Badge in Azure

When Sika noticed Nailisi carrying Saleen, she did not panic. Saleen rarely did things he was not confident of. Since he was the one who baited Black William intentionally, his life would not be in danger.

There was no one else in the barrack. Sika and Nailisi stripped Saleen naked before placing him in the wooden tub.

The Restorative Water was chilly. When Saleen was placed into the water by Nailisi, goosebumps were raised on his skin. The Restorative Water appeared to be transparent, but it actually had a slightly pale gray hue. If this pale gray color vanished, it meant that the Restorative Water’s vitality had been fully depleted and it had lost its healing effect.

Nailisi brought a chair for Sika, allowing Sika to sit beside the tub, so that she could observe any changes to the water.

“What happened to him?” Sika probed.

“He can’t be dead.” Nailisi worried, recalling the power of Saleen’s finger she felt terrified. A demon’s body had the ability to heal itself, but if it got impacted by that attack, a demon would immediately die without a chance for recovery.

“What about Eleanor?”

“I have warned her, so she is very obedient now,” Nailisi announced smugly.

“Saleen wants to subdue her, don’t create trouble for Saleen.” Sika understood Saleen, it was just that she did not like to talk. She was rarely ignorant of Saleen’s plans.

“Subdue her?” Nailisi’s eyes became wide open, then asked, “Isn’t Master with you? Why does he want that old woman.”

“What nonsense. Without the bangle, she is also a grade-5 mage, she will make a good assistant. This woman also doesn’t pursue fame nor power, it will be easy to take care of her.”

“Sister Sika, I thought Master had fallen in love with her. I have said it before, this woman might be hundreds of years old already. Her Ultimate Shapeshifting Skill will not fool me, but…”

“But what?”

“Why is Master’s thing weird?” Nailisi pointed to Saleen’s lower body.

Despondent, Sika said, “Which part of it is strange?”

“Why are there no thorns here?” Nailisi stared at Saleen’s limp penis curiously, she even put her hand into the water to fiddle with it.

Sika shoved Nailisi, then said, “He is not a demon, can you stop fooling around?!”

“I am not fooling around. Sister Sika, without the thorns, it will come off easily when you two are doing the deed, won’t it?” Now that Saleen was unconscious, Nailisi spoke with no filter.

Nailisi only stopped blabbering when Sika stared daggers at her. After a long while, she noticed that Sika had added three droplets of the magic liquid into the wooden tub. Saleen’s body was voluntarily absorbing the power of the Restorative Water, which was a positive sign.

The Restorative Water was much more useful to a mage as compared to a normal human. A normal human would absorb the power of the water passively, while a mage would absorb it actively. The difference in effect was more than ten times.

“Sister Sika.”

“What is it?”

“Isn’t it a little too small even without the thorns?”

Seeing that Sika had stretched her hand to take the boomerang suspended around her waist, Nailisi quickly said, “I am not mocking Master, but it is really small!”

“What do you know? It gets bigger during usage.” Only Sika could say such things. If Lex was the one saying it, Nailisi would have blown her top.

“Really? Sister Sika, when you two are doing it in the future, can I be around to watch?” Nailisi had a look of innocence.

“Do you want to die?”

“Why are you angry? I am Master’s contract creature, we have a soul contract. I feel Master’s emotions too. Do you really think I don’t know what you two are doing when I am not around to watch?”

Sika burst into laughter, then pointed to Nailisi and said, “You should be angry, right? No matter how hard you try, Saleen doesn’t want you.”

“That might not be the case, I can transform into the body of a real human now.”

“I know, but in human form, your offensive power is pathetic.” Sika’s words made Nailisi feel like a total failure. Not only did she fail to tease Sika, she was instead provoked by Sika’s words.

Looking at Sika’s well-proportioned and strong body, Nailisi thought to herself jealously, “She might not be human, she might even have transformed from a magic beast. If I can get stronger than her, then…”

Before Nailisi could think of a way to deal with Sika, Saleen suddenly opened his eyes and spit out a mouthful of blood, then his body sank back slowly into the water. Nailisi quickly grabbed onto Saleen, helping him to sit upright.

“Master, are you okay?”

“I am fine now, but it hurts so badly!” Saleen felt as though his finger had been smashed thousands of times by a warhammer, he had never experienced such a pain before. He had practiced the Crystal Finger before, but the practice target was not human. When the Crystal Finger destroyed the holy prose protecting Black William, Saleen could also feel the damage from the holy prose.

Fortunately, the damage was only confined to his finger, and a huge portion of the impact had been absorbed by the Crystal Finger. Saleen would have broken all his bones otherwise and there was no solution for that.

“Ke…” Saleen started coughing again, and he coughed up more blood. He quickly snatched the bottle from Sika’s hand and poured the magic liquid into his mouth.

“Saleen, how long will you take to recover?” Sika was a little concerned now, Saleen’s injuries seemed to be worse than she imagined.

“Very quickly. With the magic liquid, my injuries will take at most three days to recover. It’s my fault this time around. If I was a sorcerer, I would not get injured at all. If there is such a perilous task next time, I will let Lex do it.”

Saleen was speaking sincerely. Since Lex was a higher grade than him and she also had the secret arts of the Grukos family, she would not feel such immense pain if she was the one who killed Black William.

Unbeknownst to Saleen, Black William possessed a partial godly weapon, but he never got a chance to use it against Saleen. The Crystal Finger could kill with just a point. Black William never expected a grade-5 mage to possess such a fearsome spell, so he was killed due to carelessness. Had Black William took out the partial godly weapon, Saleen would be the one dead.

The partial godly weapon was also destroyed by Saleen. Despite his Crystal Ring absorbing almost all of the backlash, it did not even have a single crack. Raphael’s Crystal Ring could already rival a godly equipment in terms of quality.

“Jola!” Sika hollered, and Jola entered the barrack.

“Tell Lex that Saleen needs three days to recover, then ask her how the journey will be planned.”

Saleen never used a commanding tone to speak to Jola. Jola’s immunity to beautiful women was immensely weak though. After hearing Sika say that, Jola left gleefully.

“Master, why were you so sure that Black William would go after you?” Nailisi asked Saleen about his tactics. Sika also listened in.

“This person had high status, he was not be satisfied with just doing surveillance. At first, when pursuing me, he wanted to see whether he stood a chance or not. I didn’t let anyone else follow, because only Nailisi would disallow him from identifying her hidden powers. A holy master above grade-7 can easily deal with a grade-5 mage who is unprotected by any swordmasters. I did that to make him let his guard down. If Jola followed me, I would be safe, but he might not have taken action.

Nailisi nodded, signaling that she understood. Saleen was only toying with human nature, even a grade-7 holy master would have the tendency to take advantage of others. Seeing that he could bully Saleen easily, he would of course give it a shot.

At this moment, Jola returned and told Saleen, “Lex said that she will allow you to rest until tomorrow afternoon, then we will need to enter the desert. Since the holy master is dead, the three leaders of the inquisition will definitely hear about it. The capital of Tanggulasi has a teleportation portal to the borders of Titan, those three old guys will be able to reach here in three days.”

“Got it. Jola, go and rest as well, don’t bother about keeping watch anymore.”

Jola was hesitant, but Nailisi simply pushed him out and said, “With me around, Master will be safe.” Jola smiled, “Have I finally internalized my role?” He was now genuinely concerned about Saleen’s safety.

After a short while of effectiveness, the Restorative Water had lost its medicinal properties again. Saleen closed his eyes and meditated while Sika emptied the remaining magic liquid into the wooden tub. She would not help Lex conserve the magic liquid. Magic liquid was stored in very tiny containers, and it had high requirements for the containers. As this silver bottle was pretty good, Sika gave it to Nailisi.

Lex was inside the magic war chariot, with Bain seated across her. The rest of the mages had left the chariot.

“Viscountess, Saleen’s attack was truly horrifying.”

“As compared to the God’s Punishment?”

“The God’s Punishment is mightier, but his skill is penetrative, it is totally different.”

“Are you reminding me that the God’s Ring might not be able to block his attack?”

“Yes.”

“Do you not trust Saleen?”

Bain remained silent for a moment, then said, “Right now, I do trust him. Any kind of trust is limited though. I feel very jumpy with you beside him. I cannot even block that spell of his.”

“Bain, in that one year when Saleen and I were in the hell of the God’s Punishment, we saved each other’s lives.”

“People do change.”

“Not you. Bain, let me ask you, are you still planning to let your daughter learn magic from him?”

“Yes.”

“That’s great, you shall pretend as if nothing had ever happened.” Lex proclaimed confidently, “I have always been accurate in evaluating people. Bain, you should trust my judgment.”

“Viscountess…” Alas, Bain still did not say what was on his mind. He was not worried that Saleen would harm Lex, he was worried that all of Lex’s assets would one day be in Saleen’s possession.

“Some people wouldn’t mind, but some others wouldn’t be able to take it. As long as Lex remains a viscountess, the swordsmen serving her would be contented. Other than the mages beside Lex, there is still a batch of nobles. These people are secretly helping Lex resist the Holy Rock City, but what are they hoping to achieve? Forget it, I am dying soon, I cannot keep watching over Lex. I can only execute the mission given to me by the emperor until the day I die. Lex will have to rely on herself for future matters.”

Bain leaned against the cushion tiredly, totally unlike an assassin. He looked more like an elderly person who already had one foot in the grave.