Badge in Azure

Chapter 155: Lex’s Decision (Part 2)

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

There was a mountainous region towards the rear of the Bitter Water Prefecture, and there were two trails in the mountain roads which led directly to the Loulan Duchy. However, these two roads were far too small. Some parts were just a single narrow valley road. War horses were able to force their ways through, but carriages carrying materials and supplies would not be able to cross it.

Such terrain was not favorable for the deployment of troops. In the past, Lex had used them to send people to fortify wide open areas. There were four castles, so only an extremely limited number of troops were able to live in them. However, if those two roads were opened fully, assuming that bridges were built and the valley was cleared using explosives, then the duration of travel from the Bitter Water Prefecture to Loulan Duchy would be decreased from more than one month to half a month.

“I will send Tenesee to Titan Duchy. He will lead my father’s swordsmen camp back to the Bitter Water Prefecture. Teacher, we have sufficient mage masters, but we lack sorcerers. Please help me set magic arrays along the road to the Loulan Duchy. You must ensure that the prefecture remains safe.”

“You are leaving now?” the sorcerer asked in concern. The sorcerer only had two real students, and now that Faerun was dead, Lex had become his sole successor.

“No, I am going to live in this castle for a few days. My father has left a substantial amount of materials with me. I still need your help to bring it back to the Bitter Water Prefecture. Also, the position of this castle is too important. Which noble owns this land?”

This newly built castle coincidentally provided protection for the northern side of Bitter Water Prefecture. If enemies could not attack from the small roads, then with the exception of this castle, they would have no choice but to use the roads on the eastern side. The eastern side was in the direction of Holy Rock City, and if the aggressors decided to attack, they would certainly not go all the way around to attack the prefecture. With this castle’s defenses, their enemies would face difficulties in deploying large scale troops to invade the Bitter Water Prefecture.

“Just a first baron. He doesn’t even have a castle.”

“Recruit him. I will confer him the title of a viscount and help him build castles.”

“Lex, that will cost you some explosives,” the sorcerer reminded her.

“Teacher, I have the money, I just lack manpower. I have asked Tenesee. He said that to date, the Bitter Water County has already taken control of all the cities within two hundred miles, but the army has less than twenty thousand soldiers and this is sorely inadequate. This time, when you go back, do not leave the prefecture and let the people in my residence handle the accounts. I cannot trust the outsiders anymore.”

Aye…

The sorcerer sighed. He had watched Lex grow up, and she was not just his student, but also his child. Regarding matters such as accounting, any other sorcerer would have refused the task, and yet he could not bring himself to reject Lex’s requests.

“Teacher, I will leave some materials for you that will be enough to create a permanent teleportation portal. This teleportation portal… shall be built in your magical tower.”

This teleportation portal that Lex was referring to was the one that was going to be connected to the hell of the god’s punishment. The problem was that it was easy to exit that place, but difficult to gain entry again. Lex had only left the war puppets there. She could not identify its exact coordinates. The coordinates outside of the castle could not be used anymore, as it was not safe here. If a permanent teleportation portal was built here, it would be very easy for other people to discover it.

Even so, if Lex wanted to return to the hell of the god’s punishment, she would need to spend a lot of time calculating new coordinates between the two planes and would require a massive amount of help from multiple sorcerers.

After settling the rest of the matters, Lex stayed in the castle for another six days. During this time, she transferred most of the military resources, gold coins, magic nuclei, and magic equipment to the sorcerer. Aside from the items that Joey had given her, Lex only kept the fully constructed puppets and the scrolls.

Fully constructed puppets needed to be activated by magic nuclei that were solely Grade 7 or above, and Lex had very little of them left. She did have many blank scrolls , but she did not want to remain here any longer. In these seven days, the sorcerer produced twenty-one Grade 7 scrolls for Lex. Combined with the remaining scrolls in her possession, Lex’s safety could be secured.

Saleen also gained a new batch of magic nuclei to replenish his stores. After carefully thinking it through, Saleen decided to hand over the maps that he had obtained from the temple to the sorcerer.

“Master, I don’t think I will have the luxury of having enough time to study these magic arrays. Please use them for the construction of the Bitter Water County.”

Saleen’s magic knowledge was scarce. If he started from scratch, his studies would surely compromise his progress in magic. Even though these items were quite valuable and Saleen felt a loss in giving them away, the magic nuclei that Lex had given him were also of premium quality, especially the nine pieces of magic nuclei which were now fused with the demonic bracelet. Those magic nuclei were all of Grade 8 and they were already cut up nicely.

Magic nuclei which were fused with other accessories would naturally not be their usual size. They were mostly made up of leftover materials from the process of cutting up other magic nuclei. But once a magic nucleus was higher than Grade 7, its useless fragments were also extremely precious, not to mention the superior objects with twenty-four sides that were cut out from them.

Saleen was not a greedy person. Perhaps he did not verbally say so when people treated him well, but he remembered everything they had done for him. Of course, the sorcerer had given him those magic nuclei in the hopes that he would protect Lex. But prior to that, Faerun had also taught him selflessly.

For the past six days, Saleen had not done anything. He was busy practicing control of the fully constructed puppets. The fully constructed puppets were different from the war puppets that had been built by Saleen. Their insides did not contain skeletons, and there were just alchemy machines inside of them. All of their movements were controlled by magic arrays. Lex was able to control at least six fully constructed puppets, while Saleen had already begun to face difficulties controlling his second one.

Up until the moment when Lex was preparing to leave, Saleen was still attempting to master the controls of a fully constructed puppet. But it could not be helped, as Saleen was extremely unfamiliar with the magic arrays used to control these puppets. They would be manageable for Saleen if the magic arrays could be naturally activated, but since they involved magic arrays which required constant control, the witcher spider puppet which had been created by Aini’s parents would still be the most suitable puppet for him.

The sorcerer wanted to assign some swordmasters to accompany Lex, but she rejected the sorcerer’s proposal without any hesitation. In Alchemy City, even grand swordmasters did not mean anything. However, people such as Sika and Nailisi, who had never learned the sword aura before, were not discriminated against either. Since Lex was going to Alchemy City on a mission, she could not possibly bring along an entourage of bodyguards with her.

Saleen could not figure out Lex’s way of handling her affairs. If she stayed in the Bitter Water Prefecture, she would still be able to practice in peace even if there was suppression from Holy Rock City. Given Lex’s aptitude, she would become a sorcerer within ten years. Additionally, using the secret of the hell of the god’s punishment to tempt other sorcerers to come forward was a very risky thing to do in Saleen’s eyes.

Jason was the only person Saleen was not worried about. His teacher must have been a Grade 6 mage master by now. Jason was still a fair distance away from being a sorcerer, so why did Lex believe so strongly that Jason would be able to aid her?

Saleen did not see any problem in not bringing the swordmasters, because Nailisi and Sika were top quality warriors. Along with the fully constructed puppets, Saleen and Lex would not be in much danger as long as they did not leave the Qin Empire.

The Qin Empire had the smallest number of nobles among the four big empires, but its nobles were also the most influential. Bandits could not survive in the Qin Empire, because the moment any large bandit groups appeared, they would quickly be snuffed out by the united power of the nobles. As the Qin Empire emphasized agriculture, the nobles provided sturdy protection to the farmers, and this in turn stabilized the security and peace within the empire.

A mage’s baggage was quite minimal, and this was especially true once a mage advanced to Grade 6, as by that point they would be able to use spatial equipment. Lex and her team took eight horses and left the castle as thousands of warriors watched them go.

The castle was situated slightly to the northwestern direction of the Qin Empire, while Alchemy City was thousands of miles away in the southeastern direction. Once Lex left for Alchemy City, the sorcerer also departed soon after. The mage masters who had come from Bitter Water Prefecture began redesigning the structure of the castle and expanding it.

This castle which was able to fit three thousand people was already enormous, but the land surrounding it was not spacious enough. Hence, even though this place was a crucial defensive position, none of the nobles had chosen to build their cities here. The mages selected a site near the road and began building a second castle. They wanted to completely seal the road down south, and this could not be achieved with an army that had less than twenty thousand soldiers.

This location was about one thousand miles away from the Bitter Water County, and the land in that gap belonged to over ten nobles. However, this direction was naturally quite far from Holy Rock City, so all of these nobles were bribed by Lex’s subordinates and hence joined the Bitter Water County.

Lex seemed to have stopped thinking about all these loose ends. The four of them did not rush their journey. They needed to go east and go around thousands of miles of mountainous region before they continued southeast.

There were many mountains in northern Qin, and the empire had spent hundreds of years opening those roads which allowed people to traverse from the east to the west. Going along this road would lead straight to the Loulan Duchy, and it was the most important transportation route in the north. The death of the Qin Emperor during the battle had affected much of the empire. When they passed by two cities, Saleen noticed that security was very tight.

“Lex, can you deploy your men?” Saleen rode on horseback next to Lex. Since the horse was traveling slowly, it was a good opportunity for Saleen to practice his horsemanship.

“What are you trying to do?” Several days after leaving the castle, Lex had begun talking more, and her expression was no longer as though she were being frozen by a frost array.

Saleen heard her tone and realized that she could really deploy some people. Then, Saleen said, “I am thinking of contacting the Clyde family.”

“Saleen, before we find your teacher, I think it would be best not to look for anyone else,” Lex objected to Saleen’s request.

“I am not looking for Aini. Lex, we have a large quantity of blank scrolls with us, and with a few more gold coins, we can barter for scrolls with magic in them.”

“Saleen, unless we can gather at least one hundred sorcerers, these blank scrolls won’t be filled up. Do you think the Clyde family has that type of power? The production of high level scrolls is onerous, and the Clyde family won’t have that many resources.”

“At least intermediate level scrolls…”

“I will help you do it.” Lex laughed. Saleen was far too paranoid. Saleen and Lex were a Grade 4 and Grade 6 mage respectively, so it was likely that they would not come across any danger. This was because under most circumstances, a Grade 6 mage would choose to find a place to train and build a magic tower. Hence, mages who were active outside were mostly Grade 3 and below.

As for swordsmen, it was a serious offense for them to attack mages.

Saleen was speechless. He had many blank scrolls, and even the lousiest one was of an intermediate grade and would require a Grade 5 mage to use. There were also restrictions on the production of scrolls. If Saleen wanted to guarantee success, a Grade 4 mage like him would only be able to produce Grade 3 scrolls. If he insisted on producing Grade 4 scrolls, the success rate would be reduced to only ten percent. And if Saleen tried to create Grade 5 scrolls, it would already be considered commendable if he succeeded just once out of a hundred tries.

Only a Grade 9 sorcerer would be able to break this barrier. For now, Saleen could only sigh at the huge store of blank scrolls he possessed.

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