Chapter 155: Battles Between Wizards

Never before had Greem felt himself so close to the Will of the World!

In the past, he had always found it difficult to distinguish between plane consciousness and the Will of the World, often feeling they were merely different perspectives describing the same phenomenon. Yet at this very moment, as he advanced to become a Fire Element Adept, he finally gained a profound comprehension of the vast difference between the two.

A plane is the vessel that carries and nurtures all life and existence, allowing them to multiply and flourish. From the very inception of a plane, plane consciousness essentially exists. Ultimately, it is merely the collective consciousness—hazy and chaotic—converged from all life and matter within the entire plane. Because the plane consciousness at this stage possesses only simple instincts and has not yet formed a clear and intuitive self-awareness, it can only be collectively referred to as plane consciousness.

It could be said that the vast majority of planes in the multiverse possess only plane consciousness!

The Will of the World, however, is clearly far more advanced and intelligent than plane consciousness. Building upon the foundation of a plane possessing consciousness, when a plane develops and grows to a certain degree, a Will of the World—resembling a human soul—gestates within the plane consciousness.

Consequently, most plane consciousness is as primitive and naive as a babbling infant, reacting to anything that threatens it, yet doing so in a clumsy and sluggish manner. The Will of the World, on the other hand, is a slightly more mature evolution of plane consciousness, capable of engendering an independent self-will out of the chaotic collective consciousness. It can wield weapons such as plane laws to intervene in and regulate affairs occurring within its own body.

The rare few large-scale planes in the multiverse are precisely like this.

There are even more mature Wills of the World that can use their own preferences to influence and guide conscious entities living under their protection. Those who act rightly are rewarded, while those who act wrongly are met with punishment, employing the power of worldly rules to guide them forward in the direction the world anticipates.

In the entire multiverse, there is only one world that has birthed a truly mature will—the Netherworld, the Abyss, a realm filled with evil fiends and demons.

The Wizard World in which Greem currently survived was clearly also a large-scale plane that had birthed a Will of the World. The billions of living beings and countless trillions of matter within the plane had collectively condensed a plane consciousness possessing partial self-will. Every flower, every blade of grass, every person, and every stone within the plane—regardless of status or strength—was merely an insignificant part of this mighty Will of the World.

This Will of the World, much like the plane consciousness born in most material planes, fundamentally abhorred blood sacrifices that slaughtered countless native souls to appease foreign entities. Therefore, towards Greem's direct confrontation against the bloody altar, the Will of the World bestowed preferential treatment by utilizing the power of laws.

Otherwise, given Greem's current soul aptitude, advancing to an Adept would have been fraught with immense difficulty. According to the chip's estimations, had the Will of the World not "leniently turned a blind eye," Greem's success rate for a normal breakthrough to an Adept would have been less than seven percent.

As far as Greem knew, Adepts often referred to the enhancement of personal experience, skills, and insights gained by adapting to rules, wielding laws, and obeying the guidance of the Will of the World as World Feedback. In truth, this feedback was itself a part of the world's rules!

Hence, Greem had completed his advancement ceremony entirely by borrowing the power of World Feedback!

Having successfully advanced to an Adept, he had shaken off the shackles of the bloody altar. Yet when he stood up and surveyed this enclosed extra-dimensional space, the battle situation remained in the direst of states.

In less than half a quarter of an hour, the Flame Lord had suffered a total defeat and was on the verge of collapsing under Wizard Anderson’s relentless bombardment. As for his other two companions, Mary was bound to the execution chair at the other corner of the altar, screaming in agony toward the heavens—her condition clearly catastrophic. Alice had just fought her way into the control hall of the Swamp Tower, engaged in a fierce battle with two Adept-grade magical beasts guarding the place, running for her life as they pursued her, leaving her with no opportunity to cause any sabotage.

As for that Entick, under Wizard Anderson’s command, he had broken free from the execution chair and, growling in a low voice, charged toward Greem, who had just opened his eyes.

Greem let out a low, deep laugh, stretching his tall frame. With a lift of his hands, a red barrier burst outward, enveloping an area fifty meters in radius.

The moment the evil insect Entick rushed into the red barrier, a wave of inexplicable elemental fire swept over his body. The terrifying high temperature evaporated the meager moisture within him, and the scorching torrent of flames made his body crackle and pop. In less than three finger-snaps, his formidable semi-insectoid physique was nearly roasted well-done by Greem's fire barrier.

Entick fled from the red barrier with even greater speed.

Though he escaped, he left behind massive patches of charred, cracked carapace fragments. Had he not fled quickly, Greem wouldn't even have needed to fight him; the fire barrier alone would have turned him into roasted bug meat.

Entick paced around the perimeter of the fire barrier for a long while, yet he utterly lacked the courage to step inside even half a step.

Having become an Adept, pseudo-adepts like Entick were no longer capable of posing a threat to him.

Under the chip's comprehensive and thorough elemental vision, that Wizard Anderson, levitating in mid-air amidst a vortex of wind, no longer seemed as unfathomable as before. From Anderson's battle with the Flame Lord, Greem had vaguely deduced some intelligence concerning him.

"Chip, can you digitize Anderson's combat capabilities?"

"Beep. Task thread established... Initializing... Beep beep beep... Warning, warning. The task cannot be completed... Character data model error..."

"Chip, locate the cause. Why is it impossible to establish a character model?"

"Beep. Data error analysis complete... The most likely reason is that the character model reference template is no longer applicable... Data must be re-collected to reconstruct an Adept-grade character model..."

Greem understood in a flash.

After the chip activated, the very first character data model he built used ordinary humans as its most basic reference. Based on the physical fitness data of ordinary adult humans, the power tiers of Adept apprentices had been outlined and constructed. Yet now that he had advanced to an Adept, this basic template could simply not be applied to Wizard Anderson, making it impossible to successfully build a data model of his opponent.

"Chip, expand the scope of data collection. Incorporate all Adept-related data in the database, and re-establish the most basic data template using Adept-tier biological entities."

"Beep. Task established... Adept data extraction initiated. Collected samples include: Anderson, Samir, Angus, Flower Spirit, Andrei, Endo, Core-Melting Giant... Constructing new data model..."

Taking advantage of the chip's busyness with the new model construction, Greem strode toward the side of the flame giant, shielding it from Wizard Anderson's attacks.

In less than half a quarter of an hour, the flame giant had become riddled with countless holes.

The powerful fire-grade spells it unleashed had caused Anderson's outer elemental barrier to ripple incessantly and the void to tremble, yet backed by the continuous elemental energy replenishment of the Swamp Tower, they failed entirely to breach the enemy's defense. Conversely, bolstered by the tower's defensive fortification, Anderson's unreserved attacks were something the Flame Lord could not endure.

Attack against attack—the Flame Lord's fire spells were shattered mid-air by Anderson's wind spells, and the residual spell power still battered its external magma armor into a sieve. Had the Flame Lord not been an elemental creature, it would likely have already collapsed in utter ruin under Anderson's sharp and ferocious assault.

Unwilling to see his most capable subordinate destroyed in Anderson's hands, Greem actively relieved the Flame Lord, taking his place before Anderson. Meanwhile, the Flame Lord turned and lunged toward Mary, striving to rescue her first.

"Fortunate little punk, do not think that just because you have advanced to an Adept, you can contend with me. Today, I shall make you understand just how vast the gap is between you and me!" Upon seeing Greem, a crazed and venomous expression surfaced on Wizard Anderson's gloomy, aged face.

Things having reached this juncture, Anderson understood that his plan had completely fallen through. Though his life was not in danger, his advancement plan—yearned for day and night over a century—had been thus ruined in the hands of an unremarkable pseudo-adept. The resentment and reluctance in his heart could no longer be described by mere language and text.

Driven by a madness born of shattered hope, Anderson harnessed the endless winds and launched his most ferocious assault against Greem.

Scarcely three rounds into the exchange, Greem deeply experienced the torment the Flame Lord had just endured.

Anderson's outer elemental defense simply could not be broken!

According to the elemental intensity detected by the chip, Anderson's outer elemental defense possessed a defensive power as high as 120 degrees. This "degree" was actually a metric defined by Adepts to standardize the basic data of offense and defense, taking the full energy triggerable by a single magic crystal as the lowest unit—namely 1 degree—and quantifying various standards from there.

The spell power unleashed by an elementary apprentice relying on their own strength generally ranged between 1 and 5 degrees. Intermediate apprentices ranged from 5 to 10 degrees, and advanced apprentices from 15 to 20 degrees. As for pseudo-adepts, they stood between 30 and 50 degrees.

Anderson's external elemental defense reached an astounding 120 degrees, meaning that unless the spells Greem cast could shatter his defense in a single blow, by the time his next spell finished preparing, the opponent's defense would have already recovered to its peak.

With the energy of the Swamp Tower to sustain him, Anderson practically had no need to waste any thought on defense.

Correspondingly, Greem found it nearly impossible to withstand Anderson's swift and violent onslaught.

After all, Greem had only just completed his advancement, and his own fire barrier had not yet perfectly fused with his fire talent; his baseline defensive power was merely 70 degrees, falling far behind his opponent.

In less than ten finger-snaps, Greem had already endured the successive bombardment of three large-scale spells, and the might of certain spells, piercing through the gaps in his fire barrier, had already injured his physical body.