Pillar of Yita

”It’s me, quiet down, don’t alert the guards outside!”

Fang Hong softly reminded.

He glanced towards the guards from the corner of the wall and, seeing the two guards return, stood there motionless.

Retracting his gaze and adjusting the lens with his hand, he switched the vision back to the cellar. Fang Hong saw the people of Shield of Lufu waiting for his next words and then said: ”Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to get you out, but before that, I need to figure out how many people have been captured?”

The swordsman leading the group, named ZXC, gave a wry smile. This scene was all too familiar, but he wished for no such ’coincidence’: ”We’d be very grateful, all our people have basically been captured, Little Fatty and we are held in different locations. On the way here I also saw your Iron Guards, additionally Mr. Luo Yu and Miss Gita have been captured too, but they are not here...”

Fang Hong pondered for a moment after listening, a new name, Luo Hao, appeared on the list, but he believed it wasn’t intentionally hidden by the girl. After all, Luo Hao wasn’t a crucial figure, perhaps she slipped up, or maybe she also didn’t know how many people were brought here.

This made him realize that if Luo Hao had also fallen into the hands of the Arcanists, the assumed safety of Miss Nightingale, Xiangzi, and Parker might not be as assured, fortunately, he asked one more question.

Suspended in the darkness, the silver Clockwork Fairy once again asked with a faint buzzing sound: ”Have you not seen everyone here? By the way, how did the Arcanists come to this place, what exactly is this place, do you remember the scene you saw upon arrival?”

ZXC replied: ”On our way here, we boarded a ship, I, your Iron Guards, and another teammate were imprisoned in a cabin together, that lower cabin had no portholes, Arcanists confiscated all our personal belongings, making it impossible for us to know the exact time. However, your people told us the ship roughly sailed above the Sky Sea for six hours before we arrived here—by then the dust storm had already started, I could only vaguely tell the three of us entered a fortress, upon entering the city gates, we briefly met Mr. Luo Yu, Miss Gita was also there.”

Fang Hong thought to himself, so they took the aerial route, he asked ZXC about the shape of the ship, and learned it was an airship. The airship’s speed couldn’t match that of a winged airship, six hours would only permit a journey of about ninety kilometers above the Sky Sea, considering heading north against the wind and plunging into the dust storm zone, the distance would be further reduced.

On the map, Bain and Tansnier are just seventy kilometers apart.

Additionally, Bain as a military zone happens to be a fortress-type city, which aligns with ZXC’s description.

However, how did the Arcanists confiscate everyone else’s personal belongings, yet he still had some items left on him? Was it because he was unconscious, and the Arcanists felt no need to search too thoroughly? Thinking of this, he further asked: ”ZXC, did you see anyone else before boarding, can you tell me what happened at that time?”

ZXC gently shook his head.

He then described the situation at the time. They originally were searching separately, then were suddenly attacked by the Arcanists who appeared. Yet, the Arcanists treated them differently by sparing their lives—they killed the smugglers, guards, and Blind Followers, but captured them alive, blinded them, and took them away from that place.

During this process, he didn’t see anyone else but roughly guessed by intuition that they were retracing their route, because the place they boarded the ship should have been the long pier they had arrived on. When they reached there, the airship was already docked waiting for them.

”However, when they removed the blindfold from our eyes, I saw the bodies of those guards earlier,” ZXC said in a low voice, ”At that time, the sailors on the ship were grabbing the hand and foot of one of the Great Swordsman’s corpses, dropping him off the deck. Strangely, how could those people be on the ship?”

Fang Hong recalled those missed guards, stunned for a moment too.

If the Arcanists attacked those guards, there was no need to specifically bring their bodies onto the deck.

And they shouldn’t have easily boarded a foreign ship. Actually, in such circumstances, upon seeing a ship with an unknown origin dock, they should report back.

ZXC continued: ”...Therefore, I suspect those guards might know the people on the ship, but in that case, it suggests the Arcanists are connected to those smugglers.”

Among the Clockwork Fairies, Fang Hong asked in a synth voice: ”So, you think the Arcanists are killing witnesses?”

But ZXC shook his head: ”Can there be such talk in Eteliria about killing witnesses? It’s not just one or two people.”

He appeared somewhat hesitant again, saying: ”But if not thinking this way, I really can’t understand why the Arcanists would attack us.”

Actually, there is, Fang Hong thought to himself.

However, there are still some doubts.

For instance, why would the Arcanists silence the Blind Followers? Have they already discovered Princess investigating these Blind Followers?

Then what the Arcanists really fear is what information these people might leak upon falling into the hands of Princess? Would it expose those behind the scenes?