Badge in Azure

The person that Saleen had in mind was not Sika, after all, she had already told him when he should make his return. As for the Oceanic Ice Block, Saleen had decided to take a risk. At the very least, he planned to arrange some spirits of the dead to head to the island that he had given up on developing.

The war was just about to begin for the Metatrin Kingdom. The battle with Cloudflow had caused the winged skeleton to lose many combat vessels. If he did not rush back soon, Alchemy City would really launch an attack and Metatrin City would be doomed.

“If that’s the case, then I will head back as soon as I can, but Lex…”

“What?” Lex was disappointed to hear Saleen give his promise so quickly. She did not expect Saleen to stop speaking and cast a gigantic water shield to enclose them alone.

“What are you doing?!” Lex’s face was red. Of course, she knew what Saleen was doing.

“To mages, repeated practice is always more reliable than memory spells. Lex, I am leaving soon. I hope that you will miss me.”

“Ooh…” Lex’s mouth was blocked by Saleen, who was hugging her with both his hands criss-crossed behind her back, pushing her close to his chest.

“I will… miss you…”

“Lex, it’s only been a few days and you already feel distant!” Saleen laughed. Outside of the water shield was fog that blocked off anyone that might try to peer in.

The Cloudflow forces retreated very quickly because their logistics could no longer support them in the battle. In addition, the remaining people were constantly being harassed by the spirits of the dead. Rain of Blood had created more than 70,000 spirits, but less than 10,000 of them remained. The remaining spirits possessed some intelligence. They no longer gave their utmost in every attack. Instead, they would pick the spots that gave them higher chances of success and if they were about to lose, they would quickly flee.

Agares had left Misty City, leaving his brother behind as the Regent. The Prince did not send reinforcements because the Holy See had also been defeated at Sanlian City.

The demon army, which had appeared unexpectedly, was the reason for the Holy See’s defeat. Losing a grade-9 holy priest forced the Holy See to adjust the tempo of their attack.

Without the coordinated attack of the Holy See, Cloudflow’s attack on Daliang City from the Separation Sea was barely a threatening one.

It was under such circumstances that Saleen had decided to bring the winged skeleton back to Metatrin City along with him. He planned to head out to the ocean for hunting in order to gather the resources he would need for the next battle. He must not forget about Alchemy City. He wondered how Hogina was doing.

Saleen did not ask around about her. When Grand Master Imposa came through Daliang City, he did not see Saleen nor Lex. It seemed that the incident regarding the mark of the Six-winged Flying Snake had also raised some concern in Alchemy City.

Eleanor and Cuisi would continue to stay in Daliang City along with Su, whose injuries had yet to heal completely. They would stay and assist Lex along with Nicholas. Isabella and the three demons would stay behind in the bone castle along with someone slightly special: Mu En.

According to the winged skeleton, Mu En was someone who was not suitable for practicing in death magic but one day, something seemed to strike him and, he began improving tremendously. The winged skeleton did not understand the reason behind that improvement. After all, how could one’s talent change?

Mu En was already used to interacting with spirits of the dead. At least after he had become a low-level death mage, he no longer needed to be concerned with the issue of riding.

Mu En wore a black magic robe with three rows of magic symbols, had a magic staff in his hands, and rode a black beast within the army. Surrounding him were more than 100 death mages. The battle at Daliang City had ended and Lex no longer needed so many mages urgently, so the death mages would return to Metatrin with Saleen.

Much credit must go to these mages. Without the spirits of the dead, Daliang City would have suffered a lot more losses. Many soldiers would have died in battle instead of only sustaining some injuries like they had.

Lex was also fortunate to have her God’s Ring. All the valuable resources and gifts for the wedding were all kept in God’s Ring. When the grade-9 sorcerer was crazy enough to bombard the palace, only the expendable items in the warehouse were destroyed, not the valuable items.

Lex insisted on having half of Saleen’s 200 bodyguards return to Metatrin City with him. On that return trip, Saleen would be bringing along a battalion of soldiers and horses. An entire army would not have been able to travel as quickly as a small force like that. They would have to travel on main roads in order expend less energy and also to ensure a more consistent pace of travel.

As they did not bring along auxiliary soldiers, a battalion of 10,000 men managed to travel quickly through Lex’s territories in Luolan and reached the border of Qin.

The Qin noble families knew that it was Saleen who has returned and none of them dared to harass him at the border. When Saleen advanced in Daliang City, pigeons flew all over Qin to deliver the news that the king of Metatrin and the husband of the ruler of Bitterwater Prefecture possessed the mark of the Six-winged Flying Snake.

By right when as many as 10,000 soldiers crossed the border, it was common to extort some money and sell them some overpriced logistical supplies. Since it was Saleen, the noble families decided that hiding from him was a better option.

Whoever got too close to Saleen would be mistaken to be disloyal to Holy Rock City. At that point in time, it was probably best not to take sides. If one must choose a side, it was probably better to obey Holy Rock City first. After all, Holy Rock City was where the Qin Empire’s powers were concentrated at. No matter how prestigious Lex’s status had become, she would still need to respect tradition.

Tradition was the foundation of the country’s stability.

The battalion had been traveling at about 30 miles an hour without encountering any trouble. In order to travel at the knights’ pace of 40 miles an hour, they had no choice but to leave behind the foot soldiers.

Fortunately, the elite soldiers were full of energy and only needed very little rest. Every day, they traveled at a fast pace over 300 miles.

As they had chosen to travel on main roads, Saleen took about 90 days to return to Metatrin City.

Many things happened within those three months and the most important thing was that one-third of the southern Qin noble families had declared their support for Lex. They had also strongly condemned Cloudflow’s attack on Bitterwater Prefecture. If it was only condemnation, Cloudflow would have no reason to worry since it would not really affect them.

The noble families of southern Qin had begun to build ships. The southern tip of Qin was surrounded by sea and it had a short coastline. Nevertheless, the conditions made for a suitable natural harbor.

Judging from the wealth of the Qins and the number of mages there, the noble families in the south had the ability to construct a fleet of vessels of considerable strength, which would amount to more than 60 combat vessels in total, regardless of their size.

Cloudflow would not be concerned with such a small fleet of combat vessels. The problem was that Qin was connected to the Separation Sea and thereupon laid Cloudflow’s weakness.

The second thing was that after the Holy See’s attack had been repelled, the armies of the Qin noble families had advanced all the way to the border of God Grace Duchy.

That was within Saleen’s expectations. In order to attack Lex’s Bitterwater Prefecture, the Holy See had deployed many soldiers there, but they ended up being slaughtered by the demon army. Naturally, their forces at the frontline in the north were weakened as a result.

The third thing was odd. Two Alchemy City combat vessels were attacked while on their way to Lianyun City and there were no survivors.

Saleen could not be sure if the combat vessels were targeting Metatrin City but he could guess that only two people could have been responsible for what happened. They were Joey and Fycro.

Saleen did not hide the fact that Alchemy City had threatened him and had even publicized it. When the news reached Alchemy City, the two combat vessels left shortly after. Saleen would never believe that their disappearance was due to them having fun in Lianyun City.

Fycro and Joey must have heard about the news. If Joey was responsible for it, then he must have done it in order to help Lex. If it was Fycro, then he did it only to help himself.

Saleen guessed that it must have been to send Alchemy City a warning.

Metatrin City has become the most prosperous city in the north of the Mainland, there was nowhere similar to it in Phoenix. When Saleen finally returned back to his kingdom, he did not rush. Instead, he kept to the normal pace and traveled towards the east.

News of Saleen’s return had reached Metatrin City long ago and Sika simply could not wait. That was because the Caucasus people outside the city were becoming more and more difficult.

If Saleen had not returned, she might have had to resort to extreme measures.

The Caucasus people in the north refused to pay taxes, claiming that no Caucasus person had ever done so. They also claimed that since they lived in the mountains, they never demanded any resources. They said they should be given more respect and granted with freedom instead of becoming the training grounds for Metatrin soldiers.

It was already the middle of July. The Caucasus people outside the city had wanted to buy some medical supplies and weapons, but when Daniel sent his tax officer, he was rejected and sent back.

The south of Metatrin City was not as poor as what the east Caucasus people claimed. There were towering old trees everywhere and the number of magic beasts was comparable to that in the ocean. Mushrooms, potatoes, and beans were growing very well on those lands. There were enough caves in the mountains so that the Caucasus people did not even need to build any houses.

Sika had wanted to launch an attack on them, but she did not have enough soldiers in the city. The Caucasus people outside the city were all powerful and strong warriors in the mountains. Even Saleen’s elite soldiers might not be a match for the Caucasus warriors if they were to battle in the mountains.

Sika was overjoyed with Saleen’s return. Under the protection of Jola and 36 Caucasus warriors, she left the temple in order to welcome Saleen back.

When Saleen saw Sika from afar, he could not help but laugh. The armor that he had refined for her was so excellent that its shape could be transformed. Sika’s stomach was huge because there were two babies. Although it was still a long way from the expected date of her giving birth, her stomach was already very obvious.

“Sika!” Saleen shouted. He had not increased his speed during the entire journey as he had followed the pace of the entire group. He had actually been using his elemental eyes to observe their surroundings along the way. In actual fact, he could no longer bear with it and began to increase his speed. Lex would have been upset to hear about that.

This was when Saleen finally understood how difficult it would be to have more than one woman in his life.