Age of Adepts

A blazing fire burned upon the piled-up logs, licking at the young witch’s body bit by bit until, finally, everything had turned to ashes.

The witches were not members of this world. Their soul would never rest in peace here.

To avoid Airuilian’s soul being lost in other worlds, Alice personally hosted the funeral and tried her best to collect shards of Airuilian’s soul from within the ashes.

Once they returned to the World of Adepts, Alice only needed to shatter the soul crystal, and Airuilian’s fractured soul would be allowed to return to the soul mother river. It was the greatest courtesy a dead adept could receive.

During the funeral, Greem and the others only stepped forward to give their blessing. However, the Witches of Fate who had come along with Airuilian were shedding sorrowful tears. It was clear that the relationship of these Witches of Fate had been extraordinarily close-knit after nearly a hundred years of being together.

That was in stark contrast to the relationship of the witches in the other branches!

The majority of the elves that had ambushed the flying ship had been left behind. The remainder that had managed to scatter into the surrounding forest was too hard to track. Even Greem would find it difficult to lock on to their positions in the woods with his spiritual senses.

Thus, after an entire kilometer of pursuit and five dead elven archers, the surviving elves had vanished without a trace. The Second Grade druid and female elf captain had particularly extraordinary stealth abilities. Greem had burnt nearly a quarter kilometer’s worth of forest and still failed to find any trace of them.

It seemed that the hardest part about future battles with the elves in the forests would be detecting their ambushes!

Greem could have called for all of his companions during the last battle. That would have slightly increased their chances of capturing the Second Grade druid. However, taking into consideration the fights that were to happen in the future, Greem had still commanded Mary, Zacha, Alice and the rest to stay inside the ship. He only sent out some magical machines to surround the elves.

They might have allowed more elves to escape, but it also guaranteed that the adept forces on the ship were not completely exposed.

The attacking elves hadn’t been exterminated. In fact, some of them had been left alive.

These elf warriors then became the best experimental specimens and subjects for the adepts.

Those intended for dissection were dissected, and those who were to be fed to the bugs were fed to the bugs. Soon, all of the elves had been ’exhausted.’

The few Crimson Clan leaders sat together for a discussion. They unanimously agreed that the reason for the accuracy of the elves’ ambush was the excessive straightforwardness of their operations. They had entered the depths of Fantasy Forest five times, all of which was only to investigate mines. Hell; it would be weird if the elven kingdom hadn’t done anything when this information fell into their hands!

After some discussion, the adepts came to a decision. They would commence guerrilla warfare. They would change locations after every attack and try their best to exterminate the opponent with every strike while also making feints to throw the enemy off of their next target.

The flying ship immediately took to the skies after they decided upon a strategy. It then sped toward the sea.

Tymo had initially suggested that they attack the nearest elven village or town, but Greem abandoned the idea after some contemplation.

From now on, he no longer ever wanted his thoughts to be figured out by the enemy. That was why they should avoid such vengeful, anger-venting, actions as much as possible. At any rate, Garan was incredibly enormous. They had plenty of targets to choose from. There was no need to worry about elves to slaughter.

This was the elven kingdom. Those who lived here were all citizens of the elven kingdom. As long as they slaughtered enough people, their ambush today would have been repaid in full.

With the speed of the flying ship, the crew managed to return to the shore in a mere two days. The vessel didn’t stop once. It flew straight to the sea and headed fifty kilometers out before finally stopping.

Having reached this place, they would be impossible to track, even if there had been elven scouts following behind them all this time. After dropping all possible tails, the flying ship turned around and headed south. It flew toward the southern shoreline of Garan.

It was a strategic plan that Greem and the others had come up with.

Their objective this trip was to obtain the Staff of Divination. Yet, the Staff of Divination was in a collection of the Second Grade Green Dragon Ohgu. If they wanted to steal the staff, they most crucial thing to do was to draw Ohgu out from the Dragon Cliff. Even if they couldn’t draw away the dragons, they would have to find a way to draw out the main forces and powerhouses of the elven kingdom.

Otherwise, trying to steal the Staff of Divination was practically suicide.

Trying to tug upon the whiskers of a Second Grade green dragon deep inside the elven kingdom made it very likely that they would run into those fearsome elven god messengers. According to the records of the adepts, the gods that relied on the faith of their followers faced the same awkward situation as the Great Adepts. It was the fact that they would be kept outside of the plane barrier by the powers of the plane. They could only attach themselves to the plane barrier and forge their own holy kingdoms in the outlands.

The gods of Fifth or even Sixth Grade had absolutely no way to pass through the plane barrier and enter the world. Thus, to allow themselves to project their power into the world, they would find various ways to raise messengers or priests of their own pantheon inside the plane.

This way, the gods would be able to project part of their strength into the world through their priests or messengers when their denomination was in danger.

The Elven Empire constantly eulogized that the avatars of the gods walked upon the earth and spread the voices and wills of the gods. In truth, these avatars weren’t the gods truly descending upon the world. Instead, it was merely the gods borrowing the bodies of the priests and the messengers to exact their will.

Those who could ascend to godhood were existences above Fifth Grade, while central deities of the pantheons were often powerful Sixth Grades. However, the limitations of their divine power and grades caused there to be a difference in the amount of energy they could project back into their origin plane.

For example, chief Elven God Saoirse was a Sixth Grade god. The amount of power she projected back into the plane was enough to create a peak Fourth Grade god messenger to exact her authority. On the other hand, the Fifth Grade God of Archery, Marco, could project power enough to create a newly advanced Fourth Grade. The weakest Fifth Grade God of Moonlight, Meve, could only project a Third Grade god messenger.

That was why it was virtually impossible to kill a deity, for their actual bodies weren’t even within the plane!

If one wanted to slay a god, they had to break out of the planar barrier and fight their way into the holy kingdoms of the gods. That was the only way to kill a god once and for all.

If one only exterminated their messengers within the plane, they would quickly be able to find a way to create yet another god messenger. There would never be a lack of proxies for the gods as long as they themselves didn’t die!

Greem commanded the flying ship to weave along the edges of Garan constantly. They never ventured deep into the continent, precisely because they were afraid of running into a powerful elven god messenger. With the faith of the elven kingdom, even the lowest god messenger would probably possess the approximate strength of a Third Grade.

The flying ship might be carrying the strongest group of individuals that Greem could put together, but even they would have no choice but to flee if they ran into a Third Grade god messenger. After all, Greem had already seen the power of a Third Grade. It was indeed as domineering as he had expected.

That was obvious from the stunning might of the Third Grade thunder dragon!

Even if Greem gathered all the Second Grade adepts of the clan and invited Dragon Devourer Oliven to help him, they would have a tough time dealing with a Third Grade thunder dragon. Even put all together, they might not withstand more than seven minutes under the destructive lightning of the thunder dragon.

Combat techniques and fighting methods did not so easily compensate for the absolute dominance of the grade difference and racial superiority. That was why, at this current phase, Greem had to try his best to avoid battles with Third Grade enemies.

Greem couldn’t afford to pay the price needed to defeat the enemy!

............

Moonshade Village.

This once peaceful and calm village was now in a riot.

Less than one-tenths of the defeated garrison had successfully made it back to Moonshade Village. The female elf captain that had led the group also brought back terrifying news to everyone.

The fearsome adept’s flying ship was near Moonshade Village. They could descend upon them at any moment to take vengeance for the elves’ ambush.

Aizac, who had left the captain halfway, was already on his way back to the central mountains. He would try to report the information about the flying ship to an elven commander as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the female elf captain hurried back to Moonshade Village to organize the migration of the villagers.

Most elves would only go adventuring in their youths. They usually returned to their place of birth once they reached middle age to live out the rest of their lives in peace.

For the villagers of Moonshade Village, this was the home that they had lived in for their entire lives. No one would be willing to leave this familiar land and forest if it weren’t for the continuous urging of the captain. Even if they needed to depart, every elf brought with them plenty of baggage. They hesitated with every step, turning to look at their home at each turn. The reluctance in their eyes was heartbreaking.

Though the female elf captain couldn’t bear to leave this place either, she steeled her heart and forced the elves to pick up the pace; it was for everyone’s safety.

At this moment, the elven scout that she had left near Spear Valley ran back, panting and gasping.

"What? The enemy has already left? They flew in the direction of the shoreline?" The female elf captain grabbed the shoulders of the elf. She almost couldn’t believe her ears.

"Wooo. The evil adepts have left. We no longer need to leave our home anymore."

The elves who couldn’t bear to leave their home behind immediately started cheering upon receiving the news. Some of them even began to sing and dance.

However, the frown on the elf captain’s face only deepened. Her gaze into the distance turned deeper and darker.

Could the adepts really tolerate this slight to them? Were they not going to avenge their companions?

Far away, where the female elf captain couldn’t see, the curtains were only rising on a storm of blood and murder orchestrated by Greem!