Badge in Azure

“You have to take the initiative to attack if you are powerful!” Nailisi’s voice sounded across the ice surface. She was holding her long lance in another arm. She had four arms in total so one broken arm would not affect her too much.

Credit had to go to Saleen’s guidance. When Saleen used his clan badge to train his mental strength, he would always drag Nailisi along to share the pain with him. Nailisi was already used to such pain, so even though her arm was broken into pieces, it was nothing compared to the negative effects after using the clan badge.

Nailisi had never been so confident in herself before. Killing the white bear king with one hit has fully induced the berserk attributes in her demon bloodline.

The water puppet was also greatly shaken. He genuinely wanted an identity of his own that time, which was why he requested for Saleen to give him a name, so that he would not just simply disappear. Nailisi’s action has struck fear in his heart in a way that he could not explain.

If Nailisi was to die, she could not be revived like him, but the way she fought would definitely place her on the brink of death on many occasions.

Those who are powerful must take the initiative to attack. The water puppet had managed to successfully spring surprise attacks on a few grade-9 magic beasts, but when surrounded by five white bears, he had transformed into a puddle of water on the ground with no intentions to attack. If he continued to attack, his body would be damaged by the counter-reaction of crystal finger.

“Rossen, in order to become a human, you must first force Master to acknowledge that you are no longer a puppet. You have to be like me. Face danger without backing down!” Nailisi shouted as she charged down the remaining five white bears.

Some of the green fluid on the ground began to tremble as the water elements on the water puppet’s body congregated together as they wanted to support Nailisi in taking down the remaining five white bears.

The water puppet was convinced by what Nailisi said. He did not wish to lose his senses and his past. If Saleen did not acknowledge him, then what meaning was there?

At that point in time, something unexpected happened. The five white bears suddenly struck the ice surface with their huge paws, producing huge craters before jumping in.

Fleeing without putting up a fight was not something that grade-9 creatures would do.

This was something that rarely occurred on the Mainland. Even if grade-9 magic beasts were severely injured, they would still battle to the death against their enemies. Although the white bears were powerful, they were also creatures that lived in a community. Once the three white bear kings died, they lost any will to fight and decided that they might as well flee.

Nailisi felt a tinge of regret. There were more than ten spirits of the dead waiting below for the white bears, but even if the former sprung a surprise attack, the least that they could leave behind was one white bear. There was no way they would be able to kill all the prey.

Nevertheless, her regret was that she had managed to provoke the water puppet into fighting once again, but in the end, the five white bears chose to escape instead. As a result, her plan for the water puppet to become severely injured had failed.

It was true that the strong must take the initiative to attack as that would breed more courage and strength. The more powerful one’s heart was, the better it was for future development. If the water puppet did not possess crystal finger, he really only possessed the abilities of a grade-8 mage. Facing a group of grade-9 magic beasts, it was not shameful no matter what a grade-9 mage chose to do.

Even someone as powerful as Joey would choose to escape if he knew that he could not defeat the enemy.

If all mages were determined to fight to the death no matter who their enemies were, then mages would probably be on the brink of extinction. Mages had limited magic chords within a fixed amount of time; hence they would never be able to fight as long as grand swordmasters due to the limited number of spells they could cast.

It was unfortunate that Nailisi had to sacrifice one of her arms! Nailisi cursed in her heart. After she returned to her form as an imp, she ignored the water puppet and continued to lead the demons in retrieving the magic nuclei from the eleven white bears.

The water puppet was overwhelmed by Nailisi’s stature. Even after he reverted to human form, he did not fight with Nailisi over the spoils.

The skulls of the white bears were incredibly hard. The demons were unable to open them despite trying all ways and means. The equipment that they carried was all magic weapons, but it was all useless against the white bear skulls.

White bears often used their teeth to attack their targets, which were usually powerful creatures in the ocean. Attacking from such a close range meant that their brains were susceptible to attacks. If their skulls were not hard enough, it would be difficult for the white bears to even hunt for food. At the edge of Oceanic Ice Block, the magic beasts were made of similar structures and builds that were harder than most of the special equipment refined by the alchemists on the Myers Mainland.

Nailisi was frustrated by the demons’ lack of intelligence and had no choice but to do it herself. After gathering the corpses of all the white bears, she used her fingernails to cut open their skins to peel apart and reveal the skull within.

Then, she pulled apart the skull easily and dug her hands deep into the brain to retrieve the magic nuclei.

As Nailisi put her hands into the skulls of the white bears, the water puppet was watching from the side and was full of admiration. Each white bear was longer than ten yards and the diameter of its brain was close to two yards. Nailisi pulled it apart easily without any cracking of the bones.

The method of pulling apart the bones and cutting off the fascia was highly related to Nailisi’s powerful ability of observation. She had never encountered a white bear before, but whatever she had just done, it was as if she had practiced it thousands of times. White bears’ fascia was abnormally resilient. Nailisi used her fingernails to slice them apart gently and the white bear’s skull split open without a sound.

An ordinary middle-grade magic beast would have been easily shredded into pieces by Nailisi’s fingernails.

Nailisi was happy to see that, although the brain occupied a very small space in the skull, the magic nucleus was huge. That seemed to be a trait that was shared by all the living creatures that were found near the Oceanic Ice Block. Their magic nuclei were many times bigger than living creatures in other regions of the sea.

What made Nailisi even happier was that there were four magic nuclei in each white bear’s skull!

As Nailisi retrieved the magic nuclei one by one, she realized that the magic nuclei of the three white bear kings were all of the same size while at least one of the magic nuclei of the other white bears were slightly smaller than the others.

The four magic nuclei were all of different attributes but were very clean and pure. They were probably the best grade-9 magic nuclei that Nailisi had ever seen. In terms of size, each of them was about half a yard in diameter. The magic nuclei practically occupied the entire skull. If not for the fact that the white bear’s skull was so unique in that the space at the bottom of the skull was so huge, it would have been difficult to take out all the magic nuclei.

Magic nuclei from magic beasts rarely possessed only a single attribute. The four magic nuclei from the white bear possessed very different attributes. To a mage, magic nuclei of single attributes were not suitable for training but were suitable for battles instead.

“These are good stuff,” Nailisi thought to herself as her back faced the water puppet. “Damn the water puppet. If he wasn’t around, I may even have kept the magic nuclei for myself. Forget it, I will have more opportunities once we manage to find the single-horned white whale cemetery. Master is too generous. He is willing to share everything he has. I must secretly store some for myself in case Master fails on the Myers Mainland, so we can still start over again on the demon dimension. There are so many enemies if we continue to mix around with Lex. I must help Master to make backup plans.”

The water puppet had never thought about all that. Other than admiring Nailisi, he was also thinking about her saying that the stronger party should strike first.

The five white bears underwater were surrounded by more than ten spirits of the dead. The soul flames of four of them had suddenly dissipated, leaving their bodies to disintegrate in the sea. An area of two miles had become extremely poisonous due to the spirits of the dead dissolving themselves.

Grade-9 white bears were creatures that lived on the ice. They did not breathe underwater, so their reactions to the poison released by the spirits was delayed. The powerful poison seeped into their fur and skin. By the time they sensed its presence, the poison had already entered their bloodstream.

At that point in time, the ancient combat vessel got closer while the dragon skeleton combat vessel came to the layer of ice. After retrieving the magic nuclei, Nailisi stored the corpses in her bracelet. The earlier the magic nuclei were retrieved, the purer they were. Unless they belonged to a creature above grade-12, otherwise they would have been polluted in the magic beast’s brain.

The five white bears might have been poisoned, but that did not affect their speed as they ran towards the north for their lives.

“Rossen, come back.” Saleen quickly shouted from the dragon skeleton combat vessel when he saw that the water puppet was about to chase after the white bears. He had also heard what Nailisi had said. He had been within three miles and Nailisi’s voice was extremely loud.

When Nailisi was in her devil-form, her overwhelming presence forced all creatures below grade-9 to flee. That meant there were no magic beasts within ten miles.

Most of the time, magic beasts in the sea would suppress their aura to help them in their hunting. Once they released powerful aura, it served as a warning to others not to approach their territory.

Saleen knew Nailisi too well. Only he understood Nailisi’s intention when she purposely tried to provoke the water puppet. Nailisi seemed to be unhappy with the water puppet, and if Saleen did not do anything about it, Nailisi would cause the water puppet’s death sooner or later. To Nailisi, it did not matter if water puppet died one more time. He could be repaired again with the Shenhe.

Saleen was keen to find out if the water puppet would eventually become a human that possessed a soul. To a mage, that was more important than a water puppet’s loyalty.

That was because once mages advanced past grade-10, they would begin to study the mystery behind souls. It was rare for knowledge on souls to be passed down and everyone’s understanding of souls was different. Saleen believed that if he could witness how a soul was produced, he would have no difficulty advancing to grade-10 and beyond.

The powerful side must strike first? What a stupid theory. It was just a lie. The powerful side must survive until the end to become the truly powerful one.

Nevertheless, he could not expose Nailisi. There was never an option to back down in terms of the passing down of his magic. The water puppet’s spells came from Saleen. If Saleen was not firm enough, the water puppet might not be able to advance even if Saleen advanced. Once he had given the water puppet a name, he became responsible for the latter’s training.

As a puppet without magic chords or a mage without magic chords, Rossen’s path in the future was going to be extremely difficult.

“Master!” Nailisi rushed onto the dragon skeleton combat vessel with a smile. She took out a huge magic nucleus and said, “See? We are going to be rich this time!”

“You…” Saleen sighed and said, “Keep it for yourself. Help me slice it when you are free.”

“Yes, Master.” Nailisi smiled to herself and kept the huge magic nucleus. She was pleased. As expected, Master did not blame her. Rossen would not be so lucky the next time.