Age of Adepts c1-1513

by Zhen De Lao Lang, 真的老狼

  As for the other two items? Greem had no choice but to forcibly forget about them.

  The universe was a vast place, and there were all sorts of rare treasures out there. As long as Greem could grow sufficiently, he would be able to travel anywhere he liked and find any treasure he desired.

  Greed was not advisable!

  It was best to put in more effort and investment into his talent for fire, as that would directly impact his future.

  Erlenwald didn’t seem surprised by Greem’s choice at all. He waved his hand and put away the other two bubbles while the Primordial Kindling slowly drifted to Greem.

  It remained wrapped in the bubble.

  Greem understood Erlenwald’s meaning. He gritted his teeth and took out a piece of crystalline divine authority which he pushed toward the Seventh Grade adept.

  Erlenwald waved his hand, and the divine authority flew into his palm.

  Great Adept Erlenwald toyed with the divine authority for a while and examined its attributes. After confirming its authenticity, he pointed with his finger, and the bubble in front of Greem popped.

  The Primordial Kindling immediately erupted when it came into contact with the outside world. The fire energy it absorbed stacked around it layer by layer like armor, making it appear as if it would spread all over in a matter of seconds.

  Greem knew that high-grade principle fires like these had a trace of intelligence and their own will. They would slip away from your fingers if they find the chance.

  Greem opened his hand and snatched the Primordial Kindling from the raging flames before swallowing it in a single gulp. He couldn’t be bothered by the effects of the strange fire.

  He couldn’t feel safe having such a tremendous treasure anywhere else than in his Heart of Principles, guarded by the Orb of the Fire God!

  “Alright, kid. Now that our trade is over, I’ll send you on your way! As a reward for your tactfulness, here’s my magical emblem. Keep it well. I can cover for you, whether it is in Boulder Fortress or at Camp Exodar. No one will dare bully or threaten you then!”

  Greem grabbed onto the metal plate that Erlenwald had tossed at him. He couldn’t help but break into a smile when he sensed the special magic aura on it.

  “My gratitude, my lord!”

  “This is nothing. It’s only the reward you deserve!”

  Having said that, Erlenwald waved his hand, and Greem felt the same spatial disorientation as before. When he snapped back to his senses, he realized he was back in his room.

  “Chip, scan the Primordial Kindling.”

  [Beep. Comprehensive scans have begun. Please wait!]

  After a long and arduous wait, the Chip’s results were finally projected after three days.

  [Beep. Detected strange principle kindling.

  [53 basic fire principles detected within.

  [37 of said principles are known, while 16 are yet unknown.

  [Currently extracting samples of unknown fire principles.]

  So many of them.

  Greem couldn’t help but lick his lips in anticipation upon hearing the Chip’s report!

  Chapter 1507 - Mini Fire World

  [Beep. Analyzed one basic fire principle. Effect: Scorch.

  [Beep. Analyzed one basic fire principle. Effect: Burn.

  [Beep. Analyzed one basic fire principle. Effect: High-Heat.

  [Beep. Analyzed one basic fire principle. Effect: Extension.

  [……]

  [……]

  A wonderful series of notifications rang out. Greem couldn’t be happier.

  As a fire adept, the more basic fire principles he possessed, the higher the odds of combining them into high-grade principles.

  For instance, the Undying principle that Greem possessed was made by combining the five basic principles of Burn, Extension, Energy Combination, Ignite, and more. Fire’s Image combined seven basic principles, and the improved Fire’s Clone contained eleven principles.

  It wasn’t hard to imagine how much broader Greem’s path within the domain of fire would expand once he analyzed all these basic fire principles. As for which principles suited him best? He had far more choices than before.

  Moreover, the Primordial Kindling contained many previously unknown fire principles. It was an incredibly rare thing!

  Without something as convenient as that, Greem would have had to travel to countless worlds and undergo dangerous explorations to collect so many basic fire principles slowly.

  The danger behind that was easily imaginable!

  Moreover, to Greem’s understanding, the path forward for principle adepts was to absorb more fire principles of a broader range and forge them all into a complete system resembling that of a planeworld.

  It would be as if there was a microscopic world contained within the adept’s body itself when that happened. The adept would no longer be affected by external principles or magic energy.

  After advancing to Seventh Grade, a principle adept would possess an independent, self-sustaining mini-world system. They would no longer seek external power. Individuals at that level could only be sealed. It would be very difficult to thoroughly kill them then.

  At the very least, they would be eternally undying as long as their mini-world remained intact!

  That was why Fifth Grade was only theoretically immortal. They were immune to ordinary sickness, aging, and death, but they would still inevitably fall and die after receiving an overwhelming attack. It was only at Seventh Grade that external attacks would have incredible difficulty wiping out one’s soul brand.

  Against such an opponent, only entities of a higher grade that could peel their soul brand out of the world origin and extinguish it had a chance of wiping them out.

  Otherwise, even if their body and soul were both destroyed, they would still find means to be reborn through a long period of accumulation and reformation.

  That was what truly made high-grade adepts terrifying!

  True immortality…was manifested in them!

  However, it was because high-grade Great Adepts were so terrifying that there were so few of them as well. Compared to the large number of Fifth and Sixth Grade Great Adepts, there were not many Great Adepts of Seventh Grade and above.

  Fifty-three basic fire principles wasn’t a lot, but it wasn’t minor either. They were enough for Greem to forge them into a miniature version of a mini fire-world. However, Greem was only a Fifth Grade at the moment. His Spirit was clearly insufficient to sustain the formation of a miniature fire-world.

  The first step was to do whatever he could to use this newly-gained power to enhance his Burning Domain.

  After all, the Burning Domain could be seen as the prototype of a miniature fire world!

  Greem would merge a basic fire principle into his Burning Domain once he analyzed it. What served as the stimulant for this process was a large amount of fire energy and the divine virtue he had just obtained.

  One had to admit that divine virtue was one of the most cost-efficient resources out there.

  After wiping out the divine consciousness within, divine virtue would become an incredibly active energy essence. Because of how pure an energy source it was, divine virtue could be used to increase lifespan, imbue equipment with divine characteristics, and mitigate conflicts between opposing types of energy.

  The deeper his research into divine virtue became, the more Greem desired this incredible resource.

  Now he truly understood why those Great Adepts hungered so much for divine origin that they fearlessly cast themselves onto the planar battlefields!

  After advancing to Fifth Grade, most adepts would have exhausted every last ounce of potential from their body and Spirit. At this stage, even the tiniest of improvement–even increasing a base attribute by 1 point–required thousands of years of effort.

  The only things that could accelerate this process were high-grade resources.

  In all honesty, most resources that could be found within material planes were ut
terly ineffective for Great Adepts. Only the best and rarest of resources could have the slightest of effects.

  However, these resources were often stockpiled in the hands of powerful races or individuals that ruled over entire worlds.

  War was inevitable to obtain them.

  That was why the process of collecting resources was long and painful, often accompanied by endless slaughter and bloody wars!

  It was a troublesome and annoying process, but these interplanar wars were actually very safe for the Great Adepts.

  Only large-scale planar wars like the Beast Wars could allow the Great Adepts to grow rapidly and exponentially in a short amount of time.

  For instance, by risking it all and devouring Horr’s true form, Greem had established a rock-solid foundation for his future development. At the very least, every roadblock standing in his way from Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade had been knocked down.

  With the Primordial Kindling, the large amount of divine virtue he had obtained, and the seven divine authority fragments still in his possession, Greem only needed to find a place and seclude himself. After two to three thousand years, he would ascend to Sixth Grade.

  It was the very definition of how taking a momentary risk would yield untold rewards!

  That said, only the person himself could understand how dangerous and terrifying a situation he had put himself in to accomplish this feat.

  With so many resources now in his possession, further participation in the Beast Wars would only spell doom for himself.

  Greem dared to say that he was on the Orc Pantheon’s absolute-kill list now. If he dared set foot on the battlefield, those high-grade gods would definitely hunt him down, regardless of the fact that they were of a superior grade to him.

  Moreover, his enemies might not be limited to just the gods.

  He was a walking treasure chest right now. There were probably quite a few people among the adepts who had their eyes on him. If they got the opportunity, the identity of being an ally wouldn’t be able to save him.

  That was why after finishing his exchange with Great Adept Erlenwald, Greem only rested for a little longer. He then rejected all combat assignments, claimed his mission reward, and left.

  …………

  Fire Elementium Plane. The Molten Altar.

  Greem was attracted by this majestic adept tower in front of him the moment he stepped out of the teleportation array.

  In the lava lake boiling with rumbling lava, a three-hundred-meter-tall adept tower that took up all space within five hundred meters stood silently. The tower base disappeared beneath the dark red magma, and the structure itself was enveloped in layers of dark-red light.

  A gap opened on the tower’s forcefield upon sensing Greem’s soul aura. Greem appeared inside a magical hall of the building with Fire Teleportation.

  “Welcome back, master!”

  Emberweb Broodmother Lasbes and Split-Brain Sock bowed and greeted Greem with a troop of magical machines behind them. Many other fire creatures of various forms stood behind them, including the Third Grade leader of the molten giants.

  “Well done! You all will be rewarded based on your contributions in a bit!” Greem stood upon the stone platform of the hall and looked down at these two subjects of his silently. “Has the enlightenment ritual been prepared?”

  “The preparations have been completed. We were only awaiting your return!” Sock put on a fawning smile.

  “Let us begin then!” Greem gave an order, and everyone immediately split up and went to work.

  The enlightenment ritual was the most important ritual for an adept tower once its construction was complete.

  The adept had to split off part of their soul into a soul shard and place it within the main control crystal. It would become the primary consciousness of the tower spirit. It was a crucial step that could not be left to the hands of another individual.

  An adept tower was only considered complete once it had undergone the enlightenment ritual!

  As Greem’s personal dwelling the next few thousand years, this tower was known as Fire Throne in memory of his old lair in the Central Lands that had been destroyed.

  As the Crimson Clan’s leader, Greem still had absolute authority over all clan affairs, even leaving the World of Adepts. Under his instructions, two mega magic generator furnaces had been installed in the energy room in the first basement level, apart from the most basic elementium altars and elementium pool.

  They would be the power source for the entire tower.

  Potent, surging space energy was taken in by the mega generator furnaces, which was then stored in the energy pool. The purification arrays carved onto the four walls of the energy pool would tame the violent chaos energy into wieldable magic energy. The energy would then be transported to every corner of the tower through magical channels and circuits.

  The various elementium energies extracted by the elementium altars would be stored in various elementium pools to support the daily consumption of the adept tower. Meanwhile, the magic energy of the generator furnaces was the core power that would be used to sustain the tower’s massive magical array system.

  The two different energy systems complemented each other, creating a perfect and self-sustaining adept tower!

  Activating the energy room.

  The enlightenment ritual.

  Separating an alternate dimension to create a personal storage space.

  All these trivial matters took Greem three days and nights of work to finally complete. During this process, a subtle and well-hidden spiritual flux observed his every action.

  However, the moment the tower spirit was born, the defensive system of the adept tower activated. That reluctant spiritual flux was then kept at bay, unable to peer into the tower any longer.

  Perhaps sensing Greem’s refusal to engage with it, the spiritual flux lightly touched the tower’s defenses and sent Greem a request for communication.

  Chapter 1508 - Sunfire Cape and the Ancient Red Dragon

  It seemed like the soul fragment of the Eighth Grade Fire Hierarch was refusing to give up!

  Greem hesitated for a moment but ultimately opened a gap in the forcefields to let the spiritual flux in.

  “Kid, you’re real mean, aren’t you? To think, you would be gone for so long once you left!” The spiritual flux impatiently started griping upon entering.

  “O’ Great Lord Gomanreas, if you have nothing else to say, please forgive me for not dealing with you! I am a very busy man,” Greem put on an icy front.

  “Kid, I smell the scent of divine authority fragments on you again…how strange. Your power isn’t all that impressive, so how is it that you can always obtain such unexpectedly high-grade resources? Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

  “I got my hands on these by throwing myself onto the battlefield! Alright, if you have nothing more to say, I will need to go rest now!”

  “Hold on,” Gomanreas couldn’t help but speak up. “Kid, think about it a little more. As long as you are willing to sacrifice divine authority fragments to me, I can provide you with unimaginable benefits.”

  “Do you have a habit of making empty promises, my lord? “Greem smiled coldly and took out a divine authority fragment and tossed it lightly in his palm. The shining crystal reflected an enchanting prismatic light. “If you want to trade, why don’t you list what you have to offer. I will trade with you if it’s satisfactory. There’s no need for all this beating around the bush!”

  Gomanreas’ soul abruptly paused for a moment. The spiritual flux lingered on the divine authority fragment for a while before recovering to normal.

  “My true form is no longer present, my soul has been scattered throughout the Fire Elementium Plane, and my god kingdom is completely gone. However, as a former Fire Hierarch, I do indeed still have some things left in my possession. Those things…can’t just be exchanged for that one measly divine authority fragment in your possession.”

  Having said that, Gomanreas was immediately stun
ned again as he watched Greem produce a second fragment out of nowhere. His spiritual flux started to waver.

  “Those still aren’t enough…”

  Then, there were three divine authority fragments in Greem’s hand.

  A hint of impatience also appeared on Greem’s face.

  Gomanreas knew that if he didn’t show anything that could interest Greem soon, he would probably be chased out of here.

  “These still aren’t enough! However, I can show you what I have first.”

  An unusual mental flux rippled, and a slowly rotating image of an object appeared in the air.

  There was an intricate cape woven out of the red feathers. Pure magical fire flowed along the fabric, making it outstandingly beautiful.

  “Sunfire Cape, a Sixth Grade magical item, woven entirely out of the tail feathers of high-grade phoenixes. It contains the Firefeather and Fire Halo ability. It has a base defensive power of 50,000 points and can reflect 20% of all damage. Moreover, the mythical phoenix’s magical characteristic will allow the item’s owner to enjoy the privilege of rebirth once a day!” Gomanreas explained in a soft voice.

  Greem couldn’t help but draw in a breath of cold air.

  What a powerful artifact of fire!

  Not only did it have very high base defense, but it could even reflect a portion of the enemy’s attacks. More importantly, having this item meant having one chance of being revived every day. It was quite an amazing item when all these factors were taken into consideration!

  Still, Greem was somewhat dissatisfied that Gomanreas could only produce a single Sixth Grade item despite once being an Eighth Grade Fire Hierarch.

  “O’ Great Lord Gomanreas, could it be that…you have nothing of Seventh or Eighth Grade to show?” Greem grumbled.

  “Seventh or Eighth Grade?” Gomanreas was surprised. “Kid, you don’t think Seventh and Eighth Grade items can be found anywhere, do you? Even back then, I only possessed one Eighth Grade artifact and three Seventh Grade artifacts.”