Pillar of Yita

”If I’m not mistaken, Dawn is the one you gave to Alice, right?” Fang Hong said while briskly walking forward.

The central area of the thirteenth floor looked more like a gigantic solitary island, surrounded by trapezoidal stone walls about fourteen feet high, covered with ancient serpentine carvings. This place might have once been a defensive facility, but it had long been eroded by time, with cracks and gaps scattered across the walls.

Fang Hong parted the withered vines clinging to the wall in the dark environment and stepped through one of the gaps, entering the Inner City within the Central Sanctuary District. There were several winding streets here; Tainaric and Parker hadn’t yet circumvented the break on the other side, so Fang Hong could only try to move towards that direction based on his previous memory, hoping to meet up with the two.

Elisa nodded in the screen.

”So Dawn’s ownership is still yours?”

”Hmm.”

Fang Hong answered, ”That’s good then. Since the ownership of the twin daggers is still in your hands, we might be able to try contacting Alice.”

The elder of the twins furrowed her brow and shook her head, ”But, Toragotos...”

Fang Hong was crossing the cobweb-filled, dusty streets.

He didn’t immediately respond to Elisa’s words but instead suddenly ducked into a corner. Moments later, some people passed by where he was hiding. Fang Hong inwardly cursed their bad luck, as it turned out to be members of the Blood Oath Alliance. They seemed to be searching for something or perhaps were alerted by an earlier loud noise and came to investigate.

He could only hope that Parker and Tainaric wouldn’t show up at this time. The group from the opposing faction was not small, a whole squad, and behind them, even more Night Lizard warrior passed by.

Fang Hong’s skills in stealth were not high, and several Night Lizards stopped as they passed near him, possibly having heard a faint breath or heartbeat or perhaps they had sniffed something out. However, the entire Holy Temple District was slightly shaking at this moment, and the drastic environmental change made them unable to confirm their suspicions for the time being.

At this time, the intense trembling came from below the cliff in front, drawing everyone’s attention. The people upfront were shouting as if they had seen something, and the Night Lizard warriors, hearing shouts from that direction, let out low grunts and hurried towards the sound.

After these people passed and some time had elapsed, Fang Hong finally stepped out of the darkness again.

He then asked in a low voice, ”Alice’s communication is under surveillance, right?”

The elder twin slowly nodded.

”Toragotos?”

”Yes, Toragotos has found a way to monitor her communications, but I’m not sure how it’s being done,” she responded.

Fang Hong paused for a moment, his intuition telling him it was the Dragon Knight System. The Summoners System had originated from the Dragon Knight System, and native beings, regardless of their nature, could only understand a system through the Dragon Knight System, perhaps deities were the exception, but Toragotos was not yet one of the deities, at least for now.

Only a system could interface with another system, but what he couldn’t understand was how Toragotos had managed to control someone else’s system? Independent systems had absolute authority, even the military and the Super Competitive League could at most possess the serial numbers of Glow Object devices and the corresponding Invoker IDs, but they were unable to intrude into an established Summoners System.

However, after considering the possibilities, he tentatively thought of a highly unlikely possibility, but after ruling out all other possibilities, even the most improbable had to be the only answer left.

Then he said, ”The military told me that the Natives had kidnapped you, so Toragotos most likely doesn’t know your situation here. Or it doesn’t even think you can change anything. It may have grasp of some Summoners System knowledge, but it doesn’t understand our world after all.”

”Our world?” Alice appeared slightly startled before asking softly, ”What should I do then, Mr. Ade?”

”Just contact Alice directly, don’t worry about Toragotos.”

”Directly?”

”Do you remember our interaction from back then?”

Elisa was taken aback.

”Please repeat my message, Miss Elisa.”

Fang Hong’s fingers moved quickly, sending a message: ”Elisa, are you there?”

When Elisa saw this message appear in her communication bar, she was stunned.

In the center of the Central Sanctuary District, within the valley enclosed by giant pyramids, Alice was walking slowly with the ancient Night Lizard Prophet, Stirling, towards the valley. When she saw the message, she was equally stunned.

”Elisa, are you there?”

The sender of the message was her sister.

But from the format, she knew it was actually her sister relaying a message to her.

Aside from the Rain Listeners, the only other person who had both her and her sister’s contact information and didn’t know about their switch was one person; and Rain Listeners wouldn’t address her sister that way, which meant there seemed to be only one possibility left.

Alice looked at the message, unsure what to do for a moment. If possible, she didn’t want to involve Fang Hong; she might have no qualms about tricking the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team and the Blood Oath Alliance, but that big boy had helped her and her sister more than once.

But sometimes, she had no choice.

”It’s that human, why aren’t you responding?”