Pillar of Yita

They were selected from the Youth Training Camp, which essentially meant that the Order had already recognized their talents and efforts. The so-called assessment was merely a test of their own perseverance.

This was the very foundation on which the Tabopolis Knights Order had long stood—a knight’s test; it was less an examination of talents and more of the human heart.

Red Leaf knew that this was the philosophy of the Order’s very first founder.

Although that founder had long since retired, his spirit was always implemented by his successors. The so-called Free Guild sought something different from the Grand Guilds, and if it truly followed in the latter’s footsteps; there was no doubt that it would betray the original intentions of the people.

It was what the Knight Order had always pursued.

Red Leaf recognized this deeply as well.

Unfortunately, there were not many people who still acknowledged all of this now; she couldn’t help but glance at Fang Hong not far away.

People were coming out one after another.

Finally, Fang Hong saw an older knight. The figure was more stooped than before, his hair a white-grey that seemed to drain his energy, yet he firmly held a hand on his sword, his expression still stern as ever.

Among the few people in the square, apart from a noble Lady and her maid who had disappeared from the start, only Luen Linxiu was still unaccounted for.

Fang Hong asked the knight where the other had gone, but Diket merely shook his head gently, ”I saw him in the Phantom Realm, following that phantom towards the direction of Fisherman Long Alley—”

Fang Hong knew that was the direction that lady had left Dolifen.

The Chairman of the Black Goat Commerce Association came seeking the answers he had missed in the past, but it was unknown whether those answers aligned with what was in his heart.

”Will he come back?”

”Perhaps.”

The matter dropped there, though both were comrades in arms who had fought side by side thirty years ago, the three decades apart meant they knew little of each other’s circumstances.

But this Phantom Realm, like a reenactment of the past, had brought the two of them back together here.

Fang Hong wanted to speak, then hesitated, ”Mr. Knight, what plans do you have for the future?”

Diket’s gaze lingered on the square, as if piecing together memories of this place from thirty years ago from the scattered remnants.

He responded somberly, ”The Phantom Realm of Dolifen is gone, this place will probably return to calmness. Not long after the adventurers leave, there will be nothing here but the forest and ruins. In a few decades, people will no longer remember that there was ever a city here.”

Fang Hong also felt somewhat emotional.

The stories of heroes, thus buried under these unknown ruins, how many people will know what had happened here thirty years ago?

A knight, a young businessman who had recently joined the Colin Commercial League, a dragon-slaying lady; the former two had given the first halves of their lives, while the latter, using herself as a vessel, merged into one with Nikopolas.

After she left Dolifen, where did she go? And the giant dragon sleeping in the Traveler’s Swamp, does it still harbor a part of her soul?

Or is it actually that lady from the past?

Suddenly, Fang Hong understood why Mr. Mazak and his father had built that inn in the swamp.

But was that pure soul described in the Martyr’s Mark by The Faithful really the hope and wish left by that lady?

”As for me,” Diket spoke softly, ”retiring to the mountains is a good choice. Once things settle down here, the logging camp might return to normal, which would be good for everyone.”

Fang Hong turned back, ”But they’ll never know that you solved all this.”

”Not I,” the older knight turned back towards him, ”It was you, young man.”

Fang Hong was slightly startled, somewhat surprised.

”But that was just a coincidence. If it weren’t for that ring...”

”That ring is in your hands.”

”That was given to me by Mr. Mazak,” Fang Hong was a bit shocked, ”Did he know all this beforehand?”

The older knight shook his head, ”That was Misu’s older brother; he didn’t know all this either. But it was neither coincidence nor some mysterious fate, young man.”

Lady Marlan did not believe in destiny, for her knight only possessed a longsword and an unyielding courage.

But Fang Hong still found it somewhat incomprehensible.

”It’s simply because you possess this inherent quality,” Diket seriously looked at him, a sternness emerging in his gray eyes, ”that it chose you. Even if you hadn’t come here at this moment, it believed that one day, you would resolve all these issues——”

”Thirty years ago, we also had this ring, but the outcome was no different. Or rather—would someone else in the Phantom Realm make the same choice as you? Like those people—” The knight’s eyes twinkled with a hint of humor as he looked at those who were skulking away not far off.

Although Fang Hong did not feel that he had made any remarkable choices in the Phantom Realm.

But to say that those people would stay in the Upper City District along with the ghosts of Dolifen from the past seemed somewhat unlikely. In fact, Fang Hong had long understood that these past duties, in his view, were obligations rightly assumed by the Invokers, but in Eteliria—at least in the first world, it was not necessarily the case.

Mr. Kroid and Miss Sicape had not deceived him.

The glamorous facade he had seen in the promotions was nothing more than a superficial aspect of this world.

Or rather a dazzling halo.

But Fang Hong had never questioned his choices; he simply thought he had not seen enough, not far enough. Yet, he understood that one day he would become mature, but maturity did not mean he had to change his initial intentions.

He suddenly realized the older knight’s words and subconsciously looked down at the ring in his hand.

The chattering whispers had disappeared, and he faintly felt that the power within the ring was somewhat afraid of him, shying away from his gaze.

It was the power of the Dragon’s Golden Eyes.

But the ring no longer had attributes, in his vision, the system only tagged the ring with a simple label: ’Ring of Golden Flame’.

Just a name, without even a description of the equipment, no level or quality.

There was, however, a line of small text engraved upon it.

’A mighty power is contained within—’

Beyond that, there was no further elaboration.

The knight, seeing that he had understood, rarely smiled seriously and nodded at him, ”You are much braver than Luen, and I would say so even in his presence. If it had been you thirty years ago, perhaps there wouldn’t have been so many issues afterward...”

Fang Hong thought the chairman of the Black Goat Commerce Association might not be pleased to hear these words, and he himself did not feel relieved either.

Because he faintly felt that this matter might not end there.

It could just be the beginning.

”Mr. Knight,” Fang Hong could not help but ask, ”what is your current state...?”

”I am an Immortal,” Diket replied unabashedly, ”just as you saw in the Phantom Realm, those Dragon Worshippers weren’t wrong—my power is not much different from theirs.”

”Your power...”

The knight nodded, ”My power comes from Miss Misu, I can distinctly feel that she is still alive, and even her power is growing stronger.”

”I have carefully suppressed myself from actively using this power over the years, even letting my own power wane. But the experiences in the Phantom Realm undoubtedly awakened it again, something I have always worried about. If one day I become the Dragon’s Servant, I may choose to end it all before that happens.”

Fang Hong was somewhat silent upon hearing this.

He looked at the ring in his hand and suddenly remembered something.

Including that name he had heard in the Phantom Realm, that Mr. Magus whom Praetor Declan had mentioned—that name had sounded familiar at the time.

But now, Fang Hong finally remembered where he had heard that name.

Wasn’t it the person whom Mazak had wanted him to deliver the ring and the letter to?

This thought, along with the words of the older knight, confirmed some of his speculations. The troubles brought by this ring might have just begun.

But recalling the experiences in the Phantom Realm, Fang Hong wasn’t sure if he should regret them.

...