Badge in Azure

“Nothing important. The main thing is that all three Duchesses have their own unique strengths, so I have tasked them with settling all the trivial issues,” Sika replied.

When Saleen frowned, Sika said, “Saleen, don’t tell me you have gotten used to being a king? You are a mage!”

“It’s not because of that. There are too many people around us that we need to take care of. Look, how many people are depending on us for their survival? Every decision we make will impact the futures of more than a million people.”

Sika smiled and said, “So, what do you intend to do? Take back all the power?”

“There’s no point doing that. I’m not saying that you did the wrong thing. It’s just that Metatrin City is too important to us. Let’s not split up and give away the power easily.” Saleen already knew that some interdimensional spaces were still developing and the one that he controlled was possibly one of them.

If that interdimensional space developed completely, Saleen would be an invincible entity over there and could eventually become the ruler of a real dimension. An interdimensional space that was still in the midst of developing would possess countless resources. No one would fight with him for them and no powerful opponents would be able to enter.

“I know.” Sika’s voice took a turn and was so gentle that Saleen’s heart broke.

“Ah… Sika, this is my plan. We let teacher take over, but we will not send over the Sregl Island sorcerers to defend the city. The two grade-9 sorcerers in the western town will bring aid to Lonestar City. Nailisi will follow them as well. I will bring Soldier with me to settle Grand Duke Iron Blood’s fleet, then we will bring the spirit army to Lonestar City as well. The Sikeqinyans will not launch any attacks. Don’t worry.”

“You will take charge of the demons first?” Sika could not believe that Saleen had the same plan as her.

“Yes. I will lead the fleet out to see. Teacher will be behind so the Cloudflow forces will not be able to sneak up on us. After we have defeated their fleet, then we will turn back and deal with the Sikeqinyans.” Saleen was confident in his explanation.

He had 24 ancient warriors and hundreds of grade-9 elemental creatures. On the battlefield, he would have no qualms unleashing the elemental creatures on the enemy.

Besides, the attacking power of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat had become so powerful that it was no longer possible that the bone spirits would not be able to sink enemy warships. The winged skeleton had come up with a method of utilizing bone spirits that would increase their power by hundreds of times. The only weakness of the bone spirits was sorcerers, but on the battlefield, there was no way that sorcerers would be able to control the entire situation.

Saleen estimated that based on the population of Dragon Island ruled over by Grand Duke Iron Blood was two or three times more than his own. Besides, after many generations, the number of mages there should not be only about a thousand, which was what the slaves said. In just over 10 years, Lex already managed to develop so many mages. In comparison, Grand Duke Iron Blood was so much more powerful and wealthier. Surely, he would have more mages by then.

On top of that, Cloudflow forces reared magic beasts so low-level magic nuclei were cheap, which meant that the overall cost was much lower than Lex’s. Without the help of Grand Emperor Chanake behind the scenes, there was no way Lex could develop her forces to that extent. On the other hand, Grand Duke Iron Blood easily had 100,000 elite soldiers under his command, and probably a million normal soldiers.

What concerned Saleen the most was Grand Duke Iron Blood’s second ancient warship. There were plenty of ancient warriors on that warship and all of them were grade-9 elite soldiers. Should they be awakened, they would be more powerful than the elemental creatures. Although the latter could be revived countless times, they were many times poorer than the former in terms of combat techniques.

If the ancient warriors on the other ancient warship were awakened, Saleen would have a tough time.

At that moment, Grand Duke Iron Blood could control some of the ancient warriors with the bone alchemy technique. Although he was not as effective as Saleen, those ancient warriors were of grade-9, after all, and were not much weaker than those controlled by Saleen. Saleen refused to believe that Grand Duke Iron Blood had not thought of a way to control more ancient warriors despite possessing the ancient warship for so many years.

Saleen had to snatch the ship over before Grand Duke Iron Blood gained full control over it or sink it so that the Grand Duke would no longer be able to continue studying it. Although Saleen’s powers had increased tremendously, he could not take it for granted that his opponent’s powers had increased too. The collective power of the entire Mainland had been increasing and Saleen was determined to eliminate Grand Duke Iron Blood before he could become even more powerful.

The Sikeqinyans were not a threat. Lex had her God’s Ring, so even if she could no longer hold the city, she would never be in danger as a grade-9 mage.

After discussing the military plans with Sika, Saleen played with the two children for a while. The poor mythical beast was lying on the table and was being manhandled by Saleen’s children.

When Saleen saw that the sky had turned dark, he returned to his teacher’s room. Jason was in the midst of conducting a magic experiment. When he saw Saleen, he smiled and asked, “Have you seen Sika?”

“Yes. Teacher, let me tell you about everything that has happened on our trip to the Oceanic Ice Block,” Saleen said to Jason respectfully.

“Take a seat.” Jason ended his magic experiment and ushered Saleen to a seat facing him. He carefully inspected Saleen from head to toe and finally spoke with relief, “Not bad. You have advanced to grade-9 and your mental strength has become stronger.”

“Teacher, you can see everything clearly?” Saleen was shocked. He knew that Jason would be able to tell that he had advanced to grade-9, but he thought that he had kept his development in mental strength well-hidden.

Jason laughed and said, “Saleen, you are my student. Can’t you tell which grade your teacher is at now?”

That was when Saleen used his elemental eyes to look carefully and immediately realized what was different about Jason. Jason was also a grade-9 sorcerer, but his life power was always revolving within his body and never extended outwards. That was a sign that his soul was much more powerful than Saleen’s.

“I cannot compare with your improvement, teacher,” Saleen said with embarrassment. He had thought that he was incredibly fortunate to be able to train at the Outer Nebula, but it turned out that his teacher was still improving much faster than him. It seemed that Jason was forcefully suppressing his powers and had not advance to grade-10 because he had other plans after grade-10.

“Why don’t you guide your student a little? Saleen, Truman is a decent mage. Since you have taken him under your wing, you have to take up the responsibility completely. I can see that your training is drifting further and further away from my lineage. Perhaps Truman can…”

Saleen was ashamed by what Jason said. He knew very clearly how Jason treated him, while he really had not given Truman any guidance. On that point alone, he had fared poorly compared to his teacher. Besides, it was just like what Jason said, due to the magic chords, Saleen’s training was drifting away from Jason’s lineage. In order to continue his lineage, Truman was quite a good option. From then on, Saleen decided that he must take time to guide Truman.

“Yes, teacher. From now on, I will set aside time for Truman,” Saleen promised before continuing, “Teacher, this time around, I discovered a warship from the first dynasty. There were many beings that exist in between a live human and a spirit of the dead. They are all grade-9 warriors. The Cloudflow forces did not know what to do with them, so they used human body alchemy to try and control them. In the end, they only managed to control a few.”

“Grade-9 warriors?”

“Yes.” Saleen introduced the ancient warship to Jason in detail and even showed him the diagram that the Grandmaster had given to him. Saleen only possessed one ancient warship, but the Grandmaster had given all 12 diagrams of the fleet. Saleen found a diagram of the ancient warship and stood up before walking to the gigantic study table. He placed the diagram on top of the table.

Jason stood up as well. The diagram was similar to a magic diagram, as both were three-dimensional and required a magic array to be activated. An image of a fearsome-looking ancient warship was produced from the diagram and filled the room. Fortunately, Saleen’s room was huge enough to contain an image of such an incredible size.

“A magic furnace!” Jason knew his stuff. His knowledge was a hundred times richer than Saleen. He saw the motor component of the ancient warship immediately.

Saleen quickly took out the Grandmaster’s magic notebook, which contained all sorts of methods to create magic furnaces.

“This is incredible!” Jason was aware of the value of the magic furnace. Although it was extremely difficult to build something like that, it was much more stable than a magic array. The diagram of the magic furnace had been lost all that while, except for some minor pieces that had been thoroughly studied by the mages. As a result, all motor components had been powered by magic arrays.

Although it was easier to build that way, its stability would not be as good as a magic furnace. Besides, the magic array required the use of magic nuclei of the same grade, unlike the magic furnace, which could still function regardless of any magic nuclei or any type of fuel. The magic furnace was simply too useful on the battlefield.

Seeing how happy his teacher was, Saleen decided to take out all of the items that he had received, except the elemental magic tower. He did not possess Gaine’s capability. The elemental magic tower was even bigger than the temple so the whole room might burst if he took it out.

Jason was even more surprised when he saw the two Star Gathering Needles. He immediately threw the one that seemed to be of grade 19 back into the dimensional stone and said to Saleen, “This thing is dangerous once it is taken out. If it’s seal is broken, all of Metatrin City is finished.”

Saleen was scared out of his wits. He suddenly recalled that if the Star Gathering Needle was really grade-19, it should only be able to exist in the Imperial City of the Abyss. The ceiling for equipment in the outside world was grade 18. Professionals were limited to be within grade-10 but perhaps there might be a few who had already broken through to grade-11.

The images of Joey and Fycro flashed across Saleen’s mind. How did his teacher realize that the item was dangerous?

Jason picked up the grade-12 Star Gathering Needle and looked at it intently before saying, “Saleen, you have picked up the lineage of an astrologer?”

“Yes, but at the moment, I am only trying to understand the words and have yet to go deep into it. Teacher, is there any danger?”

“Not really. In the past, quite a number of astrologers tried to pick up magic as well, but the real astrologers would devote all their time solely onto astrology. It might seem smooth in the early stages of training in both astrology and magic, but eventually, you will realize that you don’t have the time to train in the techniques of two different systems.”

Saleen recalled how he felt about the words of astrology. Indeed, they were the opposite of the words of magic, where one was clear and the other was blurry and ever-changing.