Age of Adepts

From within the darkness outside the tower, a red-eyed crow flew into the night sky without a sound.

Suddenly, from a brightly lit room located on the fourth floor of the tower, a crimson glow ignited, shooting through the window and hitting the crow, making it explode into a huge clump of blood mist that covered the night sky.

“Hmph, this is the fourth one! What exactly does that Hawkeye want to do?” Mary gently put away the crimson bow in her hand, cursing angrily, “Does he wants me to have a heart-to-heart talk with him now?”

“It looks like few of them have collaborated again!” While busy with his own stuff, Greem casually responded.

Mary tilted her head and gave it a thought, before nodding her head, agreeing to Greem’s opinion.

Though part of previous strongest three, Hawkeye, was at most an Advanced Apprentice now. If he really provoked Mary, she could rip his crow’s nest up at any time! Since he was brave enough to keep sending his minions to watch them, there must be someone else backing him. And currently, the only apprentice who could be doing this within the Swampy Tower would be Evil Bugs, Acteon.

Most of the residences located on the fourth floor were for official Adepts. That was why not only had they had a super luxurious and comfortable bedroom, they were also equipped with their own study and small laboratory. At this moment, Greem was meticulously leaning onto a micro alchemy station, watching the transformation of the drop of source blood through a special magical array.

During the last few days, in order to activate the gene activity of this drop of source blood, Greem had tried nearly all magical approaches he knew. Eventually, he learned that only the blood full of energy aura could save this drop of source blood. Therefore, Greem cut his own arm, pouring his blood which was full of Fire element energy into the cultivating test tube.

Soon, he obtained a test tube full of boiling blood which was slightly mutated.

No, strictly speaking, it didn’t look like a test tube of blood, but more like a blood monster that had been held captive within the test tube.

After the blood injected by Greem was devoured by the source blood, it had quickly contaminated and mutated into the same vampire blood as the source blood itself. Though the Fire element energy contained within Greem’s blood had killed a lot of vampire blood gene, under the constant attack from the newly contaminated blood genes, the Fire element energy had been neutralized, causing all of Greem’s blood to be contaminated and mutated.

After that, the test tube of blood transformed into a blood monster that seemed to have its own consciousness. Needle-like tentacles kept stretching out from the sticky blood, crazily poking at the strong surface of the test tube. If not for the fact that the toughness of the test tube was not weaker than magical alloy, perhaps this blood monster would really escape.

While observing its behavior, Greem kept praising it unstoppably.

Miraculous, this was absolutely miraculous! In this world of advanced magic, even a drop of advanced grade vampire source blood could portray such a terrifying destructive force. Imagine if a vampire injected this kind of blood gene into its prey, perhaps the life of its enemy would be in its hand completely.

Could this be the secret behind why those advanced grade vampires were able to produce large armies of blood slaves?

After the drop of source blood had assimilated so much of blood, it had hidden deep inside the lump of blood. If wasn’t for the help from the Chip which had attached a spiritual label to it, perhaps Greem wouldn’t have been able to find its exact position within the lump of blood which kept changing its shape and surface structure.

The energy used to support the violent activity of the blood came from the nutrients after the blood gene had self-decomposed. Hence, the more violent its activity was, the smaller its size became. It was like a raging burning flame, and the fuel was coming from its own mass.

Eventually, when it finally realized it couldn’t escape from the test tube, the lump of blood finally quiet down, entering into a hibernation state. Also, from the size of a chicken egg, it had turned into the size of a thumb. According to the Chip’s calculation, this thumb-sized blood lump was sufficient to support its life for half a year. Only when it was stimulated by some external forces, would it be reactivated.

Did all the vampires in this world possess the same frightening ability? Or was there something special about the vampire that Anderson and the other Adepts attacked?

No wonder after Mary was mutated into a vampire, her intelligence seemed to suffer some damage, and she became rather ill-tempered and irritable. As a matter of fact, no matter who had this kind of blood in his or her body, which was one that could self-burn and boil at any time, he or she wouldn’t be able to maintain a calm and delicate manner.

According to the characteristics portrayed by this drop of source blood, Greem even suspected that when the original owner of the blood got close enough with it, it was highly possible he could regain the control of this blood, and eventually gain control of the consciousness and life of the one who had this blood in the body.

In connection to this, Greem performed a thorough search through all the records and experiments related to vampires, bit by bit he puzzled together the direction of evolution and strengthening path for vampires, arduously finding ways and approaches that could allow Mary to break through the current bottleneck in her bloodline.

After all, Mary was a mutated vampire. In a way, she was just an advanced blood slave. Once that higher-order vampire appeared in front of Mary, perhaps she wouldn’t have the chance to control her own fate anymore. Therefore, the reason why Greem became so obsessed in carrying out research on the source blood was to cut off the spiritual connection between her mutated blood and the source blood, making her the true master of her own body!

…………

At the entrance of Magical Swamp.

It was still the same small, desolate and miserable looking hillside.

Following an ear-splitting cry, a witch, wearing a gray Adept robe and a pointy Adept hat, rode on her flying broom and descended from the sky, setting her feet on this desolate land.

When she got down from the broom, a lovely, active and pretty little girl who looked like a doll jumping out from her back. She was wearing a light yellow dress, had a baby face, wasn’t tall, and was carrying a golden bird cage in her hand. She was none other than Alice, the little girl who had suffered a great deal last time she visited the Magical Swamp.

“Great Granny, here it is!” Though Alice had a sweet and beautiful look, when she was looking at the familiar scene in front, her azure blue eyes immediately shot out two bright glows of hatred.

“Those rascals who bullied me are living inside this place!” She said.

The witch, who Alice addressed as her Great Granny, had a really old face.

Under the crooked and dirty hat was the ugly and aged face of a female. Her face was fully filled with wrinkles making her skin look like that of a dried and withered tree. She had a hook nose that looked like the hawk’s beak, a pair of murky gray eyes, and a mouthful of brownish and broken teeth. She was bending her body while holding onto the flying broom, and after every movement, she would stop and pant for a long time.

However, this old witch, who looked so weak as to be unable to stand any breeze, as if she would collapse and die at any moment, was actually emanating a powerful spiritual ripple that could send a chill down anyone’s spine.

After she held the broom and panted for some time, she took out a dirty and black biscuit-like object from her pocket. With a cold voice, she said, “Go, Alice. Crush this into powder and sprinkle it into the swamp!”

Although the old witch had an aged voice, her words carried an authoritative air that no one could disobey. Even Alice, who was a cunning and wicked girl, dared to not refute her will. Obediently, she took over the biscuit-like object and walked in front of the Magical Swamp, crushed it into powder and sprinkled it into the pond which was blanketed by a thick fog.

While she was doing that, Alice even covered her hands with a thin layer of spatial barrier, to avoid touching the insignificant looking biscuit. As it was an object taken from the pocket of Endor, the infamous ‘Poisonous Witch’, it was definitely something that came with a deadly poison!

As expected, not long after the powder was sprinkled into the water, a new clump of mist was seen rising up from the wet pond. Bit by bit, it merged into the misty fog of the Magical Swamp. Following the spreading of this mist, all the demons living in this region were struck with a deadly calamity.

A Red-eyed Crow, which had just landed on top of a Killer Tree at the border of Magical Swamp, tilted its head and watching wonderingly at these two outsiders who appeared out of nowhere. But suddenly, its fluffy dark feathers exploded without making any noise. The broken flesh and bones soon transformed into new bloody mist that merged into the air.

Following the flow of the mist, all living beings who possessed magical element in their body, be it plants or animals, exploded when they were touched by the mist. However, those ordinary plants right beside them were not affected by it at all.

As the incorporeal mist spreading across the land, Red-eyed Crows, Killer Trees, Bloodsucking Rattans, Green Spot Snakes, Ghost Nannies, Demon Babies, and even those parasitic demon worms, all exploded while they were moving freely within their own habitat. After a huge amount of demons were killed, the remaining creatures were those who had a very sensitive sense of dangers. They ignored the territory of other demons within the Magical Swamp and rushed towards the direction opposite to the mist using the fastest speed they could.

At the beginning, the clamor was only limited to within the outer perimeter of the Magical Swamp. But when the mist slowly pushed through and penetrated into the inner area of it, a large group of escaping demons finally broke out.

And right at this moment, the inspecting Apprentice Adept had finally realized that something was wrong. The news was spreading quickly, and the entire Swampy Tower had been lit up, floor after floor.

Compared to those standard Adept Towers like the one at the Underground Cave, the tower at Magical Swamp was clearly weaker and cruder. Although the internal facilities were rather complete, it was weak in terms of the surveillance throughout the entire swampy area.

Although Sarubo Family was once prosperous, following the absence of that Fourth Grade Adept for a long time, and with no new Fourth Grade Adepts, the prestige and influence of the family could no longer be compared to what they had before.

For a small resource site like this, the Sarubo Family didn’t even have the financial capacity to build a proper Adept Tower, and could only substitute with a weaker version of the tower. Therefore, when faced with the invasion of a powerful enemy, their response was slow and clumsy.

When the Magical Swamp plunged into a big mess, Adept Anderson, the man who controlled the Swampy Tower, finally walked out from his magic spell laboratory. Very soon, he had locked down on the enemy’s position.

Following a muffled ‘clang’ noise, dust and grass blew upwards at the small hill near the entrance of Magical Swamp. Adept Anderson had traveled through the space of nearly ten miles and suddenly appeared in front of the old witch.