Badge in Azure

Saleen made up his mind. Since the matter with Daliang City required Lex to be around to handle it, Saleen would have plenty of time to deal with Jalin in the future.

Arbola definitely did not ask Jalin to do what she had done, as it did not match the principles of the contract. But, then again, there was also no way that Arbola would not have known about Jalin’s personality and tendencies toward such action. The Lord Chief especially would have known that Jalin would cause him trouble.

From that point forth, Saleen grew to resent Arbola immensely. At the moment, Saleen thought… She wants to back Lex, yet she wants to take charge of everything too! Yeah right! Does she think that entire world belongs to Golden Plains?

But, he knew that he was unable to take Lex’s place. It was Daliang City, after all.

For the moment, Saleen put his resentment aside. He then asked Gusion, “Now… About Sul… Does he have contact with the outside world?”

“He asks for food once every week,” Gusion said.

“Nevermind then. Leave him be,” Saleen replied.

Sul was attempting to break into level ten, but doing so as a grand swordmaster was even more difficult than as a mage. After all, a grand swordmaster’s development of understanding of the soul was far less efficient than that of a mage.

“Gusion, let’s talk about what happened outside the city. Did you guys organize an assault there?” Saleen asked.

“We did, and the plan continued even after Master Jalin returned. Our attacks had no fixed patterns, so the enemy was unable to get ahold of us,” Gusion gave Saleen the details on how both sides fought.

Saleen listened to every detail meticulously. What he specifically wanted Gusion to elaborate on were those low level fights that had taken place.

Mercenaries had a habit of recording logs. The Dragon-Slaughtering Mercenaries were allowed to fight outside, but not the army that was under Gusion’s charge.

Everyone was required to take turns to do missions, and it was incredibly dangerous to venture outside the city for battles. Every mercenary was supposed to record his own experiences with the battles, which would then be compiled into the collective recorded log of the Dragon Slaughtering Mercenary Group.

These were the habits of mercenaries. A true mercenary organization was required to experience battles firsthand on the battlefield and be repeatedly tempered.

The army that ventured outside the city was usually the size of one or two regiments, without the use of auxiliary troops. As the enemy was setting up camp just about ten miles away, they dared not get too close.

Organization sizes that consisted of one or two thousand men were too small when the entire war was taken into consideration, but they were still unable to sneak right under the enemy’s noses. As such, these attacks were required to be scattered, and there were mages to help out with things every time.

Teams consisting of 1,000 men were usually divided into smaller teams of five, which split up to attack enemy camps or lookouts. The Tanggulasians would have also sent scouts, which consisted of Blood Knights most of the time. Thus, cleaning up the Blood Knights became the main objective of those venturing outside the city.

As Saleen listened to the details about the brutal battle that took place outside, he calculated some things quickly in his mind. He found the ratios of the enemy troops and the Blood Knights to be rather peculiar.

The number of Blood Knights never seemed to diminish, yet the casualties among the enemy troops were unusually high. The Tanggulasians were able to accept defeat, but when fighting broke out, they would always come out to take back the dead bodies of their own men. In this case, the Qin warriors did not even have time to take the heads of their enemies, as every encounter took place very quickly.

The density of Blood Knights outside the city remained unchanged, and the assaulting armies from the city suffered few casualties. However, it was difficult to get near the enemy camp. Furthermore, the enemy mages almost never acted, while the Cloudflow armies stayed in the south.

“Any news from Bone Castle?” Saleen asked.

“Destroyed. The Cloudflow ba*tards were building a dock!” Gusion answered. This was something that she had heard from Jalin.

Saleen smirked. Cloudflow was indeed at odds with the Holy See, despite their being allies. However, what they did matched the known temperaments of the Cloudflow people, all of whom were blatantly scheming, calculative, and small-minded.

Saleen thought… Building a dock? Are they trying to just bring their ships here and force the Holy See to acknowledge Cloudflow’s interests?

Saleen found that he had no need to be here. If he had known all that had taken place, he would have simply had Daliang City close its doors, then have sent some demons over as reinforcements.

That would have been adequate to keep the city defended. Then, a clash between Cloudflow and the Holy See would have broken out as soon as the dock was finished.

It seemed that he had gotten the first step right, and now, the most important thing was simply to clean up the enemies in the mountains, preventing the Holy See from quickly opening a path leading to the Principality of Bitterwater. Daliang City was important because it was a strategic spot that would have affected many important places. But, to Saleen, the Principality of Bitterwater was more important.

As long as the principality was safe, Lex’s true estate would also be safe. This was a sealed estate that belonged to one of Qin’s most important areas.

The battles at the north might have been intense, but there had yet to be anyone capable of breaking into territories that were controlled by the Principality of Bitterwater. This was because there was only one way north from the Principality of Bitterwater, and the same went for the east as well.

There was a secret passage that led toward Daliang City in the west, while the south was filled with only mountains, making it impossible for the army to pass through. Hence, if one intended to attack then Principality of Bitterwater from the east, one would have to first take out Holy Rock City.

The Holy See army might have been ferocious, but even they did not dare enter within a thousand miles of Holy Rock City. The Holy See thought that it would be necessary to take all of the lands in the north, even taking out Phoenix, before they would be confident enough to attack Holy Rock City, which would have most likely been their last battle.

Gusion left the place after being consoled by Saleen. He now knew that there were only a few places in the mainland that were still safe, Metatrin being among them. Since the families of his brothers-in-arms were all there and were being well taken care of, there was no other way to go about things but to give his all to his lord as payment.

“My liege, you do not seem to be worried about Jalin…” Eleanor refrained from addressing Saleen by name when Sika was around.

She had said such a thing because she felt that something peculiar was afoot. After all, Saleen was usually very unwilling to end up at the short end of the stick when details like these were concerned.

Moreover, Jalin’s ways of going about things were absurd. So, if Saleen did not intend to retaliate directly, he would have thought of other ways to take Jalin out.

However, what Saleen meant to do at the moment was to simply withdraw the last forces that he had within Daliang City, thus letting the mages from Golden Plains take care of everything. It just seemed strange to Eleanor.

“If worse comes to worst, we’ll just leave and let the city get attacked. But, Arbola promised that she would help me defend Daliang City. After all, it was lost at the hands of her men, so it shall be her men to take it back!” Saleen said.

“But my liege, that…” Eleanor began to sau say something, but was cut of by Saleen, who said, “The temple! The temple is the key! Sika, do you remember the time when we entered the first temple?”

“I do… What about it?” Sika replied.

“Back then, I shouldn’t have actually been able to enter. It was all because of that ring. I think the rings have been passed around for quite some time in the mainland, and there have been as many as 24 of them! When the pink ones came back then…” Saleen took a look at Eleanor as he spoke, and a tinge of sadness was seen on her face. But, there was no overwhelming sorrow in her expression.

“The pink thieves were probably able to take control of the temple because they had a Ring of Gifts with them. Everyone who entered the temple acquired different powers or wealth. The fate of everyone went along the routes that the Goddess of Myers had laid. Some veered off course and their lucks took turns for the worse, causing them to eventually lose everything, while I continue to go forward,” Saleen said.

Sika felt that this all sounded rather eerie as Saleen was speaking of it. The Ring of Gifts was incapable of choosing its user, but the one who chose the ring was given powers by the goddess, and in turn, that person was required to work for the goddess.

If Saleen had not ventured into the core temple, his fate probably would have taken a turn for the worse. However, ever since he ventured into the core temple in the Purgatory Desert and signed the contract, everything he had, including wealth, personal powers, or the power of his country, had all skyrocketed. If Saleen had not been training in astrology , thus making him very sensitive to fate, he would not have even thought of such possibilities.

In the past, Eleanor’s man, the noble, sounded like someone incredible, and his power had probably originated from the temple as well. And… In the end, he had been struck by lightning.

Lex’s fate did not look good as well, at least until she ventured into the central temple and signed the contract with Saleen. There was a famous saying among astrologers, “Fate can bring you power, but it can also get you shackled.”

Hence, if one was to help resurrect the goddess, the goddess would give that person power. Otherwise, the person was doomed to be ill-fated.

As Saleen recalled the 24 magic array diagrams that he had acquired, which they had never actually put any importance into, he thought… Isn’t that the true wealth I’ve been given?

“Saleen, what do you plan to do?” Sika was initially fond of the Goddess of Myers, but fear welled up inside her heart after hearing what Saleen had said.

She then thought… So, the Caucasians only began to decline as a race after the goddess appeared, right? Many Caucasian priests started to have faith in the goddess, after all.

But, then again, such rumors had only been going around in the village. They were never heard elsewhere.

“What do I plan to do, huh?” Saleen hesitated for bit, while thinking about collecting all of the wealth there was to be collected within the temples.

He knew from the ghosts at the Cemetery of Heroes that Myers had once been a mage. What was left in the temple had nothing to do with divine arts.

Myers had apparently predicted the demise of the nature faith. As such, her resurrection required help from the mages.

Myers had left 24 Rings of Gifts behind, which enabled people to enter the temples and gain power, thus helping her to resurrect. Those who refused to help would have fallen upon hard times, as that was a level 18 divine spell that was irresistible.

However, the option of picking all of the temples clean remained open, as that would prevent any others from getting anything, as well as prevent the the luck that was left by the goddess from being shared. Saleen came to understand that if the task that the goddess had left behind was accomplished by someone else, it would have meant that he had failed to fulfil the contract.

Then, when the goddess was resurrected, his souls would become a possession of the goddess, shackled for eternity. This sounded rather crazy, so Saleen did not voice this to Sika, as he wanted prevent her from getting tangled up in all that mess.

Saleen had entered three temples: the one in the swamps, the one northwest of the Northern Sea, and the one where the pink thieves were. Lex knew of another one, which meant that Saleen had four temples within his grasp. If the remaining 20 were all excavated, no one else would be able to receive the task from the goddess.

Without anyone else taking up the task, he would be the one to take all of the luck that the Goddess of Myers left behind. As for the goddess’ resurrection, that depended on whether the grandmaster and those with him were able to break free from the Cemetery of Heroes.

Saleen had lost all respect for the gods after getting to know Gaine, even in terms of their powers. As such, there was simply no stopping his seemingly crazy thoughts from being executed.

But, then again, Saleen still hoped for the Goddess of Myers to be resurrected sooner than later, as the sooner her resurrection occurred, the weaker she would be. The upper limit of powers across the mainland was still at level 12 at the moment. If their plane was to advance further, Myers would become a level 15 god right away.

“Saleen, what are you talking about?” Lex returned all of a sudden, appearing at the 17th floor of the tower.

“I was talking about fate,” Saleen replied.

“Fate, huh?” Lex sighed, then said, “I had intended to take care of things here and leave as soon as the crisis was handled. But, I received intel that the Tribunal had deployed three head inquisitors, who were coming to Daliang City.”