506 A designated universe Part 2 (2/2)
”I am fine now, but it hurts so badly!” Saleen felt as though his finger had been smashed thousands of times by a warhammer, he had never experienced such a pain before. He had practiced the Crystal Finger before, but the practice target was not human. When the Crystal Finger destroyed the holy prose protecting Black William, Saleen could also feel the damage from the holy prose.
Fortunately, the damage was only confined to his finger, and a huge portion of the impact had been absorbed by the Crystal Finger. Saleen would have broken all his bones otherwise and there was no solution for that.
”Ke…” Saleen started coughing again, and he coughed up more blood. He quickly snatched the bottle from Sika's hand and poured the magic liquid into his mouth.
”Saleen, how long will you take to recover?” Sika was a little concerned now, Saleen's injuries seemed to be worse than she imagined.
”Very quickly. With the magic liquid, my injuries will take at most three days to recover. It's my fault this time around. If I was a sorcerer, I would not get injured at all. If there is such a perilous task next time, I will let Lex do it.”
Saleen was speaking sincerely. Since Lex was a higher grade than him and she also had the secret arts of the Grukos family, she would not feel such immense pain if she was the one who killed Black William.
Unbeknownst to Saleen, Black William possessed a partial godly weapon, but he never got a chance to use it against Saleen. The Crystal Finger could kill with just a point. Black William never expected a grade-5 mage to possess such a fearsome spell, so he was killed due to carelessness. Had Black William took out the partial godly weapon, Saleen would be the one dead.
The partial godly weapon was also destroyed by Saleen. Despite his Crystal Ring absorbing almost all of the backlash, it did not even have a single crack. Raphael's Crystal Ring could already rival a godly equipment in terms of quality.
”Jola!” Sika hollered, and Jola entered the barrack.
”Tell Lex that Saleen needs three days to recover, then ask her how the journey will be planned.”
Saleen never used a commanding tone to speak to Jola. Jola's immunity to beautiful women was immensely weak though. After hearing Sika say that, Jola left gleefully.
”Master, why were you so sure that Black William would go after you?” Nailisi asked Saleen about his tactics. Sika also listened in.
”This person had high status, he was not be satisfied with just doing surveillance. At first, when pursuing me, he wanted to see whether he stood a chance or not. I didn't let anyone else follow, because only Nailisi would disallow him from identifying her hidden powers. A holy master above grade-7 can easily deal with a grade-5 mage who is unprotected by any swordmasters. I did that to make him let his guard down. If Jola followed me, I would be safe, but he might not have taken action.
Nailisi nodded, signaling that she understood. Saleen was only toying with human nature, even a grade-7 holy master would have the tendency to take advantage of others. Seeing that he could bully Saleen easily, he would of course give it a shot.
At this moment, Jola returned and told Saleen, ”Lex said that she will allow you to rest until tomorrow afternoon, then we will need to enter the desert. Since the holy master is dead, the three leaders of the inquisition will definitely hear about it. The capital of Tanggulasi has a teleportation portal to the borders of Titan, those three old guys will be able to reach here in three days.”
”Got it. Jola, go and rest as well, don't bother about keeping watch anymore.”
Jola was hesitant, but Nailisi simply pushed him out and said, ”With me around, Master will be safe.” Jola smiled, ”Have I finally internalized my role?” He was now genuinely concerned about Saleen's safety.
After a short while of effectiveness, the Restorative Water had lost its medicinal properties again. Saleen closed his eyes and meditated while Sika emptied the remaining magic liquid into the wooden tub. She would not help Lex conserve the magic liquid. Magic liquid was stored in very tiny containers, and it had high requirements for the containers. As this silver bottle was pretty good, Sika gave it to Nailisi.
Lex was inside the magic war chariot, with Bain seated across her. The rest of the mages had left the chariot.
”Viscountess, Saleen's attack was truly horrifying.”
”As compared to the God's Punishment?”
”The God's Punishment is mightier, but his skill is penetrative, it is totally different.”
”Are you reminding me that the God's Ring might not be able to block his attack?”
”Yes.”
”Do you not trust Saleen?”
Bain remained silent for a moment, then said, ”Right now, I do trust him. Any kind of trust is limited though. I feel very jumpy with you beside him. I cannot even block that spell of his.”
”Bain, in that one year when Saleen and I were in the hell of the God's Punishment, we saved each other's lives.”
”People do change.”
”Not you. Bain, let me ask you, are you still planning to let your daughter learn magic from him?”
”Yes.”
”That's great, you shall pretend as if nothing had ever happened.” Lex proclaimed confidently, ”I have always been accurate in evaluating people. Bain, you should trust my judgment.”
”Viscountess…” Alas, Bain still did not say what was on his mind. He was not worried that Saleen would harm Lex, he was worried that all of Lex's assets would one day be in Saleen's possession.
”Some people wouldn't mind, but some others wouldn't be able to take it. As long as Lex remains a viscountess, the swordsmen serving her would be contented. Other than the mages beside Lex, there is still a batch of nobles. These people are secretly helping Lex resist the Holy Rock City, but what are they hoping to achieve? Forget it, I am dying soon, I cannot keep watching over Lex. I can only execute the mission given to me by the emperor until the day I die. Lex will have to rely on herself for future matters.”
Bain leaned against the cushion tiredly, totally unlike an assassin. He looked more like an elderly person who already had one foot in the grave.