Pillar of Yita

Upon stepping out of the Mushroom Forest, Fang Hong instinctively stopped in his tracks, for before him lay an endless expanse of cracked land, the surface resembling drought-ridden areas of the aboveground world, with wide cracks and a hue of volcanic ash gray, upon closer inspection, fine cracks were intertwined with wisps of black smoke.

Fang Hong knelt down, lightly touching the ring on his hand— it was the Ring of Golden Flame that had absorbed the power of Dragon’s Golden Eyes in Dolifen, a portion of Nikopolas’s power within the ring indeed reacted, stirring just like when he had touched the black river water on the eighth level.

Fang Hong withdrew his hand, and the leading knight turned his head around, thinking he was inspecting the land, kindly explained, ”This is scorched earth, the landscape of the eleventh layer beneath the relics, we came directly from the Bottomless Depths and crossed two layers, the terrain here is actually influenced by the lava layer beneath.”

The vast floating continent of Eteliria also possessed a lava layer underneath, but no one had truly ventured into the broad underground world, nor knew whether the underground flames truly came from beneath the Floating Continent’s Abyssal Sea.

However, the largest underground world in the New World existed after the first Continental Bridge in the Greyrock Domain, which was also one of the second world’s largest floating continent clusters.

This destination was naturally on Fang Hong’s itinerary; if given the chance, he truly wished to explore the heart of that legendary place. Of course, for him now, it remained just a distant dream.

Fang Hong stood up, adding to the knight, ”I fear that besides the lava layer, there is also an influence of dark force.”

The knight blinked in slight surprise.

Xiangzi, impatiently waiting behind, could not help but ask, ”Switching back, where exactly are those people clashing?”

”Our people are right ahead, just over that hill we should be able to see them,” replied the knight.

In truth, before they even crossed the hill, they could hear the high-pitched chanting of spellcasters below, and as Fang Hong reached the top of the mound, he saw with one glance the battling parties below—three knights of Silver Weslan, with the assistance of a priest, were cutting through a horde of corpse ghosts and skeletons, rescuing a few Invokers from within.

Those Invokers seemed to be from the same adventure group, their battle robes not much different in style, one boisterous Dwarf warrior, a human priest, a teenage Magic Guided Conductor boy, and a tall Elf Ranger—an Avenquin Elf.

All of them were injured, but their strength was decent; otherwise, they wouldn’t have lasted until the people of Silver Weslan came to support. Of course, compared to the latter, their skills were far inferior.

Each of the three knights of Silver Weslan was capable of holding their own, one adept at defense, able to handle seven or eight corpse ghosts along with a bunch of skeletons effortlessly while using a shield to fend off the corpse ghosts’ attacks with a ”ping-pong” sound, adroitly seeking opportunities to regain balance in blocking through their positioning.

The other two attackers, any of whom could confront four or five level-fourteen or higher corpse ghosts without being overshadowed, and that priest moved flamboyantly enough to roam within the triangular defense formed by the three knights, chanting without needing too much care from his mates.

And whenever too many corpse ghosts appeared on one side, he would use the Holy Lock to secure the most crucial ones, ensuring his teammates didn’t feel overwhelmed, superbly playing the role of a healer into an adept controller.

The Invokers from other adventure groups were stunned.

Fang Hong also recognized these four, but they were just a few inconspicuous members within the Silver Weslan team; if it weren’t for this incident, he wouldn’t even have noticed their remarkable abilities.

Parker and Xiangzi were also taken aback, especially the chuunibyou teenager, who, watching this scene, hands on his sword, said nothing. Fang Hong glanced back at him, knowing that the other was somewhat struck since in the Rain Listener’s group, he had always been the one with the highest talent and was most valued by Lonely White Field—

Then he met Fang Hong, but that didn’t matter much, Alchemists and combat professions were inherently different, yet here, any random few members of a Silver Weslan team showed strength no less than his, evidently putting him under some pressure.

At this moment, the other people from Silver Weslan were waiting for him to give an order, clearly, the cooperation had already established basic trust, and with Sophie keeping silent, the people of Silver Weslan already treated him as the temporary captain of their team.

Fang Hong wasted no words, directly commanding, ”Go and support.”

A few mere undead posed no challenge, and he figured that Silver Weslan’s prospective elites didn’t need further commands; instructing smart people sometimes can be this simple.

He looked at Xiangzi again, thinking that this guy was simply overthinking; although the Grand Guild cultivated the next generation’s core through a competitive system, for a core team enjoying resources under Sophie’s command like this, even Silver Weslan probably couldn’t offer much, barely one or two teams within the entire Guild.

Not just material resources, but also promotional resources—before he even entered the New World, he had heard countless times about this Princess of Silver Weslan in the community, indicating that Silver Weslan was already paving the way for these individuals early on.