When news of the Entom Clan’s decimation got out, the entirety of Zhentarim was shocked!
The organizations that had allied with Freed to suppress the Crimson Clan now lived in perpetual fear. They were terrified of the day they would wake up to find the Crimson Fleet appearing before them.
Then, something happened that struck even more despair into their hearts. On the second day after the Entom Clan’s destruction, the Fabres Clan announced their acceptance of the Crimson Clan as a sovereign force. They willingly submitted as a subordinate organization and sent out many of their clan adepts to join the Horton Magic Academy.
These adepts undid their servitude contracts with the Fabres Clan and joined Horton Magic Academy as free adepts. These actions thoroughly explained the thoughts of Fourth Grade Body-Refining Adept Fabres.
Following the Fabres Clan’s announcement, Adept Kerala of the Dener Clan also made a similar announcement and sent Dener Clan adepts to join Horton Magic Academy as free adepts.
That wasn’t the end of it either!
Soon, a third force surfaced and declared their stance.
This third organization was the well-known Molten Fire City.
Over the years, Molten Fire City had maintained good relations with the Crimson Clan. The trade agreement between the two organizations had benefited both parties greatly. The Crimson Clan obtained the irreplaceable Queyras alloy, while Molten Fire City gained a steady supply of dragon materials.
Both parties needed each other and formed a strong relationship. Even when Freed promised all sorts of benefits to Alfred, Lord of Molten Fire City, he was still unable to sway him to his side.
Now that the Crimson Clan’s unification of the Central Lands seemed like an inevitability, Lord Alfred knew what choice he had to make. He had been observing from the sidelines for a long time, after all.
While many clans were still hesitating, Molten Fire City became the third auxiliary organization to submit to the Crimson Clan.
A revolution was coming!
In the past, only the smarter and sharper high-grade adepts could vaguely sense this powerful, rising force that threatened to change the Central Lands. Now, almost any adept that wasn’t an idiot could feel the ferocious storm brewing on the horizon.
Three large adept clans had submitted to the Crimson Clan in succession. It was the clearest sign of all that pointed to the future of the Central Lands.
The Crimson Clan. Horton Magic Academy.
These two names became the most hotly discussed topics among adepts of the Central Lands!
As long as it was a place where adepts gathered, you would find them talking long and hard about these two entities. They represented mystery and power, as well as the future of the Central Lands.
However, in the thirty-three regions of the Central Lands, there were over a dozen Fourth Grade organizations and more than a thousand organizations and clans of smaller scales. To unify such a chaotic land and establish a singular, gigantic, and effective organization was no easy task.
Setting aside everything, even the numerous intermediate and small adept clans were often backed by tremendously powerful individuals. It was very easy to make enemies out of ancient adepts that had lived for several thousands of years and who now resided beyond the realms.
The Sarubo Clan was one such example.
The Sarubo Clan’s headquarters was located in Feidnan City. They possessed no more than one to two hundred square kilometers of worldly territory and less than a hundred clan adepts. There were many such intermediate clans all over the Central Lands, with seemingly nothing special about them.
However, if the Crimson Clan were to wipe out the Sarubo Clan, they would inevitably make an enemy out of the Sixth Grade Great Adept Sarubo, who remained alive in space.
Sarubo might be beyond the realms and unable to return to the World of Adepts.
However, should he fly into a rage, he could easily cause trouble for Greem by ravaging all of the Crimson Clan’s assets in space. Even if Greem could reign supreme in the Central Lands, he would bear the risk of losing everything he owned in space.
Moreover, given the rate at which Greem was improving, it was only a matter of time until he advanced past Fourth Grade and stepped beyond the realms. If Greem were to wipe out all of these clans indiscriminately, the moment he passed into space, he would be swarmed by countless Great Adepts looking to settle their grudges!
Even Greem felt his heart beat nervously at the thought of being surrounded by an army of Great Adepts in space.
This forceful invasion method was untenable, so Greem had no choice but to pursue a roundabout alternative. He was using Horton Magic Academy as a gentle means of obtaining control and authority over the Central Lands.
He wouldn’t devour the clans employing force. No. Everyone would compete fairly, and he would draw away all the talent of the Central Lands with a superior learning environment, more bountiful adept resources, and excellent mentors.
Horton Magic Academy would grow stronger and more influential through this fashion.
Meanwhile, the other clans would fall into stagnation due to the lack of fresh blood and the inability to grow or develop. In doing so, the Great Adepts could not assign any blame to Greem.
In summary, the Great Adepts’ bloodline descendants could be wiped out, but it would not be at the hands of the Crimson Clan.
It was out of such consideration that Greem gave up on the development of the Crimson Clan and instead focused on promoting Horton Magic Academy!
Greem had no other option. He didn’t want to become a scurrying rat forced to flee everywhere from vengeful Great Adepts.
In all honesty, if it weren’t out of fear of the Sixth Grade Great Adept Sarubo, Greem would have already ripped up the Sarubo Clan by its roots. There was plenty of bad blood between them.
Everything was related!
These clans backed by Great Adepts might look like roadblocks in the Crimson Clan’s path to unification. They were like nasty hedgehogs that Greem would rather not touch. However, conversely, they were also a sort of network resource for Greem.
If the Great Adepts in space were willing to make an ally out of Greem, Greem didn’t mind helping their bloodline descendants. However, if they were unreasonable, Greem could simply wipe out their bloodline and cut off their last connection with the World of Adepts.
As for why the bloodline descendants of Great Adepts would often go into decline? That was one of the unsolved mysteries of the World of Adepts since time immemorial!
For one, giving birth was extremely difficult.
Those who could rise beyond Fourth Grade and become a Great Adept could no longer be called humans. They might retain humanoid forms, but you would find no genetic sequences or even organs that bore any resemblance to humans if one were to dissect them.
Ultra-Grade adepts had already walked too far down the path of modification and transformation; the very life essence of these individuals had changed. What human female could possibly give birth to a true human child with these Great Adepts?
Ordinary women and low-grade adepts would not be able to endure a Great Adept’s overwhelming life essence. If such life essence was implanted in their bodies, they would die not much later.
Meanwhile, if a Great Adept couple was to procreate, the odds of giving birth to an ordinary human baby were incredibly slim!
That was why the descendants of Great Adepts in the World of Adepts were mostly descendants that had been left behind while they were still weak. After several thousand years and numerous generations, the bloodline similarity between the Great Adepts and their descendants was practically gone.
Moreover, the more powerful an individual was, the weaker their children would be if born as ordinary humans!
That was why even those descendants that bore the name of Great Adeptswere, in fact, frequently in decline over generations. It was even possible that the Great Adept that left behind this bloodline would refuse to acknowledge these people as their descendants.
Secondly, it was incredibly difficult to pass down bloodline legacies.
Anyone that could become a Great Adept was once a proud prodigy. The path they took to success was often unique and irreplicable.
It was the main reason why the appearance of a Great Adept did not necessarily mean a continuous stream of successors that would rise after them!
It wasn’t that these Great Adepts didn’t want such a thing to happen. They were unable to realize such ambitions.
The Great Adepts often used incredibly rare resources and unique treasures to cross the threshold that they had. Where were their descendants supposed to find these same resources to walk down the same path?
The appearance of every Great Adept gave a sample and reference for their descendants to study. However, they could only serve as references, after all. They were very few successors who had managed to become Great Adepts by following precisely the same path as their ancestors had taken.
The main reason behind this was that all Great Adepts kept their abilities and means of advancement a secret. They would never let the world know of such secrets.
Their enemies would be able to counter their abilities with such information. That was why all Great Adepts went to great lengths to hide the secrets in their development path. Without these details, the information that Great Adepts provided to the outside world was often incomplete and misleading.
Anyone that tried to advance to Fifth Grade through the methods they revealed was destined to suffer, fail, and even die.
Take Greem, for instance. If he did indeed manage to advance to Fifth Grade in the future, the Orb of the Fire God would almost certainly play a central role. However, where would he go to find a second Orb of the Fire God for his disciple or successor to use?!
Thus, upon reaching Fourth Grade, there would only be a vague direction left for you. There would no longer be a fixed path that you could always count on as a reference!
With the fall of the Entom Clan, the Central Lands seemed to have been enveloped in mist and clouds. A storm was brewing.
It was now time for everyone to choose sides!
Either join the resistance and unite to push back against the Crimson Clan, or lower your heads and acknowledge the Crimson Clan’s rule over Zhentarim. To the many clans of the Central Lands, neither of these options was desirable.
Thus, even while the Crimson Fleet was still hovering above the ruins of the Entom Clan, messengers from various Zhentarim clans had already hurried over. They couldn’t wait to discuss the matter of cooperation with the ruler of the Crimson Clan.
Naturally, all of them got to witness the devastation inflicted on the Entom Clan in person.
