Badge in Azure

Chapter 170: The Next Person was Merely a Speck of Dust (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Saleen loathed the disgusting smell of blood, so he cast a Cleaning spell while washing the two fully constructed puppets at the same time. Under the gust of mist, a pure metallic color began to reveal itself on the bodies of the puppets. The redness in their eyes also faded away, revealing a lifeless gaze.

“Master,” Nailisi said timidly.

“What is it?”

“Lex seems to be in trouble.” Nailisi used her slender finger to point towards the road junction, where the fully constructed puppets had formed an airtight envelope around Lex. Out of the one hundred and fifty swordmasters wearing silver armor, only about a dozen were still alive while the rest had already been incinerated into ashes.

It was oddly enchanting to watch the burning of the black liquid. The armor of the swordmasters were not damaged at all. The black liquid simply burned the bodies of the swordmasters through the crevices in their armor, destroying their bodies.

The eyes of the surviving swordmasters were scarlet and as unfeeling as those fully constructed puppets. The swordmasters slashed ferociously against the bodies of the puppets, leaving scratches all over them.

Kill! Kill that demoness!

Having witnessing their comrades being burned to death, these dozen remaining swordmasters had lost all sanity. They had only one thought on their minds, and that was to annihilate the woman who was controlling those metallic monsters.

If those swordmasters had still been thinking rationally, then some of them would have exploited the crevices between the puppets and pushed their swords in, and Lex would have been killed.

Lex had fallen forward and was resting her head on her horse’s neck, unmoving. The black war horse flared its nostrils in agitation and kept forcefully stomping its front legs on the ground.

Saleen was dumbfounded. A hint of ruthless appeared in Nailisi’s green eyes and she jumped off of her horse and told Saleen, “Master, you should be strong.”

Immediately after finishing her sentence, Nailisi bent her legs and jumped into the air with all her might. She leapt about twenty meters away, passing through the streets like a flash of lightning with her fingers curved, and lunged at the swordmasters who were thrashing at the fully constructed puppets madly.

Saleen gathered his courage back together. He had not expected to lose his composure in his first real battle, especially since he was used to death and killing. Killing on the battlefield was completely different. People acted like wild beasts, or perhaps a person could even say that the people here were far more insane and cruel than wild beasts.

“Saleen, if you dislike such a life, you can follow me back to the village,” Sika said as she twirled her cudgel with much unease. The swarm of swordsmen had escaped long ago, and with that pile of bodies under their feet, Sika could sense that Saleen was not feeling too well.

“No, I feel that Lex is right. Let’s go, Sika. We shall give her a hand.” Saleen kicked lightly on the abdomen of his horse and led it over the countless bodies towards the road junction. Behind Saleen, the red glow in the fully constructed puppets lit up once more and they followed behind Saleen. As their heavy metallic combat boots stepped on the bodies, flesh and blood splattered everywhere.

Within a minute, Saleen had figured out the whole situation. If Lex had not been ruthless enough to lure out the enemy’s main forces and then schemed to provoke the swordmasters to surround her, the four of them on the other side would not have been able to secure victory. The enemy possessed sufficient manpower, and if they had gone all out to attack Saleen, it would only have been a matter of time before the lines of weakness in Saleen’s defenses were revealed.

In the last few moments of battle, Saleen could feel that his speed in opening the scrolls had not been able to match the rhythm of his enemies. If the magic nuclei in the puppets had been fully depleted, Saleen would have been doomed.

Was there a sense of pity? Saleen did not pity those swordsmen at all. He was only fearful that he would grow accustomed to such a life. He actually felt indifference while seeing those healthy lives being destroyed.

If only the world was as pleasant as the Bitter Water Prefecture. Everyone was occupied with their own affairs, and people could practice magic in peace. There were no impurities like there were with mercenary groups, the Holy See, and unscrupulous businessmen.

By the time Saleen’s horse reached the road junction, Nailisi had already finished slaughtering the remaining dozen swordmasters. The sword auras of those swordmasters had adversely been affected by Lex’s secret magic, like magic beasts whose magic nuclei had been dug out. Furthermore, since the mental states of the swordmasters had become erratic, they could not even fight as well as an average swordsman.

The red glow of those fully constructed puppets protecting Lex had long since diminished, and they had stopped moving altogether. Nailisi grabbed the thigh of one puppet and pulled it away. Saleen carried Lex off of her horse, pried her mouth open, and forced magic liquid down Lex’s throat. This magic liquid had been created by a sorcerer, and Lex and her team carried it with them at all times.

Mages never used holy water from the Holy See. They had better items.

Lex regained her consciousness quickly and felt that she had regained a bit of strength, but she did not want to move. Lex looked at Saleen and cracked up. Then, she whispered, “Do you feel a little out of place?”

“Yes, but this feeling is better than being dead.”

“Mm,” Lex moaned and stretched her body. She had miscalculated things. The aftereffects of the secret magic had been incredibly intense. It seemed that before Lex mastered the last part of this magic, she would need to restrict its usage. If it had not been for the fully constructed puppets, the situation would have been perilous.

“What should we do next?” Saleen looked at the empty streets around him. There was not a single tinge of life at all.

“Saleen, if you were Dominic, what would you do?”

“I would send some people to come after you. If you were captured, then you could be brought back to Pompeii. If the people from Dragon’s Tooth Town failed, then you would also have suffered huge losses. You might even be injured, so it would be much easier to capture you.”

“That means the people from Pompeii will be here very soon. Dominic is not an idiot. Even if I escape, the remaining people in Dragon’s Tooth Town will become his prey. Using the excuse of having attacked the emperor’s sister, Dominic will naturally take control of the Dragon’s Tooth Town. This is a distribution center for weapons. Red Copper Fort is to its rear and there is a mine in the west. Dominic might have been eyeing this place for a long time by now.”

Saleen was disheartened. He had thought that he was very ruthless already, but he was still a great distance away from people such as Dominic. Dragon’s Tooth Town had obviously been acting under his instructions to attack Lex, but no matter the outcome, Pompeii would be the one to gain.

“Don’t worry. Dominic still needs to put on a show, so we still have the time to clean up the battlefield. Do you still remember the position of the warehouse that I pointed out to you?”

“I still remember it.”

“Go and empty that warehouse.”

“Master, allow me.” Nailisi extended her arms to take Lex from Saleen as Lex struggled to stand on her own. As Nailisi approached Lex, Lex suddenly felt uneasy, as though a poisonous snake were staring at her. The feeling was similar to the time that a dangerous magic beast had snuck up on her while she was deep asleep.

Even a person like Bain did not make Lex feel this way, and Nailisi did not have any sword aura in her body at all.

Nailisi giggled, not minding at all. Lex was truly a grade-6 mage as she was very sensitive to danger. Nailisi secretly rubbed her nails on her skirt, her nails covered in dark red stains. Those stains had come from the blood of the people that Nailisi had slaughtered just now.

At first, Saleen thought that he would not gain much since Dragon’s Tooth Town was so small. But when he entered the first underground warehouse, he was dumbfounded. Enormous sealed crates had been arranged neatly, and armor specifications and levels were written on them. Saleen randomly selected a crate and opened it, and saw a set of tungsten armor that was yet to be assembled. There was a complete set of accessories in the crate, such as armor leaves, nails, leather ropes for donning the armor, helmets, arm guards, and so on.

This set of tungsten armor was worth at least one thousand gold coins. As long as it was not hit by alchemy crossbows, this armor could even absorb direct hits from archers. This small warehouse alone contained over two hundred crates, and its items were worth more than one hundred thousand gold coins.

Lex was like a gust of wind as she stored anything she saw into the god’s ring.

As Lex and her team went from warehouse to warehouse, the soldiers standing guard immediately dispersed when they saw the four of them approaching from a distance. There were not many people remaining in the town. After the looting from Lex’s team, the remaining population would not dare to even stay here anymore.

“Why are there no gold coins?” Saleen had searched dozens of warehouses, but there was not any cash in sight. Saleen grew puzzled. Did these people bury their money beneath their beds?”

“Weapons transactions are done with named deposits. They would be useless even if we found them.”

“We won’t get into trouble for taking these items, right?” Saleen felt that he had already taken more than one million gold coins worth of armor and equipment, so he grew worried.

“Who could prove that we took these items?” Lex used an even more curious expression to look at Saleen.

“The soldiers…”

“Since Dominic wants to seize control of Dragon’s Tooth Town, those soldiers will eventually be killed. And, Dominic will not use these goods as evidence to report us, so just relax and complete this task.”

“What?” Saleen was even more aghast now. He simply could not figure it out.

“If Dominic accused me of causing a massacre in Dragon’s Tooth Town, then Holy Rock City would assign another person to investigate this matter. But if he helped us eradicate the people who tried to kill the county king, then Holy Rock City would recognize Dominic’s influence over Dragon’s Tooth Town. So what if we killed those people? Dominic is the real murderer.”

“But you came despite knowing this!”

“Saleen, it is they who wanted to harm me, not the other way around.”

“Then what about these items?” Saleen did not want to lecture Lex since she was right. If the people of Dragon’s Tooth Town had not launched an offensive, then none of this would have happened. The more pressing issue was to split the spoils.

“You have no use for these weapons, right?” Lex put away the last box of crossbow bolts before changing the topic of the conversation and saying, “How about this? The items here will belong to me, and I will be fully responsible for the magic nuclei during your trainings.”

“Trying to bribe my teacher with these? That’s definitely not enough.” Saleen huffed loudly through his nose. He had seen the way noblemen handled issues and felt that he was still too inexperienced.

“Your teacher will be regarded as… a partner.” Lex burst out into laughter, secretly thinking that Saleen was truly observant. The more Saleen behaved this way, the more Lex liked him. In truth, if Saleen had been fine with her making use of his teacher, Lex would have despised him and might even have abandoned him at anytime.

Saleen did not continue with the topic. Saleen knew that Lex required guidance from a teacher, and the six element space in the hell of god’s punishment would also be extremely vital for his teacher. Saleen’s teacher had accumulated more knowledge han him. The possibility of Jason becoming a sorcerer was even greater than Lex’s. If Jason entered the six element space to train, it would be easy for him to advance to grade-9.

“Do we keep going?”

“No, the hoard of premium goods in Dragon’s Tooth Town have already been taken by us, and the remaining goods are worthless. Let’s leave after cleaning up.”

What Lex meant by cleaning was to pour burning agents on the bodies before incinerating them. Saleen watched the fire grow larger and spread to the surrounding houses, causing him to feel that Lex was very petty. With so many houses burnt down, Dominic would need to spend a considerable amount of effort in rebuilding the town if he decided to control Dragon’s Tooth Town.

The books were right. Never ever offend women.