Age of Adepts

World of Adepts, Fire Throne.

In the same utterly isolated room, Greem was silently reading the Libram of Wisdom.

He was on the seventh page already.

Every page he read had brought him indescribable benefits and tremendous gains.

Unfortunately, the Libram of Wisdom had a master!

Before he exterminated the God of Wisdom Hierro, he would not be able to fully take ownership of the Libram of Wisdom and uncover all its secrets. Thus, every time he attempted to read the Libram, it was a battle of wits and courage with his Spirit against the artifact.

If he won, he would be able to decipher plenty of high-grade knowledge fragments regarding the secrets of the planar world through the pages. Of course, the knowledge could also be related to divine magic, which he was still unable to use.

If Greem wanted to obtain more knowledge, he would have to continue struggling with the Libram of Wisdom and decipher the corresponding pieces of intelligence he needed. He would then have to slowly piece all these fragments of information into a complete system of knowledge.

If he failed, he would have to suffer the retaliation of the Libram of Wisdom and endure a certain degree of damage to his mind.

Fortunately, this was a completely isolated space in a different dimension. The Libram of Wisdom's origin connection with the God of Wisdom had been cut off. The mental backlash he had to endure was still well within an acceptable range.

Even more fortunately for Greem, he was aided by the Chip.

Even if all he obtained were incomplete fragments of knowledge, the Chip could compare these fragments with the existing magic systems in the database. In doing so, it would be able to decipher plenty of high-grade mystic knowledge that was useful to Greem.

Consequently, Greem's Spirit had been in rapid flux recently.

Either his Spirit would rise rapidly due to the excessive amounts of knowledge he managed to uncover, or it would be weakened due to mental backlash from the Libram. In that manner, his Spirit fluctuated violently, causing him to suffer throughout the process.

However, the stimulation to his Spirit had allowed it to grow even faster than usual.

At the same time, the unstable fluctuation of his Spirit left Greem wary of leaving Fire Throne. Naturally, there was no way he could emerge and engage another adept in conflict.

Even when Mary faced danger in another world or when the Capital of Steel was under siege, Greem could only send reinforcements. He could not put himself in danger. After all, with his damaged Spirit, it would already take him a few decades to completely recover.

It was not advisable for him to clash against any Fourth Grade opponents before that!

After carefully and solemnly reading through the seventh page of the Libram of Wisdom, Greem felt something stir in his mind. He hurriedly closed the tome and rushed out of the isolated dimension. Flames flickered over his body the moment he emerged from that space. His entire person suddenly appeared in another room.

The interior design here was even more straightforward than the room from earlier. The room contained only a single, gray stone chair.

Beneath the chair was a runic array of sophisticated design.

Greem sat on the chair without any hesitation and activated the array beneath his feet.

The entire room turned dark. As the light projected by the array shifted and changed, an image of a different location was displayed.

It was a magnificent and grand city.

It was built against the mountain, layer upon layer, all the way from the foot of the mountain to the very peak.

All the buildings were made out of stone. They were simple and crude, but bold in their own fashion. Meanwhile, at the top of the layers of platforms where the buildings were situated, at the very peak of the mountain, stood a towering, mighty temple. This temple loomed over the city beneath it, as well as the vast stretches of forest all around.

Shadow Demon, whom Greem's Spirit was attached to, was now hiding in the canopy of an ancient tree within the forest. It hid itself in the shadow of the tree, watching the troll capital from a distance.

"Master, I have found Lady Mary. Should I hurry over now?" Shadow Demon conveyed a mental note to Greem.

The two of them were in separate planes. They could only maintain a synchronous flow of time and space through the might of the tower, allowing for simple mental communication.

"There's no need to go to her now. Go search for the Feathered God immediately!" Greem promptly came to a decision.

Mary was a very petty person at heart. Even if she knew Greem had sent the Shadow Demon to protect her out of care, she would disapprove of Shadow Demon's appearance. Mary was a blood master with an army of subordinates, after all! She would never be able to accept it if she needed Greem's help just to take down a mere totem god!

It was precisely because of how well he understood Mary that Greem had no intention of allowing Shadow Demon to go to her side.

He would definitely have to help her, but he had his own thoughts and methods as to how he would be doing so!

Under Greem's orders, Shadow Demon dove into the darkness and rapidly rushed towards the troll capital through the shadows.

The battles outside the troll capital were still raging on.

Mary led her vampires and newly acquired blood servants in a guerilla battle against the troll warriors and hunters in the depths of the forest. Plenty of casualties were lifted out of the woods daily, sent back to the capital for treatment.

Meanwhile, the fearsome plague was still spreading through the city. It had nearly infected half of the civilians in the lower half of the mountain already.

Greem's Spirit was attached to the Shadow Demon's consciousness. He could see the moaning infected lying in their stone houses through Shadow Demon's eyes when it traveled through the city.

It didn't matter if they were young or old, male or female, strong or weak. They could only remain alone in their rooms and await their deaths once they had been affected. The trolls were exceptionally tough and resilient, and it was because of that that they suffered so much more pain and torture.

Greem even ordered Shadow Demon to sneak into a few rooms such that he could inspect a few of the infected trolls. He couldn't help but be impressed by Mary.

Mary might appear to be brash, impatient, and rough in her plans, but she did have a talent for war. Greem discovered that the symptoms of mutations on the infected trolls were synchronous.

That meant that the war that her vampires were waging against the trolls in the forest outside was only meant as a means of stalling. She was waiting for the plague to worsen all of a sudden. To avoid startling the enemy ahead of time, she had even requested that Remi delay the symptoms on the trolls that had been infected earlier than the others.

Greem estimated that the plague would erupt in full force three days from now!

When that happened, most of the trolls would die of the plague. Half of the casualties would turn into horrifying wights and start a bloody slaughter in the capital.

When that happened, Mary would likely lead her vampires and army of wights to invade the Feathered Serpent's den.

This strategy indeed maximized her chances of victory!

Mary's arrangement in this regard was already more than excellent. Even Greem himself could hardly improve on it. Thus, what he intended to do was to weaken the Feathered God through his powers.

That would be helping Mary indirectly!

Shadow Demon hid in the darkness, leaping from shadow to shadow, silently traveling within the troll capital. The higher up the mountain it got, the more excellent the equipment and clothes of the trolls.

The number of infected trolls also decreased in number as they climbed the mountain.

In fact, Greem even found plenty of boiling pots brewing some strange green concoction at the higher parts of the mountain. A pungent, herb smell emanated from these brews.

These primal brews might not be able to kill the plague viruses, but they could effectively halt their activity. It would reduce the plague's infectiousness and explosiveness!

Hmph! It seems like these voodoo doctors were fairly capable. It's time to reduce their numbers!

Greem murmured to himself and ordered Shadow Demon to leap between the shadows and search for the leaders amongst the voodoo doctors.

As expected, Greem found an old voodoo doctor leaning on his wooden staff in a small hut at the peak of the mountain.

The small hut was filled with the smell of blood and herbs. A dozen women had just walked out of the hut as quietly as they could. The severed heads of several magical beasts lay in a pile, the blood all drained from within, making for a vicious sight.

Meanwhile, the bodies of five apes lay beside the carnage, their throats sliced open and a hole torn in their chests. Their blood and hearts had been placed above the pile of disembodied heads as a sacrifice to the great Feathered God.

A bloody spear stood in the center of all the sacrifices, glowing with the prismatic light unique to high-grade weapons.

The old Voodoo Doctor Ye'ke had just concluded the blood sacrifice that had lasted for one day and one night. He was lying on the ground, completely exhausted. He took out several pungent herb biscuits from the jar beside him along with several tattooed scorpions and put them in his mouth. He chewed them thoroughly and swallowed.

Shadow Demon had just entered the hut when the bloody spear trembled out of nowhere. It let out a crisp and clear hum.

Ye'ke looked around him in surprise. His murky eyeballs scanned the room but found no signs of intruders.

Was it an error on the divine spear's part? It wasn't very likely!

After all, the bloody spear was a Fourth Grade divine spear personally bestowed by the Feathered God. It possessed unimaginable power. As such, Ye'ke had never dared to ignore its warnings.

It was said that the invaders could turn into a strange red bat and scout in that form. Could they have arrived here?

Ye'ke snorted coldly. He pulled a wooden doll from his belt and threw it to the ground. Black smoke rose around him as a giant mosquito appeared.

The mosquito was the size of a human head. Its stinger and its legs gleamed with a metallic glint unique to metal weapons.

"Go, kill all foreign lifeforms in this hut!"