Badge in Azure

Hogina was not one to hide things on her mind, but she was not one to lament incessantly about things. After making the decision to follow Saleen for good, Hogina’s mind was cleared, and she began to look deeper into Saleen’s Magical Element Tower excitedly.

Hogina demonstrated immense interest in elementite, yet it was a pity that it was not something that even Saleen’s water flame would have been capable of dismantling to its components.

After re-crafting Hogina’s weapon, Saleen took out a suit of magic armament and gave it to her. Hogina’s own collection of equipment was not of terrible quality. It was just that much of Saleen’s equipment was either personally crafted gifts from Joey or acquired from the Imperial City of the Abyss.

Some others were also taken from several of the Goddess of Myers’ temples, and they were also something that would not be found commonly on the mainland. Hogina never had to fret about food and lodging throughout her life, with everything she had ever needed was handed to her by her teacher. She never knew how precious alchemic materials could be.

It was not until her teacher’s departure that she discovered some of the materials were so expensive, that not even nobles could afford them. What Saleen took out was just the tip of the iceberg, yet they were more than enough to keep Hogina around.

“I can’t afford to stay here for too long.” Saleen took a look outside the tower. The winged skeleton had finished patching up the false dragon’s injuries, which enabled it to continue flying. Saleen left the tower with Hogina and rode on the back of the false dragon again, making for the Golden Plains.

The Golden Plains was situated in the southern mountains within Qin’s territory, a basin that was half closed off, and the area was not too small. It was at least far larger than the actual area of Ceylon City that Saleen had manage to take. The area of the basin allowed for about a million people to settle in it and would still look very vast and empty.

There was a meandering river west of the basin, one that led to the Separation Sea. The river was precisely why Cloudflow dared not attack Qin from that sea. If Cloudflow invaders were to land at the eastern side of the Separation Sea, other than having to scale mountains, they would have to also contend with harassments deployed from the Golden Plains.

Even several sorcerers would be enough to send the Cloudflow troops into a panic, let alone the Grukos’ forces.

The ratio of mages serving the Grukos, who had made the Golden Plains their home, was far higher than Qin Empire itself. With the lineage of the family dating back several thousands of years, they had accumulated vast prestige, human resources, and frightening wealth. Their stock of equipment was definitely not inferior to the collections in Alchemy City’s vaults.

Saleen was able to see a magnificent sight after arriving at the exit of the Golden Plains riding on the false dragon spirit.

A river that was more than 100 yards long flowed from within the narrow valley, the flow of which was loud and the currents rapid. Water vapors rose at the mouth of the valley, and the peaks at the sides were carved into a string of giant statues. The statues were those of the long line of emperors of the Grukos family, as well some late important figures.

If the 500 yard tall statues were simply stone carvings, it would not have surprised Saleen in any way. Each and every one of the statues seemed instead, to exude a powerful aura. More than 100 statues resonated with each other, creating a huge and powerful magic array.

There was a huge stone bridge lining the peaks of both sides. The bridge seemed to be a work of nature, yet Saleen knew that it was something produced using very powerful fossilization spells. There were more than a dozen six-winged flying snakes coiling the bridge.

The six-winged flying snakes were all grade-9 magic beasts. Disparity in combat capacity existed among grade-9 magic beasts too, and the six-winged flying snakes painstaking nurtured by the Grukos possessed high levels of intellect. They saw Saleen arriving on the back of the false dragon spirit, yet all of the snakes simply lazed about, and none got in his way.

The winged skeleton hardly felt anything. There were beings of even greater presence in the spirit plane. More than 10,000 years ago, the strongest skeleton king had a body that was even larger than the limit achievable by mechanical souls, and the king was able to stomp a mountain flat if they so wished. After following humans in their conquests, the powerful spirits were lost. The few that perished were returned to the spirit plane by the humans, becoming inviolable symbols themselves.

Even kings did not dare mess with the bodies of the perished spirits. Every powerful spirit who had perished left powerful power of rules behind, and kings would have gone to learn about such powers, in order to learn the skills of the many ancient spirits.

Saleen sighed. Those statues were able to look and feel so lifelike simply because the Grukos were rich beyond imagination. The statues were even capable of combat on their own, as each and every one of those 500 yard tall constructs, were large scale puppets.

There was one such secret art among the Grukos which enabled the memories of the ones who had passed to become images, and be injected into the core of the puppets, making them function like a human’s brain. None of the large scale puppets were lumbering brutes. If they were to actually move, they might be even more nimble than ancient warriors.

There was a path at the right side of the river below which led into the valley. A man was seen flying out of the valley when Saleen was still considering if he should have gone down.

The person was wearing a white magic robe and it bore no markings of any kind. The custom of the world would have determined one such person to be a magic apprentice. Magic apprentices were definitely incapable of flight though. Even the winged people, who were born with wings, needed to reach levels higher than grade-3, before they became capable of flight.

Saleen’s intuition told him that the person was around the age of 30. They looked incredibly young though, and sported a face like Hogina’s, which would have caused others to have the wrong idea about him, and even grow to like him. The white-robed mage’s power however, was definitely at the level of sorcerers, which meant he had become sorcerers around the age of 30.

“Who goes there? Why fly here? Don’t you fear being shot to death or something?” The words of the white-robed sorcerer were spoken in a friendly joking tone.

Saleen knew the white-robed sorcerer was referring to the line of over 100 great statues around them. Those things were not for show. If Saleen had truly wanted to fly into the valley riding the false dragon spirit, he would have been attacked by more than 100 grade-9 puppets.

“No. The level of these puppets is undetermined, but definitely no lower than grade-9. They become more powerful as they were practically part of the mountains. Their only weakness is that they are incapable of going too far. If I were to become enemies of these statues, the best and only way would be to take the fight elsewhere. I wouldn’t be able to win even when unleashing all elemental creatures in my collection. The Grukos sure are rich, being able to install so much powerful equipment at their doorstep and all.”

Saleen let the winged skeleton have the false dragon spirit levitate in the air. He stood up and walked to its head. He then said to the white-robed mage, “I’m Saleen, Saleen Metatrin. I’m here to see your leader.”

“Do you think our head…”

The white-robed mage opened his eyes wide before finishing his sentence, and then said to Saleen, “Haha, it’s you. And there I was, wondering what kind of idiot had just showed up. We have received Lex’s letter, but the head of our family was not around. He will be back in perhaps three or five days, so you…”

Saleen knew that called for verification, but there was little point proving his identity. He simply took out the Six-Winged Flying Snake Mark and waved it at the white-robed sorcerer. The sorcerer gulped in response and nodded. “Come with me then, I’ll arrange for a place where you can stay.”

Saleen smiled. “No need to kick up a fuss. Just get me a cleared area where I won’t be troubling anyone.”

Saleen did not want to stay inside anyone else’ magic tower, as that would have been tantamount to letting the master of the place do whatever they wished with him. While it was unimaginable for the Grukos to do him harm, Saleen’s habit dictated that he was only able to sleep well in his own tower.

The white-robed sorcerer did not mind. While Saleen was a king, he was too a grade-9 sorcerer. It was a given that the temperament of sorcerers differed from common people.

The sorcerer conjured a magical fire, informing the ones in the valley. The sorcerer then took Saleen down to the ground, walking into the valley through the path at the right side of the river.

The false dragon too, had no choice but to walk on the ground. It was fortunate that the newly converted spirit had thick, sturdy limbs. When its wings were put away, it was far larger than walking dragons were.

The white-robed sorcerer took Saleen into the valley and there was hardly anyone doing patrols around. The Golden Plains were located within the valley. The path they walked was a long one, which was probably a little more than 20 miles. The canal within the valley was probably carved out in later days. Saleen was able to see clearly, back in the air, that there was a damn at the end of the valley. If the magic floodgates were opened, the entire valley would be flooded.

Common armies would have never been able to make it through the valley. Not even his demon army would have been capable of doing so. The dam apparently was not meant to be used as a weapon. There were huge swaths of flatland beyond the valley. It was not all just mountains beyond the Golden Plains, and farming was possible. Saleen was able to see villages around when he was still up in the sky.

If a clan wanted their lineage to survive, it would not have been possible for them to simply lock themselves up in such a small environment and cut themselves off from the rest of the world. The Golden Plains would have been able to sustain millions, and the Grukos needed to foster capable people among the local population. The 1,000 year old royal family was one Saleen would be able to compare to. Despite having spent a lot recruiting troops, he was only able to recruit Caucasus people and the temple guards to serve as the core of his forces. The number of other troops, numbered to only 100,000.

The 100,000 strong army consisted of all of Saleen’s ten main forces. Saleen’s remaining forces outside of those ten were, in Lex’s eyes, far from adequate for anything important. Those would have served well as peacekeeping forces domestically, but they would become a burden to his main forces if they were to be deployed into battlefields. Auxiliary troops in the main forces would have proved stronger than the rest of Saleen’s armies.

“May I know where your leader went to?” Saleen’s tone was polite. He would not have behaved in such a way even when talking to the Qin emperor. The leader was an elder of the Grukos, which meant the head of the clan was of higher status than he was.

Lex told him before that the head of the clan was definitely the strongest in the family. It was a rule set by the Grukos family. Emperors need only to be capable of managing the nation. It was for that very reason that Ojarvis ascended to the throne despite being a sickly person.

The white-robed sorcerer had no intentions of hiding anything, answering Saleen’s question frankly. “Our leader went to Alchemy City.”

“Alchemy City?”

“Indeed. The northern side of Qin is in a mess, and that Safilos proved incapable to keep things under control. Alchemy City took the chance to buy off some northern nobles, and our leader felt very pissed off about the matter and decided to go teach the one responsible a lesson.”

Saleen was practically covered in sweat hearing that. He had been to Alchemy City himself. There was no doubt that any mage from Alchemy City would be at a disadvantage coming there. The head of the Grukos clan went to Alchemy City on his own, and he was sure that he was going to come out on top?

Alchemy City and Holy Rock City shared one common trait—both cities were equipped with large scale magic amplifiers. Even if the head of the clan was a grade-10 professional, the odds would still be stacked against him.