Age of Adepts

While the great families were in a frenzy and exhausted over the foreign invasion, an even more worrisome matter had appeared.

According to the messages coming back from various monitoring points, the demons in the depths of the Black Forest were rapidly gathering and converging, with a strong tendency to break out of the Black Forest in the near future.

And it wasn't just the actions of individual demon lords alone, it seemed to be a spontaneous and conscious mass riot of the entire Black Forest. The magical energies that poured into the interior of the bit during the magic tide all carried a chaotic and tyrannical atmosphere, provoking these demons to become abnormally brutal and ferocious.

It could be imagined that such terrifying demons gathered together, and then wrapped around an even larger number of beasts. Once they broke out of the Black Forest, the impact on human society would be enormous!

If it wasn't dealt with properly, it was feared that the entire foundation of the wizard civilization would be shaken by this.

And the riot of the herd wasn't just an isolated incident in one or two regions, but a harsh backlash from the entire Black Forest of the Witch World.

For tens of thousands of years, wizards had been far too casual in their suppression and killing of demon lords and kings. Now with the demonic tide fueling the fight, it was time for the Demon Lords to take their revenge and regain dominance of the throne!

It had to be said that the witches had been too lazy over the years, and it had been a long time since they had cleared the high ranking demons from the depths of the Black Forest. So, outside of their perception, a new group of Demon Lords grew up and jumped at the chance to be promoted to the Demon King who ruled the entire Black Forest.

And for the Demon Lords to advance to king, launching a counterattack against the witch community was the most direct and easiest way for them to build their success!

Among their choice of targets, the Coven was too powerful to touch....

The Silver Alliance Puppet Army is too strong to touch....

The Northland witches were a little weaker, but unusually huggy and untouchable when it came to consistency....

Thus, the middle of the scattered continent had become the sole target and object of the demon lords sharpening their minions in the depths of the Black Forest!

Although the three major wizards' organizations also had a considerable beast tide that erupted there, compared to the middle of the continent, it was several orders of magnitude smaller.

The information from some of the shaman families that had risked their lives to find out showed that the scale of the Black Forest's demon tide this time was even bigger than before, and the number of demon lords that had gathered was astonishing. Once they gathered in sufficient numbers and broke out of the Black Forest, the impact on the human society in the middle of the continent would most likely be devastating!

When such a sentiment appeared, it immediately caught the attention of all the wizard families and made them increasingly panic.

Blocking the beast tide wasn't as easy as blocking the foreign invaders.

There were so many gaps in the barrier, just blocking the entrances and exits, and killing one by one, although the work was arduous but the result was effective. And the entire central part could be politely said to be completely wrapped and besieged by the Black Forest. Trying to determine the direction of the beast tide's attack was simply a fool's errand, don't even think about it.

Of course, the witches could also use astrologers and seers to gain insight into the movements of the demons. However, over the years of constant struggle with the witches, the demons have developed their own unique means of concealment and confusion.

It was rumored that the Black Forest Demon Lords had also specially cultivated a 'Crow King' who possessed the ability to prophesy, which was used to reverse suppress the witches' prophecy and astrology.

Therefore, since the sorcerers had not detected the movements of the Demon Lords in advance, it would be even more difficult to 'decapitate' them after they had gathered into a group.

Since they couldn't obliterate the impact of the beast tide beforehand, the central part of the continent would then have to passively wait for the moment when the herd would rush out of the Black Forest. All the central regions, especially those bordering the Black Forest, were even more apprehensive and even gave rise to panic.

Those regions that had a 4th rank power entrenched were still fine, with at least one strong person sitting at the table, and were still psychologically stable. Those areas that had no 4th rank forces and only small and medium sized power complexes could only try to shrink their defenses, only thinking of preserving their family's core areas.

In this way, those areas that were abandoned by them, there was a panic wave of refugees in the human kingdom.

No one wanted to stay there and wait to be devoured by the herd, and civilians fled their homes with their families and flocked to the relatively safer 'inland' areas.

For a time, the middle of the continent was in fear and the chickens were flying!

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

Throne of Fire.

The naked, mangled Grim was immersed inside a huge barrel taller than his head, filled with a fetid, pungent blue liquid.

No flame was needed to heat it, Grim himself was a human furnace.

Grim's body was dark red and lustrous, and through the translucent skin one could faintly see the red-hot blood slowly flowing beneath. Saying it was blood, it was no longer any different from tumbling boiling lava.

Under the burning of his burning field, the blue liquid in the barrel was also gradually boiling as the temperature rose. The sticky, dense blue potion shrieked and vibrated like a liquid monster, occasionally creating transparent bubbles from the bulge one after another.

Grim's entire body had been immersed in the blue liquid, his pores suddenly opening and closing, absorbing the strange medicinal points evaporating from the blue liquid and releasing the accumulated energy toxins and demise of life in his body.

After soaking for 5 hours, when the blue liquid had completely turned into black water, Grim was able to crawl out of it with great difficulty.

However, surprisingly, from such a sticky and heavy liquid, Grim's smooth and smooth lines, his skin dark red and tough as inky jade-like body was not even stained with water or filth.

As he stood silently in the room, a male body full of evil, weird and powerful was unmistakable!

"Chip, self-test it!"

"Drip, mission accepted...self-test begins..."

With a slight mechanical chirp, a waterfall of dense information streamed down from the top of the retina and piled up below the field of view, creating a three-dimensional model of the human body.

And on the side of the model, brushing against the side, listed out Grim's current body information.

"Grim, male, 4th level Half-Rule Sorcerer (Flame Specialization), Star Beast Bloodline (97%), Chaotic Physique (Zhuojian Magic Resistance), Rule of Hearts (Flame Rule 89%), Body Base Data: strength 21 physique 15+2 agility 16 spirit 46+5, Bloodline Talent: energy black hole, Flame Rule (Indestructible Flame)..."

Looking at the current data, Grim couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

Compared to before, his Strength had dropped 6 points, Physique had dropped 16 points, and Agility had dropped 3 points....

Although he was victorious in the battle of the Gravel Canyon, having defeated the Gold One Clan Chief Monash Gaia and the Association's super-strong Severus, that battle was only a crushing victory in the end.

The severe battle losses had greatly reduced his physique, and even his strength and agility had fallen.

Although it was only a 2 point difference, it also benefited him greatly, and his mental state was better than ever.

Now he had officially become a 4th rank advanced, jumping up another small step, one step closer to his true peak!

With the dual increase of the Fire God Pearl and the Book of Filth and Darkness, any slight increase in his own strength was reflected in a several or tenfold surge in his battle power. And with the trials of these battles, he had vaguely comprehended the direction of his future development.

The resolution of the Star Beast bloodline had reached 97%, and with just one step he would truly have a bloodline transformation ability all to himself. As for the Chaotic Physique, it was only an external racial characteristic of the Star Beast Bloodline, and was not yet an individual ability of his.

As for the reason why the Star Beast bloodline was unlocked to its current state, it was completely related to the fish-shaped star beast that Mary had sent back a few days ago.

Grim soaked himself daily in the liquid formed from the star beast's blood and special sorcerer's medicine, and cultivated using the Body Tempering Sorcerer drug to quench his body, and indeed his physique recovered 1 point. The greatest effect was the body's understanding and fusion of the star beast's bloodline.

In the past, Grim's battles had relied on all of his flame sorcery abilities, and the star beast bloodline had barely been used to its full potential. The reason for this was because he simply hadn't found the right route and path to grow his bloodline.

And he was nothing more than a stumbling rookie just starting out on the bloodline journey!

Saying that he possessed a Star Beast bloodline, he didn't even present the most basic bloodline characteristics except for the two insignificant racial abilities of Chaos Physique and Energy Black Hole.

How could this match his current 4th rank advanced status!

However, the remnants of the extra-territorial star beast that Mary had accidentally sent to him allowed Grim to find a way to improve his bloodline.

Devour...devour...devour....

The Star Beast's most typical trait was its constant devouring, devouring higher beings, devouring intelligent beings, devouring large amounts of souls, devouring bituminous origin....

These things were the source of the star beasts' growth and evolution, and the source of their strength.

Since Grim had chosen the star beast bloodline for himself, he could only follow the star beasts' ancient ways of growth to develop and grow his own bloodline.

However, as an intelligent being with principles and boundaries, devouring other intelligent races would undoubtedly cast a serious psychological shadow on Grim. Therefore he didn't hesitate to choose to devour the other star beasts.

The star beasts were all strange looking, simply monsters among monsters, devouring them Grim did not have any psychological burden.

Of course, what Grim really devoured wasn't the flesh and blood of the star beasts, but the unique and strange genes within them. Using the chip's powerful function, Grim could peel off genetic fragments from different star beasts' bodies that were beneficial to him, and then incorporate them into himself in the form of a genetic puzzle.

Only, with his current situation, I'm afraid that only those Star Beasts of the 4th rank or above could bring him the corresponding benefits. These guys weren't good at anything, and in the outside world, they were all terrifying demons that slaughtered a dimension at every turn.

So to feed on them, Grim really needed to spend a lot of effort!