Chapter 854: The Fate of Ancient Warriors (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Saleen still did not back down. He pointed his magic staff and instantaneously, an ice wall that was four yards tall appeared from the ground. In the Purgatory of Ice, Saleen’s water-element spells became stronger. The grade-8 spell blocked the ancient warrior’s path. The latter was going for a punch at Nailisi, but he crashed into the ice wall instead. He made a small crater in the wall and his arm was stuck in it.
Ice attack!
Six huge blocks of solid ice appeared and smashed into the ancient warrior from all directions. His head was smashed so badly that the long lance that was stuck in the helmet began to vibrate, grinding his skull into pieces within it.
The ancient warrior was sealed by solid ice and the tainted blood armor plates on his body trembled violently. The huge ice bombs in Saleen’s hands have already solidified and were evaporating quickly. When the ice bombs flew out, their surfaces have already evaporated and were burning with orange-red flames.
The ancient warrior turned its head out of habit and looked in Saleen’ direction. Nailisi’s long lance was still stuck in his helmet. As the long lance had been frozen by the ice attack, the ancient warrior was still able to move its neck, but the long lance could not move.
The twist of the neck broke its bones with a crack.
After biding its time for tens of thousands of years before finally awakening, the ancient warrior’s body had degenerated far too much. Their bodies were no longer as resilient as golden grand swordmasters or even silver grand swordmasters. The crack in the ancient warrior’s neck eventually caused a downward chain reaction as cracks appeared throughout its entire spine.
That was when Saleen suddenly retreated. He had already discovered the ancient warrior’s secret, which was a sliver of life aura in the skeleton.
It was the bone alchemy technique, which was a type of elemental alchemy. It was also the most common technique used in life alchemy.
Life alchemy was a forbidden spell. Saleen had only seen it used by Imposa. He had never met any other elemental mages that dared to experiment with it.
Cloudflow mages used the life alchemy technique to gain control of the ancient warriors’ bodies. Such a technique would result in the warriors’ souls being dissipated forever, so it would not be possible to refine them into spirits of the dead anymore.
Once the warriors reached grade-9, their combat memories were no longer stored only in their brains, but in their bodies too. Most of the time, grade-9 warriors did not even need to consciously think before they battled against their enemies.
Mages understood that very well, which was why they would never stop attacking even though their grade-9 opponents might already be severely injured. They would also never use ordinary methods against grade-9 warriors.
Since Saleen had already figured out that the grade-9 ancient warriors were being controlled by the bone alchemy technique, there was no need to experiment further. What he needed to do next was to focus on studying the tainted blood armor.
The souls of the ancient warriors trapped on the ancient combat vessel must have yet to dissipate, or else the bone alchemy technique would not have been able to preserve the warriors’ original combat abilities. Their souls had already seeped into the skeletons of the warriors and would no longer be able to congregate again. They could no longer be refined into soul flames, much less turn into spirits of the dead.
The ancient warrior had died completely. If it was in the past, Saleen would have admired the strange concept of the Cloudflow mages, but he was in the early stages of grasping the rule of eternal control and he was full of rage towards Cloudflow mages for tainting such precious objects.
If they had not used alchemy techniques to destroy the souls of the ancient warriors, the warriors would have been able to preserve their original combat abilities. They would have been much more powerful and not be limited to only grade-9.
Due to their lack intelligence, these ancient warriors’ combat abilities were comparable to grade nine magic beasts.
There were many soldiers in the cabins of the ancient combat vessel that were still unconscious. Once Saleen had the time, he would use eternal control to refine their souls one by one. If he was able to preserve a bit of rule of control and rule of lightning in the depths of the ancient warriors’ souls, the warriors would then be able to reach the true powers of grade-9 warriors.
The skeletons of the warriors would have degenerated due to time, resulting in their bodies to become slightly weaker, but their powers would still be able to be replicated close to perfection.
They were a force that could conquer the entire Myers Mainland. Alchemy City and Holy Rock City would not stand a chance against a force of grade-9 warriors.
Nevertheless, Saleen was still very calm. Eternal control was a rule that was linked to his grade. He was only at grade-8, so there would be limitations if he wanted to control grade-9 warriors.
Nailisi only had two more broken jades. If Saleen wanted to control even more powerful warriors, he would have to rely on himself to refine such equipment that would merge with souls.
He would not be able to duplicate perfect broken jades, but he could replicate one-hundredth of its power. In that case, the number of grade-9 warriors that he could control would be extremely limited.
What kind of person was controlling the Three Kings that he could refine an equipment that even Saleen could not replicate? That person might even be more powerful than Joey.
“Master!” Nailisi saw how Saleen easily made a grade-9 ancient warrior lose all its power and break all its bones. She was full of admiration for Saleen.
“Master’s intelligence has far surpa.s.sed that of the magic beasts.”
An inappropriate comparison appeared in Nailisi’s head, but her a.s.sessment made sense. A human’s intelligence could narrow the gap caused by the difference in grades. Saleen was a grade-8 mage that was controlling a warrior that possessed grade-9 power. The battle was won through Saleen’s incredible observation and strategizing skills.
“Alright, finish it off,” Saleen sighed. The souls of the five ancient warriors had been dissipated by bone alchemy technique, so there was no way they could be revived. If he had controlled the ancient warriors, they would at least have the chance of turning into spirits of the dead.
The solid ice broke into pieces. The ancient warrior broke through the grade-6 ice attack and turned the latter into broken shards of ice. The neck and spine of the ancient warrior had completely broken, and the warrior was no longer able to fight.
Nailisi stepped forward and retrieved the long lance from the warrior’s brain. She threw the long lance onto the ground before pulling the tainted blood armor off. The suit of armor had already been damaged, but Nailisi did not want to waste the corpse. She shredded the corpse into pieces and allowed the Purgatory of Ice to absorb them.
As for the tainted blood armor, Nailisi threw it into the Purgatory of Bloodshed, which was in the midst of restoration.
Five of Nailisi’s Twelve Notes of Purgatory were in the midst of being restored. The Purgatory of Darkness was about to be completely restored while the Purgatory of Ice was about one-third completed. As for the Purgatories of Flame, Bloodshed, and Storm, they were all about one percent restored.
After Nailisi has disposed of the ancient warrior’s corpse, she led Saleen out of the Twelve Notes of Purgatory.
Saleen suddenly said, “Nailisi, there was a piece of broken jade in each of the soul flames of Banchajanna and Diyabannersa. Give them to me.”
“Ah! Master…”
“There aren’t any? Then forget it.”
“Yes, yes!” Nailisi had no choice but to take out the two pieces of broken jade and pa.s.s them to Saleen. She had not managed to study them properly, and only knew that they must be very powerful. Since Saleen asked for them, she could not possibly lie due to the soul bond between them. Saleen would know if she tried to lie.
Nailisi did not wish to lose Saleen’s trust.
Saleen laughed and said, “Nailisi, there is no point for you to keep these small items. Let me study them. They might be used to control the ancient warriors on the ancient combat vessel.”
“Is that true? Master!”
“Of course, would I lie to you?”
“Yes!”
“Then, not this time.” There was nothing else Saleen could say when Nailisi was so straightforward. In the very beginning, signing the soul bond with Nailisi was already a deception. Back then, Saleen’s grade was pathetically low. Nailisi would have been able to turn him into her food with minimal effort, but Saleen managed to trick Nailisi into signing the soul bond with him.
“Master, it is okay even if you lie to me. In any case, I am yours.” Nailisi batted her eyes and looked at Saleen with a flirtatious expression.
“I think you are… Go and find the winged skeleton and finish off all the remaining ancient warriors!” Saleen could neither reprimand nor accept Nailisi’s efforts at flirting. Most of Nailisi’s forms were terrifying, besides, it would be a joke for a mage to develop feelings for creatures bonded to him.
“Alright, I will go and look for that old fellow now. Master, please go ahead and get busy.” Nailisi laughed and left her cabin.
Saleen was in no mood to chat with Nailisi. He decided to take out a huge piece of black crystal from Nailisi’s room and used current cutter to slice it up into square pieces that were the size of the broken jades before refining equipment for eternal control.
Outside of the cabin, five clones of the Mechanical Soul followed Nailisi. She suddenly stopped and turned back and said, “If all of you keep following me, I will…”
“What can you do? We are all creatures bonded to Master with our souls. Don’t think that…” The Mechanical Soul spoke through its clones, but before he could finish, Nailisi punched through the clone’s chest and pulled out its soul flame from its body.
The faint golden-colored soul flame was extremely thin and Nailisi swallowed it. The other clones were enraged, and all pounced onto Nailisi.
“What is the meaning of this!” Saleen’s voice rang out from the cabin. Blue electric current flashed across the depths of the soul flames in the clones. They all fell onto the floor and their soul flames had all dissipated.
“Genga, if you dare to have funny ideas about Nailisi, I will make sure your soul flame vanishes forever. I will leave the ancient combat vessel here and summon one-hundred-thousand demons to come back and control it. Don’t think I can’t do without you!”
“Thank you, Master.” Nailisi stretched out her hands and threw the five clones into the Twelve Notes of Purgatory so that the metal components of the spirits could be used to restore equipment.
The Mechanical Soul was so furious that his soul flame danced wildly, but he dared not say anything disrespectful. He did not expect Saleen to be protective of Nailisi to the extent of killing all four of his clones without even finding out who was in the wrong.
If only one day…
The Mechanical Soul managed to stop himself in time from thinking any bad thoughts. That was because he had noticed the blue electric current appearing between the soul flames and the broken jade was spinning violently.
“d.a.m.n you, Lord of Glory!” Mechanical Soul cursed before summoning all his clones on the dragon Skeleton combat vessel to return to the winged skeleton and await orders.
Saleen has made it very clear. If the Mechanical Soul tried to do anything funny, Saleen was definitely vicious enough to kill him completely.