Pillar of Yita

This is also because he is more adept on the path of the Combat Artisan. And this stage is different from the previous stages in terms of the assessment of craft techniques, placing more emphasis on the manipulation and multi-control of flexible constructs, which is right up Fang Hong’s alley.

So although the difficulty of this stage has increased, for him, it has instead become easier.

This reasoning is easy to understand, but there’s nothing to be proud of. Specialization—this is a problem that most Combat Artisans have to face. After all, human time and energy are limited, even more so for the Invoker, who must learn nearly infinite knowledge in a limited time - in such a process, everyone has to make choices.

It’s not just a choice between Combat Artisan and traditional Alchemist, but also among Construct Lord, Supreme Choice, Immortal Knight, and Fairy Master.

There are even small subdivisions within the schools.

The experience with these two consecutive Red Doors made Fang Hong have an odd thought: could it be that the Hall of Thousand Doors is a test aimed at omnipotent Alchemists, otherwise, how could one explain the sequential order of the different checkpoints?

For instance, if a top traditional Alchemist who is completely inexperienced in the domain of Combat Artisans enters the second stage, wouldn’t they fail the assessment? Similarly, a Combat Artisan who knows nothing about the traditional Alchemist’s domain would fare just as poorly under such an assessment.

Although the number of Combat Artisans who know nothing about the traditional Alchemist’s domain might be far fewer, after all, most Combat Artisans also start off as Alchemist Apprentices.

But we cannot rule out such extreme possibilities, can we?

So Fang Hong started speculating—what purpose does such an assessment serve? Because he had never heard of any Alchemist from past eras being an omnipotent Alchemist.

The development of the Alchemy discipline in Eteliria has always progressed forward, not backward, although there have been setbacks, and many techniques have been lost for different reasons—such as the disconnect in transmission between the Numelin Elves and humans. But generally speaking, Magic Guided Engineering is becoming more advanced, and theories more comprehensive.

Therefore, there is no saying that earlier generations are better than later ones.

And during the era when the Silver Tower was built, there probably weren’t any omnipotent Alchemists. But the question remains, what was the original intention of building the Hall of Thousand Doors?

And historically, has anyone truly passed the test of a thousand doors? Although the Hall of Thousand Doors may not literally have a thousand doors, has anyone, Native or Invoker, ever documented clearing the entire challenge?

How far did Loofah get?

Though Loofah is the most brilliant Alchemist genius of this era, that is only among the Invokers, and even among them, she is not the foremost in history.

With such curiosity, Fang Hong, after his routine six-hour rest in the Eternal Court, entered the third stage of the assessment after the second Red Door. And as soon as he pushed open the first green door of the third stage, he realized he had guessed correctly—

The first test of the third stage was about skill plugins.

As everyone knows, to control and cast skills with flexible constructs, an Alchemist must first possess the same skill-related knowledge—and the difference between related knowledge and actual use is, in fact, just a thin line.

This line could be the attribute of different professions, but a Combat Artisan can compensate through an external Magic Guided Construct, and thus originates the domain of the Supreme One.

So when the skill plugin assessment appeared, it keenly made Fang Hong aware of this point—this is the domain of the Supreme Choice.

The content of this green door assessment is not difficult; everyone can use skill plugins. Although the requirements are higher within the Hall of Thousand Doors, it is not too challenging for Fang Hong. It wasn’t until the two hundred and thirtieth door, or to be precise, the two hundred and thirty-second blue door that Fang Hong encountered his first trouble.

The blue door’s assessment requires participants to confront a Construct Sword Bearer without relying on any flexible construct— this Construct Sword Bearer’s level matches that of the participant, and its strength is almost on par with a swordsman of the same level.

In other words, this challenge requires the Alchemist to face a swordsman one-on-one under nearly equal circumstances. Under normal conditions, this would almost be the end for an Alchemist— or even a Combat Artisan, but in Fang Hong’s understanding, it’s not that no Combat Artisan can achieve this.

That is the Supreme One—

Fang Hong himself is not the Supreme One.

But fortunately, the rules of the world beyond the door still allow him to create and choose his own weapons.

So Fang Hong naturally chose his pair of Rocket Fists. He is not the Supreme One, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t invested in the Supreme One domain; his skill in Flying Claw during the Fenris Isle event was quite renowned.

Of course, even so, this challenge can be called thrilling.

Fang Hong even felt that this mere blue door was more difficult than the previous two Red Doors. So much so that when he finally knocked out the Construct Sword Bearer, he couldn’t help but feel genuine relief—thankful for the special training from Odin and others over the past week.

It was only then that he realized the purpose of that week’s intense training, as all the combat skills learned played their roles perfectly in this challenge.