Age of Adepts

The Versailles.

Inside a luxurious room on the second level inside the hull.

Greem sat in the corner of the room at the desk, silently reading the Tome of Corruption by an illumination crystal’s light.

As expected of Soul Equipment, the Tome of Corruption had obtained unusual intelligence after devouring the Libram of Wisdom. Greem would flip through the Tome of Corruption daily, reading and memorizing its contents.

Every time he read the Tome of Corruption, the contents recorded on its pages would differ.

Most of the time, they would only be a few nonsensical sentences. Occasionally, there were strange runes and unusual chants. According to the Chip’s analysis, these were all fragments of specific high-grade knowledge.

These knowledge fragments were shattered, in chaotic sequences, and often contained numerous mistakes or knowledge that only held true on specific planes. For an ordinary adept to decipher anything of use through these fragments was akin to searching for a needle in the sea. It was understandably impossible.

However, Greem had the Chip’s aid. He didn’t need to decipher and analyze these chaotic pieces of knowledge slowly. All he had to was forcefully memorize them and store them in the Chip’s database. The actual organization and deciphering of the data would be left to the Chip.

As such, after a long period of consistently reading the nonsense recorded in the Tome of Corruption, Greem was able to reap certain benefits as well.

Moreover, the very attempt to read such cryptic content was also a form of training for his Spirit.

Ever since he obtained the Tome of Corruption, Greem’s daily habit consisted of three things: meditation, reading, and experimentation.

Most of the time, eating, sleeping, and entertainment were necessary activities for ordinary humans. However, these things were inconsequential to high-grade adepts. They could go for several months without eating, drinking, or sleeping, especially when they were busy working on their mysterious experiments.

They would only take a quick rest to recover from the exhaustion of their Spirit running out.

Many high-grade adepts even completely changed their body’s energy circulation system, replacing the primitive practice of eating and digesting with the direct absorption of pure energy crystals.

For these adepts, worldly enjoyment and happiness were insignificant and pointless.

The authority wielded by an emperor, with which a single word would let a thousand heads roll; the unforgettable wines, the seductive ladies, the cute and innocent girls, the treasures collected from all over the world, and the sycophantic flattering of the court nobles in the lavish and wasteful banquets.

All of that could not provide a single iota more joy to an adept compared to making a minor improvement in their experiment.

The trajectory of the lives of adepts had already deviated from the understanding of worldly mortals, ascending to unimaginable heights. They saw the world for what it truly was, and they had become ascetics that sought only knowledge and truth.

If adepts of low and intermediate grade were still rodents struggling within the planar worlds, then high-grade adepts were ascended beings who had witnessed the wonders of other planar worlds. They had seen the beauty of the realms beyond and experienced the baptism of the spacestorms. The way they looked at the world, life, and power had broken free of a planar world’s constraints. They could be considered entirely different lifeforms from lower-grade adept.

Ants might be overjoyed at the discovery of a single drop of honey. Meanwhile, a lion would have scaled the cliff and let out a prideful roar at the world and all the thousands of weaker beings that resided within.

The difference in life, power, and vantage point had forged completely different existences!

Even if an ant were placed in the lion’s position, could it possibly see the sprinting pack of gazelles in the distance with its weak eyes? Could it remain unmoved by the strong, violent winds of mountains with its weak strength? Would it be terrified at everything it was seeing, or would it feel pride and joy?

The answer to all this was all unknown, but at the same time, established knowledge!

It was true that the Chip’s aid and Greem’s memories of his past life had helped Greem achieve his current accomplishments. However, at its core, most of Greem’s achievements had to be attributed to his strict self-discipline and tremendous sense of danger.

Anyone else might have succumbed to the desires in their hearts, lost in their enjoyment of the rush of authority, or the various beauties that could be found all over the world.

Fourth Grade adepts were already the most powerful individuals in a planar world!

When were you supposed to enjoy yourself, if not now?

Moreover, with the blinding title of Fourth Grade adept, ultra-powerhouse, and legendary fire adept, no woman or even female adept would ever reject his advances. Truly, who could possibly resist such temptations without a powerful mind and even more powerful will?

Greem had accomplished it.

There was a small window on one side of the room, right above the desk.

It was deep in the night now, and the moon hanging in the sky glowed with silver light that pierced through the window and cast upon Greem.

For some reason, the moon tonight was somewhat hazy and had an odd, enchanting quality to it.

Greem looked up at the moon. He could faintly sense the fluctuations of law aura.

Before he could respond, the colors and sights in front of his eyes suddenly turned dim. Lights flickered in the cabin as a colorful mist rose. Two seductive women with exceptional appearances and figures, dressed in flimsy clothes, appeared out of thin air and started dancing along with music, which had also begun playing mysteriously.

Then, a beautiful and mysterious woman stepped out of the mists, slowly appearing before Greem.

She wore a thin veil over her face, which covered her unnaturally beautiful looks. Only her memorable, deep-blue eyes could be seen. A translucent crystal was embedded in her forehead, flickering with a dark, deep radiance.

Her entire person radiated with that law flux that Greem had sensed earlier.

She was an adept. A Fourth Grade adept that had mastered powerful laws!

How did she manage to sneak onto the Versailles?

Confusion rose in Greem’s mind, and he couldn’t help but look around him.

As expected, the only thing remaining in view were the three mysterious female adepts and himself. Everything else was quickly fading away and vanishing.

The floorboards, the wooden desk, the walls, bed, the two potted plants at a corner of the room; everything was slowly turning transparent before scattering into mists, causing the entire space to appear even more fantastical.

Greem tried calling out to the Chip, but he got no response.

He immediately realized that this was no longer in the original material world. Instead, his mental consciousness had been dragged into a special illusory realm by some means.

The most suspicious observation that lent credibility to this idea was the constantly radiating law flux from the opponent!

“You must be Greem! Truly a brave man. You are already so severely injured, yet you still dare to venture out here,” The beautiful female adept bit her cherry lips lightly. She looked as gentle and harmless as a rabbit, but her words would send chills down the spine of any man, “Are you not afraid you will die on this trip?”

Greem continued looking at his surroundings. He tried drawing on his power several times, but he could not even produce a single spark of fire. It was almost as if the enemy had absolute control over this space, such that there wasn’t even a trace of fire energy here.

However, the fire laws themselves were not affected by spacetime or the illusory realm. They appeared around Greem, turning into a quad-colored magical defense.

The beautiful adept chuckled when she saw the law fires suddenly appear around Greem, “I was wondering why you were so unfazed. So you were counting on your law powers!”

Her pretty eyes then wandered along Greem’s body. She couldn’t help but praise, “To think a young adept that advanced only two hundred years ago could have pushed his law powers to such heights. Truly impressive. However, if this is the extent of your power, then I’m afraid you won’t be walking out of this dream alive today.”

“Dream?” Greem was stunned for a moment.

He had believed the opponent to have dragged his mental consciousness into some sort of illusion, in all honesty. However, judging from the opponent’s meaning, this wasn’t an illusion, but a dream.

Didn’t that mean the him in reality was dreaming?

Greem smiled and stepped forward. Both of his arms reached forward as he summoned his equipment.

The next second, a light flashed as the Tome of Corruption appeared in his left hand, radiating waves of dark light from its pages. Meanwhile, his right hand was empty as before. The fire coral staff had not appeared.

It seemed like the dream had cut off all of his connections with the outside world. He could not contact all of his equipment and weapons and, therefore, could not materialize them in this dream. The sole exception was the Tome of Corruption, as it was his Soul Equipment.

“Soul Equipment?” The adept was shocked once more. “Who would’ve thought that you would possess such high-grade Soul Equipment as well, apart from your fire laws? Very well then, let us fight our heart’s content in this dream!”

The beautiful adept stepped back. Colorful mists surged around her, completely concealing her figure. At the same time, the two dancing women giggled and slowly approached Greem.

For some reason, a murderous aura that pierced straight through Greem’s soul filled the air.

Back in reality, Greem was still seated at the wooden desk, his arms held empty where the Tome of Corruption should have been, his gaze loose and unfocused. You could even hear light snoring from him.

The moon in the sky was still as bright and pretty as before.

However, the empty cabin was filled with a chilling, murderous aura.