Lineage. It was the most important issue in the World of Adepts!
Bloodline would determine your starting point and future potential, while lineage would decide whether certain groups of individuals would accept you.
The reason adept clans had appeared was because of the formation of isolated groups around certain core bloodlines.
Take Greem, for example. He was already a Fourth Grade legendary fire adept. If he could leave behind a bloodline, those among his direct descendants who could awaken that bloodline would possess fire affinity and weak law powers far surpassing that of their peers.
Greem’s bloodline descendants would have superior magical talent and attributes from the moment they were born!
Moreover, their odds of advancing into high-grade adepts were also much higher.
These were advantages that ordinary adepts had no access to!
However, bloodlines were much like streams and rivers. They gradually become muddied and polluted with the flow of time and the assimilation of different lineages. After a few generations, the essence and law aura in Greem’s core bloodline would vanish without a trace, reduced to an ordinary bloodline.
For the sake of preserving the purity and concentration of the core bloodline, many adept clans had stringent rules regarding copulation. Clan members were only allowed to partner with each other, thereby preventing the introduction of a foreign bloodline.
The larger and more powerful the adept clan, the more common incestual relationships were. The most direct consequence of this was the appearance of more and more deformed descendants. Geniuses were often born alongside idiots.
Many high-grade adepts would try endlessly throughout their long lifetime to mate with numerous partners, hoping to give birth to a descendant with their origin bloodline. However, as their power continued to increase, and the magic continued to influence their biology, this chance would become smaller and smaller.
In the end, the terrifying energy radiation of high-grade adepts would be beyond the tolerance of ordinary women. The woman would probably die in the adept’s arm before they could even finish.
High-grade adepts could only set their sights on intermediate-grade adepts or female creatures of foreign planes if they wanted to create offspring.
Some more extreme adepts had even started considering the possibility of ‘creating’ offspring through the alchemical combination of bloodlines to avoid the whole unlikely reproduction process.
Greem had experienced an unstoppable rise to power in the past, leaving him constantly busy and with a never-ending list of enemies to deal with. He’d never had the time to think about descendants or offspring.
Now, with the increasingly clear situation of the Central Lands and the seemingly unstoppable rise of the Crimson Clan, the more profound problems hiding between the wreaths of glory and victory started to surface.
It was time he had a child!
For some reason, when this thought appeared in his head, it started to occupy his entire mind like weeds growing in the wild. He began to become a little restless.
In his current state, the odds of giving birth to a child with an ordinary woman were close to nil.
No ordinary beauty would reject Greem’s grace.
However, his gene factors were far too potent for mortal women. The fearsome fire radiation alone would kill most life that existed in the universe, let alone the eggs of those frail, helpless women.
At this point, Greem had relationships with two high-grade female adepts, Mary and Alice.
Mary’s bloodline powers were far too powerful. Any child born with her would only be a vampire with no chances of inheriting the other person’s bloodline. If Greem wanted to have a child, Alice would be the only option left to him.
However, Alice was always hidden in her Tower of Fate, making even meeting her a complicated affair. Moreover, nobody knew whether her identity as the Witch of Fate would cause unknown effects on her child.
Greem propped his head with his hand while setting down a new mission for the Chip.
“Chip, begin new research question on how I should create a bloodline descendant.”
[Beep. Research topic constructed. Required information has been extracted. These are the initial summaries:
[Filtering from database. Target: all acquainted female organisms.
[All female organisms of Second Grade and below have been excluded, as they will not be able to survive host’s energy radiation.
[With a Second Grade female organism as the body of conception, the odds of offspring survival is 3.6%, while the odds of host mother survival is 21%. With a Second Grade female organism as the body of conception, the odds of offspring survival is 8.1%, while the odds of host mother survival is 52%.
[Target candidates include Meryl and Emelia.
[Meryl’s red dragon bloodline is the most compatible with Host. The base odds of offspring survival will increase by 32%. Odds of inheriting the red dragon bloodline will be 34%.
[Emelia possesses plant attribute, which conflicts with Host’s origin bloodline. Offspring’s regenerative factor will be significantly boosted. Odds of inheriting plant attribute will be 11%.
[Now filtering through Fourth Grade candidates. Strongly advise against Mary as the host mother. Odds of offspring inheriting vampire bloodline is at 100%. Said odds cannot be controlled by any means.
[Candidate: Alice. Fourth Grade. Human female. Candidate is the best one for Host within the database. Candidate’s Fate talent can perfectly merge with any attribute or bloodline
Note 1: Fate talent will positively affect offspring, though effects remain unknown.
Note 2: Candidate’s Physique should be improved slightly before conception.
[Potential methods for improving Physique is listed below.]
……
…………
Northern Lands, the Tower of Fate.
Lucia and a few other witches were gathered around a wooden table, listening carefully to Alice’s lecture in a bright hall.
Alice stood in the center of a hall, dressed in a soft silk robe that accentuated her curves. She had a jade-white belt around her waist, while her silky silver hair was scattered down her back. She had a tranquil and peaceful face, her sharp, blue eyes like deep oceans that gave her a sense charm of mystery.
While Alice was softly explaining the means of manipulating Fate magic to her students, a sudden chill rushed up her heart.
There was no need for divination crystals or her Staff of Divination. Alice simply frowned, and she understood the cause and root of this chill.
“Greem, you bastard,” The gentle Alice immediately turned into a spooked Persian cat. She raised a hand, created a ball of purple light, and hurled it into empty space.
The air was torn apart as the purple light slipped into the void, vanishing without a trace.
However, before the torn space could mend together once more, the other witches heard a pained cry from the other side.
It was a familiar voice. It seemed to be that legendary fire adept Greem, who was raising a riot in the Central Lands!
The witches were surprised and started making looks at each other.
Her companions made a few subtle signs at her, and Lucia silently reached her hand under the table, taking out a divination crystal from her sleeve.
She rubbed the crystal, and the mists of Fate in it started to dissipate. Just as a strange image was about to appear, Alice’s grating shout rang by Lucia’s ear.
“If any of you dare to use divination magic for no good reason, I will make you witch trainees again for three years!”
Lucia’s heart leaped, and the magic power was dispelled. The divination that was about to form also vanished without a trace. The crystal was once again shrouded in mist.
After ‘fiercely’ intimidating her disciples, Alice waved her hand, and the Staff of Divination appeared without a sound.
Alice grabbed the staff and quickly cast a series of Fate sealing spells. After thoroughly mixing up the cause-and-effect behind that scene earlier, Alice let out a breath of relief.
With the Fate sealing spells she had cast with the Staff of Divination, no diviners would be able to look into what had just occurred as long as their power was insufficient to break Alice’s seal.
The disciples, Lucia included amongst them, appeared discouraged at the sight of that.
Their teacher was well-acquainted with Greem. Almost every single Fate Witch had heard of this rumor!
However, how well-acquainted they were and how intimate they were in private were all matters of gossip and curiosity for them.
Unfortunately, their teacher was undoubtedly the leader of the Witches of Fate. She was far more trained and precise with her control of Fate powers, never leaving behind any points of weakness they could take advantage of. It also caused the fire of gossip in the hearts of the Fate Witches to burn ever more furiously, though they never found a chance to satisfy their curiosity.
Their teacher’s moment of ’embarrassed fury’ definitely had something to do with the legendary fire adept…who knew what that guy had done to stir their teacher like that?
The witches raised their heads in confusion and looked at their teacher blushing as red as an apple. Their curiosity only grew stronger.
What exactly had that fire adept done?
…………
Alice’s casual little attack had been nothing to her, but it almost caused a tragedy on the other side!
The purple bolt cut across tens of thousands of kilometers, ignoring the layers of magical defenses around Annemdor Academy and exploding in Greem’s room.
The ferocious currents of electricity immediately left Greem fumbling all over.
This sudden ‘assault’ against him also caused an instantaneous and violent chain reaction.
Bug Adept Billis, who had been keeping watch outside, immediately sensed something wrong. He quickly issued a signal indicating an attack to the Crimson Fleet outside while collapsing into black beetles and crawling into the room.
Everything happening in Greem’s room undoubtedly tugged at the hearts of every Fourth Grade adept.
The moment they sensed shockwaves radiating from Greem’s room, every Fourth Grade adept couldn’t help but look toward where Adept Mirva was.
The Crimson Fleet instantly activated their energy shields, and the giant magic energy cannons were slowly extended and pointed at the academy.
The roaring sound of charging energy filled the sky!
Fourth Grade Thunder Dragon Arms cursed as he soared down from a Mothership and unleashed his dragon’s aura of might.
The entire academy was filled with tension!
