Chapter 420
Using the Icy Sight, Saleen was be able to look across a great distance . Saleen could see the man who was spotted by the soldiers even more clearly . The five soldiers were recruited from the two nobles who had submitted to Saleen . They could not enter the nuclear part of the city yet, they were confined to patrolling the city's periphery .
Sponsored Content
The private soldiers of these nobles were quite strong, the only problem laid in their loyalty . Saleen knew very clearly that even if he was a terrorizing mage, he would not be able make the soldiers obey him completely . As long as the two nobles did not leave, the soldiers would execute their tasks without complaints, they would not even demand additional compensation from Saleen .
The soldiers were very experienced . Even though the person looked wobbly, they did not let their guard down . Two men went at the front, while the other three were at the rear as they approached that man . The three soldiers at the back pressed against their sabers, ready to spring into action any moment .
When the soldiers were about four to five meters away, the man suddenly fell onto the ice layer . The two soldiers were pretty heartless as they did not go forward to help that man up . Instead, they came to a halt . Glancing at each other, they wielded their swords .
The two of them shifted their bodies sideways, one on each side, allowing a soldier at the back to go forward and take a look . With such an action, the fallen person might also get deceived even if he was feigning it . This simple act of halting exemplified the degree of coordination between the soldiers and their swath of experience . Saleen noticed it and felt envious . Nobles put in a lot of effort grooming their private soldiers . They displayed more passion compared to the empire's regular army . Every noble had the duty to rear soldiers for the empire . In actual fact, everybody was amassing power for themselves .
These five soldiers were only at the standard of a beginner swordsman . When they acted in tandem, however, they could even kill a high grade swordsman .
The soldier from the rear then approached the man and kicked him . Saleen frowned, but he was only spectating it from a distance . He did not stop them . The soldiers did not kick with much strength, but the area of impact was under that man's ribs . With enough accuracy, the man would feel a piercing pain emanating towards his lungs . If the man was putting on a pretense, then he would not be able to fake it any longer .
If this kick had sufficient force, the man would surely be severely injured . The tips of the soldier's boots were wrapped in metal .
"Woo…" The man gave out an excruciating noise when he got kicked . He squirmed about, but did not get up . At this point in time, the soldier then made way for the other two at the back to help the man get up .
Sponsored Content
"Master, that man looks like a spy, why don't I torture him?" Even though Nailisi had been behaving suspiciously with the winged skeleton lately, getting busy with her own matters, she still had the agility in her . Upon noticing something amiss with that man, she immediately harbored the thought of torturing him herself .
Currently, Saleen did not have a person who was suitable to conduct an interrogation . Daniel had been dispatched to receive Lex . For Aini, Saleen was embarrassed to ask him to do so . Matters like interrogation were usually reserved for the servants after all .
Even if Nailisi did not employ her demonic methods, she still had thousands of other ways to make the enemy reveal information .
"Something's wrong, that person looks familiar . " Saleen's heart fluttered . That person lying on the frozen layer had an obvious scar on his face . Saleen suddenly noticed that the scar was fresh . Judging by this person's appearance, he looked like a swordsman from Sregl Island .
"Bring him over quickly . No, send him there . " Saleen pointed to a fortress nearby . That fortress was a defensive structure located in the harbor, it functioned like a battlement . It was much larger and was formed by piles of white rocks . It was extremely tough and soldiers could even hide themselves in the first story .
When the other soldiers heard Saleen's command, they acted dexterously . They linked several wooden shields together . They tied the lances' poles to the bottom of the shields, forming a stretcher . Then, they placed the man atop and carried him to the fortress appointed by Saleen .
Saleen arrived at the first story of the fortress first and cleared out a room . Once the man was sent over, Saleen immediately cast the Chunlin Spell, applying treatment . He then instructed a soldier to let the man consume a cup of Restorative Water .
The kick from the soldier was very light . That man was already injured and he was also starving and freezing, that's why he could not get back on his feet . After a few rounds of treatment, the man regained some energy . He immediately sat up and got down from the couch, bowing to Saleen .
"Sir Saleen . "
Sponsored Content
"You recognize me?" Sika and Nailisi stood behind Saleen, but Saleen was not afraid of an intermediate grade swordsman creating trouble . He felt that this man looked really familiar, he should have belonged to the batch of soldiers taken away by Lex . Saleen could not understand why he had walked up from the sea .
"Sir Saleen, Lianyun City is in trouble . "
Saleen nodded, he was not shocked at all . A siege by three-hundred warships, it would only be weird if Lianyun City remained unharmed .
"Are you from Sregl Island? What's with the injury on your face?" Saleen stared at the hideous scar on the swordsman's face . The scar still had a tinge of pinkness, it was obviously left behind recently . It had been treated with magic medicine, but the medicine's grade was too low . It could not get rid of the scar . To a soldier, being able to survive was already great . More often than not, people would not really care about scars whatsoever .
"Sir Saleen, after following Viscountess Lex to Lianyun City, everything was still smooth sailing . The owner of Lianyun City allowed us to dock the warship at his port . The Viscountess had instructed us to wait for her at Lianyun City . In March, she said that she would dispatch someone over, and then we would sail back .
"What other orders did Lex give?"
"The Viscountess ordered us to go out to sea once a week, to draw the map of the nearby ocean . "
Saleen then realized that Lex did not allow the warship to return because she had seized the opportunity to conduct reconnaissance in the northeastern seas of the empire . Even though Lianyun City was the only large harbor in the northeast, there were dozens other smaller port cities . These cities could only fit ships shorter than fifty meters, large ships would not be able to dock there .
Sponsored Content
As the Sregl Island swordsman continued his narration, Saleen began to understand the events which transpired in Lianyun City .
The vanguards of the eastern sea allied army had already reached Lianyun City a month ago . Even though Lianyun City was inferior to Alchemy City, it owned several large warships . One-third of them were surely patrolling the seas, while the other two-thirds would defend the port . Operating these warships might be costly, but the cities within a thousand mile radius would pay a sum to Lianyun City's owner, to protect their fishing boats from harassment by pirates .
The strength of Lianyun City's military was mostly based at sea, their land defenses were extremely frail .
When the vanguards of the expeditionary army arrived, they did not manage to avoid detection by the warships' radars . Both parties got into an intense clash . Back then, the warships from Lianyun City had a capability advantage . The enemy only had a few vanguards, and both parties sustained damage also . It was later revealed by the prisoners that the enemy still possessed a massive fleet . The owner of Lianyun City made an erroneous move . He recalled all the warships back to the port, as he attempted to use the nearby batteries to obstruct the enemy .
The warship from Sregl Island defied the order . Since they had been living at sea for a long time, they knew that the warships would get sunk if they did not set sail . The batteries could deal with a small number of warships . If there were more than one-hundred warships, a magic trebuchet's speed of catapulting could not match up, The enemy would be able to suppress it . The trebuchets on a warship were not an exhibit . Since the batteries were a fixed target, they would have been destroyed by concentrated assaults from the enemy .
The owner of Lianyun City had forcefully disarmed the people from the Sregl Island . From the start, Lex already did not leave many people behind . They could barely even operate a warship . As these swordsmen could not defeat the trusted soldiers of the Lianyun City's owner, they had no choice but to abandon the idea of boarding the warship .
Fortunately, Lianyun City's owner did not imprison these disobedient soldiers . After a quick analysis by the two grade-3 mages who were left onboard, the mages felt that staying in Lianyun City would undoubtedly wind up horribly as the enemy simply had too many warships . There were no larger noble-owned lands in the vicinity, so the chances of getting reinforcements was very low . Even if Holy Rock City was willing to send troops, Lianyun City would have long been razed to the ground by the time the troops arrived .
These one-hundred people then abandoned the warship, leaving the Lianyun City secretly and making their way to Phoenix, before returning to Saleen's city .
At that point in time, Phoenix was also submerged in war . The Qin army from Goodrid City had staged an invasion, trying to seize control of Phoenix . The noblemen in Phoenix had teamed up to put up resistance . When these one-hundred people entered Phoenix, they were immediately sucked into the war .
"Are you saying that the two mages have died?" At first, Saleen was still grinning . When he heard this news, his face turned frosty in that instant, like still water . Even though Saleen still had a youthful appearance, he already emitted the vibe of an influential person . With that change in expression, that swordsman from Sregl Island immediately went on his knees .
"Sir, I was incompetent, please mete out punishment . "
Saleen was stunned, then he said, "It is not your fault . Let me ask you one more time, the two mages died in the hands of the Qin army?"
"Yes Sir, they had a grade-6 mage who could fly . We split up into five groups . I was lucky to have escaped, the mages who traveled with me were the first to be killed . The Phoenix border cannot be accessed anymore, and many villages have been destroyed . The nobles dared not emerge to fight, there is no other solution . I could only escape to the sea . The coasts had been frozen and no one was at sea, I…"
"You have done well . " After consoling this soldier, Saleen was simmering with an unexplainable rage . His mages would have definitely announced their origins, yet they were still killed by the enemy . The Goodrid army was lawless, they neither respected Alchemy City nor Viscountess Lex .
"Once these mages returned, they would have become my followers . They were on the same team, yet they were killed without rhyme nor reason!"
Due to Emperor Chanake, Saleen had taken a liking to the Qin Empire . After this incident, Saleen was now filled with hatred and outrage .
"The Goodrid army had quite a number of soldiers, and I want to go forth and reclaim justice? It doesn't seem possible . If you all want to dominate Phoenix, you will have to ask for my opinion . "
Saleen was not fond of tussling for worldly power . It was no small matter if his subordinates were slaughtered . If he did not take some action, who would want to follow him in the future?
The situation seemed terrible . Half of Phoenix's land had been occupied . The Qin Empire had also been deploying continuous streams of soldiers into Phoenix . At the moment, Goodrid City was not the sole invader anymore .