Pillar of Yita

The first tier was the Wizard, the guardian of dark knowledge—Asuka.

The second tier was the warrior, the protector of the Holy Sanctuary—Andasok.

The third tier was the Ritualist, the Observatory Watcher and the interpreter of the carved slates—Ka Cuilan.

The fourth tier was the soldier, the practitioner of the holy path, Ta Hess.

The fifth tier was the commoner, the people of Guda Suoke, Tokin.

Among them, Ta Hess of the fourth tier had been wiped out in a war thirteen years ago. Fang Hong remembered that the old dragon Toragotos had once told him—he had gone south during the period before the Battle of Bain to shelter the descendants of Ta Hess and had received the blessing rituals from them.

And the power of that ritual was still with him and Tainaric to this day.

But among the events of the past, there were some coincidences, such as the cause of the Battle of Bain, which was not hard to understand—a group of Semi-Called had attacked the Imperial Envoy Group, and soon after, the Osh Empire strangely launched an attack on the Lizardmen of Norsenica.

This series of strange coincidences seemed to form an answer faintly in Fang Hong’s mind.

People knew that the attackers of the Imperial Envoy Group were the Immortals, which was the source of the seventh prohibition. So why did the Immortals attack the Empire’s ambassador convoy? And why did the Empire attack the Lizard People of Norsenica—the descendants of Ta Hess—for no apparent reason?

And the key to everything seemed to lie in the task the Rain Listener Guild had completed half a year before.

Listening to Fang Hong recount all the causes and consequences, Miss Sophie was stunned for a moment. She had never thought Fenris’s quest line would be so long and far-reaching, spanning most of the Kingdom and thirteen years of time.

It was almost the past of two generations of the Chosen.

She looked at Fang Hong with a strange gaze, simply unable to understand how he managed to find the hidden connections from mere snippets of detail and combine them all together. For the first time, the princess of Silver Weslan realized that she might have underestimated this somewhat naive young man.

Behind her, Su Changfeng’s expression was solemn—he had been a participant in the Battle of Bain himself, and like him, many others had been looking for the traces of the Immortal behind the scenes after the battle. But for the first time, someone had told him that the two apparently unrelated incidents over the past thirteen years were connected.

But Toragotos and the Rain Listeners had both been to Norsenica; could they prove a connection to the Battle of Bain thirteen years ago?

He couldn’t help but softly say to his daughter, ”Ask him, what did the Rain Listener Guild take away from Norsenica?”

Following his instruction, Miss Sophie asked, ”What do you think the Rain Listener Guild took away from Norsenica?”

Fang Hong seemed to have anticipated this, ”Have you heard about the Sarus incident, Miss Sophie?”

”Another new incident.” Miss Sophie was going crazy inside. She was known in Silver Weslan as a Natural Historian who wasn’t a Natural Historian, but one clue after another burst from Fang Hong’s mouth, making her feel an unprecedented sense of defeat.

But after thinking carefully, she recalled that Fang Hong had once mentioned this to her.

Over ten years ago, some adventurers claimed to have discovered a Divine Corpse, but the corpse soon disappeared without a trace. The adventurers swore by it that the body was that of the Lizard People’s Lesser God—Sarus.

Miss Sophie remembered that when Fang Hong had mentioned this to her under the seventh layer’s frescoes, he had offered a guess. Sarus had been resurrected under another identity. It was very likely now to be one of the dark congregation of saints known as ’Salrutaka,’ and its main body was probably sealed here below Fenris.

Right beneath their feet in the depths of this monument.

Miss Sophie quietly shared this information with her father as well.

Thinking of a possibility, Su Changfeng’s brow smoothed and furrowed, his gaze at Fang Hong taking on a more significative appearance. ”These are all his speculations?” he asked softly.

Miss Sophie nodded.

”Then ask him, how are they all connected?”

”Ade, how are these things connected?”

”I looked into it earlier,” Fang Hong replied as he shamelessly took Tata’s credit for himself, though luckily Miss Fairy didn’t mind at all, even pleased to be of help to her knight. ”The Sarus incident occurred during the Year of Holding the Flame, according to the Imperial Calendar, that’s about fourteen years ago, precisely thirteen years and nine months to date.”

”So who were those that discovered Sarus’s Holy Remains? A group of North American Chosen—Osh People, correct.”

”And where was the Holy Remains discovered?” unable to contain himself, Su Changfeng blurted out.

Fang Hong could naturally tell the difference between the voice of a middle-aged uncle and a cute girl, and he looked at Miss Sophie in surprise. She coughed lightly before saying, ”That’s information from our Guild’s officials, you know, it’s your fault—”

Fang Hong suddenly realized.

”It’s no problem,” Miss Sophie gritted her teeth quietly, seething at her father: ”He might even be able to help us, keep talking, Ade.”

Su Changfeng winced in pain, cursing his daughter for her disloyalty but dared not make another sound.

”That place is on a Floating Reef Island in Dikari, the frontier of the Empire. You should be well aware of that place, right?”

Behind his daughter, Su Changfeng quietly added, ”That’s the Floating Reef Cluster Region, bordering the south of Istania, and almost directly adjacent to Bain—the Holy Remains were discovered in a Sanctuary in the center of the reef island, and it was certain that the Sanctuary emerged from the earth’s surface after an earthquake. Military investigations afterward confirmed that there was almost nothing on that reef island before that.”