Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong stood silently in place for a moment, but still had no clue, until he heard Baijia questioning someone nearby. At this time, Hilveld gently nudged him, prompting him to look up.

”Who are you looking for?”

”I want to see Mr. Ade.”

”Do you know him?”

”I competed with him once.”

Fang Hong looked at the young man not far away, and the people behind him, and recognized them as the team from Eis. At that time, he had given them an Omnipotent Plugin.

”It’s you?”

He was taken aback, thinking they had gone back to the inn, not expecting them to still linger in the square. However, it was fortunate they hadn’t gone back. Most of the inns in Fanric are concentrated between the port and the central square in the lower town area, and those who did return were likely in grave danger, causing the Starlight loss to revive.

When the young man saw him, he quickly responded, ”Mr. Ade, I heard you were looking for someone.”

Upon hearing this, Fang Hong immediately asked, ”Yes, have you seen that person?”

Baijia saw that Fang Hong indeed knew these people, so he lowered his hand and let them through.

The young man nodded: ”Mr. Ade, if you’re looking for your opponent from back then, we saw him heading with some people towards the museum.”

Fang Hong instinctively looked east, where the towering building’s dome gleamed under the sunlight, visible even from several blocks away. That was the Fanric Alchemy Museum, whose history is not very long, being built after Earthlings came to this world, only seventeen years ago. Compared to this city, it could even be considered quite young.

But what could they be doing at the museum? The intention of such an Alchemy Museum is to showcase the history of alchemy development in an area. The items inside are mostly closely related to the evolution of alchemical techniques. Simply put, they are all antiques, with nothing of value, just localized alchemical tools and works.

Some people might talk about the ancient relics of Numelin, but most ancient relics are either flashy yet impractical, technologically outdated, or incompatible with modern technological frameworks. Moreover, even if there were ancient relics from Numelin, they wouldn’t be placed in such a museum; they would most likely be hidden in the deepest parts of the Elfendo Spire by the alchemists of the Elfendo Council.

This thought flashed through his mind, a mere moment of electric spark. Thinking of this, he turned back and asked, ”Who was with him, and did those people have any distinguishing features?”

”Those people wore gray long robes and had no noticeable insignias on them. But at the time of the combat in the square, when one of them passed through the City Defense Force, the outer robe was inadvertently lifted, and I happened to see the outfit underneath which seemed to be from the Shadow Throne,” the young man thought for a moment and added, ”but not the Shadow Throne’s contestants; I saw the contestants from Shadow Throne still remaining in the square before.”

Upon hearing that Rolin was with the people from the Shadow Throne, Fang Hong’s heart sank, as his intuition came true, the previous unease rising once more. He steadied himself to calm down before asking, ”What is your name?”

”I am called Doodle, that’s my ID.”

”So, Doodle, can you vouch for what you said?” Fang Hong asked.

Doodle hesitated for a moment, but then nodded: ”I can’t be entirely sure; those people seemed to have rings on their hands, all in the same position. But I was too far to clearly see.” He looked at the others, ”They can all testify.”

Everyone nodded.

Hearing about the rings, Fang Hong couldn’t help but think of the form of the Dragon Worship Sect’s emblem he had seen in Dolifen.

Generally, there are three ways the Dragon Worship Sect proves its identity. The first one is the kind of pin they initially got from the Black Goat Commerce Association.

However, they later figured out that the pin is the most direct proof of identity for the Dragon Worship Sect, with each pin given by a ’Mentor’ within the sect, one emblem per believer, ensuring there’s no duplication of identity.

And the believers’ loyalty is often the sole responsibility of the ’Mentor’ who brought them into the sect. A ’Mentor’ is responsible for three believers, creating a nearly linear recruitment method, making the internal structure of the Dragon Worship Sect exceptionally tight. Unless the regional leader is caught, capturing one or two low-level believers has little impact on the organization itself.

As for the second way the Dragon Worship Sect proves its identity, it’s by wearing a cloak with the Dragon Worship Sect’s mark. However, these cloaks are worn only during assemblies and public events for easy identification of friend or foe.

The most direct example would be during the battle in Dolifen when nearly all Dragon Worship Sect believers wore such cloaks.

The last category is rings.

Because rings are the most secretive and convenient to wear, they are often used in covert operations and rendezvous, serving to mutually verify identities. When Fang Hong heard about the rings, his immediate thought connected to this.

He further speculated that these people likely left the square amid the chaos when the military and the City Defense Force clashed.

But what exactly were they planning on doing in the museum’s direction?

At this moment, a young man from the group suddenly spoke up, ”Actually, there’s something I think everyone has overlooked.”