Age of Adepts

Chairman Freed soon met Greem once more inside Kerslin Castle.

Along with him to meet Greem were three other Fourth Grade adepts. One of them was Elder Nicolas, who Greem had met before. One of the other two adepts was a middle-aged female adept with decent looks. She was Kerala, current clan leader of the Dener Clan that Scarface Gallow belonged to. The other adept was a scholarly old man. His face was incredibly wrinkled and showing tremendous signs of age. That was Mirva, Vice-Chairman of the Association.

Chairman Freed started to softly incant a mysterious and unusual chant, witnessed by the three Fourth Grade adepts. As the chanting rang out, large clouds of black smoke emerged from the walls, ground, and ceiling around them, gathering before Greem and forming into a mysterious black contract with golden letters.

The material of the contract appeared to be the black smoke itself, and the golden letters floating above the smoke were a complete blur. It was only when Greem extended his Spirit into the smoke that a contract agreement with terrifying binding power appeared in his mind.

[Beep. Detecting ancient contract fragment. Host’s soul will be bound by the contract, along with the souls of other parties once host’s soul brand is left on the contract. There is no authority party within said contract. It is a shared soul contract. As long as host does not go against the agreement laid out by all contractors, no damage will be inflicted upon the soul.

[There are three agreements on this ancient contract fragment. They are as follows:

[One. Said Contract is a shared agreement amongst all Fourth Grade adepts of Zhentarim. All parties in the contract are not to attack each other or harm each other’s interests. Violation of this agreement will cause one’s soul to degrade.

[Two. Parties involved in the contract must defend the benefit of all Zhentarim adepts. They must obey the orders of the Zhentarim Association to defend against infiltration and invasion from foreign forces, provided their own safety and benefit is not threatened!

[Three. Parties joining the contract for the first time must execute an Association mission agreed upon by all contractors. Should the contractor refuse said mission, it will be regarded as a refusal to serve the Zhentarim Association. Said contractor will be jointly expelled by all other contractors!]

Greem narrowed his eyes and reflected silently about this contract before him. He vaguely started understanding something about the situation.

In all seriousness, the purpose of this contract was to unite the high-grade (mostly Fourth Grade) adepts of the Central Region against the infiltration and invasion of the other three major forces. At its core, the contract was a good thing for Zhentarim!

At the very least, the contract’s limitations meant that the various adept battles of the Central Region would never expand to the Fourth Grades. Without the participation of the Fourth Grades, it would be much easier to control the intensity of the adept wars, preventing terrifying death zones and endless wars from appearing in Zhentarim.

Of course, the Association’s higher-ups weren’t foolish enough to restrict wars across all levels.

After all, adept battles of a certain intensity would cultivate and filter out more powerful and excellent adepts. It was part of the process of internal elimination and competition.

As such, the Association only banned conflicts between Fourth Grade adepts.

As long as competition between adepts of Fourth Grade and below did not harm the functioning of the adept cultivation system, the Association would not interfere in any manner. In fact, they were happy to see such minor wars and conflicts happen between the various clans. It was the only way that rising adepts could absorb nutrition from the defeated and slowly walk towards the peak.

From this perspective, Greem and his Crimson Clan were beneficiaries of this laissez-faire policy.

After reading the entire contract, Greem understood it in its entirety.

The Association’s constraints on Fourth Grade adepts were still extremely loose.

After all, the reason all the Fourth Grade adepts of Zhentarim had united and created an Association like this was to gain strength in numbers. They wanted to resist the influence of the three major forces, not to restrict their own freedoms.

Apart from the compulsory mission upon joining, Greem would naturally gain tremendous influence over the development of Zhentarim upon signing the contract. He would be an elder of the Association, after all. On the other hand, the Association would only place a few limits on what he could and could not do.

Every single Fourth Grade Association elder had the right to submit a topic of discussion for their meetings.

When a significant issue appeared, the chairman would summon the elders for a meeting, and a decision would be made through a majority vote. The Association currently had fourteen Fourth Grade adepts. Apart from Chairman Freed, who had two votes, everyone else had a single vote each.

Pushing a proposal only required a single vote, but vetoing it required a majority vote.

As such, as long as the majority of Association elders did not oppose the proposal, a Fourth Grade elder could typically exact his will without any problems.

That was perhaps the main reason all Fourth Grade adepts of the Central Region were willing to join the Zhentarim Association!

“I am still a Third Grade at the moment.” Greem lifted his head, looking at Chairman Freed, staring at him, and asked with some degree of confusion.

This contract clearly related to Fourth Grade adepts. He was only a Third Grade adept at the moment. It was obvious that there was something wrong if the Association was so anxious to have him sign the contract.

“You will be a Fourth Grade adept very soon!” Chairman Freed smiled at him, “I have confidence in you!”

Greem still hesitated.

Elder Nicolas, who was standing by the side with a dark expression on his face, said coldly, “What is it? Do you want to reject this contract? I warn you, think carefully about the consequences of rejecting this contract!”

Chairman Freed smiled and waved at Elder Nicolas.

“Don’t scare him. I’m sure Sir Greem will come to the wise and correct decision!”

Chairman Freed very obviously emphasized his tone when saying the word ‘wise.’

However, Greem felt like smashing a fireball right into his face when he saw his superficial kindly smile.

It was just good cop, bad cop!

While Greem was still hesitating, a faint but familiar voice rang out clearly in his mind.

“Sign it! I’ll explain when you come back.”

It was Alice’s voice.

When Alice spoke in his mind, Chairman Freed seemed to have realized something was odd. He lifted his head abruptly and looked to the north.

Greem hesitated no longer. He reached out with his right forefinger and gathered a small yellow flame at the very tip, which he pressed onto the mysterious contract. The instant the fire came into contact with the contract, Greem’s name, written in the adept script, mysteriously appeared above it. The entire contract then erupted loudly, scattering into black mist and dispersing into the surrounding air.

Greem could sense that the mysterious contract had not vanished, but had simply been stored in the core of Kerslin Castle’s animated consciousness.

Color finally returned to the faces of the Fourth Grade adepts when they saw Greem sign the contract. Adept Kerala and Elder Nicolas, who were witnesses to the signing of the contract, vanished without a trace after smiling at Greem and congratulating him.

Soon, only Greem, Freed, and Mirva were left in the secret room.

Greem might not have been a Fourth Grade yet, but judging from how the two adepts smiled at him, they thoroughly treated him like one of their own.

“Here, for you. This is the reward you deserve!”

Freed tossed an exceptionally well-crafted magical ring to him. Small fire diamonds had been inlaid onto the surface of the ring to form the emblem of the Zhentarim Association.

“This is your elder’s ring. You will gain the right to freely enter and exit Kerslin Castle while you wear the ring. At the same time, you will be able to command the adept forces of the Association to some limited capacity. There is also a small storage space in the ring. The five hundred Siths of origin substance we promised you are already in there.”

Even as calm and composed as Greem typically was, he couldn’t help but start trembling when he caught the ring.

After all, the power and influence that this ring represented in the Central Region carried tremendous weight. It most certainly held more power than most adept clans. To be brutally honest, once Greem wore the ring, he wouldn’t even need to lift a single finger to destroy an adept clan. He would simply need to express his will, and plenty of adept forces would be willing to do the deed for him.

After all, there were tens of thousands of adept clans in Zhentarim, but only fourteen Fourth Grade adepts.

It was obvious who held more weight!

“Don’t be too glad yet. Your authority as an elder will remain frozen until you advance to Fourth Grade. Everything here will only officially belong to you once you’ve truly become a Fourth Grade adept. However, I believe that this day will come very soon.” A strange smile appeared on Chairman Freed’s face.

“Also, if I were you, I would teleport back to the Crimson Clan directly and not emerge until I’ve advanced to Fourth Grade. You should know how much of a temptation these origin substances are to a Third Grade adept. Such temptation can drive countless people to walk down the most dangerous and risky of paths.”

…………

Fire Throne.

Gargamel was already standing at the entrance to the teleportation room when the brilliant light of teleportation faded. He bowed respectfully.

“Welcome back, clan leader!”

News of what happened had already spread to the Crimson Clan.

At this moment, the entire clan was boiling with excitement. People were celebrating everywhere. As Crimson Majordomo, there was also tremendous joy and insuppressible excitement to Gargamel’s tone.

“Alright, alright…stop playing these pointless games. The clan leader you were waiting for hasn’t returned yet. It’s us instead!”

Gargamel raised his head when he heard that familiar voice. It was then that he awkwardly realized that only Mary, Meryl, and Emelia were standing in the teleportation array. Greem’s figure was nowhere to be seen.

“La…Lady Mary, where’s the clan leader?”

“Hmph! What do I care? Keep waiting here if that’s what you like to do!” Mary became infuriated at the subject and stormed away in a fury.

“Lord Gargamel, wait here, won’t you!” Meryl was clearly in a good mood and chuckled as she left.

Seeing how confused her father was, Emelia tugged at his sleeves and leaned in to whisper, “The clan leader’s gone to the Tower of Fate!”

“Oh? Oh!”

Gargamel exclaimed for a while before finally understanding.