Badge in Azure

Of course Saleen did not know that one of the most powerful figure from the Holy See had snuck into his own city, awaiting his return. Out of fear that people from the inquisition could determine their location based on the spots where the two adjudicators were killed, Saleen and Lex left that place as soon as possible, advancing towards the depths of the desert.

This time around, Lex would travel in the day and rest in the evenings. There were some horrifying creatures in the Purgatory Desert which were nocturnal. During the blazing day, these creatures would basically hide themselves in the sand and rest.

Without the protection of the mages, the swordmasters with the Spirit Snake Armor would also not be able to follow Lex into the desert. Without the patrols done by the swordmasters at night, battling all those magic beasts, the mages could hardly rest either. Just like that, the team lived in the desert for half a month. Finally, Saleen’s team had arrived at the central region of the Purgatory Desert despite experiencing a few shocks along the way.

This route was actually not so long as to require half a month of travel. Saleen had witnessed the might of the imperial soldiers, he had also seen how these dozen of swordmasters and grand swordmasters spent their gold coins.

Indeed, the Spirit Snake Armor was worthy to be called the best armor on the plane. Under protection of the Spirit Snake Armor, none of the ten swordmasters sustained serious injuries. Out of hundreds of big and small battles, and thousands of slaughtered magic beasts, less than ten percent of the situations required intervention by the mages. Most of the time, the mages only blessed the swordmasters with defensive spells.

If he had not seen it with his own eyes, Saleen would never have believed that the ten swordmasters and two Black Metal Grand Swordmasters possessed such powerful offensive abilities.

At the same time, the Spirit Snake Armor had quite a high level of consumption. Each night, after the camp was set up, Lex would personally help the warriors repair their armor and change the magic nuclei. Saleen rendered some help and he had learned quite a bit about magic armor. Saleen himself had also crafted magic armor in the past, but it was nothing compared to the Spirit Snake Armor. If it was not for the sturdy materials used, Saleen would be too embarrassed to even display it.

Saleen did some simple calculations. After entering the core of the desert, the ten swordmasters, two Black Metal Grand Swordmasters, and Wild Bear would each consume about two-hundred gold coins worth of resources daily. This price was not even the market rate. As Lex had prepared all the materials herself, and she was repairing the armor on her own.

The total daily depletion was about three-thousand gold coins. During this last period of time, Lex had consumed tens of thousands of gold coins. If Lex had not brought along a large number of mages and instead recruited a team of people and horses, she would have spent at least ten times more according to the current market prices.

This day, the team came to a halt urgently, because a sandstorm was approaching. The mages swiftly constructed an underground fortress using earth magic. Everyone crawled inside, and only emerged after the sandstorm went past.

The magic compass had malfunctioned. In order to calculate the specific position of the temple, Lex would have to wait for the stars to appear at night before matching them with the star atlas. After the camp compound was rebuilt, Saleen had created a large quantity of ice cubes to lower the temperature. Given the over seventy degrees of sweltering temperature in the Purgatory Desert, the normal soldiers would have already died from the heat if there were no mages present. Only ice cubes created from intermediate level magic would not melt easily. Even though there was low level water magic which could be used to create many ice cubes, the mage casting it would become extremely exhausted.

Lex’s team could only be described as extravagant. There was not even one sorcerer amongst them. In most circumstances, the aspect of logistics would have faced much difficulty, but coincidentally, Saleen possessed the Dimension Stone while Lex had the divine equipment; God’s Ring.

At night, the mages measured wind speed and humidity. After confirming that there would not be any sandstorms in the near future, they began assembling a set of metal equipment. This appliance was actually very simple. Magic was utilized to create six stone foundation platforms in the ground, and after stabilizing a metal rack atop, a set of crystal wafers were laid on the rack.

These crystal wafers had been made by grinded discarded crystals. Its sole feature was a very high degree of transparency, there were no flaws. Such an item was of no use to a normal mage, only a mage with proficient alchemy skills would collect it. Its price was not considered cheap either.

Precise patterns, calibrations and axes had been etched into the crystals using magic. Once these crystals were put in place properly, the mages followed Saleen and Lex and sat beneath it. They then started proofreading the details.

After all the details had been adjusted, Lex then went to observe the stars through the crystals.

The elements and geomagnetism in the desert were experiencing disorder, while the magic compass had malfunctioned, but the sky was still pure. Their current position could be calculated using this expensive crystal star atlas. Following that, the coordinates sent over by Metatrin City could be used to determine the exact location of the temple.

Everything was still influenced by money. This crystal star atlas might be pricey, but the thousands of coordinates calculated by the mages could not be bought with money.

The night sky was unadulterated. The Qin Empire used to have the best astrologer. Other than mages, the high ranking leaders also had to be familiar with the knowledge of constellation. Lex had been learning about constellations systematically since she was young. Of course, it was not for her to predict the future, but for her to be well-versed in the elemental fluctuations occurring on the Myers mainland by matching them to the pattern of change in the constellations.

It was profound knowledge, it could not be mastered just by memorizing a few mantras.

Even though Saleen could control the depletion of magic chords very accurately, he was inferior to Lex in this aspect. Lex’s allocation of her magic chords was basically in tandem with the natural changes taking place in this plane. She could enable a spell to unleash its greatest might while minimizing its depletion.

Jason might be a good teacher, but he did not teach Saleen knowledge about the constellations. At the moment, Saleen could only watch from a corner, as he wanted to learn this rare skill Lex possessed.

The light magic released by Lex penetrated the crystal star atlas, conducting several rounds of checks, then it corresponded to the coordinates of the stars in the sky. The mages immediately recorded the data, and began calculating. The whole process took less than an hour before the desired outcome was achieved.

“Viscountess, the temple is located northeast, twenty degrees, six-hundred and one miles from here!” The mages reported the data jubilantly. Saleen was full of admiration that the distance was accurate down to the nearest mile. With so much manpower around, the entrance of the temple could definitely be found as long as everyone spread out.

“Over six-hundred miles!” Lex was a little annoyed, but joyous at the same time. She was upset because a distance of over six-hundred miles would require more than three days of travel even if the team rushed the journey. On the other hand, she was glad she had brought along the crystal star atlas. There was actually a six-hundred mile discrepancy when the naked eye was used to observe the celestial signs otherwise!

With a six-hundred mile error, it was possible that they might not even locate the temple after two or three years if they went searching around the desert.

Lex still did not know that there were two goddess’ envoys in the temple, but they had already left. If the goddess’ envoys were still around, Lex might spend an eternity and she still would not be able to locate the temple.

It could be said that Lex was pretty lucky. After Lex had maneuvered in the desert for half a month, the inquisition had just deployed almost a hundred black deacons. They were deploying many people to seal the exits of the southern end. The Purgatory Desert might be wide and spacious, but there were not many suitable places for entry and exit.

The manpower deployed by the inquisition was also fairly insufficient, at the moment the manpower at God Grace Duchy had been assembled, while the blood knights were getting ready to cross the Chishui River anytime. As a result, the available manpower was not even sufficient to seal the whole Purgatory Desert. The inquisition was taking a gamble by setting up defenses along the southern side.

The inquisition had three head inquisitors, of which two of them were groomed after the death of the Qin emperor. The inner ranks were tumultuous, and it was also very exhausting to contend with the pope. This was actually favorable to Lex.

Had the three head inquisitors entered the desert and ran into Lex, Lex could only hope that she would have the ability to escape back to Qin. By then, there would not be a need to discuss about the temple anymore.

After traveling for four days, Lex’s team then stopped to await nightfall.

At this point in time, even the faces of the mages were peppered with frost. The Purgatory Desert was a really hostile environment. The mages would hide in the magic war chariots, and they had to bless their own bodies with magic whenever they wished to relieve themselves. They could be killed abruptly by the sand scorpions which crawled out of the sand otherwise.

Nevertheless, these mages had also made invaluable gains. Usually, these mages would undergo coordination training with the army, but it was way inferior to the grind in the desert. During this period, the mages Lex brought into the desert had experienced a large increase in their offensive powers. The stealthy magic beasts were great training targets.

The moment night arrived, Lex set up the crystal star atlas once more, measuring the exact position of the temple for the last time. She discovered some discrepancies, but this time around, it was only a difference of three miles.

The central temple left behind secretly by the Goddess of Myers was three miles away.

“We will rest for one night, then set off tomorrow!” At this point in time, Lex was not anxious anymore. There might be danger in the temple. Currently, everyone was severely fatigued. If they met with powerful adversaries, all these commanders and mages Lex had spent so much effort training would be wiped out at this location.

This time around, the camp compound was not constructed very sturdily, half of it was submerged in the sand. Lex also did not connect the barracks, she simply used magic to produce a colossal stone house. Even if a sandstorm appeared, she would not get flustered.

Everyone was in the stone house. The light from the magic lamp glowed gently. As Lex and Saleen sat in the middle, they glanced at each other. Saleen nodded his head, then Lex opened her mouth to speak.

“Everyone is clear about our objective here. Yes, it is the temple of the Goddess of Myers. This temple is the nucleus of all the temples on the mainland and no one has ever entered it. Legend has it that the Goddess of Myers once lived there.”

Lex’s voice was not very loud, but she could be clearly heard throughout the stone house. The mages were filled with anticipation. The Goddess of Myers was the god of this plane, she had created beautiful magic in the past for mages to emulate. Even though humans were very powerful in the past, they were simply relying on their instincts then. It was only after the fall of the goddess that humans slowly gained the mighty ability of creation.

The magic left behind by the goddess was the most practical of all. If the temple contained traces of the goddess, then it would be the most precious fortune a mage could have.

“I am not sure of the dangers hidden in the temple. All of you know that I have the God’s Ring though. If I am willing, we can escape anytime. Once we enter the temple, the magic war chariots can no longer be used, so none of you can be more than five-hundred yards away from me. If I give the order to leave, all of you have to come beside me within three seconds. Understand?”

The mages and warriors nodded their heads solemnly. At this moment, all the past statuses were unimportant. A temple once inhabited by the goddess could be said to be the holy land of the people on the Myers mainland. The Lord of Glory would not be able to erase the presence of the goddess no matter what.