Badge in Azure

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

Titan Duchy was already in a mess, the Tanggulasi Empire had invaded, the Princess' Castle was surrounded, and the north of Chishui River had fallen into the enemy's hands. The Cloudflow Empire had led an expedition and conquered most of the territory on the south of the duchy. The armies were gathering at the Stone Statue Castle to prepare for war. Countless wealthy that were loyal to the Agares family had been slain and the Cloudflow Empire had recruited soldiers, forcing many farmers to join the army in the Northern Expedition.

As Bifano's team had caught the early opportunity, they had escaped the Cloudflow's northern army and followed the Chishui River to the east. They had wiped clean all the warehouses in the cities along the way. Most of the people in the armies of these cities had escaped and some of them followed Bifano to the east all the way to Fire Dance City.

Fire Dance City was not the capital of Titan Duchy, but it was Bifano's land. His most loyal army was there and his reserves from many years too.

Those following Bifano were professional military people and many soldiers families had run into the mountains. Bifano did not make things hard for them. Lex had gained huge resources just as she wanted and if she did not bring them away, they would be wiped clean by the Cloudflow people. Bifano did not feel any loss now, he had meant to take the resources from only the big cities, but now he did not even let those in the small cities go.

At every city, Bifano would open the warehouses and give out a large amount of gold coins and rations for the people to take away. He would let Lex keep the remaining spoils in the Gods Ring.

Essentially, there was no-one who stopped him, the Cloudflow Empire's method was too direct. At least the Qin Empire had created a kid and said he was the descendant of the Grand Duke of Phoenix and he had no intentions of destroying Phoenix. Cloudflow had bluntly sent out their soldiers, taking over the land and stripping the wealthy of their ranks.

Thousands of years ago, the four empires had taken a step back to ensure a stable situation in the Mainland. Now, this situation could no longer be stabilized and not a single empire was willing to stand down.

Optimistically, the Qin Empire was the most powerful among the four empires, this was because their weapons were the most advanced. They had the most mages and the richest citizens. They also had the most minerals. The Qin Empire was unlucky though. First, Emperor Chanake had passed away in combat, causing the wealthy in the region to become flippant. Next, the many countries from the Eastern Sea had invaded, leading to the people living in the North to live in massive poverty.

The Qin Empire had two affiliated duchies and when Loulan Duchy was defeated, Safilos had immediately dealt with Phoenix, taking control of all the warehouses in the North. So long as the invaders were defeated, the tension in the north would slowly diffuse. The wealthy in the south would be able to take a breather too. By that time, everyone would still support Holy Rock City to rule.

The actions of the Qin Empire had tugged at the heartstrings of the other three empires, the Tanggulasi Empire dealt with God Grace Duchy first. Now, the Cloudflow Empire wanted to eliminate Titan Duchy. Even though Laiyin Duchy did not have any movement, with Sikeqinya Empire being brazen, invasion would only be a matter of time.

Even though the Qin Empire people hated the Tanggulasi people the most, they still had to admit that only those from Sikeqinya would betray anything.

As the team approached Fire Dance City, Saleen got increasingly calmer. The amount of resources Lex had gained was too plentiful, Titan was always peaceful and their savings were bountiful. All the warehouses in the city were piled to the brim with rations. Every corner was filled and they had a large amount of weaponry. Some of them had been sealed away for centuries and had rusted, but if they were polished again, they could still be used.

The soldiers following Bifano had reached three-thousand and everyone had one thought; to reach Fire Dance City and to protect the land of the small duke. There was over a dozen infantry armies making their way towards Fire Dance City too and they were all of different scale. The smallest only had a handful of people that were commanded by a baron while the largest had thousands of people and there was at least an earl to support them.

The geographical location of Fire Dance City was not good and could even be considered dangerous, however, it was easy to defend and hard to attack. Along the Hantze, half the city was on high plains and this place was almost built just to defend.

When Saleen's magic chariot reached Fire Dance City, he was captivated by the city immediately.

Fire Dance City was a red city. The mountains were some form of red granite and were incredibly tough. Using these stone materials, Fire Dance City was built incredibly mightily even though it did not take up much land. There were three levels to it. The one at the bottom was over ten square miles long and the terrain got increasingly high as the second city wall was around the center of a mountain.

At the top of the city was a nine-storey magic tower. Of course, there were no longer any mages in this magic tower. The strongest mages in Fire Dance City were grade-6 mages. Grade-6 mages could dispatch some of the forces from the magic tower though. The grade-9 magic tower controlled a good half of the safety of the city, making it impenetrable from the air.

Lex softly introduced the defences of Fire Dance City to Saleen as he was heavily inspired. Even though this city did not have many powerful mages, it made use of these continuous mountain peaks to build countless stable trebuchet platforms. There was an even more unusual defence mechanism, they had dug long tunnels through the body of the mountains and set the tunnels with wind magic arrays. The giant stones that were shot out from these tunnels could fly over ten miles.

The giant stones that shot out had no magic added to them. With such a long trajectory, it brought with it tremendous force and could easily destroy any equipment used to attack the city.

Such an installation made it impossible to aim and even more incapable of controlling the angle and distance. Everything was left to fate. The problem was that the enemy could not accurately defend against such an attack either and could not make any effective judgements.

If Bifano had such a city, why would he still need to find the temple? Could it be that the Cloudflow Empire had a secret weapon too and could destroy this city?

The door of Fire Dance City was shut tightly, some of the soldiers had slid down a rope from inside the city. They were overjoyed to see Bifano. They still took over the badge from Bifano's bodyguards though. Someone only opened the door after sending it back.

From inside the magic chariot, Saleen looked at these common soldiers. An unusual feeling rose within him. The strongest among them was probably only a beginner swordmaster, not comparable to Lex's swordsman camp. They had a similar temperament though. The way they looked at people was genuine and pure, not hypocritical at all.

Perhaps Bifano was not a good person, but his soldiers were. They were counting on the small duke for survival and their entire family had to look at the wealthy to support their lives. They gave their loyalty and strength to him because of that. When needed, they would have even given up their lives.

A mage was almighty and many would not care about what these commoners were thinking. It was precisely them that made up this world. The fate of these people could not be changed by them alone.

The unrest on the Myers Mainland would only get more intense and these commoners would be sucked bone dry by it.

It turned out that Lex wanted to build a new world not because she was hypocritical, neither was she unreasonable. If this world was as fair as what it were between mages where fairness could be executed like a contract, why would he have had such a childhood?

After getting himself out of trouble after trouble, he had become the protector of the world's rules. The elite were respected and they no longer needed to care about the small things. Lex who had come from the royal family, was instead thinking about the problems of this world.

Lex was a powerful person, at least in heart, she was much stronger than he was.

Saleen followed Bifano's team silently. He came to the main hall of the city and it was arranged to stay there. Bifano wanted to assemble his army to head south to find the old nest of the pink army. He needed to gather five-thousand elites this time and they would need at least two days before they could move out. Saleen kept to his room alone and started pondering silently.

He was swayed when Lex said she had the seeds of the divine trees. This was because the seeds could give him power. Lex obviously was not driven by power, she would become a sorcerer faster than him, entering gods hell. In the six-dimension space, she could even become a grade-9 sorcerer before she turned forty.

A grade-9 sorcerer had a long life and it was possible for her to advance even further, reaching an existence similar to Joey.

Lex wanted the seeds of the divine tree for another reason.

Saleen thought back to his teacher. Jason was a genius too. From the city that he had designed, the Dante sequence was used on the city walls to form a magic structure that was chain-like, connecting all the magic towers in the city. Such a thought was not even proposed by any of the mages in Alchemy City.

What did his teacher want? Obviously not the prosperity of Sregl Island. Jason had let him build the city and gods hell was but a surprise. Even without the interdimensional space, Jason was obviously prepared.

He wanted to build another Alchemy City, not something that mages owned. Just like Lex, he was thinking of the greater good.

Why did they give so much for people that were not related to them?

Saleen was from Sikeqinya and he believed that everything deserved something in return. Whether it was Lex or Jason, Saleen could not see any observable benefits to their hard work.

Boom, boom…

A slow knocked sounded at the door.

"Enter." Saleen released the magic lock that he had placed casually as Nailisi silently entered Saleen's room.

"Master, you seem uneasy." Nailisi came in front of him. She sat on her knees, just like a submissive summoned creature.

"Nailisi, if you become the strongest demon and you returned to the demon dimension, what do you intend to do?" Saleen asked a weird question.

Nailisi was stunned, a hint of confusion welled up in her green eyes as she said after a moment, "If I was the strongest demon, I would bring you to the demon dimension and remove the contract. Then I would make you my contract creature."

Saleen was not angry and only asked calmly, "Nailisi, is that your way of taking revenge?"

"Of course not, what revenge is there for me to take? I only want freedom, but I do not want to leave you. The best conclusion is for us to exchange places."

"If that is the case, I will lose my freedom."

"Only then can Master understand my feelings."

Nailisi, if you want freedom…"

"No, I am still not the strongest demon." Nailisi interrupted Saleen, she lowered her head, thinking about something.