For hundreds of years, the Qin Empire had not had an emperor who would personally lead troops into battle, and the imperial code had been covered in dust. But today, the code had been uncovered once more, and some traditions had also been dug out along with it. One example was tonight’s banquet inside the palace for various officials.
How many nobles were there in the imperial capital? No one knew, but Saleen and the other mages would not be participating in the banquet. All of them would stay in their rooms and practice.
Saleen asked Sika to come over to his room and stay with him and Nailisi, so that they could observe how he controlled the witcher spider.
First, Saleen cast twenty-four water shields and arranged them in front of the witcher spider in the shape of a distorted snake. Then, the witcher spider jumped before lunging at the water shields. A phantom image flashed from the front legs of the spider and silently tore down the water shields.
The witcher spider and the water shields were both controlled by Saleen. Ever since Saleen had learned the Figaro formula, he had been able to control the water shields and enable their toughest defenses against the attacks by the witcher spider. However, he could not use the Figaro formula in battle yet. In reality, the water shield had already exceeded Saleen’s grade, with its defenses being that of Grade 4.
Magic shields had their weak points, but Saleen had directed the witcher spider to attack their strong points and the spider had still been able to destroy the shields.
"That’s brilliant!" Sika drew her boomerang and threw it towards one of Saleen’s water shields. With a "chi" sound, the boomerang slid past the bubble-like water shield. The shield shrank a little but did not break.
Saleen had not been able to calculate the angle from which the boomerang would strike the water shield, and he also had not been able to adjust the point of contact on the shield in that instant. Sika was not a puppet. To her, the water shield only had Grade 3 defenses.
The boomerang flew out and turned around in midair, striking the same water shield that had shrunk. A dim light appeared and the water shield shrank by more than half, nearly destroyed.
Saleen was astonished. Sika’s boomerang did not have the ability to counteract magic and his water shield had been transformed so it was no longer related to the original magic. The bubble-like water shield could negate most of the impact and had only absorbed less than twenty percent of that strike.
Even so, Sika could already nearly destroy a water shield with just two attacks.
Nailisi pounced on another water shield. She tried scratching the shield but her fingers simply slid past it. Nailisi stared at her fingers in shock and extended her fingernails, displeased that she had not been able to break the shield. The razor sharp nails tried to tear at the shield, but they slid past the shield once again.
Saleen was relieved. After grasping the Figaro formula, he had made changes to the water shield. Its Grade 1 defenses were now equivalent to Grade 3 defenses. This spell was Saleen’s lifeline. Testing the water shield, its effectiveness was great. Sika and Nailisi did not have the capabilities to destroy the shield.
Saleen stopped controlling the witcher spider, realizing that the witcher spider exhausted a large amount of magic nuclei. After the witcher spider had broken more than ten water shields, three out of the six magic nuclei had been used up.
Nailisi stared at the water shield levitating in front of her. The shield was larger than her face and was translucent, with mist inside of it. Under the light from the crystal lamp, there were mysterious magic patterns in the shield which looked abnormally beautiful.
Suddenly, Nailisi opened her mouth, her rosy red lips transforming into a gaping maw in that instant. She bit down on the water shield.
Kacha!
The crisp sound of the shield being broken filled the room. The shield had been destroyed by Nailisi’s teeth. Nailisi was overjoyed and reverted to her normal form, snorting her nose towards Sika proudly. Nailisi thought to herself, If I were an adult, my fingers would be stronger and wouldn’t slide past that weird thing. But even now, nothing can stop my teeth.
Sika held out her hand and told Saleen, "Give it to me!"
Saleen took out Sika’s cudgel from his Ring of Gifts and walked over to her, giving her the cudgel. The cudgel was extremely heavy, and it was not easy for Saleen to carry it and walk. If other mages had tried it, they would have definitely fallen to the ground straightaway.
Sika took the cudgel, waved it about easily, then ferociously struck an undamaged water shield with the cudgel.
As the cudgel raced through the air, it emitted a strange whimper. This whimper was not the sound of the magic beast soul, as the beast soul had disappeared. This was the natural strength the cudgel now possessed after its transformation.
Poo…
The water shield broke, releasing a cloud of mist into the air. Saleen was stunned. Had the cudgel reached the standard of a piece of holy equipment? This was no surprise. After all, Faerun had become a sorcerer because of the cudgel’s transformation, so the cudgel definitely possessed some unique power.
What level of warrior was Sika considered to be now? She did not practice the sword aura, and all of her accomplishments relied on her inborn strength. If things continued like this, would Sika eventually reach a plateau?
"Sika, how old are you this year?" Saleen recalled that Caucasus people shared a special bloodline. In their lifetime, they would go through a few evolutions. If Sika had not evolved yet, she would experience an increase in power at least three more times.
"Sixteen. Why?" Sika stared at Saleen. She did not like people asking about her age. If other people had asked her that question, she would have hit them with her cudgel long ago.
Saleen was visibly stunned. Only sixteen? But she looked older than Saleen. If Saleen had not grown taller this past year, people might have thought that Sika was his sister whenever they walked together.
"Sika, Nailisi, the spell I just cast had the defensive capabilities of Grade 3 magic."
Nailisi did not react, but Sika’s eyes widened. Then, in shock, Sika said, "I broke a Grade 3 spell just now?"
"It was Grade 1 magic, but it possessed the power of a Grade 3 spell. However, you are right. If you get close to a Grade 3 mage, you will be able to attack him." Saleen recalled the witcher spider back into his hand and turned it over for an inspection. The colors of the six magic nuclei had dimmed a great deal. When Saleen took a closer look using his mental power, he realized that the spider had used up a much greater amount of energy than he had originally thought.
Because the witcher spider was a tiny puppet, only one-third of an average magic nucleus was needed to manipulate it. An average sized magic nucleus could be cut into two pieces and mosaicked into the finished puppet. As Saleen had used a Grade 3 magic nucleus, he had needed to use three nuclei in order to cut out six pieces.
The shards produced by cutting the magic nuclei had no value on their own, meaning that the witcher spider required at least four hundred and fifty gold pieces to be activated. The spider could only be used for short periods of time in combat, and on the battlefield, there would be thousands of enemies, so the effect of the witcher spider would perhaps not be that pronounced.
In order to survive on the battlefield, a mage needed to be constantly protected by warriors.
There was a way to solve the problem. The witcher spider had been constructed using Grade 4 materials so it could withstand Grade 4 magic nuclei as well. However, Grade 4 magic nuclei were very expensive. So, unless they were under special circumstances, Saleen would not activate the phantom since its activation was the primary reason for its exhaustion of the magic nuclei.
Saleen was not disappointed when he reevaluated the combat powers of the puppet. Fellett and Lanny possessed very limited resources, thus they had not been able to use better materials for the witcher spider. If the witcher spider had been refined using better materials, it would be able to hold magic nuclei of higher grades and its full combat potential could be unleashed.
Unfortunately, it was very difficult to capture witcher spiders because they lived in caves and did not appear above ground. Even if humans tried to enter such caves, it was difficult to spot them. Magic beasts like witcher spiders, which did not have magic nuclei, liked to move between the crevices of rocks. Only during their hunts for food would they stealthily jump out and deal a fatal blow to their prey.
"The two of you, the viscountess will be departing for war with the emperor and this time they will go around Hadisai City. If we approach from the northern side, we will be at risk of being attacked as well. Hence, the viscountess has agreed to allocate ten combat mages and one hundred swordsmen to me. In the future, the two of you will no longer need to charge to the front. Focus on protecting each other."
Sika already knew that Lex had sent people to look for her village. Thus, she was not worried and simply nodded at Saleen’s instructions. But, Nailisi said worriedly, "Master, I may be…"
"What is it?"
"I may be becoming an adult."
When Saleen heard that, he became worried. While magic beasts were undergoing advancement or maturing into adults, they would enter a weakened state or deep sleep. If that was going to happen to Nailisi, there would be trouble. And it would be worse if she revealed her true form.
Nailisi looked at Saleen sadly. She said, "Master, tell me. Should I become a male or female?"
Saleen was relieved. Demons were wise creatures so their process of adulthood was not so troublesome. Nailisi was only fretting about the issue of its gender.
"Be whatever you want to be," Saleen replied. Saleen said that, but in his heart, he was afraid that Nailisi would transform into a masculine bearded male. If that became the case, then it would be extremely appalling to live with Nailisi. But what if Nailisi became a female? Would it cause Nailisi to become more fickle and get into trouble more easily?
Sika stood at the side and listened to their conversation. She thought to herself, If you become a male, I will make sure to chop off your penis. Otherwise, things will be too nasty. Nailisi was Saleen’s contracted creature. Sika did not want Saleen to be stuck with a bearded man every day for the rest of his life.
Three days flew by quickly. The security at Holy Rock City was watertight. The twelve streets that connected the northern and southern parts of the capital had been cleared, and the palace swordsmen were opening the doors from the inside. The houses that lined both sides of the streets were crowded with civilians who were jostling each other to catch this glorious moment that had not happened for hundreds of years. The owners of some of these houses even rented out their homes, managing to make a fortune quickly.
Following the roar from the cannons, fireworks filled the skies. A gigantic totem had appeared in the sky above Holy Rock City. This totem was called the six-winged flying snake, and had three pairs of wings.
This was the trademark of the Grukos family. Legend had it that the ancestors of the Qin Emperor had once owned over hundreds of these creatures, which were larger than dragons with their abnormal bodies. And, when the Qin Empire was first built, the founding emperor had possessed a six-winged flying snake beside him. Thousands of years later, these unusual surface creatures no longer appeared, and so the six-winged flying snake had become a totem in the hearts of the Qin people.
Slaves of the past were now symbols of the present. What brilliant satire on the decadence of mankind.
The magic clock in Holy Rock City emitted a sudden roar. The Qin Emperor stood on his battle carriage, wielding his saber, while the commanders of the royal swordsmen camps walked in front of the carriage one by one. The emperor tapped his saber on all of their shoulders, presenting them with the power to go to war.
This symbolic presentation of power gave the commanders the right to forge new ground and carry out killings on foreign soil. The sound from the magic clock could travel almost one hundred miles. Other than the camp in the northern town, the rest of the pioneering soldiers had officially set off for the war. These pioneering soldiers who had few logistics would be the first people to set foot on the land of Loulan Duchy.