Badge in Azure

The two puppets with souls argued while Saleen expressionlessly observed the gigantic puppet.

The gigantic puppet was probably about 800 meters tall. The radiance emitted by its two eyes was able to pierce through the darkness of space. Originally, Saleen’s Elemental Eye was subject to limitations, but even with the limitations he was still able to identify the scenery from up to 500 meters away.

The dilapidated temples obviously did not become worn out due to the passing of time. There were so many traces of battle that it made one feel terrified. A large temple had been split right down the middle, as if it had been cleaved apart by a sharp blade.

The combat ability of the puppets was still not bad, but Saleen wanted to know where the puppets initially came from.

The Myers Goddess’ temples were all located not far from the Myers Continent, and the energy required for spatial pathways or teleportation portals was not much. Otherwise after thousands of years’ consumption, it would be easy for them to fail.

Saleen had been to quite a few temples. First the one at Chaotic Swamp, then the one within the Titan Duchy’s borders, the one in the depths of the sea…

The space of every single temple was very stable. Even Elemental Storm Magic would not be able to create a crack within the space or cause the space to collapse.

The stability was fixed. If someone wanted to enter the spaces, the most convenient method was to use the Goddess’ godly power to enter from the plane of the Myers Continent.

How did the puppets enter this temple?

“Mage, don’t think anymore.” The two puppets stopped quarreling, and the puppet without legs spoke. “There is nothing in that temple. The Goddess’ disciples have been completely killed off by us.”

“There is nothing remaining?” Saleen had an expression of disbelief.

“Of course, we puppets do not lie.”

“I will go and take a look. You have a lot of time, isn’t that correct?” Saleen spoke to the puppets and released a wind travel spell and flew from the palm of the gigantic puppet’s hand, heading directly towards the temple in the distance.

The temple was mutilated. Saleen flew to the upper part of the temple and looked downwards. As expected, the temple’s materials had begun to decay, which would have taken millions of years.

Saleen was suddenly aware that the passage of time within the space was terrifying. Puppets were originally imperishable. The two who were the strongest were just like elderly peoplein their twilight years.

An ageing spell? Why had the entire space also aged accordingly?

The name of a divine spell floated into Saleen’s mind. Amongst the divine spells of the Holy See, there was an ageing spell that would also affect magic spells and astrology. The type of skill gravitated towards being a curse, but it also involved some magical technique.

The ageing of matter was related to time, and the passage of time was the result of the movement of matter.

The theories had always been in the knowledge systems of mages, but it had never been subjected to any experiments for verification. The various types of research conducted by mages had been extracted and connected in calculations to produce the result.

Saleen flew to the upper part of the temple. The two puppets did not launch any attacks or interact with one another. They merely patiently waited for Saleen to return.

Saleen descended towards the ground and directly entered the temple that had been split in two. There was still quite a few murals, but the altar had been dismantled. Saleen was even able to see the foundations of the altar.

Saleen was able to tell that the puppets’ decay was much faster than natural collapse of the temple. The puppets were searching for materials to mend their bodies. The material that puppets needed the most was mostly metal, as well as jade stones or magic nuclei. Saleen was only able to see a few steel rocks and all types of stones.

Steel rocks were not normal rocks, but they were also not jade stones.

Unexpectedly, the wood within the temple had been preserved. Saleen knew that when lacking Starline cloth, wood materials could also be used to create figures, and wood materials were also commonly used in the creation of puppets.

The wood appeared to be completely whole and without damage. Saleen released an ancient figure to move the wood materials further away. As Saleen had predicted, once the ancient figure’s hand touched the wood, it was reduced to ashes.

Saleen ordered the figure to collect the ashes. The wood was an extremely high grade material. Even after it had been turned into ashes, it was still a precious material for alchemy. The puppets did not know how to perform alchemy, so they could only use the most stupid methods to mend their bodies. Every object in the large temple could be used as materials for alchemy.

Saleen remained expressionless. He summoned the ancient figures one by one, and in the blink of an eye, there were 360. The appearance of so many ancient figures could not possibly remain undetected by the distant puppets.

The chief of the two puppets saw that a large number of figures appear at Saleen’s side and was stunned.

“I say, is that a mage or a figure master?”

“An astrologer?”

“That’s not right, he is definitely a mage.”

“No matter what profession he is, look, he has so many helpers, are we still able to capture him?”

“Impossible, our subordinates’ combat power can only frighten ordinary people.”

“How about we let the big guy act?”

“No, if not for the big guy holding things up for us, we would have aged to death!”

The two puppets’ discussion was unable to come to a conclusion, and Saleen began his process of taking apart the temple. Although the community of the temple had been severely damaged, it was only the portion on the surface. The underground portion of some temples were still in one piece. Unexpectedly, Saleen found a storehouse for magic nuclei underground.

The magic nuclei were not sorted according to quality. Like cement slag, they were randomly piled in the storehouse.

The ancient people did not value magic nuclei as much, but it was still a relatively precious type of object. The Myers Goddess had left behind so many magic nuclei for a reason. The temple was left for a mage.

The underground warehouses could only be opened by a human mage who was level 10 or above. Not much godly power was needed.

The puppets, who lacked a human’s mental power, had not discovered the underground warehouses. Saleen did not waste his trip. It turned out that the materials and equipment for mages were long gone, but the magic nuclei were sufficient to make up for the loss.

Because the Myers Goddess was not as stingy as the Grandmaster, all of the magic nuclei left behind were level 9 and above. Even Saleen was unable to quickly tell which magic beasts had left behind the magic nuclei. The variation between the kinds of magic nuclei was too complex, and the majority of them were definitely from other planes. Saleen even found a few magic nuclei with god properties. They were likely left behind from the magic beasts raised by the gods after they had been killed.

It looked like what a few books had mentioned was not wrong, Myers had participated in battles against other planes, and it was not as most legends had described, where Myers was a god of peace.

Myers had left behind the magic nuclei. Every piece was probably stained with traces of blood. They were the spoils of war that Myers had obtained from the different planes.

A level 18 god was the rank of the king of gods. When they killed, only a god with a similar rank could possibly be able to match them. What kind of god what Myers at that time? Saleen could understand. The consequences of offending Myers probably would not be too good.

Although Saleen thought it, he continued to take apart the temple without stopping. The temple had already collapsed, but Saleen wanted to erase all the traces left behind by the Myers Goddess.

Gods were no longer necessary. So what if he would be affected by the restraints of the bond, even if he had to revive Myers, he would absolutely not allow Myers to grow to the terrifying level 18 level again.

If the gods wanted to be revived, they must first relight the divine fire, and the basic requirement for lighting divine fire was level 13.

Saleen dismantled the temples, as he was afraid that if Myers really revived from level 13, she would be able to use the temples to quickly regain her strength. If not for the measures she had arranged before her death, every time the goddess advanced, it would be millions of times more difficult than it would be for humans. It was the cost of Myers becoming a god.

After reaching level 12, the speed of a human’s advancement was counted in thousands of years, while a god’s was counted in terms of millions and billions of years!

There was another detail. The geniuses amongst humanity would be able to break through the limitation of time, while gods, no matter how powerful, could only slowly endure it.

The emperor of the first dynasty was said to have only taken 40,000 years to advance from being a normal person to the highest level of advancement within the system of the Crystal Wall. while under normal circumstances, humans who wished to advance from level 17 to level 18 would require more than 120,000 years.

Within the temple, there was also the existence of puppets. Saleen had let the ancient figures circle around the puppets, but realised that the puppets were basically all decayed. Even if they were able to move, they lacked any combat abilities, so he could just look for a blank Starline scroll to seal the puppets that were more unique inside.

Puppet magic was comparatively difficult magic, and Saleen had learnt very little. The structure of the puppets themselves were the essence of alchemy, Saleen talked about sealing them because he was afraid that the puppets would continue to decay, and he would not even be able to obtain the structural diagrams of the puppets.

Twenty-four large temples had been destroyed, and Saleen had plundered them. Apart from the magic nuclei storehouse, the most valuable were the puppets.

Saleen saw that the ancient figures had cleanly taken apart the last large temple. Only then was he satisfied, getting the ancient figures to cluster around him, and returned to the front of the gigantic puppet.

“Have you finished your discussion?”

“What discussion?” The two puppets asked, baffled.

“Will you become my subordinates or continue to wait for death here?” Saleen asked.

The two puppets were both furious, the puppet without legs pointed at Saleen and shouted, “the goddess’ disciples wanted to make us yield, but even purification techniques were ineffective against us, and you want us to become slaves?”

Saleen smiled slightly, pointed at the ancient figures beside him. “Right now I am stronger than both of you. The figures are not subject to the rules and limitations of this place, and they are my eyes. I only need 100 figures to deal with the big guy behind you. Now, I merely cannot bear such waste, so I think it is best to properly discuss with me about the kind of trade we should have.”