Sovereign of the Ashes

The main problem the Divine Tower of Ashes faced was that new mages were taking too long to train.

Full-fledged mages were never easy to nurture.

Take the Divine Tower of Ashes’ large-scale recruitment of initiates every five years as an example. Out of three thousand initiates enrolled, fewer than fifty could eventually become full-fledged mages after many years of training.

Most would be stuck at the intermediate initiate stage, unable to break through.

Furthermore, this was an optimistic estimate.

Given the current size of the Divine Tower of Ashes, there was no need to think about expansion for now.

Even if Sein could afford to spend heavily on training initiates, there were simply not enough to recruit.

The growth of a divine tower was not something that could explode overnight.

No veteran divine tower achieved its status today without thousands or even tens of thousands of years of development.

Even so, Sein’s Divine Tower of Ashes was already growing faster than others founded in the same era, but patience was still required.

The good news was that the Divine Tower of Ashes now had 971 registered mages and would soon surpass one thousand.

***

In Sein’s thirty-first year back in Ashenreach, he finally received a message from Thor.

The Titan god said he had secured the Golden Apple and asked if Sein had the money ready.

The Verdant Flame Faction had pooled together seventy million magicoins for this twenty years ago and had been waiting ever since.

At Thor’s suggestion, Sein traveled alone to the Titans’ starport outside Magus World.

Inside the massive starport with rugged and imposing design, there was a massive space fortress with a pale blue metal hull and golden armor plating across its top. It immediately caught Sein’s eye.

Yes, this was his space fortress.

Inside, more than a hundred mages went about their daily duties.

Sein did not enter the fortress to greet the divine tower mages under his command. Instead, he headed straight to the deepest part of the starport.

There, in a rather hidden underground room, he met Thor.

Technically, their transaction was legitimate and above board, but Thor was acting so secretive about it that Sein could not help but laugh and shake his head.

The bare-chested Titan god did not let Sein down. He took out a crystal bell jar from behind him, and inside it rested the Golden Apple.

Unlike what Sein had imagined, this Golden Apple was not pure gold, but rather a platinum-gold color with a translucent sheen.

This was Sein’s first time seeing one in person. The records on the Golden Apple in Sky City’s archives were far too vague.

Then again, it might simply be because Sein was still too low in rank and lacked the points needed to access more detailed and in-depth information about its properties.

The translucent Golden Apple radiated a majestic aura, and faint traces of law power swirled gently across its surface... It was the rare law of life!

When Sein reached out to uncover the crystal cover, Thor stopped him in time.

“This crystal bell jar is specially made. Once a Golden Apple is removed from its tree, its life force slowly drains away. It won’t dissipate much, but you don’t want to lose any of it for nothing, right?” he warned.

A treasure like the Golden Apple could greatly benefit anyone, even from just a whiff of it.

Of course, that only applied to creatures below Rank One. A Rank Four powerhouse like Sein would never gain benefits just by sniffing it. That would be absurd.

Resisting the urge to immediately uncover its mysteries, Sein tossed a special space ring over to Thor, loaded with seventy million magicoins.

“You can count it,” Sein said.

“No need. I trust you,” Thor replied, tossing the space ring in his hand and grinning.

Seventy million magicoins was nothing if there was mutual trust and the promise of deeper cooperation in the future.

“Well, I should get out of here quickly. I snuck out this time. I just hope no one noticed,” Thor said.

“I’m guessing your younger brother got this Golden Apple, right? Where is he?” Sein asked once the transaction was done.

“After he secured the Golden Apple, he left it to me to handle the exchange with you to be safe. Out of the seventy million, I am only getting thirty. Forty goes to Loki,” Thor replied.

“That guy is never nice to his own big brother,” he muttered with a scowl.

***

After saying goodbye to Thor, Sein took the Golden Apple and quickly returned to Viridescent Land.

Since the Golden Apple was such a rare secret treasure that even Gregory had never seen before, all the members of the Verdant Flame Faction quickly gathered at Lorianne’s Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

In the end, Feylis examined and confirmed that it was indeed a real Golden Apple.

Feylis had never eaten one herself, but she had seen it in person twice before.

Her confirmation made everyone, including Sein, gaze at the pale platinum-gold colored apple with eyes shining in curiosity and awe.

None of them wished to eat it. They were simply fascinated by the profound mysteries the Golden Apple held.

This was a perfectly normal reaction for mages whenever they saw an unknown, top-grade ingredient.

Lorianne’s face was flushed with excitement. For a dendromancer and apothecary like her, the value contained within this Golden Apple far surpassed that of many lower-tier world-class secret treasures.

Sein did not know much about dendro magic or lifeology, yet he still spent plenty of time in the Verdant Spring laboratory because of this Golden Apple.

The Verdant Flame Faction rarely gathered so fully; this usually only happened once every thousand years.

Master Feylis even teased that it had been ages since her apprentices and grand apprentices gathered together in a laboratory to pursue truth.

Sein and Aelid did not share the same feeling, but Lorianne, Bernice, and Gregory were clearly feeling nostalgic.

Eventually, Sein had to leave Viridescent Land because he was needed elsewhere; otherwise, he might have stayed longer in his mentor’s laboratory.

Good news seemed to come one after another these days. Grimm informed Sein that he had finally deciphered the exact planar coordinates of Pyreling World.

The interplanar war was set to begin seven years from now, mainly because Grimm needed time to gather enough materials to build the interplanar teleportation array.

Breaking through Pyreling World’s planar barrier would not be easy, and Grimm would need Sein’s help when the time came.

Aside from Sein and Angreas, the other participants in the Pyreling World War would include the Divine Tower of Crimson Blaze, the Order of Murg, and the Order of Cercis Shield.

The Divine Tower of Crimson Blaze was established by Grimm’s senior, Vlad. It was a relatively ordinary divine tower with a simple name.

Vlad was the one who invited the other two knightly orders, including the Order of Cercis Shield, which had been founded by a Rank Five knight.

In total, six parties were taking part in this war, making it a fairly large-scale operation.

Grimm, Sein, and the others planned to end the campaign within thirty years.