Age of Adepts

The Emerald Hills.

Once a beautiful place with stunning scenery in the Morian Plane.

The soil here was rich in a strange mineral particle that would appear in a variety of beautiful illusions such as turquoise or blue under the light of the sky. Under the elegant and tranquil moonlight, this illusion will continue to change, just like a piece of emerald gems gently flowing with the moonlight.

That's why this place gained the reputation of the Emerald Hills!

But the beauty that had once been there was now gone, and the Emerald Hills were now a bare patch of hills. The top of the bony hills lacked dirt and vegetation cover, revealing a hard, cold, rocky base that looked especially cold and unforgiving under the moonlight.

And at the top of the hill, a small campsite was burning with a campfire, and seven strange figures in black robes sat around it, seemingly waiting for something.

It had been thirteen days since the Day of Ruin, and the entire interior of the Morian Plane had become more and more unsettled, with all kinds of exotic creatures appearing more and more densely. In such an environment, it was very difficult to find a quiet place where no one would disturb you.

Moreover, with the destruction of the bit world, there had been extensive breakdowns and crumbling of the bit barrier. On the continent, many regions, due to their proximity to the breach of the bitumen barrier, hundreds of thousands of tons of bitumen were swept by the Void Hurricane and scattered into the depths of the Endless Star Sea.

And this kind of loss is still happening all the time, as long as the barrier breach is not blocked for a day, the bitmap material will continue to lose, until the entire bitmap only the strongest and toughest of those core essence material for it.

And there was no way that those creatures that were swept away into the depths of the starry sea could continue to survive!

"Captain Roy, how long do you think we need to wait?" A black-robed witch raised her head and inquired softly, her tone filled with a strong taste of discontent.

As she spoke, the hood of this black robe slid down somewhat, revealing a small half of her delicate white chin. A small mole at the corner of her mouth added a strange and touching taste to her.

"Yes, Captain Roy, perhaps all the members of that squad have been killed in battle, or else they would have arrived by this time!" The other black-robed wizard was equally disgruntled and complained.

"There's nothing to complain about!" The head of the black-robed shaman wearing a gold ring, the left cheek printed with a deep claw marks, the above gray gas lingering, it seems that there are residual alien energy not completely dispelled, look particularly cold and fierce: "Before the breakup of the agreement is to wait here for three days, now only two days have passed, there is still a day we can return, what can be urgent! ......."

"That said, but this bit..." that black-robed witch's voice was low and sexy, but her words were full of worry, "During these few days of rest, I've been able to listen to the constant explosions coming from the Vault of Heaven. This means that the barriers of the Morian Plane can't hold out much longer, and once the Plane's barriers crumble, the inter-dimensional ultra-long-range teleportation array we're carrying could be affected by the Void Storm. At that time..."

Although she didn't say much else, her unfinished words had already brought endless associations to the other fellow witches.

As the 4th rank elite selected from the witch camp, they had successfully completed their mission in squad 1-2 and successfully returned to the evacuation point. Unfortunately, the twelve people who had set out were left with seven when they returned.

This also meant that five elite 4th rank wizards had died on the Morian level during the 53-day-long journey. The battle death rate was nearly half, thus showing the danger and dread of the mission they were on!

As for that third squad that existed as a pulling force, there were only four members, and they were still all miscellaneous or new sorcerers chosen out by the major organizations. With their strength and resilience, the probability of surviving such a dangerous mission was still quite low.

Therefore, after the two elite squads of witches converged here, they waited silently while secretly guessing the number of people the third squad might return.

The weak two-headed wizard was bound to fall, and there was a high probability that the arcane wizard with the rank of magician would fall as well. After all, such a fellow was only good at fighting but not at escaping, and once he was surrounded by powerful enemies, the chances of escape were almost zero.

The somewhat famous Fire Witch was quite strong, but on such a dangerous bit of battlefield, the more dazzling his strength, the faster he would die. So the chances of him being able to complete the mission and escape the danger were also not great.

On the contrary, that Dark Witch had a powerful 4th rank intermediate strength, and her own sorcery was inclined towards mobility and sneaking. Thus such a fellow was the most suitable for the bitter battlefield, being able to advance or retreat and fight or flee. Once they survived this bit of the battlefield, their own strength would also increase quite a bit.

However, as the crowd of witches waited in silence, three tall and strange figures appeared on the rugged and bumpy road in the distance and quickly approached the campground.

The witches around the campfire were on alert, rustling beneath their black robes, and some instant wands, sorcery scrolls, powerful wizards, and strange secret treasures were all sliding into their hands in a state of activation and readiness.

The black-robed sorceress stood up and swept a glance, and couldn't help but let out a soft whisper.

"Hey, it's the third squad! They...they came back three..."

Although the words were simple, they made the rest of those fellow witches couldn't help but frown slightly.

Soon, the three of Grim ascended the small mountain pack that had only broken rock bodies left and joined the main team of witches.

"Three of them..." the Golden Ringed Sorcerer who was the leader couldn't help but murmur in a low voice, the wound on his cheek that was infested with grey air claw marks began to slowly creep up, appearing extraordinarily hostile and hideous.

"Lord Roy, we've returned!" The three Grim seemed to sense the coldness and ill will implied in the eyes of the rest of the wizards who stared at them, and took the initiative to nod to the golden-ringed wizard who was leading the group.

"Grim...where's Shani?" One of the seven main team witches stood straight out, whipped off his hood, and coldly questioned him.

This was a female witch, lingering with a layer of cold, ice-like frosty air, her eyebrows were delicate and small, but she carried a hint of a murderous and decisive aura of ruthlessness.

Looking at her appearance, at the family crest that was prominently displayed on her chest, she was indeed a Winter Witch!

The Winter Witches are a branch of the Witches of the North. They are different from the Dark Witches, but they are both servants of the great King of Witches. And they are quite huggy in nature, especially in the external aspect, they are the same in advance and retreat together, belonging to that kind of extremely difficult group of women to deal with.

Grim lowered his eyelids, a faint look of sadness appearing on his face.

"Lady Shani unfortunately fell in a battle with an alien creature!"

"Bullshit, you're lying! With Shani's strength, who in this dimension could kill her? The Dark Witch is famous for being undefeatable!" The winter witch growled in a shrill voice, a look of disbelief.

Grim's face didn't move, and his eyebrows rose lightly.

"The Aurors of this realm couldn't kill her, of course, but those otherworldly creatures could. Shani died at the hands of a powerful enemy with an artifact, named Mitzer, the divine son of Yero, the god of wisdom... If you don't believe me, by all means, bring in the seer for verification."

Artifact...Godson...God of Wisdom....

Such impactful news made all the witches frown.

The Dark Witches all had spirit energy pools that could preserve their soul branding so that they could rampage on the battlefield with an exceptionally ferocious and brutal fighting style. Even if they were unfortunate enough to die in battle, they would be able to resurrect again with the help of the Spiritual Energy Pool, reshaping their bodies into fully energized bodies.

This was one of the toughest things about the Dark Witches!

But if the Dark Witch encountered a powerful enemy who possessed an artifact, the opponent could have used the artifact's high level features to trap or kill the Dark Witch's soul. So Grim's pushing Shani's death on this made sense rationally.

A dry and shriveled old wizard stepped forward with a sardonic smile and questioned, "If even the Shani Witch died in battle, how did you three escape? It's not like you guys found a place to hide and completed those tasks at all, right?"

"Yeah, yeah... that must be it... I knew these mongrels were unreliable..." a few of the wounded wizards beside them were similarly raging with no good cheer.

"Hand over your mission crystals, I want to inspect them!"

Influenced by a few of his companions, that Golden Ring Sorcerer could not help but raise a trace of suspicion towards Grim Three and directly begged for the Mission Crystal.

The mission crystal was also an item specially dispensed by the superior sorcerer before the team left, capable of recording brief images of the team members fighting at the mission point, and was usually kept by the lead sorcerer.

Such an item had the scent of a superior sorcerer on it, so it was impossible to cheat, and was also direct evidence of the mission team's proof of their performance.

Grim was slightly startled, and his face became gloomy.

"Verifying a mission crystal is a matter for a superior sorcerer, so you guys are crossing the line a bit by forcing me to hand over the mission crystal now, aren't you!"

"Well, if you don't hand over the mission crystal, who knows if you've completed the mission or not. I'm the wizard appointed by the Grand Sorcerers to lead the team, and I'm in charge of everything here. Just hand over your mission crystals!" The golden-ringed wizard was cold.

Grim looked at it coldly for a moment before finally nodding slowly and pulling out a fist-sized magic crystal from his bosom and handing it over.

The Holly Wizard and the Mangus siblings hesitated and handed over their task crystals as well.

The golden-ringed wizard received the crystal and first cast a spell to verify their authenticity before holding it up in front of his eyes, his mental energy slowly penetrating into it to check out the mission images left inside.