Pillar of Yita

”Who!?”

When he asked, the voice in his mind went silent, as if it had gone hushed.

Fang Hong frowned slightly, feeling that the voice was somewhat familiar, as if it was the voice of that Tower Guard from not long ago. But could the Tower Guard see the world beyond the door? Yet, thinking carefully, as the Guardian of this place, having such an ability wasn’t all that strange.

He thought for a moment, then asked in his mind, ”Is it you, Mr. Anluose?”

But no one responded.

”Miss Anluose?”

Fang Hong thought he had mistaken the title, but even after changing it, there was still no response. Only then did he slap his forehead, feeling like his head was a sieve, through which any voice could penetrate.

Meanwhile, Tata just quietly watched him from the side. Fang Hong quickly explained, ”I’m not talking about you, Miss Tata.”

”I understand, Mr. Knight,” Tata replied, ”But actually, I think he might have a point.”

”He?”

”That Tower Guard.”

”Miss Tata thinks so too?” Fang Hong couldn’t help but find it curious.

After all, in the craft of Combat Artisans, he was most skilled in the Construct Lord path, and Tata possessed the abilities of a Fairy Master, so in principle, it was most cost-effective for him to enhance these skills. However, Miss Fairy lightly shook her head at these words.

”I’m not quite sure either; it’s just that being in this place, this thought suddenly occurred to me,” she said, ”I seem to have gained something from the memory of the Silver Tower, Mr. Knight, perhaps you should wait for a while; there might be a better choice.”

”Of course,” she lifted her head, looking at Fang Hong with her emerald green eyes, ”it could also just be a mistake in judgment on my part, Mr. Knight can decide for himself according to his needs.”

But Fang Hong thought for a moment and decided to heed Miss Tata’s judgment.

Unlike the Tower Guard, Miss Tata shared life and death with him, with no reason to mislead him. Moreover, after experiencing so many events, almost every time, Miss Tata’s judgment proved to be absolutely rational—scholars have an adage that ”absolute calmness brings absolute reason, and vice versa,” but there are only very few who can truly achieve this.

But Miss Tata might be among them.

Her only flaw might be being too calm, often leaving him in an awkward position.

However, it cannot be denied that in many critical moments, Miss Tata’s suggestions have helped him greatly. So this time, Fang Hong was willing to trust her judgment once more.

Moreover, he knew that Tata was the Guardian of the Silver Tower—the system identified her as such, as the Silver Grand Library, Tata-Big Thumb-Morning Star. Fang Hong believed the system wouldn’t lie, so it was only natural for Miss Tata to have some knowledge about the Hall of Thousand Doors—

After all, they both originated from the same place.

But Fang Hong paused, suddenly recalling another matter: ”Miss Tata, this might be related to your memory of the Silver Tower; perhaps you can try to recall the past.” His Fairy Dragon Soul—Miss Tata was one of the seven Fairy Dragon Soul constructs of the Silver Tower, possibly even the only successful one.

It’s just that about her own past, Tata’s memory had also lost quite a bit.

At least, the memory of her birth and before was mostly lost. The era when the Fairy Dragon Soul of the Silver Tower was created was only roughly known to them, being somewhere in the history between the disappearance of the Numelin Elves and the present.

After all, Miss Tata said she had once seen the gifting of the Three Rings of the Elves, and the creation of the Three Rings was probably in the last period of the Era of Aithelin. Their gifting would only be later, but what specific era it was, Fang Hong wasn’t sure.

Now, having the opportunity to recover some of her past memories, or even to understand the history of Miss Tata, was something Fang Hong was keen to see. Moreover, he was very curious about the Silver Tower’s research on the Fairy Dragon Soul, how far the research had advanced, had it succeeded?

Judging from the Alchemy techniques left in this world, it seemed that it hadn’t succeeded since the Fairy Dragon Soul was only a fleeting existence. But there could be other possibilities, just like many Numelin Elves’ Alchemy techniques that were lost to history.

Or perhaps, as Miss Tata said, the birth of the Fairy Dragon Soul required too many specific conditions—just like his encounter with Miss Tata.

And the Fairy merely gave a slight nod at these words.

Since Fang Hong had made up his mind, he gave up on enhancing his skills. After responding to the system, he took Miss Tata and continued forward—the two crossed the vast hall, and after the disappearance of those jet-black Clockwork Fairies, only their rustling footsteps remained.

Reaching the other end of the hall, the exit leading to the next door was indeed in that location.

Fang Hong pushed the door open and, unsurprisingly, outside was the Eternal Courtyard.

This was the second Red Gate, representing the end of yet another hundred doors. As he estimated, although the difficulty increased from the first Red Gate to the second one, the truth was that the time he spent passing through this hundred doors was far quicker than the time spent passing through the first stage’s hundred doors.

He spent about seventy-two hours passing through the first hundred doors, experiencing six cycles of day and night in the worlds beyond the doors. In the second stage’s hundred Red Gates, he had only experienced six days so far and still had one night to go.