Badge in Azure

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

The armor that the Cloudflow soldiers were wearing underwater were light and properly sealed up. When the mechanical soul was blown up by the grade-8 spell into hundreds of pieces, the pieces melted into metallic fluid that solidified in the cold water to become sharp and lethal shards that pierced through the swordmasters' armor.

The ones whose limbs were injured were still able to use their sword aura to stop the bleeding temporarily before swimming towards the surface. Some of the metal shards shot through the swordmasters' lungs and heart. Blood oozed out of the noses and mouths of the swordmasters as they fell paralyzed to the bottom of the lake. The water seeped through the holes in their armor and they died very quickly.

The mechanical soul's body was not new and its defense was weak. It would have been blown to pieces if not for his unique attributes and high grade.

"Go!" The winged skeleton urged the mechanical soul from within his body. Now that the mechanical soul was his slave, it did not dare to disobey. He did not dare to underestimate the grade-8 sorcerer either. Humans always possessed strange equipment. He was heavily surrounded so it was wiser to flee. There would be opportunities for revenge in the future.

The sorcerer was also taken aback by his powerful spell not managing to kill the mechanical soul. It was too late to use a scroll either. Instead, he cast an ice attack directly and six huge blocks of ice shot at the mechanical soul.

The mechanical soul's body expanded so that it became twice its original size. Six arthropods pushed hard against the rock and sprang tens of yards out. The ice attack only managed to freeze the mechanical soul's tail. The mechanical soul swept his tail and a segment of it broke off automatically. A grayish white fluid flowed out the segment where the tail had broken off.

The grade-8 sorcerer was shocked and upset. This grayish-white fluid was an extremely poisonous toxin. Momentarily, he was unable to tell what it was. He could only cast cleaning spells consecutively on top of elemental dispersion to try and cleanse the toxin released by the mechanical soul.

Although spirit-type toxins could be broken down, they could linger for a long time if not processed properly. The Separation Sea was the Cloudflow armies' main water source. Tens of thousands of troops, warhorses, and magic beasts depended on the Separation Sea for water. If it became polluted, the entire camp would be in terrible condition within two or three days.

The newly-built city could only contain about four-hundred-thousand people. The reservoir was insufficient, so the main camp took water from the Separation Sea every day.

Since the mechanical soul had devoured so many spirits of the dead, the amount of toxin released was enough to pollute the water for a one-hundred miles range. The grade-8 sorcerer tried to disperse and cleanse continuously to no avail.

At this point in time, the sorcerer was no longer in the mood to capture the spirit of the dead. He took out a black scroll and cast a grade-8 holy light. This was a spell that was almost like a divine spell. It did not possess much offensive abilities, but it was a type of necessary equipment in an army.

After the grade-8 cleansing light had been used in a diameter of more than two-hundred yards, the grayish-white fluid was broken down by the light elements. They melted and merged with the water to become a harmless resource.

Even so, quite a number of toxins were still spreading. Typically, a low-grade spirit of the dead could only pollute a surface area of about three to five yards. Since the mechanical soul had devoured more than five-thousand spirits which were all of quite high levels, the amount of toxins in its body was so lethal that basically anything that touched it would die.

That was how the mechanical soul fought. It would do anything to win, even if the toxin might be so strong that it would destroy the entire ecosystem. In order to grow, he would have no qualms sacrificing all the spirits of the dead within tens of thousands of miles. The life and death of humans on Myers Mainland was none of his concern.

The winged skeleton was almost killed by the grade-9 sorcerer, so there was still a lot of angst in his heart. Seeing how cruel the mechanical soul could be, the winged skeleton praised him and said, "Well done!"

The mechanical soul shook his metal tail with glee. He opened up six holes, each measuring half a yard in diameter, and shot out death aura through these holes. He used the death aura to propel his gigantic body around the water at a high speed.

"Idiot, control the water current. The grade-9 sorcerer is going to come after us and then we are all dead!" the winged skeleton scolded the mechanical soul, so the latter finally stopped. He began to use the spitting out of lake water from his mouth as a way to maneuver himself around instead.

The grade-8 sorcerer was busily trying to cast cleansing spells consecutively to control the pollution of the toxins. When he had finally cleaned up the toxins, he was already surrounded by more than two-hundred Cloudflow swordmasters who had now turned into spirits of the dead.

The grade-8 sorcerer was enraged. He could not afford not to care about the spirits of the dead. If he did not kill them, they would attack the organisms around them until they tracked down the people that created them. The water elements gathered on the surface of the lake and a grade-6 spell, with a range of more than two-hundred yards, was completed within half a minute. Everywhere that the Snow Flurry passed, the armor and bodies of the spirits of the dead were broken in half.

Snowkill, which was a water-element area of effect spell of grade-6! Except that what the sorcerer did was to combine ten snowkills before casting them together. The attacking range was two-hundred yards and the amount of damage it could deal was no different from any other high-level spell.

After he has finished killing the spirits, he had to cleanse the lake. These spirits were all created by the mechanical soul, hence their toxins were extremely potent too. The mechanical soul did not hesitate to use up all the toxins that he had extracted, which effectively stopped the sorcerer's pursuit.

By the time the sorcerer was finished with the cleansing, the mechanical soul had already vanished with the winged skeleton.

As the grade-8 sorcerer looked at all the corpses floating on the surface of the lake, he wanted to cry. He had screwed up such an important task that Master Jill had entrusted to him. If only he had been monitoring the entire situation underwater! The spirit of the dead that had escaped was simply too dangerous. The spell that he had stored in his magic staff had the ability to seriously injured grade-9 magic beasts. Even dragons were not immune to such attacks. The spirit was not seriously injured and could still turn the tables on him by killing so many of his swordmasters.

The spirit of the dead was really lethal!

The enemy had successfully destroyed fourteen troop carriers when they attacked the harbor. The cargo on the troop carriers had almost been completely loaded, but the problem was that the fleet at the Separation Sea was originally only left with thirty troop carriers. Now that almost half of them had been destroyed, it would be much more difficult to transport cargo in the future.

The Cloudflow fleets had to protect the remaining sixteen troop carriers with their lives, otherwise the Cloudflow Empire would never forgive them.

The mechanical soul gleefully led the winged skeleton away for more than two-hundred miles into the southwest, then towards the west. Under the winged skeleton's guidance, he eventually brought the winged skeleton through the reefs and back to the bone castle.

The mechanical soul's appearance almost led to a barrage of stone artillery attacks by the bone castle. It was only when the winged skeleton appeared from the mechanical soul's body that the attack was stopped. The mechanical soul did not care if these people were his enemies or not. The moment he was attacked, the mechanical soul would not hesitate to kill thousands of the low-level spirits of the dead.

It would be too late for the winged skeleton to stop him!

The winged skeleton looked drastically different, but he was wearing armor that was originally prepared for jade skeletons. The other spirits could still detect a hint of his aura, so there was no conflict.

When the winged skeleton entered the castle, the mechanical soul was immediately put back into the death space. He returned to the magic tower and summoned the people in the city. He only said that he was injured and needed some time to rest. Through Mu En, he announced that he would be passing command to Su.

Although Su was young, he had followed Lex into quite a number of important battles. They battles involved tens of thousands of people, so he was extremely familiar with the command of armies.

After the winged skeleton had given his instructions, he began to try and familiarize himself with his new body in the magic tower. The body of the golden zombie possessed great power. The winged skeleton would need at least half a year before he could completely control it. Fortunately, that would not reduce his combat abilities. By the time he was fully in control of this body, he would be equivalent to a death king.

When Daliang City received news that the winged skeleton had initiated an attack that had sunk fourteen of the enemy's troop carriers, Lex quickly spread the news. They did not mention the fact that the winged skeleton was almost killed as a result, so the atmosphere in the city was joyous.

Saleen and Lex were not very pleased. It was almost time for their wedding. Now that Cloudflow's logistic vessels were destroyed, there could only be two outcomes. One, Cloudflow would give up attacking and would retreat. Two, Cloudflow would gather all their forces and launch one more concentrated attack on Daliang City.

To make it worse, it seemed that the second outcome was probably the only possible outcome.

In the big picture, destroying the Cloudflow troop carriers was the right move. That also meant that Cloudflow would have no qualms giving everything they had when they attacked on their wedding day.

Since their logistics had been damaged, the only way out for Cloudflow was to take down Daliang City.

What worried Saleen and Lex the most was that the winged skeleton had sent them a letter about an incredibly powerful Cloudflow sorcerer. Saleen knew that the winged skeleton would never lie and what he said was usually objective. According to him, the sorcerer might even possess a magic amplifier.

There were three grade-8 sorcerers and a grade-9 fallen holy priest in the city. Even so, Saleen had no confidence facing a grade-9 sorcerer that possessed a magic amplifier.

"Lex, you should advance." Saleen told Lex helplessly, "We already have five magic towers. With another seven-storey magic tower, the circle of defense will be complete.

Lex looked at Saleen and said, "I want to wait for you."

Saleen laughed bitterly and said, "It will be difficult for me to advance. I will help you build a seven-storey magic tower. Before our wedding, you must advance. I will let Eleanor move into the tower first. She is weaker, but also possesses special abilities that will allow her to hold off the enemy's attack. Without the complete circle of defense from the magic towers, the sorcerer would be able to swoop in and kill at will."

What Saleen described would not usually happen. Since this grade-9 sorcerer had a magic amplifier, he would dare to attack the magic towers from a close distance. Daliang City did not have any better options other than building up all six magic towers to form a real anti-flying area.

If that sorcerer put aside his status and entered the city to kill ordinary people, it would be too late to wait for the enforcement team from Alchemy City.

"Alright." Seeing how worried Saleen looked, Lex nodded and agreed to Saleen's request. She had not wanted to be above Saleen in grade, but now that Cloudflow was pressing in with the appearance of such a terrifying grade-9 sorcerer, she could not afford to care about Saleen's feelings for the sake of Bitter Water Prefecture.