Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  Greem stared at Domhnall, who stared back with a defiant look. A cold gleam flashed in his eyes. Greem slowly flew toward the elementium barrier and reached out with his right index finger. Scarlet light gathered at his fingertip as he traced a circle on the barrier. He then tapped the circle with the back of his finger.

  Boom!

  The elementium barrier within the circle exploded into flakes of light, allowing him to stare directly at Domhnall.

  What exceptional elementium manipulation technique!

  To think he could shatter only a portion of the elementium barrier without even damaging the rest of it! It demonstrated Great Adept Greem’s advanced elementium-manipulation abilities!

  Domhnall was mildly terrified, but he continued to stare at Greem coldly and calmly.

  He knew that Greem didn’t dare kill him.

  After all, he still had so many subordinates and beloved individuals in the Central Lands. Should he actually wage war against the Adept’s Association, the Association might go all-out in an attempt to exterminate the Crimson Clan after he left.

  That was why he was certain Greem didn’t dare to kill him.

  Still, this experience of being humiliated was unbearable!

  Greem stared at him coldly for a moment before breaking into a smile.

  “Well, if you say they aren’t there, I’m sure they aren’t! I can believe you. At any rate, I have quite a few enemies. I will just go elsewhere for a stroll. Remember…to give my greetings to the two of them and tell them to be careful the next time they go out.”

  Having said that, Greem’s body turned into a beam of red light and instantly traveled several kilometers away. Another violent blast of fire erupted as he instantly teleported a few more kilometers into the distance.

  Through these continuous Fire Teleportation, Greem headed north with unstoppable momentum, heading straight for the Northern Witches’ land.

  The scattered flames from his explosions instantly turned all the ground within a kilometer into scorched earth. A large mark would be left on the earth by the time they were extinguished.

  Domhnall’s face turned green, then white, upon seeing this. He let out a long sigh before turning and returning to the tower.

  Greem had clearly come here to show off his power while also issuing a stern warning to the Adept’s Association!

  Upon seeing the elderly Domhnall walk into the hall, the many Fourth Grade adepts of the Association gathered around to console the old man.

  Cerveris seemed to know that the danger was over and began to shout and clamor once again.

  “Domhnall, we can’t just tolerate this humiliation! Don’t you worry, I will go over to the Central Lands and make a commotion next time. I won’t return until I’ve taught the Fourth Grades of the Central Lands a lesson—”

  “Silence!”

  “Shut up.”

  For some reason, both Domhnall and Gloria shouted angrily at him.

  Cerveris was taken aback by the reprimand from the two of them. He couldn’t help but ask anxiously, “What is with you two? Aren’t I just sticking up for the Association? Why are you getting angry at me?”

  Domhnall ignored him and turned to look at Nostran. He asked in a solemn voice, “How is it? How much longer do you think he can stay inside the plane?”

  Nostran sweated profusely as he performed his calculations. He then replied carefully, “It should be no more than three days.”

  Domhnall narrowed his eyes and said resentfully, “Three days…that’s more than enough time for him to head to the Northern Lands for a trip.”

  “Why don’t,” Gloria frowned, “we notify the Northern Lands and tell them to be prepared?”

  “Why should we tell them of what’s coming?” Domhnall said coldly. “The Association has been humiliated greatly. I won’t be able to sleep well if nothing happens to the other two organizations. Rather, I’m quite curious what kind of havoc Greem will raise in the Northern Lands.”

  He gave his instructions to the adepts, “From now on, you all are to avoid conflicts with the Central Lands as much as possible. I have a feeling that Greem left something behind there. If anyone were to run into his sword and make big trouble, the Association wouldn’t clean up your mess.”

  Domhnall stared coldly at Cerveris. It seemed like these words were meant for him.

  Cerveris sulked, not taking the words to heart at all.

  Chapter 1439 - Punishing the Witches

  Northern Lands, the Howling Plains.

  Chillwind Kingdom was the most ancient territory belonging to the False Witches and the location of their origin tower.

  The False Witches were undoubtedly the most solitary and asocial group within the Northern lands in the past thousands of years. They rarely associated with the outside world. Even their trials and legacy were shrouded in mystery.

  As such, the Howling Plains was also the most desolate and unpopulated land in all the witches’ territory!

  Today, the tower standing in the center of the Howling Plains appeared to be awash with commotion. It seemed to be unusually alive with activity.

  That was because an enemy had arrived!

  An enemy that dared come knocking on the Northern Witches’ door to find trouble. In all honesty, such an incident had never occurred in the past thousands of years. That was why many of the Northern Witches were utterly confused when they received the False Witches’ call for help.

  Many Fourth Grade witches emerged from their laboratories or lesser planes and hurried toward the Howling Plains in groups. However, before they could approach the battlefield, they could already feel the pressing heat against their faces.

  A battlefield. The Howling Plains had turned into a battlefield!

  It was currently the dead of night.

  Yet, the skies above the Howling Plains were burning. Giant clouds of fire filled the horizon, casting half the world in a dark red shade.

  The rolling clouds of fire seemed to be hiding some sort of terrifying creature within them, roaring as it thrashed. Gigantic meteors rained down from the skies against the lonely adept tower in the middle of the plain.

  The tower trembled violently.

  Layer upon layer of elementium barriers were stacked around the tower, protecting it from one fireball after the next. However, the fireballs’ violent force barraged the tower without end, causing it to tremble.

  The tower wasn’t just defending.

  Horrifying, surging energy charged through the tower. Once the energy reached a certain level, it would be guided by the offensive arrays and turn into fearsome spells that blasted at the enemy.

  Strangely enough, no matter how the tower attacked, the spells would vanish without a sound once they entered the red clouds. It was almost as if there was some terrible creature hiding within, capable of devouring any attacks hurled toward it.

  The witches maintaining the tower had no choice but to dispel their offensive spell. They switched to dispelling magic in an attempt to break through the cloud of fire and look upon the true face of their enemy.

  Unfortunately, the dispelling magic that they repeatedly cast toward the sky had no effect.

  The red clouds continued to burn there, rumbling loudly as fireballs and meteors rained down upon the tower and the land around it.

  If this had been the past, the high-grade witches stationed in the origin tower would have charged out with their subordinates to hunt down their enemy. For some reason, the False Witches were unusually tolerant today. They refused to show themselves even though the origin tower was already quaking under the enemy’s attacks.

  As the origin tower of the False Witches, the tower actually possessed the ability to turn the entirety of the Howling Plains into a realm of illusions. However, strangely enough, the False Witches had yet to try to drag their enemy into the illusory realm. It was almost as if they had forgotten about this ability of theirs.

  It wasn’t that they didn’t want to. Rather, it was because t
hey didn’t dare to!

  The witch leader hiding inside the tower already knew who the enemy in the clouds was. She did not want to embarrass herself in front of an actual Fifth Grade adept. The only thing she could do now was endure and wait bitterly until this legendary fire adept was exiled from the World of Adepts.

  The sound of wind and thunder rang out from afar.

  Dark clouds crowded in the sky and approached the Howling Plains menacingly.

  When the dark clouds had gathered as high as a mountain, a piercing dragon’s cry could be heard. The dark clouds parted as Corpse Dragon Artest’s vicious and threatening figure appeared within sight.

  Naturally, riding upon the back of the corpse dragon was Death Witch Leader Khesuna!

  A stern cry rolled across the skies before she arrived.

  “Greem, what exactly are you planning? This is the Northern Lands! It’s not a place you can do as you wish!”

  Meanwhile, ghostly howls and screams could be heard in another direction. A powerful witch with two silhouettes, one black and one white, flew over and stopped at the edge of the red clouds.

  It was the other ultra-powerhouse of the Northern Lands, Pale Witch Leader Silvia.

  There were a total of two ultra-powerhouses among the Northern Witches. Both of them were here now. Moreover, one could sense a sea of other brilliant soul responses outside the battlefield.

  Every single high-grade witch of any repute in the Northern Lands had arrived. They had only yet to show themselves due to Khesuna’s instructions.

  The red clouds parted slightly, revealing a youthful and handsome male adept. This man was over two meters tall, with a firm and muscular body. He wore a dark red robe that appeared completely plain and ordinary, as if it really was just a non-magical piece of clothing.

  The Northern Witches couldn’t be more familiar with this silhouette and this face. It was the legendary fire adept, Greem, who had turned the World of Adepts upside down in the past hundreds of years.

  Greem revealed himself and looked coldly at Khesuna. He then chuckled and said, “Khesuna, this is how you carry yourself when seeing an adept of superior grade?”

  Khesuna’s figure froze as an awkward expression flashed across her cold and pretty face. Finally, she lowered her head, put her hand over her chest, and bowed. “My greetings, Great Adept Greem!”

  Silvia, who had been watching from the edge of the battlefield, also felt the awkwardness of the situation. She had no choice but to bow along with her accompanying spirit, paying respects to Greem.

  It couldn’t be helped. The adepts had always emphasized etiquette between superiors and inferiors. You were an inferior if you were of a lower grade. If you did not uphold the proper etiquette toward a superior adept, they could use it as an excuse to punish you, and there was nothing that anyone could do to help.

  “Since you know your place, you may step back now! I have some old grudges I have to settle against the False Witches!” Greem said sternly.

  Khesuna stood up straight and said in a sinister voice, “Gre…Lord Greem, you might be a Fifth Grade Great Adept now, but don’t you forget, we Northern Witches are supported by certain individuals as well!”

  “Hoh, are you threatening me now?”

  “I wouldn’t dare. I am simply reminding my lord that you will have to venture to the realms beyond eventually. If things turn out too ugly here, you might not be able to explain yourself to the individuals affiliated with us in space.”

  “Explain? What do I need to explain myself for? This bitch ambushed me. If it wasn’t because of luck that allowed me to escape her Dream Assassination, do you think I would still be able to stand here?” Greem chuckled coldly. “Do those people you speak of have the right to stop me now that I am here for revenge?”

  Khesuna abruptly fell silent.

  This world had always revolved around the powerful. Only those of higher grades had authority.

  Now that Greem had become a Fifth Grade Great Adept, he had become one of the rare few rulers of the adept faction. Just as he said, even the Great Witches could not simply ignore a Great Adept’s right to exact vengeance.

  “Perhaps this is only a misunderstanding!” Khesuna breathed and said in a soft voice, “Perhaps there has been some understanding between the two of you. My lord, if you are willing to let Ivana go, us Northern Witches will be willing to—”

  “I do not lack resources. All I wish to do is meet the bastard that dared ambush me. What is it? Do you not dare to even show yourself?” The last sentence had been directed at the adept tower. The sound waves from his voice shredded several of the barriers around the False Witches’ origin tower, sending sparks into the air.

  More terrifyingly, the very planar laws of the region distorted and trembled where Greem’s will extended. As long as he wished to, he would even be able to cut off the mental connection between all the Fourth Grade elementium adepts and the world around them.

  Of course, doing so would undoubtedly cause him to endure terrible planar backlash. Still, where his will could reach, the planar laws could be manipulated and rewritten. Any adept with a grade lower than himself would not be able to connect to their planar laws to strengthen their elementium powers as in the past.

  Greem had performed a simple assessment. Within his principle domain, all elementium adepts would be weakened by half. Bloodline adepts would be weakened by 20% to 30%, while body-refining adepts were the least affected at 10%.

  One could honestly claim that the dominance of principle adepts over elementium adepts was absolute and irresistible!

  Perhaps sensing Greem’s insistence, a skinny and decrepit figure appeared on a small platform high in the tower.

  What an ugly and old witch this was!

  She resembled a skinned toad, with most of her skin rotting away, covered with blisters of every size and shrouded in a sickly green cloud of poison. Her former beauty had vanished without a trace, leaving only an ugly face that looked as if it had been splashed with acid.

  Er……?

  Even Greem was surprised.

  If it wasn’t for her soul aura, Greem might have taken her to be an impostor.

  “Ivana, what…what’s happened to you?” It was obvious that Khesuna had not seen her in a long time as well. She was stunned and shocked to see her appearance.

  Everyone here was a high-grade adept. Naturally, they could see that these wounds were not external, but the result of actual Spirit poison. Moreover, judging from her appearance, this Spirit poison had troubled her for a very long time. It had even seeped into her soul origin, causing her to radiate an aura of ‘despair’ from her soul and body.

  “This was the result of that battle last time,” Ivana’s body trembled as she screamed. “Is the suffering that I have had to endure in the past hundred years not enough to compensate for my past mistake?”

  “It should be about enough with this.”

  Greem scoffed, and a beam of red light shot through the numerous barriers to land on Ivana’s body. The light entered her flesh with a flash.

  Ivana instantly let out a howl of agony.

  A searing will.

  Without the aid of a Great Adept to dispel this searing will, it would trigger once every ten hours, only stopping once Ivana’s blood had been brought to a boiling point.

  It was a fiery torture that would haunt her for the rest of her life!

  Chapter 1440 - City in Space

  Greem finally felt more at ease after punishing Ivana.

  “Chip, how long more do I have left?”

  [Beep. Countdown to banishment: 11 minutes, 28 seconds]

  Hss! Only eleven minutes left now?!

  Greem was surprised, and an unspeakable emotion arose in him.

  He finally had to leave this familiar world for good. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of reluctance and a hint of hesitation.

  He turned around to look at the Northern Witches, who were scattered all over and glaring at him with hostile
eyes. He made a pulling motion in front of him and tore open a small spatial rift, which he promptly entered.

  When Greem appeared once again, he had returned to the looming adept tower of Crimson Wing.

  The hall was filled with Crimson adepts that had arrived from all over. They looked at Greem silently when he suddenly appeared. The adepts bowed in unison, bidding their last farewell to this legendary clan leader of theirs.

  Greem hovered in the air as his gaze swept past the subordinates in front of him. He couldn’t quite bear to leave this all behind.

  There were so many Crimson adepts, but he could only recognize a tenth of them. Many familiar figures had vanished from among the old faces, and a lot more new faces had appeared.

  This departure from the World of Adepts would be forever!

  Perhaps the next time he was fortunate enough to cast his soul projection back here, there would be even fewer familiar faces. That was the life of a Great Adept.

  Even Meryl, the disciple he had personally trained, would only have another seven hundred years to live if she didn’t advance to Fourth Grade. Yet, such a ‘short’ lifespan was only a very tiny portion of Greem’s own.

  Perhaps she would already be gone by the time Greem managed to establish himself in space and had the time to come back for a look.

  It was precisely because they wanted to avoid these repeated feelings of attachment and loss that most Great Adepts chose to control their emotions with indifferent rationality. They chose to put aside things like love, friendship, and familial ties. These things were too much of a luxury.

  It wasn’t that the adepts were cold and heartless. Rather, they had ascended to such higher dimensions that it was impossible to maintain relationships in the same fashion as a mortal!

  Greem finished looking at the hall around him and shifted his gaze to the horizon, his vision piercing through the walls of the tower. The numerous Fourth Grades of the Central Lands hovered in the air there, staring at that searing will with complicated looks in their eyes.