Chapter 475: Temptation (Part 1)

Lex had no intention to be cocky, she had designed a massive magic equipment to attack the Myers Temple. Even though it could move on the road, it used up more magic nuclei than a large sized puppet. There was no road there at all and for a large sized equipment to move. It would have to be transported by machinery, almost like a war puppet.

The five-thousand strong army was split into three groups; the frontline, the center, and the reserves. The frontline was just a regiment of one-thousand people. These one-thousand soldiers had changed into their equipment earlier on and took down the metal plates from the resource chariots, putting them on.

The war horses had a new set of leather armor too. After they had quenched their thirst and rested for a while, the regiment moved forward to the valley regions first.

Even though it was called a valley, it was incredibly wide there and the narrowest part of the valley was over a mile. The depths of the swamp were a little strange. Even though there were many huge stones, they were relatively soft and a normal weapon could easily pierce into them.

Deep in the autumn season, the number of poisonous insects within the swamp had decreased significantly. The soldiers still wrapped their face in a cloth, spraying themselves with medicine that chased the insects away though. Bifano chose to attack during this season because the poisonous insects were fewer, if not, he would not dare lead his army into this swamp.

A regiment had two grade-3 mages attached to it was limited in battle, but they could provide an alert system to the army, preventing them from falling into a magic trap. Bifano’s bodyguards did not recognize magic traps, dozens of them had perished.

The two mages sat in the chariot, they were different from the mages in the Qin Empire. Perhaps it was because they did not exercise regularly, they looked weak and their faces were pale. One of them had a little streak of purple in his eyes, that was a sign of poisoning. A mage that dabbled in creating medicine in the long-term would have some toxins stored within his body.

A mage with a lineage would use different process methods to prevent any harm to their bodies. Lex’s body was stronger than a normal swordsman while Saleen’s body was almost as strong as a beginner swordmaster. A real combat mage could ride a horse, but releasing magic on a horse was as hard as releasing a spell while flying, it was too much for a mage.

The combat powers of these two mages were normal. The chariot was stable and it would not affect their combat powers too much.

The mages under Lex started getting busy, two magic chariots were placed in the center of the army. The mages took the parts that Lex had taken out and assembled them together, taking an hour to complete it.

Next was inlaying the magic nucleus and flushing it with magic medicine. A metal machinery eight meters long and four meters wide was completed. It was three meters tall with sharp features and sixteen mechanical feet at the bottom, allowing it to move forward slowly. The front of this magic machine was a beehive like structure with hundreds of magic arrays inscribed within the countless holes.

The back of the magic machine was another smaller piece of equipment, however, it was a movable magic trebuchet. This small trebuchet shot out magic bullet heads that would burst into flames when they struck anything.

Lex had designed two suppressive magic weapons for Bifano. The attacking powers of these two objects were not great and against a middle-grade mage, it would not hurt them at all. For a normal soldier, these two machines were a nightmare.

The slightly larger machine could shoot out hundreds of flame wasps from its tiny holes. Flame wasps were a relatively unknown low-grade magic as they did not have any honing abilities. That meant the person releasing the spell could not control it. Besides using up little energy, this grade-2 spell had almost no use.

If Lex had not assembled the hundreds of magic arrays, the only use for these flame wasps was to release fire.

Releasing hundreds of them at once, the flames would cover a huge area and did not need any magic honing at all. The small-sized magic trebuchet had a similar effect. What was different was that the attacking method of the trebuchet was from top to bottom and it could get past defences like city walls.

Lex’s mages passed the two machines over to Bifano’s low-grade mages after they were done assembling it. These two machines were easy to use and even though they were only a little more powerful than the alchemy crossbow, a grade-1 mage would be able to unleash their powers fully.

Saleen was sure that even though these two machines were known as low-grade magic, their attacking powers were incredible. When Saleen first learned the grade-1 icicle spell, it was able to pierce through stone walls. His house had very strong stone walls that were even stronger than granite.

A grade-2 spell was sufficient to pierce through most metal armor. A low-grade magic was still deadly for armies on the battlefield.

“Lex, we are only fifty miles away from the core area, it is a little strange that the pink army hasn’t appeared yet.”

“Saleen, this is where you are unclear.” Lex was not speaking just to Saleen, she was teaching the mages around her as well. She said to Saleen, “The pink army might seem strong, but in fact they are just rootless grass. Any soldier dead is one less soldier for them. This valley is too wide and there is no way they can set a trap. If they fight head on with Bifano’s army, Bifano can afford the losses, but they cannot.”

“Isn’t it very passive for them to only attack at their doorstep?”

“The Myers Temple entrance will definitely be narrow and they only need to set up a few hundred people there to fend off an attack of thousands of people. By taking turns to defend, they can reduce any unnecessary losses. They do not believe that we can open the Myers Temple’s door.

Lex’s guess was almost spot on, the pink army had indeed laid quite a number of traps along the way. Bifano’s army suddenly changed direction and the invasion from the Tanggulasi Empire had rendered their ambush useless. They had instead met with blood knights and suffered heavy casualties.

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The leader of the pink army, the female mage, had almost died at the hands of the Holy See people. She had escaped all the way back to the marshes and had long known that Bifano had assembled an army at Fire Dance City. She ran straight back to her hideout. Under such circumstances, how would she dare face Bifano head on? She could only get everyone back into the valley to hide in the Myers Temple.

The key was in her hands and she did not believe that Bifano could enter. Only her former husband knew the secret of the Myers Temple. It was a pity he had left the world, leaving behind a bunch of kids and widows. Luckily, the key was always with her, if not she would not be able to find a place to settle.

The frontline troops charged ahead without any resistance, coming to a vast area. The terrain there was unusually flat and they were made entirely of soft stone materials.

There was no hindrance within a two mile radius, no stray rocks, no hills, not even a blade of grass.

The scouts were deployed out and they did not find any ambush, Bifano’s central army quickly reached it, leaving behind only five-hundred heavy cavalrymen to await orders.

Bifano’s mages took out magic equipment that was similar to a compass and compared it to the map. They quickly found the secret that was hidden there.

Bifano came beside Lex’s chariot again and asked humbly, “Viscountess, we have found the entrance, we still need your help in opening it.”

Lex softly cut him off and said to Saleen, “Will you do it or shall I do the honors?”

“I will go.” Saleen said as he took the Ring of Gifts from Sika and exited the magic chariot. Jola tagged along behind him closely. Inside the chariot, Lex called out for Wild Bear. He followed behind Saleen, decked out entirely in armor.

Lex did not exit the chariot, she took out a grade-7 scroll and prepared to assist Saleen. A level-7 magic attack had a range of over five-hundred meters and in the magic chariot, Lex could control the scroll properly.

Under the gaze of thousands of people, Saleen came to the empty ground the soldiers had surrounded.

Four low-grade mages gave a mage bow as Saleen walked over and said to him, “Master, here it is.”

Saleen looked thoughtfully at the soldiers all around, most of them had given up their war horses and only the cavalrymen were still on their horses. Dozens of crossbows were aiming there, if Saleen was still a low-grade mage, he would definitely feel a chill. Now, besides the alchemy crossbow, it would be hard for any other crossbows to pierce through his water shield.

“Let the soldiers retreat at least forty-five meters away.” Saleen’s calculation skills could be thought of as horrifying. Just by using his eyes, he could already calculate how big an area the entrance of the Myers Temple would take up if it appeared.

Many low-grade mages around gave the orders to the officers nearby and they immediately instructed their soldiers to retreat.

Saleen touched the Ring of Gifts on his left hand, it was this ring that had changed his fate. Opening a temple for the second time, he had no idea if it had already been destroyed by the pink army. The ingredients in the temple were incredibly precious and even the rocks on the floor were steel rocks.

If Saleen had not gotten the magic tower ingredients that his teacher had given him, he might even be tempted to return to the temple in the Chaotic Marshes to take away all the ingredients he could take there.

A white light was emitted from Saleen’s left hand as Saleen recited the holy prose inscribed on the ring. The ground immediately started twisting as cracks appeared on the even stone. Just like a magic lattice, the fragments shifted around orderly. A black entrance appeared silently.

“It isn’t a teleportation portal!”

The black hole was over ten meters high and from all four sides it looked the same. Suddenly, hundreds of arrows shot out from the black hole, they had no target and Jola swiped them all away at once. His sword aura was activated and all the arrows that were shot towards Saleen were crushed by the sword aura.

Saleen turned back and said to Bifano, “We can enter now.”

Bifano was suspicious, when he had first opened the temple, he had created quite a ruckus, how did Saleen do it this easily?

Of course, he did not know that the key to opening the Myers Temple was whether the godly power was still abundant. Among the equipment left behind by the goddess, their godly powers were incredibly weak. The Ring of Gifts could not store so much godly power. The pink army had rarely opened the entrance of the Myers Temple as the key with the army could only open the temple every half a month, it needed time to replenish its godly powers.

Saleen’s left hand had absorbed a leaf of the Tree of Life. If he did not conceal it, even the Holy See people from thousands of miles away would be able to sense the presence of the godly powers from it.

“The temple was already opened, should I give the order to kill Saleen now?” Bifano twitched his eyes, Saleen was surrounded by his soldiers and there were at least forty crossbows aiming at him.