Badge in Azure

The Emperor of Cloudflow was very young with a pretty yet strange face. This young Emperor was leaning on a soft cushion and was being served wine by the palace maids.

Behind the pillars on both sides of the hall there were soldiers hiding in the darkness. Wherever the light shone was a world of lustre and dazzle.

The ceiling beams were filled with magic patterns while a gigantic chandelier hung in the middle. Wind blew from top to bottom and passed through the banquet hall and corridors before reaching the huge garden outside.

“What are all of you crying for? Didn’t we only lose half of Titan Duchy? That old fellow refused to listen to me anyway. It’s no big deal,” the Emperor of Cloudflow spoke nonchalantly.

The Prince and his brothers were not crying. They were just more worried about the state of the country than the Emperor was. Everyone was still enjoying themselves watching the beautiful swordmasters’ dance.

“Royal brother, the defense at the Chishui River can only hold for another two or three months. By then, the weather in the north will turn cold and the Tanggulasi Empire will focus all their forces on Titan. We can’t just wait and do nothing.”

One of the brothers spoke assertively to the Emperor. He was the older brother of the Emperor, but according to Cloudflow’s rules, once the younger brother became Emperor, the elder brother had to address the former as ‘royal brother’.

“I have already sent envoys to Sikeqinya. Hmm, the Emperor of Sikeqinya will sell us large numbers of equipment. When the time comes, we can set up spitfire catapults on the banks of the Red River[1]. Tanggulasi’s iron knights will not be able to cross the Red River.”

“Father, that Sikeqinyan does not seem reliable,” a Prince spoke even as he stared lustily at one of the dancers. He was the son of one of the Princes, but now he had to address the Emperor as ‘father’. The Emperor was still young and his only son was two years old. Even in a place as extravagant and indecent as Cloudflow, the son was still too young to be of drinking age. The real Prince was still nursing and was not in the hall.

“Of course. Danny, this old fellow is not a good man. If not for the fact that the distance is far and there was nothing of interest in Sikeqinya, I would have gone along with the group of envoys and given him a good beating.” The Emperor’s words left all the members of the royal family grinning with grimace.

The Emperor was not boasting. A rule passed down from the fourth dynasty stated that no Cloudflow Emperors could be weak. The current Emperor was a powerful assassin. When the previous Emperor was still around and the current Emperor was only about ten years old, the latter had already carried out a number of assassinations for the former.

Now that the Emperor was close to thirty years old, no one knew just how powerful he was now.

The Emperor being so powerful put the others on edge. An Emperor that was an assassin was scandalous compared to one that was a grand swordmaster or mage.

“I heard that old fellow, Danny, has already advanced into a gold grand swordmaster. I don’t have a lot of confidence that I can kill him. Even I did, I may not make it back. The few of you should stop waiting for me to die.”

The Emperor laughed uproariously while the others could only laugh bitterly.

Fortunately, Cloudflow still preserved the senate system. Everyone would be dragged down by such a ridiculous Emperor otherwise.

Just as the Emperor was having fun with them, a female palace officer came in and reported that the palace swordsmen battalion had captured a grade-7 cloud fox. Mages had refined it into a tunic and would like present it to the Emperor as a gift.

The Emperor was pleased. He rewarded all the palace swordsmen involved before putting on the tunic and asked his brothers, “How do I look?”

It was a garment made from a grade-7 magic beast and refined by grade-9 sorcerers. Even if it was underpants it would still be considered high-grade equipment. Everyone could only sing its praises.

“It is a bit hot for the season. Well, why doesn’t everyone follow me to the back to admire the snow? We can’t disappoint the mages who put in so much effort.” With that, the Emperor sent away the dancers and led the brothers and nephews of the royal family away to admire the snow.

There was no snow in June. Fortunately, there were a few powerful mages in the Cloudflow palace and could create snow instantaneously to go along with the Emperor’s mood.

The battle situation at Titan was pushed aside just like that and would have to be dealt with by the senate. The Emperor was only in the mood to admire snow and nothing else. The senate did not have the authority to deploy the Emperor’s soldiers so they could only spend a huge some of money to utilize the local noble families’ forces. The local noble families might not even agree. Cloudflow’s rule stated that the local noble families would only go to war alongside the royal family. Since the Emperor had no intentions of increasing his forces, there was no reason for the local noble families to give their best effort.

In order to persuade the noble families, the senate would have to use another sum of money.

Back in Saleen’s temple in Metatrin City, Nailisi was in a deep sleep once again. Saleen was studying the strange magic beasts continuously.

The twenty-four little lightning dragons in Saleen’s necklace had indeed advanced after devouring the corpses of the grade-10 lightning dragon. They were all now grade-9 lightning dragons.

Grade-9 lightning dragons possessed four claws and were able to live out of the water. Although these lightning dragons had advanced, they were still only slightly more than ten yards long. Saleen would have to continue to feed them with a lot of ocean magic beasts every day. The reason Saleen kept sending vessels out to hunt was not for low-level magic nuclei, but to collect food to feed his lightning dragons.

Lightning dragons were actually the kind of creature that did not have to eat for one month after a meal. In fact, they could even go without food for a few months. When lightning dragons’ bodies were in the midst of growing, Saleen had to feed them with large quantities of food every day as time passed at a different rate in the necklace. Only by doing so would the little lightning dragons not cast mental assault out of anger.

When the little lightning dragons were hungry, they would communicate with Saleen using mental strength. Although there was a buffer in the necklace, their souls were connected so Saleen was still frustrated by their constant demands. He would only be rid of this problem when the lightning dragons would finally be able to hunt for their own food.

What reassured Saleen was that he was close to making a breakthrough.

The new spell that Saleen had invented was a flying ability. There were a number of magic beasts in the ocean that had flying abilities, but could not fly for prolonged periods. Saleen’s invention would enable one to fly in the air for a long period of time.

His Quickcloud spell could only be considered as a partially invented spell as it still used a Wind Travel spell for reference. This time around, the spell that he had invented was completely different. The theory Saleen used for this spell was completely different from those of any other flying spells.

Saleen named this grade-7 spell the Comet Flash spell.

Although this spell required some time for preparation, it could be cast very quickly following another spell, producing an illusion instantly. After casting comet flash, the surface of Saleen’s body would gradually form a gigantic ice shuttle. The tip of this ice shuttle was extremely sharp and there were six corners throughout its entire body. At the rear of the ice shuttle, the water elements that had formed the ice shuttle would evaporate instantaneously and blast out water vapor.

By utilizing the blast of the water vapor, the ice shuttle would be able to fly in the air and even allow one to control its direction.

Even Saleen feared the speed of this flying spell. Apart from considering whether his body would be able to handle the exertions brought about by this spell, Saleen even wondered whether the ice shuttle’s speed might be faster than the speed of sound.

The ice shuttle was completely sealed so Saleen would have to use magic to be able to breathe. The hardiness of the ice shuttle was far beyond that of ice plate armor. This was a grade-7 spell and the hardiness of high-level spells could not be compared with any other equipment.

When Saleen was flying with it, it was as if he has been completely protected by a high-level magic shield. While he was in the ice shuttle, he would still be able to cast any instant magic.

Saleen would be flashing around like a comet when he used this spell. Although the burst of speed would be short, its normal speed could still be maintained at three-hundred miles an hour. Saleen never stopped trying to perfect this spell. He believed that this spell could potentially surpass the speed of a gold grand swordmaster. Even at this stage, it could already enable Saleen to escape from danger instantaneously.

The effects of this spell, when used underwater, was even better. Not only would it protect Saleen from the water pressure, he would also be able to move freely in the ocean. He used to envy Nailisi for being able to withstand the water pressure.

In the process of studying this spell, Saleen also gained a few other new spells. These spells were the results of understanding the structures of the magic beasts and were mostly water element spells.

At that point, Saleen was finally on the brink of becoming a sorcerer. Before that, no matter how powerful his mental strength and magic chords were, Saleen always had a very narrow understanding of the elements. This time around, by inventing a new spell on his own, Saleen finally gained new insight.

The obstacle towards advancing into a grade-7 sorcerer no longer existed. Now, Saleen only needed more time.

The new spell had emboldened Saleen. With this comet flash, Saleen no longer needed to fear being surrounded by enemies. He would also be able to fly even on rainy days now. The ice shuttle was purely made up of water elements so there was no risk of electrocution. In the past, mages avoided flying on rainy days for fear of being struck by lightning. With his badge and a layer of water element on the ice shuttle, Saleen now had means of insulating himself. As long as he did not enter the clouds, he would be safe flying on rainy days.

Thanks to Nicholas’ fallen divine spell that helped Saleen’s left hand recover so quickly, the latter would not have wait so long for his hand to recover before training his new spell.

Saleen had completed most of the new spell and it was only lacking the final touches. Saleen reopened the temple once again and began to look into Metatrin City’s matters personally. There was not a lot that he needed to look into. Most of the more problematic issues had already been undertaken by Daniel.

Daniel spent a lot of effort to evolve the intelligence of a gigantic spirit of the dead like the pikoosi so that the latter could become the former’s assistant. At the town hall, thousands of skeletons and some death mages handled the administrative duties every day.

The first thing that Saleen had to look into was the opening match of the fighting arena. The fighting arena was located at the northwest end of the city and could hold up to fifty-thousand people. Less than one-hundred people had signed up for the opening match and this was below Saleen’s expectations. The number of Professionals in Metatrin City was ten times more than other cities.

[1] ‘Red River’ is used interchangeably with ‘Chishui River’ in Cloudflow