Age of Adepts

“Friends......” Kanganas was speechless.

In all honesty, no one in their right mind would dare be friends with a demigod lich. After all, the terror of liches and their heartlessness was known throughout the multiverse.

That was why Kanganas was unsettled by Greem’s show of goodwill.

“You saw my current condition as well; I’m halfway there. I might not be rejected by the World of Adepts yet, but I don’t have much time left inside this plane,” Greem smiled as he explained, “Leaving the World of Adepts for the realms beyond will leave me all alone again. I’m afraid I will have to ask for your help on many matters then, my ‘friend’!”

Greem might not have revealed all his plans, but it was evident that he placed quite a bit of importance on Kanganas.

Kanganas was already a demigod lich. With the power of the reliquary, he should have no problem advancing into a Great Lich. Though Greem might be venturing into that realm ahead of him, Kanganas wasn’t too far behind in terms of individual fighting power.

Planning ahead and establishing good relations with the lich would keep Greem from walking into space completely blind. He would at least have a companion.

Power, influence, connections, resources- these were all things necessary for the growth of a powerful Great Adept. They were all required!

The moment the topic of discussion shifted back to benefits and merits, Kanganas’ doubts dispelled instantly. He even started rejoicing.

Greem needed a powerful companion to aid him, and so did Kanganas. Once he advanced to Fifth Grade and became a Great Lich, he would have the qualifications to raise his own banner within the Alliance of Liches. He could gather the weaker and more unfortunate liches around him to create his own force.

It was important to note that, as creatures that had gone against the natural cycle of life and shattered the boundaries of life and death, liches were largely discriminated against and rejected by most spellcaster organizations. In fact, many orthodox spellcasters hated liches with a passion. They would hunt down liches upon discovering them.

That resulted in many low-grade members of the Alliance of Liches leading miserable lives, hiding like sewer rats wherever they went. They could not present themselves as the noble spellcasters they were and had tremendous trouble obtaining the resources and knowledge they required.

Kanganas had finally managed to achieve something. With all the power he now possessed, he had survived those difficult days. Even so, he still had trouble finding suitable people to trade high-grade knowledge and rare resources with.

After all, the lich’s sinister image was an impression that was hard to dispel; very few spellcaster organizations were willing to deal with them.

If Kanganas had a powerful legendary fire adept as his companion, he just might be able to open up connections with the adepts. That would make it far easier to accumulate both resources and knowledge.

It was only with resources that he would be able to gain more power. Raising his banner and forging his own force within the Alliance of Liches would no longer be a dream.

As for the matter of the Death God’s tomb? Hmph! Making an ally out of a powerful adept for the Alliance of Liches was worth far more than the death of an insignificant lich!

At the thought of this, Kanganas’ attitude changed completely. He became much more friendly and intimate with Greem.

Both sides were willing to engage in this fellowship!

They were both loners amongst their own people and had very few allies. Now that they had come to a common ground, they instantly agreed on an alliance and became ‘companions’ that would guarantee a stable exchange of benefits.

With their firmly-established alliance, they became much more honest with each other.

Kanganas made up his mind to establish a laboratory near the mega-rift to make it more convenient to research Greem’s current advancement situation. Correspondingly, he would hand over all the secrets of space that he had collected to Greem and allow him to get familiar with the realms beyond rapidly.

Everybody got what they wanted. It was a fair and just trade!

After dealing with Demigod Lich Kanganas, Greem finally looked around him.

He had an odd sensation that he was being monitored by someone these days.

Despite all the methods he employed, Greem could not locate that mysterious individual who spied on him from the shadows.

It wasn’t the archivists of the Diviners’ Tower. Those people would turn into eagles or clouds and blend into the background. It was a stealthy means of hiding themselves, but Greem could still catch them with his spiritual senses.

It couldn’t be a powerhouse sent by the Adept’s Association either. According to Greem’s understanding, the Association was currently in much greater trouble than the Central Lands. It was the vicious Scourge Lords that were emerging from Inkdeep Valley. They were far more powerful than the abyssal demons in every aspect.

If the Association actually had the means to stir trouble in the Central Lands during such times, Greem wouldn’t mind reciprocating their ‘goodwill’ by paying a visit to Inkdeep Valley.

Greem might not have been able to confirm the existence of this mysterious individual, but he could sense the warnings that the planar consciousness was relaying to him through the principles.

He had just repelled the abyssal invasion; his relationship with the planar consciousness couldn’t be better. It was only natural that he obtained a little favor in this fashion. Unfortunately, Greem was unlearned in the art of divination. Consequently, he could not obtain more detailed information from the planar consciousness.

As for Alice? She had been invited to the Spirit World by Starspirit Tulas a while ago and had yet to return. Thus, Greem could only observe in silence and try to locate the observer with the Chip’s help.

Sadly, the opponent appeared to be someone powerful with their own unique abilities. Even with all his power, Greem could deduce the existence of such a foe but lacked the means to verify it.

The ominous feeling in Greem’s heart grew even more prominent!

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

Greem stood silently on the spot.

His only job for the past few days had been remaining here silently, letting the flames surging out of the Heart of Principles slowly radiate through his body and modify it.

He only had three pieces of magical equipment on his person right now.

The Orb of the Fire God was placed in his Heart of Principles, where it turned into a blazing fireball. A constant stream of pure fire energy poured out from there. The power contained dense fire principles and scalded the Heart of Principles like boiling lava.

However, due to Greem’s potent life force, new flesh was continually growing in his Heart of Principles to replace the damaged tissue. However, the newly grown flesh could not bear the principle fire either and withered once more.

Scorched, regrown, scorched, and regrown...the cycle continued until strange golden particles appeared. These flesh particles were no different from ordinary flesh, but they possessed principle powers wholly compatible with the Undying Flame.

Not only would these golden flesh particles not be scorched by the principle fires, but they would become stronger and more active when bathed in principle fire.

Greem’s heart was now the size of a house. However, enduring one hour of constant agony from the pain of his heart being scorched only yielded a piece of golden flesh the size of a bean. To completely replace the Heart of Principles with golden flesh would take fifteen years of hard work.

Modifying the Heart of Principles was essentially an attempt to create a magical heart for the Orb of the Fire God that could contain the principle powers of a Fifth Grade fire. This process was long and arduous. Plenty of rare and valuable adept resources were also required to hasten its progress.

The Orb of the Fire God was the source of Greem’s power now. It could no longer be replaced by anything else. In all seriousness, Greem’s power system after advancing to Fifth Grade would revolve entirely around the Orb of the Fire God.

Even the Fifth Grade Tome of Corruption had to take a backseat. It could not compete with the Orb of the Fire God.

Apart from these two Fifth Grade artifacts, the only thing that could keep up with Greem’s improvement was the focusing crystal. The other magical equipment was of inferior grade, and Greem could hardly get any use of it in battle now.

He could still use the Fourth Grade equipment, but each use would significantly reduce their durability. As for equipment below Fourth Grade? It could not even bear the power that Greem was now capable of unleashing.

The moment Greem’s fire energy surged into them, they would explode into pieces. If the magical equipment itself was destroyed, then all the effects that they could provide would naturally be moot.

After all, the materials and means through which they were forged did not allow them to bear the might of principle powers!

From now on, like all the other Great Adepts, Greem would be on a difficult journey, searching for resources to craft a piece of customized high-grade equipment for himself.

While Greem was silent in thought, an elderly adept dressed in a wizard’s hat and gray robe observed him without a sound, far away at the edge of the mega-rift’s territory.

The elderly adept’s back was hunched over. He couldn’t be more than 1.7 meters tall. Compared to Greem’s gigantic body, he was like an ant at the foot of a rhinoceros.

However, his presence transcended everyone’s sight and senses.

He might be standing in a rather remote location, but a few adepts still passed by here occasionally. Whenever their spiritual senses or sight swept past the old adept, all they saw was a bunch of broken rocks. There was nothing unusual about the spot.

Thus, even though batches of adepts passed by the elderly adept on patrol, not one of them picked up on his presence.

The elderly adept remained there for a dozen days.

He had appeared there almost the instant Greem repelled the abyssal pit fiend. He stood there quietly, watching over Greem’s every action and monitoring his soul aura.

The more he looked, the more interested he became. He developed an intense curiosity about Greem!