Chapter 445: Lex’s Plan (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
It was only until mid-April, when the patrolling soldiers that Saleen had sent out found Lex’s vanguards. As Lex’s team was too big and it was the bitter winter, she had no choice but to slow down to prevent any injuries or death.
Knowing that Daniel and the rest had already linked up with Lex, Saleen did not send anyone else to escort her.
Within Lex’s huge army, Hu An said to Lex in a dissatisfied tone, “Why hadn’t Saleen sent anyone to fetch you? My viscountess, you have brought a camp worth of soldiers to help him.”
Hu An had no opinion about Saleen rising up the ranks, after all, he had advanced in terms of grades faster than him. As to whether he would fetch her outside the city, that was a wealthy’s problem. Even though Hu An was a grand mage now, he still could not shake off some opinions that the wealthy had.
As there were too many people and most of them were not in the military. Lex’s team was split into different groups. The one leading at the front was a group of cavalrymen.
The one leading the cavalries was Tenesee, Saleen knew him. He was now commanding a regiment of over one-thousand soldiers and he was on the brink of becoming a grand swordmaster. After interacting for a while with the patrolling soldiers that Saleen had dispatched, he was brought to the outside of the city.
The white city walls stretched for miles and were over twenty meters tall. The outside of the city gates were obviously still under construction. Across the vast plains, this was already a sight to behold. The landscape on both sides towered over it. The city was wedged between a fault in the mountain range and was in an ideal location.
The west side was the main gate and the giant gate was enveloped in white steel, it was an exorbitant expense. This city gate that was over eight yards tall was actually wrapped in white steel. It had been processed with magic and was not reflective. It blended incredibly well with the white city walls. There were magic patterns corroded on the surface of the white steel, making it less cold looking.
At the top of the city gate there was an entire block of white stone placed horizontally. The words “Metatrin City” were inscribed on it in the ancient Myers Language.
“Metatrin?” Tenesee’s mouth quivered as he gave a small laugh. He was not sure what deal Saleen had with Lex, but Lex had not told him what happened in the h.e.l.l of G.o.d’s punishment. He knew that both Lex and Saleen were mages and they would be particular when it came to having a fair exchange though.
Naming a city after his surname, it seemed like Saleen had great ambitions!
There used to only be one city in the Qin Empire that was named after a surname and it was Grukos City. It was four-hundred miles south of Holy Rock City. That was a feudal estate of the royal family. As long as the Qin Empire was still around, it would forever be the private property of the Grukos family.
“I wonder what the emperor would have to say about this.”
Tenesse, however, only gave a small laugh. The city gates were not sealed shut, but there was a metal chain at the back. A low-grade mage had come out a long time ago to greet them. After symbolically checking Tenesee’s badge, the soldiers behind unlocked the metal chains and opened the city gates completely.
Tenesee saw that a part of the city walls near the city gates were empty, there was a capstan within. This giant city gate that was enveloped in white steel must weigh at least tens of thousands of pounds, even a fortress hammer would have a hard time breaking through it.
The city walls were over twelve yards thick and it would definitely have some kind of equipment like the broken dragon stone within it or a concealed magic array. Even though the city had not finished construction, it was already the standard of a fortress.
The number of soldiers at the top of the city walls were too little, there were less than a hundred soldiers. They were all gathered at the main gate, looking down. They seemed pretty ordinary and when they were maintaining their post, they should not do such actions even when an emperor came to the front of the gate.
Tenesee made a correct guess, Saleen had gathered most of his forces at the top of the city wall to the city center and the port. The people here were the newly trained barbarians and every group only had a swordsman from the Sregl Island commanding them. It was hard to discipline these barbarians and they were nowhere near the Cascausus people’s ability. The Cascausus people were familiar with strict discipline and they were born to be soldiers.
Luckily, besides the giant trees left behind from deforesting for the city, there were still many vast places. As Lex’s people started entering the city they could still fix tents for shelter.
As the city had not started revolving, Lex and her group of people were brought to the city hall and were put to rest temporarily.
Saleen had prepared sufficient food and it was heated up and pa.s.sed down. As there were more than ten times the number of people expected, the food was clearly insufficient. It could only be fed to the camp of soldiers first.
Lex saw the slow progress of Metatrin City, but she was not anxious. She loved the style of the city and the foundation was laid strongly. All the roads and underground facilities had signs of being strengthened with magic. In some of the areas where the large numbers of trees were left behind, they were clearly meant to be used as gardens in the future.
Lex was accompanied by almost a hundred mages wherever she went and as Saleen welcomed her laughingly, he said, “Viscountess, how have you been?”
The mages who did not recognize Saleen were all gasping silently. Even if Lex was not a viscountess, she was also a grade-6 mage and Saleen’s att.i.tude was a little disrespectful.
“I’m not as free as you.” Upon seeing Saleen, for some reason, Lex felt relieved. She was overjoyed that Saleen had laid the foundations of the city strongly. This city was meant to conceal the interdimensional teleportation portal after all. Only by building it so that there were traces of magic everywhere could the intense elemental vibration from the teleportation be concealed.
“It has been a long time.” Saleen looked at the mages beside Lex. He recognized some of them from when he was still staying at the viscount residences, they had had a decent relations.h.i.+p then.
Any dissatisfaction in Hu An disappeared when he saw Saleen. Saleen gave off a mighty yet true to himself impression. This was a dignity that Saleen had gained unintentionally from spending the last half a year commanding a city and being in charge of almost ten-thousand people.
“You all can rest here, I have something to discuss with Saleen.” Lex did not bother exchanging pleasantries. Under the surprised gaze of everyone, she left the city hall with Saleen.
“Viscountess, why are you in such a hurry?” Saleen accompanied Lex calmly. The pressure that he had when he first met her was long gone.
“Whatever, there isn’t anyone here, just call me Lex.”
“Yes, Lex, how is Bitter Water Prefecture?”
“It is terrible, the west is engaged in battle and the two secret tunnels are useless. The east has been sealed by Holy Rock City and those coming from the north are from the military. A large number of wealthy from the north have transferred their soldiers back from Loulan Duchy and half of Loulan Duchy has already been lost. There is no business to be done in Bitter Water Prefecture and we have to survive on what we have. Luckily, I have taken over the cities and land in the surroundings and I no longer have to buy rations from outside.”
“It doesn’t matter, Bitter Water Prefecture is in a remote area. Even though it isn’t suitable for development, it is easy to defend and so long as rations aren’t a problem. Even if…”
“I will not let the Tanggualsi people step on the Qin Empire’s soil.” Lex interrupted Saleen.
“Yes, I have the same problem too. I will take care of the Sikeqinya matter, I must get the pa.s.sageway of this road. If not this place can only communicate with Bitter Water Prefecture through a teleportation portal. That isn’t something we can afford.The worst is on the sea, after all, the roads on land are long. If we go by the sea route, we could have reached Lianyun City in no time…”
“When will Sregl Island send people over?”
“How would I know? Before this, we did not even have the means to deal with the expedition army from the many countries in the Eastern Sea. They had over three-hundred combat vessels and I have already lost one of mine, I still have three big s.h.i.+ps with me, one of them…” Saleen did not mention the Pan’s Turtle alchemical boat but Lex understood.
In the square before the temple, Sika was supervising as her bodyguards were training. They were an elite group of Cascausus warriors and they were all decked in the magic armor that Saleen had created. These armors were not tailor made and seemed a little coa.r.s.e. Lex took one glance at them and she could tell the material of this magic armor was too good, however. It was polished from the sh.e.l.ls of magic beasts.
When it came to dealing with magic attacks, the effects of a magic beasts’ sh.e.l.l and skin were almost the same. When it came to physical attacks, an equipment that was made from a polished magic beast’s sh.e.l.l was far better. In actual fact, they were as tough as metal. Besides being hard to fix, there was not much difference between them when it came to their defensive capabilities. The magic beast armor was also lighter.
Even for the royal soldiers of Holy Rock City, only an officer would don such an armor.
“Saleen, where did you get such materials? Did you buy them from Alchemy City?” Saleen laughed as he recounted what happened with Irene before Lex said, “You are good, cheating a girl from her family.”
“I didn’t cheat her, I wouldn’t give her any less than what she deserves.”
“That is true, those that come from such families would be more concerned with benefits.” Lex had no intention of blaming Saleen, Saleen and Irene both got something out of it. Irene must also know her relations.h.i.+p with Saleen and leaning against Saleen was also because of his relations.h.i.+p with her.
Since it stemmed from benefits, it was a little stupid to talk about feelings.
Sika greeted Lex from afar before continuing to train her bodyguards. She was pa.s.sionate about this now and these Cascausus warriors listened to every one of her instructions. Some had even started learning and training their sword aura with Jola.
Seeing these Cascausus warriors, Lex nodded in satisfaction. They were obviously different in terms of quality to the soldiers at the west of the city. They were not only disciplined, but were several times more skilled. They were essentially all swordmasters and were already better than the soldiers in her camp.
“Let me bring you to a place.” Saleen secretly brought Lex to his room, then into the short-distance teleportation portal.
The two of them quickly came to Saleen’s underground warehouse. Lex realized that it was almost an entirely sealed s.p.a.ce. Any elemental vibration in this s.p.a.ce was virtually undetectable by the outside world. If all the magic towers in Metatrin City were to start revolving, it would be essentially impossible for anyone to realize this place was there.
“How did you do this?!” This was the first time Lex was shocked.