Badge in Azure

The bone warships were divided into four groups to stop the enemy’s advancement, and the Cloudflow people went killing every single spirit onboard. Their cowardice on land seemed like a distant thing. For more than one-thousand years, that had always been a fact that even they themselves admitted: the seas belonged to Cloudflow, while the land…they all fought all they wanted over those parts.

While the actual situation with Cloudflow people had not always been so deplorable, the war at Titan Duchy proved the point nonetheless. If the Cloudflow people did not have the advantage of being familiar with the perilous nature of the waters, they would not have been able to protect their own lands.

Even with all bone warships sunken, they were still unable to find Saleen’s fleet. The bone warships leaned towards the west, moving for the shores. Saleen’s fleet however, went straight for north, without any deviation in direction.

According to his calculations, he would have been able to attack faster, killing the enemy before the enemy’s sword aura reached him. He never expected the enemy had some skill so eerie up their sleeve—a puppet double. Jola was too sure of himself, having forgotten completely that the spirit within his sword had lost all its powers.

If the sword spirit retained its powers, the puppet double would not have been able to be of any use.

Saleen asked Nicholas in private, and the old man replied that there was more than ninety percent chance that Jola was going to recover, imploring him to relax. Such recovery however, required time, as divine arts would not have been of any use in the field of power restoration.

Jola stayed alone within the hold with his sword in his arms, and the magic armor Saleen crafted for him in front of him. Without the armor’s protection, he would have been a dead man. Golden grand swordmasters were not invincible. They were just as capable of dying as anyone else. There was a fine crack in the armor. If the suit of armor had been a conventional set, the impact from such a sword attack taken would have shattered it.

The crack from the attack had intense residual sword intent left on it. Jola deemed the enemy golden grand swordmaster’s skill with a sword to be inferior to his, yet the enemy was incredibly quick. He had no choice but to take the full brunt of the attack when they went for Saleen. That had obviously been a trap, and one that he had to jump into.

The magic armor crafted by Saleen served its purpose exceptionally. Not only did he survive the attack, he was even able to study the enemy’s art with a sword from the crack left behind.

It had been a long time since he had been in such life-and-death battles. When he was killing his way out of Lonestar City, there had almost been no one capable of standing in his way. He had grown arrogant since then, and the move by the enemy on the previous day served as a severe lesson to him. Behind every able man, there were always other able men. If he was able to gain unique golden sword aura from his practice, so could others.

For instance, the move that almost got him killed. The sword aura was not something that simply pierced the body; it was something that exploded when it entered the body, rupturing every single organ within. Nicholas was only able to reverse the dire injury Jola suffered by sacrificing tens of years of his own lifespan.

The price was one hardly worth paying. Jola knew that Nicholas was very old, and his lifespan had gotten even shorter after becoming a fallen holy master. While he was able to regain some of his lifespan after acquiring the blood soul tower, Nicholas became older again for his and Saleen’s sakes. If he remained incapable of advancing into grade-10, Nicholas would have probably ended up being the most short-lived among all of Saleen’s followers.

Jola had always thought his speed to be more than enough, yet the attack from before served as a testament that the Cloudflow grand swordmaster’s speed obviously surpassed his. His speed was one from the body leading the weapon, yet the Cloudflow grand swordmaster’s speed was derived from having the weapon leading the body.

The move was unleashed with all of one’s might and had no hint of intricacies within it whatsoever. Jola had always detested such skills, where the weapon went out of control and became a loose cannon. He had realized all of a sudden right there, that he had been utterly wrong all that time. No matter how tricky or intricate moves were, there would be times where evasion was simply not an option. The move from the Cloudflow grand swordmaster seemed to have opened up something within Jola’s mind, and the spirit within Tears resonated with him without him realizing it.

The rules that he created began to see subtle changes. His moves had always lacked a flair of indomitable courage to them. It was not that Jola was weak. It was simply that he spent too much time in Cloudflow and became accustomed to the ways of the Cloudflow people.

Such things were not immutable after all. Wasn’t the enemy yesterday from Cloudflow after all?

The weapon spirit within Tears gently called for Jola. He held onto his sword without realizing that the sword was shaking ever so slightly. The very fine gash on the sword turned more and more undetectable, until it was completely absorbed within the blade itself.

Jola’s eyes remained on the crack. Technique was something internal, yet he had taken it to be something like a style. True style should be like someone’s personal bearing, an imposing, peerless bearing capable of overpowering one’s own opponent, rendering escape and evasion impossible.

If one still relied on techniques when one’s power had reached such a level, and lacked such a bearing still, one’s art would have been inferior. He had never encountered any powerful enemies before, and if he had encountered yet another one next time, he probably would not have another opportunity to be enlightened on such matters.

Jola thrust Tears at his front swiftly, and the tip of his sword pierced into the magic armor. While the magic array in the armor had undoubtedly been broken, the underlying material remained sturdy nonetheless. Jola was, at that moment, incapable of mobilizing sword aura and had only made the move with his own understanding on bearing. The move was able to pierce the sturdy armor nonetheless.

Jola chuckled. His move did not have much behind it, and the use of power was perfect. That chuckle hurt his injury, and he fell down in pain. He gritted his teeth and thought, “Everything about this ship is perfect, except for the fact that there are no pretty girls in it. What a bummer…”

The Cloudflow people were unable to locate Saleen’s fleet, retreating only when they were near Demon City. The warships on both sides no longer made any contact, and the traps left behind by Saleen ended up unused. Saleen left a jade skeleton and a magic array on an uninhabited island nonetheless. Once a Cloudflow fleet was detected, the jade skeleton was to trigger the magic array immediately to inform Metatrin City.

The diving combat vessels did not return to port, staying in the outer waters to continue patrolling instead. Saleen began placing more importance on the grand duke ever since he found out that the grand duke became capable of commanding ancient warriors.

With the sea routes being blockaded, Metatrin City grew quiet. As all three trade routes were blocked off, the commercialized city had been seeing little else other than some small trade caravans going about collecting magic nuclei. Nobody was doing any big businesses in the city.

Citizens of Metatrin City did not grow nervous in the least. Having made an extravagant comeback, saving his own servant girl and some strange looking sailors—the demons, citizens of the city never felt safer in their lives. With such a powerful king overseeing them, the city was at least a safe one.

Had there been any other cities with thirty-six nine-floored magic towers erected in them? Not even Holy Rock City showed such boldness!

People dwelling inside Metatrin City all had a bit of adventurous spirit in them. The place was bitterly cold, and there was only one season available for producing crops. Without aid from mages, eight out of ten years would have seen reduced yield due to cold waves hitting the place. No one without courage would have thought of settling in such places.

The arena within the city saw packed seats every night. There was hardly anyone in the city who cared about the war out there. Winners of gladiatorial matches were constantly absorbed into the army. Out of Saleen’s ten main camps, other than two which made for Daliang, all others took turns garrisoning Metatrin City and Huoxing City.

With Jason overseeing the operations, there was hardly unrest of any kind seen within the city, so much so that no one would have guessed that the border city was actually being placed under lockdown.

Saleen knew that he could no longer be able to sit by and do nothing. The matter with Lonestar City had to be resolved. That time, he no longer relied on his elemental creatures. He had instead mobilized his armies to fight head on with the Sikenqinyans.

Saleen realized that the elemental creatures were vital means to keep himself alive. With Gloria being severely injured and the dark elemental creature leader in hibernation, he would have been forced to halt many of his plans if two more were to suffer such dire setbacks.

Within one whole week spent for recovery within Metatrin City, Saleen had not been practicing any magic. He had truly relaxed himself for the first time and stayed by Sika and his children. He was, of course, unable to get Sika involved in the rescue of Lonestar City, as he was doing it in the name of saving Lex.

While both women seemed to get along well with each other, Saleen knew well that both women had always hoped that they would be the only one to be by his side. It had been Sika who egged him on to marry Lex, and there was obviously no turning back at that point. With Sika having bore him two children, Lex dared not suggest anything to have him leave Sika behind, as doing so would have been unbearably cruel.

Saleen had not been thinking things through thoroughly enough back then, and he was not able to back out of either relationship.

Metatrin City had been busy getting ready for war within the week. An army of one-hundred-thousand strong set up camp at the west side, consisted of two groups of temple guards and three main camps. The number of auxiliary troops almost matched that of his regular ones. His army did not follow the Qin’s way of doubling the number of one of those types.

All of the one-hundred-thousand-thousand troops were equipped with the latest gear Saleen was able to craft. Saleen brought Truman with him still and Duke Guya’s little sister, Sharman.

While Saleen was busy getting things prepared, Lonestar City had seen several violent conflicts taking place. The Sikenqinyans surrounding the city had enough to wait outside, as the food supplies consumed every day were of massive amounts. The reinforcement promised by the Holy See had yet to come, be it supplies or troops.

The Sikenqinyans felt like they were being set up. Given that they had declared war on the Kingdom of Metatrin, there was simply no backing out at that point. Lonestar City had been eyeing the Laiyin Duchy. The duchy served as a gateway of sorts to the Sikenqinyans. If they pulled their forces out, and Lonestar City were to attack Laiyin Duchy, there was no way that the Sikenqinya Empire would simply let things take their own course.

The several attempts at taking the city resulted in heavy losses on both sides, yet Sikenqinyans were very satisfied. Logistical pressure was considerably lightened with a good number of miscellaneous troops dead on their side. While the losses suffered by Lonestar City were in the form of spirits, summoning of spirits was nonetheless a time-consuming feat after all. Having lost great numbers of spirits in the past several battles, Lonestar lost the capacity to assault the Sikenqinyan main camp for the time being.

In such a deadlocked situation, the Holy See mobilized an army of two-hundred-thousand strong, which was marching from the north of Kroraina and was cutting straight into Qin territory.

A large number of black-robed high priest were among the two-hundred-thousand strong army. The tribunal and the pivotal council were able to reach an agreement to mobilize their main forces, which included elites in the form of fifty-thousand wardens.

The news traveled from Daliang City and reached Metatrin City. No one was able to tell why the Holy See had suddenly changed their course of attack. If that two-hundred-thousand strong force was to be put to use in the war, they would definitely be able to find a breakthrough at the western borders of the Qin Empire.

Never had Saleen thought that Grand Duke Iron Blood sold the images of him beating the War Drum of Fear and killing thousands of soldiers to the Holy See. Theisio almost went insane seeing those images. He dreamt of the King of Metatrin beating on a large war drum and commanding armies to murder his believers. The dream had become reality!