Age of Adepts

Inside an isolated dimension.

It was a strange space, only one hundred square meters in area.

There were no windows, walls, ceilings, floorboards, or even an entrance or an exit. The entire space was a sealed room surrounded by an unusual semi-translucent forcefield.

You could knock on the forcefield if you stood at the edge of the space. It proved that the forcefields were material substances that indeed existed, rather than just an illusion. Strange, colorful lights could be seen outside the forcefields, making it hard to identify where this place was exactly.

There was no air, no earth, and no water in this space. Naturally, there could be no life either. However, this place wasn’t silent!

Greem was greeted by a destructive torrent of fire when he entered the space through a teleportation array. The red flames washed over his body but could not injure him in the slightest. On the contrary, they turned into dense fire energy that was almost solid in texture and surged into his body.

Greem could feel the concentrated fire aura within his body. He could also sense, more than anything else, the commotion and desire of his Spirit. It had been left exhausted from the injury to his soul.

Here, nourished by the plentiful and pure fire energy, it seemed as if even the wound to his soul was healing. He was reinvigorated and felt like he had before his injury– filled with power.

The entire space was empty save for the Orb of the Fire God hovering in the air. It was slowly radiating waves of pure fire energy.

If this was just pure fire energy, the Heart of Principles in Greem’s body could also achieve a similar effect. In fact, the power given off by his Heart was easier to control. The fact that the flames from the Orb could nourish and strengthen Greem’s soul and Spirit meant that it contained something extraordinary.

Greem didn’t approach the Orb of the Fire God in a rush. Instead, he observed it from a distance.

The starseal that Alice applied was still active. No unusual energy fluctuation could be sensed within the Orb. The waves of fire energy radiating from it were simply due to the Orb of the Fire God being such a powerful vessel and source of energy.

The fire energy was gathered from the surroundings and concentrated within the core of the Orb. Most of it was converted into an usual, higher energy and stored. The rest of it radiated outwards in the form of this fire energy that was gradually modifying the environment.

If Greem didn’t absorb the scattered fire energy in this isolated dimension, the next time he came in, this place would be a sea of fire energy. If the Orb of the Fire God was given enough time and space, it could even forge a plane of fire or a molten world out of thin air.

Even this isolated dimension had already been changed slightly by the Orb’s presence.

The edge of this space was filled with sparks of fire fluttering in the air like ribbons. Meanwhile, the flames were much more concentrated and furious in the area’s center, where the Orb was. Red flames circled the Orb of the Fire God, pulsating and ebbing like waves.

Closer to the Orb of the Fire God, the fire energy was so dense that it had turned into a liquid state within ten steps of the artifact. It shrouded the Orb in a massive ball of fire and hid it from sight. Even from a distance, Greem could hear the loud rumbling from within the liquid ball of fire.

Greem stood at the edge of the dimension. Blue light flickered in his black eyes as he instantly scanned every change in the energy of this room.

The intensity of the emitted fire energy at the edge of the dimension was at 137 points, while the power at the center had reached 335 points. Meanwhile, the intensity within that massive fireball was as high as 628 points.

If Greem were just a Third Grade adept, he would only be able to move around the edge and center of this dimension. If he got too close to the fireball, his life would be at risk.

Fortunately, Greem had advanced to Fourth Grade. He also had the Chaos Physique. It allowed him to move freely in a space filled with such concentrated fire energy.

Greem had intended to use the devices in his laboratory to decipher the secrets behind the Orb of the Fire God. However, the strange element in the fire energy extracted from the Orb would rapidly vanish upon leaving the radius of the Orb’s radioactivity. The fire energy would turn into ordinary fire energy.

That was more than enough evidence that the greatest secret of the Orb lay within itself.

Greem casually walked through the mysterious sea formed of fire energy. Every movement of his Spirit would cause a tidal wave to wash across the sea of flames. His Spirit was continually guiding some sort of unusual power into his body. It made him feel warm as if he were soaked in a hot spring of just the right temperature in the middle of winter. It was so comfortable he didn’t feel like doing anything else.

His body was very relaxed, but his Spirit was only getting increasingly excited.

Countless fire elementium particles that resonated with his Spirit were surging into his tattered mind, slowly but surely mending the damage there. During this process, Greem’s soul origin was also being nourished and healed.

Greem slowly walked up to the fireball and extended his right hand into the flames.

He could feel the scorching heat the moment his arm entered the fireball. If he were any other adept, his arm would have been reduced to ashes in just a few seconds. All of the flesh would have burned away from the shocking heat of the fire.

However, he was a Fourth Grade fire adept. Such horrifying heat was barely anything to him.

A short moment later, the fireball trembled, and the energy dispersed. The Orb of the Fire God was taken out of the flames and revealed in its true form– a sphere the size of a fist.

“Come out and talk! I know you are in there,” Greem casually said, even though there was no one around him apart from the Orb of the Fire God.

……

“Playing dead is not something that works with me.” Greem smiled scornfully as he said, “You better not be a consciousness clone of Sinai, or I will have no choice but to wipe you away!”

Upon hearing Greem’s vicious threat and sensing the terrifying fire energy that radiated from him, the Orb of the Fire God that had been laying silently in his palm finally moved.

Flames erupted out of thin air.

Golden fire appeared from the Orb and gathered together to form an unusual face.

“How did you sense my presence? Honestly, how? Even those two vicious women from before couldn’t detect my presence. How did you do it?” The voice that came out of the face of fire was young and child-like. It sounded cute, so much so that it was even vaguely enchanting.

“Vicious woman? Ha! If Alice hears you describe her like that, you will regret it. As for detecting your presence? Hmph! Nothing difficult. I once met a Flaming Tiger with its own consciousness in the Fire Plane. That is why I am familiar with the elementium life fluctuation radiating from you.”

“A Flaming Tiger with its own consciousness,” The face mumbled to itself, its tone filled with envy.

“Alright, since you are an artifact spirit with your own consciousness, you should understand what I am about to do to you, don’t you?” Greem threatened coldly. “So tell me, do you intend to open up your consciousness core to me, or do you want me to take the effort to wipe away your existence?”

The smile on the face disappeared as the voice changed from that of a child to the low voice of a man.

“Wipe away my consciousness? Haha! Tiny adept, I am not laughing at you, but you wouldn’t be able to accomplish such a thing even if you were a Great Adept! You are just a Fourth Grade adept, while I…am the spirit of Fifth Grade artifact. You can’t do anything to me.”

Greem chuckled and gripped with his right hand, cutting off all energy supply to the Orb of the Fire God. The face vanished without a trace, reduced to simple sparks.

“Chip, begin a deep scan. Send the results to me as soon as possible.”

[Beep. Mission established. Beginning scan.]

As the Chip’s mechanical voice rang in his mind, two beams of blue light shone from Greem’s eyes, continually changing spectrums and frequency as they scanned the Orb.

The Orb’s outer layer was a sort of strange crystal, cool to the touch, without a trace of warmth. However, when the scanning waves landed on this crystal, most of the spectrums and frequencies were reflected, unable to penetrate it in the slightest.

Even the energy spectrums that were fortunate enough to penetrate the crystal layer soon entered a space of fire of seemingly endless size. The flood of fire energy disrupted these scanning beams before they could go any further.

Greem heard a slight popping sound and turned his head away. Black smoke was rising from his eyes.

Greem closed his eyes. Two streams of blood trickled from his eyes and flowed down his cheek.

Hmph! He had not been careful enough. The energy spectrum that had penetrated the Orb had been reflected and caused slight damage to his eyes.

He could only close his eyes and release waves of holy light from Sodden’s Holy Ring to heal his wounded eyeballs. The fire energy he wielded was indeed most powerful in offense, but it was inferior to pure, holy light when it came to its healing effects.

After almost five seconds, the itch on his eyeballs finally faded. Greem opened his eyes, and they were back to normal again.

As expected of a Fifth Grade artifact. Even without its owner’s control and having most of its abilities sealed away, its instinctive ability for retaliation was still able to hurt Greem.

Greem gritted his teeth and chuckled villainously. He gathered power in his eyes without any hesitation once again, and two blinding beams of blue light shone on the Orb once more.

This damned thing! He was going to break it in today at all costs!