Pillar of Yita

It was the moment of the world’s birth, when God said there should be light, and thus there was light.

Five bright stars lit up at once—

That light, originating from the deepest part of everyone’s eyes, was like that most dazzling and moving candle flame, flickering within the projections above the arena.

In some regions, an ancient legend is passed down, that when everyone suddenly falls silent, it must be because an angel is passing overhead. And at this moment, within the courtyard of an archway filled with wisteria vines, such a scene unfolded.

Jenny was hurrying along with Aquitez from outside the corridor, ”Hurry up, Lord Aquitez,” the young girl said in a panicked tone, ”Rosetta might actually strangle us later, and you are old, but I’m still young.”

”Shut up,” Aquitez said loudly, ”I’ve never seen a girl dumber than you.”

As he stepped out the door, he was startled by a scene before him akin to a silent film.

Everyone was like a frozen frame from an animated scene, immobile, silently staring at the image on the nearby projector. ”What’s going on?” Jenny almost bumped into the Old Dwarf from behind, confused by the sight.

But Aquitez didn’t even respond to her, suddenly leaping to the side of the projector with eyes as wide as brass bells, while gasping, ”By Rotas above, what... what is this? How did he do it!?”

Within five star systems, civilizations were born, beginning their outward expansion—

The fleets of civilizations were woven from light, carving out five straight lines in the darkness, heading in unison toward the next target star system.

Their speed was neither fast nor slow, advancing in perfect alignment.

Like the silent staff lines of a musical score.

Extending forward, they penned the world’s earliest poems and songs—

If this had been three days before, it would have been Fang Hong’s limit.

But not now.

His fingertips twitched slightly.

In the second layer of illuminated star systems, the traces of civilization expanded once again. Like five nascent empires, two trajectories split apart, each extending in different left and right directions.

Five became ten.

Civilization entered a splendid phase of expansion; a millennia passed in a blink, a network of expanding light domains now connected into one.

It was a time of blending civilizations, of encounters, of conflicts, of assimilation. Like inside a massive glass container, an invisible hand poured an invisible stream of light into it, a thin layer, spilling over the bottom of the container.

Slowly spreading upward.

Utter silence.

Everyone’s mouth was agape at the sight.

The wandering traveller was no exception, he had even forgotten about his commentary, fixated only on the scene before him, when a somewhat conspicuous message flashed in the peripheral of his vision in the live room—

”Multiple Control technology.”

”They have returned—”

”Now the Super Competitive League will have some fun.”

These messages sent by the same person gave the wandering traveller a moment’s pause, and as he subconsciously tried to find the speaker, he only saw a notification: Lafooh_Es has left your live room.

The traveller was momentarily stunned, vaguely recognizing the ID.

A third of the sphere had lit up.

...

Below the projection screen, Luo Hao was still engulfed by that tremendous shock.

And behind him, the young instructor had already let out an exaggerated scream, ”Multiple Control?” That shout made Luo Hao turn his head instinctively; since meeting this young instructor, it was the first time he’d seen him lose his composure like this.

”Multiple Control?” Luo Hao was slightly taken aback; he prided himself on his broad knowledge within the community, understanding many niche schools of knowledge within the Super Competitive world, and even showed great interest in lesser-known competitions—such as the Continental League professional tournaments.

But he had truly never heard of a technology called Multiple Control.

Out of curiosity, Luo Hao looked towards his instructor, but after listening to his description, the instructor didn’t so much as glance at him and instead walked to the side to pick up his personal communication device. With a somewhat grave expression, he walked to a corner and dialed a number.

At the Traveler’s Rest, within the Dragon Horn Hall—

Zhang Tianmiu was tilting his head to inspect the ceiling repairs of the hall. Over several days, the traces of chaos from days past within this inn had mostly vanished—The only slightly jarring thing was that the removal of the gigantic and ferocious Dragon Horn hanging in the center of the hall made it seem somewhat emptier.

He was about to turn back and leave, but it was at this very moment that a conspicuous notification popped up within his Summoners System.

Zhang Tianmiu glanced at the caller and without second thought, he pressed the answer button.

About a few minutes later.

The hall seemed to be swept by a whirlwind.

All the guests saw a line of Stargate Special Reserve Team members in black coats hurrying past, their expressions solemn as they moved through a side door and disappeared beyond it.

People were still looking at each other in bewilderment, whispering and asking what had happened.

Just then, there came an excited shout from beside the projector: ”Turned it around!”

”What’s turned around?” the people puzzledly turned around.

”It’s a turnaround!” The one who shouted was an Invoker, who stood up with a face full of surprise and called out to everyone: ”Quick, look at the Continental League, Kapuka’s team has made a comeback!”

And streams of messages were being transmitted through the network, reaching places beyond the reach of ordinary people.

For example, a geostationary orbit tens of thousands of kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

Stargate Port ’Ring of Uroboros’—

”Patch through to section 091.”

”Connecting to Stargate Port—”

Site of the China delegation.

The sliding door ’zipped’ open, and Ambassador Liao entered with a grave expression, tossing the documents in his hand onto the metal table with a ’clap,’ prompting everyone engrossed in their work to look up.

”Let’s put aside the work at hand for now, and also notify everyone to come here; we need to hold an emergency meeting,” the ambassador said concisely to everyone present.

”What’s going on?” someone asked.

”The target has appeared,” the ambassador replied.

”Target?”

”In Elpaxin, it’s been confirmed, in the arena of the Continental League, though it’s unclear how they infiltrated. The first to spot the target were people from the Stargate Special Reserve Team. Zhang Tianmiu’s source of information is on Earth; it appears someone there recognized the target during the match.”

Ambassador Liao laid out the logic in a few succinct sentences.

Right at this moment, the sliding door opened once more, and an intelligence officer walked in, stating: ”Mr. Ambassador, there is a report here that you should take a look at.”

The ambassador turned around, glanced at the report briefly, and raised an eyebrow. ”What’s this about?”

”It’s not clear yet, but there are indications that the Stargate Special Reserve Teams from America, Russia, and France are mobilizing towards the Cloud Sea Region,” the officer reported.

”When?”

”About half an hour ago.”

”These guys are quick,” someone immediately said, ”Shouldn’t we extract our person and then have the meeting?”

But Ambassador Liao shook his head: ”It’s not that simple.”

He looked at everyone deliberately and said, ”Another piece of information we’ve received is that the target may have demonstrated the ability of ’Multiple Control’ on the field—”

There was a moment of quiet in the room.

”What do you mean?” the man was a bit taken aback.

Ambassador Liao’s expression remained grave. ”We won’t jump to conclusions until things are clear, but we may need to meet that staff member again. What’s his name, where is he?”

”The person is called Huang Bingkun, forty-eight years old, a Stargate District staff member. He’s probably going back to Earth today for a military investigation.”

”Find a way to delay the process and bring him here,” the ambassador immediately ordered.

”Hold on,” the intelligence officer who had just put down his communication device spoke up, ”I’ve just received a message: The Descendants of Flor have started to move as well; Jiefulite Red Cloak Team’s Holy Serpent has moved out towards the Elpaxin Sky Gorge area. The Silver Forest Spear has yet to respond—”

Ambassador Liao frowned slightly: ”The Jiefulite Red Cloak Team, what are they joining the fray for?”

...