Saleen stopped absorbing the black mist after seeing that the eye of the black vortex was about to show. He had no intentions of dealing with the vortex in Fycro’s stead.
He was almost set up by Fycro by helping the holy masters deal with the abomination problem. If it had not been for Rafel the archangel, Saleen might have ended up falling into Fycro’s trap.
Saleen did not bring Rafel along this time. Fycro apparently had his eyes on the Floating City, so Saleen was compelled to leave his most powerful subordinate to guard the place. While it was true that the Floating City itself was near-invincible, Saleen had to be careful.
There were many peculiar skills in their plane, enabling people to control the minds of others.
“Master, are we going to leave or not?” Nailisi looked at the remaining bits of mist and huge black vortex, feeling rather reluctant.
Her purgatory of purification’s rules were almost completed after performing such a large-scale purification. Anything troublesome could have been thrown into the purgatory and be reduced to mindless beings through purification.
While it sounded pretty, if a person were to be purified until they lost their self-awareness, things would turn ugly. Purification was a skill originally created by the gods. When humans learned to use it, things turned rather terrifying.
“Let’s go,” Saleen said. “We’ll leave Fycro be. His plans here are already ruined. We’ll head back to Nature City and take the Floating City to Principality of Bitterwater.”
“Are you worried about Lex, Master?” Nailisi asked.
“Yes, I am,” Saleen said. “Lex could have been slower and just arrived to Holy Rock City. With her brother being severely ill, she couldn’t have been delayed for long.”
Saleen cast Quickcloud and brought both Nailisi and the Winged Skull with him. He threw hundreds of scrapped puppets into the black vortex before he left. The puppets were devoured by the mist before they even made it into the black vortex, becoming abominations and shrieking in the mist.
The path between Highland City and Bitterwater was extremely arduous. Only the sections at the border of Kroraina were somewhat easier.
Saleen was no longer the little mage he had once been. The amount of magic chords he possessed enabled him to fly across the entire mainland back and forth several times. It was no longer a problem for level 10 professionals to fly across the mainland. Even warriors who were not all that adept at flight had enough power to fly tens of thousands of miles when they reached level 10. While they were slow at flight, they no longer needed to walk with their own feet.
The speed of Saleen’s Quickcloud could reach 500 miles per hour, enabling him to reach the Principality of Bitterwater within a day. The three of them descended from the sky and walked outside the city.
Saleen had mixed feelings coming to that prefecture again. He hadn’t been there for years ago because he was afraid of being captured by adventurers and hauled off to Yaoyang City. Now, he had destroyed Yaoyang City, and there was hardly anyone left in Earl Sufonso’s family. He did not even have anyone to exact vengeance.
The man who came to Lex all those years ago had never expected to be able to make it that far. His greatest dream back then was to become a sorcerer. It was a rank that could have been achieved at level seven, yet it was the greatest height he could have imagined.
The city gates were opened. Bitterwater Prefecture was situated in remote areas. If armies were to invade the place, they would need to take detours. Their presence would be known. There were soldiers who collected money at the opened gates.
That was the capital of the Principality of Bitterwater. While trade was not exactly flourishing, shops selling magic items were everywhere.
Lex was not as much of a splurge as Saleen when it came to keeping mages around. Furthermore, becoming one of the mages in the Principality of Bitterwater was very difficult. There were plenty of low-level mages found there, working in Lex’s alchemy factories in order to earn magic nuclei and train in magic.
The reason why the place was able to attract many low-level mages was because there were open magic courses taught there. There was also a library that enabled them to access a wide collection of magical books.
Lex collected fees, but her fees were about one-sixth of those collected by Alchemy City. That proved enticing to low-level mages. They were allowed access to the same amount of information and knowledge by paying one-sixth of the gold prices.
The soldier guarding the gates was the one Saleen had met when he had come there all those years ago. It was anyone’s guess if that was just a coincidence. Perhaps Lex specifically arranged for it to be so.
“How much would I need to pay to get through?” Saleen smiled and asked the soldier.
“One silver coin, and we don’t take the ones from the Tanggulasi Empire,” the soldier roughly answered. He quickly recognized that it was Saleen asking. “Oh, your Highness! Prince!”
“What?” Saleen was puzzled.
“The viscount is becoming empress soon, so you are to become prince in the coming days,” the soldier said. “I do not dare to take any money from you.”
“I still can’t break the rules, can I?” Saleen asked and took out three silver coins and threw them into the box at the gate.
The city did not collect a toll from locals. Foreigners were only allowed entrance after they paid. Saleen thought that Lex was using this method to gather wealth when he first arrived. He came to learn that the box at the gate was actually equipment.
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When a person threw a silver coin into the box, it had a bit of its master’s aura on it. Any person who entered Bitterwater Prefecture was magically recorded. If something were to happen, they would have had leads for an investigation.
Insignificant means proved to be of great use. If Lex hadn’t told Saleen, he would not have learned of the box’s function. It was not that there was no crime happening in Bitterwater Prefecture. It was that there had not been any criminal who made it outside. Every single one of them was taken down by mages of the viscount’s office.
The soldier was behaving rather fearfully, yet Saleen was laughing and rewarded him with a gold coin. His wealth meant that he could have easily coughed up hundreds, even thousands, of gold coins right where he stood. However, he was only doing it because he was in a good mood. He hoped the soldier was in a good mood as well.
One needed to pay a price equivalent to that of one’s desire. Saleen’s mood was lightened, and the soldier earned one gold coin.
Saleen did not change direction. He came first to Bitterwater Prefecture to help the place set up defenses. The Floating City’s speed at flight was slower than his, and the city was still on its way.
He went straight to the viscount’s office after entering the gates. The office was rather lively. There were many mages studying there. Lex’s teacher was there to. That mage had advanced to level 10 and was the most powerful mage in Bitterwater Prefecture.
Things at the prefecture could, of course, not compare to that of Metatrin City. Other than that level 10 mage, most of the mages found in Bitterwater Prefecture were grand mages or common mages below level seven. There were several level nine mages who followed Lex early on. They all went to train elsewhere, only returning to help Daliang City in its battle.
Despite the crisis in Daliang City being solved, the mages had no intentions of leaving. They all headed back to Bitterwater Prefecture, helping Lex to defend that piece of land.
Lex was a sincere person, which allowed her to keep huge number of mages around her. It was a pity that those mages remained slow at advancement. All the powerful mages went to Daliang City, resulting in the defense of Bitterwater Prefecture looking rather empty. If it had not been for its special location and taking the place would have yielded little value, it would have long been caught in the fires of war and taken down by others.
The mage guarding the door saw Saleen return and was overjoyed. “Master Saleen, you are back!” The shout was heard throughout the office.
The silent viscount’s office was thrown into an uproar in a heartbeat. There was not much reason for it. Saleen was a level 10 mage trainer and had to meet the mages of the office when he arrived. According to the rules of Bitterwater Prefecture, he even needed to provide them with some guidance. Guidance from powerful mages trumped those in magic notes. When a mage lectured before everyone, the lesson was either more specific or systematic.
Without Lex around, Saleen was considered the master of the place. The mages were akin to Saleen’s own people, so he did not have been stingy and could speak more than when Lex was around.
Saleen knew about that. He originally planned to stay around for a few days. The prefecture was near Holy Rock City, enabling his Floating City to be moved to the border. That allowed him to back up Lex any time, which was his original intention.
With Lex’ close mages not around, Saleen had to pay a visit to Lex’s teacher, Mage Trainer Heinreiz, out of courtesy. Heinreiz refused to divulge his name before getting to level nine. That was her teacher’s request. By the time he advanced to level 10, his name ceased to be of importance.
Heinreiz remained a little renown and usually spent his days teaching difficult parts of magic to the mages of Bitterwater Prefecture. He trained in the magic tower when he was not teaching.
Saleen visited Heinreiz in the 10-floor magic tower. He had prepared a gift for Lex’s teacher.
“Master, it was all thanks to you all those years ago that I was able to get this far,” Saleen said.
Heinreiz found it hard to refuse the gift Saleen brought. It was one crater of magic nuclei. While Saleen’s actions looked to be of poor taste, magic nuclei was indispensable to mages. That was especially so when level 10 ones were concerned. Saleen was the only one capable of bringing that many at once.
“I shall take it, but I need to be clear about one thing, you owe where you are today to your teacher,” Heinreiz said, deeming it unfair to claim something that was not his.
Saleen smiled and did not insist. Heinreiz was correct. If it had not been for Jason, he would not be where he was. Without Jason, he would have taken a lot of detours in his path to learning magic. Heinreiz was only teaching him because that happened to be convenient.
“Master.” Saleen remained respectful. He was Lex’s teacher after all, and Saleen was unable to bring himself to treat her teacher as his peer.
“So what brings you here to Bitterwater Prefecture?” Heinriez asked.
“Among the cities that both me and Lex own, Bitterwater Prefecture is one most lacking in defense,” Saleen replied. “If it hadn’t been for its central location and never seeing the fires of war, the place would have probably been taken by others a long time ago.”
“Is that so?” Heinreiz looked at Saleen with an amused look.
Saleen only realized that he behaved in a rather rude manner due to being in a hurry.
Seeing Saleen being rather awkward, Heinreiz added, “You’re right though. However, even if the city is defended, what good would it bring? The key to the fights across the mainland still lies in Kroraina.”
“There are places that I’d rather not see destroyed,” Saleen said. “This was the place that Lex spent her formative years, and it was also the place where she began to put her ideals to test first. I want to…”
He wanted to say that he wanted to preserve the place for eternity, but he quickly recalled the Imperial City of the Abyss. The walls of that city were thicker than the height of walls of any city that he knew of. Powerful beings filled the Imperial City of the Abyss.
The general leading the army was a level 18 warrior. There was also a level 18 astrologer and a powerful mage. The soldiers guarding the city were all about 300-foot-tall elemental creatures. If a magnificent city like that had seen its doom, would he have been able to keep Bitterwater Prefecture as it was forever?