Pillar of Yita

It sounds like a common procedure, but the demand for disarmament is somewhat strange.

Fang Hong felt that Little Fatty and his group were armed to the teeth, and probably were not even a match for these secretive sorcerers. Their cautiousness might have been a bit over the top. Yet, he didn’t give it much thought—different people have different styles, and it’s not unusual for spellcasters like sorcerers to be extra cautious.

Little Fatty and his group evidently thought the same. Whether they put down their weapons or not, they were fish on a chopping block in the eyes of the sorcerers, making no difference.

Thus, they muttered among themselves for a moment, then willingly put down their weapons, preparing to move closer to those sorcerers.

Fang Hong considered for a moment and decided to reveal himself—as the sorcerers got involved in this task, the two parties had to meet after all. With the Princess’s Hand Order for protection, Fang Hong hoped the sorcerers wouldn’t make things too difficult for him. Although the relationship between sorcerers and the Royal House of Penelope was lukewarm, they had to face each other down frequently in Istania, and the latter was the only legitimate ruler of the region. The sorcerers would probably give them some face.

But then, his gaze unintentionally swept to the side, and the next moment, he suddenly froze.

He saw those sorcerers cleaning up the battlefield in a corner of the hall.

Fang Hong’s eyes squinted slightly and looked towards the scene’s center, where two groups were approaching each other—his mind raced, disregarding everything else, he immediately used his Flexible Construct to broadcast a voice through the hall: ”Little Fatty, don’t go over, run!”

The voice echoed through the hall from above—

Little Fatty and his people paused, instinctively looking up. They clearly recognized that it was Fang Hong’s voice.

Just as they hadn’t fully reacted, they heard one of the sorcerers let out a low shout: ”Block the door, don’t let them escape!”

The four were shocked, looked ahead swiftly, and saw those Holy Temple Knights in robes, spear in hand, rushing towards them. Initially by the door, they had already walked a fair distance; if the door was truly blocked, there was nowhere to escape.

But the question remained.

Little Fatty still couldn’t comprehend why these sorcerers wanted to capture them.

Among the five ’present’, perhaps only Fang Hong knew why. In fact, he just finished speaking when he immediately summoned back the Clockwork Fairy and then pulled off the Wind Goggles, preparing to run in that direction. From his previous scene observation, he noticed those Alchemists were picking out those yet to die Blind Followers from the pile of corpses, letting the Guarding Knights thrust them with spears.

This was already extremely unusual.

Logically, wouldn’t leaving survivors make more sense? If sorcerers and Blind Followers truly harbored deep vengeance, leaving them alive would allow them to extract secrets and eventually destroy any more deeply buried organization.

Even if they couldn’t completely eliminate the Blind Followers at once, they could severely diminish the Cultist’s vitality.

Historically, there have been few opportunities to capture Cultists, and fewer to seize them alive. With such a rare chance now, the sorcerers of the Eye of Revelation had no reason not to take advantage of it.

But let it be, perhaps the sorcerers saw it as redundant since Dark Followers are often fanatical; catching one alive might yield nothing, or maybe it’s their way of acting—they truly bear enmity so deep with the Blind Followers they didn’t wish to leave any alive just to find secrets, aiming for total annihilation.

These two reasons, although bizarre, aren’t impossible.

But what truly made Fang Hong aware of the problem was seeing a sorcerer take out a silver box, placing it above the Blind Follower’s corpse, letting the black light emitted by the corpse be absorbed into the box. In just a moment, the Blind Follower’s body completely disassembled, disappearing entirely.

Seeing this, Fang Hong understood why they hadn’t found any Blind Follower’s corpse before, despite the sorcerer’s corpses remaining without disappearing into starlight, the Blind Follower’s bodies vanished completely except for some small items.

Indeed—

Fang Hong fixed his gaze fiercely on that box; if its function was as he imagined, it must be an item that could absorb Human Starlight.

Such things didn’t give him a good impression; Starlight was highly regarded in Eteliria, and items with similar capabilities were often associated with Divine Artifacts. However, he never heard of any believer from the Oly Pantheon possessing such an artifact.

Clearly, this was a Blight Object.

Such a Blight Object was always associated with the Dark Saints.

He almost immediately realized Little Fatty and his group might be in trouble. While on principle, he had no particular ties with the Shield of Lufu’s people, even saving them once before without owing anything. He knew the smartest choice now was to leave the place immediately and remember what he had seen.

Then later on, find a way to inform the Princess about everything that had happened today.

After all, sorcerers and Blind Followers weren’t on the same level as foes, numbers aside, merely in terms of previous demonstrated combat strength, it was almost like two different tiers.

He could handle ordinary Blind Followers, but that didn’t mean he could deal with sorcerers, especially with certainly leading Great Sorcerer among them.

Yet Fang Hong instinctively thought if he just left, Little Fatty and his people would probably be finished. Moreover, they were here partially because of him. Thus, even if not planning to rush into rescue them, he must think of a way to create an opportunity for their escape.

With such thoughts, Fang Hong tore off his Wind Goggles and ran in that direction.

However, what he didn’t expect was that as he took a single step, a shadow blocked his way.

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