Pillar of Yita

Walking to the bottom of the apartment building, Fang Hong first checked the carriage and the corpse in front of it before going upstairs.

He walked to the side of the carriage and saw that the cabin had already been corroded beyond recognition by the Bone Dragon’s acidic spray, the roof was empty, and the seats and inner walls were charred black. Opening the shattered door, inside the cabin was a suitcase, indicating that the original owner was planning to travel far.

However, Fang Hong knew that the original owner might not necessarily be the person he was looking for, and this carriage might not necessarily belong to the official. He quickly searched through the items inside the suitcase but did not find any valuable clues.

Fang Hong then exited the carriage and walked to the front to observe the remains of two horses and a person— the two horses had already been corroded to the point that only their skeletons remained, kneeling forward, charred intestines hanging over ashen-white ribs, still emitting wisps of white smoke. Frowning, he bypassed this stinking site and examined the scene from the front.

From this direction, the Bone Dragon’s spray range almost completely covered the carriage. He looked up and calculated the route the opponent was flying at that time, which was a mere effortless task for a Combat Artisan.

The street was deserted, with this carriage being the only target attacked aside from damaged buildings. Fang Hong pondered for a moment, opened the community, and entered ”Fanric, Cold Raven Street,” which instantly refreshed hundreds of entries on the community—compared to the community’s history, this number of entries was not many but rather few.

This is probably related to the obscurity of this street.

Still, after excluding irrelevant erroneous searches among the entries, Fang Hong could filter out the useful information from the remaining dozens of records: these included travel notes and city guides, with text records left by Invokers and tourists’ photos and videos.

From these text records, photos, and videos, it can be gleaned that Cold Raven Street is a street mainly focused on commerce and handicrafts, with numerous craftsman workshops on both sides and normally bustling with activity.

In such a place, could the Bone Dragon’s swoop only target this carriage alone?

Or was its original target solely this carriage?

Then the answer will naturally reveal itself. Of course, Fang Hong wasn’t entirely sure, as in his view, the Dragon Worship Sect didn’t seem capable of such meticulous operations; would they worry about harming passersby? Thirty years ago, Dolifen explained everything.

He merely noted this suspicion and continued walking forward, all the way to the side of the hunched and charred corpse.

Fang Hong checked and immediately concluded that this was not his target—although he had no particular expertise in examining corpses, it was clear that this corpse was not that of an adult male; judging by the height and physique, it seemed more like an elderly person.

The differences between the two were still quite apparent.

He observed carefully for a moment and noticed a metallic sheen on the skeleton’s hand, which piqued his interest. Removing it, he discovered it was a Seal Ring. Despite having no grounding in Heraldry himself, his encyclopedic Madam companion, Miss Fairy, could discern it—Tata had already absorbed considerable knowledge concerning the current nobility of Eteliria—and indeed provided the expected answer.

This was precisely that official’s seal, suggesting that this elderly person should be a servant or butler of that official, and moreover, his status should not be low, likely higher than the Gnome servant in Golande since not just anyone could typically keep the master’s Seal Ring.

It seems this person was more likely a trusted aide or close associate, but unfortunately, the corrosive substance destroyed most clues, and Fang Hong couldn’t find more useful records from the clothing or remaining paper-based information.

After inspecting the area around the carriage and ensuring nothing was overlooked, Fang Hong turned and walked toward the apartment. He barely stayed by the carriage for a few minutes. In his estimation, the officials from Fanric would take at least a quarter of an hour to arrive at this location, so he still had ample time.

It was just that he was curious why Sophie and Xi hadn’t arrived in the vicinity yet. Looking back, he saw no sign of the two—Xiesta and Bakins were also hidden somewhere, leaving him alone on this ruined street.

This thought crossed Fang Hong’s mind as he approached the apartment building’s main door—the apartment’s second and third floors had a large hole, lacking nearly two-thirds of the architectural structure, but the first floor remained relatively intact. He habitually pushed the door open, but the door collapsed with a bang into the ruins behind, raising a cloud of dust.

Admitting his misfortune, Fang Hong couldn’t help but cough twice, fanning the dust away with his hand as he entered the building. He remembered Sophie telling him that the official’s residence was on the third floor of the apartment, and looking up, most of the stairs leading to that place remained, though seemingly precarious.

He wondered if this place would collapse like that?

As it happened, after just a few steps up, the staircase crashed down with a rumble. Fortunately, Fang Hong was always alert, and with a wave, he clawed toward one side’s wall—but unexpectedly, just as his claw grasped the wall, the seemingly solid wall also collapsed backward.

Amidst a series of rumbles, Fang Hong finally clambered up to the third floor from the outer wall on the other side, covered in dust. Unable to resist patting off the dust from his body, he could only think, good thing nobody else apart from Miss Tata saw this scene.