Age of Adepts

Wizarding World, Northland Witch Territory.

Naio Valley.

The original tower of the Dark Witch Clan - the location of the Black Secret Realm.

Everything inside the valley was still so gray and dark, all the flora and fauna were shrouded in a layer of hazy and illusory strange shadows, gray and lifeless.

And on top of that tower of origin, a fierce quarrel was going on.

Within a dim and lightless chamber, three black figures were coldly facing each other in a rattling manner.

"Cersei, just because you're the noble chief, doesn't mean that you hold all the power in the clan!" An unusually old and hoarse voice in the shadows on the left spoke, "What the hell is going on with Shani? Where did the Shadow Jewel go again? These...if you don't give me an explanation today, our sisters from the 'Dark Department' will no longer be able to follow the orders of this headquarters!"

And to the right, an equally hoarse voice rang out at the right time.

"Yeah, Cersei, a 4th rank sister is gone like this, you have to give us an explanation, right!"

The black figure that was surrounded by the two was quite tall and slender, but his tone was particularly cold and fierce.

"Two elders, I'm the one who gave the order to Shani, and I'm also the one who made her participate in the mission of the Olympic Empire, so if you have any questions, just direct them at me!"

Seeing Cersei so resolute, the two older Dark Witch Elders could not help but soften their tone.

Finally, the left 'dark' elder spoke once again.

"You are our leader, so naturally you have the power to move all the witches and resources in the Black Mysteries. But we want to know, with Shani's strength, why did she fall in that Morion bit? You sent her...really just to go on a simple infiltration mission?"

Cersei was silent for a moment.

"I sent Shani on this mission, obviously for the Arcane Empire, but in reality... it was to take the opportunity to snipe one of the mission participants."

"Who?"

"Grim, a 4th rank fire witch from the Scattered Tarin!"

The two witch elders looked at each other and nodded silently, clearly not unfamiliar with this Grim.

"That Grim is just a newly promoted step fire witch, but Shani has already reached the 4th intermediate level, plus the Shadow Jewel you personally gave her before leaving, why would she still fail in her mission? Did she die at the hands of those Aurors, or at the hands of Grim?"

Cersei couldn't help but be silent again, only to say glumly a moment later, "That Morian bit has been completely smashed, and even if we send Elsa Wise to infiltrate at this time to find the cause of death, I'm afraid we won't be able to get any results."

"So we let Shani die for nothing? Moreover, the Shadow Jewel did not return successfully, which will have an extremely detrimental effect on the subsequent fusion of our Black Secret Realm and the Shadow Kingdom over there. What do you plan to do?"

"Shani's death must have something to do with that Grim, and I will seek revenge on him. The Jewel of Shadows is definitely on him as well, and I'll get it back along with him then!" Cersei snapped.

"In what name? Don't forget, that Grim is now an elder of the Scattered Earth Tallinn Association, and without any evidence, it's hard for us to step in and deal with him. Is it possible that you want to trigger a head-on clash between the Dark Witch and the Scattered Earth Tallinn Association?" The dark minister interrupted her coldly.

"Let's look for evidence first!" The other witch elder sighed similarly, "Didn't their group come back with witches from the Silver Alliance? Let's start with him and see if we can get direct evidence of Grim's murder of Shani. With the evidence, we'll be able to make a motion at the Witch Council to unleash the power of the entire Northland Witch to kill that Grim. I'm sure that those old slickers inside the Scattered Earth Tallinn Association wouldn't dare to confront our entire Northland Witch, right?"

"Understood! I'll immediately arrange for someone to make contact with that Silver Alliance wizard..." pondered Cersei, quickly nodding her head in agreement.

"Besides, what you did this time was really reckless!" The witch elder couldn't help but become heartbroken once again, "Without knowing the other party's true strength, you sent your sisters out and took the clan's holy relic, the Shadow Jewel, with you. Before the next clan meeting, if you haven't gotten the Shadow Jewel back, I will suggest to Lord Malvina to deprive you of your clan chief status!"

"Seconded! I also agree with Elder Yakdor's proposal. Cersei, you've been in the clan leader's position for too long, and it's time for a change. Otherwise, will the entire Dark Witch Headquarters become a one-man show for your Ankara clan?"

Also a rank 4 Dark Witch, Cersei is the Head Witch and Clan Leader, and naturally has the greatest management authority over all witch and family resources.

On the other hand, the Dark Minister Claudina held the power of the Dark Witch's First Department of Assassination. There were all elite witches who were selected from the Dark Witch Headquarters and were skilled in assassination and assassination. As the head of the Dark Department, Claudine's power was not much less than that of Cersi.

On the other hand, the Beast Minister, Old Yakko, was in charge of concocting and **shadowing service beasts, specializing in creating a powerful shadow army for the Dark Sorceress line, and naturally had a lot of power.

The dead Shani, on the other hand, was the elder of the Witch Department, and was usually responsible for the research of shadow sorcery and the cultivation of new blood for witches. Since Shani was also born in the Ankara clan and was a descendant of Chief Cersei's clan, she was also obedient to this clan elder, which led to this unexpected calamity.

As for the Lord Malvina mentioned by Elder Yakko, she was a 6th rank dark witch. As she was stationed somewhere outside the domain all year round, she could only remotely manage the affairs of the Dark Witch within the Wizard World through the clan meeting that took place once every hundred years.

Hearing the two elders' red-crossed threats, the leader, Cersei, was livid, but there was nothing she could do about it.

At the 4th rank level, even if she was the chief and clan leader, the binding force on them was not as great as she thought. Things like the death of a 4th rank witch could be big or small, and even if the other party poked their nose into the clan council, it wasn't unlikely that Cersei would be implicated in this.

But that Shadow Jewel was different!

The 5th rank Shadow Jewel was a Darkness Sacred Relic handed down by the Great Sorceress of the clan, and had an irreplaceable and important role to the Dark Sorceress clan. If it were to be lost from her hands, even if that Lord Malvina spoiled herself, she might not be able to keep her position and identity as the clan leader.

And the next clan meeting would be held in seven years, which meant that the other party had only left Cersei seven years to deal with this delicate matter!

"I know how to go about it. Don't worry, everything will be resolved before the Clan Council!"

With a few simple harsh words thrown down, Cersei turned into a cloud of mist and merged into the shadows behind her, disappearing without a trace from the chamber.

The two witch elders looked at each other, sighed grudgingly, and both left one after the other as well.

...........

The Wizarding World, the far east coast.

This was the residence of the great Wizard Association, and the ideal home for thousands of wizards.

There were dense, forested towers of witches here, a vast and rich country of witches here, a huge number of witches, and countless resources of witches here....

Compared to the rest of the major powers, the Witch Association was the only orthodox witch organization in the wizarding world. Whereas the Silver Alliance was more like a federation of business-minded arcane and mechanical witches, the Northern Witches were a group of more huggy, xenophobic witches with ancient bloodline heritage.

As for the Scatterland Tallinn Association, it was too loose and had no effective binding force on high ranking witches, and could only be classified as a second-rate witch organization, not on par with the three major organizations.

On top of the territory of the Sorcerer's Association, the most famous was their Seven Ring Towers.

Seven top-tier towers built according to some sort of mysterious and mysterious witch formation, and then a large number of witchcraft altars or buildings linked them together to form an unusually large witch formation system.

Using the top-grade towers as the nodes of the formation, and the tens of thousands of miles of land beneath their feet as the foundation of the formation, this kind of pattern, vision and generosity could only be achieved by great sorcerers who could destroy the heavens and the earth by lifting their hands and throwing their feet.

And right now, in the inner halls of one of the Seven Ring Towers, a unique hearing was also taking place immediately.

Sitting behind his own somewhat old mahogany round table, Speaker Royce was listening to a black-robed wizard in front of him reporting on the investigation report of the Mangus Wizard's death, while asking some questions of his own interest in a low and calm tone.

The black-framed glasses on the bridge of his nose gave him a hint of the elegant, profound and wise flavor unique to high ranked witches.

On the other side of the hall, behind a high wooden fence, there were dozens of anxious and apprehensive-looking wizards sitting on top of wooden chairs, waiting for the Speaker's final ruling.

"You mean, that Mangus Wizard is dead beyond death, and not even a fragment of his soul can be found?" Chancellor Lawes slowly and methodically questioned the 3rd rank wizard who had been sent out to investigate.

"Yes, Chancellor."

"How exactly did he die?"

"We personally visited the wizards who returned with Lord Mangus. According to their recollections, Lord Mangus was fine until he returned from the Morian Plane, but he suddenly went mad during the teleportation and seemed to try to kill a fellow traveler by blowing himself up. This has been confirmed by more than three 4th rank wizards..."

"Who was the man he was trying to kill?"

"It's a new fire witch named Grim, affiliated with the Scatterland Talyn Association, and was assigned to the same team as Lord Mangus."

"There's a feud between them?"

"According to our investigation, it appears not! Furthermore, judging from the information we know, Lord Mangus seems to have signed an oath contract with several of his companions. If there is hatred between the two sides, they should not be able to do this..." the 3rd rank black-robed wizard was obviously very dutiful, knowing information that was both comprehensive and detailed, and was clearly quite authoritative.