Badge in Azure

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Using the Icy Sight, Saleen was be able to look across a great distance. Saleen could see the man who was spotted by the soldiers even more clearly. The five soldiers were recruited from the two nobles who had submitted to Saleen. They could not enter the nuclear part of the city yet, they were confined to patrolling the city's periphery.

The private soldiers of these nobles were quite strong, the only problem laid in their loyalty. Saleen knew very clearly that even if he was a terrorizing mage, he would not be able make the soldiers obey him completely. As long as the two nobles did not leave, the soldiers would execute their tasks without complaints, they would not even demand additional compensation from Saleen.

The soldiers were very experienced. Even though the person looked wobbly, they did not let their guard down. Two men went at the front, while the other three were at the rear as they approached that man. The three soldiers at the back pressed against their sabers, ready to spring into action any moment.

When the soldiers were about four to five meters away, the man suddenly fell onto the ice layer. The two soldiers were pretty heartless as they did not go forward to help that man up. Instead, they came to a halt. Glancing at each other, they wielded their swords.

The two of them shifted their bodies sideways, one on each side, allowing a soldier at the back to go forward and take a look. With such an action, the fallen person might also get deceived even if he was feigning it. This simple act of halting exemplified the degree of coordination between the soldiers and their swath of experience. Saleen noticed it and felt envious. Nobles put in a lot of effort grooming their private soldiers. They displayed more passion compared to the empire's regular army. Every noble had the duty to rear soldiers for the empire. In actual fact, everybody was amassing power for themselves.

These five soldiers were only at the standard of a beginner swordsman. When they acted in tandem, however, they could even kill a high grade swordsman.

The soldier from the rear then approached the man and kicked him. Saleen frowned, but he was only spectating it from a distance. He did not stop them. The soldiers did not kick with much strength, but the area of impact was under that man's ribs. With enough accuracy, the man would feel a piercing pain emanating towards his lungs. If the man was putting on a pretense, then he would not be able to fake it any longer.

If this kick had sufficient force, the man would surely be severely injured. The tips of the soldier's boots were wrapped in metal.

"Woo…" The man gave out an excruciating noise when he got kicked. He squirmed about, but did not get up. At this point in time, the soldier then made way for the other two at the back to help the man get up.

"Master, that man looks like a spy, why don't I torture him?" Even though Nailisi had been behaving suspiciously with the winged skeleton lately, getting busy with her own matters, she still had the agility in her. Upon noticing something amiss with that man, she immediately harbored the thought of torturing him herself.

Currently, Saleen did not have a person who was suitable to conduct an interrogation. Daniel had been dispatched to receive Lex. For Aini, Saleen was embarrassed to ask him to do so. Matters like interrogation were usually reserved for the servants after all.

Even if Nailisi did not employ her demonic methods, she still had thousands of other ways to make the enemy reveal information.

"Something's wrong, that person looks familiar." Saleen's heart fluttered. That person lying on the frozen layer had an obvious scar on his face. Saleen suddenly noticed that the scar was fresh. Judging by this person's appearance, he looked like a swordsman from Sregl Island.

"Bring him over quickly. No, send him there." Saleen pointed to a fortress nearby. That fortress was a defensive structure located in the harbor, it functioned like a battlement. It was much larger and was formed by piles of white rocks. It was extremely tough and soldiers could even hide themselves in the first story.

When the other soldiers heard Saleen's command, they acted dexterously. They linked several wooden shields together. They tied the lances' poles to the bottom of the shields, forming a stretcher. Then, they placed the man atop and carried him to the fortress appointed by Saleen.

Saleen arrived at the first story of the fortress first and cleared out a room. Once the man was sent over, Saleen immediately cast the Chunlin Spell, applying treatment. He then instructed a soldier to let the man consume a cup of Restorative Water.

The kick from the soldier was very light. That man was already injured and he was also starving and freezing, that's why he could not get back on his feet. After a few rounds of treatment, the man regained some energy. He immediately sat up and got down from the couch, bowing to Saleen.

"Sir Saleen."

"You recognize me?" Sika and Nailisi stood behind Saleen, but Saleen was not afraid of an intermediate grade swordsman creating trouble. He felt that this man looked really familiar, he should have belonged to the batch of soldiers taken away by Lex. Saleen could not understand why he had walked up from the sea.

"Sir Saleen, Lianyun City is in trouble."

Saleen nodded, he was not shocked at all. A siege by three-hundred warships, it would only be weird if Lianyun City remained unharmed.

"Are you from Sregl Island? What's with the injury on your face?" Saleen stared at the hideous scar on the swordsman's face. The scar still had a tinge of pinkness, it was obviously left behind recently. It had been treated with magic medicine, but the medicine's grade was too low. It could not get rid of the scar. To a soldier, being able to survive was already great. More often than not, people would not really care about scars whatsoever.

"Sir Saleen, after following Viscountess Lex to Lianyun City, everything was still smooth sailing. The owner of Lianyun City allowed us to dock the warship at his port. The Viscountess had instructed us to wait for her at Lianyun City. In March, she said that she would dispatch someone over, and then we would sail back.

"What other orders did Lex give?"

"The Viscountess ordered us to go out to sea once a week, to draw the map of the nearby ocean."

Saleen then realized that Lex did not allow the warship to return because she had seized the opportunity to conduct reconnaissance in the northeastern seas of the empire. Even though Lianyun City was the only large harbor in the northeast, there were dozens other smaller port cities. These cities could only fit ships shorter than fifty meters, large ships would not be able to dock there.

As the Sregl Island swordsman continued his narration, Saleen began to understand the events which transpired in Lianyun City.

The vanguards of the eastern sea allied army had already reached Lianyun City a month ago. Even though Lianyun City was inferior to Alchemy City, it owned several large warships. One-third of them were surely patrolling the seas, while the other two-thirds would defend the port. Operating these warships might be costly, but the cities within a thousand mile radius would pay a sum to Lianyun City's owner, to protect their fishing boats from harassment by pirates.

The strength of Lianyun City's military was mostly based at sea, their land defenses were extremely frail.

When the vanguards of the expeditionary army arrived, they did not manage to avoid detection by the warships' radars. Both parties got into an intense clash. Back then, the warships from Lianyun City had a capability advantage. The enemy only had a few vanguards, and both parties sustained damage also. It was later revealed by the prisoners that the enemy still possessed a massive fleet. The owner of Lianyun City made an erroneous move. He recalled all the warships back to the port, as he attempted to use the nearby batteries to obstruct the enemy.

The warship from Sregl Island defied the order. Since they had been living at sea for a long time, they knew that the warships would get sunk if they did not set sail. The batteries could deal with a small number of warships. If there were more than one-hundred warships, a magic trebuchet's speed of catapulting could not match up, The enemy would be able to suppress it. The trebuchets on a warship were not an exhibit. Since the batteries were a fixed target, they would have been destroyed by concentrated assaults from the enemy.

The owner of Lianyun City had forcefully disarmed the people from the Sregl Island. From the start, Lex already did not leave many people behind. They could barely even operate a warship. As these swordsmen could not defeat the trusted soldiers of the Lianyun City's owner, they had no choice but to abandon the idea of boarding the warship.

Fortunately, Lianyun City's owner did not imprison these disobedient soldiers. After a quick analysis by the two grade-3 mages who were left onboard, the mages felt that staying in Lianyun City would undoubtedly wind up horribly as the enemy simply had too many warships. There were no larger noble-owned lands in the vicinity, so the chances of getting reinforcements was very low. Even if Holy Rock City was willing to send troops, Lianyun City would have long been razed to the ground by the time the troops arrived.

These one-hundred people then abandoned the warship, leaving the Lianyun City secretly and making their way to Phoenix, before returning to Saleen's city.

At that point in time, Phoenix was also submerged in war. The Qin army from Goodrid City had staged an invasion, trying to seize control of Phoenix. The noblemen in Phoenix had teamed up to put up resistance. When these one-hundred people entered Phoenix, they were immediately sucked into the war.

"Are you saying that the two mages have died?" At first, Saleen was still grinning. When he heard this news, his face turned frosty in that instant, like still water. Even though Saleen still had a youthful appearance, he already emitted the vibe of an influential person. With that change in expression, that swordsman from Sregl Island immediately went on his knees.

"Sir, I was incompetent, please mete out punishment."

Saleen was stunned, then he said, "It is not your fault. Let me ask you one more time, the two mages died in the hands of the Qin army?"

"Yes Sir, they had a grade-6 mage who could fly. We split up into five groups. I was lucky to have escaped, the mages who traveled with me were the first to be killed. The Phoenix border cannot be accessed anymore, and many villages have been destroyed. The nobles dared not emerge to fight, there is no other solution. I could only escape to the sea. The coasts had been frozen and no one was at sea, I…"

"You have done well." After consoling this soldier, Saleen was simmering with an unexplainable rage. His mages would have definitely announced their origins, yet they were still killed by the enemy. The Goodrid army was lawless, they neither respected Alchemy City nor Viscountess Lex.

"Once these mages returned, they would have become my followers. They were on the same team, yet they were killed without rhyme nor reason!"

Due to Emperor Chanake, Saleen had taken a liking to the Qin Empire. After this incident, Saleen was now filled with hatred and outrage.

"The Goodrid army had quite a number of soldiers, and I want to go forth and reclaim justice? It doesn't seem possible. If you all want to dominate Phoenix, you will have to ask for my opinion."

Saleen was not fond of tussling for worldly power. It was no small matter if his subordinates were slaughtered. If he did not take some action, who would want to follow him in the future?

The situation seemed terrible. Half of Phoenix's land had been occupied. The Qin Empire had also been deploying continuous streams of soldiers into Phoenix. At the moment, Goodrid City was not the sole invader anymore.