Badge in Azure

The first thought that went through Saleen’s mind when he heard the news was to get his teacher there. After all, this was not something that Saleen was capable of resolving on his own.

Having three head inquisitors from the Tribunal deployed was equal to having three popes showing up at their doorstep. Saleen had no idea what it was about Daliang City that would have attracted the three head inquisitors’ attention other than its strategic location.

“Lex, something is not right.” After Saleen calmed down, his mind was quickly put to work.

Lex thought that things were peculiar as well. Head inquisitors were people on par with the pope in terms of status, and they were all equipped with the most powerful equipment that the Tribunal had at its disposal.

When the Holy See was first established, places that the six head inquisitors treaded were rendered as wastelands and littered with bodies. Since their reputations were built upon actual powers, the establishment of the entire Tanggulasi Empire and the rise of the Holy See would definitely not have been made possible by the pope’s making speeches alone.

The head inquisitors only seemed to fade out of existence when the four major empires signed their treaties, thus staying out of any territorial conflicts. After that, the powerful mages in Qin no longer roamed the borders to destroy enemy fortresses.

The resulting peace had been kept for over 1,000 years. The mobilization of the head inquisitors to Daliang City signified the end of an era. The significance of this mobilization was entirely different from that of the pope’s.

The pope had at least been going out in secret, bringing no armies with him. The three head inquisitors, however, brought their forces, intending to destroy a city, just like when the Holy See was first established.

Lex knew that it was only a matter of time before the treaties between the empires would be rendered completely ineffective. However, she did not anticipate that it would begin with her Daliang City.

She wondered… Can the city hold the line? Of course not. The head inquisitors have mobilized, which means that the Tribunal is no longer just an organization that assists the pope. They have now become a force of their own, and they will bring all that they have as they descend upon us.

The main powers of the Pivotal Council came from the Tanggulasi Empire, while the forces of the Tribunal were completely gathered and nurtured on their own. The Blood Knights were but experiments conducted by the Tribunal.

“Lex, let’s just give up Daliang City.” Saleen spoke his mind without waiting for Lex to reply. To both him and Lex, the temple was the true key to everything.

“Saleen, what happens to the near-million population if we give up the city? Are we giving up on them, too?” Lex asked with a worried tone.

It had been her idea to destroy Ironwall City, which meant that Lex was not soft. However, the matter at hand was different from how things were with Ironwall City. The city consisted of all of her elite forces, after all, and if she gave up on a 600,000-strong elite force, she would be giving up half of the power of the Principality of Bitterwater.

“Lex, I see that the armies outside are about to finish carving their ways to the passage that leads to the Principality of Bitterwater. We’ll just retreat along the passage then,” Saleen said.

“Saleen, we have 900,000 people here. How many can the mountain roads hold at one time? Will the enemy simply let us pass through?” Lex was getting frustrated.

Her concern was legitimate, as the passage in the mountains was over 500 miles long. While Qin armies were capable of marching very quickly on flatlands, they were hardly capable of going 10 miles per hour if they took the passage in the mountains.

Even if the elites were capable of riding warhorses that were adept at running in mountainous regions, the path was intact. Also, even though were capable of moving at a speed of 20 miles per hour, the narrow path meant that not many of them would be able to make through it at any one time.

“Lex, I know you’re reluctant to give up Daliang City. I also know you’ve built a lot here, and it wasn’t easy for you to carve your way out here. But, things are different now. If we can destroy Ironwall City, our enemies could destroy Daliang City just as easily. How many mages do we have in Daliang City? Fewer than a thousand, right? We have 17 level nine mages, including us. So, just look at the Holy See and tell me… How many level nine ones have they got in the ranks just to dig a way out in the mountains?” Saleen asked.

Lex was speechless. She knew Saleen’s take on the matter was was right.

She was reluctant to give up Daliang City, as it was the place where her wedding with Saleen had taken place. Thus, giving the city up felt like she was giving up her heart.

Daliang City was ill-suited for defense, as it was surrounded by flatlands. If the terrain around the city had been like that of Lonestar City’s, she would have had confidence to hold out.

“I’ve already made preparations to retreat through the mountains. I’ll mobilize the Dragon Slaughtering mercenaries first thing in the morning tomorrow in order to make way for the rest of us. Lex, we can still retake Daliang City if we give it up now. If it ends up being destroyed like Ironwall City… Let’s just say that not everything can be rebuilt.” Saleen was pouring his heart out in earnest with his words, but then he quickly switched topics.

He asked, “It would be just my armies retreating in name only. Have you regained command of the city?”

“Of course. Jalin’s tricks were child’s play. With the news of the head inquisitors coming for us, those from Golden Plains had no choice but to let me take charge. Otherwise, they would have to make their last stand here, fighting down to the last man,” Lex said.

“Well, we’ll just have to let them cover our escape then,” Saleen smiled and said.

It was incredibly dangerous to cover a retreat. Moreover, Saleen was not fond of those sorcerers, and it was entirely unexpected that they were capable of taking command off of those who were previously in charge.

If Lex had not shown up, Saleen would have had no way to deal with them. Saleen had only realized at that point that the mages from the Golden Plains were not simply mages.

They had definitely undergone military training. In fact, those people were probably nurtured as a force for the Golden Plains to utilize in taking the world right from the start!

“Yeah, but since we’re leaving, you should go and take a look at Sul. He’s getting restless,” Lex reminded Saleen. After all, Sul had been in training mode for a year.

“I know. I’ll get to it right away. Oh, Eleanor, you’re coming with me. Sika, get the Winged Skull to set things up in the magic tower. We’re getting ready to leave,” Saleen said as he brought Eleanor outside the Magical Element Tower.

Sul’s training ground was actually below the tower in which Eleanor was staying. The underground facilities were still intact, despite the palace being destroyed. The tower had been an astrology tower in the past, which had six floors below ground, all of which were only discovered later.

Ever since Sul had made it down here, he had no contact with the outside world other than getting food. Saleen took Eleanor underground to the first floor.

The mercenaries who were in charge of guarding the place were tasked with providing all of the food, materials, and equipment that Sul required. He had been breaking about 1,000 swords per day at this point.

Eleanor spoke loudly, while facing the tightly shut door, “Sul, our lord is here!”

The door opened with a creak about half a minute later, and Sul walked out. He looked very clean, and there was hardly any exhaustion showing on his face.

After Sul saw Saleen, he said, “My liege, I’m afraid I’ve disappointed you.”

“You look okay. I expected you to look rather off when I first saw you. So, how are things? When do you think you’ll be able to advance further?” Saleen asked.

“Not for the time being, but…” Sul flashed a beaming smile at him, then said, “My liege, my current combat capacity has definitely surpassed Jola’s. How about that?”

Saleen could not help but take a jab at him after seeing how pompous he had gotten. He asked, “What about being compared to Sika, then?”

Sul was stunned for a moment. Even though Sika had not been making much progress for quite some time, he still felt that Sika was way above him.

Even if he was armed with powerful equipment, it still wouldn’t have changed anything. Sika’s power was hardly something that was measurable by human standards.

Saleen felt at ease after seeing that Sul’s temperament had not taken a turn for the worse. It was very dangerous to learn the way of the sword, and there were cases of people going crazy with such training.

In fact, Sul had been locking himself underground, not even bothering to set any lamps up as he was training his art of the sword. He had done this for over a year in complete darkness.

As Saleen thought of this, he exclaimed in his head… This guy really knows how to torture himself!

“Sul, let me see how much you’ve improved,” Saleen said as he unleashed nine ancient figures.

Sul’s eyes sparkled as soon as he saw the nine figures, and he exclaimed, “Wow! That’s some good stuff that you have there, my liege!”

“Cut the chatter! What kind of weapon do you want?” Saleen chastised him, then asked him about weaponry with a smile.

“A sword,” Sul replied.

Saleen took a sword out from his Devil Ring. It was not every day that he crafted equipment for warriors. With the large alchemy factories in place, Saleen’s Water Flame Alchemy had been used exclusively for crafting mage’s equipment.

Still, Saleen did have a small number of pieces of warrior equipment with him. Sika’s weapons were indestructible, but Jola’s Tears was not.

Even though it was strong, it was nonetheless a piece of equipment that was between levels nine and ten. The sword that Saleen held was a product that he had been testing continuously, which he had been researching for the sake of Jola and Sul.

Sul took the sword in his hand and infused it with his sword aura, which felt unusually smooth, just like how it felt when one was able to breathe easily. The veterans then looked at the surrounding figures excitedly, feeling both shocked and at ease.

Saleen was their highest leader, and the figures that had been unleashed by him were all bearing the auras of powerful beings. Sul, however, wore a plain smile instead as he took a step back and let the figures come at him.

The nine figures all held halberds, and four of them attacked while the other five were on the defensive. Huge blades swung about in all directions, making the mercenaries feel uneasy, as if they were the ones being surrounded. The four halberds them were working together in a formation, without using any fancy tricks.

Sul turned his body about and slithered through the four halberds’ trajectories before lashing out with a thrust at the head of a defending figure. At that moment, Saleen felt a pinch.

It would have been better if Sul had gone for the heart. With the head torn, it would have cost him quite a lot of constellation power just for repairs, even if the soul of the figure was unharmed.

The figure that was attacked by Sul’s thrust immediately dropped to the ground. It was clearly under Saleen’s control.

Sul had not brought his sword aura to bear. Otherwise, the figure would have been destroyed right then and there.

The other four halberds cut Sul’s way off completely, and regardless of how mobile Sul had become, there was simply no way that he would have been able to sneak through the lockdown that was brought about by the eight halberds.

The remaining eight figures reorganized themselves and went to lock Sul out of their range of attack again, while one of their own was also being attacked. There were no longer any openings to exploit.

Sul frowned upon seeing that the combat capacities of the figures were far more powerful than the puppets’, as they were able to synchronize their actions with each other in such intricate ways.

He finally shot out the sword aura that he held within the sword in his hand. However, his sword aura was pure white instead of golden.

At that moment, the eight halberds broke at the same time. The arms of the figures were torn where Sul’s sword aura had passed. The eight figures then switched to using their limbs and knocked on Sul’s sword nonstop.

It all happened so quickly that Saleen’s Elemental Eye struggled to keep up. He saw Sul materialize one sword into eight, and every single blade was attacking a different enemy.

The sword then broke, causing Sul’s expression to become rather gloomy. Even if it had simply been some high level magic equipment, he would have fared better than that.

But, as such, his level nine sword aura had failed to keep the sword in one piece, which spoke volumes of the very experienced combat techniques that the figures possessed. Judging from Sul’s impressive prowess, his main weakness was clearly his weapon.