Badge in Azure

Chapter 843: Strong! Strong! Strong! Strong! (Part 2)

“My name is Saleen Metatrin. Tam’enm, I have some questions to ask you.” Saleen casually pointed at one of the chairs in the cabin.

“I can stand, I can stand.” Tam’enm nodded, revealing an expression of flattery on their face. Saleen was disgusted. Surely a mage should still maintain their pride even as a prisoner?

All Cloudflow people were like this. They would be extremely arrogant when they held the upper hand but, when they have lost everything, they would have no qualms kneeling down at your feet and doing whatever it took to gain your favor.

“Then so be it.” Saleen waved his hand and Eleanor walked away. The winged skeleton continued to stand beside Saleen with his giant axe propped against the ground. He was staring at Tam’enm with his dark eyes.

The water puppet had already been put back in the calabash on Saleen’s waist after it has used up so much energy.

Tam’enm was stunned. They still had no idea what creature the water puppet was. Saleen’s presence was too overwhelming. They had just witnessed the most powerful ancient warrior on the ancient combat vessel being chopped into pieces by Saleen and his men.

As a result, Tam’enm was full of admiration and a tinge of expectation.

According to the analysis of Qin mages, Cloudflow people displayed sadistic tendencies. The more Saleen interacted with Cloudflow people, the more he realized that those claims were not jokes. They were true.

Saleen had already made up his mind and took out the Master-Servant bond. It was the type of bond that Saleen disliked the most. There was no fairness in that type of bond, and it was a humiliation to mages.

“Write down your name and follow me from now on.” Saleen threw the bond on the ground. Tam’enm bent down and picked it up. There was no sign of any unhappiness on their face.

“Oh! Your Highness Saleen, I am willing to be your servant.” After looking through the bond, Tam’enm used wind blade to cut their finger and wrote down their name on the bond with fresh blood.

The bond turned into smoke and vanished. A faint magic symbol that was very similar to their skin color appeared on their forehead. No one would notice it without paying extra attention.

“Tam’enm, I don’t need useless people. Tell me about Dragon Island.” Saleen felt that his tone was terrible, but Tam’enm did not seem to mind. They realized that they would not be abandoned nor killed. Although this Master did not seem to have a good temper, at least he rewarded talent.

“Dragon Island, I know about Dragon Island. I was brought there when I was young and lived there for almost forty years.” Tam’enm was prone to saying irrelevant things, but Saleen did not mind. In any case, Nailisi and Nicholas were still in the midst of wiping out all the enemies and there was no way Saleen could leave the dragon skeleton combat vessel yet.

“Go ahead.”

“The population on Dragon Island is small, only has a population of about a few million. However, there is a city called Dragon City on the island that is similar to Alchemy City. It is the place where giant dragons are reared, and most mages are gathered there.”

“Can Grand Duke Iron Blood really rear a giant dragon?” Saleen had his suspicions because even a Tiago giant dragon, that was on the brink of death, still managed to cost him his life. A fully mature giant dragon possessed the ability to cause more damage than ordinary grade-9 magic beasts, even if the former was only at grade-8. Would a Cloudflow mage really be able to control a giant dragon?

“Uh… Dragon City was something that was left behind from the first dynasty. There is a lot of huge equipment there that is designed to deal specifically with giant dragons. On the island the dragons are not able to use even one-hundredth of their usual powers.”

“How many historical remains are there on Dragon Island? Do you know about the map?”

“Master, I cannot possibly know about the map. I was originally a grade-5 mage. I managed to advance two grades this year and have only recently become a sorcerer. If I was a sorcerer long ago, I could not possibly sign the bond with Master.”

“What do you mean?”

“All the sorcerers on Dragon Island sign bonds with Grand Duke Iron Blood and are all his followers.”

“Is Grand Duke Iron Blood… a mage or a grand swordmaster?”

“Grand Duke has a secret technique that is passed down in his family and is equivalent to the grade of a golden grand swordmaster. He is the most powerful person on all of Dragon Island.” At that point, Tam’enm had become a bit withdrawn. Would the Grand Duke come forth personally to kill them if he knew of their betrayal?

No, no, the Grand Duke would never do that for such a trivial character like them. Tam’enm consoled themself before continuing, “Grand Duke rarely had to do anything himself. I only saw it once, when I was about twenty years old. The Grand Duke used a Horse-killing sword to cut off a half-giant’s head.”

“A half-giant?” Saleen’s interest in Dragon Island grew. Nevertheless, he felt that he should still prioritize the refining of the divine tree magic tower. The relic Dragon City from the first dynasty was definitely a place of danger.

“They are known to Qin mages as Green Giants. The living creatures in the giant dragon dimension and the giant dragons on Dragon Island were all summoned through ancient magic arrays in the very beginning before they began to breed on their own over the years. In the process of summoning giant dragons, other creatures from the giant dragon dimension were also accidentally summoned over. Green Giants are mentally slow and can be persuaded to sign bonds, but the creatures cannot touch a drop of alcohol or they will go berserk.”

“Green Giant?” Saleen made a mental note of this piece of knowledge. Indeed, there was such a thing as Green Giants. It was a living creature on the giant dragon dimension and possessed much lower intelligence compared to real giants. They were only slightly more than ten yards in height while real giants were at least one-hundred yards tall.

Their skin was green, they were unhygienic, and they had no qualms killing their own kind, so they were even called Green Demons for a period of time. The demons that followed humans saw this as an insult; hence their names were changed to Green Giants instead.

The giants could not be bothered to dispute, so the name stuck. Green Giants possessed powerful combat abilities that allowed them to survive on the giant dragon dimension. They were also very powerful as fully-mature Green Giants were usually about grade-7 or grade-8 and there were even occasionally grade-9 Green Giants.

Of course, that was the trend of recent times. In the past, Green Giants possessed higher intelligence that allowed them to follow humans into battles. Eventually, they degenerated to the extent that they could only perform manual labor such as pulling wagons.

Even so, Green Giants of grades-7 or grade-8 were born with greater power than other magic beasts of the same grades. They were even more powerful than silver grand swordmasters. Grand Duke Iron Blood managed to cut off a Green Giant’s head with one swing of his sword and that had taken place a long time ago. Now that the collective power of the entire Mainland was rising, it was entirely possible that Grand Duke Iron Blood could have surpassed grade-9 to become a grade-10 professional!

Saleen had to become stronger in order to be able to fulfil the bond with the Goddess in the coming days.

Saleen had already decided that regardless of if the Goddess’ existence was harmful to the Myers Mainland or not, he would fulfil the bond, otherwise he, Sika, and Lex would all have to die.

If the Goddess was so keen to be revived, then so be it. Should there be any hidden conspiracies, then he would just have to become powerful enough to be able to battle with the Gods, just like the ancient humans.

It was for that reason that Saleen’s desire to become more powerful grew. Fulfilling the bond was not the end point, for he had loftier goals in mind. He would have a lifespan of twelve-hundred years if he became a grade-9 sorcerer, so what if he advanced to grade-10? How long would his lifespan be by then?

Seeing how Saleen stopped asking questions, Tam’enm continued, “Dragon City is nine miles in length and width. In the center of the city is a one-mile wide summoning portal called the Dragon Pond. Master, there were hundreds of Dragon Entrapment cables that surrounded the Dragon Pond. Giant Dragons that are summoned would definitely put up a resistance. Dragon Entrapment cables are able to constrain the giant dragons before sending them to their cages.”

Saleen felt more assured after hearing that. He had thought that the Tiago giant dragon’s injuries were caused by the Cloudflow people. It turned out that they were due to the ancient equipment in Dragon City that was used to control giant dragons.

Nailisi and Nicholas continued to wipe out the Cloudflow soldiers on the second level of cabins. The powerful enemies were already gathered on the first level, while the second level mainly consisted of logistical equipment and some soldiers.

Nailisi was in the form of a three-faced bone demon. She would create some spirits of the dead once in a while and hack up some of the original souls for Nicholas’ soul beads to absorb. Throughout the entire killing, Nicholas’ powers were recovering instead of reducing. Naturally, no one was going to oppose or tell Saleen about what Nailisi was doing.

Nicholas’ soul beads had become fuller. He was full of gratitude, so he pretended to be unaware of what Nailisi was doing.

Nailisi also kept a portion of soul strength for herself to create soul beads. Soul beads were actually the equipment of spirits of the dead and not fallen holy masters. Nailisi, who was in the form a spirit of the dead, could unleash powerful death spells. Once she possessed soul beads, she could even cast some dangerous spells and the soul beads would be able to absorb the counter-reacting force for her.

Both of them were leading spirits of the dead. Nailisi understood that the spirits were controlled by the winged skeleton, but there was nothing for the latter to gain even if he told on her.

Nailisi had finally begun to accept the winged skeleton. After all, Soldier had been supportive of her in some matters.

What Nailisi did not know was that the winged skeleton had told Saleen that she possessed two pieces of broken jades. The two broken jades could control two powerful opponents of unlimited grades.

The happiest was the Mechanical Soul, Genga. His entire body was now wrapped around the magic power furnace. He realized that on the exterior of the magic power furnace, the elements were extremely stable. The fuel for the six furnaces were magic nuclei. The Mechanical Soul could manipulate his body into any shape and form. After wrapping himself around the magic power furnace, more metal limbs grew out of his body. According to the diagram, he could burrow through the gaps in the cabins and seek out the tunnel leading to the lowest level.

The Mechanical Soul paid extra attention to how he devoured the ship. Each time he devoured a component, it would still maintain its original state after conversion, except that the spirit metal had also become a part of his body and could be manipulated by him anytime.

The ancient combat vessel was too huge. In the mechanical cabin on the lowest level was a huge magic machine, where most of its components had already stopped functioning. The Mechanical Soul devoured the entire thing before proceeding to control it and allowing the machines to become part of him.

“I will become even more powerful after swallowing the entire combat vessel!”

That was the first time the Mechanical Soul ignored any danger and allowed his body to become so huge. Even his soul flame was beginning to thin.