Badge in Azure

His teacher was right to say that astrology was very demanding. Unless Saleen’s magic had already reached its maximum grade, he was not going to waste any more energy on it.

Magic alone was enough for Saleen.

“Teacher, go ahead and choose some of these items.” Saleen looked at Jason and thought to himself that he finally had a chance to repay his teacher. He no longer needed protection from his teacher. Saleen felt good about that.

Jason smiled. His student was usually very calculative, but it turned out that he knew how to show his gratitude. Jason casually picked a few items but did not touch the magic nuclei. When Saleen pointed at the magic nuclei that were above grade-12, Jason said, “Keep them for your own use. Don’t sell a single one of them. Magic nuclei of that grade can keep the magic furnace going for a long time.”

Saleen saw that his teacher refused to take them and decided to pick two magic nuclei of the highest grade and insisted on giving them to Jason.

“Teacher, you will definitely be able to use them in the future. Don’t worry about the magic furnace. We have enough grade-4 magic nuclei to be used for this upcoming battle. Oh yes, teacher, I have decided to deal with the Cloudflow forces first before heading to Lonestar City.”

“I understand. Don’t worry. Even if the Cloudflow forces manage to go around your fleet, they will never be able to take down Metatrin City. They will not know more of the secrets of those ancient warships than you do.”

Saleen felt more assured after what Jason said. He was worried that once he attacked, the Cloudflow forces would circle around to his rear. What Saleen really wanted to do was to deal with the Cloudflow forces and head to Lonestar City simultaneously, but as a king, he could not afford to take care of his own people.

“Teacher, have I made the right decision?” Although Saleen’s confidence had already been well-trained, he was still keen to know what his teacher thought.

“Lex is a grade-9 sorcerer. She has her own regiment of mages and a God’s Ring. Her subordinates include sorcerers and Aini had also advanced into a grade-8 death sorcerer. Lonestar City is a very resilient city that can hardly be taken down, unless attacked by a large number of high-level Professionals at the same time. Lex is trapped because she did not want to leave her subordinates behind. Saleen, you made the right decision.”

“Teacher, I want to bring Truman along. Without the magic cannon, the port…”

“Don’t worry about the port. Leave it to me.”

Saleen nodded. He was a little worried that the Cloudflow fleet might be keeping a secret weapon that he was unaware of, hence he wanted to bring along the miniature magic cannon. Within a few tens of miles, the magic cannon would strike faster than any other weapon. Although it was not as powerful as his own clan badge, it could fire consecutively. It would only use up high-level magic nuclei and Saleen had plenty of them.

Saleen stayed with Jason all the way to the middle of the night and left behind the diagram and notebook of the magic furnace before returning back to his room.

Nicholas, Eleanor, Nailisi, and Soldier were all there. Saleen sat down and everyone gathered.

“Eleanor, when will you be able to advance to grade-8?” That was the first question that Saleen asked.

Eleanor thought for a moment and said, “I’m not sure. Maybe three to five years. My advancement has become slower than that of ordinary mages. It could be due to what has happened over the past few months.”

“In that case, you will stay behind in the temple. Try to advance to grade-8 as soon as you can. If you have any problems with magic, you can consult my teacher or any of the other grade-9 sorcerers. They will guide you along.”

Eleanor nodded. She needed to advance her archery, on top of her magic, hence it was troublesome. If she focused on magic alone, she was confident that she would be able to advance into a grade-8 sorcerer in that month.

“Nailisi, you will lead a battalion of temple soldiers and some demons and head to Lonestar City. I will also give you the 24 ancient warriors. If need be, just activate them.”

“Master?” Nailisi sensed that Saleen was sending her off on her own and could not bear to leave him.

“For Lex’s army to be trapped, there must be a lot of powerful people. Although the Sikeqinyans are often made fun of, their kingdom has been established for thousands of years and cannot be looked down on. You have to be careful when you are there. I want you to help Lex defend Lonestar City. When I head over, then we will attack from inside and outside.”

“But…”

“I have to settle the Cloudflow forces first. Nailisi, you may not be aware that the Cloudflow forces have taken your four subordinates to be married off as concubines.”

Nailisi was enraged. Saleen quickly assured her and said, “I will definitely settle this. Cloudflow’s Grand Duke Iron Blood has sent me an invitation to provoke me into fighting him head-on so that he can try to destroy my navy. He would not have set the date to be in the month of May otherwise and would have already…” Saleen did not know how to continue. The four demons were males after all.

Nailisi gritted her teeth. She had spent so much effort teaching the four of them to become so obedient. To think that Grand Duke Iron Blood would want to take them as concubines!

The reason why Nailisi was so upset was that Cuisi had once suffered heavy injuries for Saleen before, earning the trust of Nailisi. The other three demons had also given their all to train up the demon army. Nailisi would not have cared if they were just ordinary demons. She might even have found it amusing that Grand Duke Iron Blood was willing to marry male demons in disguise.

Now that it had befallen on Cuisi, Nailisi did not find the situation amusing at all.

“Master, you must torture that Duke…” With that, Nailisi took out the blood soul tower, gave it to Saleen and said, “Lock up his soul. I want him to suffer for thousands of years!”

Nicholas was stunned by what Nailisi said. He used the blood soul tower to erase the memories of souls while Nailisi was clearly going to retain the Grand Duke’s memory so that she could torture it repeatedly.

The blood soul tower was a terrifying piece of equipment. If a soul was trapped inside, you could force it to bow to you or torture it repeatedly to produce fear. In that case, the power of fear would still be able to produce terrifying powers.

That was exactly how the Angel of Fear fought using the power of fear.

“Don’t worry. I will not let him off,” Saleen assured Nailisi. He knew that Grand Duke Iron Blood was a threat. After picking up astrology, Saleen knew that there was such a thing as luck in the world. The Grand Duke was someone who had a lot of luck as his ancestors had passed down countless properties to him and he also managed to find the remains of the first dynasty on Dragon Island. It was best to eliminate someone like that as soon as possible, or else he would eventually become a formidable enemy.

“Soldier, this time around, you will not come along either.”

“Master?” The winged skeleton was shocked. Without him, who would operate the pan’s turtle alchemical boat?

“I will take Nicholas and Rossen. I have the six major elemental badges now, are you still worried about my safety?”

“Master, why leave me behind?”

“I need to go to Lonestar City. You will stay here and summon a real army of spirits of the dead. I have the ancient warship with many clones of the Mechanical Soul. That should be sufficient to operate the warship. Give me six jade skeletons to operate the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. My mages already know how to operate the dragon skeleton combat vessel. By the time I am back, I want to see at least 50,000 spirits of the dead. Can you do that?”

“Yes!” The winged skeleton replied confidently. Saleen was right. With the six major elemental badges, he would be safe from most dangers. On top of that, Saleen’s clan badge has also fully recovered. Even if he encountered creatures of the same grade as the Angel of Fear, he would be able to kill them with a single strike.

Saleen would not care if Grand Duke was around when he struck. If the latter was killed, Saleen could only apologize to Nailisi. The winged skeleton was aware of that and felt that there would be no problems, so he was willing to stay.

Saleen smiled and said to the winged skeleton, “Don’t worry. I will bring Jola along. He is already a golden grand swordmaster. He is more powerful than the ancient warriors.”

The winged skeleton had no further questions. Saleen said to Nicholas, “Nicholas, how do you feel about your blood soul tower?”

“No problem with it at all. It can still contain even more souls. It is more than enough for me.”

“This time when we fight against the Cloudflow navy on the sea, I will be needing you on many occasions. If there is anything else you require, let me know now. We will leave in 10 days’ time.”

“I need a Forbidden Code.” Nicholas had more or less figured out Saleen’s temperament by then. It was best to be straightforward about whatever he needed and Saleen would try his best to get it for him. If Nicholas tried to be subtle about it, he would not be able to get anything.

Saleen closed his eyes and thought for moment before opening them and saying, “I will try. What materials do you need?”

Nicholas listed out all the materials needed. Saleen took a look at it and nodded before handing it to the winged skeleton.

“Try your best to gather the best materials.”

The winged skeleton took a look at the list and threw it into spirit space. Saleen yawned and said, “All of you should go and rest.”

He yearned to see Sika. Everyone was aware, so even Nailisi left obediently.

Saleen was relieved to see that even Nailisi had left. He left his room and came to Sika.

“Come in,” Sika’s voice rang out. Saleen entered the room happily and saw Sika cuddling the two children.

“Papa…” Both children called out at the same time. Saleen smiled bitterly and walked over to the bedside and cradled his son. The lust in Saleen vanished the moment the soft body of his child laid on him. He took a deep breath of the baby smell of his son.

“Have you been bringing them everywhere all this while?”

“Of course. The two of them refuse to sleep if I’m not with them.”

“Why?”

“Because they want my milk obviously, it’s not because they want to hear stories from me.”

“What about me?”

“You? You want milk too?” Sika looked at Saleen with a shocked expression.

“Papa… milk…” Saleen’s son slurred. Saleen was embarrassed, but Sika only laughed in amusement.

“Why are you laughing! Don’t tell me I’m not allowed!” Saleen stared at Sika. He noticed that Sika’s bosoms looked a little different compared to the past. For some reason, he realized that he did desire it.

“Why not? You will have to go third though.” Sika’s gaze became seductive. Saleen realized that no matter how much he advanced, he could never resist Sika.