from the near-immortality of Elementium Creatures. Thus, the advancement method of the elementium creatures was not suitable for him.

  The second method was to use external items to shorten this process of research and experience indirectly and, thus, complete the necessary accumulation of knowledge on the laws of fire.

  According to Greem’s understanding, most high-grade adepts actively participated in planar wars. It was not only to develop and strengthen their adept faction but also to obtain those exceedingly rare ‘planar origins.’

  Planar Origins were manifestations of the planar laws of a planeworld.

  These planar laws were usually abstract and intangible, born from the origin consciousness of the planar world, before being woven into a massive and invisible web that covered the entire planeworld and all of its substances and creatures.

  Under ordinary circumstances, all substance and life within the plane would follow the laws of the plane. They would be born, grow, strengthen, age, and die in an orderly fashion. Though every rock, piece of dirt, life, and soul had their own unique features and would undergo a unique life of their own, every single one of them was in fact governed by a tight, fine web from behind the scenes.