Badge in Azure

Sika told Lex that the level-12 oracles had attacked Metatrin City and that they had probably headed back to Holy City.

After hearing all of that, Lex slowly said, “The mages of Holy Rock City will back me up. I think it’s better to hand the fighting within Qin territory over to Nature City. I will allow the propagation of the Nature Faith so that the Qin mages will not look for trouble in Nature City.”

“While the two oracles are of high levels, they are not actually all that dangerous for the time being. The gods are a very selfish bunch, so those two will not see eye to eye with each other.”

“The trouble right now is Alchemy City.” Under the cover of Saleen’s Lightning Constellation, he projected a map of the entire mainland. He pointed at New Demon City and said, “Here. This is the core city of the southwestern nobles. They are loyal to you now. And here…”

Saleen then pointed at the razed Pompeii City and said, “This is where the line between Alchemy City and southwestern Qin was drawn. If we were to rebuild Pompeii, we’d end up clashing with Alchemy City.”

“Not necessarily.” Sika pointed at the ruins of Pompeii City and said, “We could rebuild the place without migrating anyone there.”

“Without migrating anyone?”

“Hah!” Sika scratched her head in frustration and said, “Saleen, do you remember that there is a memorial in Pompeii City?”

“I do. On the memorial, there is a list of soldiers who died in the line of duty defending Pompeii City.”

“We could preserve the ruins of Pompeii City and build an even bigger memorial, recording the city’s history and destruction. Alchemy was the one that destroyed Pompeii City, there is no denying such a thing. So…”

“I get it now. If Alchemy City destroys Pompeii City a second time, it will make everyone fear Alchemy City. If Alchemy City dares to expand, it would mean that they are attempting to rule the entire mainland!”

Sika’s suggestion was indeed very original. She would have Saleen build commemorative buildings in the place where Pompeii City had been, but not ones meant to house anyone. Alchemy City would not attempt to destroy the city again since it lacked a reason to do so.

Lex started to view Sika in a different light. It was an ingenious suggestion. Sika had seemed rather dumb in the past, but that was no longer the case. Could a person’s intelligence really grow after advancing?

There was no doubt about it. Even magic beasts came to possess greater intellectual capacities after their levels were raised to a certain point. Sometimes, they would even begin to learn language and writing.

Sika was a human, so there was no way she could have remained a single-minded fool after advancing to level-ten.

If Alchemy City wanted to attack the newly restored Pompeii City, they would only be able to do so if they were willing to cast aside reason. Saleen needed time to consolidate his powers. At that moment, he only needed to ensure that his territories were not invaded by others.

The 12 mountains of bone crystals that the giant had acquired from the cemetery of the giants would allow Saleen to arm all of his forces. When the armies of the two nations were converted into full magic forces, their combat capacities would be raised enough to threaten some very powerful professionals.

For instance, the Holy See’s Heaven Knights. Any common level-nine or even level-ten professional would die if they faced that relentless force.

The combat capacities of professionals were limited. Few were capable of having so many types of equipment at their disposal or of summoning 500,000 lightning puppets from the Lightning Constellation like Saleen was.

If a level-ten professional intended to kill a Heaven Knight, they would need to cast skills no lower than level-seven. The Heaven Knights were very well-fortified and their defenses were unparalleled. Level-ten professionals, on the other hand, were generally not able to cast over 100 level-seven skills.

A squadron of Heaven Knights consisted of about 60 members. There were also squadrons with about 100 members. Even level-ten professionals would only be capable of thinning some of their numbers before being forced to flee.

The Heaven Knights’ suits of armor were capable of distributing attacks to all of their compatriots. Such equipment was a headache to deal with.

A level-ten professional was able to kill all of their enemies with just one single skill otherwise.

Holy See was so concerned about the fossilized gods because their fragments were capable of being forged into Heaven Knights’ armor. Saleen had baited the Holy See using the fossilized gods, luring Theisio and a good number of elites into the cemetery of the giants.

He’d then taken them all out with a single sweep after baiting them inside.

Saleen’s plan had not felt thorough, as if every single step had been something improvised instead. However, the Holy See was never able to resist such temptations, so both Theisio and the great head inquisitor had ended up dead.

Lex had been able to rake a small fortune out of the cemetery of the giants.

The bone crystals of the giants were of far greater value than magic nuclei. Not even magic nuclei above level-12 could compare with those bone crystals.

Saleen knew his own level well and that there was no way he could have taken down the Lightning Moon in the cemetery of the giants, so he’d had no choice but to leave it be. It was fortunate that no one but Lex was able to get inside and come back out alive.

Saleen was right outside the cemetery of the giants, dividing the loot into different portions. Saleen had gotten the larger portion. He needed to build a Sky City, and the required materials to do so were astronomical.

Lex took some from the remaining smaller portion, and the rest of it was sent to the alchemy factories.

The mages who had sided with Lex were unable to get much. While the bone crystals of the giants were indeed consumables, they burned inefficiently compared to magic nuclei.

They somewhat resembled dragon crystals, which were capable of slowly recovering lost energy within their crystalline structures over time.

As the crystals were very precious, none of those mages dared to ask for many. 100 pieces each would last them for a very long time. They would be able to get some more from Lex after theirs were all spent by following her.

The mages did not need too many of the bone crystals. If the crystals were to be used for experimentation, three to five pieces would last them for over a decade.

None of the mages were very poor. The royalty had always been generous to the mages they kept around. If Lex had not been a beloved daughter of Emperor Chanake, none of those mages would have ever chosen to follow her, even if they were tempted with the crystals.

There was also a huge amount of other materials within the cemetery of the giants, and Saleen had taken them all. Saleen had selected a good number of materials which he deemed suitable for use by the mages and gifted them out.

The mages were about to return to Holy Rock City. They had to bring something back for the palace mages in the royal palace.

The collections found within the material warehouse within the empire’s palace would have probably been many, many times larger than Saleen’s stores. However, those materials left behind in the ancient ruins were something that could not have been bought with money.

All of the ancient battlefields found on Myers Mainland had been picked clean. Those materials that had survived the ages were incredibly difficult to come by for mages.

Saleen was considering doing them a favor and did not want any money from them. He simply asked them to deliver a single letter.

Saleen remembered that he had been introduced to a level-seven mage when he had obtained his Devil Armament.

That mage should have reached level-nine by this time.

With Saleen’s current status, he did not have to care about level-nine mages. However, Saleen was a very nostalgic person, and he wanted to go back and see for himself how the people he had known all those years ago were doing.

Saleen had even prepared a gift for that mage and had the palace mages bring it home with them.

Saleen was unable to rest after returning to Daliang City. He had to return to New Demon City because he had become confident enough to refine the fragments of the Sky City. Said fragment was a huge piece, measuring 36 miles both in length and width, which was at least several times larger than all of Metatrin City.

Saleen wrote a letter to his teacher inside the Magical Element Tower. Jason did not say anything much and stepped through the teleportation portal into Daliang City. He too wanted to have a look at the Sky City’s fragment.

For the sake of safety, Sika returned to Metatrin City. If Sika were to hold the line at the temple, it would make it very difficult for the two oracles to attack the place. Saleen had seen what that metal totem pole was capable of.

Sika’s combat capacity in head-on battles surpassed that of her own level. The level of strength was all that mattered in her case.

There was a world within the totem pole. All of the living beings of that world were supplying Sika with backup.

Under usual circumstances, this was something that could have been achieved at level-14. Sika’s nature priest skills had some exceptional qualities. There had been a large number of ethnicities wiped from the face of the mainland throughout the ages.

The fact that the Caucasians had been capable of surviving until the present day and had successfully spread their culture was surprising.

Truman was summoned again. He was Saleen’s student and would be able to learn a lot of details regarding space when the young mage entered the temple. Saleen had not forgotten to get something for Truman.

The Magical Element Tower had not been left behind in the cemetery of the giants. Saleen had delayed everything until the fourth month, laying a huge magic array at the entrance of the cemetery of the giant with his teacher, preventing any outsiders from getting in.

The space within the cemetery was huge and he was unable to clean all of the ancient battlefields up. Saleen needed to get to it at a later date. It would incur considerable losses on him if someone else were to enter the cemetery.

There was already a magic net in place when he returned to New Demon City. Cuisi had been appointed as the supreme commander in charge of everything. He was very happy to see Saleen’s return and asked him, “Your highness, shall we summon the nobles to see you?”

“No need for that. I’ll be leaving soon enough.” Even though Saleen put it that way, nonetheless, he asked about the southwestern nobles. Cuisi patiently explained to Saleen how things were going in the southwest. The southwestern nobles had banded together and cast out any lesser nobles who were unwilling to follow Lex.

The southwestern nobles were very united at the moment. There were some among the nobles whose families dated back over 1,000 years ago. There were many capable people among them.

Based on their discussions, they’d concluded that there was a great war, like one not seen in over 1,000 years, about to take place on their plane.

Furthermore, the way war was fought had changed as well. Numbers mattered little in deciding the outcome of war if there were no powerful leaders taking the helm.

Both Saleen and Lex had their own respective nations. Following Lex meant gaining Saleen’s support. Saleen’s alchemy factories were gradually getting famous. Some cities that had not yet been assaulted in northern Qin had their nobles buying equipment from Saleen’s alchemy factories.

Following Lex would mean that Saleen was ready to provide that equipment to them for free.

While this was only a simple illustration, Saleen was nonetheless able to see what would happen to those nobles who refused to follow Lex. It would have sufficed if they were willing to leave. Those who insisted on staying would have their entire clans wiped clean.

With Cuisi at the helm, the southwestern nobles no longer needed to worry about combat capacities of their forces. Demons that were then trained and assigned to battlefields came to their plane in droves,

After dismissing Cuisi, Saleen entered the interdimensional space with his teacher and followers. This time, Saleen went straight to the side of the black ocean and found that the floating island at sea had disappeared!