Age of Adepts

If one stood at the top of the cliff, they would be able to see the magnificent city and the towering adept’s tower in the distance.

Feidnan City. A completely inconspicuous human city. Witch Nina wouldn’t have heard of this city’s name if it hadn’t been for the Sarubo placing their headquarters here. Neither would she have crossed thousands of kilometers to come to this place.

An old witch with a crooked spine, a grey robe, and a grey witch’s hat cackled sinisterly behind Witch Nina.

"Nina, what is your plan in inviting them? Do you intend to betray the Northern Witches? You best be careful. If I catch any weakness of yours, you can be sure that the Witch Council won’t be letting you off easy!"

Nina was a tall woman wearing white armor that hugged her well-proportioned body. Her face wasn’t excessively pretty, but her bright and crystalline blue eyes were enough for one to list her among the most celebrated beauties.

She stood tall on a boulder above the cliff. A giant, green-feathered thunder roc rested right beside her.

It was apparent that she had traveled a long distance to arrive here. The long journey had utterly exhausted the thunder roc. There was no longer a trace of its wild and savage aura that befit a Second Grade magical creature like itself.

Second Grade Witch Nina took one more look at Feidnan City and turned to appreciate the beautiful scenery of the forest. She never let her gaze fall upon the poison witch’s ugly face no matter what she did.

"You will know what I want to do soon! Don’t forget, Endor. Before you find any weakness of mine, you will have to abide by the Council’s ruling. Leader Angelina is willing to exchange Iceseal City and its surrounding lands for one of your apprentice witches. Your leader has already acknowledged this transaction. Do you dare to go against the Witch Council?"

Precisely because she knew that Nina was right, Endor the Poisonous Witch betrayed an agitated expression. Still, she continued to argue, "You lot are only using your identity as the convener of this hundred-year assembly to force the resolution through the council. Only three branches voted. The other witch branches either refused to participate or happened to have their leader present at the council. That’s the only reason you managed to get the False Witches to agree to this disgusting resolution."

"And because of that, you hurried over here to stop me?" Witch Nina turned around, her sharp eyes gleaming a bright blue, making it hard for Endor to look her in the eyes, "You handed over an apprentice witch to be the slave of rotten men, and you still want her to become the Witch of Fate? Why? To continue humiliating the Northern Witches?"

Poisonous Witch Endor was only a First Grade adept. She helplessly lowered her head beneath Nina’s terrifying mental suppression. An expression of sorrow and humiliation appeared on her face.

She had raised Alice from a young age. The rage and anger in her heart nearly exceeded their limits now that she had to watch her die!

She knew that this was a scheme by the opponent. She knew that this would cause tremendous damage to the Pale Witches’ morale. However, even Endor, the great-grandmother of Alice, couldn’t do anything when faced with the Council’s resolution. This helpless sorrow was incomprehensible to outsiders!

She had no way of stopping Nina’s operation. On the one hand, she didn’t possess the ability to do so, and on the other, it would offend all the Northern Witches. As a Northern Witches herself, Endor would never do such a thing!

Her expression shifted several times. Tears streaked down from her muddy eyeballs. Endor finally shook her head in agony, "Don’t worry, I won’t stop you from executing the Council’s orders. I only ask of you to be done with Alice as quick as possible. Please do not torture her again!"

The temperamental and cruel poison witch would beg on her knees?

Even the resolute and decisive Nina couldn’t help but hesitate. She quickly nodded.

"I will. Alice has done nothing to betray the Northern Witches. Her soul can still be accepted by the Northern Witches once her blemish as a slave is cleansed with her own blood!"

Endor fell silent.

The Northern Witches had always been a matriarchal society. Most witches thought of males as tools, rather than equals. There were male adepts in the witch’s territory as well. However, they were all suppressed by the powerful and dominant witch leaders. Thus, the Northern Lands had turned into a different society where witches held the ruling position.

It was due to this mentality that every witch from the Northern Lands tended to be an arrogant and proud individual. Every single one of them had the power to back their attitudes. More importantly, they were an incredibly united group. The other adept organizations didn’t like them very much, but they weren’t about to go and provoke these ferocious, domineering women.

Wild winds started to blow on the distant horizon as the two witches concluded their discussion. A green silhouette flashed and the Third Grade Sanazar appeared from the skies. She hovered in the air before the two witches.

At the same time, a tall male appeared beneath the cliff with a flash of fire.

They had finally come.

The two witches approached Sanazar with different feelings bubbling in their hearts.

"Nina of the Northern Lands greet Lady Sanazar on behalf of the Witch Council!"

"Endor of the Northern Lands greets the respected Lady Sanazar!"

Sanazar couldn’t help but laugh coldly through the green mist shrouding her body.

"No need to be so polite. No need to use your Witch Council to intimidate me either. These tricks are useless here in Zhentarim. Speak, why have you invited me here?"

Sanazar’s tone was quite hostile, but even the arrogant Nina didn’t dare to behave with disrespect when faced with a Third Grade adept.

She turned and looked at the silent young man at the bottom of the cliff and finally said, "Oh respected Lady Sanazar, I have come on behalf of the Witch Council to retrieve Alice, the apprentice witch of the Moya Clan. Here is the Council’s resolution letter!"

Having finished speaking, Nina took out a parchment scroll from her armor and lifted it in front of the cloud of green mist.

The mist shivered, and a claw with green scales emerged. It grabbed the scroll and returned to the mist.

A short moment later, the scroll landed back in Nina’s hand.

"I have read it. Alice is indeed located in our clan. What about it? Do you intend to take her away forcefully?" Sanazar’s taunting sneer came from within the green mist.

This situation was how it was.

This resolution letter might have had absolute binding force for all the witches, but this was Zhentarim, not the Northern Lands. The decisions of the witch leaders could not possibly affect or direct the internal affairs of the Sarubo Clan.

"My Lady, we will reward you handsomely as long as you are willing to let Alice go. Leader Angelina has already spoken. We are willing to provide you with two hundred thousand magic crystals or resources of equal worth. As long as you agree, we will send all of these items to your adept’s tower within ten days. Moreover, one of our clan’s witches seemed to have offended you and was imprisoned by you. Our leader is willing to gift you another hundred thousand if you are willing to let her go."

An ear-piercing shriek came from within the mist. It sounded both like laughing and crying. Soon, a round object was tossed out from within the green cloud.

"Well then, let’s fulfill the second agreement! As for the first one; Alice doesn’t belong to me, but to Greem. Go and discuss with him, not me!"

Witch Nina caught the object that Sanazar had thrown at her. She lowered her head and looked, only to realize that this was the bloody head of the witch she had been looking for. There was a bloody wound at the neck of the head. It seemed that the head had been twisted off the witch’s body while she was alive!

Rage filled Nina’s heart, but she quickly sensed a weak soul aura from within the head. Her frown loosened and she suppressed her anger.

"I have returned the head to you! I didn’t destroy her soul because I respect the Northern Witches. If you hurry back and find a body for her, you might still be able to save her. What is it? Don’t you want it? If you don’t want it, I’ll take it back and feed it to the dogs!" Sanazar’s tone was just like herself, cold and taunting.

"Of course we want it!" Nina’s practically squeezed the cold words out through her teeth, "We will remember your help today! The ten thousand magic crystals will be sent to you within ten days! However, about that Alice..."

Boom.

An explosion of fire and a tall and handsome young male adept appeared on the cliff. He smiled as he nodded to Endor. He then lifted his head and looked at Witch Nina.

"Lady Sanazar said it very clearly already. You will have to talk to me about everything regarding Alice!"

Nina looked at the opponent with disdain.

She thought of herself as tall, but she was still half a head shorter when placed beside this man. It made her unable to exert her intimidating aura by looking down upon her opponent. Moreover, the First Grade young adept remained unfazed when faced with her overbearing mental suppression.

This made her all the more upset!

If it hadn’t been for the meddling Third Grade shitty dragon beside her, Nina would definitely have beaten up the male adept. She would have made him cower before her presence. However, Nina had to endure this situation. After all, she didn’t possess the martial upper hand. Nina had no choice but to deal with this stinky male adept. Alright, fine, the truth should be reflected as it was. The male adept didn’t smell at all. In fact, there was an attractive liveliness to his being that wasn’t present in other adepts.

Likely, this was because he had just advanced! There was none of the depravity of other adepts. Instead, there was a pulsing life force and elegant aura to this young man.

His stature, his face, his aura...it didn’t matter how much one looked at him! He gave off a calm and wise feeling!

Sadly, Nina had never found such a male within the entirety of the Northern Lands. Otherwise, if she was able to catch someone like him as her lover, wouldn’t it just be...

A flash of red had appeared on Witch Nina’s cold face without her knowing. An incomprehensible smile also betrayed her face.