Age of Adepts

“Aren’t you afraid that I’ll kill you right now?” Anderson roared with rage.

Hearing what he said, Greem smiled. “You’re welcome to do anything you want! I’ve given up resisting now, and you can just kill me straightaway. But… if you do that, how are you going to execute your plan of becoming a Second Grade Adept? You have brought so many apprentices here, I’m afraid that only by turning a few of us into official Adepts then it will be the help for you to make your breakthrough. If you are afraid of our resistance, why don’t you just kill all of us now? Then, tomorrow you can wag your tail at the messenger from Sarubo family. Perhaps you’ll still be the same Adept Anderson, but your dream is destined to be shattered!”

“Since you’ve told me about your plan, do you think that I’ll allow you to destroy my plan?”

“Does it make any difference if you know about our plan? One way or another, you have to make us into Adept today; then you’ll devour us. This is the path you’ve chosen for yourself, and it is also the destiny that none of us could escape! We’ve arrived at this moment and it is impossible for you to simply change your plan. As for us, we can only put up a desperate fight for our own survival!”

“If that is the case, you’re not supposed to be so straightforward, so honest with me! Don’t tell me that you still have some backup plans?”

“Haha… what kind of backup plans could I have? Today, right at this place, I only have three companions. You weren’t being serious when making that puppet slave of yours, so you actually allowed him to save his primary consciousness. But it seems like he is not here with us; it looks like he has made me into his cannon fodder. If that is the case, why should I cover for him?”

“I knew it was him! Hmph, I’m surprised; that half-bug body does have some incredible abilities, as it actually escaped from the binding of a soul blood contract. Besides this, is there anything else?”

“Of course! My only helper, Mary, has now become the chip held in your hand. Taking everything into consideration, it seems that I’m the only one who can risk my life with you! I hope you can be more careful later!” After he finished saying that, Greem closed his eyes, completely ignoring Anderson.

Anderson became silent. He stared at Greem’s face, which was now showing a determined expression. His mind was filled with surprise.

He had never expected this; a little guy who had borne patiently under him for seven years, an apprentice who he had never paid attention to before, actually possessed such a wild and unyielding attitude and was courageous enough to challenge him face to face.

If this had happened one month ago, if Greem had dared to be so arrogant and unbridled, Anderson would have definitely countered him with even crueler and fearsome approaches. He would have used the dreadful reality to teach this little kid a lesson; in this world, an Adept was the true master who controlled everything!

But it was a pity, during the recent months, he hadn’t done anything but pour most of his time into the modification of this bloody altar. Three Pseudo-Adepts, three key nodes of blood sacrifice; not a single one could be omitted. Only when everything was functioning perfectly according to his will, could he obtain the perfect result he had longed for.

As for the foreign Pseudo-Adept, Alice, because Anderson wasn’t sure of her background, he could only treat her as a backup sacrificial offering. But things had gone a little out of his control; the surviving consciousness of his puppet slave had leaked his plan and had caused all these sacrificial offerings to prepare in advance.

Alice hadn’t entered the secret space, which meant that he couldn’t afford to lose any one of the three Pseudo-Adepts who served as his sacrificial offerings. Or else, the ritual of blood sacrifice wouldn’t be able to function properly.

Once the ritual of blood sacrifice began, the first stage would be extracting the life, soul, blood, and flesh of all the Apprentice Adepts and use them as sacrificial offerings to boost the three selected Pseudo-Adepts. Pushed by this evil and twisted life force, they would have at least 70% to 80% odds in becoming an official Adept.

And once they became Adepts, the second stage of blood sacrifice ritual could begin. At that moment, the powerful and surging blood, flesh, forces of soul from three newly advanced Adepts would become his tonic, helping him in breaking through the shackles and becoming a Second Grade Adept in one go.

Greem had expressed his plan explicitly; his counterattack would come during the moment after the first stage of the blood sacrifice ritual ended and before the second stage began. No doubt, it was the perfect time to launch his counterattack, if he still had the ability to do it!

When faced with a fearless young Pseudo-Adept, Anderson only responded with a savage smile. Using one hand, he drew something in midair. A black rune appeared, before it vanished instantly. A dark shadow underneath Greem’s body suddenly came alive.

The dark shadow didn’t have tall stature and it was as thin as a sheet of goat-skin paper. However, it exhibited extremely dexterous movement. Like a paper-man, it crawled and climbed onto Greem’s chest, pulling out a dagger from its tiny paper-like body. Ferociously, it thrust the dagger into Greem’s chest.

Greem let out a muffled grunt because of the pain. His blood burst and splashed all over the paper-man’s body.

Like a real living being, the paper-man stuck out its thin, tiny hand and touched Greem’s flowing golden blood, brought it over to its body, and evenly smeared it onto its body. Once it had completed the task, a soul ripple identical to Greem suddenly emanated from the body of this paper-man. Immediately after that, it smiled hideously, climbed over to Greem’s mouth, pried open his tightly clenched jaw, and disappeared into the depths of his throat.

Even though he had estimated all of the possible approaches of Adept Anderson, when faced with such bizarre scene, Greem was still struck with chills and had his flesh creep. He was the meat on someone’s chopping block now. Although he had known that the opponent would use some kind of mind-control method, when it really happened, Greem was still shaken by the bizarre approaches of Adepts!

Before the thought could fade away from Greem’s mind, his body started to struggle and tremble violently. The Wind Chains were so tight that they cut into his flesh, every single one of Greem’s muscles stiffened, and his blood vessels, thick as earthworms, poked up under his skin. These were signs of how violent and intense the battle of consciousness happening inside his body was.

Too bad, with his Spirit of an Apprentice Adept, there was no way he could fight against a veteran Adept. In less than five seconds, his held up body was once again slammed back onto the ground; cracking noises kept coming out from his throat, but he couldn’t say a single word.

After a few moment later, Greem finally became completely calm. He now lay flat where he was, motionlessly. If his chest had not still been moving up and down slightly, he would have looked exactly like a dead man.

“Hahaha… all your consciousness and soul are in my control now. So, with what are you going to resist me later? Hmph, just another pathetic fellow who tried to imagine the frightening abilities of Adepts through some crude books and mere legends! If you had just a little bit more understanding of the mightiness and approaches of an official Adept, you would not have behaved so arrogantly in front of an Adept! The world of Adepts is not something you, a mere chicken, could ever imagine! Hahaha…”

It was not the end after Anderson gained control over Greem’s consciousness and soul. He stretched his arm and beckoned, every single magical equipment and strange object found on Greem’s body and emanating with elemental aura left his body, flying in a row, like a long snake, towards the altar. Among the magical equipment, Anderson was attracted by a unique object.

It was a magic spell book Greem had tied around his waist with a silver chain. Under Anderson’s control, it left Greem’s body, but before reaching ten meters away, it flickered and escaped from his control and then reappeared back on Greem’s waist.

Eh, a Soul Gear? Anderson couldn’t help but feel extremely curious about Greem now. Judging from the behavior of this book, it should be a Soul Gear recorded in ancient books and was a piece of magical equipment tied up with the soul of the owner.

Frequently, Soul Gear like this possessed tremendous power that went beyond any ordinary magical equipment. However, each and every single Soul Gear had a very strict external requirement for their growth. Without nurturing them with a huge amount of resources and effort, the Soul Gear would not be able to unleash its full potential and would just behave like an ordinary magical equipment.

To a certain extent, they could provide some unique approaches! Yet, when faced with an official Adept, the approaches employed by these apprentices could not be more frightening than the bite of a mosquito!

Though he had found a rare Soul Gear, Anderson simply had no time to further study the secret hiding in it. Now, he could only cast a simple energy seal and let it continue hanging on Greem’s waist. He had no other choice, as every single Soul Gear had the same behavior! Before its owner was completely killed, no one could separate it from its true owner.

After he settled Greem, Anderson finally moved his glance over to Mary.

Currently, Mary had crazily sucked all of the blood from four apprentices. Her lower abdomen had bloated, her eyes had turned bloodshot, her fangs had poked out, and her face was fully stained with blood.

Anderson shouted out with a low voice, “Come over here!”

Mary’s body trembled suddenly upon hearing his voice. A pained and struggling expression emerged on her face. On one side, a message coming from a consciousness seal hiding deep in her soul was asking her to obey the order, on the other side, within her subconscious mind, the wild and restless vampire instinct was resisting the order.

Noticing the effect of consciousness seal had become weaker, Anderson’s face started to turn dark.

In order not to obstruct the possibility of evolution for the vampire innate talent, Anderson hadn’t wiped off Mary’s instinctive consciousness. It was true that Mary had grown quickly into a satisfying sacrificial offering, but after she had advanced into a Pseudo-Adept, it had also caused her to no longer be under his total control.

But, as Anderson increased the strength of his conscious wave, eventually Mary reluctantly walked in front of him.

Anderson swiped his hand in the air and a cut was immediately made on Mary’s neck. An arrow of blood shot out from the cut. Before the blood could touch the floor, it was collected by Anderson using a magic spell.

As Mary was attacked, she immediately started rampaging. She took a few steps back, bared her teeth, and showed Anderson a threatening look. Still, she didn’t have the courage to leap at him.

Anderson was in an agitated mood now, so he became really angry with Mary’s behavior. He cast a Wind Vortex and sent Mary high up into the sky. When she finally struggled out from the vortex full of sharp wind blades while letting out miserable shrieks, her body was like it had just been pulled out from a grinder. Her skin was filled with countless cuts of all sizes; there were even some deep cuts that exposed her bones!

The severely wounded Mary immediately let out a sharp and miserable cry. Like an injured puppy, she rushed far away at top speed, crouched on the floor, and gently licked her wounds.

“Suck his blood and heal your wounds!” Anderson used his long staff and jerked up an apprentice, throwing him over to Mary. Then, coldly he warned, “This is a warning for you. Remember this next time. I’m your master! If you dare to show me disrespect again, I’ll drain all of the blood in your body!”

The apprentice jerked up by Anderson was none other than the new Apprentice Leader, Ellen. However, right at this very moment, he could only watch helplessly as his body flew toward the frightfully savage demon. With a leap, Mary caught Ellen in her arms. Without hesitation, she bowed her head over his neck and gave it a ferocious bite.

Although Ellen had a sound mind, his body was totally not under his own control. He could feel two cold, sharp fangs poking into his blood vessel noiselessly, then his head started spinning. In a trance, he saw a dazzling glow right before his eyes, and he suddenly came to in a magical hall packed with people.

Familiar and unfamiliar apprentices and Adepts were lined up on both side of a red carpet, their face filled with smiles, and staring at him. Thunderous applause and cheers deafened his ears. And he was clad in a luxurious and noble Adept long robe and held an exquisite and splendid Adept long staff in his hand. He was smiling and nodding his head at the crowd while walking step by step toward the magnificent stage, where everybody was looking at…

On the lofty stage, a gorgeous lady in red was looking at him with a sweet smile on her face.

Who is she? Oh right, she is my intimate lover who swore to walk the rest of our lives together! Upon thinking about this, Ellen couldn’t help but hasten his pace, wishing he could reach the stage quicker and hold the fair, delicate hand of his lover.

But, somehow, it was as if the red carpet underneath his feet kept stretching longer and longer. No matter how hard he tried to run and shout, the distance between him and the slender hand of his beautiful lover grew and grew…

Finally, the scene around him distorted, and his conscious grew dim and faded.

As Mary’s creepy sucking continued, Ellen’s arm finally drooped!