Badge in Azure

Saleen did not detect the changes happening to his own body. Every time he trained, he would use the clan badge to stretch his mental strength. In the process, the badge had altered his constitution.

As his soul vibrations emulated that of the fluctuations from the lightning dragons, the magic patterns in his pupils became clearer and more complicated.

As the soul vibrations became more intense, Saleen’s mental strength was also adjusted, causing his eyes to release an azure light. The power produced by mental strength was far weaker than that produced by the elements though. This ray of light could only travel for about one foot before it dispersed.

Even though the change was so slight, the world was already different in Saleen’s eyes.

Everything seen through his eyes was now gray in color. I was like the best piece of magic paper which got incinerated by the flames of the elements, forming a bunch of delicate ashes, then a gentle breeze blew, causing the ashes to break down.

Everything became gray particles, and they were constantly disintegrated. In front of Saleen’s eyes, a complete magic patterns appeared in that azure ray of light.

This three-dimensional magic pattern was almost identical to the one found on Saleen’s badge, it was just smaller in size. Before Saleen could make sense of it, this magic pattern quivered ever so slightly before disappearing. Pitch darkness filled Saleen’s vision, he could not see anything at all.

Saleen was greatly alarmed, he immediately halted the mental training with the lightning dragons. He then closed his eyes and started meditating.

Half an hour later, Saleen opened his eyes again, and everything was back to normal. He recalled everything which took place just now in great detail, then he mustered his mental strength on his own accord. Then his eyes released the azure light once again. Once more, the world was thrown into grayness, and a magic pattern appeared in front of Saleen, but it quickly vibrated before disappearing.

This time around, Saleen captured the principle guiding the vibrations. Even though it was very slight, it was at the same frequency as that earth-shattering vibration in the badge.

This was the power of lightning!

In various languages, within the system of the ancient Myers language, lightning and electricity were two separate words. Lightning represented the agitation of the elements between the skies and the earth, releasing immense power. Electricity was another kind of power. These two powers always shared an association. In nature, lightning and electricity were inseparable.

Lightning was invincible, while electricity was impenetrable.

In stormy weather, mages did not dare to fly as they were afraid of becoming struck by electric currents, and turning into ashes. If one was struck by lightning, they might simply disintegrate.

The similarity in being struck by these two powers was death, no one was an exception.

Mages did research into many materials, some materials could obstruct the flow of an electric current, but an electric current wielded tremendous power. Even if these materials were used, they could only block electric currents which contained less power. Almost no materials could resist the electric currents launched from the clouds.

As a mage’s magical tower was very tall, they would bury metal needles into the ground in order to lure lightning into the ground. Only the earth had an infinite withstanding ability.

The magic pattern which Saleen saw, was a lightning pattern. It was just that it existed for a brief period, so in other people’s eyes, it seemed like it had never appeared. Only Saleen could see some trace of it.

This did not mean that the magic pattern was useless. The power of lightning could destroy elemental stability. Any spell which got struck by lightning would be dispersed, and this was the logic behind why Nailisi’s body was protected by lightning. As long as the enemy was not at a much higher grade than her, elemental spells could hardly injure her.

Saleen’s magic pattern could also be utilized in this manner, it could even be more autonomous. As long as he could make the lightning pattern form at a farther distance, he would be able to destroy his enemy’s magic at will.

In the second experiment, Saleen also lost vision of everything in front of him. He did not panic this time around, because there was no damage to his body, the blindness was only temporary.

The eyes were the weakest organs in humans, while lightning was the strongest power in the world. After Saleen understood the reason, he immediately stopped the practice. He could not possibly stop only after getting injured, otherwise, many mages would lose their lives during experiments.

He had gained much more this time around. He did not meditate, he recovered naturally. In only ten minutes, his eyes had reverted to normal. In just a few months of training, Saleen could finally muster the magic pattern on his own, and he was really surprised. He did not expect the acquired power to be released through the eyes.

No mantras were required. By using mental strength, the speed of spell casting would reach maximum magnitude, and the spell would be instantaneous. Other instantaneous spells required repeated practice in order to achieve the instantaneous effect. This spell was immediately instantaneous upon mastery though, it could not be any slower.

Saleen’s heart was ablaze with the flames of passion. The power of the lightning pattern released via his eyes was so weak, it might not even be a ten-thousandth of the lightning from the clouds power. With sustained practice, the might of this lightning pattern would get increasingly larger though. Even if it could not be used to damage someone, it could be used to disrupt the enemy’s magic.

“If this lightning pattern was illustrated, and made into a three-dimensional magic array, such as the one in my temple, then a magic-prohibiting space could be formed. Other than myself, no one would be able to cast any elemental spells there.”

The more Saleen pondered, the more unbearable he felt. He wanted to practice so badly, but was worried that his eyes could not withstand such frequent training.

“Forget it, I will train one more time before going to sleep!” Saleen could not resist the temptation. Once again, he mustered his mental strength and formed the lightning pattern two feet from his eyes. As the lightning pattern broke into pieces, Saleen felt a soothing comfort in his heart.

After regaining vision in the eyes, Saleen again could not resist the temptation and began practicing one more time.

“This is the last one, once I am done, I will sleep.” Saleen kept telling himself that until dawn. It was only when the swordmasters in the camp were preparing breakfast that he had no choice but to stop training.

There were no anomalies in his eyes, the temporary blindness arose due to the over-consumption of mental strength. The lightning pattern did not break in his eyes, so it would not cause injury to them. If light was involved, then it might have scalded his eyes.

It was not Saleen’s fault that his determination was so weak. Any mage could not be more restrained than Saleen after acquiring such an ability. In fact, most mages would be more enthusiastic than Saleen. Saleen was already considered a more prudent mage.

The mages disembarked from the chariots and walked about, consuming breakfast with the swordmasters. That was the difference in Lex’s mages, they rarely treated the soldiers protecting them with condescendence.

A mage was powerful, but in comparison to a warrior, a mage spent less time in battle. If there was a large number of sand scorpions in the desert, a grade-4 mage and a high grade swordmaster could easily kill all of them. A mage would be slightly exhausted after killing a dozen sand scorpions. After killing more than one-hundred and twenty sand scorpions, their magic chords would be almost fully depleted.

As long as the high grade swordmaster had a powerful weapon, they would be able to soldier on until their Sword Aura was gone.

With a powerful weapon, a swordmaster could easily pierce the shell of the sand scorpions without using much of the Sword Aura. As long as a high grade swordmaster was not besieged, he would not feel tired even after killing hundreds of these sand scorpions.

Lex had brought along ten swordmasters in order to take out the weaker magic beasts. The Purgatory Desert was fraught with perils. If a mage had to deal with all the dangers themselves, then the mages would get into a precarious situation as they would exhaust their magic chords every day.

Saleen did not notice that Lex did not rest well. He was immersed in his new spell, and just like any other fanatic mages, he had become oblivious to his surroundings.

After Nailisi failed to sow discord between Saleen and the winged skeleton, she returned and managed to discover the hatchet between Sika and Lex. She then immediately teamed up with Sika, greatly angering Lex. She was just worrying that Saleen would discover that something was amiss, but Saleen looked like he was out of sorts. Nailisi rejoiced secretly, before summoning the four demons to serve Saleen’s breakfast.

All along, Lex was waited upon by other mages, but these mages were only involved in magic practice. Nailisi’s four demons looked totally powerless, they looked just like normal beautiful women, causing Saleen to be portrayed as a nouveau riche. As Saleen was still pondering about the spell, he did not notice anything wrong. Under the service of four demons, he finished a standard meal which was usually prepared for an army.

As Lex was feeling very upset, she did not even share her tea leaves with Saleen.

At this moment, Sika then saw the good in Nailisi. If it was not for her hunger, she wished to have a longer chat with Nailisi. They had a good conversation yesterday, which led to Lex being infuriated.

Sika was in a dilemma herself too. She was clear about her responsibilities, but she did not want Saleen to live with anyone else. “If Saleen married Lex, he might even be conferred an imperial salutation and be involved in various matters. If Lex could dismiss this notion of hers, that would be great.”

Unbeknownst to Sika, Lex would not feel the importance of Saleen if it was not for her and Nailisi. This was a small girl’s mentality, but Lex had never loved a man before, so she was not mature in this aspect.

The only thing Lex rejoiced about was that her mages had regained a portion of their offensive power. In another two to three days, they would recover fully. It was so different having a magic war chariot. Lex turned her attention to the issues in the Purgatory Desert, but those four demons kept hovering around her. They were serving tea and food to Saleen, cleaning his face and tidying his outfit. They just stopped short of massaging him.

Lex was so furious that she went into another magic war chariot, unwilling to sit in the same one as Saleen.

Nailisi felt bored. Lex had a large withstanding ability, there was no use making further provocations. Thus, she instructed the four demons to protect Lex.

Saleen noticed this though. He felt that Nailisi had matured a lot. Right then, she knew how to show concern for her companions. Secretly, Nailisi was laughing so much that her tummy hurt. For a demon, Nailisi’s muscles were hurting so badly from all that laughter.

This time around, the only ones left in the chariot were Saleen’s subordinates and the two female mages who served Lex. Without any order from Lex, those two female mages would not switch chariots. The journey continued, with Saleen having the company of four beautiful ladies.

As Saleen did not sleep a wink that night, he immediately plunged into a deep slumber the moment he reached the chariot. Nailisi sat on the floor of the war chariot, serving Saleen meticulously. As the four women watched Saleen sleep, each one of them had a different expression.

Nailisi was jubilant, Sika was satisfied, and Narnia was slightly disappointed, while the last female mage was curious.

“Was this young mage really the heir to a great inheritance from Alchemy City? He looks really handsome and talented, somewhat like a noble from Cloudflow.”