Badge in Azure

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

There were no noises coming from the wooden house, Nailisi couldn not hear anything while atop the tree. Saleen and Sika were whispering to each other, their voices were too soft though. Coupled with the protection by elvish magic, Nailisi could not hear anything at all.

Saleen and Sika were not doing anything, their conversation was actually regarding the Caucasus people.

The Caucasus region was triangular in shape, almost all of the native lands belonging to the Caucasus people were in the mountains. The Caucasus mountains had cut in between Loulan and God Grace Duchy. They cut almost halfway in and spanned a distance of about three-thousand miles. The stretch of the Caucasus mountains passed through Laiyin Duchy from the north and entered Sikeqinya.

There was a disconnected part in the middle of the Caucasus mountains, around one-thousand miles of the mountains there were isolated. When the Tanggulasi army came the Caucasus people living in this area sunk into imminent danger.

Most of the Caucasus people who had defected to Sika had originated in this area.

The Caucasus people lived in the mountains, they knew how to tame magic beasts, had intrepid bodies, and they could travel swiftly between cliffs. A Caucasus person who had never cultivated the Sword Aura could still become a mighty warrior. The Caucasus' martial arts were very unique, while the abilities of a priestess were even stronger. Unfortunately, there were already very little Caucasus people around, this race was dwindling.

Even though the northern wilderness was harsh and frigid, it was suitable as a home for the Caucasus people. Before this, only the barbarians lived there and wanderedthe area as nomads, fishing sporadically. There were no human cities in north Phoenix, so the Caucasus people could not purchase the salt and equipment which they required.

Now that Saleen had established a kingdom, this place could become the home for these Caucasus people.

Saleen talked about Sika's hometown, from the time she was young until the day the both of them met.

"Sika, let me ask you, when you met me at the lake, why did you yell the word 'wild boar'?" After so many years, Saleen finally asked this question.

Sika laughed boisterously. She turned around and looked into Saleen's eyes and said, "At that moment, your eyes were looking at my chest lecherously, I was simply yelling casually."

"What does a 'wild boar' mean?"

"The wild boars in the Caucasus region are very lustful. They do not only want to have intercourse with the female boars, when it is mating season in spring, they will also want to have intercourse with all sorts of magic beasts. In the Caucasus language, the word 'wild boar' has the same meaning as the word 'pervert' in the common language."

Saleen looked glum, then Sika pinched his nose and said, "You were looking at me like that and I did not even know you, otherwise why would I knock you unconscious?"

"You are still complaining about that, while I was in so much pain!"

"It's not like I didn't make it up to you, you can look at me all you want now." Sika's laughter got even louder.

"Nailisi is spying on us again." Saleen pointed at the window.

"We can view the outside surroundings, but people outside will not be able to peek in. Eleanor had made this for me, and I have confirmed it, it is a low level spell."

"I know, why did Eleanor make this for you?" Saleen was a little puzzled, "When did Sika and Eleanor become so close?" It must be noted that it was an extremely rare thing for an elf to help a human install a magic array, even if it was tens of thousands of years ago.

"She likes me, what other reason can an elf have?" Sika said nonchalantly. To her, such a thing seemed very normal.

"Likes you? That's true, a Caucasus priestess shares some common talents with an elf."

"Mm, but Saleen, are you angry over the medicine?"

"Why would I be angry?"

"You are in need of money now."

"Who cares, our love is most important now." Speaking, Saleen could not help but turn around to hug Sika.

"What are you doing, the medicine hasn't been produced yet!"

"Ignore the medicine, if we succeed this time, we can still save money." Saleen was suddenly aroused and Sika was grinning as she allowed Saleen to remove her clothes.

As moonlight spilled into the room the wooden house was glowing with a sacred radiance. This radiance was emitted by Sika's body as if water was flowing just beneath her skin, moist and hazy.

This was the first time Sika did not take the initiative, she allowed Saleen to caress her skin gently. These two people did not mentioned the elvish medicine agai. Outside the wooden house, the Caucasus warriors had assembled at the various sentry positions, as a person began blowing a wooden leaf. This leaf was a kind of simple instrument used by the Caucasus people.

The sound from the leaf was melodious as it traveled a great distance beyond the southern gardens.

At this exact moment, the army deployed by Saleen had already breached the encirclement made by the Phoenix's rebels, entering Huoxing City. The military strength of both parties had been reversed. Saleen's sixth camp had already entered the city and it did not sustain heavy losses. The second camp and Metatrin City's noble army already contained more than fifty-thousand men. Including the fifty-thousand man army in the city, there were close to seventy-thousand soldiers in Huoxing City.

When the Phoenix's rebels were battling with the sixth camp, they had lost thousands of soldiers. When the sixth camp breached their encirclement and entered Huoxing City, the rebels lost another two-thousand people, they already had less than sixty-thousand soldiers then.

A siege was no longer sufficient to threaten Huoxing City. At the moment, there were not many people guarding Cexing City either. This caused the Phoenix's rebels to get flustered.

They could not send reinforcements, at least not in the short term, the rebels could only take care of themselves. Over at Guderian City an army with more than one-hundred-thousand troops had already entered Phoenix and charged towards Solar City. This number was not even including the auxiliary soldiers. It was rumored that Holy Rock City was very outraged, both the House of Lords and the House of Commons unanimously agreed to extirpate the rebels in Solar City.

Such an outrage was understandable, because Holy Rock City had just made some progress in Loulan after much difficulty, yet Phoenix chose to rebel at this moment. Such a timing was very inconvenient.

The person most furious was Prince Safilos, he was already arranging for a deal to be made with the southern nobles, trying to get them to participate in the war. He had deployed troops to Loulan, kicking the Holy See's army back to Tanggulasi. At that moment Phoenix rebelled, that proved that he could not even control the north and this would cause other people to doubt Prince Safilos' capability. As a result, the southern nobles reverted to their wait-and-see stance.

Even if Safilos managed to placate Phoenix, the southern nobles would think badly of his actions. Safilos knew that Lex had deployed troops to attack Huoxing City which did not help. If Safilos sent his own troops, he could surely conquer Huoxing City. The problem was, could Safilos attack Lex's army?

Lex's army had managed to suppress at least three-hundred-thousand elites from the Holy See in the southeastern area of Loulan. If Safilos went to attack Huoxing City, he should be glad if Lex did not send troops to attack him right away. Such a thing was intolerable.

If Lex was allowed to seize northern Phoenix, it would mean that Safilos had admitted to the dissection of Phoenix and a duchy would thus cease to exist. Even if the Qin Empire kept the position of the Grand Duke of Phoenix, the nobles would be fearful.

What about persuading Lex to give up northern Phoenix? This possibility would be too unlikely. Phoenix was a grainary, its physical environment and climate were most suitable for growing wheat, its harvest was abundant. Since Lex had acquired northern Phoenix, she would not give it up so easily.

The Bitter Water County faced a shortage of grain just like theMetatrin Kingdom. Prince Safilos was very clear about this information. If they were not allowed to occupy northern Phoenix, these two countries would turn elsewhere, perhaps Loulan, or Laiyin Duchy.

The worst thing was that armies from both countries had entered Loulan simultaneously, it was pretty imposing.

With Prince Safilos' silent permission, the army which came out of Guderian City did not have the intention to advance north. All the forces were concentrated on attacking Solar City.

The Phoenix nobles had gathered their armies at Solar City, preparing to duel with Guderian City's campaign forces.

Previously, only a small number of Phoenix people took part in the battle to resist Holy Rock City. This time, every single noble had been implicated.

The House of Lords in Holy Rock City was utterly disappointed, it was disappointed with Prince Safilos. When the old emperor was still alive such a thing would never occur. Even if the old emperor had assigned countless of people to Phoenix, the nobles would not have had any grievances.

The current Phoenix was being assaulted on two sides, Solar City would not be abandoned, while Huoxing City had become a lone city. A sixty-thousand man army could not possibly take down this city with an army of seventy-thousand troops.

In Huoxing City, Lex had left behind a general to act as an interim commander. His five-thousand men belonged to an elite army which had been following Lex for years. Even without any reinforcements, he could still defend this city.

With the appearance of sixty-thousand men, Lex's army could no longer be the dominant force. The problem was that both parties had different opinions. Lex's army wished to subdue the sixty-thousand strong Phoenix's army, while Saleen's people wanted to exterminate them.

Both parties argued, Lex's men were determined not to agree with the method used by Saleen's army, while Saleen's army was bent on killing the enemy. This was not advantageous to Phoenix's development.

Lex's men were helpless as Saleen's troops had greatly outnumbered them. Finally, the commander of the second camp said, "If you aren't willing to do it, we will. By then, won't you be part of it too? The Phoenix people will never believe that you weren't involved."

This was an outright act of framing Lex's army. When Lex's general heard this, he could do anything.

Saleen's two camp commanders were the masterminds behind the army. The sixth camp was originally escorting the envoy group, but it was now at Huoxing City. On the other hand, the second camp had been specially sent by Saleen to resolve the problem in Huoxing City. Between these two camp commanders, the one from the second camp acted as the overall leader.

After the opinions were unified, the commander of the second camp softened his tone towards Lex's people. He agreed to persuade Phoenix's rebels to surrender. As long as the rebels were willing to lay down their weapons and join Metatrin Kingdom all past wrongs would be nullified. If the rebels were insistent on resisting, then none of them would be spared.

It was undoubtedly Saleen's personal intention that his men had this plan. Saleen only wished to spare the farmers in Pheonix. If the army was willing to reorganize him, he could also spare them. If they were not willing to do so, he would not respect the wishes of the northern nobles, he would exterminate every single soldier.

The nobles enjoyed immunity, while their soldiers could be redeemed. Saleen would never allow such a thing to happen in northern Phoenix. Metatrin City was in dire need of granaries, so Saleen did not have the time to calm the mutiny.

This was the reason why the sixth camp was not willing to capture any prisoners during battle, Saleen's order had long been relayed down in secret.