Pillar of Yita

The man with graying hair, wearing a golden mask, stood motionless like a puppet. Had Fang Hong not been certain that it was he who had spoken earlier, he would have almost believed that such a person would not speak in this situation.

”Captain!” Red Leaf looked at Night Hawk standing next to the man with some surprise.

Night Hawk cracked a slight smile, lifted his hood, revealing the face of a young man. He looked at Fang Hong casually and amiably, ”We should have met before at Grey Oak Square. Red Leaf has mentioned you a few times since returning from Traveler’s Rest. You are indeed impressive. Ordinarily, combat artisans don’t react as quickly, and you control your Clockwork Fairy very well.”

He then asked another question, ”If it hadn’t been for the sudden incident in the square, could your Clockwork Fairy have continued to keep up with me?”

Fang Hong felt a bit embarrassed by the praise, but still nodded truthfully.

”Impressive—”

The young man smiled and then entered with the other man.

Fang Hong noticed that the man’s gaze beneath the mask continuously lingered around him but he remained silent. The young man, seeing his gaze, said with a smile, ”We listened to your conversation earlier, please forgive us. It wasn’t our intention to eavesdrop, but we were inadvertently captivated outside the door. Because your deduction was brilliant, almost spot on. Still, I am curious, do you think we can reach the other end of the chessboard before those Dragon Worshippers?”

Fang Hong looked towards Red Leaf, who nodded at him. ”This is our operation leader. Everyone in the first and second divisions must listen to him, including myself, Ade.”

Yet, the young man didn’t put on airs despite his higher rank, and he reached out his hand proactively, ”Your name is Ade, right? My ID is Recall, I am a few years older than you. If you feel like it, you can call me big brother, but if you don’t want to, that’s fine too, as it might make me seem a bit younger.”

While saying this, the young man also showed surprise at the sight of the beauty Hilveld, but quickly diverted his gaze politely.

His words were lighthearted and eased the tension of the others, but Fang Hong’s gaze still fell on the man with the mask, who remained silent and seemed not inclined to introduce himself.

When Fang Hong and the man’s eyes met, he finally asked indifferently, ”What do you plan to do, young man?”

”Who are you?”

The man with the mask answered, ”I am their employer, the initiator of this mission.”

”Ah!” Even Red Leaf cried out in surprise, as she had never seen this employer before.

Fang Hong was also somewhat surprised to find that the mysterious employer had personally come to the Phantom Realm, unsure whether he had been here all along or had just arrived.

Recall added for the employer, ”Ade, your ideas are interesting. Although Mr. Employer is the initiator of this mission, he is just as clueless about this Phantom Realm as we are. We’d like to hear your opinion on how to break the current situation?”

Having heard this, Fang Hong was reminded of the thought process that had been interrupted earlier and nodded, ”Then back to the point, the key to breaking the Phantom Realm lies in Dolifen’s three items.”

”Dolifen’s three items?” Red Leaf seemed a bit surprised, ”Do we still need to snatch them back from the Dragon Worshippers?”

Fang Hong shook his head, ”Not exactly, I am referring to something else.”

”Something else?”

”We all know, the three items of Dolifen correspond to the three key events that took place in Dolifen’s disaster over thirty years ago. But have you tried to sort out their sequence?”

”Sequence?” Recall frowned, ”Several people have tried to sort it out, but the sequence is really chaotic, and nobody has a clue.”

Fang Hong replied, ”That’s because others do not fully understand the root cause behind everything. But we are different, we can deduce the process from the outcome, because we now know what happened in Dolifen thirty years ago—the Dark Giant Dragon Nikopolas was resurrected here, but due to some reasons, did not fully succeed and ultimately left behind the Dragon’s Golden Eyes.”

”That is indeed the case.” Everyone nodded in realization.

”Then let’s look at the events within the three Phantoms. The key item in the first Phantom is the Martyr’s Mark of The Faithful, the task scene is escorting a lady from Lady Tengye’s Inn to leave through Fisherman’s Fork; the key item in the second Phantom is the illusory Blade of Victory, the task scene is defeating Shadows of the Past—essentially the shadow of Nikopolas; the key item in the third Phantom is the Scepter of Pride from the Ignorant, the task scene is right here, defeating the lord of the Undead.” Fang Hong pointed to the skeletons by the Orrery.

Everyone fell silent, seemingly lost in thought.

Fang Hong continued, ”As everyone knows, the other side of Fisherman’s Fork leads to Ruins Avenue, which might not have been its name in the past, but one thing is unchangeable—that road is the way out of the city. This means, if we follow the usual sequence of Dolifen’s three items, we can conclude that the events of thirty years ago unfolded like this—”

”First, we escorted a lady out of Dolifen. Then, a fierce battle took place at Grey Oak Square. Finally, we came to the City Hall, where we killed a person.”