Badge in Azure

All of them rushed to Saleen after emerging out of the crumbled halls. The ground beneath their feet began to crumble and shatter. Rumbles were heard all over the place. Saleen found that the space occupied by the four halls was but a small part of the entire temple.

The ground crumbled, and they fell. Saleen scanned with his Elemental Eye and saw what was actually happening.

He was actually on a huge plant. The four halls were on one of the platforms on a branch of the huge plant.

The huge ancient tree was probably over a thousand miles tall. Most of its branches had withered, but green was still seen near the crumbled halls. The tunnel he fell from also had leaves growing out of it. The myriad of magic plants were simply parasites living off the ancient tree.

It was a tree left behind by the Goddess of Myers and it had no divinity to speak of. It was simply remains of intelligent plant life. The branches and leaves seemed to possess powerful life force, as if they had been revived.

None of them was able to see as far as Saleen, but a level ten professional was able to see three to five miles without needing additional skills. All of them grew aware of being on a huge, ancient tree.

At that moment, Sika burst out laughing from the hall that seemed to have buried her. “Hahahahaha…the power of nature!”

Everyone was puzzled. They were not used Sika behaving in such manic ways. Saleen called and had Nailisi return to her imp form. Everyone backed away at his prompting.

The huge ancient tree began to shrink at a frightening speed. Within half an hour, the ancient tree was reduced to the size of about 500 meters tall.

The tree began to transform after shrinking to such extents. Its many branches turned into a torso and the roots, which Saleen was able to see, began to transform into shapes resembling the lower half of humans.

A tree puppet? No, a tree puppet can’t be this powerful. Aini’s death plants are never this strong.

Saleen was smart, but he was unable to tell that the ancient tree was how the Goddess of Myers achieved godhood. Myers turned into a god and renounced her identity of a mage.

The tree died as a result. Myers was so sad that she had mages craft the tree and place it under the secret temple.

Sika was trained in the shamanic arts of a nature priest, which resembled the route that Myers had taken before she became a god. The ancient tree came to life again because of Sika’s arrival. The plants that had been living off the ancient tree all grew in a frenzy. They advanced so much that they were able to harm people.

The ancient tree was already a powerful piece of magic equipment, and Myers was incapable of using it after becoming a god, so she left it behind as a memento. It was totally unanticipated that when Sika was pondering the secrets to advance to level ten, she unknowing connected with the ancient tree.

Sika was bold enough to use shamanic arts to nurture the power of life within the ancient tree, enabling the tree to grow something like a magic beast soul.

The tree’s original soul had died and the newborn thing was not a magic beast soul, but was able to serve identical functions. Sika took control of it and put it away, enabling the ancient tree to return to its magic equipment state.

However, the skills of the shamanic arts were very different from magic. While the skills did not run against magic like divine arts, the tree became a unique piece of equipment resembling a shaman.

It was originally a soul that could only be nurtured at level 13, but it was nurtured by Sika before its time. The ancient tree became a shaman tree. It was not a weapon, but it was a tool of war and looked like a huge puppet.

The ground and the palaces on the shaman tree had crumbled. Sika was unable to protect the palaces as she was unable to reach level ten. What she did was akin to forcefully interrupting everyone’s training. If they had a dozen more years to train, Sul might have broken into level ten and become a true might.

“Smaller, smaller I said!” Sika was still howling. The shaman tree had shrunk in half again, but it was still about 200 meters tall.

Sika let out thick panting noises. No one was able to make out what she said from then on. It was all old and complex syllables, which sounded rushed.

As Sika unleashed her ancient shamanic skills, the tree finally shrunk normally.

Saleen only found something off at that moment. The shaman tree seemed to be shrinking without stop. He quickly cast Quickcloud and wrapped everyone in it, flying towards the space tunnel.

“Saleen! Wait for me!” Sika yelled. Saleen had no intentions of doing so. Saleen had no certainty that she was able to keep things accident-free her first time trying out such shamanic arts.

When Saleen had risen several hundred meters in the air, the shaman tree had shrunk to the size of about a foot tall. Sika cradled it in her arms. The space around her collapsed violently.

Sika was unscathed due to being protected by the power of the tree, but if Saleen and the others had remained where they were, they would have died.

Sika forcefully took the shaman tree away and disrupted the balance of the space. She found herself in a tight spot and took flight. A priest’s flight abilities were lacking without a soul beast.

Sika burst through the obstacle caused by the collapsing space and caught up to Saleen after fumbling about.

Saleen took her into the mist and rushed upward.

A space collapse was not as easy to deal with as space turbulence. Within the vicinity of a space collapse, the basic structure of all matter would be altered, and even Saleen’s Starline Armament was unable to deal with it.

Sika was not actually doing anything wrong. If she had left the shaman tree, it would be taken by others.

The shaman soul was not actually that powerful, as it was only just born and required nurture. The uprooting of the tree triggered the space collapse, diminishing the powers of the shaman tree by an unknown margin.

Saleen had no way of blaming Sika for the mishap. It would be regretful if Sika did not find the tree.

If such powerful equipment fell into the hands of others, trouble would come to him. The temple was not something that no one would discover. He had been there and left tracks behind, which the Holy See would definitely be able to trace.

If they found where he went, the Holy See would definitely be able to open the temple, and then take away the tree.

The passage they came in was over a dozen miles long, but at Saleen’s current speed, it was a journey that would take them a little more than a minute. They soon arrived at the exit of the passage.

Don accelerated all of a sudden and burst out of the mist. As soon as he emerged from the exit, spears came at him.

Don smirked coldy and swept the spear nearest to his body, sending the other spears flying. All who thrust their spears at him had their hands cut.

Saleen emerged shortly after. He saw what Don did and did not get near the ground, aiming for the skies instead. There were more than a dozen holy masters surrounding a middle-aged man in the sky. The middle-aged man cast an instant divine spell after seeing someone emerge from the passage.

A huge shaft of light spear headed for Saleen. The holy master was actually able to target Saleen in the mist.

Saleen just advanced to level ten, but his powers were stable. He cast an ice bomb, which burned instantly and the surrounding elements became unstable.

The burning ice bomb clashed with the light spear, which penetrated the bomb and got reflected aside.

Saleen fired a lightning icicle. The middle-aged holy master sensed something coming and threw out a light ball of their mouth right after. Heavy breathing sounds were heard from within the ball of light.

While Saleen’s lightning icicle was capable switching directions midair, the ball of light came all too suddenly. The lightning icicle clashed into it and fizzled and was swallowed whole by the ball of light.

Saleen was startled, but the middle-aged holy master was in a worse shape. They were able to feel the power taken in by the ball of lightning. The thing that had been swallowed overflowed with lightning power, which they had to take in.

The holy master tumbled in the air, about to hit the ground. The dozens of holy masters around them cast a divine spell at the same time, stabilizing them in the air.

Saleen knew that the figure was not the third head inquisitor, as the third head inquisitor would not so weak. Three holy masters cast powerful beams of light from afar, shooting high in the sky.

It was early in the morning and the holy beam of light was seen more than a dozen miles away.

Saleen knew the holy masters were calling for reinforcements. He did not mind. Don was capable of taking on the forces on the ground on his own. The terrain in the Skywell was complex. While Don’s powers were unstable, he was a level ten knight armed with the God-hunting Spear. If the enemy was incapable of surrounding him, they would be slaughtered.

Jola charged without waiting for Saleen to make further moves. Sul followed closely behind.

Jola was moving too fast. He thrust his sword as he came before the holy master, who had buffed themselves with over a dozen divine spells. Despite having put up Divine Protection, they were stabbed by Jola’s sword.

The holy master turned illusory, as if they were about to run. However, the power bursting from Jola’s sword kept them locked in.

The holy master shrieked in horror, forcibly blocking Tears with the Scepter of Honor in their hand.

A flash of white light was drawn by Tears, cutting both the holy master’s scepter and arm off. The holy master fell and unraveled a divine spell scroll. Jola pulled his sword down and destroyed the spell that had just been cast.

White light shot out of the holy master in a frenzy. Layers of Divine Protection stacked. The defenses put up were too powerful to be destroyed in one go by Jola.

However, when Jola lashed out with yet another thrust, the holy master was about to spew blood. The surrounding holy masters intended to protect them, but they were all thrown off by Sul’s sword.

The holy master was not be able to keep up with the flight abilities of golden grand swordmasters at the pinnacle of their level.

Seeing how sword aura burst all over Sul’s body, which exceeded the holy light in brightness, the holy masters dared not split up. If they did so, their heads would probably end up being collected by Sul.

Saleen did not continue attacking. He was able to sense that several powerful people were coming at them from the west. He immediately took out the ice spike that he had put into the Starline Ring.

Despite having been severely damaged after it was completely, the ice spike remained intact. Saleen felt that the powers remaining within the ice spike were one-tenth of its original capacity, but he was able to use it.

He locked onto his targets with the Thunder Dragon Blaster at the same time.

The holy master was clad in a red robe. No hair was found on his head and he looked about 40 years old. A pair of fiery energy wings were behind his back, flying at Saleen at a speed that even Saleen was unable to achieve.