Badge in Azure

Saleen’s confidence grew after acquiring the three Thundering skills. The most difficult of skills to deal with when fighting powerful ones above level 10 were territorial skills and skills that had stun effects.

Furthermore, there were some skills that had nothing to do with magic, but were still able to stun people. For example, Sul’s swordsmanship was forceful and overbearing. Jola’s swordsmanship held great force within sorrowful strokes.

Mages were unable to even gather their spells when dealing with martial artists, and they were killed without being able to make a move.

Dark Blue, who was serving Grand Duke Iron Blood, was a true might who held similar skills. Mages below level nine would probably die when facing true mights if they got within 50 meters.

Staying over 100 meters away was not necessarily safe. A true might’s movements were considerably faster than a golden grand swordmaster.

The speed of mages, on the other hand, held an edge in endurance. However, endurance mattered little when one’s head was cut down before things could be drawn out.

Mages only stood a chance against martial artists if they were able to withstand the attacks or were able to act before getting into range of a martial artist’s attacks.

When a mage reached level nine, their lifespan grew, and they began to train in some close offensive spells. All close spells for attack were instant-cast and very powerful. All of them were meant specifically for dealing with martial artists.

For instance, Saleen’s Crystal Finger only had a range of 12 meters even at level 10. However, nothing a martial artist was able to pull would be able to withstand the Crystal Finger’s attack within such a range.

Saleen was not afraid of attacks from martial artists as he had the Figure of Fate. The fights would end so long as he was able to survive the initial strike, and then follow up with one strike with Crystal Finger.

It was a solution for if Saleen was bereft of his other equipment. Saleen stored 24 level 11 spells in his Starline Robe.

He would not bring only four of his followers out for adventures otherwise. He did not have the Puppet Constellation back then and his enemies could easily overwhelm him with sheer numbers.

Holy See took notice of Nature City, and an army was being amassed over 1000 miles away. A certain percentage of all forces within a 1000-mile radius from Nature City that belonged to the Tanggulasi Empire and the Holy See were drafted to form an army to fight a holy war.

While the main forces of the Holy See were mobilized to Daliang City, northern Qin still possessed a huge army. The previous battles would be all for nothing otherwise.

The appearance of a nature god shocked more than just the Tribunal, who was undertaking secret missions there. Even the Holy See’s headquarters back in Tanggulasi was shocked.

The Nature Faith was several months old and was unable to amass enough power, so the Holy See paid them little heed.

The battle at Daliang City was far more important. No one knew how much wealth the cemetery of the giant held, but it would be enough to affect the entire mainland. The Holy See even gave up its plans to continue attacking the rest of Qin.

However, the emergence of Nature City made the Holy See restless. The Nature Faith was backed by a powerful force, so much so that the force was able to fake divine miracles. It was a trespass that the Holy See was unable to stomach.

If they sat around and did nothing, the entire northern Qin would be taken over by the Nature Faith.

The expeditionary force out to destroy Nature City was 200,000 soldiers. While it was a ragtag army, there were over 30,000 wardens and tens of thousands of blood knights unaccounted for. The supreme commander of the army was a level 10 holy master.

Saleen caught wind of related intel very early. The 200 thousand-strong army looked pointless to him, as there were only one level ten powerful professional taking charge. They might have as well been walking to their deaths. However, at Kroraina’s side, a seemingly insignificant force attracted Saleen’s attention.

It was the new Heaven Knights corps set up by the Holy See.

The Pivotal Council’s Sacred Knights were all very well-equipped, but the Heaven Knights remained the most powerful knights corps in the Holy See’s history. Saleen was able to learn a thing or two about the Heaven Knights’ skills from Don.

They consisted of little more than 100 members and were organized in a way that any one of them could have their combat capacity boosted by one whole level.

The enhancement made their combat capacity formidable. It did not involve drugs and had little to no side effects. It was terrifying to have a golden grand swordmaster appear at any moment among a squadron of knights.

Golden grand swordmasters were capable of killing mages quickly. Saleen would not have had to bring powerful martial artists with him before he reached level nine otherwise.

An encounter with a golden grand swordmaster had Saleen on high alert for when he encountered an angel of fear.

A human’s combat was far more terrifying than the natural born devilish beings. The beings fought mainly by instinct, but humans relied on techniques amassed and refined over thousands of years.

Saleen was relieved to have Don take charge of Nature City. With the nature temple assembled, the holy masters of the entire Nature City were enhanced by one whole level. Although the 24 level 9 holy masters were incapable of actually advancing to level 10, it would suffice for defending the city.

Saleen gave a very straightforward order to Don—he was to hold the line and never venture outside the city. Saleen brought four of his followers and went all the way to Kroraina to intercept the Holy See’s Heaven Knights corps.

That army was about 30,000-strong, and according to the rules of the Holy See’ knights, each of the 30,000 knights had four or more servants. The combat capacity of the servants equaled an elite career soldiers.

The servants were all formidable fighters, due to the fact that the death of their knight meant their own deaths. Saleen ventured out to see for himself how far the Heaven Knights could affect the battles.

If his Puppet Constellation was incapable of handling the holy war army, then conventional troops would be hopeless against them.

Nature City was about 8,000 miles away from Qin border, but due to Kroraina’s collapse, the Heaven Knights were able to ride through Kroraina territory at full speed. When Saleen got near the border, the Heaven Knights were about to enter Qin.

The army consisted of about 150,000 soldiers divided into three groups. They were all on Kroraina’s plains, crossing a river.

It was winter and the river had frozen over, negating the need for bridges. The Heaven Knights were well-equipped enough to be practically immune to the cold. Over 10,000 knights advanced at a decent speed, and some inferior horses carried surplus equipment.

The ice was not thick enough and having fully-armed knights running on the ice was dangerous. If every soldier advanced at the same speed, it would collapse the entire sheet of ice.

The extra horses were there to make sure that the vibration frequencies on the ice were scattered.

Saleen flew over the river in the Magical Element Tower and looked at the Holy See’s Heaven Knights, feeling concerned.

The first wave of the army had crossed half of the river and the army at the rear was gathered at about five miles away. Their synchronization was perfect. Saleen scanned the armor on the soldiers with his Elemental Eye, and found that it was made from fossilized god fragments.

Holy prose filled the Heaven Knight armor, and the weapons were not simple lances, but huge ones that the Holy See had crafted specifically for the Heaven Knights.

There were flying magic beasts flying above the army bought from Cloudflow.

The flying beasts flew at an altitude of about 1,000 meters. The soldiers riding on their backs were able to easily monitor the ground using alchemy binoculars. The Magical Element Tower stayed at an altitude of 10,000 meters, but some people on the ground noticing his presence.

“Eleanor.”

Eleanor nodded and broke out the Seven Nights. She prepared three common magic arrows and shot them from the tower. Not even level 10 mages were able to guarantee accuracy at that distance.

However, it was achievable by archers. The three magic arrows were wrapped in wind element and flew down like eagles and hawks, piercing the skulls of three magic beasts from above.

Magic arrows were capable of acceleration, so Eleanor only needed to calculate the enemy’s trajectory. It enabled them to attack from over 100 miles away, with the condition that the Seven Nights was capable of shooting that far away.

Blood splattered high above the sky. Eleanor’s arrows felt like rain, and every single arrow hit its mark.

The warriors on the flying magic beast dropped to the ground. The attack came from above and they were experienced enough to know that speed and defense were incapable of dealing with such ferocious attacks.

Saleen kept a close eye on the ground and found none of them panicking. Teams of over 1,000 people split up, and the 1,000 ditched their servants and formed teams of about 100.

Every hundred-man-team had three holy masters.

What happened next left Saleen baffled. The 1,000 Heaven Knights took to the air and quickly gained altitude.

Eleanor’s arrows were quickly swept aside by the holy masters’ divine spells, and she was no longer able to hit the warriors riding the magic beasts.

Holy light burst, and Saleen saw that the holy masters were clad in equipment crafted from fossilized god fragments. The equipment connected the powers of all the holy masters, and the power of individual holy masters grew by over one level when casting spells individually.

The warhorses that the Heaven Knights rode were also clad in armor. Holy light burst and the warhorses took to the air. The holy light on the horses’ hoofs was the most concentrated. The warhorses carried their knights instead of flying by borrowing the power of the knights.

The 30,000 Heaven Knights were practically riding on 30,000 nightmares!

Saleen knew that the abilities would not last very long, or rather, they were able to do so by consuming divine crystals. But they had no need of fighting like that for long, because the speed of the warhorses were enhanced to over 200 miles per hour.

It was a speed that most mages were unable to achieve. Only mages of level nine and above would be able to surpass the horses.

They were divine horses!

Saleen knew that if he had not been there personally and it had been a demon army taking them on, they would have perished.

None of the demons would be able to run.

It was fortunate that they had the Magical Element Tower. Saleen made a snap decision and took control from the water puppet, taking the tower down.

There were silver grand swordmasters in the Heaven Knight teams. The silver grand swordmasters would be able to turn into golden ones at any time when backed by the compatriots, bringing powerful speed and offensive capacity.

Saleen’s Magical Element Tower was descending so fast that it crashed into a team. The tower’s immense height and weight, as well as terrifying speed, killed several of the knights.

Regardless of how durable their armor was, they would not be strong enough to take a mountain ramming into them.