Age of Adepts

Chapter 1439 Punishing the Witches

Northern Lands, the Howling Plains.

Chillwind Kingdom was the most ancient territory belonging to the False Witches and the location of their origin tower.

The False Witches were undoubtedly the most solitary and asocial group within the Northern lands in the past thousands of years. They rarely associated with the outside world. Even their trials and legacy were shrouded in mystery.

As such, the Howling Plains was also the most desolate and unpopulated land in all the witches' territory!

Today, the tower standing in the center of the Howling Plains appeared to be awash with commotion. It seemed to be unusually alive with activity.

That was because an enemy had arrived!

An enemy that dared come knocking on the Northern Witches' door to find trouble. In all honesty, such an incident had never occurred in the past thousands of years. That was why many of the Northern Witches were utterly confused when they received the False Witches' call for help.

Many Fourth Grade witches emerged from their laboratories or lesser planes and hurried toward the Howling Plains in groups. However, before they could approach the battlefield, they could already feel the pressing heat against their faces.

A battlefield. The Howling Plains had turned into a battlefield!

It was currently the dead of night.

Yet, the skies above the Howling Plains were burning. Giant clouds of fire filled the horizon, casting half the world in a dark red shade.

The rolling clouds of fire seemed to be hiding some sort of terrifying creature within them, roaring as it thrashed. Gigantic meteors rained down from the skies against the lonely adept tower in the middle of the plain.

The tower trembled violently.

Layer upon layer of elementium barriers were stacked around the tower, protecting it from one fireball after the next. However, the fireballs' violent force barraged the tower without end, causing it to tremble.

The tower wasn't just defending.

Horrifying, surging energy charged through the tower. Once the energy reached a certain level, it would be guided by the offensive arrays and turn into fearsome spells that blasted at the enemy.

Strangely enough, no matter how the tower attacked, the spells would vanish without a sound once they entered the red clouds. It was almost as if there was some terrible creature hiding within, capable of devouring any attacks hurled toward it.

The witches maintaining the tower had no choice but to dispel their offensive spell. They switched to dispelling magic in an attempt to break through the cloud of fire and look upon the true face of their enemy.

Unfortunately, the dispelling magic that they repeatedly cast toward the sky had no effect.

The red clouds continued to burn there, rumbling loudly as fireballs and meteors rained down upon the tower and the land around it.

If this had been the past, the high-grade witches stationed in the origin tower would have charged out with their subordinates to hunt down their enemy. For some reason, the False Witches were unusually tolerant today. They refused to show themselves even though the origin tower was already quaking under the enemy's attacks.

As the origin tower of the False Witches, the tower actually possessed the ability to turn the entirety of the Howling Plains into a realm of illusions. However, strangely enough, the False Witches had yet to try to drag their enemy into the illusory realm. It was almost as if they had forgotten about this ability of theirs.

It wasn't that they didn't want to. Rather, it was because they didn't dare to!

The witch leader hiding inside the tower already knew who the enemy in the clouds was. She did not want to embarrass herself in front of an actual Fifth Grade adept. The only thing she could do now was endure and wait bitterly until this legendary fire adept was exiled from the World of Adepts.

The sound of wind and thunder rang out from afar.

Dark clouds crowded in the sky and approached the Howling Plains menacingly.

When the dark clouds had gathered as high as a mountain, a piercing dragon's cry could be heard. The dark clouds parted as Corpse Dragon Artest's vicious and threatening figure appeared within sight.

Naturally, riding upon the back of the corpse dragon was Death Witch Leader Khesuna!

A stern cry rolled across the skies before she arrived.

"Greem, what exactly are you planning? This is the Northern Lands! It's not a place you can do as you wish!"

Meanwhile, ghostly howls and screams could be heard in another direction. A powerful witch with two silhouettes, one black and one white, flew over and stopped at the edge of the red clouds.

It was the other ultra-powerhouse of the Northern Lands, Pale Witch Leader Silvia.

There were a total of two ultra-powerhouses among the Northern Witches. Both of them were here now. Moreover, one could sense a sea of other brilliant soul responses outside the battlefield.

Every single high-grade witch of any repute in the Northern Lands had arrived. They had only yet to show themselves due to Khesuna's instructions.

The red clouds parted slightly, revealing a youthful and handsome male adept. This man was over two meters tall, with a firm and muscular body. He wore a dark red robe that appeared completely plain and ordinary, as if it really was just a non-magical piece of clothing.

The Northern Witches couldn't be more familiar with this silhouette and this face. It was the legendary fire adept, Greem, who had turned the World of Adepts upside down in the past hundreds of years.

Greem revealed himself and looked coldly at Khesuna. He then chuckled and said, "Khesuna, this is how you carry yourself when seeing an adept of superior grade?"

Khesuna's figure froze as an awkward expression flashed across her cold and pretty face. Finally, she lowered her head, put her hand over her chest, and bowed. "My greetings, Great Adept Greem!"

Silvia, who had been watching from the edge of the battlefield, also felt the awkwardness of the situation. She had no choice but to bow along with her accompanying spirit, paying respects to Greem.

It couldn't be helped. The adepts had always emphasized etiquette between superiors and inferiors. You were an inferior if you were of a lower grade. If you did not uphold the proper etiquette toward a superior adept, they could use it as an excuse to punish you, and there was nothing that anyone could do to help.

"Since you know your place, you may step back now! I have some old grudges I have to settle against the False Witches!" Greem said sternly.

Khesuna stood up straight and said in a sinister voice, "Gre…Lord Greem, you might be a Fifth Grade Great Adept now, but don't you forget, we Northern Witches are supported by certain individuals as well!"

"Hoh, are you threatening me now?"

"I wouldn't dare. I am simply reminding my lord that you will have to venture to the realms beyond eventually. If things turn out too ugly here, you might not be able to explain yourself to the individuals affiliated with us in space."

"Explain? What do I need to explain myself for? This bitch ambushed me. If it wasn't because of luck that allowed me to escape her Dream Assassination, do you think I would still be able to stand here?" Greem chuckled coldly. "Do those people you speak of have the right to stop me now that I am here for revenge?"

Khesuna abruptly fell silent.

This world had always revolved around the powerful. Only those of higher grades had authority.

Now that Greem had become a Fifth Grade Great Adept, he had become one of the rare few rulers of the adept faction. Just as he said, even the Great Witches could not simply ignore a Great Adept's right to exact vengeance.

"Perhaps this is only a misunderstanding!" Khesuna breathed and said in a soft voice, "Perhaps there has been some understanding between the two of you. My lord, if you are willing to let Ivana go, us Northern Witches will be willing to—"

"I do not lack resources. All I wish to do is meet the bastard that dared ambush me. What is it? Do you not dare to even show yourself?" The last sentence had been directed at the adept tower. The sound waves from his voice shredded several of the barriers around the False Witches' origin tower, sending sparks into the air.

More terrifyingly, the very planar laws of the region distorted and trembled where Greem's will extended. As long as he wished to, he would even be able to cut off the mental connection between all the Fourth Grade elementium adepts and the world around them.

Of course, doing so would undoubtedly cause him to endure terrible planar backlash. Still, where his will could reach, the planar laws could be manipulated and rewritten. Any adept with a grade lower than himself would not be able to connect to their planar laws to strengthen their elementium powers as in the past.

Greem had performed a simple assessment. Within his principle domain, all elementium adepts would be weakened by half. Bloodline adepts would be weakened by 20% to 30%, while body-refining adepts were the least affected at 10%.

One could honestly claim that the dominance of principle adepts over elementium adepts was absolute and irresistible!

Perhaps sensing Greem's insistence, a skinny and decrepit figure appeared on a small platform high in the tower.

What an ugly and old witch this was!

She resembled a skinned toad, with most of her skin rotting away, covered with blisters of every size and shrouded in a sickly green cloud of poison. Her former beauty had vanished without a trace, leaving only an ugly face that looked as if it had been splashed with acid.

Er……?

Even Greem was surprised.

If it wasn't for her soul aura, Greem might have taken her to be an impostor.

"Ivana, what…what's happened to you?" It was obvious that Khesuna had not seen her in a long time as well. She was stunned and shocked to see her appearance.

Everyone here was a high-grade adept. Naturally, they could see that these wounds were not external, but the result of actual Spirit poison. Moreover, judging from her appearance, this Spirit poison had troubled her for a very long time. It had even seeped into her soul origin, causing her to radiate an aura of 'despair' from her soul and body.

"This was the result of that battle last time," Ivana's body trembled as she screamed. "Is the suffering that I have had to endure in the past hundred years not enough to compensate for my past mistake?"

"It should be about enough with this."

Greem scoffed, and a beam of red light shot through the numerous barriers to land on Ivana's body. The light entered her flesh with a flash.

Ivana instantly let out a howl of agony.

A searing will.

Without the aid of a Great Adept to dispel this searing will, it would trigger once every ten hours, only stopping once Ivana's blood had been brought to a boiling point.

It was a fiery torture that would haunt her for the rest of her life!