Pillar of Yita

However, these Hall Defenders, besides being incredibly brave and utterly fearless in combat, didn’t display any eye-catching skills. They outnumbered their opponents, and their strength was relatively stronger, making the battlefield almost overwhelmingly one-sided.

As the second Magic Missile shot through the hall, Fang Hong saw the battle line leaning towards the Blind Followers’ side.

In fact, the Arcanists truly held an absolute advantage—

More than a dozen Blind Followers were cornered in one corner of the hall, facing at least three times as many adversaries. Occasionally, someone’s shield shattered, emitting a ghostly blue light flickering in the darkness. Someone fell, groaning in pain, and Fang Hong even saw a person ignited by purple flames, screaming as they turned into a human torch, stumbling out, struggling on the ground for a while before falling silent.

The Arcanists utilized a special type of spell he couldn’t quite understand. The Ether emitted a purple glow with some properties of Wind System spells, but not entirely. These Magicians were secluded, developing a different category of spells from other Magicians, resembling the local Alchemists.

The spells of the Arcanists were even more mysterious, just like Luo Yu’s previous spell, which had amazed them for quite a while. However, Arcanists naturally wouldn’t easily share their spells; Luo Yu’s spell was taught by Kalatu, and as a well-seasoned Archmage, knowing one or two spells from the Arcanists didn’t seem too surprising, did it?

The combat quickly reached its conclusion.

Fang Hong thought for a while and ultimately decided against taking action; the Arcanists’ advantage was so great that they didn’t need outside interference. His intervention at that moment would seem more like stealing credit than helping.

After all, both parties were strangers, and Fang Hong didn’t want to offend anyone for no reason.

Just as he was about to withdraw his Flexible Construct, his vision caught sight of the Arcanists splitting into two groups. One went to clean the battlefield and check for any pretending dead fish that slipped through the net, while the other halted, turned aside, and suddenly spoke into the darkness:

”Who’s hiding in that place?”

The modified ’Hornet-I’ had a more advanced audio crystal, capable not only of emitting sound but also collecting sound.

Thus, when Fang Hong heard this, he was taken aback.

He instinctively thought the Arcanists had discovered him.

On reflection, Fang Hong realized the Arcanists he was observing were Astrologers by profession and, as experts in Prophecy System Magic Guided Spells, were the most keen in sensing environmental changes. They didn’t need to see with their eyes or hear with their ears; they could perceive the presence of peepers all around through Ether alone.

Yet just as Fang Hong prepared to let his Construct reveal itself and pondered how to explain his lack of ill intent, at that exact moment, he suddenly saw a group of people emerge from a corner of the hall.

It was none other than the team of Shield of Lufu.

Leading the pack was Little Fatty, followed by three others.

Upon seeing this, Fang Hong couldn’t help but pause for a moment. As he scrutinized the Arcanists, he realized they weren’t looking in his direction—originally, it was not he but Little Fatty and his team that had been discovered. He felt slightly embarrassed and couldn’t help but wipe his brow, thinking how he almost caused a misunderstanding.

Luckily, the people of Shield of Lufu appeared just in time.

Although this thought was somewhat unkind, upholding the mentality of ’better them than me,’ he reckoned the Arcanists weren’t Blind Followers and wouldn’t really harm Little Fatty’s team.

Fang Hong finally calmed down, deciding to watch a bit longer before making a move. Although the Arcanists should be on the same side as him, these Magicians were always quite mysterious to outsiders, perfect for observing their attitude. The Seven Seas Travel Group had internally prohibited him from participating in negotiations, but he wasn’t entirely ignorant of negotiating skills. In any case, having more information would be beneficial for future negotiations.

He had interacted with them once at the Tansnier Crafting Association, and now he wanted to see their stance on this matter.

Fang Hong glanced at the three people behind Little Fatty, knowing, of course, that it wasn’t all of Shield of Lufu’s people. It appeared, similar to him, they hadn’t regrouped together yet. But this was normal, as the dust storm outside disrupted the communication system, making it much more troublesome to regroup than before.

He got the information from Little Fatty and rushed over, only to find neither side had joined up yet and instead encountered this situation. It seemed the Arcanists that Little Fatty’s team discovered were precisely these people. They were sneakily watching the battle unfold, not expecting they had long been detected by the other party.

At this moment, the Arcanist who had spoken earlier questioned Little Fatty’s team about who they were and where they came from.

Perhaps sensing the identity of the Invoker among them, otherwise, Fang Hong doubted whether the Arcanists would mistake the people of Shield of Lufu as Blind Followers and eliminate them.

In the scene, Little Fatty appeared a bit nervous but still stammered out his intentions, leading to some back and forth between both parties, all being rather uninformative exchanges.

However, the Arcanists seemed somewhat skeptical of Little Fatty’s words and only after hearing them, they said:

”I’ll give you a chance to prove yourselves; you need to prove you are truly acting under the orders of the Adventurers’ Guild. Please disarm and come over here to show us your mission documents.”