Pillar of Yita

”After passing the first level, the next ones are simple.”

”Of course, I mean for professional Combat Artisans.”

”For ordinary Alchemists, it’s still quite difficult——”

”It’s just a bit strange. The Hall of Thousand Doors seems to require Alchemists to be versatile... Pure Combat Artisans and pure Alchemists have a tough time here and are bound to encounter troubles.”

”As for me?”

”I’m a genius, hehe.”

”But after the fifth Blue Gate, the difficulty will suddenly increase.”

”As for after the sixth Red Gate...”

Loofah didn’t continue.

Kong didn’t ask.

Of course, Fang Hong was unaware of this conversation; he was simply pushing open door after door.

When he opened the first Blue Gate after the one hundred and tenth door, he couldn’t help but pause. Because finally, he saw something familiar — a Clockwork Fairy — a four-winged Clockwork Fairy suspended mid-air, fluttering about.

In the distance was a corridor densely filled with steel thorns, resembling a maze, completely unable to accommodate a person passing through. Even for the Clockwork Fairy, it appeared somewhat narrow. The maze was filled with obstacles, but Fang Hong, at a glance, could still see a mechanism switch on the opposite side.

Behind the switch was another door.

He immediately understood what this level required him to do.

Control the Clockwork Fairy to navigate through the maze and hit the switch on the opposite side.

This was the first time a test involved controlling the Clockwork Fairy in the maze, but Fang Hong could see that for ordinary Combat Artisans, this was definitely a high difficulty challenge, as the maze in front of him also appeared somewhat complex.

But he figured that any Alchemist who could pass one hundred doors to get to this point probably had some skills.

When Fang Hong first saw this maze, his reaction wasn’t frustration, but surprise. Only then did he understand where the prototype of the maze from the Traveler’s Rest artisan challenge came from, suggesting that the creator of that maze was not a simple craftsman.

Of course, that maze was greatly simplified, far less complicated than the one in front of him. However, despite its complexity, Fang Hong found it to be rather straightforward, at most wasting a bit more time.

As for failure, that was out of the question.

He gently pulled down his Wind Goggles, then skillfully activated the wide field mode.

Inside the Blue Gate, there were a total of twelve Clockwork Fairies, offering twelve chances for challenge, and when Fang Hong left this door, not a single Clockwork Fairy was lost.

After the first Blue Gate, the content of the next nine doors changed, focusing on understanding the basic knowledge of Flexible Constructs and the assembly and maintenance of constructs. At the second Blue Gate, he was required to design and create a Flexible Construct himself.

Fang Hong didn’t hesitate and presented the design of Sword Hong.

Only this time, the Sword Hong he designed was far less rudimentary than the one in Traveler’s Swamp, easily achieving a full score pass in an hour and forty minutes.

The third Blue Gate was a combat.

This was probably Fang Hong’s first proper battle in the world behind the doors — not counting the Phantom Realm before, where he played the role of an Alchemist rather than a Combat Artisan.

But this fight required him to use the Sword Bearer Construct to face two opponents alone.

Fang Hong narrowly emerged victorious.

The fourth Blue Gate was a replica of the first Blue Gate.

But this time, he was required to control the Clockwork Fairy with dual control — incidentally, when he participated in the Traveler’s Rest artisan challenge, he also passed using dual control Clockwork Fairy. Though that time, he encountered some minor issues, barely entering the next round.

However, the control gloves provided by the world behind the door wouldn’t have those slip-ups, but Fang Hong himself got playful and simply used the margin technique to pass. But, as they say, flaunting results in setbacks, he accidentally damaged three or four out of the twelve Clockwork Fairies —

barely passing.

Fang Hong simply pushed open the door to the next level.

But as soon as he left, a white figure flickered into the small room behind him, who took a look at the scattered Clockwork Fairies on the floor, gently shaking their head.

The white figure pointed, causing the scattered Clockwork Fairies to float from the ground, reassembling with each other, instantly restored to their original state, with even the scratches on their metal shell almost disappearing.

Yet Fang Hong naturally didn’t know what had happened behind him, for once the door closed behind him, it vanished, leaving only a wall with no exit. In this giant maze behind the door, it seemed there were only two paths — to advance or to give up.

After passing the fourth Blue Gate, the Eternal Court appeared on schedule, where he rested for a few hours before continuing.

As for the fifth Blue Gate, which Loofah mentioned that had a sudden increase in difficulty, it appeared strange to Fang Hong.

Because it was probably the easiest level he’d seen.

This level required him to control the Clockwork Fairy to find an undiscovered path under the strict surveillance of twenty-four Clockwork Fairies, open the switch on the other side, and contact the magical source of the twenty-four Clockwork Fairies.

But for Fang Hong, who always excelled at hide-and-seek, this posed virtually no difficulty.

The key was that his Clockwork Fairy, since the beginning of his learning, used field mode differently from others, selecting paths unlike anyone else. Fang Hong himself didn’t find it unusual — but in the eyes of others, it was simply unfathomable.

Of course, Fang Hong believed this was because he was skilled at evading the gaze of others.

In short, with such unapologetic insights, Fang Hong took ten minutes to clear this level.

The next five Blue Gates mostly found their prototypes in the previous challenges, either the difficulty had doubled or there were many more restrictions and setups. However, experiences like this were familiar from the previous one hundred doors, so it wasn’t surprising.

To encounter new challenges, he would likely have to wait for the next hundred doors.

But before that, he still had an important task to do.

So with some nervousness, Fang Hong pushed open the second Red Gate in his life.

...