Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong felt dizzy as he looked at the series of red unmet requirements. A few minutes ago, he didn’t care about them at all, but now he was frustrated over how to learn this skill. All in all—it’s quite alluring.

He sighed, realizing it was impossible to gather that much experience in a short time, so he had to put the note away and keep it close to him.

Upon exiting the dungeon, there were naturally guards outside. However, this was not a problem for Fang Hong. After all, these ordinary soldiers weren’t very high-Level, and they didn’t even realize someone had escaped from the dungeon below. He simply controlled the Energy Angel to Blink up, knocked each guard unconscious with his elbow, and dragged them back to tie them up together.

He checked the time; it was just past midnight. Given the sandstorm raging outside, he thought there wouldn’t be many people moving around in such harsh weather, so it was unlikely anyone would notice what was happening here for a while.

Even if they did, so what? He was out to rescue someone and didn’t expect not to alert anyone.

Having done all this, he pushed the door open and walked out, simultaneously asking Tata beside him:

”Miss Tata, you explored this place earlier. Do you know where the ’Cellar’ he mentioned is?”

”Aside from the underground parts, this castle has a total of six floors, roughly divided into the outer perimeter, Inner Court, and Central District. We are currently on the first floor of the outer perimeter. Miss Gita is imprisoned on the third floor of the castle, though not within this building, but closer to the Inner Court area.”

Miss Fairy, as reliable as ever, responded calmly and quietly:

”The dungeon we were in earlier is considered the underground part below this level. There are at least three similar underground parts in the outer perimeter area. If the Cellar he’s referring to is one of these three, I think Nini and I can guide Mr. Knight there.”

Nini also immediately chimed in with her childlike voice:

”Take Papa to that place.”

Fang Hong rubbed his temples to stay alert.

He thought that the Arcanists imprisoning Miss Gita in the Inner Court meant that area should be where the Guests stay, while the Central District should be where the residents and their families live. If there was also an underground part there, it could possibly be a secret passage, underground defense facilities, etc.

If prisoners were to be held there, they would have to be very important ones. He couldn’t figure out what was so important about Wu Xiaopang and his group. Even assuming the worst-case scenario, Fang Hong arrogantly thought—he himself was held at the outer perimeter, so why should others be held in the Central District?

Thus, the most likely case was that Wu Xiaopang and the others were also held in this place. If the Arcanists valued spellcasters more, at most Luo Yu would be held in the Inner Court.

But it’s okay, finding the Shield of Lufu group to understand the situation first is also very important. Plus, he needed to bring the Desert Blood back to Delan and learn from them what the ’secret’ about the Arcanists was.

With this in mind, he said to Tata, ”Then let’s head to the nearest place first. Are there any patrol guards along the way?”

”There aren’t many guards, but there will be some servants,” Tata replied.

Perhaps out of overconfidence in their Monitoring Spells or in the howling sandstorm outside, the Arcanists seemed not to have left much defensive power here. In all seriousness, unless it was at the level of the Hall Guard Knight, ordinary Guards wouldn’t be much of a threat to him. And in a big city like Dulun, ordinary Guards wouldn’t exceed Level ten, let alone in Bain, located in the borderlands of the Kingdom.

Still, it’s good news to have fewer troubles.

The three ’people’ slowly traversed a stone hallway. Just beyond the wall, the wind howled, and the sandstorm scraped the stone walls with a harsh rustling sound—Fang Hong realized they seemed to be in the fortress area at the castle’s perimeter—or maybe in some part of the wall’s interior. Even sand and wind blew in through the cross-shaped slits in the stone walls, causing the torches along the long corridor to flicker unstably.

The fire in many places had long since gone out, leaving sections of the corridor pitch black and impossible to see even with outstretched hands.

Seeing this scene, Fang Hong understood why he could hear the wind so clearly in the dungeon—it turned out that the sandstorm was right overhead.

Occasionally, he peered through the slit windows, but outside was completely obscured by a chaotic world of sand and dust. When he leaned closer, the sand-laden wind blasted his face, prompting him to spit to remove the grit from his mouth.

Nini also got knocked over by the wind but didn’t mind at all, giggling gleefully.

Just as Tata said, there were hardly any people on this stretch of road. Occasionally, a servant would hurry by at a distant intersection, too preoccupied to notice his direction. He simply stood in the darkness, and they didn’t notice him at all.

The gusts snuffed out the torches, not creating an obstacle for him, but instead forming a kind of protection, as he could see just as well in the dark anyway.

Soon, Fang Hong found the entrance to the first Cellar.

The place was naturally guarded.

This time, Fang Hong didn’t replicate his previous approach. Instead, he set up a Mirrorer in one direction and then created a Phantom to draw the guards’ attention.

The two guards were quite alert and didn’t approach together, but when the guard who did approach reached the corner, Fang Hong had the Mirrorer switch the Phantom to resemble Lady Daisy—a white cat-shaped Phantom meowed at him a few times before vanishing into the darkness.

Seizing the moment, Fang Hong released a ’Hornet-I’ and quietly flew it over the two guards’ heads and into the dungeon.

He hid on one side and controlled the Clockwork Fairy to fly down, soon spotting the Shield of Lufu group imprisoned below.

However, Wu Xiaopang wasn’t there; instead, he saw the Swordsman.

Only then did he lower his Flexible Construct, and the other party recognized the uniquely constructed Clockwork Fairy, showing a look of surprise:

”Boss Ade?”

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