Badge in Azure

A young female mage behind Tiffany coughed, then burst out in laughter. This female mage was clad in a white robe and was on horseback, she seemed to be Tiffany’s student. Tiffany did not react to her impolite laughter or admonish her.

“Saleen didn’t do anything wrong,” Tiffany replied frostily, causing Irene to feel smug.

If Irene was not following Saleen she could not have possibly behaved so frivolously in front of Barde. The statuses of both people were too far apart. A duke from Holy Rock City’s House of Commons was thousands of times mightier than a woman from an earl’s family who had no inheritance rights. At the moment she was also a duke, although she was one who did not own any lands and had less than one-thousand soldiers.

Hearing Tiffany’s words, Barde was abruptly startled, “Saleen is a grand mage, if he comes out to receive me, the sorcerer behind me would be offended!”

Irene’s attitude made him outraged. His stomach burned with anger. This emotion caused Barde’s face to turn scarlet, but he cooled down immediately.

“Please follow me,” Irene said gently, then took the reins and turned her horse around, leaving the people behind her. Barde had to keep up; if he turned around and returned to Holy Rock City Safilos would have a reason to punish him.

Fortunately, he was not an imbecile. Barde suppressed his rage in an instant, then gestured and led the envoy group to follow Irene’s receiving party.

The receiving party felt awkward too. Originally, Saleen had prepared a ceremony where a band would accompany the guests. Now that both parties had experienced a minor conflict the ceremony was canceled.

Barde’s team consisted of three-thousand soldiers. The escort army from Guderian City had left. Including the envoy group, Barde’s team consisted of four-thousand people.

This was a very rare instance. During peacetime, an envoy group with five-hundred people was considered huge. Since Phoenix was not stable Holy Rock City had to act cautiously. Along the way, quite a number of bandits had staged ambushes. If there were only five-hundred men the sorcerer would be extremely busy.

The team led by Irene was an entire emblem group, there were one-thousand people. Six-hundred of them were from the ceremonial team, they were there to fill in the numbers only. These people were not very powerful, but every ceremonial soldier was muscular and imposing. The cultivation of swordsmanship was not even considered. As long as one was handsome and fierce-looking, they would be recruited.

The remaining four-hundred people were from the palace’s swordsmen camp. This team was newly created by Saleen, they were basically Caucasus people. Each of them was ferocious and valiant. Barde was paying attention to the soldiers from the palace’s swordsmen camp as he was an intermediate grade swordmaster. At one look, his impression of Metatrin’s soldiers had changed slightly.

These four-hundred people were the cream of the crop, they wielded lances and rode on magic wolves. The lances used by the Caucasus people were not their main weapon, the lances would be tossed at the enemy. No matter the distance, a javelin’s lethality could not rival that of an alchemical crossbow. For group assaults, this weapon which was somewhere between a javelin and a lance was the most ideal tool.

A spear-type weapon would always break armor more easily than a blade. A farmer soldier could even use a lance to pierce a warrior’s heavy armor. If a blade was used it might not even create a fatal wound in leather armor.

Saleen had specially fitted these Caucasus people with an assortment of weapons for them to receive the guests. They were not dressed according to the specifications of an army which engaged in field battles. Each one of them was clad in extravagant armor.

Barde was not fooled. After calming down, he realized that this four-hundred man team was not so simple. Barde was puzzled, “If Saleen wants to conceal his capabilities, he wouldn’t need to deploy such ferocious troops. If he wants to show off, he should have given them better armor.”

His thoughts ran wild, which was exactly what Saleen wanted him to do. Barde had concentrated all his thoughts on Saleen’s army, he could not think of other matters.

Saleen’s best asset was actually his navy. A dragon skeleton warship already prevented Alchemy City’s warships from circumventing the marine defenses along the demonic city. The skeletal warships and the pan’s turtle alchemical boat were Saleen’s strongest naval forces. Saleen had invested substantial resources in the sea. The winged skeleton was managing it by himself, so the cost was not reflected in the financial expenditure of Metatrin City.

Each time the winged skeleton sailed he would have to set aside a portion of resources. These resources would be given to the navy. Currently, Saleen had more than twenty warships. They were all controlled by the spirits and the winged skeleton was the only one supporting the operations. The daily consumption of magic nuclei was a large figure, so Saleen did not bother asking the winged skeleton about the specific amount of resources which was set aside.

In the future, if Saleen wanted to wage war with the Qin Empire, he would have to start from Lianyun City. He could not pass through Phoenix and attack Guderian City. Even though Guderian City was inferior to Metatrin City, it was a barely surmountable barrier. Saleen could clearly remember the majestic metal city gate tower in Guderian City that caused him to dismiss the notion of attacking via land means.

If Lex could not control Qin in the future, then Saleen and Qin would surely have a war.

Paralyzing the enemy would have to start from this moment onwards.

To Saleen, the best outcome was for Lex to control the Qin Empire and allow the goddess’ religion to be circulated. Saleen then would use Qin as a foundation to invade the entire mainland. If Lex could not control Qin, then Saleen would have to conduct a two-pronged assault with Lex.

Barde’s envoy group followed Irene’s team, going around western town before advancing towards Metatrin City. When the envoy group passed by the southern face of western town, Barde was totally astounded and so was the sorcerer called Tiffany.

Standing erected at the eastern face of western town was a ten-story magical tower!

Barde’s mind was in a whirlwind, “A ten story magical tower is a provocation to the gods.” Even though most mages harbored such thoughts, the tallest magical tower in Qin would forever be nine stories because of a mainland agreement which was inked one-thousand years ago. Even Alchemy City was not spared. “Metatrin City has established a ten story magical tower, no wonder the Holy See had sent an expeditionary army on its own to conquer this tiny kingdom.”

Irene could not be regarded as frivolous, the fact that she had the boldness to leave her family already proved her mettle, but Barde’s reaction made her very smug.

The four dukes had already been bound to Metatrin Kingdom. The greater Saleen’s accomplishments were, the higher the dukes’ starting point would be. Irene had harbored some feelings toward Saleen. It was a pity, the women beside Saleen were very outstanding, but he had never made a move on them. Irene knew that Saleen was a person who would not be tempted by beauty.

“Luckily I got out of it early, it is pretty good being a founding duke.”

Four-hundred palace’s swordsmen rode on magic wolves as they split up into smaller teams and paved the way. Even though Saleen had developed this place, both sides of the road were still covered in forests, so magic beasts appeared frequently. The large magic beasts had retreated to the mountains, but there were many small magic beasts around. A magic beast would more or less possess some intelligence. When they noticed a large group of humans traveling, they rarely attacked. There were fools among humans and similarly there were some magic beasts who did not know what was good for them though.

The journey still had another fifty miles to go, the convoy had to travel for at least two more hours. In these two hours, the team was attacked at least ten times. The species that attacked was the same every time, they were the grade-1 Raging Wild Boars.

It was effortless for a Caucasus warrior to kill these grade-1 wild boars. The magic wolves would release the terror of a magic beast, paralyzing the wild boar using the difference in grades. The warrior would then stab it with the lance, killing it completely. A grade-1 magic beast could still be of value. The Caucasus warriors sliced off the wild boars’ head, extracting the magic nuclei and then storing them into leather pouches. The convoy’s travel speed was not even affected.

While Barde was still in shock over the ten-story magical tower, Tiffany had turned to the female mage beside her and began whispering.

“Stephanie, Saleen is a little scary.”

The white-robed female mage laughed, then said, “If he didn’t have a trick or two, he couldn’t have exterminated the Holy See’s army.”

“Could a grade-9 mage be living inside the ten-story magical tower?”

“Don’t you know? Metatrin City poached two grade-9 mages from Laiyin Duchy, the Red Tiger Mercenary Group can no longer wield the label of a grade-9 mercenary group anymore.” The attitude in which Stephanie, the white-robed mage, treated the sorcerer called Tiffany was not respectful at all. Both of them were interacting on an equal standing.

“I know, but I didn’t dare believe it, why would a grade-9 mage work for a mere grade-5 mage?” Tiffany’s news was not updated, she did not know that Saleen was already a grade-6 mage.

“Tiffany, you never had to worry about money. You wouldn’t understand the hardship of an impoverished mage. These two grade-9 mages are egoistic and they cannot rob others. Since Saleen was offering a handsome price, they will surely comply. Didn’t you see? Saleen built a ten story magical tower for these two fellows. If Holy Rock City was in Saleen’s shoes, do you think it will be willing to do so?”

“I’m afraid not.” Tiffany shook her head and answered. Even though Holy Rock City had gone to war with the Tanggulasi Empire, Holy Rock City would not dare do something to go against that agreement. It would not be able to communicate with Cloudflow and Sikeqinya otherwise, it would be really unwise to make two more unnecessary foes.

“Even the two of us aren’t satisfied with the agreement made one-thousand years ago, Saleen will surely attract a number of Qin mages to him. He is smart, it is no big deal offending the Holy See for him. The Qin Empire will back him up anyway. He is seizing this opportunity to make progress.” Stephanie spoke calmly as her white magic robe danced in the wind like a blooming lotus.

Barde did not overhear the mages’ conversation. Even though he was a duke, he would not try to provoke a grade-8 sorcerer. He rode on a warhorse next to Irene. In the unwavering Qin, this was very normal. If it happened in Cloudflow, all that bureaucracy would have exhausted someone who was not familiar with the rules.

“Your Highness Irene, I was too rude before.” Barde apologized out of the blue. Irene turned sideways, looked at Barde and smiled. Her smile was very charming, but it was unintentional.

“Your Highness…”

“Duke, just call me Irene. You are a first class duke, while I am a third class duke, the difference is too big.” Seeing that Barde had softened his stance, Irene did not want to bother about the past awkwardness. Saleen’s order was to prevent Barde’s bluster from bothering Irene.