Pillar of Yita

Managing to kill that ”Big Sister” was purely the result of a stealth attack and coincidence.

At this moment, Tianlan was asking those people, ”What’s the deal with that ’Big Sister’ again?”

”Haha,” the people laughed, ”don’t even think about denying it, someone spread rumors that they saw her resurrected at the Shallow Water Temple, and she even threatened to make you all pay.”

They kindly reminded, ”Little Princess, you need to be careful, that woman is not so simple.”

”I’m not afraid of her,” Tianlan retorted with a frown, ”The Shallow Water Temple is not far from here. The fact that she chose to resurrect there instead of in Elpaxin really does seem like she’s out for revenge against us.”

”Meet force with force, respond to the situation accordingly.”

The one who spoke out was Luo Yu, who had always been reticent; Fang Hong couldn’t help but glance at him with a bit of surprise.

The first thing the adventurers did upon returning to camp was to handle the spoils of war—Fang Hong had long yearned for this, but truthfully, this was his first time being directly involved.

Atira led them across the plaza, before the inn was a wooden-decked square, and not far away, on a stone platform, there was a bonfire, next to which a bard was playing an accordion and singing by the fireside.

Fang Hong listened curiously for a moment and nearly stumbled, as the other party was singing about the betrayal of the Morning Dawn Star Adventure Group by the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team. It was indeed recent news, and poets have always loved to spread fresh gossip, which was not surprising.

But the lyrics mentioned a genius young man and a Clockwork Fairy, which made Fang Hong feel more and more uneasy, as the song portrayed him as the destined nemesis of the Descendants of Flor, the enemy bestowed by the heavens, just shy of labeling it as a prince’s revenge story.

That’s not right, Fang Hong thought with great confusion. How did these people notice him? The theme of his message was clearly not this.

Atira supported him, asking with some confusion, ”What’s wrong?”

”No, it’s nothing,” Fang Hong answered with a guilty conscience.

He looked over again. Fortunately, there weren’t many listeners by the bonfire, just a mistress and her servant; the maid was dressed in very traditional attire, a black and white long skirt that hung below the knees, with her hands crossed and standing quietly behind her mistress.

The mistress was just a girl who couldn’t compare to peaches and plums.

Under the dye of the night, she wore a beige long coat that looked like a pair of wings folded over the curves of her chest, and the girl wore a lady’s round hat with a thin veil underneath that obscured her expression.

Only her soft golden hair, falling to her waist, and the moonlight shining through the pervasive mist, illuminated it with a soft glow. She wore lacy white gloves on her hands and beside her was a huge leather suitcase. Even though she was engrossed in listening, her fingertips never strayed far from the suitcase handle.

The style of these two was a bit out of place here, and Fang Hong couldn’t help but take a few more glances. And the girl, as if feeling his gaze, turned her head around.

Her gaze pierced his heart like a sword.

Not sharply, but with sorrow.

He had never seen such a sorrowful expression, as if at one glance she saw through to the bottom of his heart, and it wasn’t until he walked into the inn that Fang Hong came back to his senses. ”What exactly happened just now?” he wondered, a bit befuddled.

Upon entering the inn, there was a furnace right by the door; the Magic Furnace burned bright red, the golden flames extending far, and riveted iron pipes transferred the heat and Ether Magic Power to every room of ’Traveler’s Rest’.

Next to it was a half-broken Miscellaneous Maid Golem—a type of inflexible construct resembling a rotund furnace. It clumsily waved at each guest entering the inn.

The arms, creaking with rust, made squeaky noises.

The voice from the worn-out Record Crystal also came out hoarse: ”Welcome... to the Traveler’s Camp—”

”Hello there, Mr. Shayek,” Tianlan greeted the golem.

Fang Hong was startled for a moment, thinking that was the other’s name. But it wasn’t until another, older voice replaced the previous one and came through the voice conduit from within the golem’s body that he realized:

”Hello, Tianlan, welcome back,” it said.

Fang Hong then understood that the golem was also a voice transmission device.

The elderly voice asked again, ”Same as always?”

”Of course, please prepare us a sumptuous dinner, and some hot water—oh, I’m so tired. I’ve been gone for a week, and I’m all sweaty.”

But Atira shook her head at the girl, ”We don’t have much money left, Fuli.”

”Ah...” Tianlan let out an off-key sigh, looking dejected, ”But, but as adventurers, aren’t we entitled to a little bit of luxury?”

She gestured with her hands, really just a little, and looked pitifully at the other, ”Just a little bit, Sister Atira.”

Atira looked at her indulgently, shaking her head, ”Just this once.”

”Yay!” The girl jumped three feet high with joy.

Gita frowned, ”Miss Fuli is wasting money again.”

The tall trainee youth, carrying the faint Papalarian crossbowman on his back, nodded in deep agreement to one side.

However, Fang Hong, watching these people, remembered his days with the Morning Dawn Star Adventure Group and couldn’t help but smile slightly. ”I wonder how Miss Sicape and Mr. Kroid are doing...” he thought. He couldn’t log into the community after Sicape’s Glow Stone was recycled, so he was out of touch with the outside world.

He then remembered that his top priority was to get a communication device; he didn’t even know if he could buy one in this tiny camp.

After passing through the hall, the small room behind it was the Colin Commercial League’s office here.

As mentioned earlier, since the Colin Commercial League monopolizes nearly ninety percent of the trade in the Cloud Sea Region, dealing with materials in the Traveler’s camp meant dealing with them—of course, you could also sell to those adventurers in urgent need.

But the latter was uncommon.

Pushing the door open, a faint scent of incense greeted him, and a thick, hand-woven carpet covered the floor. Not far away was a flower dish, hosting a succulent plant. A little Dwarf sat on the counter, sometimes throwing breadcrumbs down, the spherical tubers of the succulent swelling open and splitting, gulping down any food like a gaping mouth.

The Dwarf was thoroughly enjoying himself until, seeing someone come in, he hurriedly brushed the crumbs off his clothes and stood up.

It was a Dwarf.

With sharp noses and pointy ears, while standing nearly as tall as a Papalarian, they were much slimmer. They lived together with Dwarves for generations in the underground tunnels of Eldron, but due to their shrewd nature, they became the merchants and bankers within Dwarf society.

Fang Hong curiously shifted his gaze from the Dwarf; in the Rodell Region and the eastern part of Colin Kingdom, Dwarves were rarely seen, and their Invokers were even more scarce, so this was his first time seeing this magical race.

Then he took a look around the room. Just like what he had imagined, the room was filled with all sorts of items. On the left was a staircase-like shelf filled with bottles and jars, big and small glass containers filled with coloured cultivation fluids, housing curious and various animal organs.

Gita also curiously observed these containers; not far from him was an eyeball wrapped in a silver membrane, placed in a palm-sized glass bottle, afloat in green liquid.

Suddenly, the silver membrane on the eyeball blinked.

It scared him so much that his hair stood on end. After a scream, he turned and ran, bumping straight into Fang Hong. Fang Hong was taken aback by the scene and grunted as he bent down.

Gita then realized he caused a scene and hurriedly apologized with blushed cheeks, ”S-sorry.”

”It’s okay...” Fang Hong bent down and turned the bottle’s face, ”Don’t be afraid, it’s just an eyeball from Silver Blaze Forest. That movement was just a subconscious reaction to the Ether Magic Power on you.”

Seeing this thing, an idea suddenly crossed Fang Hong’s mind.

The design concepts of Hain Famm for the Type-One Crystal, to further enhance the magic power performance of the Type-One Crystal, the sensitivity of the Non-Attribute Crystal to Ether Magic Power must first be changed.

And the eyeball from Silver Blaze Forest could even react to the slightest change in magic power, which was exactly what he needed, wasn’t it?

But this thing... it looks a bit expensive.

...