Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong then realized he had asked a foolish question. He thought for a moment, then asked: ”Can you describe who is actually imprisoned here?”

Affia thought for a moment and nodded. Clearly, this wasn’t a difficult question for her because Fang Hong was already detained here, so it was pointless for him to know who was also imprisoned. Moreover, she felt quite guilty for being unable to help Fang Hong.

Then the girl carefully described the appearance of each person held here.

Fang Hong easily identified Luo Yu and Little Fatty, as they were the only Elementalists in the team. As for the chubby Imperial Knight, besides Little Fatty, he couldn’t think of anyone else. The Arcanists surely wouldn’t confuse the Iron Guard and the Imperial Knight.

He didn’t expect Little Fatty and the others ultimately didn’t escape. On further thought, it made sense; if he himself hadn’t escaped, how could the three of them have?

Next was Gita; Gita was captured along with Luo Yu, and there were three women in the team: besides Elisa, there was the Priestess from the Shield of Lufu. Miss Nightingale seemed to have escaped, but the young Priestess was captured again.

Fang Hong couldn’t help but lament that the Shield of Lufu really was plagued by disaster.

However, what puzzled him was that according to Affia, everyone was held separately, not only in separate cells but in different dungeons. He finally understood why it was so quiet, desolate in his location; originally, he was alone here.

”Gita, Miss Gita wasn’t imprisoned,” Affia added. ”The adults arranged a separate room for her in the castle.”

Fang Hong was a bit surprised that the Arcanists were lenient towards Gita and specially accommodated her. But upon hearing Affia’s explanation, he understood—the Natural Historian originated from the Silver Tower, while the Arcanists, Star Moon Council, and Silver Tower were different branches under the same system, belonging to the Colin Ishurian Caster Alliance.

And the Natural Historian held an elevated status within this alliance, hence the preferential treatment for Gita was understandable.

Compared to the ’ordinary Elementalist’ Luo Yu, who wasn’t so lucky.

This made Fang Hong lament once more that this truly was a starkly tiered society.

However, the Arcanists’ care for Gita was clearly limited, or to put it straightforwardly, it was merely house arrest. Moreover, it increased the difficulty of his rescue work. Even if he managed to escape, saving others from different dungeons and then meeting up with Miss Natural Historian would clearly be a major issue.

Regardless of the location, the so-called dungeon is unlikely to be in the same place as the guest area. While dungeons certainly have Guards or even Hall Guard Knights watching them, the inherent difficulty lies with the Arcanists in the core areas.

Fang Hong felt momentarily troubled.

Then Affia’s words reminded him of another question:

”Castle?” Fang Hong asked: ”Isn’t this the Cloud Lighthouse?”

But for this question, the girl just looked at him and shook her head vigorously without speaking.

It appeared to be an unanswerable question.

However, Affia didn’t realize her shaking head disclosed a lot of information. Fang Hong sighed softly; it seemed the Arcanists had good reason not to bring her to this place, although he didn’t know Miss Affia’s standing within the ’Eye of Revelation’. She certainly seemed to be frighteningly naïve.

The Cloud Lighthouse definitely couldn’t be called a castle; its towering structure didn’t remotely resemble a castle or stronghold—just a simple lighthouse.

As for the castle—

Though Istania’s castles are quite different from those in the Colin Kingdom, there are indeed castles in this Sand Sea realm. Fang Hong could confirm, however, that at least in Tansnier, no structure could be rightly termed a ’castle’.

Parts of the port’s walls seemed like a fortress, but having visited there once with Lady Aierna, he found it quite different from here, lacking dungeon facilities.

The information made him realize he was likely no longer in Tansnier.

He had checked his system time; he had been unconscious for about a day and a half, approximately over thirty hours.

In those thirty-plus hours, traveling via land routes wouldn’t suffice for bringing his group out of Tansnier. Furthermore, informed Abed to bring the Royal Household’s Imperial Guard on the way to the smuggler’s secret port.

In the desert, visibility is wide open, and if they left by land, they might encounter the Princess’s Guard Corps.

That said, they could only have left by sea.

Did that mean the Arcanists had hidden a ship in the fjord?

Or had they found the smugglers’ vessel?

By sea, there are ports both to the north and south of Tansnier, leading south to Bargo and north to a port named Bain—Bargo is the territory of the Grand Princess, making it less likely, thus Bain Port becomes highly suspect.