Pillar of Yita

”Tang De-Rogsel, nice to meet you.”

The sorcerer-ghoul extended a skeletal hand before Fang Hong. It resembled a specimen Fang Hong had seen in nature class, with the distal phalanges of the little finger and ring finger missing, making it look like a piece was evenly missing from left to right.

He sat on the bed, hesitated slightly, and then extended his hand to shake the other’s. But the other had already swiftly withdrawn his hand and let out a series of cackling laughter from an empty upper and lower jaw:

”Okay, actually I don’t like the living touching me, so this was just a formality.”

Fang Hong’s hand hung in the air, speechlessly looking at the other.

Tang Xin chuckled coldly from the side: ”Well, my brother saved touching something dirty, so he won’t have to wash his hands later.”

Tang De turned to look at her, and the flaming red lights in his hollow eye sockets flickered, making the young girl’s heart slightly unsettled. She took a breath and said: ”What are you looking at?”

The sorcerer-ghoul contemplated for a moment, then spoke in a slightly nostalgic tone: ”You remind me of a distant cousin’s daughter. Their family lives in Cuilian, and my uncle is a famous noble, gentle and elegant, dignified and cultured. Oh, I recalled her name, Elisa.”

Elisa couldn’t help but cough gently.

”Ah,” Ai Xiaoxiao said: ”Uncle Tang is also gentle and elegant, perhaps not dignified, but definitely cultured. Though where we’re from, such distinctions of nobility are no longer trendy.”

”There are no surface nobles, but in the hearts of people, they still exist. But they’ve changed to another set of tricks. Mortals, that’s all,” Tang De replied with old-fashioned aplomb, though he indeed counted as ’old school’: ”But with this, there is quite a commonality—”

”What commonality?” Ai Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but ask.

”Their daughters are kind of ugly.”

The room suddenly fell silent.

Parker and Tianlan couldn’t help but burst out laughing, and Gita hurriedly buried her head low, her thin shoulders gently shaking.

Luo Hao also turned his head away; this fat guy was secretly laughing convulsively, but having been managed by Tang Xin once, he dared not easily make a sound, making people around worry he might suffocate.

Only Xiangzi was still puzzled, missing the joke.

Fang Hong anxiously watched his cousin’s face turn from pale to green to black, with pitch-black eyes about to blaze with fury.

Yet the sorcerer-ghoul remained unaware, raising a finger bone to shake: ”It’s not important for women to be ugly, as long as they hold value, they can still be married off. But if they’re also ugly, fierce, and brainless, they’ll soon become famous, earning an ’Evil Dragon’ title—just like my distant cousin’s daughter.”

Tang De slapped his bare head: ”...You see my memory, what’s her name again?”

”It’s Elisa,” Ai Xiaoxiao replied.

Elisa placed her hand, clenched into a fist, near her mouth and coughed gently again.

But Ai Xiaoxiao was vehemently defending her friend: ”But I think Tangtang is quite good-looking—”

”Little girl, you don’t understand,” Tang De’s hollow eyes flashed red light: ”It seems you haven’t grasped the key here.”

”What is the key then?”

Tang Xin was about to be enraged to the point of fainting by her brainless friend, interrupting the duet: ”Ai—Xiao—xiao!”

”Eh?”

”...Aren’t you done yet?”

”Eh, I’m speaking for you, Tangtang.”

The sorcerer-ghoul shook his head, wanting to speak again.

But Hilveld finally quietly said: ”Mr. Rogsel, my grandfather once met you.”

”Oh,” Tang De turned around, and it seemed like a sharp gaze still flared in his hollow eyes, scrutinizing the noble lady for a moment before speaking: ”I see, you’re from the Albert family; you lot are all odd. Abandon being good nobles to become ’explorers.’

”Your great-grandfather was an old lunatic, your grandfather a minor one, no need to mention your father, though I haven’t met him, he’s definitely a lunatic. And from what I see, you too have a restless nature, the Albert family, proud to be mad, boast of madness, hahaha, quite interesting.”

Fang Hong listened speechlessly on the side, unsure if this skeleton head had lived too long, causing some brain malfunction. From Elpaxin to the Southern Region, traversing the kingdom’s nobility, probably no one speaks like this, offending people all around.

Only Hilveld heard the words without anger, just smiled slightly: ”You’re right, Mr. Rogsel.”

Tang De then felt a little bored, propping his chin up with his hand, clicking twice, then picked up his own staff, stepping back.

As he stepped back, Fang Hong’s gaze naturally fell toward the not far off, always silent middle-aged man seated in a chair.

Compared to the former’s aggressive presence, this middle-aged man was almost mundane to the extreme, with slightly curly black hair, dark skin, strong and powerful, still quite handsome, yet feeling more like an ordinary Sky Sea sailor.

But the light purple Grand Mage robe on him was somewhat jarring—

Combined with the Colin Royal Staff lost over forty years ago in his hand, his identity was already evident.

The sorcerer-ghoul returned to his position, and the middle-aged man finally lifted his head, with eyes like torches. Looking at Fang Hong, Fang Hong felt as if the room dimmed slightly, Ether Magic Power swept widely, opening the floating dust in the room.