It was unavoidable!
Moreover, with the passage of time, Gargamel was getting increasingly older. If he still could not advance soon, no one knew if he could even live for another fifty years.
Meryl undoubtedly had a much more significant advantage in this regard compared to Gargamel!
…………
Inside the secret room.
The severely injured Third Grade Fire Dragon Philippa crouched on the ground, hanging to life by a thread.
Countless runic chains extended from the arrays on the walls around her, binding her securely. Even moving a single finger was tremendously difficult.
As her control over her body had been taken away, the fire dragon could only barely open her eyes to glare at the damned male adept who was looking her up and down.
“Human, what exactly do you want? If it’s a good time you want, there’s no need to be so violent!” Perhaps, because she recognized that there was no helping her situation, the fire dragon finally softened her stance a little. She continued to throw some seductive looks Greem’s way even as she communicated mentally with him.
However, with her size and appearance, she would probably be one obese lady even if she was in human form. Those fawning looks she was giving Greem almost made him throw up.
“I don’t want your body.” Greem shook his head and said.
“…” The fire dragon’s expression froze, “Then you probably have your eyes on my power! I can’t become your dragon pet. However, I am only willing to become your personal pet. That female vampire shouldn’t even think about it.”
“I don’t exactly need you to be my dragon pet.” Greem continued to shake his head.
“Then what do you want? You…you won’t kill me, will you? I am the powerful Star of Disaster Philippa. You…you won’t waste a treasure like me, will you?” Seemingly thrown into a panic by the male adept’s mysterious behavior, the fire dragon could no longer remain as composed as before.
“I want your bloodline talent. Can you give me this?” Greem smiled sinisterly.
“What exactly are you trying to do? You have no dragon bloodline in you. The bloodline legacy of us dragons can’t be transferred either. You…”
Just as the fire dragon was roaring about in exasperation, Greem waved his hand as a metal cage locked up in the corner of the room with a series of runic arrays slowly opened. A small beast shuffled and climbed out from within.
It was a strange beast that resembled a small mastiff.
The reason it was said the be strange was that its size was utterly different from the usual evolution pattern of powerful magical beasts.
Its skinny and frail body was only the size of a mastiff. Its skin was smooth and without any fur. It had a pair of powerful hind legs that allowed it to run rapidly, but no front legs to go with them. There were no tough scales on its smooth head, nor sharp horns, or even eyes, ears, or nose. It only had a single terrifying, fanged mouth.
This mouth took up nearly two-thirds of its entire head.
There was no acid-spitting ability, no poisonous saliva, no tough scales, no powerful body, no tremendous strength, no elementium powers.
Yet, it was this seemingly ordinary, odd beast with no special powers that caught all of the fire dragon’s attention upon its appearance.
“What…what is this? What…what are you trying to do with it?”
For some reason, the fire dragon felt a shiver run down her spine. An inexplicable feeling of danger caused her heart to race wildly!
However, the suppression and bindings of the tower made her incapable of performing any movements. The fire dragon’s tightly shut mouth silently opened up as the silver chains pulled backward.
The strange beast extended an agile tongue from its large mouth. The tongue vibrated lightly in the air and quickly detected the existence of Greem and the fire dragon. The two equally delicious scents of food caused the beast to prop up its body with its hind legs and run towards Greem.
Greem frowned slightly.
Dammit! Has his current elementium talent already eclipsed the bloodline talent of a Third Grade fire dragon and made the Sourcestealer choose him as the target?
The thought appeared in his mind and translated into action.
A sharp killing intent emanated from Greem, causing the temperature of the around him to rise slowly.
Perhaps because it sensed the dangerous aura around Greem, the Sourcestealer stopped in its tracks. It carefully sensed its surroundings for a bit longer before reluctantly switching targets and leaping into the fire dragon’s slightly open mouth.
If the fire dragon had possessed any ability to resist, she would have been able to deal with this creature. She wouldn’t even have needed her dragon’s breath or her powerful claws. A single sneeze would have wiped out a whole horde of these useless, defenseless beasts.
However, as she was currently, the fire dragon could only watch as the beast lunged into her mouth.
She might not know what the beast was and how it would hurt her, but that terror from the very depths of her soul frightened her immensely.
The fact that a low-grade beast with no elementium talent or special powers could make her feel such an incredible sense of danger was more than enough proof that it possessed unique powers beyond her understanding!
Moreover, would that damned male adept ever use a worthless beast to threaten her?
“Make it stop. I will agree to whatever you say…quick…make it stop…guhuhguh…”
As Philippa roared with all her might, the beast dove into her mouth, stepping over her tongue and sliding down her gullet.
The fire dragon roared with all she had, attempting to gather a cluster of flames in her throat to burn the beast to death. Unfortunately, the mental flux she gathered was instantly shattered to pieces by the silver chains around her. That cluster of fire vanished before it could grow larger than a small flame.
Without Greem’s permission, this Third Grade Philippa would not be able to gather even a spark of flames in Greem’s tower.
Just as Philippa roared and struggled, the beast had entered her body and started to move about. For some reason, the fire dragon’s extremely corrosive stomach acid did nothing to the creature. It opened its mouth and began tearing at her stomach, ravaging within.
Philippa had a feeling that the beast was aiming for her heart and spine!
Unfortunately, this revelation came a bit too late. Philippa’s entire body trembled in agony as her Spirit shuddered furiously. A series of mental messages asking for mercy surged toward Greem.
“I admit defeat. I was wrong. I surrender!” Philippa was in tears now, “As long as you make the beast come out, I will agree to anything…anything you want.”
Chapter 913 - Bloodline Rune
Unfortunately, it was all too late now!
Greem decided to use his authority to cut off the fire dragon’s mental senses of the outside world.
Philippa’s mental messages instantly vanished, leaving a poor, agonized fire dragon in the room who could not even lift a finger.
Attempting to rob a Third Grade fire dragon of her bloodline talent through the Sourcestealer was undoubtedly a complicated task. Even after exhausting all sorts of rare resources to strengthen the creature, there was still a 43% chance of failure.
Moreover, the Sourcestealer dying was only a small matter if he failed. The Third Grade fire dragon’s bloodline quality would also decrease due to pollution from the dead Sourcestealer. That was why Greem’s attempt was risky.
If the attempt to devour the bloodline talent failed, he would suffer a personal loss as great as one to two million magical crystals!
However, if it were to succeed, it would be an incredible help to him.
The process of anxious waiting was undoubtedly a very long one.
Greem could sense that the beast had successfully torn a path all the way to the large heart of the dragon. It was now attached to the spot, not moving at all.
Thus, one day went by.
Then, two days.
For eight days, this beast remained utterly stationary.
However, its body and bodily construct had changed tremendously over these eight days.
The terrifying mouth at the front of its head had vanished entirely, and its long tongue had pierced into the fire dragon’s heart, turning into an alternative blood vessel connecting its body to the heart. Its thick hind legs had also disappeared, replaced by two soft meat spikes the size of a baby’s arm.
The meat spikes extended through the body of the fire dragon, their edges stabbing into her tough spinal column.
Once the heart and spinal column were under the control of the Sourcestealer, Philippa gradually started losing all sense of her body. She had only lost control over her body due to the suppression of the tower’s sealing powers. She still had a perfect understanding of everything happening within her body.
However, Philippa’s mental consciousness had now retracted within her mind. She had completely lost all sense and control of her body parts. It was as if she had been caged in a dark space. Philippa was now utterly ignorant of everything happening outside and anything that could be harmful to her!
Greem had also cut off her Spirit from communicating with the outside world. As such, Philippa was isolated, forced to aimlessly and passively await her unknown fate.
Yet, the only result that came from this was one that she would never be able to accept!
The Sourcestealer’s process of stealing bloodline talent was not as simple as it looked. All the risk and danger of failing were gathered within the strange blood sack it had now turned into. The process of stealing was a long one, and it took thirty-three days in total.
During this time, Greem remained in the room aside from occasionally leaving for food and rest. He watched over and recorded all the miraculous changes and phases that the Sourcestealer underwent.
Philippa’s soul vanished on the seventeenth day, signaling the death of a powerful Third Grade being.
On the thirty-third day, the massive sack that was now one meter in diameter finally split open. A strange creature that was neither dragon nor insect climbed out from within and started tunneling its way out of the dragon’s body.
Every bloodline had a host body that was suitable as a medium. The planar laws also provided all creatures with their innate talents based on the characteristics of their bloodline. A fire dragon’s bloodline was undoubtedly incredibly powerful and violent. Consequently, it also required a sufficiently robust body to host it.
The Sourcestealer’s internal body construction underwent tremendous changes every time it robbed a different talent. These changes often had an integral relation with the abilities it took.
Through the massive library of magical creature information that Greem had on the Chip, he was sure that the core of the Sourcestealer’s new form was somewhat similar to that of a fledgling fire dragon. However, it still retained a trace of insect characteristics on some irrelevant and unnecessary sub-organs.
An enhanced tranquilizing mist sprayed onto the mutated Sourcestealer the moment it emerged from the fire dragon. This small creature with sharp fangs, a long face, crimson skin, webbed wings, and thick hind legs only managed to let out a short breath of fire before falling completely unconscious.
Greem had personally raised this Sourcestealer. He had a perfect understanding of all its organs and basic magic resistances. Though its magic resistances had increased after its mutation, it still could not endure the tranquilizer that Greem had specially concocted.
“Contact Gargamel and have him clean up the spot. He can deal with the Third Grade fire dragon’s body as he wishes, but remember to retrieve the dragon crystal inside and bring it to me.” After a simple communication with the tower’s spirit, Greem grabbed the fire insect with his invisible elementium hand and turned to leave.
In another slightly smaller biological lab, an experimental platform with a complete set of tools had already been prepared. It was only waiting for a specimen.
Greem had conducted four talent-stealing experiments in the past seven years and had succeeded twice. However, Greem still couldn’t extract the bloodline talent he personally wanted from the surviving Sourcestealers.
Sourcestealers were creatures as well. The bloodline talent they stole from other animals had been transformed into their own innate talents through their unique abilities. It was immensely difficult to correctly extract this bloodline talent with the means currently available to the adepts.
Any other adept would probably have to accept this outcome silently.
However, Greem was different. He was aided by the Chip and could rely on its precise controls and in-depth analysis to conduct operations at a genetic level.
As such, Greem planted some magical runes in the Sourcestealer’s body ahead of time, through the combination of surgical operations and magic. He then relied on these magical runes to reverse-engineer the process of the Sourcestealer’s talent-stealing.
In this way, Greem had indeed successfully obtained a strange, mysterious rune!
When the Sourcestealer’s flesh, skin, organs, and bloodline had all been dissolved into a single mess, a glowing crimson rune appeared on the operation table due to the interference and guidance of the potent planar laws.
It was a mysterious rune that was entirely different from the current runic system of the World of Adepts.
If the runes of the World of Adepts were a type of flat rune used to move the planar laws with elementium powers as leverage, then this newly acquired one was a never-before-seen three-dimensional rune.
Greem attempted to use the Chip’s deep scans to analyze the secrets behind this mysterious rune, but his actions nearly caused it to disperse and disintegrate.
Through some simple scans and analysis, Greem was shocked to find that this seemingly simple law rune was composed of a series of magical patterns and law chains. Due to the lack of nourishment of bloodline power, this mysterious rune was extremely frail, despite how powerful it appeared to be.
If it hadn’t been in a lab within the tower and isolated from all pollution and disruption by a strong elementium barrier, even a slightly bigger breath of air from Greem could have utterly destroyed it.
Greem had no choice but to create a new purification spell and seal the rune within a small air-tight bubble created with the spell. It was the only way that Greem could keep the mysterious rune from being affected by wandering magical elementium and preserve it for extended periods.
After an arduous battle and thirty-three days of painful waiting, Greem had finally obtained the thing he had always dreamt of– a bloodline rune!
Greem lifted the air bubble carefully and held his breath as his eyes greedily feasted upon this slowly rotating rune beneath the gentle white light of the lab.
He had tried all sorts of techniques, but Greem still could not analyze any mysterious items related to the planar laws with his current abilities. The outcome was the same, even with the help of the Chip.
Greem estimated that he could only analyze the deeper secrets of the bloodline rune if he could advance to Fourth Grade and improve the Chip’s calculation and scanning abilities by another level. Currently, he could only sit atop a treasure mountain with no way of entering within.
There was nothing Greem could do about this!
How should he use this bloodline rune now that he had obtained it?
He already possessed great fire talent now. If he abruptly introduced the bloodline of another race into his body, it was unknown how it would affect his power and future development.
Before he could obtain more specific data and information, Greem wasn’t so foolish as to use it on himself. If the two bloodlines could not assimilate, they would clash with and pollute each other. That wouldn’t bring about an explosion of power for him, but a dead end in his path forward.
That was why Greem had to be cautious, cautious, and eve
n more cautious on the path of bloodline assimilation.
The ideal way of using this bloodline rune now was to transplant it onto an adept and then observe the effects of the bloodline rune on their innate potential over a long period of time. Greem would only attempt to treat his own bloodline after he had gathered all the necessary data.
After all, compared to those geniuses with truly great bloodline talents, Greem’s human fire talent was insignificant!
Who should he use this bloodline rune he had extracted from a Third Grade dragon on?
Using it on an ordinary adept would be a real waste of the innate potential of a Third Grade fire dragon. It was best if he used it on the people within the clan who were of the most help to him.
Mary?
Haha, what a joke!
Mary’s vampire talent was no weaker than the fire dragon’s bloodline talent. At the very least, a vampire’s innate ability was undoubtedly even more dominating and unpredictable when it came to the exclusivity of other bloodlines. If different bloodlines clashed with the vampire’s, they would have a hard time escaping a fate of being devoured.
That would be a complete waste of this fire dragon bloodline rune!
Alice?
Her Fate Witch bloodline appeared to be even stranger and more unpredictable than this bloodline rune. It also required no modification.
How about, her?
Greem’s eyes narrowed as the form of a female adept slowly appeared in his mind.
Chapter 914 - An Adept's Power
World of Adepts, White Tower.
Adept Meryl was silently spacing out in a wide hall on the seventh floor with a piece of parchment in her hands that had just arrived.
There was only one short line of words on the smooth piece of parchment, ordering that she was to immediately transfer control authority of White Tower to Fate Witch Snowlotus and hurry to report to Fire Throne.
The letter provided no explanation or timing for her departure.
No one could rob Adept Meryl of all her influence in such an abrupt letter. No one but the person who wrote it!
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