Age of Adepts

“Alice, what are you planning this time?”

After the first Witch Council with this girl, the witch leaders no longer dared to look down upon this young witch. As such, Death Witch Leader Khesuna only frowned and questioned impatiently.

The expansion of planar worlds had not been going well for the Death Witches over the past few years. They were still engaged in deadly combat against the orcs of various worlds. Anyone would be impatient and frustrated if they were dragged from a bloody and tense battlefield to an old, rotting castle at such a crucial time, let alone Khesuna.

The other two witch leaders hadn’t spoken yet, but their expressions were the same.

“From what I understand, you, my elder sisters, have yet to catch suitable magical pets for yourself.” Alice’s age was insignificant in front of these witches. Naturally, she lowered herself and tried to win the witches’ favor by using a more gentle tone.

“You have a suitable recommendation?” Khesuna appeared moved.

“How about a Fourth Grade dragon pet?” Alice smiled, intentionally keeping things in the dark.

“Where? Is there a flight protecting it? Of which element?”

The three Fourth Grade witches couldn’t help but pursue the matter the moment Alice finished speaking. Even the eyes of Dark Witch Circe, who shared the worst relationship with Alice, lit up at the news of this.

In all honesty, other Fourth Grade adepts would probably frown when talking about a dragon of the same grade as if they were about to face down a terrible enemy. However, this group of Fourth Grade witches was smiling and brimming with excitement when talking about Fourth Grade dragons. It was almost as if they would instantly go over to where they were and abduct them once Alice gave them the location.

If Greem could see this sight, he would most definitely feel some slight sorrow over the tragic future fates of the Fourth Grade dragons of Lance.

“As you know, the male adept that has always supported me from behind the scenes has a dragon plane in his hands.” Alice stuttered as she spoke, two red blushes appearing on her pretty face.

“A dragon plane!”

The three Fourth Grade witches let out moans of happiness. Even the Pale Witch Leader Silvia couldn’t help but tremble.

Of course, it wasn’t out of fear, but out of extreme excitement!

“I’ve long since heard of dragon planes. It’s said that those planes are filled with dragons, where their lairs are everywhere, and dragons of every element can be found.

“We can catch whichever one we like. I have always dreamt of owning such a plane. If I did own a plane like that, I am certain I would faint from the pleasure.” Silvia licked her lips and expressed her elation with a dreamy voice.

The other, older witch leaders weren’t as moved as Silvia, but their burning, glowing eyes still betrayed their inner thoughts.

“Alice, you mean to say that the rights to the plane still remain in the hands of the male adept?” Khesuna answered with a question, calm and composed.

Alice nodded silently.

“I’ll go meet that male adept!” Circe stood up and spoke, “How could such a good thing stay in the hands of a weak male adept?! I’ll provide him with enough compensation and have him hand over the world coordinates of that dragon plane!”

Alice’s eyes instantly turned wide with shock!

Khesuna laughed softly and said, “Alright, alright, stop scaring Alice. Tell us then, since the male adept contacted us through you, does he want us to deal with the Fourth Grade dragons there?”

Alice put on a helpless and bitter smile before nodding in acknowledgment.

She might have the ability to control the powers of Fate, but she was far from being able to scry on a Fourth Grade witch. Fourth Grade witches already possessed immensely destructive powers. Their understanding and hold over the planar laws were not something she could hope to match with her ‘amateurish’ ways.

Moreover, all who managed to become witch leaders had all reached their positions after thousands of years of bloody battles and nasty plots. There was no way her little tricks and thoughts could escape the eyes and ears of these old foxes.

As such, Alice stopped beating around the bush and started using promises of real benefits as bait. A shocking negotiation had begun between her and the Fourth Grade witch leaders.

In the end, both parties reached a basic cooperative agreement.

The Crimson Clan, led by Alice and Greem, would occasionally open up Lance to the witch branches and allow powerful witches to enter and capture the dragon pets they wanted.

Correspondingly, the Death, Dark, and Pale Witch factions had to respect the Crimson Clan’s ownership of Lance. They had to enter Lance based strictly on the schedule of the Crimson Clan and were not allowed to destroy the natural ecosystem of Lance.

In addition, for every dragon pet that they successfully captured, the witches had to pay a large additional sum of magical crystals or resources.

After these series of agreements, it was as if the Crimson Clan had conditionally opened up Lance to the three witch factions while also pulling in some powerful help for themselves. Of course, the price that the Crimson Clan had to pay for this was several powerful pureblood dragons from Lance.

The dragon lords were all there. You could freely capture them as you pleased. Capture them, and the dragon belonged to the witch, while the lair and land belonged to the Crimson Clan. All the witch had to do was pay an additional sum of magical crystals as compensation.

It was a profitable business with no cost at all, no matter how you looked at it!

Once the agreement was signed, Alice finally revealed all of the information on this time’s target– Wings of the Azure Sky, Krille. With a ‘traitor’ like Arms, all of the secrets of the higher dragons were no longer secrets to Greem.

The division of elemental dragons was different in the World of Adepts compared to the other worlds.

The so-called Wings of the Azure Sky Krille was actually a blue dragon, which was the wind dragon that the adepts so often spoke about.

These dragons excelled at manipulating the forces of the wind and were the fastest at flying among all the dragons. The first thing that one needed to think about when attempting to capture or hunt down a wind dragon was how to limit its movements and terrifying speed.

However, it was no longer Greem’s problem to ponder. Instead, it was a question posed to the witch leaders now.

Dark Witch Circe and Pale Witch Silvia chose to give up on Krille after obtaining the detailed information on it. Only Death Witch Khesuna’s eyes were still gleaming with interest.

Since this Fourth Grade dragon was not their preference, both Circe and Silvia left, one after another. Still, they both left their respective contacts before leaving. Naturally, Circe preferred shadow-type dragons, such as nightshade dragons, black dragons, or void dragons. On the other hand, Silvia preferred frost dragons and spectral dragons.

Before she left, Dark Witch Leader Circe turned and gave Alice a long, meaningful look. She then whispered with a secret mental message, “Though I don’t like you, I won’t have a hand in the battle between you and the first Fate Witch from now on. You will no longer need to worry about me doing anything to you henceforth.”

Having said that, Circe turned and left without looking back.

Alice’s tightly gripped fists finally loosened when she heard this.

She had always been careful and on guard against moves from the other witch branches all this while. She couldn’t easily trust any of them, even those who were outwardly friendly toward here.

The main reason for that was the existence of the first Fate Witch!

According to the path of the past Battles of Fate, Alice had been destined to die inside the Tower of Fate. Everything she owned would then have become the nutrition that the new Witch of Fate’s clone required to grow. However, it was the existence of a variable like herself that caused the ten-thousand-year plan of the First Fate Witch to come up empty.

She had already become an annoying prick in the eyes of a major character somewhere in the outer realms ever since she had become the official leader of the Fate Witches. If it weren’t for the protection of the World of Adepts’ world consciousness, Alice would already be a pile of bones. She would have fallen to the schemes of the immensely powerful first Fate Witch.

The fact that Alice was still alive wasn’t because she was smart, or because the enemy couldn’t do anything to her. It was because the enemy needed her alive!

One could imagine that if the first Fate Witch used her methods to kill Alice, then the massive amount of Fate power that Alice had gathered would return to the World of Adepts. It would not benefit the First at all.

However, if she allowed Alice to grow up, Alice would eventually ascend past Fourth Grade and be forced to step out of the World of Adepts. When that happened, Alice would be a ripe, fresh fruit. All the First had to do was pluck it, and she would obtain everything that Alice currently possessed.

The plan might have deviated from the original, but the final result was the same.

As such, the first Fate Witch had been secretly manipulating and guiding Alice’s development over the past few years, with no intentions of killing her yet. However, the witch of the outer realm was unprecedentedly wicked and vicious against all variables that could interrupt the trajectory of Alice’s growth.

That was obvious from the disasters that had befallen Greem!

Since Circe had already expressed such sentiment, it meant that the entire Dark Witch faction would no longer interfere in the internal struggle between the two Fate Witches. That was great news for Alice!

If she could remove the influence of the first Fate Witch within the World of Adepts, and perhaps even turn it around, she could regain a certain degree of initiative in this severely imbalanced match.

Alice finally let out a heartfelt smile with a guarantee like this!

Khesuna had no interest in Circe and Alice’s secret. She was more interested in the internal environment and foreign laws of Lance. Only by taking these factors into consideration could she maximize the chances of capturing the Wings of Azure Sky.

Alice introduced Khesuna to Greem without any hesitation!