Pillar of Yita

It is subordinate to the People’s Navy of China.

Stationed with the First Special Fleet at the Stargate.

...

In the darkness,

With a buzz, a golden light flew out of Fang Hong’s hand, describing a self-spun arc before shooting back the way it came, snapping back into Fang Hong’s hand with a click.

From the depths of the darkness, the sound of pebbles falling into water echoed.

Fang Hong turned his head toward that direction, the light from the hand-held lamp in his other hand penetrated the cliff’s rocky ceiling, illuminating clumps of dense mushroom forests atop it. He lifted the lamp higher, and on the surrounding rock walls grew massive purple crystal columns; some peculiar glowing animals moved among the crystal clusters.

This ancient ruins passage, rather than being said to be a part of the Snake People Ruins, was better described as a natural underground cavern, the space vast, with an underground river murmuring its way through.

The space in the darkness was extremely wide, with clear diverging paths visible everywhere. The ancient roads disappeared beyond the range of light, seemingly leading to an even more shadowy underground world.

But they could only follow the traces left by the Serpent People Empire, which was an ancient stone slab pathway. Here and there, one could still see the remains of standing columns, and the artificial carvings on the walls seemed to already have been washed clean by time, with only some faint bas-reliefs distinguishable.

The ancient Serpent People Empire.

Xinsas.

The throne was born from black flames—

The first king, Tennak, established that kingdom in the midst of the jungle.

It was an ancient and golden age that was even more distant than the elves’ history. Fang Hong, looking at the dense black pyramids on the bas-reliefs, could imagine how dazzlingly brilliant that ancient empire must have been.

But a black comet,

The Giant Serpent Tail, was forever suspended above this empire.

He proceeded slowly forward, then, with a buzz, he released the Clockwork Fairy from his hand. It described the same arc before returning to his hand once again, as if it was drawn by an invisible string, like a yo-yo.

Tianlan was completely sprawled over the railing on the platform, looking down below, pouted, and asked, ”Brother Ade, what are you doing? This is already the thirty-third time.”

Fang Hong smiled, once again tossed the Clockwork Fairy out and caught it, then turned around and answered, ”I am conducting an experiment.”

”An experiment?”

Fang Hong nodded. He was experimenting with the design given to him from the Lonely White Field. Fortunately, he still had some spare experience and had studied Magic Flow Prediction, just over fifteen thousand points of experience in total, which was but a trivial amount for him now.

The component itself was just a small plugin and wasn’t complicated. Plus, he could work much faster than an average person, so it took only a little time to transform a Clockwork Fairy with a ”Seal Ring Configuration.”

After some trials, he had basically understood the basic function of the plugin.

Simply put, he could encapsulate a basic command for the Clockwork Fairy through this plugin, but the command must be a single action. Simply put, you could command the Clockwork Fairy to fly forward, and it would keep following that instruction to fly endlessly: backward, upward, downward, left, or right would all be the same.

However, it could not be a series of commands, such as flying down first and then left. That wouldn’t work. Nor could you command something like a Flexible Construct Walker to attack an enemy, because an attack is not a single command; it includes a combination of multiple commands.

Also, the controlling craftsman could encapsulate the command under any circumstance, as long as the location of the Clockwork Fairy didn’t exceed his limit of control. But once a command is encapsulated, the Clockwork Fairy would enter a closed-loop state, needing to wait until it returned to his hand before the command could be changed or the encapsulation cleared.

After several more trials, Tianlan, bored at the top, threw down a remark, ”I’m going to play with Alice!” and disappeared from the platform in a flash.

But Fang Hong didn’t pay any attention to what was happening above; he was completely absorbed in contemplating what was in his hands.

This thing...

Fang Hong couldn’t help but frown. How should it be used?

He controlled the Clockwork Fairy to fly out, and then used the ”Seal Ring Component” to encapsulate a command to make it fly back in a straight line, which was just right for retrieving it. But what was the point? To install a plugin just to save that bit of operation wasn’t worth it—the thirty percent increase in weight for a small Construct was no joke.

He silently held the brass sphere that emitted a metallic cold luster in his hand; it felt substantially heavy, and for the moment, he couldn’t think of any good use for it.

The heavy steps of the Burden Beast moved forward slowly as the light from the lamp in Fang Hong’s hand pierced through the darkness of the underground, the enigmatic rock ceiling above was nothing but the same monotonous scenery. It was somewhat intriguing at first, but it had become rather tiresome after looking at it for a while.

And just when Fang Hong was rubbing his temples, feeling slightly headache, he heard a noise from behind. Turning his head, he saw Gita lower the rope ladder and come down from the platform together with the twin sisters.

”Brother Ade,” said one with her usually quiet and well-behaved demeanor. She stood a bit nervously with her hands clasped in front of her, holding a wooden Magic Guided Book, tilting her head to look up at him through the reflection on her glasses and timidly greeted him.

Fang Hong nodded to her.

”Mr. Ade,” the twin sisters greeted him as well.

”Mr. Ade, we’re leaving!”

Fang Hong saw the twin sisters carrying those Magic Guided Conductors, apparently preparing to return to the troupe.