Age of Adepts

Greem finally felt more at ease after punishing Ivana.

“Chip, how long more do I have left?”

[Beep. Countdown to banishment: 11 minutes, 28 seconds]

Hss! Only eleven minutes left now?!

Greem was surprised, and an unspeakable emotion arose in him.

He finally had to leave this familiar world for good. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of reluctance and a hint of hesitation.

He turned around to look at the Northern Witches, who were scattered all over and glaring at him with hostile eyes. He made a pulling motion in front of him and tore open a small spatial rift, which he promptly entered.

When Greem appeared once again, he had returned to the looming adept tower of Crimson Wing.

The hall was filled with Crimson adepts that had arrived from all over. They looked at Greem silently when he suddenly appeared. The adepts bowed in unison, bidding their last farewell to this legendary clan leader of theirs.

Greem hovered in the air as his gaze swept past the subordinates in front of him. He couldn’t quite bear to leave this all behind.

There were so many Crimson adepts, but he could only recognize a tenth of them. Many familiar figures had vanished from among the old faces, and a lot more new faces had appeared.

This departure from the World of Adepts would be forever!

Perhaps the next time he was fortunate enough to cast his soul projection back here, there would be even fewer familiar faces. That was the life of a Great Adept.

Even Meryl, the disciple he had personally trained, would only have another seven hundred years to live if she didn’t advance to Fourth Grade. Yet, such a ‘short’ lifespan was only a very tiny portion of Greem’s own.

Perhaps she would already be gone by the time Greem managed to establish himself in space and had the time to come back for a look.

It was precisely because they wanted to avoid these repeated feelings of attachment and loss that most Great Adepts chose to control their emotions with indifferent rationality. They chose to put aside things like love, friendship, and familial ties. These things were too much of a luxury.

It wasn’t that the adepts were cold and heartless. Rather, they had ascended to such higher dimensions that it was impossible to maintain relationships in the same fashion as a mortal!

Greem finished looking at the hall around him and shifted his gaze to the horizon, his vision piercing through the walls of the tower. The numerous Fourth Grades of the Central Lands hovered in the air there, staring at that searing will with complicated looks in their eyes.

Greem might be leaving, but the rise of Horton Magic Academy was unstoppable. The Crimson Clan only had to embed themselves within the academy. Given what remained of Greem’s reputation, they would be guaranteed prosperous growth and development for the next few hundred years.

Moreover, Mary and Alice remained here. There wouldn’t be too many problems as long as they were there to watch over the Crimson Clan and Horton Magic Academy.

After nodding at everyone present, Greem’s gaze landed on Mary one final time. He then turned and dove into that ultra-long-range portal that was connected directly to space.

“Wait for me there for a few hundred years. I will come looking for you!”

Mary’s voice, somewhat hoarse from holding back tears, rang in Greem’s ears before he vanished entirely.

Greem smiled. He felt a lot more relaxed now.

…………

Lights flickered as space trembled.

After a momentary daze, Greem found himself inside a teleportation array.

It was a teleportation room forged entirely out of magical steel. The room was huge, with the array only taking up a small area of the room.

Split-Brain Sock stood outside the teleportation array, waiting with a fawning smile.

“Welcome, master!”

Greem ignored him and instead chose to expand his mental consciousness.

It felt like he had been bound and gagged the whole time he had been in the World of Adepts. It was a horrible feeling. He had to try his best to hold back his power with every action he took, just to avoid the suppression of the planar consciousness.

Now that he was finally in space, his body and soul were no longer restrained. He could finally stretch out and relax as he wished. That feeling of freedom and casualness was so enchanting that he almost forgot what he was doing.

After his Fifth Grade Spirit and principle power had combined, they formed a unique ‘will’! His every thought, word, and action seemed to have taken on rules of their own. They could turn into principle will wherever his consciousness could reach, replacing the planar laws everywhere.

His thoughts were laws, and his will was the principle of the world.

Everything within the space that his principles controlled had to obey his will!

This feeling of absolute control, like that of a god governing over their world, kept Greem mesmerized for half an hour. It was only then that Greem slowly retracted his Spirit.

Just now, Greem’s consciousness had turned into a giant web that extended in every direction. It had reached out of the teleportation room and spread to every corner of this city of steel through its corridors and pipes.

Naturally, during this process, Greem’s mental consciousness had clashed with Gazlowe’s own.

Gazlowe had shied away the moment he identified Greem’s mental consciousness. In doing so, he had basically handed over control of the Capital of Steel.

Greem merely stood in the teleportation room, unmoving. In a single instant, he had made out the workings of this gigantic city spanning dozens of kilometers, including its one hundred and three surface levels and seventy underground levels.

In fact, many of the hidden passages and rooms were projected in Greem’s mind as a three-dimensional map when he scanned them.

Gazlowe, who had been banished to the ‘wildlands,’ had truly been developing quite well while Greem’s focus was within the World of Adepts.

Greem had noticed that thousands of alien creatures and galaxy wanderers had taken up residence in the underground levels when he scanned the city with his Spirit. Greem even found all sorts of strange facilities in the city, such as auction houses, amusement parks, casinos, inns, taverns, smithies, enchantment factories, alchemy labs, magical-machine recycling workshops, and many others.

It seemed like the Capital of Steel had become a legitimate city in space in the past two hundred years that Greemhe had ignored it. It had become a massive base of operations for space travelers to rest, resupply, and exchange information.

The reason Gazlowe had been able to keep a massive city like this running wasn’t by his power alone. Instead, it was due to the six thousand magical machines that patrolled the city and the thirteen thousand more that were kept in reserve.

It was highly likely that controlling these six thousand magical machines was already Gazlowe’s limit. Otherwise, he wouldn’t let so many magical machines remain dormant underground.

The teleportation room was the fifth basement level, while Gazlowe’s own resting spot was fifty levels underground. The trip from here to there was filled with traps and defenses. High-Grade magical machines guarded every critical entry. It was definitely a well-defended stronghold.

Greem slowly retracted his Spirit after grasping the entire situation. He returned control over the Capital of Steel to Gazlowe.

“Bring me to see Gazlowe!” Greem casually said.

Given the strength of his and Gazlowe’s Spirits, they could easily communicate without obstruction while in this Capital of Steel. However, remote communication was still different from face-to-face interaction.

That was why Greem chose to meet Gazlowe without any hesitation!

Split-Brain Sock didn’t seem surprised by Greem’s request at all. He did not hesitate as he bowed and said, “Please follow me, master!”

The ten high-grade magical machine warriors in front of them started walking as Sock led Greem down the numerous corridors. They passed by one entry after another, walked past one heavy metal door after the other, each guarded by squads of powerful magical machines. Finally, they reached the fiftieth level and met Gazlowe.

Compared to the last time they met, Gazlowe’s brain had doubled in size. He looked like a mountain of flesh as he floated in the green liquid. It was hard to imagine that monstrous ball of flesh as a giant brain.

Greem finally smiled when he saw Gazlowe.

Since Gazlowe was willing to admit him here, it meant that Gazlowe had not changed his mind or position. He was still willing to obey Greem as his leader.

That was especially important!

Even though Greem could still sense the fire-brand he had left inside Gazlowe, he knew the truth. The brand could not keep Gazlowe entirely in line.

As long as Gazlowe was willing to abandon a part of his brain, it wasn’t impossible to remove the soul brand Greem had left behind. Now that Gazlowe was willing to expose himself at his most vulnerable and revere him as his lord, it was a sufficient show of his sincerity.

Naturally, Greem gladly accepted all this.

“Master, I didn’t think you would be so fast. To think you are already Fifth Grade!” Gazlowe’s loud voice rang in Greem’s mind, his voice filled with emotion.

The first time they met, Gazlowe had only just advanced into a Third Grade brain monster with his sacrificial ceremony. Back then, Greem had only been an insignificant Second Grade adept.

However, while Gazlowe was now much more powerful than before, he was still stuck at peak Third Grade. He had not even managed to advance to Fourth Grade. Meanwhile, his Second Grade master had overtaken him and risen to become a noble Fifth Grade Great Adept.

This tremendous change was almost unacceptable for a monster like Gazlowe. He couldn’t help but start doubting his own intelligence and ability.

Moreover, Gazlowe could sense two immensely powerful auras on this ‘young’ master of his. That meant he was carrying at least two Fifth Grade items with him!

You might be able to stumble into power, but you couldn’t just stumble into Fifth Grade items!

It was more than enough evidence that this youthful master possessed truly horrifying power beneath his seemingly harmless appearance!