Pillar of Yita

But Fang Hong clearly did not think so. He controlled two Clockwork Fairies with his right hand, sending them upwards, while his left hand moved, swiping out two Light Pages, making them visible to Miss Nightingale.

Elisa saw the two Light Pages floating between the two of them, and couldn’t help but pause.

The scenery on the Light Pages was rapidly changing, as if moving through the clouds. In the next scene, farther than the previous one, she could vaguely see a silver dot flying ahead, and she slightly paused, only recognizing it as the footage recorded by the two Clockwork Fairies.

Fang Hong then spoke: ”Elisa, your scouting level is much higher than mine, can you help me keep an eye on the surrounding situation?”

”That won’t do,” Miss Nightingale couldn’t help but shake her head.

”Lord Captain, you should know the system’s scouting skills are based on gathering and feedback of information, controlling our five senses in a subconscious state to capture subtle details and to analyze conclusions—of course, I admit my eyesight is quite good. But just letting me watch this footage, I can’t spot anything either.”

”Isn’t vision one of the five senses?”

”But the resolution of these second-hand images is not as good as my own eyes, Lord Captain.”

”Then make do with it.”

Elisa couldn’t help but sigh, compromising: ”Alright, then what do you want me to see, Lord Captain?”

”The enemy’s Clockwork Fairy.”

Miss Nightingale was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.

...

”Boss Ade, over here—”

Once everyone had put on their Winged Backpack, carefully checked their equipment, and set up the Fixed-Point Teleportation Scroll, Little Fatty Uranos came over excitedly, ready to inform the two that everyone was prepared.

However, when he saw the Light Pages beside Elisa and Fang Hong, he stopped his words that had reached his lips.

The people who came along with him saw this scene, instinctively blurting out:

”Is this footage from the Clockwork Fairy...?”

”Is Boss scouting?”

The flight speed shown on the footage wasn’t slow, but actually flying in the Sky Sea didn’t require much skill, and most of them had fought alongside Fang Hong last time, so seeing this wasn’t particularly surprising.

In short, they were psychologically prepared for Boss’s level of operation.

However, Little Fatty turned his head back, shushed the others, and whispered: ”Don’t disturb the Boss.”

Then he glanced at the screen, cautiously asking Elisa next, ”Miss Elisa, why is Boss flying upwards? Isn’t the pier below the canyon? Just now flew into the clouds, is the direction wrong?”

But Elisa shook her head.

”There’s something in the clouds.”

”What?” Little Fatty was slightly stunned: ”We’ve flown over here several times, and there was nothing.”

Just as his words fell, he saw the vision on the first Light Page stop, and then it turned in one direction.

Moments later, two golden rays of light swept by from not far from the screen. They couldn’t help but open their mouths wide, then through the second screen, they saw two tiny black dots, circling the ’Overturned Mountain’ nearby for three hundred sixty degrees.

Then they disappeared behind the cliff there.

Fang Hong adjusted his Wind Goggles with a ’click’, then said: ”The opposing side has the best vision in this direction, if they have Combat Artisans, they would certainly deploy Clockwork Fairies here for patrol. If it were me, I would choose this route. But I would choose somewhere lower down, although the vision isn’t as good here, it’s more unexpected and less likely to be noticed.”

He paused, then asked: ”Have you seen clearly, how many?”

”Four.”

Before Little Fatty could speak, Elisa answered.

”I only saw three,” Fang Hong replied: ”It seems there is still some use.”

”But I can’t promise there aren’t more above the clouds.” Miss Nightingale also chimed in.

”There won’t be,” Fang Hong shook his head: ”The vision crystal of ordinary Clockwork Fairies can’t penetrate such thick clouds. Beyond that, nothing can be seen.”

Little Fatty opened his mouth and looked at the two: ”Boss...what exactly are you talking about?”

Fang Hong retracted his hand, letting his Clockwork Fairy hover in the clouds, then turned back, lifted his wind goggles, and said to everyone: ”I suspected that there might be a Combat Artisan on the other side, so I checked in advance. It turns out I was right.”

”That’s a Clockwork Fairy?” Little Fatty remembered the two fleeting shadows and suddenly felt a tingling on his scalp: ”But wait, weren’t there two of them?”

”There were three on the screen,” Elisa answered for him: ”You just didn’t notice the second screen at first, where the vision is wider, and as for the fourth, there was only a very faint cloud trail left. Your scouting skills aren’t good enough to see it naturally.”

Little Fatty couldn’t help but look back.

Behind him, a person dressed as a Scout couldn’t help but scratch his face. They naturally didn’t know that Elisa was from the Elite Brigade of Rain Listeners. While Rain Listeners are not a top guild, they’re at least much stronger than these Independent Adventure Groups.

Moreover, they were just ordinary members of the Shield of Lufu.

Little Fatty thought for a moment and suddenly felt there was a problem. He said, ”But wait, if there’s a Clockwork Fairy in this direction, we should have been discovered during those past infiltrations, right?”

Fang Hong had considered this question and replied, ”—it’s a possibility, but it’s also possible that you were just lucky.”

”Luck... lucky?”

”Because the Clockwork Fairy can’t be used for long in this place, the other side might be using an intermittent patrol method. As long as you happened to miss their patrol times each time, they might not have noticed you.”

Little Fatty clicked his tongue: ”How is that possible? From the start of this plan, we flew back and forth at least five or six times. It can’t be that we were lucky every time, right?”

”Indeed,” Fang Hong nodded: ”So the second possibility is that they already discovered you but didn’t act on it, maybe because they think you’re not a threat. Plus, since you have a Fixed-Point Teleportation Scroll, they can’t be sure of a successful attack.”

Fang Hong looked at the group and asked, ”Have you returned to Tansnier during these days of staying here?”

Little Fatty shook his head in confusion.

”Exactly,” Elisa also spoke up: ”Since you’re no threat to them, they should only worry that you might return to Tansnier to report. But as long as you don’t leave, they have no reason to scare you away prematurely.”

She looked around and said, ”In that case, there should be spies nearby, but so far, I haven’t felt any.”

”Maybe there’s also a third possibility.”

”A third possibility?”

But Fang Hong thought about it and was unsure about this. He just thought of a possibility and changed the topic: ”By the way, have you seen a group of Arcanists passing through here?”

”Arcanists?” Little Fatty replied, ”You mean those guys from the Eye of Revelation? They usually don’t leave Tansnier, so why would they be here?”

”Right,” he asked again: ”By the way, Boss, how did you figure out there might be Clockwork Fairies there?”

”I guessed,”

Fang Hong replied.

But he didn’t voice the real reason. He just thought about the Wandering Alchemists who had mysterious connections with the Blind Followers. If the Wandering Alchemists indeed had ties to the attackers from back then, it would be impossible for them not to have Combat Artisans.

Unexpectedly, testing it confirmed his suspicions.

”Alright, boss lives up to his name,” Little Fatty said, feeling a bit frustrated: ”If that’s the case, won’t our plan fail? The other side is prepared now, and we’ll just be walking into a trap.”

But Fang Hong looked in that direction and didn’t think so.

He looked at the group and said, ”That’s not necessarily the case.”

”Not necessarily?”

”Actually, I agree with Elisa. Based on the Clockwork Fairy’s flight path from the other side,” Fang Hong finally replied: ”they probably haven’t detected us. Though it’s unclear why, if they had spies here, their Clockwork Fairy wouldn’t take that route.”

”The reason I scouted that direction beforehand was actually to test this point.”

Little Fatty looked at him in surprise.

Fang Hong then continued—though still inexperienced as a captain, in the professional domain of Combat Artisans, he considered himself second to none—he just calmly said:

”So we should continue with the original plan, and as for their Clockwork Fairy, leave it to me to handle.”

...