Badge in Azure

“Banchajanna, control yourself!” Judikaka was anxious. Choosing to escape Saleen’s control at this moment would leave him vulnerable to attacks from both sides.

He was aware of how powerful those metal watchtowers were. Unless the three of them combined efforts, they would not be able to destroy it quickly enough. Besides, the arrows shot out from the watchtowers would criss-cross each other. No matter how powerful he was, he would not be able to destroy all the arrows in his path.

Those alchemy arrows were troublesome. He would have no fear if they were in the death dimension. There his powers had been suppressed to grade-8 and he would not be able to handle ten-thousand arrows at one go.

The worst thing was that Saleen still had a silver grand swordmaster by his side. That was his real foe.

Banchajanna had already revealed his original body. The soul flame in his eyes turned black-purple in color. Even Diyabannersa, who was usually too simple-minded, sensed that something was wrong.

Saleen was terrified. He could see too many things through his elemental eye. He could see that after Banchajanna reverted back to his original form, although he was still killing the enemy, his soul flame had already transformed a few times consecutively. It was clear that he was struggling to break free from the bond’s control.

Saleen quickly looked away and found that Judikaka and Diyabannersa did not have similar transformations. Only Banchajanna’s soul flame showed a crack similar to how a piece of porcelain breaking. Within the crack was images of the bond’s magic words being broken. These images were made from elements. If Saleen did not possess the elemental eye, he would not have been able to see it so clearly.

Saleen was even more furious than Judikaka. Judikaka was only worried about being attacked by everyone, but Saleen was worried that the gold grand swordmaster would appear at this moment. All would be lost if he did.

Banchajanna might become so confused that he would mistake friends for foes and start attacking anyone. On the other hand, the gold grand swordmaster was very sharp. He would not launch an attack if Banchajanna staged a rebellion on the top of the city wall. He would stay out of the way so that Banchajanna had more space to create chaos.

Saleen was confident in killing Banchajanna, but if he used the grade-9 magic scroll, who would deal with the gold grand swordmaster?

Naturally, wealth had its benefits, but sometimes it could not solve everything. Saleen looked bitterly at what was happening before his eyes. He had thought that he would no longer have to take risks personally again, but now that he had Metatrin City, he had no choice. His teacher did not come so he was alone. He had many low-level mages, but they would not be able to defeat one gold grand swordmaster.

Saleen had no wish to understand why he did not attack immediately. He only knew that if anything unexpected happened on his side, the gold grand swordmaster would pounce on the opportunity immediately.

“Sika, Nailisi, after I kill the gold grand swordmaster and lose consciousness, please protect me,” Saleen reminded gently.

“Master, what about Banchajanna…,” Nailisi could see that something was amiss.

“I will settle it myself. Once the Three Kings lose one scepter, they will just be a couple of grade-8 spirits of the dead.”

“Saleen, go ahead. If I am not able to protect you, we will both…,” Sika summoned her magic beast skeleton even as she was speaking. This magic beast skeleton was six yards tall, but its tail alone was eight yards long. The skeletal wings on both sides had more or less recovered and even grown an additional yard. It would be able to fly even better now.

Sika gently caressed the skull of this skeleton and said, “This is my battle soul. It will protect you together with me.”

“Don’t be so gloomy. I am only worried about those two grade-8 mages. After containing the gold grand swordmaster, Uncle Fellet and Aunt Lanny will no longer have any strength left and will need to be protected by Cuisi and Jola. I can only depend on both of you now,” Saleen lightly tapped the second calabash on his waist as he spoke.

This Shenhe of Saleen’s had already been refined into a water puppet. A stream of water shot out from the calabash, swirled one round in the air and landed, becoming a transparent puppet in human shape.

Saleen sighed and said, “I had wanted to use this later. Too bad, I don’t have enough time.”

Saleen’s left hand pressed onto this transparent water puppet. The puppet was very beautiful and was almost entirely transparent and lightly shimmering with blue light. After Saleen’s left hand pressed onto it, green-colored life strength entered the water puppet and countless magic words began to move around being absorb.

Saleen’s left hand began to shrink. He quickly infused the energy from the leaf of the Tree of Life into the water puppet’s body.

Bones began to appear within the water puppet’s body. These bones were different from those of Saleen’s. Although they were made up of the water element, they were much stronger. The strength of these bones was dependent on magic. Once the magic power dissipated, it would return to the form of water. There was no turning back for Saleen’s loss of bones.

The body shape of this water puppet expanded slightly before shrinking back again to maintain at the same height as Saleen. Internal organs, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, and tendons were all growing rapidly at the same time. In less than a minute, the water puppet was already growing skin.

Nailisi covered her mouth with a shocked expression on her face. The skin on the water puppet had yet to grow fully, but she could already tell that the water puppet would look exactly like Saleen with the same aura. If she had not been bonded to Saleen with their souls, she would have mistook this puppet to be Saleen.

Sika felt faint. She could tell the difference between the water puppet and the real Saleen. The reason was that as the water puppet was not wearing any clothes, she was able to detect the difference in smell on the water puppet and the real Saleen too. There was a smell of freshness on the water puppet, like a freshly bloomed flower that had not been complicated by other matters.

There was a smell of masculinity on Saleen. Indeed, Saleen was no longer a child. Ever since Saleen and Sika became intimate, Sika’s nose became sharper and could smell the hidden desire on Saleen’s body. From the point of view of mages, these were complicated elements secreted by the body during mating.

Saleen took out a set of magic robes and passed it to the water puppet. It took the robe and put it on.

“Master, can it… talk?”

“I can talk,” the water puppet answered Nailisi directly.

“Amazing, I want to touch it!” Nailisi stretched out her fingers and pressed them onto the water puppet’s face. It felt like a human’s face and was warm like one as well. Nailisi’s fingernail slid behind the puppet’s ear and the skin was cut, dripping a few droplets of blue-colored blood.

“Nailisi, stop fooling around!” Saleen reprimanded. The water puppet remained calm and did not react at all.

“Master, if the puppet is supposed to be disguised as you, then its blood needs to be changed to a red color.” Nailisi sucked her finger and drank the blue blood. The taste was not bad and it contained elemental power.

“There is no need to waste energy,” the water element replied with a smile.

“Master, what if this fellow tries to seduce Sister Sika while you are not around?!” Nailisi asked a strange question.

“There is no need to waste energy,” the water element replied with a smile again.

Saleen was relieved. He did not possess a lot of energy from the Tree of Life and he used it to make the water puppet to look like him. Nailisi’s question might be odd, but Saleen actually shared the same concern as well.

The water puppet added on, “Unless requested by Saleen.”

Sika growled and prodded the ground with the cudgel in her hand. The water puppet stopped talking again. It was as if he really wanted to conserve energy and would not spare any on unnecessary actions and words.

“Let’s not waste time, Nailisi.” Saleen saw that the crack in Banchajanna’s soul flame was becoming bigger.

“One more question. Why do you not call Saleen by ‘Master’ but by his name instead?” Nailisi was a demon. She seemed to have figured out something, but still wanted to find out personally.

“I am only a part of Saleen, I…,” the water puppet continued with a tinge of sorrow, “I don’t have a soul.”

Nailisi was finally certain that this water puppet that was filled with life strength was ultimately just a piece of equipment and not real life.

Saleen took off the crystal ring on his finger and gave it to the water puppet. He turned his head and said to Nailisi, “He can use all my abilities and can communicate with me telepathically. If we are too far apart from each other, he will revert back to the Shenhe.”

“Understood.” Nailisi bowed her head. Even though this water puppet was not a real living thing, it was still very powerful and possessed the same abilities as Saleen. If Saleen advanced into a grade-9 mage, this puppet would also possess the abilities of a grade-9 mage. Its only weakness was that it could not be too far from Saleen. Saleen did not mention the distance, but it should not be further than within Saleen’s sight.

“Nailisi, can you handle Judikaka on your own?”

“Yes.”

“Diyabannersa as well?”

“If I revert back to my original form, Sika and I will definitely be able to kill the two of them. Master, you have to promise to kill Banchajanna first!” Nailisi was fully aware of how terrifying it could be when the Three Kings’ scepters were combined together. This was also why she had wanted to wait for the winged skeleton to return first before taking action.

Since Saleen has given the water puppet his crystal ring, there was still a high chance that Banchajanna could be killed by crystal finger. As long as the three scepters did not come together, Nailisi would not need to worry about a grade-8 spirit of the dead. As Nailisi possessed more and more abilities, she became less and less restricted by Saleen’s grade.

Sika clapped her hands and fifty Caucasus people entered the room. They were taken aback when they saw the water puppet. None of them made a sound in front of Sika though.

“All of you will protect Saleen with your lives. Saleen shall not be harmed at all,” Sika pointed at Saleen.

“Yes!” The Caucasus warriors replied with determination. They knew that this mage was the priestess’ lover. Whether or not the priestess would be able to produce an offspring in future would depend on this man’s abilities.

“Go, and bring along Sika and Nailisi,” Saleen said to the water puppet.

“Yes.” The water puppet nodded. Even the smallest actions were no different from Saleen.