Badge in Azure

Nicholas realized that there was a side to the winged skeleton that he had never seen before. He realized although the spirit of the dead did not talk much, he was actually very wise and was in no way like a spirit that possessed low intelligence.

In fact, his intellect was at least on the same level as humans.

Perhaps it might have been a mistake for Nicholas to forge an alliance with Daniel! The winged skeleton looked like he was quite protective of Nicholas as well, perhaps…

What Nicholas did not know was that when the winged skeleton was in the death dimension, he had once devoured the soul of a death wizard. Death wizards were transformed from human death mages and possessed much more formidable powers. Most importantly, death wizards were the rare spirits that possessed intelligence. Recollections of their previous lives also enabled death wizards to possess a high status in the death dimension.

That unlucky death wizard’s soul was devoured by the winged skeleton, who had disguised himself as an ordinary skeleton. The winged skeleton managed to inherit the death wizard’s memories and intelligence. What the winged skeleton had been able to achieve thus far had to be attributed to that death wizard. Indeed, the winged skeleton behaved very much like a human and rarely behaved like a spirit of the dead.

Nicholas did not understand the winged skeleton’s feelings towards Saleen, much less the fact that the winged skeleton had wanted to make use of Nicholas against Nailisi. His mindset would never be the same as that of bonded creatures.

Two full days and nights of pursuit passed as the pan’s turtle alchemical boat led the single-horned white whale in circles. The latter was growing impatient. It had less than a month to live and in the final stage of its life, new internal organs were developed that allowed it to breathe underwater. That was an ability that single-horned white whales only developed in the past ten-thousand years.

When those organs were developed, the single-horned white whale understood that its life was on the brink of ending. It followed the memories that had been passed down and came to the Oceanic Ice Block in search of its ancestors’ grave. In ancient times, single-horned white whales were of very high grades and possessed intelligence on the level of humans.

The single-horned white whale could not bear how the winged skeleton kept provoking it. After two days of pursuit, the whale realized that no matter how hard it tried and how many times it cast certain techniques, it would never come close to the range of the first time they clashed. It turned back and left. There was not much time left and there was a long way to go before it would reach the cemetery.

The winged skeleton turned the alchemy ship around as well and followed behind the single-horned white whale. There was no way he was going to allow the white whale to escape out of his sights. In any case, this single-horned white whale was going to die soon and would not be able to travel as fast as it could when it was still in its prime. Therefore, the pan’s turtle alchemical boat was fully capable of hanging behind the single-horned white whale and following it back to its grave.

Now they were only left with following the single-horned white whale. Along the way, they would not have to worry about enemies in ambush as the white whale would eliminate them first.

The senses of the single-horned white whale in the Oceanic Ice Block could reach further than what Spirit Gaze could achieve. The aura of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat was locked into the single-horned white whale’s memory, so the alchemy ship hanging behind the white whale was also a form of provocation. The single-horned white whale could not bear with it and turned around in pursuit once again. Again, the winged skeleton did not try to fight it and instead, turned around and fled.

After this repeated a few times, the single-horned white whale no longer tried to pursue the pan’s turtle alchemical boat as it headed straight for the depths of the Oceanic Ice Block. Just like that, eight days passed and Saleen finally emerged from the Twelve Notes of Purgatory, having finished refining all the weapons.

He handed a seven yard long lance and a three-sided skeletal shield to Nailisi. She put down her circular shield and picked up the long lance, wanting to give it a try. Saleen quickly stopped her.

The cabin was only about ten yards wide, the seven yard long lance would pierce into the walls if it even moved slightly. That long lance was like the lances that knights used in the past, where the tip of the blade was joined to the shaft of the lance. That type of lance depended solely on the force of forward momentum to kill an enemy. When a powerful knight rode on a high-level warhorse, he could travel at a speed of more than one-hundred miles an hour, which would be able to pierce through any sort of shield.

The long lance was made from the spear of the silver line golden spearfish. All of its magic patterns were natural and the magic array that Saleen had refined afterwards was in the hollow part of the shaft. There was a dragonshard and a dimension stone in the shaft as well. If Nailisi was to use her power of a Giant Dragon to pierce the lance forward gently, an invisible force in the form of a spear would appear and the pan’s turtle alchemical boat would not be able to take any form of damage. Even one hole in the ship would cause powerful water currents to gush in and destroy the internal structure of the ship.

Nailisi could feel the power within the long lance as well. She was overjoyed. The weapon was much more powerful than her Dragon Crystal Needle. “Master, let me go ahead and kill that single-horned white whale!”

“No, keep following it until we reach the cemetery. Keep the long lance and familiarize yourself with the shield first.” Saleen smiled.

“Alright, Master, I will listen to you.” Nailisi acted gentle for Nicholas to see. Of course, Nicholas did not believe Nailisi for a second, but he felt torn when he saw how much Saleen trusted and adored her. Nicholas had no idea what he had done to cross Nailisi because she seemed very unhappy with him.

Nicholas did not offend Nailisi, the only thing he did wrong was trying to form a small group with some of Saleen’s followers. To Nailisi, this was something that only she had the right to do. Anyone else who tried to do it deserved to die.

Whatever belonged to Saleen also belonged to her!

Nailisi put away the long lance and placed the three-sided shield in front. The three sides consisted of a circular shield, a blade shield and a rectangular giant shield. The circular shield was only a yard in diameter while the blade shield consisted of a bone blade on one side and a gap on top that could slot the long lance in to form a stand.

That type of blade shield was often used by warriors that led the charge into a battle. One strike by the blade on the side would cause even more damage than a longsword.

The final giant rectangular shield could cover Nailisi’s entire body. From the side, the giant shield was slightly curved. Its interior was covered with magic patterns that formed a small magic array.

The giant shield could activate a water element spell, which was water shield. The ability of the water shield to defend over a prolonged period of time allowed the magic nucleus in the shield to be maintained, as long as it had not been completely used up. It would be able to repair itself instantaneously, even if it was destroyed. A shield like that could defend against showers of arrows.

Although it was not difficult to refine such a defense spell onto equipment, ordinary materials used for equipment were not as hard as the skull of a white bear king. After a few attacks, the magic array would not be able to sustain it.

The circular shield was the hardest that Nailisi could hold in her hands, while the blade shield could be used to attack, and the giant shield suited a group fight. Nailisi gradually familiarized herself with the magic arrays and was finally satisfied. She knew how hard the skull of the white bear king was, after all, she did not manage to penetrate the skull when she fought it in her devil-form.

Nailisi studied her weapon while Saleen and the winged skeleton tried to understand more about the combat abilities of the single-horned white whale. The winged skeleton was happy with the decision he had made to flee. The first strike by the white whale only used ordinary power as it had not treated the pan’s turtle alchemical boat as a real opponent yet.

Saleen was well-aware of the power harnessed in the winged skeleton’s axe. The eyes on both sides of the giant axe blade stored a powerful grade-9 death magic spell. Saleen had given the winged skeleton that spell so that the latter could use it to defeat any grade-9 sorcerers with a single hit.

Even a spell as powerful as that could not match an ordinary attack by the single-horned white whale. In comparison, the white whale was at least twice as powerful as a human professional at grade-9. If the single-horned white whale had used all of its power, it would definitely have been able to be like a human mage, where its damage could reach grade-10. That would be truly terrifying!

Human mages were able to cast spells that were one grade above their own grade and that was rarely seen in magic beasts. Those that were able to do so often were also able to advance.

Even so, Saleen was still determined to find the single-horned white whale cemetery, so that he could turn all the corpses in the grave into his own wealth.

No matter how powerful single-horned white whales were, they never managed to rule the Myers Mainland. Saleen would never see them as true opponents that deserved to be respected, much less give up looting their graves. Humans were the true conquerors of the Myers Mainland while magic beasts were… just magic beasts.

That time around, the single-horned white whale did not turn around to attack the pan’s turtle alchemical boat again. The white whale encountered hundreds of attacks along the way. Although the magic beasts of the Oceanic Ice Block were well-aware of how powerful the single-horned white whale was, the notion of devouring its magic nucleus was irresistible to them, forcing them to forget about the threat of death.

Each time the single-horned white whale was attacked, the horn on its forehead would only unleash a water-element annular ripple and nothing more powerful than that. A mere attack like that would be able to kill tens of grade-9 magic beasts and hundreds of grade-8 and grade-7 magic beasts. Even middle-level magic beasts that attacked in a group would be killed by thousands of water-element annular ripples.

The single-horned white whale’s attack was simple and effective, and its attacking range was as far as a mile. It also possessed a few attacks that could manipulate the attacking ranges from a mile to three miles. The first time the pan’s turtle alchemical boat was attacked by the single-horned white whale, the latter had used one such technique that allowed it to manipulate the distance so that the alchemy ship was suddenly within its attacking range.

Such techniques surprised everyone on the alchemy ship. If human assassins possessed such techniques, it would undoubtedly be fatal to mages. In fact, if grand swordmasters possessed such abilities, mages would no longer have the upper hand over them.

Nailisi was tempted. If she possessed such techniques, she would be able to kill almost all of her targets with her long lance! The single-horned white whale only used such techniques three times and one of them was used on the pan’s turtle alchemical boat though. Clearly, such techniques used up too much energy, so even the single-horned white whale was unwilling to use them anyhow.

The human body was millions of times weaker than that of the single-horned white whale and would most likely be unable to handle such high-speed movements.

After traveling for more than eight-thousand miles, the single-horned white whale did not seem to have any intentions of stopping. Saleen had no idea how big the Oceanic Ice Block was. The deeper they traveled, the more powerful the magic beasts they encountered. Even the middle-level magic beasts were able to unleash attacks that were on par with sorcerers.

After traveling for nine-thousand miles, Saleen was shocked to see a sunken ship at the bottom of the sea!

That was the first time he saw a sunken ship underwater. The surface of the Oceanic Ice Block was always covered a sheet of solid ice that was thicker than a mile. How did this ship get into the Oceanic Ice Block?!