Badge in Azure

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

"Master, it's my mistake that we didn't manage to capture the king of the Metatrin Kingdom this time around." The Grand Duke Iron Blood tried to console Imposa and continued, "I will still compensate your losses, but…"

"Grand Duke, please feel free to say it." Imposa already felt better when he heard that his losses would be compensated.

"Dark Blue lost a substitute puppet as well. Can you refine a magic weapon for him as well?" Grand Duke Iron Blood tried to negotiate.

"I will do it." Imposa replied very decisively. There was no point dragging something like that out anyway. Dark Blue's loss was significant, as his substitute puppet was a secret technique that he had been training, and not just a magic equipment. The extra pupil in his eye was the result of developing a substitute puppet. Once the puppet had been destroyed, it could never be recovered again.

Nevertheless, Dark Blue's sacrifice would be worth it if he finished off that golden grand swordmaster. At least there would be one less threat to Imposa in their dimension.

"Grand Duke…"

Before Imposa could finish his sentence, Grand Duke Iron Blood was smiling. He said, "Master, everything has been prepared. Whatever you and Dark Blue need is here. This is the diagram."

Imposa did not take the diagram. Instead he said, "I will design the weapon for him. Forget about the diagram."

Dark Blue might seem impressed but was actually full of hatred for the sorcerer. If not for the fact that the Grand Duke needed the sorcerer, Dark Blue would have killed him. The diagram contained what he really needed. No matter how good Imposa's design might be, it might not fulfil Dark Blue's requirements.

Grand Duke Iron Blood ordered his men to deliver the materials to Imposa's alchemy lab. Most of the materials were meant for Imposa to refine his experimental body and to make a new crystal coffin.

Before everything was completed, Grand Duke Iron Blood left Imposa's residence. The reason why he did not launch a large-scale attack throughout the entire island was that there were tens of thousands of ancient warriors on the island. The warriors had been kept underground and the Grand Duke's main forces had been guarding over them.

Otherwise, loopholes that allowed Saleen to escape would not have appeared in the power of the six magic towers just because of the death of a grade-8 sorcerer. If Saleen had tried to break out of the Elemental Prison by force, the six magic towers would have attacked together at once. It would be equivalent to being attacked by six grade-10 sorcerers.

Without any sorcerers, the Elemental Prison could no longer gather all of its power. Saleen's elemental creatures were powerful enough to escort Saleen out through that gap.

Vinny was summoned by Saleen to rescue Jola, who had been badly injured. When Dark Blue appeared suddenly, his attack was even faster than the Rainbow spell used by the leader of the Blue Ice Maidens. His only mistake was that his technique was not locked onto the target, so no matter how fast he was, it could still be anticipated. Jola managed to foresee his attack and retaliated with a blow of his own by standing in front of Saleen.

Neither Dark Blue nor Jola withdrew but the former's sword aura had seeped into the latter's body. On the other hand, Jola's sword aura entered Dark Blue's body, only to pounce onto a puppet, which absorbed 90 percent of the damage.

Dark Blue was also injured badly, so he did not dare to linger for too long and quickly escaped. That was how Saleen had the opportunity to rescue Jola. A layer of golden sword aura was covering the surface of Jola's body. All his injuries were suppressed for the time-being, but Jola had also lost the ability to move.

Grand Duke Iron Blood's main forces were concentrated slightly south of the island. There was a towering mountain there, and within it was an underground warehouse, which kept the ancient warriors that Imposa had brought for him. The ancient warriors were still in deep sleep and had yet to be refined. Grand Duke Iron Blood was afraid that Saleen would wreak havoc around the island, and besides, Imposa's attack had failed. He had no choice but to let Saleen escape the island before sending a fleet after him in pursuit.

By the time Saleen fled to the beach, he knew that, considering how many powerful opponents there were on the island, he should count himself lucky. It was fortunate that the Grand Duke had yet to fully build up the island, otherwise Saleen would have had an even tougher time.

Many of Saleen's elemental creatures were badly injured, but fortunately, he also managed to defeat Imposa. Although he did not manage to kill Imposa, the iron blood warriors that were no longer controlled by the latter, immediately became much weaker. In the end, Saleen managed to gain control over 12 of the flying metal gears and used them to kill 36 iron blood warriors.

Once Saleen left the range of area that was controlled by the magic towers. Momentarily, he felt as if he could control the elements in the dimension around him. A thick fog appeared from the surface of his body. He put away his stone statue soldiers and flew towards the beach at a very low height while carrying Jola.

There were no other obstacles along the way, except for hundreds of crossbows. Saleen was a grade nine sorcerer who was surrounded by Tempest Dragon-mights, so the crossbow arrows were no threat to him. When he reached the beach, Saleen decided to dive straight into the seawater.

As a grade-10 creature, Vinny was much more powerful than the other stone statue soldiers. He could cast spells, so he continued to carry Jola as he dived underwater. Saleen used his elemental eyes to see into the distance before he managed to find the pan's turtle alchemical boat.

Nicholas did not divert away too much. He knew that Saleen's range of sight was limited underwater. He made sure to stay within about 20 miles of the island. The sight and environment underwater were very different. Although the water elements were very rich, Saleen wanted to be able to detect the pan's turtle alchemical boat clearly, which meant that the ship needed to be moving.

Saleen carried Jola personally, put away his elemental creatures, and boarded the alchemy ship. When he saw Nicholas, Saleen noticed that half of his hair had turned white. He said, "Nicholas, Jola is dying. Save him."

"I will try." Nicholas took Jola from Saleen. Jola's eyes were slightly opened, but when he saw Nicholas, he closed his eyes.

Nicholas brought Jola back to his own cabin. Saleen did not interfere. What Nicholas meant when he said that he would try his best was that he would try to ensure that Jola's combat abilities would still be retained. As a grade nine Holy Master, saving Jola's life was not a problem. Since he possessed the blood soul tower, Nicholas' ability to heal had become more powerful than ever.

A fleet that was made up of 18 combat vessels had formed slightly south of the island. Saleen's pan's turtle alchemical boat moved so fast that it had already covered a distance of 200 miles before the fleet was finally assembled.

The Cloudflow ships were not considered slow. Saleen had used up half a day's time when he was preparing his fleet, whereas the Cloudflow navy only took an hour to assemble their fleet for the pursuit. At the end of the day, Cloudflow still possessed the best navy.

Saleen's pan's turtle alchemical boat caught sight of his own diving combat vessel and quickly sent a signal for it to head back.

Saleen's fleet was also assembling slowly and was fleeing towards the north. More than 200 miles behind them, the Cloudflow fleets were in pursuit, and they were led by Grand Duke Iron Blood's ancient combat vessel.

Saleen could not detect how far away the Cloudflow fleets were. He only ordered his own fleet to keep moving at full speed towards Metatrin City in the north. The magic furnace on the ancient combat vessel had been turned on and the combat vessel was traveling at more than a hundred miles an hour. When such a huge combat vessel was on the move, it inevitably attracted a number of magic beasts into following it.

Many magic beasts were already used to following gigantic combat vessels, including airborne magic beasts. The water currents and air currents brought about by the combat vessel would help the magic beasts to save a lot of their own energy.

Saleen was in no mood to deal with the magic beasts. They were definitely being chased.

If Grand Duke Iron Blood did not have a second ancient combat vessel, Saleen might have thought about ambushing them. His own pan's turtle alchemical boat only possessed a single mode of attack, which might not be powerful enough to damage the armor of the ancient combat vessel. He had yet to finish studying his own ancient combat vessel. Most of its equipment was put together by the Mechanical Soul.

No matter how powerful the Mechanical Soul might be, there was no way it would be able to restore the weapons to how they were in the past. On the other hand, Grand Duke Iron Blood had Imposa with him all that time. It was possible that some of the weapons on the ancient combat vessel had already been replicated.

Saleen did not wish to fight the Grand Duke near the island. In fact, there would be more than 10 islands on his way back that the Grand Duke would be able to use as supply points. If they were to engage in battle, it would be easy for the Grand Duke's fleet to lock on to their position and it would be difficult to escape by then. Saleen had brought his fleet out to practice its operations on the sea, and not to engage in naval warfare with Grand Duke Iron Blood.

Training sailors was a long-term affair. Even the soldiers on the combat vessels would need to undergo numerous years of training in order to be capable of participating in a battle. The Cloudflow navy was undoubtedly elite in that aspect. If Saleen chose to fight them, he would definitely incur huge losses. Saleen had arranged for 12 skeletal warships to trail behind them. That was so that in the worst-case scenario, the skeletal warships would be sacrificed.

In any case, skeletal warships were no match for the Cloudflow combat vessel. They could be used as merchant vessels in the future.

Saleen was not concerned about losing ships. He only cared about not losing any of his men. The fleet was moving at full speed as the magic furnace on the ancient combat vessel was able to increase its speed. After one hour, it was moving at 140 miles per hour.

After pursuing more than 2,000 miles, the Cloudflow combat vessels finally tracked down the skeletal warships. The spirits of the dead on the skeletal warships had no sense of fear. They decided to leave three ships behind, which turned around and charged towards the Cloudflow fleet.

The Cloudflow ships shot out a cluster of stone shells from their magic stone artilleries, striking the skeletal warships from five miles away. Before the three skeletal warships could even get close, they had already been sunk. The spirits of the dead on the skeletal warships got onto small boats and tried to row themselves to the Cloudflow combat vessels. The Cloudflow mages flew into the sky and cast some spells that quickly destroyed the spirits of the dead.

There was an equipment on the ancient combat vessel that was similar to a magic tower. As a result, the spells cast by the Cloudflow mages were fast and powerful. Even grade-6 grand mages would dare to cast spells consecutively from the sky.

Within 20 minutes, the three skeletal warships were sunk, and they only managed to delay the Cloudflow fleet slightly. Once again, the spirits of the dead left behind another three combat vessels. The three vessels split up in different directions. Many of the spirits of the dead decided to hop onto life boats while those that were able to swim jumped into the sea directly and begin to swim towards the Cloudflow combat vessels.

Their attempts at stopping the Cloudflow fleet were completely ineffective. The ancient combat vessel was full of equipment and mages. They only needed five minutes to sink the three skeletal warships. Killing the rest of the spirits of the dead took less than 10 minutes. The Cloudflow forces were determined to capture Saleen, so the fleet had no qualms using up magic nuclei.

Back in Saleen's pan's turtle alchemical boat, Jola finally opened his eyes. He took a look at Nicholas, who was lying withered on the ground, and said, "Old fellow, I will remember this. Next time, I will save you in return."

Nicholas smiled. He had finally been accepted by Jola as one of the people loyal to Saleen. Indeed, no pain no gain. From then on, he became an important member of Saleen's followers and no matter what, Saleen would not abandon him.