Badge in Azure

Saleen continued crafting the javelins while Don silently healed his own injuries. Sika walked into the tent and looked at Isabella, who was lying on a carpet.

“Isabella, you aren’t blaming Saleen for keeping that guy around are you?” Sika sat beside Isabella, who felt rather warm inside. She was developing a sense of security she had been robbed of for a long time.

“His highness was afraid that I’d be hurt,” Isabella cautiously answered. She could not have blamed Saleen’s way of going about it. She was right beside Don. He was powerful enough to kill her without having to do much.

“Don is useful to Saleen. The contract is signed, so he can’t hurt the old man for the time being. Did Don do anything to hurt you?” Sika was being straightforward with her questions. However, coming from someone like Sika, most people would feel that she was being a simpleton instead of being rude.

“It’s just that something doesn’t feel right inside.” Isabella continued talking to Sika and found herself feeling a lot better. What frustrated her the most was that she had no freedom or dignity when she was forced to stay at the side of a powerful one, even though Don never said anything much to her and had never touched her.

“I’ve given him a good beating. He’ll behave himself.” Sika spoke in a frank, matter-of-factly manner.

“Thank you, his highness…” Isabella hesitated.

“I’m going to do it regardless if he feels alright with it anyway,” Sika said.

“But, Saleen is someone who’s careful with people,” Isabella said. “He won’t be comfortable having Don feel that he’s not in charge. If Don and Saleen were to go separate ways one day, I guarantee you’d be the one to finish him off.”

“Yeah, I would.” Sika was leading Isabella along, helping the poor girl rebuild some of her confidence.

“Just relax for the moment. You don’t know much about how things are with the mainland right now, and there’s not much point telling you about it now. Saleen and Lex both have 40 million people under their rule. The focus is now in Phoenix. They’ll have Phoenix conquered in no time and have the Kingdom of Metatrin and the Principality of Bitterwater as well.”

Isabella’s eyes gradually sparkled as she said, “His highness has so many lands now!”

“The Sreeger Island mages that splintered from Alchemy City were all stationed in Metatrin City now,” Sika said “We now have over 40 level nine sorcerers. Saleen’s teacher is now a level 10 sorcerer. You’d become a level nine sorcerer yourself in five years at most. Just relax for now.”

“His highness… He’s already a level nine sorcerer?” Isabella asked?

“Indeed, and so is Lex,” Sika said. “We now have two golden grand swordmasters in the team. Nailisi… Well, don’t bother about her for the moment. Just try to stay away from her.”

“Why? Isn’t she a capable one who has helped his highness a lot?” Isabella lifted her head. “I’m different from them. I decided to become his follower so as to have a bright future. I want to become a powerful mage with a tall magic tower…”

Sika smiled. Isabella might have been a thief, but her aspirations were no different to that of a common mage.

“You’ll get one,” Sika said “Now, just go meditate. I’ll keep you company.”

“Right.” Isabella sat up obediently and began meditating.

The sky gradually lit up. The demons had been preparing food for everyone, building a fire at the peak. Don’s hands were mended after taking a short break and healing himself. Nailisi still refused to hand him the God-hunting Spear. He, on the other hand, had simply taken it as if nothing had happened without mentioning it being time to hand him his weapon.

Of course, Saleen was turning his back on his word. The God-hunting Spear was a fine weapon. He was having Nailisi take the chance to completely destroy all the divine rune charm arrays on it, making it a weapon better-suited for a warrior. The spear was being shined on by the cleansing light in the purgatory of purification. It would soon be completely transformed. Unless Don was willing to nurture and develop comprehension of rules on his own, there was simply no way the weapon would have developed a spirit of its own ever again.

The group was split into four teams. Jola and Don were to take the lead at the front, Saleen and Sika were to take Isabella and stay at the center, Sul was to take two supreme demons and stay at the rear, and Nailisi, Nicholas, and Eleanor flew at a higher altitude above them.

The teams were to stick closer to each other, maintaining a distance of only a mile away from one another as they flew for Titan Duchy.

They were flying incredibly fast this time since Saleen did not want to waste any time. The temple within Titan Duchy’s domain was hidden in the swamps. They had detailed coordinates because they had been there once before. That enabled them to quickly locate the entrance.

All of them dived one after another, with the soul beast and the Wings of an Elf put away. Nailisi sent demons to serve as sentries and rangers around the temple’s vicinity. After getting security detailed, Saleen took out the Ring of Gifts and opened the passage to the temple.

Walls made of metalized steel rock stood tall and proud within the temple. The broken door had been repaired. The hole in the wall was no longer there.

“Master, how about we just charge head on?” Nailisi took out her Sword of Rules and drew a mark at the center of the huge door.

Saleen nodded and summoned six Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers. Nailisi walked to the front door and leapt. She stuck her sword at the crevice between the doors, sliding down from top to bottom.

She did a somersault after she was done and backed away about 330-feet. The six Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers swung their magic War Hammers and charged, banging hard on the door.

The frequency of the attacks were surprisingly fast. They all had only been able to hear several rushed rumbles before the doors were flung wide open by the War Hammers. The Elemental Stone Statue Soldiers rushed inside and found no one. The air felt fresh.

None of the magic bugs that used to be around were found. Nailisi summoned her demons and began to search the hall.

“What is this place?” Despite knowing where they actually were already, Don still asked Saleen.

“A temple built by the Goddess of Myers. I’m here this time to take the place apart.” Saleen was elated to find that there were no signs of life within the temple.

It was confirmed so shortly after. The demons returned one after another to report to Nailisi. She followed the demons and walked into another adjacent temple. She found a huge mound in the empty temple.

She dug at the mound and found crystal-clear magic bug eggs in it. The eggs had mutated and became green, transparent eggs of smaller sizes without a hint of their usual red colors.

Nailisi bagged the eggs in glee before returning to Saleen’s side. “Master, everything here has been eaten clean by the magic bugs. All that is left now is the house itself.”

“What are we waiting for?” Saleen asked. “Let’s take the place apart!”

He knew by then that all 24 temples left behind by the goddess had their own spaces. They could have taken the place apart with nothing left and the space itself would have still stayed intact.

As such, Saleen had the demons take the temple constructions apart without any worries. The materials used for constructing the temple were all considered decent equipment materials, even compared to what was available in the contemporary Myers Mainland.

The most difficult thing to be taken apart was the walls of the temple. All 24 temples built by the Goddess of Myers had different styles of construction. The one that Saleen was in mostly had the most basic of materials left behind, such as metalized steel rocks and the mystical doors at the walls.

Those wooden materials capable of self-repair were not of the Tree of Life. Saleen went to take the doors apart personally. The huge amount of metalized steel rock were to be dissolved slowly by the elemental creatures and cut in huge square blocks, which were then put inside Saleen’s dimension stones.

They began taking the place apart from the top and worked their way down to the bottom. The deeper they went, the more precious the materials used for construction became. When they arrived at the last three floors below ground, soft jade was used for all of the flooring, which was usable for crafting high-level magic arrays.

The temple was very large. With the help of Nailisi’s demons, everything in the temple was dissolved, taken apart, and put inside dimension stones within a week. When they were done, the space that the temple had occupied was nothing but a huge empty void with an exit leading outside.

The deconstruction was done at a speed that could have even taken the Holy Rock City apart quickly, let alone just a group of temples.

“Your highness, since you wish to rebuild the Nature Faith, why…” Don was puzzled seeing how Saleen had taken everything in the temple apart. While the temple was apparently damaged, it would have been easy to repair. It would have been perfect to have the temple serve as the religion’s base of operations.

“You don’t use construction materials of those grades to build temples. The ones I’ve bagged are to be used to arm my armies. The battle at Daliang City could be drawn out for years, and the battle will definitely be resource-intensive. We can’t just keep relying on Alchemy City and Holy Rock City for the war effort.” Saleen answered without getting to the gist of things.

Don saw no other choice but to keep his puzzlement suppressed, observing what Saleen’s next course of action would be.

Saleen did not feel disappointed at not finding any hidden secrets. The temple had been found a long time ago. Nothing would have been left for him to find even if there had been secrets lying around. That mysterious noble would have known a lot about the temple’s secrets, which was what enabled him to acquire mystical powers. It was fortunate for him that the noble had been struck by lightning and died, ending his luck and saving Saleen the effort of having to hunt him down.

“Let’s go. The next target will be at the source of the Red River.” Saleen had Nailisi pack the demons away in the purgatory of the devils and take out the Ring of Gifts to open a portal leading outside.

Saleen would have still been able to use the place. Its huge storage capacity would have been useful for storing food and keeping his armies. However, if he were to have people live in that space, he would have needed to craft a huge magic power furnace to serve as a surrogate sun. Otherwise, the space would have been condemned to eternal darkness. No crops would have been yielded here.

Not only would it have been immensely expensive to construct a magic power furnace of such sizes, Saleen did not have the means to do so at the moment. Even if Jason were to see to it personally, no one would have known how long related researches would have taken. That was all only remotely plausible because Saleen had schematics of all manner of magic power furnaces with him. Otherwise, there was nothing he could have done about the void.

Saleen looked at the sky after arriving at the swamps. Dark clouds littered the skies. It looked as if it was going to rain soon. He thought for a bit and said, “We’ll stick to the ground. It isn’t far from here to the Red River. We’ll just ride.”

Saleen was practically immune to the lightning storms in the clouds. It made it safe for him to fly but not for Jola and the others. While equipment crafting from thunder dragon hide came with the function of evading lightning, he had no certainty how well such equipment would have worked in an environment where lightning bolts were everywhere. Saleen would have only let his people fly in such weather after doing experiments with live subjects.

Nailisi took her skeleton king form in glee and summoned the Nightmares to serve as steeds.

Sika was the only who summoned her pony and rode alongside Saleen. All the others rode Nightmares summoned by Nailisi. The Nightmares stepped on black fires as they ran in the thunderstorm that suddenly hit them.

Eight people and two supreme demons blazed a white line in the storm. Three hours after they left, Another group of people appeared in the swamps. The group consisted only of about a hundred men led by an old holy master. There were 12 young holy masters by his side. All the others were warriors clad in golden armor.