Pillar of Yita

The competition arena was shrouded in a terrible silence, like an invisible monster that had swallowed all muttered words, silently oppressive. The candlelight flowed like molten gold, filling the slates like fine wine, resplendent in its overflow.

Fang Hong bowed his head, his fine hair hanging from the young man’s forehead, reflecting the interwoven light. He gently swept his hand over the golden shell, a soft click echoing as the dial spiraled back into place under the gilded leaves.

He did not glance at the Immortal Worm again, turned, swept his robe aside, and stepped down from the arena.

Tianlan screamed, ran over and hugged him loudly, ”Heavens, Brother Ade, you did it! How did you manage that, it was incredible, just like that!”

This made Fang Hong terribly nervous, he quickly hushed her, making a shushing gesture and giving her a look.

Tianlan embarrassingly stuck out her tongue, glanced around cautiously, and then whispered, changed her tone, ”Xiaya... it was Xiaya, I understand.”

Luo Yu, Hudi, and Atira approached, followed by the short Gita and that Papalarian crossbowman. Atira then glared at Tianlan, who immediately behaved.

Fang Hong placed his hands on the fastenings on both sides of the Omnimeter, pressed them down with a click, and slid off the gloves, handing them to Luo Yu, ”Thank you.”

But Luo Yu shook his head, ”They’re of no use to me, I’m giving them to you.”

Fang Hong was startled for a moment, holding the gloves and looking at Luo Yu, then suddenly understood, ”Do you want to become a Combat Artisan?”

A deep light flashed in the young man’s eyes.

Fang Hong understood, suddenly retracting the gloves, grinning broadly, ”I’ll help you.”

Luo Yu looked at him in surprise.

”But the key still lies with you.”

”I... of course understand,” Luo Yu was somewhat uncomfortable, deeply impressed by Fang Hong’s earlier performance, ”Mr. Ade, are you a member of the Elite Youth Training Team?”

Fang Hong shook his head, speaking with a hint of pride, ”I am alone.”

This statement surprised Luo Yu, who thought with Fang Hong’s skills, he surely would belong to some Grand Guild. Elite was the second-ranked guild in the country and was one of the closest to Rainbow Bay, other than the Silver Forest Spear. He naturally assumed Fang Hong would be a member of the Elite reserves.

But not only was that not the case, he was actually a lone wolf.

”You were originally called Ade?” Hudi asked in surprise at that moment.

”Shh—” Tianlan quickly made hand gestures, ”Keep your voice down, we have a feud with the Silver Forest Spear.”

”We?” Fang Hong looked at Tianlan strangely.

”Those two jerks from the Silver Forest Spear bumped into Tata and didn’t apologize, so we’ve made enemies,” the French girl replied, hands on her hips as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Isn’t enmity taken too lightly? Silver Forest Spear was also a behemoth, and Hudi was also startled, his voice naturally decreased a bit, ”Ade, you aren’t...?”

Luo Yu also thought of something, suddenly interrupting, ”Don’t say—” Hudi then realized his slip-up and immediately shut his mouth.

Only Tianlan looked perplexed at the two, ”What kind of charade are you playing?”

Fang Hong was equally bewildered.

Only Atira looked at the two, softly beginning to speak, ”Let’s talk about this back home.” The Elf Girl gestured with her eyes around the quiet arena, which was beginning to stir again, whispers converging into a torrent.

And people’s gazes gathered on Fang Hong.

Which startled Fang Hong as well.

The Immortal Worm still stood dazedly in the arena.

Until the referee came over to request him to leave, then he seemed to grasp a lifeline, his face quivering as he howled, ”I object, he cheated... Mr. Referee, how could a Construct be that agile?”

”Also... it... how could it advance on a spear, a Construct can’t self-balance under such conditions, he must have used some extraneous means, I demand a rematch!”

The Dwarf Referee looked disdainfully at the plump man, coldly replying, ”Who told you that was a self-balancing state?”

The plump man was stunned.

”That was manual compensation balance, you just need to add two more axes.”

”But Mr. Referee,” a voice came from off the arena, as everyone turned to see, it was that woman who had performed excellently in the competition—Blood Night Demon Moon, who asked, ”For every additional control axis added, the control complexity multiplies.”

”So you just need to do this.”

The Dwarf Referee waved his gloved right hand gently, three Clockwork Fairies flying out from behind him, buzzing around him. The small figure then turned back to look at the Immortal Worm, ”Flexible Construct, you don’t even understand the basic meaning of the word—step down, you’ve lost in every aspect.”

”This can’t be... this can’t be.”

”That guy, he schemed against me...”

The Immortal Worm’s face was ashen, muttering to himself.

And below the arena, there was an uproar.

At that moment, Zhang Tianmiu walked to the edge of the arena, his communicator lit up, the text on the screen furrowing his brow:

’Fox: Captain, the target has separated from us.’

Fox was his deputy’s codename, he frowned, lowered his voice and entered with voice input, ”Location?”

’Fox: Our people saw him heading to the southern corridor, but those lying in ambush there didn’t spot him... it’s as if he vanished into thin air.’

Zhang Tianmiu sighed, ”Wait for me to come over.” He was about to leave when suddenly a series of exclamations came from the distance in the arena; he paused and looked in that direction, barely catching the words ’balance compensation’ ’precision triple control’ in the gasps.