Meanwhile, Cherisha appeared beside the four surviving beasts. Crimson light glowed in her eyes as she stabbed her fingers into their foreheads.
A short moment and a few chants later, Cherisha withdrew her fingers. The four beasts collapsed to the ground, pungent purple blood flowing out of the holes in their heads.
Chapter 1105 - One Night in a Village
A Sixth Grade star devourer had died in battle.
The mutated beast army sent by the Scourge Lords had been routed.
Arcane Emperor Garcia’s clone appeared in the floating city Truth’s Light.
This series of information caused Greem to frown.
The main reason why ordinary Fourth Grade adepts were so reluctant to participate in this otherworldly war was due to how difficult it was to grasp the power levels of the participants.
Supposedly, very few people within the plane should be able to threaten the lives of Greem’s party. They were a group of Fourth Grade adepts, after all. However, as the various major factions continued to extend their influence into Morrian Plane, the intensity and level of the war also rose exponentially.
Greem and his party members might be Fourth Grade adepts and seem like the dominant predators within a material plane. However, they would not end up much better than the losing arcanists if they acted brazenly and ran into powerful beings who had descended into the plane.
As such, Greem and the others had maintained a low profile since entering Morrian Plane.
If it weren’t for the damned ‘assault’ missions handed down by the main party, they probably wouldn’t have wanted to participate in even one unnecessary battle.
That was especially the case now that they heard even a Sixth Grade star devourer had died inside the plane. They were only more concerned now.
“The origins of these mutated beasts…?” Greem remained silent for a while before asking softly.
“They belong to a powerful disaster creature known as the Lord of Eternal Night. They are his eyes and ears. Our impromptu operation this time might have prodded the hornet’s nest!” There was no longer a smile on Cherisha’s face. Her expression was solemn.
“What grade is this Lord of Eternal Night fellow?” Adept Holly asked worriedly.
“Sixth Grade. He’s a Sixth Grade as well!” Cherisha clicked her tongue and sighed for their collective misfortune. “However, we don’t need to be too worried either. The Lord of Eternal Night himself is still fighting with the Arcane Empire beyond the planar barriers. He only has a Fourth Grade clone created through corruption and modification inside Morrian Plane. He’s not quite a lethal threat to us yet!”
Adept Holly finally let out a breath of relief upon hearing this.
These disaster creatures were the very definition of chaos and savagery. Their soul origins had already been corrupted and strengthened by the will of the World of Disasters. They were now the Scourge Lord’s cannon fodder, used for excursions and invasions.
There was no possibility of interaction or cooperation with these creatures!
“Do you know why they’ve appeared in the plane?” Greem frowned as he tried to come up with an answer himself.
“They had initially been gathered in an army to conquer Truth’s Light, but they were routed by the Arcane Empire instead. Consequently, the low-grade Scourge Lords scattered to look for whatever targets interested them. Though I can’t extract a complete line of attack from the minds of the beasts, judging from the path they have been taking, our targets coincide!” Cherisha spoke with her face full of worry.
“The floating city of Reisin Garden?” Greem fell into silent contemplation.
Of course. That was the only place in this region that could have attracted the disaster creatures here.
Didn’t they risk their lives and cross the planar barrier precisely to slaughter and harvest life energy and souls? Where else would the quantity of life energy and souls be higher than the floating garden, where all the arcane apprentices and arcanists were gathered?
Adept Holly’s mind immediately started turning quickly after breaking free of the panic from earlier.
“You two……do you think we have a chance of killing the Fourth Grade disaster creature if we all work together? I heard that star beasts and disaster creatures excel at absorbing planar origins. They have already been on the plane for such a long time. They just might have managed to get their hands on some origin substance.”
Both Greem and Cherisha’s eyes gleamed when they heard the word ‘origin substance.’
In all seriousness, origin substances were incredibly important and significant to all Fourth Grade adepts.
If Greem could get his hands on origin substances, he could analyze the fire laws much more rapidly than he was currently able to. Meanwhile, for Cherisha, origin substance could increase the compatibility of her and her brother’s souls. It would allow them to more quickly break free of their awkward situation where they could not simultaneously control the body.
“These minor Scourge Lords are probably constantly surrounded by a shocking number of mutated beasts. Trying to kill them is a little……” Cherisha was undoubtedly the weakest amongst the three. As such, she played coy and looked towards Greem instead.
“I think we can try!” Greem thought for a moment and said, “Disaster creatures are distrustful beings. At the level of minor Scourge Lords, infighting is often more savage and frequent than battles against foreign enemies. That’s why Fourth Grade minor Scourge Lords always work alone. In that regard, we will have the advantage in numbers of Fourth Grades.”
Cherisha’s eyes couldn’t help but light up when she heard this.
“Moreover, his target coincides with our own. Conflict will certainly break out between us eventually. Rather than be forced into an encounter, why not take the initiative? We will find the Fourth Grade clone of the Lord of Eternal Night and kill it.”
“Very well! That is solid reasoning.”Adept Holly chuckled. “We have all signed an Oath Contract after all. Unity is on our side. With the might of three Fourth Grade adepts joined together, we might just be able to deal with that savage beast?”
Adept Holly looked at Cherisha, and the two-headed adept quickly nodded and made known her position.
“I will defer to you two. Three against one, I believe our chances of victory are higher than the opponent’s.”
Adept Holly nodded in satisfaction.
The three adepts finally split up once night fell.
Greem walked down the dirty yellow road of the village and found a relatively clean wooden house. He stepped over the tattered fence and pushed open the damaged door of the house.
Creak.
The wooden house opened, revealing the messy layout within.
The people who originally lived here didn’t seem wealthy at all. The furniture inside the house was simple and worn-out. The invasion of the beasts from earlier had only made things even messier. Most of the furniture had been smashed to pieces.
Greem shook his head slightly.
Because of his human habits all this time, he preferred things that were neat and tidy. A scene like this could not inspire any pleasure in him at all.
He extended a finger, and a faint red light appeared at his fingertips. Under the effects of magic, the scattered furniture slowly rose from the ground and returned to their original positions as if being moved by an invisible hand.
Greem let out a silent snort. His glowing finger quickly moved across the air, drawing a golden magical rune. As the rune floated across the sky, it turned into a strange gust of wind that blew over the room. All of the dirt, dust, and rubble vanished in an instant.
The wooden house turned brilliant, pretty, and orderly immediately, almost like a magical cottage from a fairy tale.
Greem quickly cleaned out all the rooms in the house. After choosing the places for sleep and experiments, he started to make some simple arrangements.
He released five First Grade wind spirits and h
ad them hover around the village as surveillance. He then released two Second Grade stone golems to serve as bodyguards in front of the wooden house. It was then that Greem finally settled down in his room and began his daily meditation.
As a caster, meditation was still the most important means by which he could refine and increase his Spirit!
However, compared to the lower grades, meditation only provided him with minimal progress. It would often take years of diligent meditation just for a tiny improvement in Spirit. That was why most adepts would resort to external items to improve the effects of their meditation at this stage.
Otherwise, the unmoving limit of their Spirit would be enough to drive even the most resilient adept insane!
Night quickly fell.
Five First Grade wind spirits floated a hundred meters in the sky, monitoring for all movement around them as well as everything happening in the village below.
Their existence was insignificant and well-hidden, but they could not escape the senses of the other two adepts.
Cherisha and Holly could sense Greem’s aura on the wind spirits. They were also sufficiently far away from their own houses. As such, the two adepts simply ignored them.
The three adepts might be in the same party and bound by an Oath Contract, but no adept would ever place their safety in the hands of another adept.
Adept Holly chose the biggest wooden house in the village. He then took out a strange magical cube from his storage device and threw it to the ground. A dozen ornate humanoid golems climbed out of it.
They appeared to be both male and female golems. They were dressed like singers, maids, servants, and cooks. These golems quickly went to work. The servants cleaned the room, taking sets of clean furniture out of the cube to replace the old wooden ones in the house. The maids pushed out delicate dining trays and set out all-new silverware in front of Adept Holly.
Apart from these service golems, Adept Holly also took out a piece of silver and threw it to the ground. There was a strange metallic clicking as the silver turned into a metallic statue flowing with silver light.
This magical statue was only three meters tall. It had a shield in its left hand and a longsword in its right, looking like a metal knight. A pair of glowing red eyes shone beneath the visor, making it appear much more intelligent than the average magical statue.
The aura it radiated was at peak Third Grade, making it much more powerful than even the elementium golem Grem had personally crafted.
With the protection of this metal knight, Adept Holly could finally relax and enjoy this bountiful feast in another world as he enjoyed the music and dancing of the golem singers.
Chapter 1106 - Slaughter of the Crimson Moon
Compared to Adept Holly’s extravagance, Cherisha was far more straightforward and humbler in her approach.
She did not have a mighty golem to stand guard, nor free servants to serve her. No. Cherisha worked by herself and spent an entire hour just to tidy up the small house where she would be staying.
After she was done with the cleaning up, Cherisha stood at the center of the room. She took out a green ball the size of a rock and threw it at the ground. It transformed into a green liquid and seeped into the ground.
An incredibly thin and nearly imperceptible green barrier enveloped the house, isolating it from the world outside. All sorts of strange hallucinatory runes flickered on the barrier, continually spreading mental illusions to misguide any prying eyes.
From above in the sky, the five wind spirits could not see anything in Adept Holly’s house. It was merely a stretch of white. Meanwhile, Adept Cherisha’s house was fully exposed and unconcealed. The wind spirits could see her every action through the wooden cracks.
However, it was precisely how clearly the wind spirits saw that Greem couldn’t help but suspect it was all an illusion. After all, Cherisha was very proficient with mental powers!
The sky slowly darkened, and the tapestry of beautiful, flickering stars appeared.
However, an unusual red color hung in the night sky, causing the moon’s light to shine a disturbing shade of crimson.
A crimson moon. That was a bad omen in any plane. It was the instinctual expression of a planar consciousness’ emotions!
It often meant that a terrifying incident might happen somewhere in this world on this peaceful and quiet night, a bloody event that could trigger the reaction of the planar consciousness. It wasn’t hard to imagine how terrifying it was.
Greem looked at the crimson moon for a while before shutting his wooden windows lightly and returning to his table.
He was not good at divination.
If Alice were by his side, she would definitely be able to describe what was happening in the distance based on such an obvious planar omen. Unfortunately, Greem sensed nothing apart from a frustrating aura of slaughter in his heart.
Perhaps another wave of invasion had occurred somewhere in Morrian Plane. It was the only explanation for a massacre of sufficient scale to anger the plane itself. Who was invading the Arcane Empire? The Scourge Lords, or the World of Gods? Or perhaps the Abyssal Demons?
Too many possibilities, too many conjectures. It made Greem particularly frustrated.
The threat of the Great Witch Maysa, the unpredictable trajectory of Fate, the dangerous environment around him, and the uncontrollable developments of the war. All of it weighed upon Greem’s shoulders, causing him to feel tremendous pressure. It made him upset.
Any other adept might have changed under such incredible pressure. They would probably either have become twisted perverts or hedonists that only sought physical pleasure!
However, Greem only made himself even calmer and more composed in the face of such pressure. He started improving at a pace incomprehensible by the average person, using every means and resources at his command to strengthen himself.
After all, power meant everything in the World of Adepts!
He would only be truly safe if he had absolute power. He would only have time to slow down and enjoy life if he had unquestionable strength!
Thus, even after all he had done, Greem’s pursuit was still the same– to live.
In the past, while he was still an adept apprentice, the enemy desired only his body and his soul. With every improvement and growth he experienced, his past enemies had scattered. However, new enemies continued to appear.
Now he had achieved shocking achievements unimaginable by any other, but he had also created some incredibly difficult opponents for himself. Everything that his enemies sought, he could not afford to pay. Should he ever fall into the enemies’ trap without a way to break free, he would not end up much better than when he was an apprentice.
It was the tragedy of being an adept!
Most of the time, it wasn’t the adepts that chose the life they wanted. It was life that forced them, pushed them to choose. Should their feet slow down for even a little, they just might face a terrifying scene that they did not wish to see.
Just as Fate gifted them with power, Fate had also forced them onto a twisted path where death awaited those who did not progress. The hand of Fate toyed with them and lashed at them. A slight moment of hesitation would be the moment where one’s legendary life came to an end!
Greem not only had to adapt and endure a life like this, but he also had to find a way to surpass it. It was only when he was too powerful for Fate’s hand to toy with that he could truly take control of his own life.
…………
The night was dark and silent.
A bloody, crimson moon hung in the sky.
The moonlight cast towards the ground was filled with an unbearable stench of blood.
Sytance Illhoof stood proudly upon a towering cliff, looking down at the world in front of him with the arrogance of an emperor.
He took in the bloody smell of the air indulgently, relishing in the dense aura of slaughter. He could see through the planar laws, catching a glimpse of the tortured souls of prey, or even
hear their last tragic cry before death.
Life was a resource as well, and the soul of every planar creature was a history not so easily wiped away!
However, all of these souls had now become Sytance Illhoof’s personal possession.
As the great Lord of Eternal Night, bringing such great wealth back to the World of Disasters would be enough for him to win the favor of the world consciousness. It would be enough for his grade to improve by just that little bit once again.
The tens of thousands of mutated beasts scattered across the Kentos Continent had invaded cities and ruined villages along their path of advance. They had harvested an uncountable amount of life energy and number of souls for Sytance Illhoof. Unfortunately, there were far too few high-quality souls within this bounty.
As such, under the orders of Sytance Illhoof, the mutated beasts scattered across the land had begun to gather. They had one target in sight: Reisin Garden, the great arcanist city floating high in the center of the continent.
Reisin Graden was a target that Sytance Illhoof had decided upon a while ago. He had even fought a few brutal battles with other minor Scourge Lords over this. After tasting the savage and unrelenting attacks of the Lord of Eternal Night, those weaklings had no choice but to swallow their pride and go a different way. Their targets were the other two floating cities.
The beautiful and delicate floating city of Reisin Garden became Sytance Illhoof’s ideal target for invasion and slaughter!
The army of mutated beasts was still butchering and raiding wildly in the night.
The life and soul aura that drifted towards Sytance through the planar laws continued to merge with his body. It was a relaxing and pleasant sensation, until his enjoyment was interrupted by some wicked intruders.
Sytance Illhoof straightened his body and sniffed the night wind pressing into his face. He picked up on a smell that did not belong to the disaster creatures.
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