Badge in Azure

While the Tribunal army beneath the city suffered heavy losses, there were more than 10,000 fossilized gods killed. Their pieces being carted away.

Neither Holy Rock City nor Alchemy City had any idea what the insides of the ruins was truly like. They did know the value of the fossilized gods.

Daliang City attacked yet again after staying quiet for a while, deploying over 200 metal flyers to throw huge numbers of magic fire shells outside the city. The surroundings outside the city were quickly reduced to an inferno.

Saleen was summoning everyone around him in the palace and was preparing to leave Daliang City.

“Lex, Daliang City is safe now, but you still need to be around for a while. Take Gusion with you. I’ll keep in touch through the portal,” Saleen said to Lex while feeling rather sorry for her.

They were unable to spend much time with each other. Even Sika could, by then, could afford to go on adventures with him, yet Lex had to be in charge of Daliang City.

“Relax, just go. I’ve nothing to worry about with Sika by your side,” Lex said.

She hugged Saleen and reluctantly let go. It was something they had discussed earlier, so there was no turning back.

Saleen felt rather reluctant as well, but he took out a piece of dimension stone from his Starline Ring and handed it to Lex “I know you still have a lot of magic nuclei with you, but take these anyway. There is no telling what course the war from here on out will take. If you’re reluctant to give up the city, the magic nuclei in here will be enough for you to hold the line.”

Lex smiled and took the dimension stone. “Anything else?”

“Yeah, keep an eye on Jalin,” Saleen said. “Don’t let her get too near the people of Holy Rock City. There is no way I can take her along to search the temples, so I’m sorry that you’ll have to see to her. After all, she’s a huge pain in the a**.”

“No problem, if she dares cause me anymore problems, I’ll just kill her,” Lex said while tapping on Saleen’s hand.

She let him go and went to watch the party leave from the back of the palace.

Gusion stood behind her and said, “Your highness, his highness will be back soon enough.”

Lex turned around and took a look at the honest golden grand swordmaster and smiled, saying nothing. Saleen would definitely return soon, but she was still rather sad. She had been giving too much for their so-called ideals.

There was next to no one left west of the city. Saleen took Sika and the others on their way, encountering no huge groups of enemies along the way. There were only small numbers of scouts patrolling. When the scouts saw Saleen and his party get closer, they fled the place.

Saleen’s party for the adventure consisted of himself, Sika, Nailisi, Jola, Sul, Nicholas, and Eleanor. He had to harden his heart and send his children back to Metatrin City. They were about to enter the temple and search every single one of them, taking whatever within the temples they were capable of taking. This would ensure no one else acquired the goddess’ luck within the temples.

Other than the main temple at the center of the mainland, the Goddess of Myers had built 24 temples before she perished. They were spread across the entire mainland. All 24 temples resonated with each other, so their locations could be calculated. It was, however, a given that the calculation feat needed to be carried by a lot of mages. The mages of Metatrin City never ceased going about the task.

The locations of all 24 temples became increasingly clear. Errors were kept within a 30-mile radius. Such a range was hardly considered large when compared to the size of a temple. The calculations, in this case, were even considered very accurate.

The first temple that Saleen was going to visit was the one in Titan Duchy, which was also the place where he took Eleanor in.

Any remaining members of the pink thieves within the temple were probably eaten by the magic bugs. Saleen had only begun to feel that the metalized steel rocks within the temple were very rare materials.

If there had been huge amounts of metalized steel rocks at his disposal, his magic cannons could have been made smaller and easier to repair. The body of his magic cannons were all crafted using precious rock materials. It would have been easily damaged if the internal structures were constructed using metals.

But, Saleen was not there for the metalized steel rocks. He was there to empty the temple of its contents.

The Goddess of Myers had been a mage herself, a human who became a god. She left a lot of things behind. They were all suitable for a mage’s use. Saleen believed that there were some magic skills left over by the goddess in some temples from his current level of 18.

Even the grandmaster himself had not been a level 18 mage. The skill books he gave Saleen carried contents that could have only been discerned when Saleen reached level 12. Saleen dared not practice all the magic skills after. He followed the research materials given to him by the grandmaster.

The grandmaster had intended to set him up. Saleen believed that he could have done something with the research materials as well.

Saleen had seen quite a lot and was no longer as careless as he used to be. The party was split into three teams. He and Sika were to sit on the soul beast and fly in the middle. Nailisi was to take her devil form and be on the lookout at the front with two supreme demons. The rest of the party was to sit on the Wings of an Elf and tail them from behind.

The teams were separated for several miles from each other. They were to keep their flights at low speeds. Saleen’s Magical Element Tower was not finished being repaired yet, which was also why he dared not take his children with him. It would have been safer to have the tower with him. Not even a level 10 professional would have been able to do anything to them if they were to simply shut themselves inside the tower.

After flying for less than 500 miles, Saleen saw something off with a mountain below him. He called for the other two teams to stop while he flew higher and scanned the place with his Elemental Eye.

A lone mountain was being surrounded with cloudy mist, and there was a small platform at the peak. There were thin traces of writing on it, “Help me!”

The writing looked familiar. Saleen began to search his memories. He immediately recalled it to be Isabella’s writing.

Lex sent over a thousand people, as well as spies planted in all nations, to search for Isabella after she was taken away. They had never given up on the professional who was trained in both magic and martial arts.

Isabella was Saleen’s follower, and he needed to be responsible for her.

It seemed as if Isabella simply disappeared without a trace. The one who took her never showed up again. There was simply no way Saleen would have overlooked Isabella’s writing at the peak of the mountain. Regardless of how rushed the trip was, he was compelled to look things up to see if he was able to find anything about Isabella.

Nailisi turned around from the front and had the two supreme demons keep an eye from afar. She descended to the peak with Saleen, holding the Grey Memory in her hand. She was ready to punch a hole through any threats coming their way.

Sika did not descend. The platform at the peak was too small while her soul beast too huge. If she were to descend, Saleen would no longer have any need to search for anything.

Eleanor glided down like a breeze. Her Wings of An Elf could be folded. It was very convenient. While she had not broken through level nine, her flight capabilities were surprisingly good.

Saleen stood at the center of the platform and looked around, finding the platform to be shorter than the peaks around it. If he had not been flying nearby, he would not have been able to find it.

The writing on the platform was really big. Saleen bent down and took a sample, stuffing it into a crystal glass.

Eleanor walked up to him and said, “My liege, the writing is poisonous.”

“I know,” Saleen sad. “The poison has seeped into the rocks, which attracted the bugs or whatever. The black marks of the writing were only seen when said bugs got poisoned and died. It’s a trick of Isabella. I’m now trying to think how long the writing has been around.”

“So that’s to say that Isabella had a certain amount of freedom?” Eleanor had a good impression of Isabella. Speaking of which, Isabella should have been categorized as a mage instead of a grand swordmaster practicing magic.

“Freedom is relative,” Saleen said. “Having written something like this meant that her life was still in danger.”

Sika leapt from her soul beast seeing that Saleen was staying for a while at the peak. She was actually capable of flight even without her soul beast. She did so only because she thought the huge beast saved her a lot of energy, and she was even able to sleep on it. The huge soul beast was also a companion in combat, which was way more superior than a mage’s summoned creatures.

Nicholas came down and walked up to Saleen. He sensed the place for a bit with his Scepter of the Fallen in his hand and said, “My liege. This place has been affected by divine arts. I’m afraid you won’t be able to calculate the exact time this took place with magic.”

“I can, but it’d just take too much time. I can’t bring this back to Metatrin City without a teleportation portal as well. Man, if only I had the Magical Element Tower around.” Saleen sighed.

Nailisi toured around the place for a bit and returned to Saleen’s side, saying, “Master, how about I let the demons search the mountain for bit. We can take a break here for the night.”

Saleen nodded in agreement. He had departed in the morning and had originally planned on traveling under the cover of the night. Now that they found leads about Isabella, it was deemed permissible to delay their plan for just one night.

Sika let the soul beast to go rest somewhere in the shades after hearing that Saleen intended to stay instead of simply putting the beast away. Nailisi opened her purgatory of the devils. She summoned several supreme demons who had advanced and could search for anything suspicious around. Demons were most suited for such tasks since their sensitivity to smells and energy far surpassed that of humans.

The winds at the peak were strong. Saleen went to build four walls with magic to have everyone surrounded. The walls were crystal clear, but they were actually made of solid ice. It was fortunate that none of them hated strong winds or were they afraid of cold. Even Eleanor, the weakest in the group, was a level eight professional.

Sika did not reside within the walls. She summoned her pony and stood at the edge of the platform. The pony stuck the horn on its head at her sleeve. She caressed its mane. The pony quieted down and took a deep breath.

Sika took out a piece of equipment from her bone necklace and dangled it in front of her eyes. The equipment hovered before her. Even the strong winds were incapable of making the nearly white item, which was nearly three feet, budge.

The equipment looked like a starfish, but it only had three corners. One was longer than the other. The equipment was flat and hollow. It had sharp edges and resembled a boomerang.

The mountain winds blew through the triangular equipment and howled, like someone singing a sad tune.

“Master, what is Sika doing?” Nailisi peered outside the transparent ice wall curiously.

“She is crafting a weapon,” Saleen answered.

“A weapon that sings?” Nailisi grew even more curious.

“All weapons were used to kill,” Saleen said and cast the Water Flame, settling down and beginning to craft javelins for her.

The weapon that Sika was crafting at the moment would take a long time to finish and be deemed functional in battle. He told Sika that she lacked a ranged weapon, which probably made her anxious. It had prompted her to craft another weapon with battle souls of magic beasts in it.

To Sika, it was done a little too early.