Badge in Azure

Saleen mobilized over 10,000 mages to build the city. Over 100 magic towers and countless magic nuclei were used in the magic power furnaces.

Saleen used common materials instead of high level ones in order to achieve maximum speed, which meant that they needed to be reinforced with magic and have their attributes boosted.

If it had not been for his alchemy factories possessing great numbers of magic power furnaces, it would place a serious toll on even someone like Saleen.

Saleen built a huge city in just three days. The city leaned against a tall lone hill and canals were excavated outside the city, which was tasked to the demons for the time being. Saleen needed to attend to something more important—open up a temple.

The Nature Knights were deployed and began summoning adherents. There were already about 400,000 people who embraced the Nature Faith in northern Qin.

The adherents came to the holy city for pilgrimage, and they were allowed to choose to live there. The Nature Goddess was capable of making good weather and ensuring crops grow in abundance. It was lethally attractive to the Qin.

The Cloudflow people jeered at Qin people for being countryside dorks, not only because of their aristocratic pride, but also because Qin loved the land too much. Some Qin nobles even got themselves plots of land just to plant things.

The plots were not allowed to be touched by anyone else, as the nobles themselves would plant things on them personally. It was a type of satisfaction that the Cloudflow people would never know. The Cloudflow people inherited the Fourth Dynasty’s tradition, making them too extravagant, complacent, and lazy.

Holy masters were sent out as well. There were only about 100 holy masters in a believer population of 400,000. The ratio was too small, but there was nothing that could be done about it. Anyone could be made a believer but only people who fulfilled relatively strict requirements could be holy masters.

Especially so with the holy masters of the Nature Faith, as they needed to be knowledgeable not only in terms of religious doctrines, but also knowledge about magic and comprehension of the world.

Many of the Nature Faith’s holy masters were scholars, and some were even magic apprentices.

Saleen was reluctant to make qualified magic apprentices into believers, finding it unthinkable to lure even the ones of average talent into the Nature Faith.

He could have to destroy the faith personally in the future. If he had been the one who proselytize them, it would be incredibly awkward if to kill them later.

While mages hardly suffered moral pressures from doing things, Saleen did not want to end up burying people he was supposed to lift.

He had learned it from his teacher. Jason drew a clear line between his own and his enemies, and would never bring innocents into his fights. Such people were more broadminded with their methods and their minds more resolute as well.

Anyone who dare stands in my way, I shall crush using magic. Anyone who has nothing to do with me, I shall not involve them in my business.

Despite the fact that mages placed little importance on emotional attachments, they ironically happened to be the ones who knew people the best. Only mages who ended up achieving little would know nothing but magic.

Even Hogina was actually very smart, but was reluctant to use her brains in other things.

It was the same with Imposa. He looked like a monster, but he had toughed things out in Alchemy City for many, many years. If he had been a stupid oaf, he would have died a long time ago, regardless of his proficiency in alchemy.

To the mages from Alchemy City, everything was disposable and replaceable.

He dismissed the holy masters and had them summon believers to the Nature City. Saleen left the Magical Element Tower to stand guard over the city, while he took Don to open a portal and enter the temple.

The interior of the portal was broad and bright, which Saleen found new. Furthermore, the portal was unusually stable. He was able to tell with one look with his Elemental Eye that the portal had not been opened for 10,000 years and the energy did not dissipate.

Saleen almost changed his mind, but he quickly caught on to the fact that if he maintained the portal, the adherents of the Nature Faith would know that the temple was left behind by the goddess, which would diminish his standing.

The reason Saleen had offered them favors was to establish two idols in their minds; the goddess and himself. Saleen had no need for power of faith, but if he destroyed the faith in the future, the believers would not go nuts against him.

The portal was short, and the temple left behind by the goddess was at the very end. The temple wasn’t unusual. It simply looked more lavish and extravagant.

Saleen cast the Puppet Constellation and sent puppets to raid the place, while he and Don talked about things in the north outside the temple.

Don told Saleen straight to his face, “Your Highness, I suggest that you do not eliminate the holy masters and believers of the Lord of Glory for the moment.”

“Why so?”

“The Lord of Glory is merciless and brutal. The doctrines seemed to be filled with mercy and love, but at its core, the faith sanctions elimination of all life who refuses to heed his words. The Nature Goddess is different. Anyone is welcomed into the faith, and no one is coerced into it. Non-believers would not be called infidels and there are no brutal punishments. When you compare things like that, it makes it easy for people to choose to either join the Nature Faith or the Holy See.”

“But the Holy See would attack adherents of the Nature Faith.”

Don smirked. “My liege, didn’t you build Nature City for waging holy wars? Wars push more people into seeking faith. The war between the gods are all just a ploy to reinforce their own kingdoms.”

“Heh, one hell of a way you have of looking at it, but Don…”

“Yes, Your Highness?”

“I never knew that you were capable of smiling. Your smile is really horrendous.”

“Hahaha!” Don burst out in laughter. “Your Highness, my mind has been dead for quite a while. But having come this far, I finally feel that there is actually a chance that I will be able to crush the Holy See with my own hands, so of course I’m happy. I don’t need any bit of sadness. I want to exact my revenge laughing.”

“Vengeance makes people fall. That is pretty much the only truth in the Lord of Glory’s teachings,” Saleen said in exasperation.

“There is another—he who is evil shall fall into purgatory.”

“Right, so you intend to send the Holy See to purgatory, am I right?”

“Indeed, Your Highness, and I need to thank you for making me understand that there is a lot that I’d need to get done while I’m still alive. You have no idea how many things that I once thought to be fact would look absolutely ridiculous today, like giving myself to service and sacrifice. All of that looks hideous, but we yearn to bask in the holy light. The Holy See is one hell of a joke!”

“Don’t get too extreme, Don. In the perspective of mages, one could start anew anytime. I’m using you, sure, but that doesn’t mean that I’d like for you to pave your way to destruction. You may find a path that is truly yours someday.”

“Your Highness, you really are more suited to missionary work than I am.”

“So do you believe what I said?” Saleen asked while looking straight into Don’s eyes.

“I do. It’s a pity that you were born too late and I too early,” Don answered dejectedly. If he had followed a king like Saleen when he had first chosen his profession, he definitely would not have ended up where he was.

“Alright, Don. I believe that you’ll have a future because I’m an astrologer as well. I see the fates of people.”

Don was moved by Saleen’s words. He stayed silent and pondered what he said.

Saleen, however, interrupted his thoughts. “You’re right, I’m indeed hoping to start a holy war when the Nature Faith is established. We would only be defending at the start. The Nature City would serve as the main base for the Nature Faith, so I intend to pull this temple apart and put it on the ground.”

Don finally understood why Saleen never bothered constructing a temple despite having built the Nature City.

The temple that the puppets were taking part used a lot of jade, as well as thundercloud wood. The thundercloud wood was the only material exempted from the list, while every other precious construction material was used for rebuilding above ground.

There was nothing dangerous sealed inside, and there were no treasures left behind. The materials the temple were constructed from were parts of a larger divine rune charm array.

With the temple being so well-preserved and no signs of aging found in any of the materials, it seemed as if the Goddess of Myers had foreseen that day. She seemed to know that Saleen would need a complete temple to amass believers.

“I’ve designed a temple that will serve as the Nature City’s core. It will create a huge divine rune charm array that will serve as something like a magic net. But magic nets are mature technology while the divine rune charm array needs many holy masters to man, which means we’re short on manpower in Nature City. Don, I need you to get this fixed as soon as possible. I’ll assign some false believers—the demonic spirits and imps—to play the role of holy masters.”

“You seem to have everything laid out in detail, Your Highness. What else do you need from me?”

“You’ve done a good job so far. I’m very surprised to find over 300,000 believers in the faith now. Oh, right, the demons, tell them to never believe in the goddess, and tell the believers to accept the demons.”

“Understood, your highness. I’m already at it, but…”

“But?”

“There are huge amounts of powerful professionals from the Holy See 1000 miles from the north.”

“Hmm?” Saleen was alerted. A thousand miles away meant that it was near the church that he had just destroyed. Large number of powerful professionals? Don couldn’t mean professionals who are lower than level nine when he said that.

It would hardly be surprising if Daliang City was not a warzone at the moment.

However, with the fighting being so intense at Daliang City, so much so that the Holy See would give up on a full force assault on central Qin, the Holy See would only send the powerful professionals to the cemetery of the giant if they had such manpower to spare.

Why would they send people to northern Qin?

“How long has this been going on?”

“It started in June this year.”

“Almost half a year ago then! Alright, I’ll send someone to look into it,” Saleen said as he controlled the Puppet Constellation, taking apart the temple patiently. It was not a destructive type of deconstruction, meaning that it needed more time. It was fortunate that there were over 1,000 types of puppets in the Puppet Constellation, making deconstruction a breeze.

A huge number of materials were taken apart and dumped into dimension stones. Saleen thought it would be over soon, but he didn’t expect to see a huge silhouette when he was taking down the last hall, emerging from within aid hall.

“Sh**!” Saleen cursed as he saw the silhouette. It was a huge, lively statue. It was 24 meters tall and looked rather dazed. The features suggested that it was an image of the goddess herself. Saleen was so used to Nailisi’s looks that he had no problem recognizing the goddess.