Badge in Azure

It was noon of the tenth of April and the wedding ceremony had begun. The noble families and envoys of various countries were gathered in the palace of Daliang City to witness the union of Saleen and Lex.

Grand Sorcerer Stephanie would be officiating the ceremony. Within the palace, tens of grand mages had cast a collective spell under the order of the white-robed mage.

Magic flame appeared and flew up into the sky. With the help of a magic array, Stephanie’s voice could be heard throughout the entire city.

“I pronounce Lex De Grukos and Saleen Metatrin husband and wife. Saleen, what have you brought for our Highness?”

Stephanie asked with a smile. In the towering hall, Saleen calmly took out a crown and held it in his hands. When the crown appeared, everyone in the hall let out a gasp of shock.

It was just too beautiful. The body of the crown was refined from a purple crystal and its top was a restorative magic array made up of twenty-four Ice Island rocks. On these rocks was a misty seven-colored illusion that floated with trails of colorful lights. In the middle of the Ice Island rocks and in the gaps of the magic array there was mounted a piece of hexagonal chlorite.

The envoy of the Tanggulasi Empire snickered coldly, but did nothing more. There were no holy priests among the envoys, otherwise they would have reacted.

Both chlorite and purple crystals were taboo items.

Chlorite could contain Godly attributes, so it was equivalent to going against God. Purple crystals could repel a powerful divine spell – the Grand Prophecy spell.

By refining a crown from such a huge piece of purple crystal, Grand Prophecy spells would fail even if they were cast by the Pope himself.

This crown that Saleen had given to Lex was a provocative statement to the Holy See.

Lex was stunned when she saw the crown. The seven-colored illusion trailing the crown was clearly a reflection of her own seven-colored magic chords. By wearing the crown, the speed and frequency of her preparation of spells would increase by multiple times. Many spells that she might not use commonly could also be cast quickly.

“Lex, from now on, there will be another family name added to your name.” Saleen gently placed the crown onto Lex’s head and said, “From now on, you are Lex De Metatrin Grukos.”

Lex desperately wanted to hug Saleen, but with so many people watching, she could only nod gracefully.

Even Stephanie was a little shocked. Although Emperor Ojarvis had given some purple crystals as part of his congratulatory gifts, they were all very small pieces. Those that were big enough to be made into a crown should no longer exist on the Myers Mainland anymore. A thousand years ago, the Holy See had fervently destroyed every trace of the gemstone. Even in recent years, they had been using all ways and means to get their hands on them.

Saleen was really rich! Nevertheless, she continued with the rest of the ceremony. She needed to make sure that Lex managed to pass her gift to Saleen as well in order to conclude the most important part of the wedding ceremony.

“Lex, what have you brought for Saleen, His Excellency?”

Lex took out a big purple-gold seal from her God’s Ring and handed to Saleen, saying with a smile, “From now on, Saleen, His Excellency, will possess the honor of the Grukos royal family.”

The hall was silent. This seal had not been seen for hundreds of years. Everyone had thought that the Grukos royal family had taken it back. Instead, it turned out that Grand Emperor Chanake had passed it down to his daughter.

The expression on the Qin envoy was more awful than that of the Tanggulasi envoy. They never expected this from Lex.

Everyone could accept Lex being the first in line since she possessed God’s Ring and more importantly, her father was Grand Emperor Chanake. This purple-gold seal was a token that possessed the power to deploy the Grukos family’s spirit snake swordsmen battalion.

Lex had really kept the seal well. She chose not to take out the item even in her most dire straits, instead giving it to her husband during their union.

The six-winged Flying Snake seal was made by the ancestors of the Grukos family using the horn shedded off by the most powerful grade-18 six-winged Flying Snake. It was the pride of the Grukos family.

A grade-18 creature was no different from the Emperor of the first dynasty. It was a creature that was on par with the gods. The six-winged Flying Snake seal could deploy the most powerful army within the Grukos family, and not just the powers of Holy Rock City.

With God’s Ring and the six-winged Flying Snake seal, Lex and Saleen could have deployed the central force of the Grukos family to attack Holy Rock City. She could also choose to break up the Qin Empire and become Empress herself.

Even Stephanie was stunned by what she did.

No wonder the Empire’s last astrologer, Merlin, said that Lex would break up the Empire and cause the downfall of Qin. She could certainly do it if she wanted to.

One word from her and the noble families in the south that had been up to no good would immediately respond by abandoning the command of Holy Rock City and lend their support to Bitter Water Prefecture. It would become Bitter Water Empire!

Lex gazed coldly at the envoy of Holy Rock City. He was sent by Prince Safilos and not her brother. She has been waiting for this chance for a very long time. She would not have done this if Safilos and Alchemy City and Cloudflow had not forced her.

None of the people wished for her union with Saleen. Since that was the case, let chaos befall the Mainland completely then.

She only pitied her brother that he would be like a hostage in Holy Rock City from then on.

The rest of the ceremony was meaningless. Everyone looked distracted, except for the bodyguards sent over by Ojarvis. No one could accept what Lex had done, but there was nothing they could do to stop her. The entire hall was surrounded by the armies of Lex and Saleen. Lex had taken precautionary measures against anyone possibly reacting against what she had done.

Lex was more than happy to cut off someone’s head if they were to object.

No! Cutting off one’s head was being too kind to that person. Saleen had many powerful death mages around him. Lex should let them suck out the person’s soul so that the latter would become a brainless spirit of the dead.

Lex did not have any female officials in the palace. She and Saleen were led by lifestyle mages to the palace that was specially built just for Saleen. In order to successfully appear as a member of the royal family of the fourth dynasty, Saleen had to read up on many things, including the secrets of the Grukos family. Of course, he knew what the six-winged Flying Snake seal represented.

Saleen returned to the palace in a daze and asked Lex, “Lex, have we angered everyone by what we have done?”

“Yes. Are you afraid?”

“No, I’m not afraid. Suddenly, I feel so good that the hypocrisy of all those people has been exposed.”

“Indeed.” Lex stretched out her hand and caressed Saleen’s face. “If not for you, I probably would have never revealed that seal.”

“Why?”

“Because, Saleen, you are my pillar of support!” Lex said gently. Then she stood on tiptoe and kissed his forehead.

Saleen’s heart felt full. Lex was finally no longer alone. No matter how powerful she became, she still needed someone to lean on. That someone was him.

The mages dismissed themselves discretely, leaving only Cuisi in the hall. Saleen put his arms around Lex’s waist and turned. He made eye contact with Cuisi, who then left the hall. As he walked, he took off his clothes and transformed back into his original form of a supreme demon. He was eight yards tall and had a huge pair of wings and a pair of purple-colored eyes.

The exterior of the palace was being guarded by the dragon-slaughtering corp. Gusion, who was holding onto his dragon-slaughtering banner, saw a huge demon leaving the hall and almost attacked it.

Cuisi ignored him and sat down on the steps before saying, “Gusion, I will guard the front. You will go to the back.”

“Who are…”

“Cuisi. Go.” Cuisi answered simply. Gusion trembled for a moment before he regained his composure. There were many strange things and people around his Master. He must adapt quickly.

“How many people should I leave behind for you?”

“None.” Cuisi replied coldly. Saleen’s wedding reminded him of his own wife, who was just an ordinary demon. The two them had lived together for four years before his wife was killed by a supreme demon. Ever since then, Cuisi has been alone and never sought for another partner again.

Gusion nodded and deployed some men to guard outside the courtyard.

The night was still young and only Saleen and Lex were left in the palace. Saleen did not know what to do. The mood did not seem to be appropriate for him to carry Lex into the bedroom.

“Lex…”

“Yes?” Lex was removing the crown and putting it into God’s Ring.

“Come here. It’s still early, let’s go and see how the battle is going outside of the city.” Saleen pulled Lex’s hand and led her to the study room. He did not build a magic tower, so naturally, there were alchemy facilities in the study room.

Lex was amused, but the decision that she had made just then took up quite a bit of energy. It felt like she had just battled all the people of the Mainland and she was feeling spent.

She followed Saleen into the study room and watched him take out magic nuclei to mount onto the magic array on the table, which activated the magic images.

The images were sent from the top of the city. The army of Cloudflow had yet to reach the bottom of the city wall, so it seemed that they would be attacking the city at night. Nevertheless, the Cloudflow army was so massive that they could not afford to attack quickly and steadily at the same time, otherwise the army would be disconnected and they would be easy targets for the armies of the bone castle.

It was quiet outside the city and Saleen felt a little awkward. The battle had yet to begin. He and Lex stared blankly, as if that was not normal.

Lex stretched herself a little and said, “Saleen, aren’t you hungry?”

“Yes. I haven’t eaten since this morning.”

“Then let’s whip something up. We haven’t cooked for ourselves since the time we spent in the Hell of God’s Punishment.” Lex said, and took out an exquisite stove and arranged a row of small pots on the table.

Lex seemed to be very familiar with what she was doing. At the same time, she took off her outerwear. The long robe that she wore for the wedding was heavy and clumsy. If not for the support of wind-element spells, she would have tripped every few steps.

Saleen took off his outerwear as well for his suit was even more cumbersome.

Lex looked at Saleen, smiled and said, “You have become more muscular than in the past. Saleen, come, help me look after this first. I will make fish porridge for you. Cloudflow places much more emphasis on their food compared to the Qin people.”