1032 Hoginas Gun Part 2 (1/2)

Hogina was not one to hide things on her mind, but she was not one to lament incessantly about things. After making the decision to follow Saleen for good, Hogina's mind was cleared, and she began to look deeper into Saleen's Magical Element Tower excitedly.

Hogina demonstrated immense interest in elementite, yet it was a pity that it was not something that even Saleen's water flame would have been capable of dismantling to its components.

After re-crafting Hogina's weapon, Saleen took out a suit of magic armament and gave it to her. Hogina's own collection of equipment was not of terrible quality. It was just that much of Saleen's equipment was either personally crafted gifts from Joey or acquired from the Imperial City of the Abyss.

Some others were also taken from several of the Goddess of Myers' temples, and they were also something that would not be found commonly on the mainland. Hogina never had to fret about food and lodging throughout her life, with everything she had ever needed was handed to her by her teacher. She never knew how precious alchemic materials could be.

It was not until her teacher's departure that she discovered some of the materials were so expensive, that not even nobles could afford them. What Saleen took out was just the tip of the iceberg, yet they were more than enough to keep Hogina around.

”I can't afford to stay here for too long.” Saleen took a look outside the tower. The winged skeleton had finished patching up the false dragon's injuries, which enabled it to continue flying. Saleen left the tower with Hogina and rode on the back of the false dragon again, making for the Golden Plains.

The Golden Plains was situated in the southern mountains within Qin's territory, a basin that was half closed off, and the area was not too small. It was at least far larger than the actual area of Ceylon City that Saleen had manage to take. The area of the basin allowed for about a million people to settle in it and would still look very vast and empty.

There was a meandering river west of the basin, one that led to the Separation Sea. The river was precisely why Cloudflow dared not attack Qin from that sea. If Cloudflow invaders were to land at the eastern side of the Separation Sea, other than having to scale mountains, they would have to also contend with harassments deployed from the Golden Plains.

Even several sorcerers would be enough to send the Cloudflow troops into a panic, let alone the Grukos' forces.

The ratio of mages serving the Grukos, who had made the Golden Plains their home, was far higher than Qin Empire itself. With the lineage of the family dating back several thousands of years, they had accumulated vast prestige, human resources, and frightening wealth. Their stock of equipment was definitely not inferior to the collections in Alchemy City's vaults.

Saleen was able to see a magnificent sight after arriving at the exit of the Golden Plains riding on the false dragon spirit.

A river that was more than 100 yards long flowed from within the narrow valley, the flow of which was loud and the currents rapid. Water vapors rose at the mouth of the valley, and the peaks at the sides were carved into a string of giant statues. The statues were those of the long line of emperors of the Grukos family, as well some late important figures.

If the 500 yard tall statues were simply stone carvings, it would not have surprised Saleen in any way. Each and every one of the statues seemed instead, to exude a powerful aura. More than 100 statues resonated with each other, creating a huge and powerful magic array.

There was a huge stone bridge lining the peaks of both sides. The bridge seemed to be a work of nature, yet Saleen knew that it was something produced using very powerful fossilization spells. There were more than a dozen six-winged flying snakes coiling the bridge.

The six-winged flying snakes were all grade-9 magic beasts. Disparity in combat capacity existed among grade-9 magic beasts too, and the six-winged flying snakes painstaking nurtured by the Grukos possessed high levels of intellect. They saw Saleen arriving on the back of the false dragon spirit, yet all of the snakes simply lazed about, and none got in his way.

The winged skeleton hardly felt anything. There were beings of even greater presence in the spirit plane. More than 10,000 years ago, the strongest skeleton king had a body that was even larger than the limit achievable by mechanical souls, and the king was able to stomp a mountain flat if they so wished. After following humans in their conquests, the powerful spirits were lost. The few that perished were returned to the spirit plane by the humans, becoming inviolable symbols themselves.

Even kings did not dare mess with the bodies of the perished spirits. Every powerful spirit who had perished left powerful power of rules behind, and kings would have gone to learn about such powers, in order to learn the skills of the many ancient spirits.

Saleen sighed. Those statues were able to look and feel so lifelike simply because the Grukos were rich beyond imagination. The statues were even capable of combat on their own, as each and every one of those 500 yard tall constructs, were large scale puppets.

There was one such secret art among the Grukos which enabled the memories of the ones who had passed to become images, and be injected into the core of the puppets, making them function like a human's brain. None of the large scale puppets were lumbering brutes. If they were to actually move, they might be even more nimble than ancient warriors.

There was a path at the right side of the river below which led into the valley. A man was seen flying out of the valley when Saleen was still considering if he should have gone down.

The person was wearing a white magic robe and it bore no markings of any kind. The custom of the world would have determined one such person to be a magic apprentice. Magic apprentices were definitely incapable of flight though. Even the winged people, who were born with wings, needed to reach levels higher than grade-3, before they became capable of flight.

Saleen's intuition told him that the person was around the age of 30. They looked incredibly young though, and sported a face like Hogina's, which would have caused others to have the wrong idea about him, and even grow to like him. The white-robed mage's power however, was definitely at the level of sorcerers, which meant he had become sorcerers around the age of 30.

”Who goes there? Why fly here? Don't you fear being shot to death or something?” The words of the white-robed sorcerer were spoken in a friendly joking tone.