That was the leverage by which Gargamel and Meryl intended to use to negotiate with the Association.
They wanted the horse to run, yet they also wanted the horse not to eat. How could such a profitable thing be possible?!
Having received Greem’s instructions and orders, Gargamel came forth with all his unreasonable diplomatic prowess. He immediately made impossible demands of Vice-Chairman Mirva, listing one outrageous request after another, each one causing Mirva’s beard to puff up in a fury. They wanted resources, territory, civilians, treasure, and knowledge.
Gargamel listed practically everything he could think of as a request and put them on a long, long list; he made sure to put down a massive number at the end of each item. He then proceeded to argue and negotiate with Mirva with all he had.
Fourth Grade adept? What’s that? Does that have anything to do with my request?
One had to admit that the loyal and dedicated Gargamel lived up to his name as the Crimson Majordomo. To think he would dare to throw a tantrum before a furious Fourth Grade adept over an insignificant amount of resources.
Adept Laurent, who was stuck in between the two of them, felt his head swell in pain. He spent most of the session consoling Gargamel, then immediately turned over to console Mirva instead. He would put out their flaring tempers with much difficulty, and they would quickly erupt the moment a new proposal was raised.
It was a Second Grade adept arguing with a Fourth Grade adept with flushed, red faces, while a Third Grade adept tried his best to diffuse the tension. The muscles on Meryl’s face twitched uncontrollably. She was trying her hardest not to laugh out loud. There were many times when she found this scene incredibly ridiculous and hilarious, but after some thought, she would always find it to be a most understandable situation!
Having understood the actual circumstances revolving around the entire affair, Meryl knew very well that Vice-Chairman Mirva was actually very delighted, despite how angry and furious he appeared to be at the moment.
After all, losing some resources was much better than the Association breaking up over having to elect one of their own for a suicide mission!
As such, regardless of how outrageous Gargamel’s demands were, Mirva was only ‘angry, angry, and angry.’
After all, as a Fourth Grade adept, Mirva could not possibly have been consoled by his Third Grade subordinate if he had been truly angered. He simply had to drop a spell, and the whole world would return to silence. An ant of a Second Grade adept would not have the chance to display such insolence before him.
His anger was only a declaration of sorts!
It was warning Gargamel not to overstep his boundaries while acknowledging that the Association was at fault. As for where the limit lay? That was something that a ‘hooligan’ like Gargamel had to probe for slowly.
With neither party wanting to break out into an actual conflict, the so-called ‘negotiations’ ended up looking more like a slapstick show!
After a loud and passionate discussion that lasted for an entire day, the two parties finally arrived at a basic agreement on a series of resources, items, and knowledge.
When Meryl and the extremely parched Gargamel were eventually escorted to the Association’s treasury by Laurent, the anger on Mirva’s face slowly faded away.
“They asked for quite a lot this time. It’s a little too greedy of them!” Mirva coldly said to the empty air. It was a mystery who he was speaking to.
“It’s good greed, fantastic greed, I would say. if they weren’t that greedy, I would think that the Association is in trouble!” Chairman Freed’s projection silently appeared behind Mirva.
“It’s not a small amount that we are going to lose this time. It’s a hefty sum of resources and materials. Their appetite is enormous!” Mirva was still a little resentful.
“Are those resources and materials worth the price of a Fourth Grade adept?” Freed smiled and asked in return.
Mirva fell silent.
Soon, even that last bit of resentment faded away.
Mirva gritted his teeth. He will just treat those resources as the price for Greem’s life, then!
…………
The massive injection of resources, materials, treasures, and knowledge into the Crimson Clan allowed the clan’s foundations to become even more secure.
The majority of Crimson adepts had no means of finding out about the crisis that hung above the head of their clan leader. They were indulging in the joy of the clan’s grand ‘harvest.’
Their clan leader was almost about to advance to Fourth Grade. How were they, the clan members, supposed to keep up if they were left too far behind by their leader? As such, even without the encouragement and agitation of the higher-ups, a frenzied trend for improvement and advancement swept over the Crimson adepts.
With the plentiful resources in the clan’s possession, the more talented clan adepts obtained an even more significant investment of resources. More and more individuals started growing in power.
However, most of these adepts only improved by minor grades. The people who advanced from First to Second Grade and Second to Third Grade were still in the extreme minority.
Among all these striving adepts, one lonely and abject fellow stood out more conspicuously than any other!
Chapter 1054 - Chaos Physique
Billis walked through the corridor, quiet and alone.
As the clan had just obtained a tremendous victory, the jovial mood of celebration was everywhere within the tower.
Billis slowly walked down the wide and brightly lit stone corridor. The hood hanging over his face blocked off the light from the illumination stones wherever he walked, casting a shadow to the ground. Like a silent ghost, he wandered through the tower.
Billis turned a corner and ran into five apprentices who were chattering amongst themselves with heavy piles of books in their hands.
Upon seeing Billis’ iconic black robe and his weird slithering movement, the five apprentices hurriedly made way, bowing with their backs against the wall.
“Greetings, Lord Billis.”
Billis’ countless blood-red eyes beneath the hood swept past the apprentices, and he simply walked past as if he had not even seen them.
The edge of his black robe swayed, and a strange crackling sound could be heard as he moved. Countless black limbs could be seen moving at a fast yet uniform pace at the bottom of his robe. Occasionally, several black things would fall out from Billis’ robe. These things would turn over, revealing themselves to be black beetles the size of human fists. They would screech and catch up to Billis, diving into his black robe and vanishing without a trace again.
The adept apprentices didn’t dare imagine how many more similar insects Billis was hiding under that squirming and contorting robe of his. Could the scariest adept of their clan, Lord Billis, spend all his time with tens of thousands of insects on his person?
The apprentices finally let out a long breath of relief and went back to talking and laughing once Billis’ terrifying hooded figure had vanished at the end of the corridor.
Billis silently returned to his room on the seventh floor and stepped into the dark, cold room.
As a Second Grade core adept of the clan, Billis could easily have a much finer and comfortable room to himself. However, his instincts as a bug adept were changing him. He hated the light, and he hated life more and more than ever before. It was why he had chosen this damp and sinister place as his room.
Barely any furniture could be seen in the massive room. There was only a small magical altar at the corner of the hall. The smooth and white stone platform had long since been stained red, caked with layer upon layer of purplish-black bloodstains.
Judging from the thickness and color of the stains, the blood had come from many different victims over a long period of time.
One could smell a nearly suffocating stench of blood upon entering the hall!
An ordinary person would not even be able to breathe i
n such an environment. However, with the unusual sensory organs of a bug adept, this scent in the air couldn’t be any more fragrant or fresh.
A massive mirror had also been placed on a wall of the room.
Billis promptly walked in front of the mirror upon returning to his room.
His hood was raised, revealing the mess of crimson eyes on his face. Billis took a look at the robe on his body, reflected in the mirror. After a moment’s hesitation, he finally reached forward and pulled it away.
The robe split apart in the middle, revealing the horrifying and unsightly figure beneath.
The body of a beetle, smooth, black, and gleaming with a chilling light. Rows of short but sharp limbs, reaching all the way to his abdomen. He was like an upright black beetle from the waist up. Meanwhile, bumps could be seen all over the lower half of his body, a large abdomen filled with all sorts of pungent and filthy liquids.
Several larvae could be clearly seen floating in yellow and green liquid through the semi-translucent abdominal cavity.
Not a single trace of humanity could be seen on Billis’ body now, top to bottom, inside out. His thought process, likes, dislikes, habits, and behavioral patterns were now completely distinct from most humans and adepts.
Undoubtedly, this was the main reason why he always kept his form covered with a black robe and why he hardly ever interacted with others!
It wasn’t just the other adepts who couldn’t tell his identity now. Even Billis himself had no idea whether he was man…or bug.
Many bloodline adepts had bloodline manifestations that turned them into monsters that resembled no human nor creature. However, very few adepts ever had their bloodline manifest to such a thorough degree as Billis.
Within the clan, there were a few other adepts who also walked the path of a bloodline adept. That included Bloody Queen Mary, Mystique Emelia, Fire Dragon Adept Meryl, and Poison Adept Gargamel. Their bloodline manifestations only displayed in parts of their bodies. Most of their bodies still retained pronounced humanoid features.
It made them more readily accepted by their companions and assimilated within the clan.
However, individuals like Billis that had wholly transformed into ‘monsters’ were often not only rejected, but also lost in their own existential crisis.
There were many times when Billis would wake up in the dead of night, confused and disoriented.
Where was he? Who was he? What kind of monster was he?
These troubles and frustrations tortured Billis for many decades until, finally, the human Billis vanished from his mind without a trace.
Without the restraint of his last trace of humanity, Billis could finally embrace his existence and become a true ‘bug adept’!
However, he quickly discovered a terrifying problem.
Without the aid of human Billis, he had lost all ability to advance and improve. It didn’t matter how much he slaughtered. The most he could do was absorb more life essence to create more vicious swarms. His grade remained unmoved. He could not continue improving the essence of his life.
Queen Bug. The limit of the Queen Bug that Billis had absorbed was only Third Grade. It had only achieved its current height after being assimilated by Acteon, and then Billis.
However, the Queen Bug’s separation from Acteon had damaged her soul origin, causing it to now be stuck at advanced Second Grade without any improvement.
The Crimson Clan had weathered so many disasters. Billis had also chosen to walk the path of evolution through slaughter, becoming the much-feared bug adept on the battlefields of war. Sadly, fame was only empty glory. It could not help Billis improve at all.
Thus, Billis gradually had lost interest in slaughter over these years. Instead, he started wandering the lands, searching for a way to deal with his current problem.
Bloodline modification?
Billis had always been on the frontlines of every battle. He had seldom settled down to conduct any form of research. As such, he couldn’t possibly go far on the path of bloodline modification, even if he were to start cramming the required knowledge.
Bloodline replacement?
Some fairly valuable bloodline re-creation potions had appeared in the clan. However, after thorough reflection, Billis chose to give up on these. Serpentine bloodline, pseudo-dragon bloodline– these might all sound nice, but they weren’t suitable for Billis.
If Billis chose to go for bloodline replacement, it would mean that all the effort he had put in so far would have been in vain. He would have to cultivate an entirely different bloodline power from scratch once again. Moreover, the Queen Bug he had assimilated was now the actual owner of this body. Why would it ever conduct such an act of ‘suicide?’
After much thought, and failing to come to a solution, Billis had no choice but to silently communicate with the tower spirit and submit a request for an audience with the clan leader.
…………
Fire Throne. A secret room on the very top floor.
After three months of seclusion, Greem had finally completed the difficult process of bloodline modification.
“Chip, conduct a deep scan on me!”
[Beep. Mission accepted. Deep scan starting!]
A series of gentle electronic sounds rang out as the Chip went to work. With its robust scanning and analysis abilities, the Chip quickly put together Greem’s actual power at the moment.
[Greem. Male. Third Grade Elementium Adept (Fire Specialization). Chaos Physique (Excellent Magic Resistance).
Bodily Attributes: Strength 24 (+5) | Physique 27 (+2) | Agility 16 | Spirit 39.
Bloodline Talent: Energy Blackhole.
One had to admit that powerful chaos creatures like the starbeasts were truly living treasure troves. The bloodline abilities they possessed were incredibly potent. After replacing his human bloodline with a starbeast bloodline, Greem had obtained the Chaos Physique, allowing him to absorb magical energy from the chaos of space directly.
Space was no longer a dangerous realm of hazards for him now. Instead, it was his home-field. As long as Greem wasn’t caught at the center of a terrifying energy storm, he would be able to move freely through space.
The bloodline talent Energy Blackhole also had something to do with the innate abilities of the starbeasts.
In a moment of crisis, Greem could use Energy Blackhole to convert all magical energy within ten meters of himself into chaos energy, which he could absorb for his own use. The duration of this effect was five seconds.
To Greem’s knowledge, almost all casters hated chaos energy with a passion.
That was because chaos energy was violent and disorderly, incapable of being shaped into spells or magic. As such, Energy Blackhole could be used to shield Greem from a single lethal spell.
Greem would only need to use Energy Blackhole when the attack was about to hit him, and the orderly magical energy of the spell would be converted into wild chaos energy. Naturally, the enemy’s spell would fall apart on a structural level and be neutralized!
Moreover, the Chaos Physique also provided Greem with magic resistance far surpassing that of an ordinary adept.
Greem had the Chip perform some estimations. Even though he was currently only at the peak of Third Grade, his magic resistance could already rival some Fourth Grade elementium adepts.
Moreover, if the battlefield was located in the depths of the galaxy, where energy storms rampaged without stop, Greem would be able to gain an advantage with his Chaos Physique!
After all, adepts born within material planes could not absorb the wild magic energy directly from space as Greem could. Greem could actively and passively absorb a certain degree of magic elementium energy in areas of chaotic magic energy.
It was undoubtedly a tremendous enhancement to his abilities!
Chapter 1055 - The Secession Plan
Greem only read the request from Billis for an audience a month later.
He had been busy with the matter of his bloodline replacem
ent and had completely cut off all connection to the outside world. It wasn’t until his bloodline reconstruction was successful and he emerged to nurse his body and Spirit that he saw the list of requests for an audience presented by the tower spirit.
Any small changes to one’s bloodline was a significant affair, let alone a thorough bloodline replacement like Greem had just undergone. As the balance between his soul and his old bloodline had been shattered, Greem’s power had fallen to the bottom of the valley. He urgently needed to construct a power system with his new bloodline as the core.
It was going to be a long and challenging journey!
As such, Greem started nursing his body as best as he could once he emerged from the room.
He had already established several important phases in his mind for the seclusion this time.
Naturally, the first phase was the replacement of his human bloodline with the starbeast’s bloodline. That allowed him to gain new bloodline talents.
The second phase was to construct some vital energy organs based on his new bloodline talents to replace the ‘outdated’ organs of his current body. The utmost priority of these organs was the Flame Fiend’s Heart.
The Flame Fiend’s Heart was no longer beneficial to Greem and often ended up as a burden in battle. Modifying the Heart into a true ‘heart of flame’ was an absolute priority!
The third and final phase was the most crucial part of this seclusion. That was to use the origin substance to experience and master the principle powers, such that Greem might advance to Fourth Grade.
Of these three phases that Greem had established, the first two were to strengthen his foundations. He had to streamline and optimize all of his power systems relating to bloodline and magic prior to his advancement to ensure that these inefficiencies would not affect his future advancement past Fourth Grade.
Now, Greem had successfully replaced his bloodline with a starbeast bloodline. He had obtained the Chaos Physique and a reasonably potent bloodline talent. In doing so, he had successfully achieved his goals for the first phase.
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