Age of Adepts

The massive dragon’s tomb had now been completely taken up by the adepts who had crowded in.

A few skirmishes were still occurring on the outside.

These tomb guardians and dragonwraiths that had just awakened might be lofty, invincible existences to an ordinary graverobber, but they were little more than undead hindrances for the well-prepared elite adepts.

Soulcatcher, Bind Spirit, Anti-Undead Barrier, Anti-Magic Forcefield, Protection From Evil- as elites, these adepts had plenty of methods with which to deal with these unintelligent antiques that had been sleeping for the past thousands of years.

If all these special measures were ineffective, they could simply top it up with their ordinary spells and finish the job. However, for the sake of maximizing their profits, none of the adepts would ever obliterate these guardians or turn them into tiny pieces. After all, their valuable body parts were equivalent to mountains of magical crystals.

Greem was savoring the main course, and these adepts that had followed him here naturally got to enjoy whatever he left behind for them.

The scale of this dragon’s tomb was quite impressive.

This space had a radius of around a dozen kilometers, and several hundred dragon skeletons had been buried here.

Some of the skeletons were only half-buried, their bones showing signs of corrosion from the passage of time. Other skeletons had merged entirely with the rocks and boulders, turning a white-gray color. However, without exception, their skeletons all radiated incredibly dense death energy within this mysterious space.

The tomb guardians formed from their bones, and the dragonwraiths formed from their souls became the main obstacle to the adepts’ looting.

The adepts took out Soulcatching Wands and Spiritbinding Scrolls in a practiced fashion and quickly bound all the dragonwraiths in elementium chains. They then carefully placed these dragonwraiths into soul crystals or soul jars.

Meanwhile, the rampaging tomb guardians could only be knocked apart by the body-refining adepts or rendered inactive by the numerous layers of Anti-Undead Barriers and Anti-Magic Fields. Every time a tomb guardian fell apart, the adepts would break out in loud cheering. They would quickly pick up and put away the high-grade dragon bones left behind.

Greem left the adepts to collect their spoils while he and Remi circled the small, ten-meter wide dragonbone altar and evaluated it.

For some reason, Greem had a strange, restless feeling in his heart. It was almost as if he had forgotten something important.

As a Great Adept, there was almost no chance his senses were off. If he was feeling or sensing something, it meant that something harmful and inauspicious was almost definitely brewing right beyond his immediate knowledge. However, Greem had not practiced divination and could not ascertain the source of this unknown danger.

Whatever this impending calamity was, it was definitely triggered by the exploration of the dragon tomb. The dracolich was undoubtedly responsible to some extent!

Greem picked up the dracolich, whose limbs had almost fallen off from Remi’s poison. He stared right into the dracolich’s ghostly green eyes and warned sternly, “Brat, don’t try anything funny, or I’ll—”

Greem’s voice came to an abrupt halt before he could finish. A warning from the Chip rang out in his mind.

[Beep. Detecting faith beacon deep within the target creature’s soul.]

A faith beacon?

Greem’s thoughts moved, and information regarding the subject quickly flooded his mind.

Faith beacons were a unique means of spatial coordination. It was also a mark by which a god traced their devout followers. Through a faith beacon, a god would be able to sense the condition of their believer across trillions of kilometers.

If the believer were to die unexpectedly, the faith beacon would automatically turn into a faith channel and transport the believer’s soul to the god kingdom.

It was an automated process that could not be interfered with!

If anyone attempted to withhold the believer’s soul, they would quickly draw that god’s attention.

Under ordinary circumstances, no one would offend those powerful gods just for the soul of a measly believer. However, there were many times where killing an individual and extinguishing their soul was a necessity, out of consideration of concealing certain secrets.

Even though Greem had no intention of killing this dracolich to seal its mouth, he was still surprised by the fact that it had a faith beacon within its soul. It was almost unimaginable.

After all, dracoliches were existences that were firmly beyond the realm of the living; they were bonafide undead beings. Such taboos were strictly forbidden, even amongst the dragons.

Under ordinary circumstances, large dragon tombs were managed and protected by specially appointed dragons. There would also be corresponding dragon magic set up within the graves to prevent the appearance of undead dragons. Undead dragons like dracoliches and tomb guardians would only ever appear in neglected and abandoned dragon tombs.

If a dracolich had risen from this dragon tomb, then the place had definitely been abandoned by the dragons. However, if that was the case, how was the faith beacon inside the soul of this dracolich to be explained?

Would the dragons ever be willing to accept the faith power of an undead dragon?

Peculiar, wicked, and absolutely inexplicable.

“Evil adept, prepare to suffer the rage of the dragons! Cinquera will never forgive you,” The dracolich might have lost all ability to resist, but it continued to stare with its ghostly green eyes as it cursed. The name that it brought up caused Greem to pause for an instant.

Cinquera…what a familiar name! Right, that was the name of the female dragon who was a loyal follower of Night Dragon Faluzure. She was an infamous evil dragon throughout the multiverse.

If she were the dragon backing this dracolich, then it would explain everything!

While Greem was engrossed in thought, an emergency warning came from the Chip.

[Beep. Detecting abnormal location signal…Signal source: the dragonbone altar!]

What?

Greem’s heart tightened when he heard this. He raised his right hand, instantly gathering tremendous fire energy and smashing it down upon the small altar.

A crunch could be heard as the dragonbone altar collapsed entirely.

The shattered bones scattered across the ground, revealing a small but intricate array within. The mysterious array flickered with white light. It was transmitting an unknown signal to space according to some profound frequency.

Greem’s gaze turned sharp, and he let out a furious grunt.

“Quite bold, aren’t you! To think, you dare to try such tricks before my eyes. Hmph!”

Having said that, Greem extended his hand. Bright-red flames ignited along his hand and grabbed at the mysterious array. However, to his surprise, the blazing hand did not come into contact with anything at all. It was almost as if the magical array was only an illusion with no actual physical existence. The burning hand moved through the array several times but could not damage it in the slightest.

Was this array really just an illusion?

Greem himself was the first to dispel that thought from his mind as the signal that the Chip sensed did indeed exist.

That meant the array possessed an unusual spatial characteristic. It looked as if it existed within this dragon’s tomb, but it, in fact, existed in a completely different alternate dimension.

As for how this array had projected into this space, Greem had absolutely no idea.

“Chip, are you able to discover the array’s true location?” Greem couldn’t help but give an order to the Chip.

[Beep. It is a unique application of interspatial layers. The array does not exist within a single dimension. It instead exists in the layer between two neighboring dimensions. It is impossible to discover where the array is located without a concrete means of establishing a neighboring connection.]

A connection.

Greem turned back and looked at the still-cursing dracolich. He knew that the dracolich definitely had the connection method that he desired in its mind. However, the situation was rather urgent. The odds of obtaining the memory fragment he wanted by using soul-searching magic were no more than twenty percent.

Greem couldn’t help but frown. He then said coldly, “Is there no other way to make contact with this array?”

[Yes, there is: principle powers. Since the light array has been projected into this planeworld, it maintains certain special connections with some of the principle powers here. It is impossible to make contact with the array through ordinary means, but it would be possible with principle powers!]

“Principle powers? Tell me that earlier!”

Greem was overjoyed to hear this. The burning hand that he had extended toward the array suddenly glowed with blinding light. The crimson flames were soon replaced by golden, translucent fire. The Undying Flames burned all over Greem’s palm as the invisible strands of power started to silently affect the surrounding space.

As expected, the fire principles trembled, and the mysterious array rippled along with it.

[Currently deciphering the frequency of the enemy’s principles. Estimated time until completion: 7 minutes, 25 seconds.

[Beep. Warning. Warning. Detecting signs of a mysterious will descending. Estimated time until arrival: 5 minutes, 36 seconds.]

Two messages rang out in Greem’s mind at the same time. The former was good news, while the latter shocked him.

Descending.

Bastard! No wonder the dracolich was so stubborn. He was functioning as a spatial coordinate and guiding that mysterious will to descend here!

Greem made up his mind. Even more power surged in the right hand he had thrust into the array. The violent and ferocious fire principle powers wildly rushed toward the unusual spatial node within the light array in an attempt to extinguish it instantly.

Without this spatial node, the opponent would lose their ability to lock-on to this coordinate. Trying to extend your will across boundless space and trillions of kilometers? Try it again when you’ve become the Lord of Spacetime!

However, the mysterious will on the other end of the array seemed to have detected Greem’s actions. An overwhelming dragon’s aura of might projected into his mental consciousness from afar.

“Stop it, you arrogant fool! You will not be able to destroy the spatial coordinate that I have set down. I will give you a few minutes head start. Once I arrive, you will witness my might!” Such an overwhelming dragon’s aura of might! Greem was certain that the individual on the other side was the Cinquera that the dracolich had spoken of.

It was said that this evil female dragon was a terrifying Sixth Grade existence.

If…just maybe, if this dragon were able to descend on Plane Gere through this spatial coordinate, all the adepts here would not end up with a happy ending. Even a Great Adept like Greem would not escape unscathed.

The reason for that was simple. Evil dragons boasted some of the most powerful individual fighting strength in the multiverse.