Badge in Azure

Saleen swung the bone mace around before putting it away. They were only 500 yards deep. The power of the bone mace was such that if they had been on the surface of the sea, it would be detected by the people on the islands. Saleen fought the Angel of Fear before, so he knew that the latter’s attack was so powerful that even pests from more than 10 miles away would cower in fear. If Saleen’s bone mace caused all the underwater creatures to go into a frenzy, they would be discovered by the enemy immediately.

No other creatures came forth to harass them. Saleen went towards the reef. To be more accurate, it was hardly considered a reef anymore since it was a few miles wide. If it had been floating on its own on the sea, it could be considered an island.

The only reason why it was not considered one was because it was very close to Grand Duke Iron Blood’s island, and in comparison, only a few yards of land could be seen above the surface. It could hardly be categorized as an island.

Saleen swam along the reefs and surfaced above the water to gaze at the huge island that was a few miles away. Finally, he climbed up onto the reefs and the rest followed behind him.

Saleen did not need to say anything for Jola to stick within 10 yards of him. Although Jola was a golden grand swordmaster who was able to control a range that was similar to a sorcerer, his tendency was still to be safe rather than sorry. He felt more at ease if he kept himself within 10 yards of Saleen.

Jola had seen Saleen’s elemental creatures before. In fact, Saleen even arranged for Jola to fight against his elemental creatures, and the leaders of the creatures, so that Jola could better understand the power of grade-10 creatures.

Jola would be able to defeat grade-9 creatures easily even if they were personally led by Saleen. Even if Saleen was not leading them, Jola had a tough time defeating grade-10 creatures though. Golden grand swordmasters were indeed powerful, but the difference in grade was significant, especially when it was between grade-9 and grade-10.

Grade-10 elemental creatures possessed intelligence and their combat experience would only grow by the day. One day, Jola would surely lose to them. Saleen possessed elemental badges, so Jola knew that he would have a much easier time protecting Saleen from then on. It was out of habit that he was still sticking so closely to Saleen.

On the other hand, Nicholas kept a distance while being protected by more than 10 ancient warriors. The fallen Holy Master had already decided to entrust his future to Saleen, so he had to be more cautious from then on. He knew his role very well. He was there to heal, not to kill.

No one knew what state the captured demons would be in by the time they were rescued. There was no way Saleen could escape while carrying the demons. That was when the healing powers of divine spells would be very useful, otherwise Saleen would not have brought Nicholas along.

After the 20 men climbed up the reefs, Saleen used his elemental eyes to observe the island. As he had developed the elemental eyes from his own abilities, they were much more powerful than those of grade-9 sorcerers. Not only could they observe things further away, they could be used continuously for a very long time.

A typical pair of elemental eyes could only be used for about an hour if the grade-9 sorcerer tried his very best. On the other hand, Saleen’s elemental eyes could be used anytime for however long he wanted, as long as he was not in a battle.

Saleen glanced towards the sea and realized that the location was further than he thought. There were still many more reefs ahead. The gigantic island was about five miles away. In such a situation, there was no way the gigantic ancient combat vessel would be able to get close enough to the island.

Saleen’s fleet stopped by that cluster of gigantic islands before, but they were no longer the same because a huge palace had been built on the islands. The palace was built in typical Cloudflow-style. It was all the way up on the mountains while ancient-looking towers were built along steep cliffs.

Unless the huge combat vessels got close enough there was no space on the shore for huge equipment to be set up to attack the palace. Saleen recalled that the palace of Daliang City was also a combat fortress. Grand Duke Iron Blood’s palace was even bigger and looked even more resilient than the one in Daliang City.

A palace of that scale could not possibly be owned by a Duke. Clearly, Grand Duke Iron Blood was disregarding the Cloudflow royal family!

Saleen could not see the entire palace even with his elemental eyes, but he predicted that the entire island had been covered by the palace. Besides the beach, there was no other space available. Even the mountaintops that were very tall were not left alone as Saleen saw watchtowers carved into the three highest mountaintops. There could possibly be weapons such as magic cannons there too.

The location was only around 5,000 miles away from Lianyun City. A Cloudflow combat vessel would only need around two days to reach it. Saleen thought about it carefully. Although the ancient combat vessel was mainly used for protection and escorting purposes, its massive structure could not possibly be docked at ordinary ports. The ancient combat vessel was extremely stable on the sea, even if there were raging storms and waves.

Grand Duke Iron Blood was using the ancient combat vessel as a fortress on the sea. The rest of his combat vessels must be anchored around the ancient combat vessel, so that if necessary, they could be linked together with cables to withstand storms.

When Jola saw Saleen observing very carefully, he whispered, “My Lord, why don’t we proceed?”

“Grand Duke Iron Blood has an ancient combat vessel as well, and there are tens of thousands of ancient warriors onboard. The Cloudflow forces have a way of controlling the ancient warriors, and while their combat abilities would be reduced, there will still be too many of them.”

“In that case…,” Jola did not continue. He had wanted to say that 30 or 50 of them would not be a problem for him, but then he thought about the formidable defense of tainted blood armor, and he was no longer so confident. No matter how weak the ancient warriors might be, they were still grade-9 warriors, and could not be compared to grade-8 silver grand swordmasters.

When Jola sparred against the ancient warriors, although he did not do his very best since he did not want to kill Saleen’s ancient warriors, he knew that even if he did, it would take a heavy toll on him too kill all 24 of them. After all, he had only advanced to grade-9 not long ago and was still in the beginning phase of a golden grand swordmaster.

“Besides, if we just charge ahead, what will happen to Cuisi and the rest?” Saleen stared at Jola. The other three demons might not be very important, but Cuisi had sustained severe injuries in the past while protecting Eleanor. His grade almost dropped to the extent of not being able to recover. Saleen was someone who was very sensitive to such things. That time around, he was determined to rescue Cuisi, even if it meant sacrificing a few ancient warriors.

Jola was also very familiar with Saleen and knew that he was someone that kept his words. He had no choice but to bear with it as Saleen dove into the waters once again. The distance of five miles was too short for a golden grand swordmaster. The speed at which Jola could travel within 100 miles was so fast that not even grade-9 sorcerers would be a match for him. Even someone like Saleen, who possessed unique flying abilities, would not be as fast as Jola.

Jola was a rash person and could still afford to do everything his own way when Saleen was not around. Saleen was personally leading them that time around, so Jola had no choice but to obey every order obediently.

The speed at which Saleen and the rest covered the distance of five miles was not necessarily slower compared to flying. Grand Duke Iron Blood’s island could not be compared to Saleen’s Metatrin City, so there were no security features placed underwater and there were very few detection magic arrays. Saleen simply led his group up to the island.

The island was about 50 miles long, so with such a massive palace, it was as if a huge city had been built on it. In addition, there were mountains on the island, so it would be extremely difficult to set things up around the island. Saleen believed that Grand Duke Iron Blood had more than 1,000 mages working for him. There was no way so many buildings could be built in such a short time with only craftsmen.

There was a track for wagons around the edge of the building. It was a few hundred yards wide, and where the terrain was on a higher ground, Grand Duke Iron Blood took the opportunity to pile up huge rocks so that it naturally formed a line of defense. That line of defense was not really a city wall, but merely served to prevent amphibious magic beasts from entering. He did not wish for his own men to be eaten up by magic beasts for no good reason.

It was evening, and the setting sun cast a long and sharp shadow of a stone pillars onto the wagon track. Saleen and the rest hid themselves amongst the gigantic stone pillars and waited until it was completely dark. Some soldiers on patrol would walk past on the wagon track. Saleen was able to easily tell that there were 100 soldiers in each group and the person leading them was at least a high-level swordmaster.

Mages were no weaklings. Saleen’s physique was comparable to that of a zun grand swordmaster. If both parties fought only with their fists, Saleen might not necessarily lose to a high-level swordmaster. However, if the patrolling team met with any mishaps, the island would be on alert immediately. Saleen had no choice but to bide his time when entering the vicinity of the palace.

He knew that there was a magic tower hidden in the middle of the island, so there would definitely be an anti-flying zone. That was why he did not even attempt to try to fly over. It was harder to guard against a group of grade-9 professionals trying to sneak their way in.

Saleen had built Metatrin City from scratch, so he knew that if there were magic arrays, it was always best to try and sneak in at night. Before the sun had fully set, there was suddenly a huge fog across the sea. Saleen was overjoyed. When the fog drifted to the island, he cast his Quickcloud spell on himself. Since a grade-9 Quickcloud spell would be able to cover a huge area, all 24 ancient warriors followed Saleen onto the island.

Even if one used detection magic, no one would be able to detect anything out of place about the fog that was created from Saleen’s Quickcloud spell, unless it was a sorcerer of the same grade. They were concealed by the fog, so even the patrolling soldiers that were carrying huge lanterns with them would not be able to detect them.

The group quickly crossed the wagon track and flipped themselves onto the rocks that acted as a line of defense. Behind the rocks were small fortresses that were spread 1oo yards apart. The castles could only contain five soldiers and the living conditions were tough. There was no way any mages would be found there.

Saleen led the rest past the line of defense easily. Slightly more than 100 yards behind the defense was the real fortress. It was a towering metal arrow tower and the bottom two levels were combat fortresses for hiding soldiers. It was designed so majestically that it did not look out of place with the style of the palace.

“Humph, to think that they would spend so much energy on something as meaningless as this. Indeed, they are Cloudflows!”

Under the protection of the fog, Saleen went past an arrow tower and arrived under a high wall. He patted the calabash on his waist to release a green-colored water current that cut out a hole in the wall in the shape and size of a human. The ancient warriors would lead the way while Saleen would bring up the rear. Before proceeding, he turned back and used the miniature wind dragon to pull back the wall that he had cut down and repaired it with a Fossilization spell. There was no trace of them trespassing.