Badge in Azure

After they made it through the valley, the white-robed sorcerer said, “you can now use flying magic.”

Saleen nodded and mounted the spirit false dragon together with Hogina, heading for the deeper parts of the valley with the white-robed mage. They passed through a village and a vast farm. Saleen saw a group of buildings faraway, built with their backs against a mountain.

The buildings looked like tall wooden palaces, which resembled the style of the Fourth Dynasty. The white-robed mage pointed at the buildings. “The ones from the clan deemed fit enough to see the world are all there. All of them younglings.”

He took Saleen to a peak. There was a swath of flatland after they passed the peak, which was filled with peach trees all the way to the hills. It was mid-summer and the trees were filled with fruit. They looked small hanging from the branches.

“You wanted to land somewhere on the flatlands, so we won’t be going further in. How about we just wait for Lord Chief here?” The white-robed sorcerer stopped and asked Saleen about his thoughts.

Saleen nodded and thought if he had not agreed, he would have probably been arranged to stay in the group of wooden palaces.

The group landed and Saleen took out his Magical Element Tower in front of the white-robed sorcerer without any hesitation. The tower required quite a bit of mental power when taken out. Saleen needed to perform a short meditation every time he took out or put away the tower. He needed to use divine crystals to quickly restore his mental powers.

“My name is Kamiratus, Your Highness. I’ll be the one in charge of receiving you.” The white-robed mage was very shocked, but he nonetheless went on to lay out magic arrays for Saleen before introducing himself.

“Thank you, Kamiratus.” Saleen was able to tell that he was at least a level eight sorcerer, probably even level nine. As such, Saleen saw no need to act high and mighty. Furthermore, Kamiratus was rather friendly. If it were someone else receiving Saleen’s, it would be anyone’s guess how they would have acted.

Saleen was there to ask for help using the mark of the Six-winged Flying Snake and he knew well that if he did not hand the mark over, members of the Grukos would behave very badly towards him.

“You’re welcome. Call me with this if you need anything. I’d be on standby at all times.” Kamiratus took out a silver whistle and handed it to Saleen. He took the whistle and smiled, before putting it away in his Devil Ring.

The whistle served as a locating beacon as well. If he were to leave it on his person, the Grukos would be able to locate him anytime, anywhere.

Kamiratus had no choice but to leave as they had nothing further to say to each other, and Saleen apparently had no intentions of inviting him into his Magical Element Tower. The Magical Element Tower had 24 floors and each floor was nine meters tall—even taller than low peak before him.

It seemed that those from the clan who were still in their prime and snubbed their noses at rules had already found Saleen. Seems like the elders who hope to see conflict will be rather happy about this then? Saleen had erected a magic tower right on the soil of Golden Plains after all, which was a moderate provocation.

“I will take my leave then,” Kamiratus said with a low voice.

“Hold on. Kamiratus, thanks for showing us the way. Here, this is for you.” Saleen handed him a divine crystal shard.

Kamiratus had intended to simply refuse him, but he was unable to help but take it after he saw the small, transparent piece of material on Saleen’s hand. He knew that Saleen would definitely not give him an inferior gem. Kamiratus surprised even himself by shouting in glee as he took the gem in his hand.

The gem seemed to be a divine crystal shard, yet it felt like a dragon crystal shard as well. Regardless, it worked well with human souls, capable of boosting mental powers.

Kamiratus was unable to refuse. Despite his family being rich and he had what all mages outside usually had, something capable of restoring mental powers quickly was something rare even to the Grukos.

“I thank you then, Your Highness. Right, when Lex sent us the message, many in the clan did not like you. Your Highness, if someone comes looking for trouble, please remain calm. You would have a hard time dealing with Lord Chief otherwise,” Kamiratus reminded Saleen carefully.

Saleen smiled. “That much is a given.”

Kamiratus did not trust Saleen much, but he was unable to do anything against the guest. The circles of power within the clan did not overlap. The younger ones who were free to leave Golden Plains and enter Myers Mainland were all proud, arrogant pricks. The ones to shoulder the future of the clan were those versed in strategies and construction.

There were probably over a thousand members of the clan within the wooden places not far away, and there were quite a number of exceptional people among them. The people were given a choice to either submit to the rules of the clan or be sent outside. They chose to leave.

The clan needed to train them in groups before allowing them to leave, so as to enable them to adapt to the outside world.

Saleen entered the Magical Element Tower and left the Winged Skull and the spirit false dragon outside, unleashing some low level spirits to guard the place. He had the tower connect with the soil and laid out defensive spells around.

No one came to harass Saleen until nightfall, which he had not expected.

He grew tired and after getting a room for Hogina, Saleen went to 17th floor and slept. He slept for ten hours straight. When Saleen opened his eyes, he saw himself being encased in a Mute Enchantment created using death magic.

The Winged Skull locked Saleen up when he was asleep. He would not know anything happening outside the tower, and thus wouldn’t be woken by any noise.

The Winged Skull only opened the door when Saleen woke up, allowing Hogina, who was standing outside, to come in. Saleen nodded to Hogina and faced the magic images, admiring the view outside.

The Golden Plains was a nice place and the view was beautiful. However, Saleen was not admiring was the rivers, mountains, or anything natural, but a group of people making themselves look very bad right outside the tower.

Four young people brought a magic beast with them and were squaring off against the spirit false dragon. The four young people seemed to be of decent capabilities, but if they were unable to kill the false dragon, its poisonous breath would render them near powerless. They were not mages; they were people about to advance to the rank of grand swordmasters. If they were able to get near to the spirit false dragon, it would be easy for them to gang up on the seemingly powerful spirit and kill it.

Saleen had some understanding of Golden Plains before he came. Lex had never been there, but Emperor Chanake had introduced the structure of political power of the place to Lex in detail.

There were many capable people among the Grukos, and not all of them were willing to live in Golden Plains. To those people, Golden Plains was too small and looked boring.

Those young ones would be sent to the south of Qin. Most of those people from the clan would chose to hide their identities, but there were few who would join the circle of nobles.

As such, there were quite a number among the southern nobles who supported the royal family, as the nobles were getting close to the Grukos. Those who betrayed the royal family had no idea who among their close acquaintances were members of the Grukos. That was why Safilos felt troubled.

If the southern nobles were to rebel, there were still descendants of the Grukos among them waiting to strike.

While those who chose to leave were an unruly, reckless bunch, their loyalty towards their clan was every bit comparable to those who remained on Golden Plains. Saleen had no intentions of offending those people, yet they showed up at his door asking for trouble nonetheless.

The four young people ganged up on the spirit false dragon, and from the looks of things, the beast was already killed by the four of them.

“Saleen, you’re awake!” Hogina was dense enough not to mind the Winged Skull forbidding her to see Saleen.

“Yeah, I’ve been awake given how noisy it is out there.”

“Saleen, can’t we kill them?” Hogina asked Saleen with a serious tone. She did not know that Saleen had already activated certain functions within the tower, allowing their conversation to be heard outside. The four young people stopped and backed off, eyeing the tall magic tower.

They had the backing of their clan and knew Saleen would not act against them. They were there to provoke him. If Saleen were to fight them, they would have gotten what they came for.

That damned b**tard Saleen, marrying the most exceptional woman among the clan of this generation—Lex.

What was more vexing for them was how Lex was charmed by the one they deemed a bootlicker into even handing over the mark of the Six-winged Flying Snake to him. That bootlicker was now on their turf with the mark, and they had no idea what he intended to do, but they were sure that he meant the clan no good.

“Why kill them? Don’t you think it’s funny seeing them jump around like that?” Saleen said and communicated with the Winged Skull in secret, which prompted the Winged Skull to have the spirit false dragon take flight, but only allow the beast to circle at a height of a hundred meters. It was not a distance that the grand swordmasters-to-be were capable of covering with their attacks. Even if they were able to cover such a distance, they would not be able to attack for long.

The four youngsters were pissed off by Saleen’s words, but seeing how Saleen said that they were jumping around, they refrained from actually jumping to attack the false dragon, or they would have made themselves Saleen’s toy.

“Sh**, looks like we’ll need big bro and the others to be here!” A young man holding a spear was heard saying in anger. The other three youngsters looked at the false dragon, feeling frustrated. The beast is a peculiar one. It is a level four spirit but the strength of its poisonous mist is way above its supposed level. The four knew that they had no certainty of being able to win if they were to actually fight the false dragon.

Furthermore, spirits did not usually care about their own survival. Spirits with powerful offensive abilities were always a headache for warriors.

“Eh? Saleen, why are they stopping now?” Hogina asked curiously. She did not actually have any matters she needed help with. She was only there to get him to do something, the best of which would be to craft something. She was very interested in Saleen’s materials, yet she was unable to bring herself to simply ask him like Nailisi, so she hoped that Saleen would allow her to stay by his side and watch him work.

“Well, they’re off looking for grown-ups, seeing how they’re incapable of dealing with us themselves. Kids…” Saleen sighed. Outside the tower, the four youngsters were so pissed that their heads seemed to fume.