Badge in Azure

Saleen’s diving combat vessel was only 18 meters long. It had a long and narrow body, which was divided into four parts: holds for rest, storage room, control room and an alchemy room installed specifically for mages.

The material used for building the ship was special, as it was made of refined thundercloud wood. The backbone of the ship was made of bones of ancient magic beasts that Saleen had gifted to Jason.

No metal was used. The advantage was that it made the vessel extremely light, which meant that it could travel at very high speeds.

The ship was named after Saleen. The final part that Saleen installed on the ship was a Hogina’s Gun that he had crafted. While the Thunder Dragon Blaster was incredibly powerful, its materials were incredibly rare.

Even if Saleen slaughtered all 24 thunder dragons he had with him, it still would not be enough to craft the one that he had with him.

Hogina’s Gun was more practical that the Thunder Dragon Blaster. Only Saleen was able to wield the blaster. Hogina’s Gun could be constructed by a great variety of substitute materials so long as the schematics were complete. It could be made in different sizes. If it had not been for the weapon being very fragile, Saleen would arm every single mage of his with one.

The cost for crafting a Hogina’s Gun could make him approximately three other pieces of equipment of the same level. Furthermore, the equipment required little maintenance, while Hogina’s Gun required constant repairs. Mages who lacked in alchemy techniques were ill-suited to use such a piece of equipment.

There were three Hogina’s Gun on the ship, one main gun and two meant for dealing with small vessels, other individual magic beast, or even humans. Even if the vessel were discovered, it would be very difficult to probe into its internal structure or crew using magic or divine arts, as the inside of the thundercloud wood shell was lined with thunder dragon hide left by Saleen.

The entire ship was finished by Saleen and Jason working together. It was reinforced using Water Flame Alchemy. While it was not a godly or semi-godly item, it was more sturdy than conventional holy items.

The Saleen was capable of going deepest, other than the Pan Turtle Alchemy Ship.

The vessel had undergone tests at the Oceanic Ice Block when it was being constructed. It was found to be capable of diving to about 5000 meters before something went wrong. After being reinforced with Water Flame Alchemy, the Saleen was capable of diving anywhere in nearby waters.

As the ship lacked a shell as thick as the Pan Turtle Alchemy Ship, the entrance was through a device that looked like a back fin of a fish, which was on top of the ship.

That protruding part was a hollowed out attachment that could be detached. The fin also served as a weapon, as it was capable of cutting through metal, which enabled it to tear ships apart when it traveled underneath them.

The Saleen secretly left Metatrin Harbor. There were few people on the vessel and so the place felt rather spacious. Nailisi summoned two demons to serve those onboard.

The vessel was powered by a magic power furnace, which gave it incredible speed and made it capable of traveling at over a hundred miles per hour a thousand meters underwater.

While it paled in comparison to ships traveling at the surface, it was incredibly difficult to achieve underwater. Underwater resistance was immense.

Even golden grand swordmasters were only capable of moving quickly for short distances if they were not boosted by skills. They would otherwise exhaust too much of the sword aura and drown.

If metal underwater vessels travelled at such speeds underwater, they would only be able to do so in short bursts. The vessels would risk disintegrating otherwise.

Furthermore, metal underwater vessels were only capable of diving about a hundred meters deep. They were unable to withstand the pressure at further depths.

The Saleen, on the other hand, looked effortless while traveling at such high speeds at a depth of a thousand meters. No one at the surface would be able to detect ships traveling at such depths.

Saleen was able to radiate his level ten aura without concern, which naturally repelled underwater magic beasts, making their journey smooth.

They took a detour around Grand Duke Iron Blood’s ocean palace. Saleen was unable to find any signs of the grand duke’s ships going near Metatrin City. Saleen gave up searching and accelerated his ship to twice its original speed, making for the sixth temple.

Saleen chose not to travel by air, as he would need to deal with the grand duke’s forces and Alchemy City. While Alchemy City helped defend Daliang City, they only did so because they had something to gain. While the grand duke was powerful, if Alchemy City truly stopped his advance, there was little the grand duke’s armada would be able to do to penetrate Alchemy City’s defenses.

Even Saleen, who had brought so many soldiers and pieces of equipment with him, would need repeated transfers using Nailisi’s 12 Notes of First Purgatory if he penetrated Alchemy City’s defense.

Saleen stuck close to the edge of the Stormy Sea as he went south. He did not encounter any trouble along the way.

There were few who dared to venture out to the deep sea, and as the Grand Duke had set his sights on the lands nearby, he did not bother to develop ships capable of traveling underwater.

The Saleen was also a specially made vessel. The high performance came at the cost of the ship’s size and offense.

No one was in any mood to admire the underwater view. Everyone onboard trained in their own rooms. Nailisi was the only one controlling the vessel and was bored. Saleen crafted equipment for his subordinates in the alchemy room.

Their destination was about 20 thousand miles away and the Saleen was able to travel 4800 miles per day. It was far less time-consuming to travel like that than to use any other magical equipment. Saleen arrived after only three more days at sea.

The temples were in really obscure places.

Saleen finished a piece of equipment and was about to hand it to Sul, when the vessel trembled. An 18 meter-long warship was a rather small piece of equipment, which meant it could shake from any rapid underwater currents.

At first, Saleen did not worry, but he quickly found that the passage of time within the water was changing rapidly.

Saleen headed towards the control room and found a giant fish approaching the vessel from the images projected on the magic walls of the ship. The fish opened its mouth wide. Every single fang in it was incredibly sharp and longer than the vessel.

Saleen was so steeped in crafting equipment that he only found a magic beast on their tail then.

As the Saleen was radiating level ten aura, anything that dared chasing after the vessel was definitely ferocious. Only something of comparable levels was daring enough.

Furthermore, the beast was capable of concealing its aura, preventing Saleen from noticing. The feat spoke volumes of the beast’s powers.

Their current problem, however, was that the beast was turning tail and running. It was terrified by the big fish right in front of them.

The fish was not after the Saleen, but the magic beast behind the vessel.

Saleen said to Nailisi, “why didn’t you say anything?”

Nailisi shared a soul bond with him. Even if she stayed silent, she could send thoughts about the looming danger to Saleen telepathically.

Nailisi shrugged. “Master, we can’t come all the way here and run around all the time anyway.”

Saleen thought about it. There was no way he could let one magic beast deter him from finding the temple. The temple’s coordinates were only several hundred miles from where they were.

If we kept ourselves from the temple just because there are magic beasts around, then what are we doing here in the first place?

Nailisi took control of the vessel. The ship was nimble, but the powerful suction was unavoidable.

Saleen’s ship was sucked into the fish’s mouth. The fish’s fangs were over a dozen meters long, but they were far apart. The ship was completely overlooked and thrown out into the water again from its gills.

Saleen was able to see from the projections that one single scale was longer than the Saleen. The ship slid out of the gills and glided along the body of the fish.

Before Saleen was done sighing in awe, he felt his ship dragged downwards by underwater currents.

There was a huge abyss right in front of him, which was far more terrifying than the one at the Imperial City of the Abyss. Saleen was elated. This has to be the location of the temple. Legend has it that this place is called the abyss of Myers Mainland. Even the Cloudflows avoided this place.

The abyss was not a danger to the surrounding waters, as it had limited effect on its surrounding waters. But if something were dragged into the abyss, it would prove difficult to resist even if it was of the size of the Ancient.

The vessel kept being dragged downward, but the surrounding pressure remained unchanged. No signs were told by the magic arrays, but Saleen had his magic tower prepped and ready.

If the vessel disintegrated, they would plunge more than ten thousand miles into the ocean. While he would not be affected due to his water element body, the same could not be said for those around him.

There was a magic platform with an expensive, high-level compass on it. Machinery for control and a flat magic panel was right beneath it. All 24 bright red lights flashed on the panel. Saleen almost took out his Magical Element Tower.

His tower was far larger than the vessel itself. If he took it out, there was no doubt that his ship would disintegrate. All the magic arrays would collapse and a space chasm would appear.

Saleen saw another, bigger mouth and gave up taking out his tower. Saleen’s vessel was probably little more than a speck of dust to that mouth. If he took out his tower, he would be treated as an enemy instead.

Saleen had no idea how big the mouth was. The length of the fangs within was probably over a hundred meters long. The trembling seawater around them originated from the breathing of that big fish.

Seawater was absorbed into the fish’s mouth and then expelled through the gills, collecting the energy within, which sustained the fish. Saleen took over the controls of the ship immediately and sent it straight into the fish’s throat.

The gills were terrifying. Seawater was dissolved into all manners of wind element, which was then absorbed by the fish. If Saleen intended to run, his ship would have to contend with the fish’s prowess at breaking down elements.

Saleen had never encountered a magic beast that powerful before. Even the silverline golden spearfish was only exceptionally adept at offense. This fish, on the other hand, threw out a magic attack above level 10 with just a single breath, and the area-of-effect was huge.

It was fortunate that such a magic beast only resided in the deep sea. If it were on land, it would probably devour an entire city.

Saleen did not need to ponder such thoughts for long, as Saleen’s ship went straight into the fish’s throat, the width of which seemed to be more than a mile wide. Saleen recalled the hundreds of huge fangs, which were spaced wide apart. It was unthinkable that the fish was sustaining itself on magic.

He took the ship past the fish’s throat at the fastest speed the ship could muster, heading straight for its belly.

He then quickly found an Ancient within, which was digested until only pieces of wreckage remained. The Ancient was a main battleship.