Badge in Azure

Daliang City had three-layered city walls. A lane was constructed in the middle of the city walls and had a width of over one-hundred yards. The terrain south of the city was lowered, so there was a factory processing sewage southeast of the city, processing poisons for the army. The cleaned sewage would also be expelled by following the flow of the underground river.

In order to maintain fertility of the land and abundant harvests, the Qin people would usually put in a lot of effort purifying the sewage. It was not without return. The toxins in the sewage were extracted and turned into weapons for wartime.

Lex’s Bitter Water County was no exception, the weapons were all laced with poison. Once the enemy got wounded, they would have to spend a lot more money or resources to get well again. It was a tremendous test for the enemy’s logistical support.

As the expansion of Daliang City took place in a hurry, the drainage system was not defended by many magic arrays. This passageway led directly from the inside of the city to the outside, it was only sufficient for one adult to pass through at any one time.

Receiving the report, Lex did not dare act slowly, she immediately led a huge group of people to this passageway and conducted an investigation.

Even the county king and Saleen had went down, so the other people also accompanied them. Luckily there were many mages present, the stench from the sewers could only be removed after many rounds of using the Cleaning spell.

The sewer leading to the exterior of the city was about two yards wide, and twelve steel fences were installed from start to end. The fences were installed with magic alarms and magic disciples would check on them every week. At the moment, a cavity had appeared in the fences, but the magic alarm was not activated. Even the magic array which monitored tremors was not stimulated.

When Lex arrived, she raised her hand and used the God’s Ring to survey her surroundings, while Saleen used the Elemental Eye to observe. When the Elemental Eye was fully unleashed, Saleen noticed a path of faint footprints.

“It was a middle-aged man, almost two yards tall. He is at least at the standard of a high grade swordmaster, or perhaps a Zun Grand Swordmaster.” Saleen slowly revealed the data he had calculated, then said, “Cuisi, go out of the city to search for clues.”

A demon was more proficient than a human in searching for clues. A mage could not possibly travel in a sewer, the mage had to be at intermediate grade so that they would possess sufficient magic chords for use, being able to use magic anytime for investigation.

As Cuisi left, then Saleen and the rest of the people returned to the surface.

“Such a facility is already sufficiently solid, but it was not a mage who destroyed the twelve steel fences. The underground structure of Daliang City has to be rebuilt. If such people infiltrate the city, there will be huge trouble.” Saleen worried.

“Saleen, could the person who left the city be the man who tried to assassinate you?” Lex asked with great concern.

“Probably not, that person was a dwarf who was only around one yard tall. The guy who left is almost two yards tall, the footprints cannot be faked. When a human walks…”

“I get it.” Lex felt that Saleen was too naggy. Being a grade-6 mage as well, she had dissected a human body before and she had great insight into the skeleton. She did not possess the Elemental Eye, so she could not use this intuitive method to investigate the tracks.

“Heh heh.” Saleen laughed dryly, but did not continue talking, he only chatted with the people around Lex. Unbeknownst to Saleen, the person who escaped through this channel was indeed the one who tried to assassinate him. Saleen would never imagine a child-sized man to turn into a tall bulky man.

Even though Nailisi could use the Ultimate Shapeshifting ability, Saleen realized that her footprints were different from humans after carrying out a long-term observation. That was an innate habit, there was still a difference even if one tried their best to alter it. Through his Elemental Eye, this detail was extremely pronounced.

Had Eleanor been sent to investigate, she would have detected the scent of a ghost. Tyrant had only changed his body recently, so his scent would be very obvious to an elf. Being an elf, Eleanor was deathly afraid of the sewer. Even though she had spells to mask the smell, she would not wish to go to a sewer.

“This channel only serves to prevent outsiders from gaining entry, the people inside would find it much easier to get out. Just a simple redesign will do. Saleen, let’s go back.” Speaking, Lex ordered her mages to carry out compensatory work, while she and Saleen returned to the palace.

“Lex, what did you find out?” Saleen only spoke when he saw that no one else was present.

“Mm, the person who left the city isn’t a creature from the Myers mainland. These defensive magic arrays only target humans, it was my mistake. I will spend more money and redesign them and change the channel. If it wasn’t for this person who left the city secretly, we might have actually ran into serious trouble. We have to thank this person.”

Saleen was alarmed when he heard that the person was not a being from this plane. Since he could own demons and spirits, why could not other people do the same? Recounting his experiences in detail, Saleen found that his Metatrin City did not seem to have this flaw. Metatrin’s city walls were one structure top to bottom, they were even sturdier than steel.

More importantly, Metatrin’s city walls had been constructed according to Dante’s Sequence, they formed one huge magic array. They could even be described as a presence more powerful than a magic array. The moment the number of magical towers in the city reached six, a magic prohibition region could be formed. Mages who did not belong to Saleen would experience a drastic deterioration in their magic.

Metatrin City’s drainage system led to the ocean and there were numerous defensive magic arrays in the waters beneath the port. Spirits also frequented the port, so no one could infiltrate it.

After some calculations, Saleen gradually set his mind at ease. Metatrin was his foundation and the city drawing was provided by his teacher. In the future, Saleen would use the drawing to develop a spatial passageway to occupy the hell of God’s punishment and Raphael’s magical tower. These two buildings would become his greatest assets.

“Lex, very soon, more than one-hundred death mages will arrive. I will deploy a batch of spirits underground and no one will be able to enter or leave in stealth anymore.” Saleen said some things to console Lex. The surface structure of Daliang City was already close to perfect, the only thing lacking was its underground design.

In the palace of the Cloudflow Empire, Emperor Agares laid atop a soft cushion, gazing at a performance. The people who served him were all beautiful women. Agares’ eyes landed on the songstress as he ate the fruits fed to him by the court ladies.

The plate with fruit was made of skeletal porcelain, classic and simple. Discerning people would realize that this skeletal porcelain had been fired from the ashes of a high grade magic beast, and not clay. Even an alchemical arrow shot from close range would not be able to destroy this plate.

The Cloudflow emperor had all along lived extravagantly. Naturally, from top down, there were no prudent nobles in the empire.

At the side of his recliner, the curtains hung low. Behind the curtains were the palace swordsmen, and behind them laid another door. Emperor Agares handled the government affairs in this room, eating fruits and watching a performance as his ministers reported to him.

At the moment, there was the stench of blood which emitted from behind the curtains. When a low ranking noble was giving the report, Agares fell into a bad mood, so he had the noble’s finger cut off. Mages were using the Cleaning spell to get rid of the stench. The court ladies were burning incense, so the next noble to enter could report in peace.

“Your Majesty.” A middle-aged man in white clothes entered, kneeling beside the recliner as he awaited Agares’ response.

This middle-aged man in white clothes was not wearing any uniform or noble clothing, just some simple civilian clothes. When Emperor Agares saw this middle-aged man entering, he immediately sat up, feeling much better already.

“Aloyen, why are you here?!”

This white-robed middle-aged man was the sole prince of Cloudflow who wielded real authority, he was Agares’ brother. Both men were close since youth, after their father died, Agares inherited the throne because Aloyen was ostracized. No one expected that the young Agares was intelligent on top of being cruel and shrewd. In a few years’ time, Agares had slaughtered all the ministers who tried to control the imperial court. Thereafter, Aloyen was brought back to the imperial capital and made prince, the first in line to the throne.

“Your Majesty…”

“Aloyen!” Agares bellowed.

“Aye, my brother, it’s just a formality, you don’t have to bother about it.”

“You are unlike the rest.” Agares helped Prince Aloyen stand up, pulling at his sleeves so that the prince would sit together with him. Then Agares said, “Duke Barat is useless. four-hundred-thousand troops out of that one-million strong army were killed at sea and I still have to increase the headcount for him. Lex is really interesting, she dares to rebut me and I heard that her future husband is some king.”

Mentioning the deaths of four-hundred-thousand soldiers, this emperor did not feel any sadness at all. None of them were his descendants. He had long wanted to find an opportunity to remove those disobedient nobles.

“Your Majesty, I am not here for this matter. The Tanggulasi Empire has sent a secret envoy over, they are still trying to ink an alliance with us. Since Your Majesty wants to invade the Bitter Water County, we can let the Tanggulasi people attack from the western road, thereby launching a two-pronged attack. We can also ride on the tide and enter Loulan.”

“What are the benefits for me? I am only trying to marry a woman and I am not doing it for the Tanggulasi Empire. That emperor has great ambitions, a pity he got lorded over by the Holy See. If we form an alliance with him, our empire will be devoured by the Holy See sooner or later.”

Aloyen smiled bitterly, “My brother is very smart, but he is quite a scumbag at times, no one can guess his thoughts.” Sometimes, Agares would act willfully just to see the look of disappointment on other people’s faces. “But Your Majesty, Lex is already going to marry someone else. Even if you go over personally, it will still be too late.”

“Marry? Kill her man and I will take his place, I don’t mind whether she is a widow or not,” Agares replied in disagreement.

“Your Majesty, a widow can never be the queen.”

“Then change the empire’s laws. If the laws cannot be altered, I will stop being the emperor, you can take over.”

If other nobles heard Agares’ words, they would have been horrified. Aloyen simply continued smiling bitterly, “I don’t want to be the emperor, the politics in Cloudflow are way more complicated than those in the Qin Empire. Only a person like my brother can suppress the ambitious officials.” Aloyen tried to explain again, “But, Lex announced that she will marry that king because she is reluctant to marry you. Your Majesty, if we form an alliance with the Tanggulasi Empire, we will be able to enter Loulan openly. You can announce that you want to establish a duchy over there and you will be in charge of the laws in that duchy too.”

Agares was very tempted, then he immediately furrowed his brows and said, “What is the point of an inland duchy, look at those big ones along the coast, they don’t even care about the empire’s orders. My informants have gathered some intelligence, telling me that those scumbags have started rearing dragons already. Listen carefully, they are rearing dragons! Damn all of them, I have reared some low grade magic beasts with much difficulty, yet they actually have dragons!”

“Let them raise whatever they wish to. Once you have amassed enough power, they will also be rearing creatures for your pleasure.” Aloyen said gently.