Pillar of Yita

It was a mass of golden flame, suspended in mid-air, situated atop a flat rock, burning quietly, the flames flickering, expanding and contracting like a heart; or rather, it was a golden heart, quietly resting there.

Fang Hong had never seen the Dragon’s Heart, but the moment he saw this flame, he felt at ease, understanding that this was what he was looking for.

However, the two were not in a hurry, instead first looking around.

The cave’s walls were not natural rock but covered with something shiny, appearing misty under the light of the Illumination Crystal. Only upon closer inspection did they see it was a layer of uneven crystal, dark and heavy.

Fang Hong had seen these crystals more than once.

But all around was silent, with no abnormal occurrences; the Dragon’s Claw had not reappeared, and these crystals seemed as ordinary as any other. Once they roughly determined there was no danger, the two moved closer to the golden flame.

Even when they reached the side of the platform, the flame remained as calm as before, without any reaction.

Fang Hong stood aside, curiously observing the golden flame. Although this flame appeared no different from ordinary flames on the surface, getting closer allowed him to fully sense the majestic life force contained within.

The power of Nikopolas was within the Dragon’s Golden Eyes, but the life force of the Dark Giant Dragon stemmed from this—the Giant Dragon’s Heart.

He did not know how to obtain this thing, or if grabbing it with his hand would lead to trouble, or if its vast power would consume him. But Eve was not here, Miss Atira and Tata had never seen a real Dragon’s Heart—besides Yoshude and Kalatu from a century ago, how many had seen the Dragon’s Heart?

After thinking for a while, Fang Hong decided to follow his intuition. He took out the Ring of Golden Flame with one hand and carefully approached the flame.

Just as the Ring of Golden Flame neared the flame, the Dragon’s Heart suddenly emitted a brilliant light, rushing into the Ring of Golden Flame in his hand—but it didn’t stop there. That stream of golden light passed through the ring, continuing up along his right hand.

Starting from his arm, then his shoulder, then his chest, finally converging at the left side of his chest where his heart was. The entire process was seamless, Fang Hong couldn’t stop it even if he wanted to, and Atira tried to knock the ring off his hand but was a moment too late.

All the light poured into Fang Hong’s heart, forming streams of light, these streams rotating at his chest for a moment, then rushing out again, flowing along his major arteries—like a golden giant tree in vigorous growth, surging towards his limbs and organs.

Fang Hong watched this unfold with his own eyes, feeling as if a fire was fiercely burning within his body, about to erupt throughout him at any moment, consuming him entirely and leaving him in ashes the next moment.

But after the searing pain, he felt another sensation, akin to being reborn from the flame. He seemed to hear the sound of his blood flowing, vast and powerful, his muscles turning dense and firm, and his bones emitting a cracking sound—like golden flames carving runes upon them.

The sleeves tied to his wrist burst open automatically, his short sword and sword sheath fell to the ground, his once insensate right hand miraculously restored. Fang Hong saw his skin seem to radiate a layer of golden flame, but after a moment, it returned to normal.

The layers of flame receded, and the golden light flowed back along his veins, re-merging into his heart. But this time, after returning to the heart chamber, all the light tended to fade, the marvelous sight before him slowly transforming, like a castle of sand dispersing in the wind.

This commotion seemed to have startled Tata and Nini.

The little girl, having fallen into a weary sleep after their previous battle, woke up groggily, looked around in confusion, not knowing what had happened. But in Fang Hong’s eyes, Nini was completely different from before.

She used to have just long hair resembling golden flames, but now even her tail and horns turned into flame-like shapes, appearing exceedingly beautiful.

Nini blinked and looked around, rubbed the corner of her eyes, mumbled a few sounds to Tata, then leaned back against her ’sister’s’ knee and fell asleep again.

Fang Hong finally came back to his senses, looked around—the Illumination Crystal had long extinguished under the strong magic power disturbance earlier—the cave should be dark, but in his eyes, it was as clear as day.

Every detail could be seen clearly.

Atira looked at him with some surprise: ”Ade, your eyes.”

”What’s wrong?” Fang Hong looked at the Elf Miss, the golden light in his eyes suddenly retracting, his pupils returning to their pitch-black color. However, he felt nothing amiss, even waved a hand in front of him: ”Is there something wrong with my eyes?”

Atira shook her head; it wasn’t the first time she’d seen Fang Hong like this, he had exhibited the power of the Dragon’s Golden Eyes before in Fanric, so as long as he could revert to his original form, it seemed harmless to her.

”Your hand’s healed, Ade?” She glanced at Fang Hong’s hand, before asking again.

Fang Hong also looked at his hand and nodded.

He now roughly understood what had happened, the enormous life force from the Dragon’s Heart was enough to resurrect even Nikopolas, so what was it to restore the hand of a mere mortal like him? However, the friendliness of the Dragon’s Heart’s power to himself was somewhat unexpected for him.