Badge in Azure

Saleen woke up after less than one percent of his mental strength had recovered. Sika was sitting by his side, hugging her knees and looking at him.

“Sika, do you like it?”

“Yes.”

“We are going to have a child so I must ensure your safety from now on,” Saleen blinked his eyes and held onto Sika’s hands.

“What if you still want to have children with other people?”

“Other people? Who?” Saleen was confused.

“Humph, don’t you realize there are a lot of women around you?” Sika pretended to be upset, but did not release Saleen’s hands.

“Indeed, but all of them are not to be trifled with,” Saleen smiled and pulled Sika down to lie beside him.

“I want to change my mind,” Sika gently lay down beside Saleen.

“Change your mind?”

“I suddenly no longer want you to marry other women,” Sika said.

“Then I shall not,” Saleen replied nonchalantly.

“But you can’t not. I cannot bear to see a woman like Lex married off to someone else. Humph, if she becomes your wife, won’t she lose to me?” Sika asked.

Saleen was speechless. What Sika said made sense. Saleen loved Sika the most and marrying Lex would not change that. What else was he thinking for? Was there any hope between Lex and Saleen? Sika was still the best to him.

Sika turned onto her side facing Saleen and said, “Saleen, let me tell you, it is not impossible for me to become the Nature Priestess at my age and I will lose that right if I get married. If I become the Nature Priestess, I will be able to live as long as you. Only then can I accompany you for the rest of your life. If I marry you, I will die a hundred years later and you will still have to look for other women. Why don’t you let me live longer? In that case, I can still stop you from marrying anyone unsuitable.”

Although Saleen has long heard a little about the Nature Priestess, when he heard all this directly from Sika, he was still very excited and said, “Sika, are you saying that you can live up to twelve-hundred years old?”

“No, Natural Priestess’ can live longer than that. That’s why you must work hard in your training and break through the grade-9 barrier. I will be very lonely after you die otherwise.”

“I will!” Saleen was agitated. “Sika, I will go and train now…”

“What’s the hurry? Lie with me.”

Saleen smiled awkwardly. His emotions had not been too stable lately. It could be due to the fact that he was already at the peak of grade-6 magic and was about to achieve a breakthrough. His emotions were affected this time around because advancing into a sorcerer would implicate the soul.

Saleen really did not do anything else on this day other than accompany and chat with Sika. When night came, Sika continued to stay in Saleen’s room and this time around, Nailisi knew better than to disturb them. She was feeling a little giddy herself. After absorbing the powers of the Death Kings, she had not had time to fully digest them. By waking up prematurely, she was now unable to focus.

Nailisi had no other choice but to find time to sleep more so that she could digest the Death Kings’ powers.

Without Nailisi’s interruption, Saleen and Sika finally had their own private space to do whatever they wished. There had never been any doubt about Sika’s physique. As for Saleen, after he sensed the balance of energies and the endless rule, his physique also improved tremendously without his knowing. The two of them made love to each other until dawn.

There were many people in the temple that did not sleep and the most excited of them all was Isabella. She and the Sregl Island mages lived on the first story. Since she had become Saleen’s follower, she was allowed to use all the equipment and tools in the alchemy lab.

Isabella was Saleen’s follower, but her position was not low. As the master of this city, Saleen had enough wealth to support his followers. Isabella was given two magic apprentices to serve her and four spirits of the dead to help her with dangerous experiments.

The two magic apprentices were very respectful to her. After casually asking about her privileges, it was then that Isabella realized that not only could she collect gold coins, she could also have a middle-grade magic nuclei for free every day. A middle-grade magic nuclei could allow a mage to train for an entire day.

Not only that, the lab was opened to all of Saleen’s followers. There were all sorts of magic materials in there. If there was something that Isabella needed that could not be found in the store room, she would only have to inform Saleen and he would think of a way.

There was no limit to the amount of resources used up during magic experiments, but one must record magic notes to indicate the reason why the resources were used and why the experiment failed.

The thickness of elements within the temple did not lose out to any magic towers. Isabella felt peaceful knowing that she was in such a good training environment.

After preparing a magic experiment on the alchemy platform, Isabella took a book consisting of magic notes from the bookshelf and began to read it. When she reached the third page, Isabella was a little taken aback. This set of magic notes was copied from the original so there were no secret markings or tricks left behind by the original author. The content was definitely authentic!

Isabella was a genius in magic and her foundations were solid. Her teacher was only a grade-6 mage that did not advance into a sorcerer and passed away from old age when Isabella was twelve years old. Nevertheless, Isabella managed to advance to grade-6 when she was over twenty years old and even managed to train sword aura at the same time. Her understanding of magic was equivalent to or better than the mages from Alchemy City.

After seeing the duplicates of these magic notes, Isabella could not help but hum with admiration. These beginner-level notes were clearly written by sorcerers that were recording the details and theories of some low-level spells and many other magic experiments of all sorts.

It was as if a sorcerer was guiding you and the content was knowledge that only the sorcerer would know and was best at. Although Isabella was once a grade-6 mage, she was still captured by the contents.

In the eyes of sorcerers, there were many things worth studying about low-level spells. Isabella’s teacher was not a powerful mage and did not even advance into a sorcerer. These magic notes were extremely valuable to Isabella.

It was past midnight and Isabella had already read through the notes a few times before realizing that the two magic apprentices were still serving her.

She was a little embarrassed and said, “Both of you can go and rest. I may be up until dawn.”

“My Lord, it is okay. We are getting paid to keep you company. There are many labs on this level. The grand mages are full of mental strength and many of them conduct magic experiments for a few days consecutively without resting. As magic apprentices, we can earn more even while we serve. At the same time, not only will we receive guidance, we can also use this equipment while you are around.”

“It sounds like…,” Isabella stopped suddenly. She found the two magic apprentices’ accents strange. They did not sound like Qins nor Tanggulasis. It suddenly occurred to her that it might not be appropriate of her to find out the backgrounds of Saleen’s subordinates.

The other apprentice smiled and said, “My Lord, you can ask us whatever you want. We treat Mr. Saleen’s followers as our own people.”

This apprentice was very sharp to have noticed Isabella’s hesitation. He was from Sregl Island and while he concealed his identity from outsiders, Saleen had told them before that there was no need to do so for his followers. Once followers signed their bonds, their futures would be intertwined with Saleen’s, so there was no possibility of betrayal.

This was also why wealthy mages would often find it easy to recruit many followers.

“Anything I want?” Isabella came from Tanggulasi and mages were not treated particularly well there. All her followers were swordsmen because she could not afford to support a mage. That grade-7 scroll was left behind by her teacher. She would only use it to scare people off and could not bear to use it.

“Of course. We don’t have to keep any secrets from those that Mr Saleen has given permission to live in the temple,” the magic apprentice answered honestly. This was what Saleen personally told them too.

Isabella could not curb her curiosity and said, “So where are you from?”

“Hmm, we are from Alchemy City,” the two apprentices looked at each other and smiled. Although their statuses were low, they believed that following Saleen would give them a future where they would not need to bow to everyone. They respected Isabella because they could tell that she was talented in magic. Such respect was a sign of acknowledgement.

“Is the Lord also from Alchemy City?”

“For this, perhaps it is better if you ask him. It is not a secret, but it is just that we don’t know much. We only know that he was born in Sikeqinya, then he met Teacher Jason before starting his mage journey.”

“In that case… do you need any guidance from me?” Isabella did not ask further. Instead, she was keen to interact with the two apprentices to familiarize herself with the things around Saleen.

“As long as it doesn’t hinder your training, we are always happy to learn.” The two apprentices were naturally keen to hear from a grand mage, but they also knew that they were not allowed to harass mages and this was also the case in Alchemy City. Mages would only guide apprentices when they had time and were in good moods. Right now, the apprentices were still in the phase of reading up and trying to understand the basics of magic.

Isabella smiled and thought that the people around Saleen followed the rules very closely. Nevertheless, she was in a good mood so she casually taught the two apprentices some of the most important aspects of the basics.

After that, Isabella pointed to a smaller alchemy platform by the side and said, “Both of you need not serve me anymore. Go and practice for a while. I will read up for a while more.”

The two apprentices did not refuse this time. In order to use the alchemy labs, they would need permission from mages. They would not have the opportunity to use the labs if Isabella had tasks for them to do.

Isabella was extremely smart. After conversing for a short while, she knew exactly what the two apprentices wanted to learn. She would take her time to build up relationships.

The two apprentices wasted no time and left to get busy. Isabella took a second copy of notes from the shelf and began to read. She was so engrossed in the magic notes that she lost track of time and it was soon dawn. Right then, she was only focussed on following Saleen. Even though Saleen was only a normal human, it must be the dream of many mages to follow him too.

There were many magic notes and such wonderful training environment and support. All these were things that a mage without a teacher would yearn for. Although Isabella did study under a teacher for a while, she would have to depend on herself from grade-7 onward.

She still remembered Saleen’s promise to help her become a grade-9 sorcerer within ten years. Based on the facilities and design of the temple, what he said might not be an empty promise after all. Maybe Saleen really possessed such an amazing ability.