Pillar of Yita

When Fang Hong climbed to the third floor, he realized he was inside a huge hole—this place seemed to have been a bedroom or study, as he could still see a large dusty bed on one side and a bookshelf similarly filled with debris and rubble—only most of it had now disappeared, vanished into the massive void behind him.

Fang Hong stood up and looked back; the original window and wall here had long disappeared, and outside was the empty direction of the street. Having seen various combat scenarios in the community before, he almost immediately filled in everything that had happened at the time in his mind.

The Bone Dragon descended from the sky, shattering this wall, and in its first round of attack, the other half of this room completely collapsed, then it flew horizontally along this street with overwhelming force. The collapsed buildings on this side of the street and the long claw marks left on the walls should have been left in this round of attack.

Fang Hong walked to the edge of the broken ceiling and looked out, as if seeing the Bone Dragon turning back at the end of the street on the other side, flying back once more. This time it unleashed a breath, sweeping across the street—but since most pedestrians had fled the street or hid under the buildings on both sides during the first attack, this sweeping breath actually only hit the carriage.

And the old man who had just escaped from the carriage.

The situation should be roughly like this.

Clear on these details, Fang Hong walked back from the outside and began checking inside the house. He glanced quickly inside and outside, discovering that the Bone Dragon’s breath didn’t affect this building, because apart from physical destruction scars, there were no signs of burning or corrosion—

This meant the Bone Dragon did not make a follow-up attack on this apartment after the first round. Was it because it achieved its goal in the first attack and didn’t need a second? Fang Hong frowned and looked around.

This possibility cannot be ruled out; if the Bone Dragon attacked at the moment the official was in this study, most likely things didn’t end well for them. With such suspicion, Fang Hong checked other rooms behind, but sure enough, didn’t find the official’s presence.

At the same time, there were no signs of attacks in the other rooms either.

But if the official happened to be in this study, yet there were no remnants or even a single drop of blood here, not at all like someone died. Or did the attack bury them underneath the collapsed building with the debris?

Fang Hong stood on the third floor and glanced below; the thick pile of building debris was at least over a meter deep. But he neither had the ability nor the time to check whether the official’s body was buried below. Thinking it over, he could only opt for the next best thing, to see if there were any other clues in the room.

Looking at his pocket watch again, he realized that roughly half the estimated time had passed, and there wasn’t much time left.

Fang Hong understood he had to speed up, looked around, and immediately saw a large bookshelf on one side—the bookshelf was now covered with a thick layer of dust, but the books on it caught his attention. They were a row of books with black covers and spines. He went over and wiped the dust from the spines, revealing a line of blood-red text below.

And as soon as his hand touched those words, a low whisper came from the book.

Fang Hong was startled, quickly stepped back, and realized these books were probably of unusual origin, either blight objects or classics of the Dragon Worship Sect. Seeing this, he was actually almost certain of the official’s connection with the Dragon Worship Sect, and the fact that they boldly put these things on the bookshelf meant they believed it was safe enough here.

But in the end, they didn’t expect to die at the hands of one of their own.

Was it to silence them? This reasoning is also reasonable, as up till now, Fang Hong had only seen such means of erasing Starlight in the hands of the other party.

But once trapped in such a mindset, one often ignores more detailed aspects. In fact, this world doesn’t only have one Dragon Worship Sect; it could be said that all dragon worship can be regarded as the precursor of Dragon Worship beliefs.

This doctrine is particularly popular among lizards and today’s Serpent People, followed by gnolls and goblins, but dragons come in many different kinds. The fairies of Nevade also worship their Protector, the master of Holy Bow Peak, Cloud Dragon Anluose.

And before the identity of Green Dragon Toragotos was exposed, most of the human inhabitants on Fenris Isle could be said to have been worshippers of Toragotos.

Are they all cultists?

Obviously not.

In fact, the official stance of Stargate Port and the Kao Lin - Ixulian Royal Family on the cult ’Dragon Worship Sect’ is actually only referring to the worshippers of the Dark Giant Dragon, and not others. And only among these worshippers, Fang Hong could find a similar common point:

That is an irrational fanaticism—

Of course, Fang Hong had also heard various rumors related to this before—for example, the Dark Giant Dragon would grant its followers the ability of ’Immortal Life’ and promise various benefits, such as having strength or gaining power.

But not to mention that the so-called ’Immortal Life’ in his view is still questionable, even strength and power have become history long ago; nowadays Nikopolas can only be said to barely survive, waiting for an opportunity to make a comeback.