Badge in Azure

A magic war chariot was described as a portable magical tower. Even though its offensive power was much weaker than that of a magical tower, it allowed a mage to meditate whenever they wished, which was its most important function. Onboard a magic war chariot, a mage’s consumption was lowered while their recovery was heightened, which was in fact a great boost to their offensive powers.

Lex handed the command of her subordinates to Saleen, then she began meditating. This journey would not be peaceful. They were not harassed by Tanggulasi’s army at the Stone Statue Castle, but it did not mean that they would not be attacked in the future.

Saleen decided to get Jola onboard, and showed him the map of Titan.

There were a few mountains north of the Chishui River, so the magic war chariots could advance very swiftly. It also meant that the cavalrymen from the Tanggulasi Empire could do so too.

Jola took one look at the map, then said, “Sir, we have to travel more than seven-hundred miles. The skeletal warhorses might be able to endure it, but the swordmasters will not hold on forever. We need to ensure that when we are entering the Purgatory Desert, everyone has their offensive powers. All of us should rest for at least eight hours daily, and the mages should help everyone rejuvenate their bodies. Excluding the three mealtimes and time taken to set up camp, we can only travel for ten hours every single day.”

“Ten hours, will the swordmasters be able to hold out?”

“We should have three hours of rest time. As long as there is sufficient sleep, they can hold out. The skeletal warhorses are easy to handle.”

“That means there will be nine hours left, and we can travel at a speed of forty miles an hour.”

“Sir, you cannot calculate in this manner. You have to take into account the rivers, mountains, enemies, and other kinds of situations.”

“So how long will it take?”

“If luck is in our favor, four days.”

Saleen heaved a sigh of relief. The Agares family would not be able to react in a span of four days. As this place was already seized by the Tanggulasi Empire, they only needed to guard against the Tanggulasi’s army.

Seeing that Saleen was kind of complacent, Jola said, “Sir, we have to be careful of Tanggulasi’s army, especially the ones who are related to the Holy See. Those people aren’t afraid of dying. To them, death is the simplest method to enter heaven.”

“What suggestions do you have?” Saleen knew that he could not win the war by marching an army, so he sought advice from Jola. Jola was no expert either, but he was more familiar with Cloudflow and Tanggulasi compared to Saleen.

“The mages are very exhausted. If the viscountess can provide constant-fire alchemical crossbows to lessen the work of the swordmasters, we can maintain our speed. Once a person is tired, they won’t even be able to travel in a chariot, much less ride on a skeletal warhorse.”

Lex opened her eyes and glanced at Jola. She then took out twelve weirdly-styled alchemical crossbows. A normal alchemical crossbow was about two meters wide, and a rack was needed for support. The width of these twelve alchemical crossbows did not even reach a meter. There was a protruding case on the top of each crossbow, where a gear was supposedly placed, but in its place were two magic arrays.

Such an alchemical crossbow could be swiftly loaded as the arrows in the magazine would flow into the groove automatically. Its firing speed was faster than that of a bow. The only flaw was that a magic nucleus had to be mosaicked into it, so the cost of production and maintenance was exorbitant. On average, before the shelf life of this alchemical crossbow was up, every arrow it fired would cost around three gold coins.

It must be noted that a soldier’s monthly remuneration was only one gold coin, some earned even less. A swordmaster’s pay was between three to five gold coins, this was the standard rate of a professional army. A mercenary earned more, but they were responsible for their own equipment. In actual fact, they did not earn a lot more, unless they were willing to take risks and put their lives on the line.

To prevent quick depletion during battle, Lex had mosaicked level-5 magic nuclei onto all the alchemical crossbows. The magic nuclei in the magic array could only be installed by a mage.

The convoy traveled through the night as they had not broke free from the troops stationed near the Stone Statue Castle. They could not rest for this night.

As it was October, deep into autumn, Titan was slightly chilly in the evenings. Fortunately, it did not rain continuously like winter in Cloudflow. It was not very overbearing either.

During the journey, the convoy ran into some leftover soldiers, they were the private soldiers belonging to Titan’s nobles who had been defeated by the Tanggulasi army. Jola did not hesitate at all. He led ten swordmasters and charged over, slaughtering these thirty leftover soldiers.

Saleen hesitated for a moment, but did not stop Jola. His team traveled in between Titan’s cities, as most of these cities would have Tanggulasi’s soldiers. Even though the leftover soldiers did not pose a threat to Saleen, they might leak information.

The convoy rushed all the way to dawn, it only stopped when the swordmasters could no longer stomach the fatigue. Jola found an obscure forest for everyone to rest in. If a brigade of soldiers camped in the forest, there would be trouble. Saleen’s team was very small, and many of them were elites. They were actually safe in the forest because of that. They would not be easily discovered.

In order to subdue the Metal Titan, Lex’s mages had severely depleted their mental strength. All of the mages were resting in the chariots, while Saleen created the Restorative Water for the swordmasters. Each of them was also blessed with the Chunlin spell.

After the soldiers were placated, Saleen set some magic traps to play it safe, then he intertwined many metal wires around the branches of the surrounding trees. These metal wires did not have any magical attributes, they were just hidden between the leaves. If someone wanted to conduct a sneak attack from above, the attacker would get trapped in the metal wires.

Jola was still alert, he accompanied Saleen all this while, and Sika did not leave Lex’s side at all. She knew that Saleen would need Lex’s help in order to complete the upcoming tasks.

After this very tiny camp was set up, Saleen did not return to the chariot. Instead, he built a platform between the treetops, and laid in a net formed by the metal wires.

This forest was not considered very dense, so the moonlight could penetrate the treetops. Gazing at the star filled sky, Saleen could not get to sleep no matter what. He took out the clan badge and caressed it. In the middle of this black badge, that deep imprint of the lightning star carried a touch of azure hue.

“It is an unknown as to when I can return to Ceylon City, Earl Sufonso should still be alive. With the whole world in turmoil, Sikeqinya cannot be spared either. Yaoyang City, which Earl Sufonso resides in, is still a port city. It is a pretty good resupply point in the north of the mainland.”

Saleen felt that he was homesick, as an unexplainable wave of affection overcame him.

“Master.” Nailisi climbed up the tree sneakily.

“Why aren’t you protecting those mages?”

“Cuisi and the rest are around, I don’t have to be there. Master, aren’t you waiting for me?”

“Waiting for you?”

“Of course, there are four demons, you need to understand their offensive powers and fighting techniques. I was still thinking of asking you to help them craft some equipment.”

As Saleen had just experienced some abrupt emotions, he did not bother arguing about the issue of Nailisi and the demons, he simply nodded his head.

Nailisi began explaining in detail the demons’ races, their abilities, suitable fighting techniques, and the equipment they required.

Saleen took note of every single detail, then he asked, “Nailisi, how many of such demons can you summon?”

“Master, if too many are summoned, they cannot be controlled. If you are talking about spirits, a few hundred can be summoned. We can select them, and they can be at the standard of a high grade swordmaster.”

“Is Cuisi stronger than you?”

“Yes.” With a lingering fear, Nailisi confirmed, “If he didn’t try to be a smart aleck, I might not have been able to see Master ever again.”

“I need demons like Luola, who are proficient at using weapons.”

“Master, this depends on luck. Such demons usually follow a devil. It is very difficult to summon them. If there are any mistakes, and a devil is summoned, all of us would be doomed.”

“What about the magic bugs?”

“Magic bugs achieve victory in numbers, they consume more food than Master’s lightning dragons. I summoned the magic bugs to feed the lightning dragons. Some magic bugs in the demonic plane are extremely huge, and their offensive power is really low. They look like worms which have been magnified thousands of times.”

Saleen felt disgusted when he heard that, but Nailisi continued introducing common knowledge about the demonic plane.

“Master, the magic bugs will only be valuable in an enclosed space like the one in the temple. If the enemy was the ten swordmasters serving Lex and they donned sealed magic armor, each of them would be able to slaughter tens of thousands of magic bugs. The life of a magic bug is short, they are not very useful. All the imps feed on magic bugs.”

“Nailisi, isn’t an imp stronger than a spirit? Why did you say that a spirit at the standard of a high grade swordmaster can be summoned?”

“A spirit’s appearance is highly similar to that of a human, they can emulate human martial arts very quickly. If their equipment is good. I am saying, they can have an offensive power equivalent to that of a high grade swordmaster.”

“I read in the books that a spirit might be a hybrid of humans and demons, and they can learn human magic. Is that true?”

“Of course not, a spirit’s inborn strength is hundreds of times stronger than that of a human. If Master didn’t use magic, you would definitely be defeated by a spirit.”

Saleen’s physique was akin to that of a beginner swordmaster, but he did not have the corresponding skillset. Saleen was clear about his own weakness.

“Is it very difficult to summon a demon?” Saleen analyzed meticulously, discovering the loopholes in Nailisi’s explanation. In order to possess high offensive power, it was impossible to rely on the spirits. In the demonic plane, a spirit’s status was even inferior to that of an imp.

Nailisi replied hesitantly, “Master, this matter…”

Saleen immediately felt that something was amiss, Nailisi would only speak non-fluently when she got into trouble.

Seeing that Saleen was staring at her, Nailisi knew that she would have to spill the beans sooner or later. She bit the bullet and said, “I used some of Master’s high grade materials, and six high level magic nuclei to summon them…”

Saleen was extremely angry, a high level magic nucleus was an item which did not have a market price. Other than getting high level magic nuclei from the temple and the hell of god’s punishment, Saleen had never seen more than two level-7 magic nuclei anywhere else. In an equipment shop, all magic nuclei above level-7 were sold separately, and only a sorcerer had the rights to purchase them.

After Saleen advanced to a sorcerer, he would have to rely on the high level magic nuclei to regain his magic chords in a short time. Nailisi had used six of them in one go.

“Master, please punish me.” Nailisi pressed herself against Saleen, looking guilty.

“How long can those four demons stay on the Myers mainland?” Saleen suppressed his rage. If they could only be summoned temporarily, then he would have suffered great losses.

“As long as I don’t die, they will not be sent back!” Nailisi replied with her head hung low.

“Six magic nuclei, aye! Nailisi, give me the remaining magic nuclei for safekeeping.” Saleen stretched out his hand. Helplessly, Nailisi took out the high level magic nuclei which Saleen gave her for storage.