Badge in Azure

Chapter 1314: Repairing the Lightning Constellation (Part 2)

Saleen was startled and recalled how he dealt with the Holy See—clipping their wings. How would Fycro have been so relaxed with me instead?

While they were cooperating, Fycro claimed with awe-inspiring righteousness that he wanted to protect Myers Mainland. However, the true reason was fear that all of his believers would end up dead. It would make it very difficult for him to ascend to godhood.

Several of his people were growing up, and they posed a huge threat to Fycro. As such, Fycro might have actually allow clipping his wings.

Fycro’s powers were such that he would have been able to kill any target below level 10 with a single move. Saleen also had confidence in his skills. Level nine professionals seemed full of exploitable weaknesses in his eyes.

His teacher’s words made sense. Saleen quickly returned to the Floating City and began to digest the new knowledge he had acquired. Most importantly, he needed to master ways of using the Ring of Cosmos. There was a space in the ring filled with limitless Aqua Fulgur, as well as countless ball lightning floated within. Saleen had no way of accessing the Aqua Fulgur’s powers, but the ball lightning nurtured within would be worthwhile to put to use.

Saleen felt that his combat capacity would, in time, surpass that of his teacher. As a mage, one might not have the capacity for combat as a lifelong goal. However, powerless mages were incapable of surviving for long.

In early December, he somewhat managed to master a new language and the meaning of the eight runes. It had taken Saleen less than three months. While all of that was important, what was even more important was that he had finally managed to master and was practicing the skill Jason showed him.

The three broken jade pieces hovered around Saleen. For more than two months, the torn weapon spirit suffered unspeakable pain and damage within the jade pieces. However, he sent bone crystals from the giant time and again to replenish the weapon spirit.

The weapon spirit did not want to live, but it was unable to die. Saleen turned a deaf ear to its calls and focused on learning skills every day. One day, he took out the broken jade pieces again. While the weapon spirit within had already been torn into three parts, it was still able to shout.

“Spare me, mage! I’m willing to submit to you!”

“Don’t try to lie to me. That’s not a good thing to do,” Saleen said as he took out three pieces of pan turtle shell pieces he had just crafted and sent into the jade pieces. “Be a good boy and eat it up, then I’ll spare you. Otherwise, I’ll keep feeding you a big one once a month like this, and you won’t even be able to die.”

Saleen hated the weapon spirit monster, which had devoured his Lightning Constellation’s weapon spirit, so he was being very brutal.

“Impossible!” That weapon spirit saw Saleen throwing in some unknown things that were apparently meant to control it and flipped on Saleen. It no longer begged for mercy. Instead, it loudly cursed him.

“I have some important things to do,” Saleen said. “If you’re unwilling to listen to me, the next time I let you talk will be three years from now. Think carefully. You’ve only been suffering for less than three months. How would you make it through to three years eh? Even if I were to end up dead, I’d have my student send in a piece of bone crystal to you every month. It’s not so easy to die on me.”

The weapon spirit was speechless. After a while, it finally asked in pain, “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Because I like doing it,” Saleen plainly replied.

“Things will not end well for you!” The weapon spirit cursed again but quickly found that the power of its curse was utterly incapable of penetrating what was trapping it.

“You are the one for whom things will not end well,” Saleen said. “It looks like I need to do this myself. While doing so will lower your level and powers, I’ve got the time to wait.”

He began to chant the string of complex verses. After the chants were made, the three pieces of turtle shells glittered with black light within the broken jade.

The split weapon spirit was shrouded by the light emanating from the turtle shell. It was no longer in pain and felt very comfortable.

“No!”

“Yes,” Saleen said.

He laughed as he completely severed the weapon spirit up according to the skill imparted to him by his teacher. Those runes acted like a saw while the weapon spirit was like a block of wood.

The three jade pieces were originally incapable of severing the connection between the weapon spirit’s pieces. The rune’s light seeped into the weapon spirit. The connection linking the pieces gradually disappeared.

Under the nurturing black light, the tortured and mangled weapon spirit began to absorb magic pharmaceuticals that Saleen thrown inside. The medicines were meant to repair the weapon spirit. They were something only found at Saleen’s place. It consisted of Genesis Stock Solution, Six Elements’ Heavy Water, and some solutions from the giant’s bone crystal.

The weapon spirit was split into three parts, and its consciousness was wiped clean by the black light emanated from the turtle shell in the broken jade pieces. The turtle shells automatically seeped into the newly grown weapon spirit and slowly disintegrated.

Thousands of runes glittered on the disintegrating turtle shell, gradually merging with the weapon spirit into one being. The Sky City’s weapon spirit split into three separate beings, growing within the three different pieces of broken jade.

Saleen then took one piece and began crafting. There were 360 million lightning runes in his eyes. The 360 million lightning runes flew into the broken jade and left imprints on the weapon spirit that had lost its self-awareness before flying back into Saleen’s eyes.

After being nurtured by Saleen’s medicines, a pair of black eyes began to appear in that weapon spirit’s head. Its originally closed eyes opened and began to blink.

“Alright, get going then!” Saleen cast his Lightning Constellation and sent the broken jade into it before melding the jade into his equipment with Water Flame Alchemy.

Originally, it had been difficult for Water Flame Alchemy to do anything against the broken jade. However, the broken jade did not seem to show any signs of resistance now. It seemed that its shape even changed due to being crafted by the Water Flame.

Saleen opened up Lightning Constellation again and cast eight ball lightning. They zipped about in the space of Lightning Constellation. The remaining lightning puppets were broken one by one, reduced to singular mechanical components. Every component coursed with electricity.

The weapon spirit ballooned within that piece of broken jade, turning into a giant over 300-feet tall. It stood in the middle of the Lightning Constellation surrounded by the stars.

One lightning puppet after another broke down and reassembled. Saleen’s ball lightning stayed intact, hovering and zipping about like eight smaller stars.

Saleen was elated to find that his crafting was a success, especially since it was his first try. Ball lightning was known by various names among the secret skills. The one Saleen crafted was only meant for tempering equipment. Once it was created, it would never dissipate, but one would not be able to use it as a weapon since its speed was even more disappointing when compared to the original.

Everything melded with the Lightning Constellation into one single being. As long as the Lightning Constellation stayed intact, all eight of the different shapes and hues of black and white ball lightning would stay intact.

Furthermore, those things had other uses. If the weapon spirit were to run out of control when Saleen was still working with equipment, he would have just to put the balls of lightning into the equipment to kill the unruly weapon spirit. He was frightened by that giant weapon spirit and hoped something like that would never happen. Such incidents would incur a great loss on his part.

When the eight balls of lightning crushed the lightning puppets, they themselves were being completed, becoming the first secret skill equipment that Saleen came to craft personally—Armoring Lightning Bead. His excitement was indescribable. Not only did the Lightning Constellation begin to regain its powers, but he also began to truly see the world was truly like through the Armoring Lighting Bead.

That Armoring Lightning Bead itself was not in a true stable state. It was actually destroyed as soon as it was created. All of its energies needed to break down before the Armoring Lightning Bead was manifested again in the void.

The birth and death happened in one one-hundred-thousandth of a frame. It was something that Saleen came to realize as the soul merged with the Armoring Lightning Bead into a single being. Every birth and death of the bead allowed him to sense the true nature of the world and the cycle of everything else. His path of training would never run into a dead end from then on out because a great path with no end had just unfolded right before his eyes.

Coming to understand the root of the world itself did not mean that he had reached the end of the world. The people of the other crystal wall system would have been able to bestow others with life as long as the cosmos itself existed. If the universe were to be destroyed, even the highest being in existence would be destroyed.

No one managed to personally experience existing until the next grand age came. If Saleen wanted eternal life, he would have to walk on that path alone. Regarding all those ideas, those that one could comprehend would be comprehended while those that could not be comprehended would remain incomprehensible even if Saleen were to write them down.

The lightning territory completely fused with the Lightning Constellation. Eight Armoring Lightning Beads circled and hovered around him. While he was capable of using them for offense, he could still use them for defense.

Saleen’s territory became extremely stable. The water element territory around him felt like a piece of clothing clinging tight to his body. The lightning territory existed right outside the water element territory.

A star hovered at the center of the lightning territory, and the weapon spirit was right below that star. It held a huge war hammer in its hand and was clad in armor. It crackled with electricity.

The weapon spirit was using the war hammer to pound on all the pieces of the lightning puppets, making lightning warriors out of them. The weapon spirit’s hammer was imbued with the thousands of runes on the turtle shell that Saleen had put into the weapon spirit.

The war hammer beat on the pieces, and the lightning puppets became warriors that belonged to the Lightning Constellations’ weapon spirit. As long as the weapon spirit stayed intact, the warriors could be indefinitely resurrected within Saleen’s territory.

The area of the lightning territory’s radius was expanded to 80 miles. That size of a territory would have only been achievable by a professional level 12 about to reach level 13.

Saleen looked at the other two pieces of broken jade and put one away. He melded the other piece within the Floating City. Without a weapon spirit, the Floating City ran somewhat slower. As such, he worked on his own territory first instead of the Floating City.

He could have relied on his own power to evolve the Floating City, but his Water Flame Alchemy was no longer able to do much at present. He had only returned to Metatrin City’s temple from the Floating City after feeling that his territory had no problems to deal with.

Saleen flew down and found the plaza of the council office flooded by a huge crowd. Hundreds of groups of adventurers were there with the dead bodies of the abyssal creatures, waiting for the officials of the city council to exchange the dead bodies for money or something else they needed.