Badge in Azure

Chapter 909: The Path of Stars (Part 2)

This figure was approximately of the same height as Saleen and only seemed slightly taller because its hair was tied at the top. By right, the figures owned by noble families or the children of rich families were very exquisite and almost looked alive, but that one looked like it was crafted very simply. It had perfect body proportions and a pair of lively eyes.

Such figures were different from the puppets created by mages. Such figures did not possess any alchemy parts and were sewn together with cloth and stuffed with soft materials. Toys like those had been in existence for the past tens of thousands of years.

The face of this figure was simple but pleasant-looking. Its face was pale, with black eyebrows and a pair of eyes that were made up of black gemstones.

“My Master would like to invite the two of you to his residence.” The female figure bowed and invited Saleen and Nailisi into the courtyard with an outstretched hand. The moment she stretched out her hand, Nailisi’s sprint was halted immediately. Her arms became stiff and were unable to even try to attack with her long lance.

Nailisi turned around and looked at Saleen. He had also stopped dead in his tracks suddenly and was looking at the figure.

Saleen’s judgement had improved tremendously. Although he was only a grade-8 sorcerer and was only equivalent to an elite soldier in the Imperial City of the Abyss, he had been exposed to quite a number of rules, including the lightning rule that he had created on his own. Attacking with rules was the most terrifying because the difference between grades would become very significant.

Nailisi was forced to halt her sprint the moment the figure stretched out her hand. Although she was only grade-9 in her demon form, the weapon in her hand was at least grade-12 and could unleash the power of grade-10.

When the figure stretched out her hand, it was as if Nailisi had crashed into something before stopping on her own. Saleen could not see any elemental power from the figure’s hand, only a faint sliver of starlight.

“Can we refuse?” Saleen shouted. At that point in time, the winged skeleton suddenly appeared from in Nailisi’s Twelve Notes of Purgatory. He took out his pan’s turtle alchemical boat and quickly took Saleen and Nailisi in. Then, he charged towards the astrologer’s tower at full speed.

The beautiful female figure turned around and watched the pan’s turtle alchemical boat moving off at full speed. She made no attempt to give chase. The technique she had used just must have been beyond grade-10. The winged skeleton would be no match for her.

Before the pan turtle alchemy ship even covered 200 yards, starlight suddenly shot out from the ground. It joined together into silver lines and cut through the exterior of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat.

The pan’s turtle alchemical boat broke into pieces, revealing Saleen and his two followers.

“My Master extends his welcome to you.” That beautiful female figure called out from behind. Both the winged skeleton and Nailisi froze and did not dare to move. They both looked at Saleen.

Saleen nodded. He was unharmed. The Starlight Cutting spell cut up the pan’s turtle alchemy ship into pieces, but the three of them were unharmed. Nailisi and the winged skeleton were relieved to see that Saleen was fine.

The winged skeleton felt even more relieved that he had not used the pan’s turtle alchemical boat that the Grandmaster had given to him. He could sense that the starlight that had shot out from the ground possessed little force but contained rules of a very high grade.

The power unleashed from a single star chart was enough to break the pan’s turtle alchemical boat into pieces. If all the star charts had been activated, Saleen was not confident that the new elemental magic tower that he had obtained would remain unharmed. Since that figure only destroyed the alchemy ship without harming any of them, that meant that they were not in danger yet.

Saleen could only console himself like that as he led Nailisi and the winged skeleton backwards. The street was three miles long, but before he could even cover 200 yards, he was already forced to return. He felt terrible.

When they finally came before the figure once again, the latter performed the same gesture of inviting them in, so Saleen led Nailisi and the winged skeleton into the courtyard. Soldier did not even bother keeping the broken pieces of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. The entire equipment had been destroyed and every single broken piece had been refined by the power of constellation so that the original power would be removed and turned into something that only astrologers could utilize.

The female figure led Saleen and the rest past the courtyard and finally arrived at a small living room after a few turns. The living room was not as new as the door of the courtyard. Some of the items here were already broken. Saleen sat on a chair that was missing a leg. The figure bowed and left but returned soon after to serve tea to Saleen.

The table was an item that had been refined by the astrologer and its surface was flat. The entire living room was filled with waters of high pressure though. When the jade-colored cup was placed on the table, it was broken even without the figure exerting any force.

The figure seemed to be unaware of this and continued to pour tea for Saleen. There was no tea in the teapot and the fluid that was poured out also dissipated amongst the waters.

All of a sudden, Saleen realized that the figure did not possess any intelligence. It was out of habit that it invited them in. To be more accurate, the figure was used by the astrologer that stayed there to welcome and invite guests into the residence in the past.

Just as Saleen expected, the figure left them once tea has been served. Saleen nodded at the winged skeleton as he communicated with the latter in the depths of his soul and asked him to try and leave through the door.

When the winged skeleton pushed open the broken door, it slowly fell onto the ground and broke into many pieces.

“Master will return very soon. Please wait for a moment.” That female figure suddenly appeared and ushered the winged skeleton back to the living room. Soldier could see star charts everywhere on the ground, so he did not dare to try to resist and returned to Saleen. The figure left once again. It seemed that the figure would not interfere with them as long as Saleen did not try to leave.

“What should we do?!” Nailisi was panicking. She had also realized that the figure was not an equipment used for attack. As long as Saleen did not try to attack it, they would not be in any danger, but they could not possibly stay there forever. They were still unsure how the Grandmaster would help them leave the Imperial City of the Abyss. If there was a time limit to the free teleportation, then they would be in trouble.

If the free teleportation spell contained a time limitation, then it would activate no matter where Saleen was. If it was activated unsuccessfully, not only would Saleen be injured, it might also trigger some of the defenses of the astrologer tower, such as the Starlight Cutting ability.

“Try to escape through the window.” Saleen pointed at the broken windows. The material of the window could probably be made into high-grade equipment on the Myers Mainland, but with the passing of time, even such valuable materials were also beginning to decay.

Without another word, Nailisi leapt out of the window. Outside of the window was a cloister with a courtyard beside it. Nailisi walked around the courtyard once and was not stopped by the figure. Most likely, the courtyard was guarded by other figures in the past and was not part of the responsibility of that figure.

Since the figure did not possess intelligence, it would not interfere even if it discovered Nailisi.

Nailisi did not return immediately. Instead, she looked at the astrologer tower from the courtyard. The astrologer tower was 1,000 yards tall and was surrounded by starlight. If the key that Aragorn had given to her Master could not be used, they would be trapped there forever and Nailisi would never be able to leave.

It was not a big deal if they were trapped there forever. Being able to live together with Master was actually quite appealing, but she knew that he would not be happy as his two children were living in the outside world. Nailisi thought for a moment before returning back to the living room.

“Master, the Grandmaster is not trustworthy. If the figure had attacked us, we would already be dead,” Nailisi spoke with trepidation.

“Nailisi, those souls in the graveyard only see us as ants. Have you ever seen humans caring about the life and death of ants? If they were trustworthy, that would be like saying Sikeqinyans do not love money. I don’t care about what they think. At the end of the day, I will make sure they don’t get what they want.”

Saleen finally dared to speak because he also felt that the mysterious rule that had remained on his body has finally been erased completely. There was no way any form of communication could be established between the graveyard and that place. Although Saleen’s combat abilities might not be outstanding in the Imperial City of the Abyss, his sensitivity towards the power of rules was very high.

The power of that rule could not intrude the space where astrologers dwelled. In other words, the rules used by astrologers were unique. Perhaps the heroic souls of the graveyard could still find a way to force their way through to Saleen’s location, but it would definitely trigger the astrologer’s tower’s counter attack. It would hardly be worthwhile.

“But Master, there is no way we can leave this place,” Soldier spoke worriedly.

“The key that Aragorn has given to me is not for entering the astrologer’s tower. Take a look here and you should understand. Astrologers were of such high status that even Aragorn did not dare to cross their paths. How can he possibly possess a key that can control the astrologer’s tower? At most, this item can only allow me to enter the astrologer tower to obtain some valuable items before leaving. It was never meant to help me obtain the lineage of astrologers. Nevertheless, with this key, we will be able to escape the Imperial City of the Abyss without being attacked.”

Saleen analyzed very casually and he was not too far away from the truth. With the key in possession, as long as Saleen did not do anything reckless and dangerous, such as entering the palace, he would not be attacked by any magic arrays or elemental creatures.

Nevertheless, the key was extremely rare because it was left behind by a powerful astrologer. If Saleen entered the astrologer tower, he would be able to reach at least the hundredth level and would be able to obtain quite a decent lineage.

Saleen did not have the time to train his astrology to such a high level. Aragorn knew very well that mages would take a very long time to train, so even if he gave Saleen the lineage to astrology, the latter would not have to time to train anyway.

Aragorn only hoped that Saleen would be lucky enough and not die so easily. There were still some decent materials in the astrologer tower that could be used to create equipment. There were some items that Aragorn wanted to keep for himself to conquer other dimensions, so there was no way he would be so generous as to give them to Saleen.

Since the astrologers had correctly predicted the coming of a king, then the astrologers should also be the ones to provide Saleen with the items he needed. Since all the astrologers had already died and there was no way Aragorn could enter the astrologer’s tower, he decided that he might as well let Saleen search around in it.

The Grandmaster was even more stingy. He did not want Saleen to obtain any lineages. He only wanted him to remain in the residences of the astrologers that were below grade-14.

“Master, why don’t we think of a way to leave? What good are the astrologer’s items? The last astrologer on the Myers Mainland is already dead. There is no one to guide you even if you trained in it. You may not see any effects even in the next 3,000 to 5,000 years,” Nailisi continued to persuade Saleen. She did not want Saleen to enter the dangerous astrologer tower. Just based on that figure, she already had a good idea what the astrologers would be like.