Moreover, being in control of the enforcers meant being able to slot in trusted subordinates into the force. This way, the Great Adepts would be able to intervene in the camp’s resource and material market to obtain rare resources that could only be found in space.
This beneficial agreement was undoubtedly generous for rookies that had just taken their first step out of a planar world!
Unfortunately, Greem had already planned out his future. He could not walk along the same path that ‘ordinary’ people did.
“Have you made your decision? Which division of the camp do you intend to join?” Ulnak yawned as he asked impatiently.
Greem carefully returned the scroll and said, “My lord, I do not intend to join the camp!”
The air in the room seemed to freeze for a moment.
Ulnak lifted his head abruptly and took a serious look at Greem for the first time.
“You said…you don’t intend to join the camp? Could it be that you have relations with another camp? Is it the Endless Gardens? Are they trying to get you to join them?”
For some reason, when the Endless Gardens was mentioned, Ulnak’s lazy gaze turned cold and stern, as if harboring the flames of anger.
“The Endless Gardens?” Greem shook his head slightly. “I have never even heard of them.”
“Well, if you’re not planning on staying in the camp to find out more about space while collecting resources, what are you preparing to do? The situation in space is extremely complicated. Don’t think you can mess around just because you are Fifth Grade. I know of a dozen Great Adepts who have died in space over the past few thousand years alone. Don’t act rashly!”
“I intend to go develop in the Fire Elementium Plane. That place is more suited to my soul origin. It should be better than a camp in space!”
“The Fire Elementium Plane,” Ulnak brooded silently and couldn’t help but nod in agreement with Greem’s idea.
As a pure fire adept, Greem would not be too badly rejected by the native fire elementals of the Fire Elementium Plane. If he were willing to work hard and put in the effort, he would have no problem becoming a free fire lord there in a few hundred years.
As for becoming a Fire King…that would probably require the blessing of the Fire Elementium Plane.
As an outsider that slipped into the plane, it wasn’t hard to imagine how difficult it would be to obtain that blessing.
“If you don’t intend to become a member of the camp, then you can’t stay here for too long. Moreover, that small trading point you’ve established outside of camp will no longer be protected by us! Have you thought your way through these consequences?”
“I’ve made up my mind!”
“Very well. You may leave now then! Remember, you cannot stay in the camp for more than a year. You must leave Camp Exodar within the year!”
Greem bowed and acknowledged the instructions. He then prepared to leave.
Just as he was about to teleport away, Ulnak’s voice rang out in his mind.
“You just arrived, so there will be a lot of organizations trying to get you to join them. Stay sharp and pick carefully. Don’t get involved in the conflict and disagreements of the higher adepts.”
Crimson light flashed, and Greem’s form vanished.
Chapter 1444 - King’s Advice
The Fire Elementium Plane.
Edge of the Sea of Ashes.
This place was a world of fire, completely different from the usual material plane. No magical particle of an elementium other than fire could be found.
Even the mountains, rivers, earth, and skies were composed of fire elementium in various states. Even the slightest handful of dirt here contained a shocking amount of pure fire elementium.
Most of the fire elementium creatures here were unintelligent, non-sentient beings. They were born in the fire and wandered the plane aimlessly in a daze until their consciousness dissipated.
Only fire elementals that accidentally merged with fires from another world and grew stronger could gain true intelligence. Consequently, the number of fire elementium creatures in the Fire Elementium Plane that actually had intelligence were few and far between compared to the total population.
Unlike most material worlds, the elementium worlds were completely open to outsiders.
The four elementium worlds were like public elementium domains. Spellcasters from any material world could obtain feedback from the elementium worlds by means of sacrifice, resonance, or exchange.
For instance, when Greem cast Flamegate. He sacrificed a portion of his Spirit and fire energy to open a portal to the Fire Elementium Plane and recruited elementium warriors to fight for him.
It was, in fact, the core of most fire summoning spells!
Today was yet another ordinary and peaceful day in the Fire Elementium Plane.
A radiant portal abruptly opened at the edge of the Sea of Ashes. Greem walked out of the doorway.
It was a completely different experience than being in space. Greem felt his mood perk up just by stepping in here.
The dense and active fire elementium in the air surged into his body like a tide, causing his humanoid form to erupt into a blazing torch with a loud bang.
Greem’s body started to swell within the flames, only stopping once he had reached a hundred meters in size.
Apart from the changes to his body, the dense concentration of fire elementium triggered the fire principles in Greem’s body into manifesting. Two fire halos of different colors reverberated around Greem, shrouding his figure and causing sparks to drift away every time they clashed.
The fire principles also triggered the principle system hiding behind the Fire Elementium Plane. Certain mysterious things were sent into Greem’s body through the law chains. Simultaneously, the unique contents of his own principles were feeding back to the principle system.
The two melded together and conducted a kind of exchange, causing a change to take over the fire principles!
These fluctuations at the principle level were not something that ordinary creatures would pick up on. However, they could not slip past Fire King Groms.
An overbearing consciousness of fire traversed across space and clashed with Greem’s mental consciousness.
Greem let out a grunt as the flames around him dimmed for a moment. They then glowed brilliantly, provoked by the attack, and Greem was able to endure the ‘barbaric tackle’ out of nowhere.
“Ah, it’s you! I was wondering where some mysterious soul had popped up from…hm? You’re Fifth Grade already!” It was Fire King Groms’ mental consciousness that had arrived. His actions had been rough and clumsy, but it wasn’t out of any malice or hostility against Greem; it was simply the nature of fire creatures.
Simply put, fire creatures had absolutely no idea what the word ‘gentle’ meant!
Given the strength with which Groms’ will descended earlier, Greem’s body and Spirit would have been torn asunder if he had not advanced to Fifth Grade.
“Greetings, Lord Groms!” Greem might be of the same grade as Groms now, but Groms had advanced several thousands of years ahead of him. He still had to respect this seniority.
“You human adepts might be short-lived, but your passion for improving and rising to higher grades always impresses me. Still, human, now that you have advanced to Fifth Grade, you will have to obey the rules of the Fire Elementium Plane while you’re here!” Groms’ booming voice echoed in Greem’s mind.
“I was planning to ask you in the first place, my lord. What is it that I need to take note of while I’m here?” Greem humbled himself and asked in a modest tone.
“There’s really not much you need to be careful about. After all, you are a powerhouse that has ascended beyond the mortals. You can do whatever you like as long as you don’t invade the territories of the other Fire Kings!” Groms warned. “However, remember, never walk within fifty kilometers of where the other Fire Kings reside. Otherwise, that will be akin to declaring a war betw
een kings!”
Greem drew in a breath of cold air. He finally realized why Groms’ will had rushed over the moment his Spirit fluctuations had spread out.
“Seeing as you’re an old acquaintance and you’re new to this, I won’t be pursuing your offense this time!” Groms then sent over a large map that outlined the territories of various forces. He chuckled as he said, “This is the layout of the Fire King forces within a five hundred thousand kilometer radius of the Sea of Ashes. Feel free to find a place not governed by a Fire King to settle down.
“Whatever territory you manage to conquer in that area can all be your territory. However, do not slaughter the intelligent fire natives without good reason. Should the planar consciousness consider you an unwelcome guest, you will not be able to find any more friends in the Fire Elementium Plane!”
Greem nodded silently.
He knew that this was Groms repaying him for the lightfire stone from last time.
It had been a fair deal, with Groms getting the lightfire stone and Greem obtaining knowledge on how to create his principle fire. However, Fire King Groms definitely came out of the whole deal a little bit better.
If Greem were still that insignificant human adept from before, Fire King Groms wouldn’t be bothered by this. Now that Greem had become a Fifth Grade equal to himself, he had to behave more fairly and try his best to befriend a powerful adept with plenty of potential.
“Thank you, Lord Groms. I will contact you as soon as I settle down!” Having obtained what he sought, Greem hastily bid farewell to his friend.
“Very well. Good luck! I hope to still be able to sense your existence the next time I wake up,” Groms boomed once again, and his gigantic will of fire instantly dissipated as it returned to the depths of the Sea of Ashes.
Elementium creatures were all incredibly lazy individuals.
It was due to the fact that they lived radically different lives compared to planar creatures. Even the most ordinary fire elemental could easily live for eight hundred years. Meanwhile, a Fire King like Groms could live for a hundred thousand years or more.
As such, their concept of time was extremely loose and long!
The way they liked to make friends was to observe and test an individual’s character and personality over the course of thousands of years. In all seriousness, ordinary planar creatures did not have the qualifications to be their friends.
That was because a valiant life was no more than an ‘instant’ in the eyes of elementium creatures, hardly enough for a nap or a stroll. You might already have turned old and died in what was the blink of an eye for them. How would it be possible for someone to ever befriend an elementium creature that way?
Greem might have become a Fifth Grade now, but his lifespan was still only a tenth that of Groms. That was why Greem was already overjoyed that Groms was being this ‘friendly’ with him.
Greem left the Sea of Ashes with consecutive Fire Teleportations. He found a relatively quiet spot and started communicating with the Chip.
He had thought he would have to pay visits to a few Fire Lords to obtain information on the distribution and layout of the forces of the Fire Elementium Plane, but somehow he had managed to get his hands on it really easily. What came next was naturally coming up with an effective plan of action.
“Chip, pull out that map we got earlier.”
A massive map model was instantly projected in Greem’s mind.
The entire map was drawn with the Sea of Ashes at the center.
The Sea of Ashes spread for approximately sixty thousand kilometers and took up the center of the map. It was marked in red, with a crown that represented Groms hovering above it. Meanwhile, the area within a hundred thousand kilometer radius around it was marked yellow. That was the territory governed by Groms’ direct subordinates.
Groms’ whole territory spanned nearly five hundred thousand kilometers. The total area was almost equal to one-third of the Central Lands.
It didn’t sound very large, but it was important to note that there were many, many Fire Kings like Groms himself in the Fire Elementium Plane. They numbered in the hundreds. It was also the most direct reflection of the Fire Elementium Plane.
Two of the four corners of the map were marked a deep red. They were the territories of Fire Kings Thanos and Zetas, respectively.
One of them was Fifth Grade, while the other was Sixth Grade. Both of them were powerful Fire Kings that you would not want to provoke.
Given that case, only the regions to the southwest and northeast were still marked green. These were areas governed by scattered groups of lower-grade Fire Lords. If Greem wanted to settle down quickly, he would have to set his eyes on the Fourth Grade Fire Lords.
Southwest and northeast.
Greem’s eyes wandered across these two directions, and several completely unfamiliar names entered his eyes.
Firebird Peak– Lord Zamok (Fourth Grade).
Burning Bay– Flamespirit (Third Grade).
Bigstone Mountain– Molten Giant (Third Grade).
Land of Light– Phoenix (Third Grade).
……
……
One had to admit that the Fire Elementium Plane’s sheer size gave birth to numerous tribes of fire creatures.
All sorts of fire creatures, tribes, and species took up various lands where they lived and grew over generations.
The forces that could be marked out on the map were all significant forces of Third or Fourth Grade. The weaker forces were completely ignored.
Even if Greem were absolutely desperate, he would never set his eyes on the smaller forces.
After all, the Fire Elementium Plane was a world where power reigned supreme. You could only obtain a better location for your people if you had the strength to back it up. Only certain unique sites in the Fire Elementium Plane–those hailed as death zones and forbidden lands–were suited to be a place of residence for ultra-grade beings like Greem!
Chapter 1445 - Broodmother Lasbes
Half a month later.
The Burning Cave.
Greem’s majestic, hundred-meter-tall body stood at the peak of a small volcano as he silently surveyed this black and red world of smoke and fire.
The former ruler of this land, Broodmother Lasbes, had reigned over the Burning Cave for over two thousand years. She now cowered beneath Greem’s feet, burnt and scorched, her bulging stomach flickering with golden runes left behind by the Undying Flames.
Lasbes’ current condition was exceedingly terrible!
Three days ago, a mysterious flame giant had appeared in her territory, requesting that she submit and offer up her loyalty.
Fire creatures were savage and cruel beings. There was no way they would simply give up their freedom without a fight!
Thus, a terrible fight broke out.
What Lasbes never expected was for this flame giant to be a fearsome Fifth Grade powerhouse. In a violent fashion, he destroyed the Burning Cave that Lasbes had painstakingly managed for several thousand years, putting the torch to the countless traps and Emberweb spider descendants in the cave.
The battle between the two of them went all the way from the Burning Cave to Singga Volcano, a distance of over a hundred kilometers. Finally, the match ended with Broodmother Lasbes’ defeat.
Lasbes was a five-meter-tall Emberweb spider with six sharp limbs and a pair of giant pincers. As the broodmother of the Emberweb spiders, Lasbes was most proficient at laying down fire web traps and spawning large numbers of fire spiders.
She had set down a lot of spider traps near her lair to catch wandering fire creatures. She lived by sucking out the lava and fire from their corpses. In doing so, she could slowly get stronger.
Her actual combat power might not be very impressive, but she had her incredibly troublesome webs and a frightening number of descendants. These two factors allowed her to rise up from within the numerous fire creatures, becoming the only Fourth Grade fire lord within a radius of five hundred k
ilometers.
However, she was primarily a fire lord in name only. Apart from the descendants she had spawned, she had no other subordinates from other species or tribes. It wasn’t hard to figure out the reason why. You just had to look at her round stomach that didn’t seem to have a bottom.
Naturally, Greem had plenty of means to deal with a sly, sinister predator like an Emberweb spider that preferred to strike from the dark.
The main reason Lasbes was so difficult to deal with was that she had constructed her lair underground. The tunnels and passages down there were narrow and winding. In the face of fire creatures that were more than her match, she would simply hide underground and refuse to emerge. Against weaker opponents, she would mobilize all her forces and used self-detonating spiders, Ember spiderlings, and weaver spiders to lure them into the webs.
However, Greem was even more sinister than she was!
The first thing Greem did upon arriving was to blockade the entrance of Lasbes’ lair. He then raised a hell of fire and blew his Undying Flames across every corner of the cave.
Smothered spiders!
Emberweb spiders were fire creatures that could even survive in lava of several thousand degrees. However, their fire resistance meant nothing against a principle fire like the Undying Flames. They could only screech in the golden sea of fire as they slowly burned to death.
Even Fourth Grade Broodmother Lasbes had been forced out of her lair to fight against Greem with a body smoldering with golden fire, let alone her spiderlings.
Awkwardly enough, despite being a Fifth Grade, Greem’s Strength, Physique, and Agility were all far inferior to this Fourth Grade broodmother. However, his powerful Fire Teleportation allowed him to dodge Lasbes’ Vicious Lunge, Boiling Splatter, and Smoldering Devastation.
[Vicious Lunge: Lasbes’ movement speed is increased by 300% while within her web. Her attacks possess a chance to paralyze the enemy upon contact.
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