Badge in Azure

The dragonboat moved forward a hundred miles and Sika turned around and asked Saleen, “Do you feel it?”

“Feel what?” Saleen did not get what she meant.

“Up in the sky. There’s someone watching us from above.”

Saleen stopped and spread his senses out after she said that, searching the sky discretely. It was like Sika said. A vague form of power was searching from high above.

Saleen’s senses were very sharp within a mile, and was considerably reduced after that, requiring the use of his Elemental Eye for observation.

He lifted his head and his gaze looked past the mist and the Water Shield, searching the sky. A huge bird was flying very high above and moving along the river. It was faster than the dragonboat.

The bird was about 10 meters long, with a wingspan of 16 meters. Its feathers were devoid of impurities, every feather emitting powerful energy waves.

Saleen let Sika go and let her put on her armor. He put on her Starline Armament and put on his mask properly.

“They haven’t found us yet, but there is no telling how long we have to hide.” The dragonboat rocked, the currents turning torrential all of a sudden.

The bottom of the river sank all of a sudden and making the depth drop to over 30 meters. The dragonboat remained moving forward and downward.

The bird above them accelerated and flew farther. Saleen knew that they were no longer in trouble for the moment.

That bird was a powerful magic beast of at least level nine. Saleen’s Elemental Eye was unable to see past the bird’s body, making it impossible for him to know if there was anyone riding it.

He and Sika had been enjoying themselves. The sudden interruption robbed both of them of their mood to continue.

“I think the Tribunal mobilized their forces to look for us, Sika. It was a mistake not killing the golden-armored knights.”

“Saleen, will they be able to find us.”

“If the river stays this deep, the Tribunal will have a hard time doing so, unless the head inquisitors are able to deduce where we’re going and set up defenses on the shore.”

There was no way for any one of the head inquisitors to know where Saleen was heading. The bird accelerated and did not bother to turn around to look for Saleen. The dragonboat accelerated in the deep parts of the river and headed west at blazing speed.

“Everyone, look sharp. Anyone who spots any danger lurking is to inform me immediately!”

His voice was heard in every one of the holds, but only Nicholas replied, “My liege, that was the third head inquisitor. He definitely summoned powerful flying creatures using the Wings of Heaven to look for us in the sky. If you hadn’t thought of travelling in such a way, they would’ve found us a long time ago.”

There was no way for anyone on the ground to run when they were being searched from above, but they were traveling underwater.

Unless the Tribunal had some special skills that enabled them to penetrate the surface of the water and reach all the way down to the dragonboat, sight and sensory divine arts alone would make it very difficult to spot it.

Coincidentally, they came across an extremely deep part of the river, which concealed the dragonboat even further, preventing them from being detected by the creature summoned by the Wings of Heaven.

Saleen found himself very lucky. It was an effect of having his astrological arts reach level nine, and there were indeed mystical changes to his fate.

While Saleen made the dragonboat incapable of traveling very quickly, it had come to deeper waters when the bird was found in the air. There was no way for him to know what the terrain of that Red River tributary was like.

Despite all of that seeming to be a coincidence, Saleen calculated things for a bit with astrology and found that he would be able to evade the disaster one way or another.

The great head inquisitor would definitely hand his equipment and explain its features to the third head inquisitor. If the third head inquisitor was also level ten, it would make it difficult for Saleen to deal with him.

He was heading for the source of the Red River, which was like charging into a storm. It would be incredibly dangerous, regardless of the equipment one carried, if one was not aa sufficiently high level.

There were many mystical tricks available to the Holy See, such as the skill and equipment employed by the Heaven Knights and unavoidable curses like the dark prophecy spells.

His luck would stay with him for the time being, if he were to be incapable of taking his fate in his hands and make yet another mistake, his fate would take a turn for the worse. It seemed to follow a pattern.

The more Saleen came to learn of fate, the less inclined he became to let his guard down.

“Sika, when will you be able to advance?” Saleen asked, rather frustrated.

“Saleen, it’s very difficult for nature priests to advance. I’d need a third magic beast soul. The higher the level the better,” Sika answered.

“How far would you be able to advance?” Saleen knew little about nature priests. Sika and Saleen did not get to meet often, which meant that they did not get to talk about the subject much.

“Level nine is only the beginning for a nature priest. We need three powerful magic beast souls to be able to even begin to advance to level ten. If we advance beyond level 12, we need six. But then again, that is my unique route of advancement. I advanced along the path of combat priest, which made it more difficult, but my power was over a hundred times that of common priests.”

“A hundred times?” Saleen was startled. He only knew that Sika was physically strong. Common Caucasian warriors possessed great strength, so it was only natural for priests to be stronger. But Sika is a hundred times stronger than common priest! Just what kind of concept is this?

Sika chuckled. “A hundred times is nothing, Saleen. Ancient humans would exceeded dragons when they reached certain levels. If I made it to level ten, I would no longer fear having to fight anyone up close.”

Saleen thought for a bit and figured it made sense. Demons were subservient to humans in ancient times. The physicality of common demons were accurate gauges of how strong common humans were back then.

A nature priest who had advanced along the route of combat priest would eventually exceed ancient humans.

“Would that bird be enough to serve as your magic beast soul?”

“Definitely not. Its level is too low!” Sika was frustrated as well. Her advancement was not too difficult when compared to mages.

However, powerful magic beasts were in short supply, and Sika was reluctant to use common level nine ones, as they would prove insufficient after reaching level 12. Such magic beasts would be no help advancing to level 13. Worse still, it might hold her back.

“Nicholas…”

“What is it, my liege?”

“What is that Wings of Heaven? Why would it be able to summon powerful magic beasts?”

“My liege, the Wings of Heaven has a god serving as its spirit. The third head inquisitor is incapable of using a spirit of such a high level, but he is able to summon magic beasts to fight for him.”

Saleen asked Sika, “would weapon spirits be good enough to serve as magic beast souls?”

Sika licked her lips. Saleen’s question was enticing. However, killing the third head inquisitor did not seem to be an option at the moment.

“I understand. Let’s keep hiding for now. If we ever run into the third head inquisitor and have to fight him, our goal will be taking the Wings of Heaven and capture the spirit within, making it your magic beast soul!”

“So long as you have the confidence to do so.” Sika smiled, relieved. Saleen did not suffer any serious trauma and his confidence was still brimming. While she had become stronger, she lacked the Saleen’s psychological state.

Saleen rubbed Sika’s shoulders. “If I were not confident, we’d all be doomed. Most of us are level nine, but if we run in to a level ten, we wouldn’t get to snuff them out even if we put our lives on the line. You know what my equipment is like. I can easily beat ten level 9s with those.”

The dragonboat crawled along the bottom of the river and covered several hundred miles more. The bottom rose again but the river grew wider. The amount of water in the river was fixed. When the river got shallower, it had to get wider.

Saleen searched the sky again. While his Elemental Eye lacked offensive powers, it enabled Saleen to evade dangers time and again, by enabling him to decide how to go about battles before his enemies approached him.

Advancement, the only solution to our problems at hand.

Saleen’s thought became increasingly firm. Metatrin City was safe because his teacher was there to hold down fort. His teacher was level ten and controlled 36 magic towers. The city was virtually impregnable.

Even if the great head inquisitor sent the Heaven Knights to attack the city, it would still be impossible for him to take it down.

When Saleen advanced, his astrological arts would advance as well. He would be capable of bringing the fullest extent of the constellation powers to bear, enabling all of his figures and puppets to become level nine. That would make it easy for him to launch assaults with them.

Ancient humans had lead level nine elites across all planes. Any life form below level nine was deemed too fragile.

It was proven through Jola and Sul, who had both became golden grand swordmasters. Their lifespan was the only thing affected when they were hit by the dark prophecy spell. The divine spell that hit them was level 11.

Less than half of the river was within Titan territory. The mountains were outside Titan jurisdiction. They only belonged to the duchy in name.

The dragonboat would enter the plains in five days. The river straightened out.

Saleen rode the dragonboat and evaded the Tribunal’s blockade. They went into Titan and finally arrived at the source of the Red River on the 10th day. The current was too swift further up, so the dragonboat just made it into the mountains before stopping in a deep lake.

A waterfall was right before them. It was several hundred meters tall, and the falling water sounded like thunder.

Saleen docked the dragonboat and had everyone disembark, before putting it away in his Starline Ring. He took out the magic compass and map, determining where they were at the moment.

“Our destination is about 400 miles from here. Everyone, take a break.” Saleen pointed at a cave near the waterfall. “We won’t build houses this time. There are people from the Tribunal not far from here.”

Everyone followed Saleen into the cave, which was hundreds of meters deep. Moss was everywhere, and there were bugs and snakes as well. Saleen cleaned it up with magic and lay down a magic array, covering the entrance of the cave in mist to avoid being discovered.

It might have been Saleen’s ridiculous good luck that they never encountered danger after entering Titan. They rested for one night in the cave. Two groups from the Tribunal passed by outside, but neither of them found Saleen.

Saleen found the cave to be a nice place and modified it before he left, leaving behind a concealed space with magic arrays and coordinate markers laid out. The space was unusually stable and from Saleen’s perspective, they could build a teleportation portal there.

400 miles would take common folk days to cover. Saleen and the others walked off the beaten path and scaled the mountains instead, moving in a straight line and arriving before a large hole.

The hole had a diameter of over two miles and dropped straight down. It was covered by mist, so its depth was unknown.

Saleen’s magic compass no longer worked, but the goddess’ temple would definitely be somewhere down the huge hole.