Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  The transcendence of the soul wasn’t the most difficult part. Rather, the reconstruction of the phylactery to allow for the transcended soul’s containment was the most challenging stage in a lich’s advancement.

  If they failed to advance and endangered their phylactery in the process, they might turn to dust the very next moment. Their soul would be extinguished, even if they had just been a proud and mighty demi-god lich a moment ago.

  That was why the advancement of liches was far more complex and troublesome than that of human adepts.

  They would never attempt advancement unless they were absolutely certain of their success!

  Chapter 1475 - Urgent Reports

  When he returned to Boulder Fortress, Greem could clearly sense that the battle’s pace had hastened compared to before.

  The atmosphere in the circular hall was unusually tense.

  The frequency at which Great Adepts were deployed increased more and more.

  White lights flashed every so often from the various halls, the spatial fluctuations in the air never ceasing for even a moment. Casualties also started to appear among the Great Adepts who were deployed. Even within Greem’s Hall Cloud, two familiar faces had vanished entirely.

  Over a hundred faith worlds had been conquered or destroyed. Even a major pantheon like the Orc Pantheon would fly into a rage at such an affront. They had launched all sorts of retaliation against the adepts.

  The Orc Pantheon had as many as eighteen official gods that were known to the rest of the world alone. Over half of these gods possessed powerful divinities like Slaughter, War, Conquest, Power, and Destruction. Meanwhile, the other half had unusual and unique divinities such as Hunt, Chaos, and Tracking.

  It indirectly demonstrated that the Orc Pantheon was a formidable force. It was very difficult to defeat them.

  They were rash, impulsive, and would often fall into chaos and disorder due to their faction’s nature. However, their tremendous individual prowess allowed them to pull the situation together, constantly putting the human adepts in grave danger while fighting against the orcs.

  The orc gods were powerful and dangerous but poor at strategic planning and tactical maneuvers. They often rushed forward boldly into battle in a valiant show of their strength. The frustrating thing was that these orc gods were utterly fearless. They frequently chose to rush into conflict using their true selves in a moment’s rage.

  That was something that rarely occurred in the adept faction’s battles against the other pantheons of the World of Gods!

  The Orc Pantheon did not show weakness in the face of the adepts’ unyielding offense. They sent out countless orc armies into the adepts’ lesser planes and slaughtered every living being in those worlds.

  They also used their faith worlds as strongholds and beat back the adepts’ invasion over and over.

  For a while, the flames of war raged across a hundred planar worlds.

  Both sides made advances and suffered defeats in a constant back and forth, with the planar worlds as their battlefields and the universe as their stage. Entire systems of galaxies were thrust into chaos and restlessness as the flames of war spread everywhere.

  Greem sat in Hall Cloud, quietly reading the Tome of Corruption in his hand. Even though the odds of the Tome of Corruption providing him with high-grade knowledge were very low, his extended reading and analysis efforts had allowed him to accumulate quite a lot of mystic knowledge.

  Meanwhile, reports of the situation on the frontlines were getting increasingly bloody and urgent.

  “Urgent report! Orcs have appeared at Millefleur Front. They have invaded Plane Utha and are currently slaughtering the natives to hold a blood ritual. It appears they are summoning starbeasts.”

  Plane Utha was a mid-sized planar world of the adept faction. If the orcs succeeded in their blood ritual, the entire planar world would be devastated and ravaged by the time they managed to kill the starbeast.

  “Enemy reported on Cloudclear Front. One orc-god clone has been spotted. Grade unknown.”

  “Urgent report from Cloudclear Front. Seventh Grade God of Slaughter Garon has suddenly appeared in his true form. The frontlines have collapsed. The specific number of losses is yet to be known.”

  “Urgent report from Earthwind Front. Horr, Sixth Grade God of the Hunt of the Orc Pantheon, has been spotted. Sixth Grade Great Adept Housseau has requested reinforcements from headquarters.”

  “Urgent report from System Eleven. Fifth Grade God of Tyranny Haistoc and God of Hatred Enus have joined the battle in space. The frontline is in danger.”

  For some reason, the orc gods were attacking everywhere as if they had gone insane. They immediately pounced onto a new target after they were done with a previous one and gave the adepts no chance to lay traps or to surround them.

  Most of the time, they fought alone with their true forms, but their ferocious combat style and tremendous power allowed them to smash through one adept army after the next. Moreover, there seemed to be no pattern to where they chose to appear. It all seemed like they were just doing whatever they pleased.

  You could risk running into one of these rogue orc gods even if you were just stationed in a small, remote planar world. If that were the case, then even the Great Adepts were reasonably likely to die on their missions.

  For a moment, the adept faction was thrown into a panic. It seemed like the enemy was everywhere and would appear around every corner. All the Great Adepts began to feel nervous and anxious when they heard they had been assigned a mission, even if it was just a simple, low-risk task.

  Boulder Fortress correspondingly increased the frequency of Sixth and even Seventh Grade adept deployment in response to this situation. They finally managed to hold off the Orc Pantheon’s retaliation through their plentiful number of Great Adepts.

  Meanwhile, as one of the many ‘fodder’ among the Great Adepts, Greem also saw more and more combat!

  The combat light of Hall Cloud suddenly lit up.

  Adept Gerritsen, who was seated at the very front, tilted his head slightly as he listened to the report. His expression suddenly turned ugly.

  “Greem, Antuso, Bibi. Go to System Eleven and provide reinforcement…now!”

  Greem’s heart pounded when he heard his name called out.

  System Eleven was not a good place. This was a hazardous mission!

  Greem was thinking a lot in his mind, but he showed nothing on his face. Instead, he simply stood up alongside his two Fifth Grade companions and walked to the teleportation corner in the corner of the hall.

  White light flashed. Greem and the others appeared inside the exceedingly busy command hall. They were quickly led by magical golems to a teleportation array engulfed in silver light.

  There were hundreds of these teleportation arrays, each one leading to a different system or planar world!

  A Fifth Grade adept who was responsible for coordinating things was already waiting in front of the array. Upon seeing Greem and the two adepts, he hastily reminded them in a hushed voice, “Be careful when you get there. They are already fighting there, and it is all quite chaotic. Your mission is to stabilize the situation and make sure the adept army isn’t routed. Of course, you must not let System Eleven fall into the hands of the orcs!”

  “We can’t guarantee that, can we? After all, the orcs are going off the rails,” Great Adept Antuso grumbled in dissatisfaction. He was obviously very unhappy at being deployed to such a dangerous place.

  “Don’t worry! The superiors will reward you properly. The reward for this mission will be double the usual!” The Fifth Grade adept smiled and consoled them.

  Greem and the other adepts finally felt a hint of joy.

  They knew there was no way they could disobey the orders anyway. Since they had to do this dangerous mission either way, being able to obtain double the reward was compensation enough to dispel most of their resentment.

  After they stepped into the teleportation array, the Fifth G
rade adept waved a silver token in his hand. White, pulsating light flickered from beneath them and quickly engulfed the entire space.

  A short moment later, a blinding white light flashed as the space around the array trembled violently. However, everything was contained within the silver barrier.

  By the time that space returned to normal, the array was already empty!

  …………

  The system they were traveling to this time was even further away than Plane Gere.

  Even as resilient as Greem’s Spirit was, he felt waves of nausea and displacement. After enduring the spatial distortion with his tough Physique, all the pressure was suddenly relieved as he appeared at their destination.

  Greem had not even opened his eyes before the sounds of loud elementium explosions and bestial roars filled his ears.

  Greem calmed himself and opened his eyes, only to realize he was standing inside a large cave.

  The teleportation array was beneath their feet. Greem’s two companions were still swaying lightly, the bright glow of magic shining around them. Soon, they also recovered from their long-range teleportation and regained full control of their faculties. They opened their eyes and vigilantly evaluated their surroundings.

  The individuals waiting outside the array were only a group of Second Grade adepts. Joy couldn’t help but spread over their faces when they saw the three Great Adepts appear. They quickly stepped forward and paid their respects.

  Meanwhile, the waves of explosions and rumbling that could be heard and felt from outside showed how intense the fighting really was. The three Great Adepts frowned.

  Ultra-long-range teleportation arrays were some of the most valuable mobility tools of the adept faction. Under most circumstances, the adepts would only set up these arrays in the backlines or somewhere highly secure. It should not have been so crude and rough.

  The fact that they could hear the sounds of fighting while they were inside the teleportation array could only mean that the orcs had broken through the adepts’ defensive line. The fires of war had extended into this ‘safe zone!’

  This was not good!

  The three of them exchanged looks and stepped out of the cave in unison.

  They had not appeared inside a planar world this time. Instead, they were in a fortress drifting through space.

  This fortress wasn’t small. It was a thousand meters tall and at least one and a half kilometers wide.

  A stone fortress stood at the top, while a three-hundred-meter-thick rock foundation lay at the bottom. Every inch of space inside the fortress glowed with a strange magical light. A giant barrier protected it.

  At this moment, the barrier was no longer intact. A hundred-meter-wide hole had been blasted into the top of the barrier. Hordes of orc warriors were rushing and charging at the fortress defenses on ugly, vicious wyverns.

  Meanwhile, two ten-meter-tall orc gods with bulging muscles and pointed fangs stood behind the orc army.

  God of Tyranny Haistoc and God of Hatred Enus!

  Judging from their appearance, both gods had descended with their true forms; they could unleash a hundred percent of their violently berserk physical power.

  The arrival of Greem and his companions undoubtedly attracted the attention of the two orc gods as well.

  Their savage gazes cut across the six kilometers of distance and landed on the three Great Adepts.

  Since their reinforcements had arrived, the two Great Adepts who had been holed up in the fortress also showed themselves.

  Five against two…the scales of victory appeared to be tilting toward the adepts!

  Chapter 1476 - The God of Tyranny

  “Careful. Both of them are here in their true forms. This isn’t the same as fighting their clones…be careful!” Perhaps concerned that the newcomers would invite defeat by underestimating their opponents, the two Great Adepts stationed here immediately sent them a mental message.

  It was the first time that Greem and his two companions had set foot on such a large-scale battlefield in space; it was unavoidable that they were somewhat inexperienced. They pulled themselves together when they heard the Great Adepts’ voices. They then quickly began applying casting defenses to themselves and their allies.

  Dong, dong, dong!

  Multiple blinding magical lights filled half the horizon. In the blink of an eye, Greem and his two companions were shrouded in light. The numerous layers of magical defenses engulfed them firmly like colorful shells and kept them protected.

  As a principle adept, the most potent artillery on the battlefield, Greem naturally did not need to rush forward and engage the orc gods in a melee. After hastily activating all his magical defenses, he started chanting and preparing a large-scale fire spell.

  Antuso and Bibi were a bloodline adept and a body-refining adept, respectively. They weren’t going to fall behind either. They slowly approached the battlefield as they made their own combat preparations.

  Antuso let out a wild roar. Ghostly green light shone from his eyes as his entire body suddenly swelled and grew larger. His nose and chin started extending forward as four pairs of sharp fang grew out of his mouth, along with claws on his hands and feet.

  Smooth, shiny black hair also rapidly grew all over his body. A spiral horn appeared on his forehead. As dark light glowed from the horn, the giant wolf that Antuso had transformed into slowly turned translucent until he completely faded from sight.

  A Spiritwolf!

  To think, Antuso possessed the mysterious spiritwolf bloodline.

  Meanwhile, Body-Refining Adept Bibi uttered several battlecries. His body grew from two meters to three meters tall. The muscles all over his body bulged, and he pulled out a double-bit axe from behind his back. He then smiled wickedly as he stepped onto the battlefield as a monstrous hulk.

  The orc warriors who were swarming into the barrier leaped off the backs of their wyverns and landed on the fortress wall. Their steps crushed the stone blocks underfoot as they rushed at the Great Adepts.

  “Fools!”

  Antuso’s voice cackled coldly and scornfully from nowhere.

  All of a sudden, a translucent wolf-like figure appeared amid the orcs. Countless slashes could be heard as the claws swiped across the air. Every orc within a hundred meters was instantly diced into countless pieces of meat as if they had run through a blender.

  The spiritwolf chuckled. His silhouette flickered, and he appeared in the middle of another group of orcs. Slash! Slash! Slash! With another flurry of claws, those orcs were finished in an instant as well.

  There was even a Third Grade orc in this group.

  Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do before the absolute power difference. Much like the low-grade orcs, he was reduced to chunks of meat in less than a second without the ability to defend himself.

  “Little ones, spread out! Let me see if these two fellows are really as good as they think themselves to be!” Haistoc was the first to be unable to hold back when he saw his subordinates slaughtered.

  Haistoc, the God of Tyranny, looked like an unusually tall and muscular orc. He was over ten meters tall, and his limbs were extraordinarily thick. The size of his muscles was also incredible, enough to send shivers down one’s back. He had a simple leather jerkin draped over his body, leaving his right shoulder exposed. He held a spiked mace in his left hand and a flail in his right, giving him a violent impression from the outset.

  Due to his unique divinity that was suited for war, Haistoc was an incredibly qualified commander in battle. The moment he gave out his order, the orcs that had been driven mad with rage quickly stepped aside, giving enough space to the gods and the Great Adepts to fight.

  Greem and the Great Adepts watched in disbelief as Haistoc shook his giant body and voluntarily rushed at Body-Refining Adept Bibi, completely ignoring his numerical disadvantage.

  On one side, you had a ten-meter-tall giant orc. On the other, you had a three-meter-tall body-refining adept. Both combatants purs
ued a path of absolute violence, and their Strength was roughly equal. However, the tremendous difference in combat power was revealed the moment they clashed.

  Haistoc’s mace and flail slammed against Bibi’s double-bit axe when he rushed forward.

  Both of them bowed their knees and bent over slightly. Their muscles flexed as both parties’ berserk might clashed through the weapons in their hands. Bibi’s expression instantly turned ugly. He was blown away by the overwhelming force after just three seconds.

  His body left afterimages in the air as he was blasted like a bowling ball into an attached building of the fortress.

  A large boom could be heard as a giant hole was knocked into the magically-enhanced wall. Everyone’s eyelids jumped.

  Tssss!

  Greem, who was still in the midst of his rapid casting, couldn’t help but draw in a breath of cold air. For the first time, he had experienced the true terror of a god in its true form!

  Greem had never come into contact with a god’s true form, but he had clashed with the clones of the gods before. He believed that given their classification as the same Fifth Grade, the difference in power should not be all that great. Therefore, he had thought there was nothing to fear about the gods.

  Today, he personally witnessed the tremendous difference between a god’s clone and a god’s true form.

  They weren’t on the same level at all!

  A god in its true form would wield the divine equipment most compatible with their fighting style, while most god clones fought barehanded. A god in its true form would have its powerful divine authority to sustain them and could draw upon divine power from its god kingdom. In contrast, god clones usually only had fragments of divine authority. The level of their power was usually only a fraction of the god itself.