Age of Adepts

Billis was walking lonely in the passageways of the Witch Tower.

As the family had just celebrated a great victory, the entire interior of the Witch Tower was filled with a relaxed and cheerful atmosphere.

Walking slowly along the bright and spacious stone tunnel, using his low hood to block the light cast by the illuminating stones on both sides of the stone walls, Billis wandered like a silent ghost in the interior of the Witch Tower.

Just rounding a corner, he came face to face with five apprentice sorcerers holding heavy books in their hands, chattering and discussing things as they walked.

Seeing Billis's trademark black witch robes and the way he moved forward as if water was flowing, the five apprentices hurriedly ducked to the sides, leaned against the wall, and bowed in unison.

"Meet Lord Billis..."

Billis seemed to be oblivious, and under the shadow of the low hanging hood, countless pairs of scarlet pupils swept around, also straight through the center of the apprentice.

The thick black witch's robe was swinging densely at its lower end, faintly emitting a strange sound of clicking, the edge of the robe's feet could be seen countless black knuckle feet moving rapidly and regularly. From time to time, several small, pitch-black objects would fall out of the robe, and then flip over to become black beetles the size of a fist. They would hiss and shriek as they quickly caught up with Billis and burrowed inside the black robe and disappeared.

Looking at Billis's writhing and twisting black robe, several of the apprentices could hardly imagine how many similar bugs were hiding inside. Could it be that the most terrifying worm wizard in the family, Lord Billis, spent all day and night with thousands of worms?

When Billis's terrifying black-robed figure disappeared around the corner, only then did the several apprentices breathe a sigh of relief and become laughing and talking again.

Silently returning to his residence on the 7th floor of the Witch Tower, Billis strode faithfully into the cold and dark room.

As the family's 2nd rank main witch, Billis was actually perfectly capable of obtaining a better and more comfortable private residence. It was only out of the Worm Witch's nature that he now hated light and life more and more, which was why he had deliberately picked this more gloomy and cold place.

Within the large living room, few furniture and decorations could be seen, instead, a small witchcraft altar could be seen in the corner of the hall. The original fluorescent white and snowy stone base was now a dark red, with thick layers of purple and black blood scabs caked on it.

From the thickness and depth of color of the scabs, it was obvious that they were not the remnants of a period.

As soon as one entered the hall, one could detect a thick, almost suffocating, pungent choking smell of blood!

Ordinary people couldn't breathe in such an environment, but it fell into Worm Witch's distinctive olfactory organ, but it was so fragrant and fresh.

There was also a huge glass mirror on the side of the hall against the wall.

As soon as Billis returned to his residence, he also came straight to the front of the mirror without hesitation.

The low hanging hood was slightly raised, revealing a dense patch of scarlet pupils. After a quick glance at the black robe in the mirror, Billis hesitated and finally reached out and pulled off the entire robe.

The black robe was parted in the middle, revealing a terrifying body beneath that was almost impossible to look at.

The dark and oily body of a beetle with a phosphorescent cold luster shining on its surface, a row of short, thick and sharp knuckle feet, bounded by the waist, the part above the waist looked like an upright black beetle, while the part below the waist was curved and bulging, living like a huge abdominal sac filled with yellow-green filthy liquid inside.

Through the translucent pouch cavity, one can clearly see a larval embryo floating in the yellow-green liquid.

From top to bottom, inside and out, the Worm Witch Billis no longer has any trace of human form. His thinking, preferences, habits, and behaviors were also completely different from most humans or witches.

And this was undoubtedly one of the main reasons why he covered his body all day long, not having too much contact with normal people!

Not to mention outsiders, it was now difficult for even he himself to tell whether he was a human or a... worm.

Although, many bloodline sorcerers within the sorcerer community would have the phenomenon of bloodline manifestation to a greater or lesser extent, thus turning themselves into monsters that were neither human nor ghosts. But there were still only a few who became so thorough and crisp like Billis.

Within the family, those who also took the route of bloodline witches were also Mary, the Blood Queen, Emelia, the Demoness, the Fire Dragon Witch, and the Poisonous Witch, Gargamel... Their bloodline manifestation only took up a portion of their bodies after all, with most of their bodies still retaining more obvious human characteristics.

This also made it easier for them to be accepted by other companions, and thus blend in with the entire family circle.

But for a guy like Billis, who had completely and utterly mutated into a 'monster', not only was it difficult for the people around him to accept him, even he himself was becoming more and more lost and confused.

Many times, when the midnight dream came back, Billis would be at a loss for words.

He can't tell where we are? And who are you? What kind of monster are you?

Such anguish and predicament had tormented him for a long, long time, until... the human Billis in his mind disappeared completely.

Without the last shred of humanity to hold him back, Billis could finally become a true 'Worm Witch' with impunity!

But immediately, it discovered a most terrible problem.

Lacking the help of the human Billis, it had almost lost its ability to advance and improve. Even if it made more kills, it had only absorbed a little life essence and concocted more and more ferocious insect swarms. But its own equation remained unchanged, and it could no longer raise its life essence.

The insect mother... the one that Billis had fused with had no more than 3rd rank development potential of its own. It was only after the fusion of Entik and Billis' two insect masters that it had reached its current level.

However, the separation of the Insect Mother and the first Insect Lord had damaged part of its soul source, which caused it to be stuck at 2nd level for a long time and unable to progress.

The Crimson Family has gone through so many ups and downs, and after the deep fusion between Billis and the Worm Mother, they have also chosen the path of killing and evolution, and in the war, they have become the famous Worm Witch on the battlefield that made their enemies lose their fear. Unfortunately, the scenery was strange scenery, but it didn't help to improve the strength.

As a result, these days, Billis also lost interest in bloodshed, and began to wander around the world day in and day out, searching for ways and means to solve his current predicament.

Bloodline transformation?

Billis had always been on the front lines of battlefield killing and almost never quietly engaged in any decent research. Therefore, even if he was temporarily holding his feet to the fire at this point, it would be impossible for him to progress on the path of bloodline transformation.

Bloodline replacement?

There were some quite valuable bloodline reconstitution potions within the family, but Billis chose to abandon them after an in-depth comparison. The Giant Serpent bloodline, the Pseudo-Dragon bloodline... these all sounded wonderful, but they didn't suit Billis.

Once Billis chose the bloodline replacement, it would mean that all his previous efforts had been in vain, and he would have to start fresh and adapt to a completely different bloodline power. Moreover, the Insect Mother he had fused with was the true owner of the current body, so how could he do something that was akin to 'suicide'.

Therefore, after thinking left and right, he couldn't really find any way out, and Billis had to silently communicate with the Talin and send a request to it to meet with the Lord of the House.

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

Flame Throne, top level chamber.

After a three-month-long retreat, Grim had finally completed this difficult bloodline transformation.

"Chip, run a deep scan on me!"

"Drip, mission accepted...depth scan commencing!"

With a soft electronic tone, the chip used its powerful scanning and parsing abilities to quickly analyze Grim's current true strength.

Grim, male, 3rd level elemental sorcerer (Flame Specialization), Chaos Physique (Zoroaster Magic Resistance), body base data: strength 24 (+5) physique 27 (+2) agility 16 spirit 39, bloodline talent: energy black hole....

It had to be said that Star Beasts, such powerful chaotic creatures, really were full of treasures, and the bloodline abilities they possessed were even more powerful. After replacing his human bloodline with the bloodline of a star beast, Grim plainly had an additional chaotic physique and was able to directly absorb the magical energy in the Endless Star Sea.

This also meant that from now on, the Endless Star Sea was no longer a terrifying and dangerous place for him, but became his home turf. As long as he didn't get swept into the most violent part of the terrifying energy storm, Grim would gain the ability to move freely in the starry sea.

As for that bloodline gifted energy black hole, it was also somewhat related to the instincts of the star beast.

Grim could use the power of the energy black hole at a certain critical moment to transform all magical energy within a 10 meter radius of his body into chaotic energy and absorb it for his own use. This state could be maintained for 5 seconds.

As far as Grim knows, chaotic energy is something that all spell casters detest.

Therefore, chaotic energy is violent and disordered, and cannot be used for sorcery shaping at all. Therefore, this move could be used to ward off a deadly sorcery attack.

When the opponent's attack was imminent, Grim only needed to use his Energy Black Hole ability to turn the originally well-ordered magic energy in the opponent's sorcery into violent and disordered chaotic energy. Thus, the opponent's attack would naturally disintegrate!

Furthermore, the Chaos Physique gave Grim a remarkable magic resistance far beyond that of ordinary sorcerers.

Grim let the chip estimate that the current him, although he was only at the peak of the 3rd stage, his own magic resistance was already not weaker than those 4th stage elemental sorcerers in the slightest.

Even if the battlefield was placed in the depths of the energy storm raging Star Ocean, Grim would be able to slightly take advantage of the Chaos Physique!

After all, a sorcerer born within a bit plane was unable to directly absorb the violent magical energies of the void like Grim was able to. This meant that Grim was able to actively or passively absorb any magical elemental power within a certain limit in the area of chaotic magic.

This... was undoubtedly a great strengthening for him!