Pillar of Yita

Walked forward towards the front.

...

Ye Hua looked at the clusters of firelight that lit up in the distance from the darkness and gently put down the longbow in his hand. Those flames looked extremely distant from the fortress, like a string of faintly visible starlight, gradually outlining the shape of the outer wall. From a distance, it was quite spectacular.

”Do you think he can get away?” Beside this Ranger King, a middle-aged man clearly dressed as an Alchemist opened his mouth to ask. Despite his words, the Alchemist’s gaze did not turn to the latter beside him, his short silver-gray hair fluttering in the fierce wind like withered grass.

”Have you come to terms with Delan?”

The middle-aged man did not answer directly, only said, ”He never gave up.”

Ye Hua’s gaze flickered slightly: ”So he’s here for this...”

But the middle-aged man interrupted him, saying, ”This has nothing to do with you, better answer my question first.”

Ye Hua shook his head.

”The person you saved,” the former said with a bit of interest, ”seems you know him, but if you think he can’t get away, why not bring him up.”

Ye Hua paused for a moment, then laughed: ”There’s a misunderstanding between him and me.”

Curiosity flashed in the middle-aged man’s eyes.

”Do you remember the interesting young man I met in Idus?”

The middle-aged man nodded.

”I recommended that young man to the Elfendo Council. As you know, it was once part of the Southern Alliance,” Ye Hua replied, ”I just didn’t expect that recommendation would bring so much trouble, because I didn’t know what would happen in Dolifen later — but that’s not an excuse, the matter was indeed caused by me. So, in this matter, I owe him an explanation.”

”Quite a trouble,” the middle-aged man replied, ”So I understand, you don’t want to involve him?”

Ye Hua nodded.

He immediately chuckled: ”When I shook my head earlier, it wasn’t that he couldn’t escape, but that I don’t know either.”

”You don’t know either?”

”Yeah,” Ye Hua recalled what he knew, a hint of interest flashing in his eyes: ”For that little guy, there’s truly nothing impossible, you never know how far he can go, so you can never really predict.”

For the first time, the middle-aged man turned his head, looking at him with a puzzled expression, probably not expecting Ye Hua to have such a high opinion of a stranger met by chance. ”I’ve never heard you mention it before.”

”No, I’ve mentioned it.”

”How?”

”Just about half a month ago, I talked to you about that matter.”

The middle-aged man raised his eyebrows, a look of realization appearing on his face: ”So it was him.”

He pondered for a moment and suddenly said, ”So my Clockwork Fairy was also taken down by him?”

Ye Hua also smiled wryly. ”I didn’t expect it to be the same person either.” The fierce wind tugged at his cloak wildly, and he took one last look at the dark night sky before turning to leave, saying, ”If there’s a chance, I could bring him to meet you.”

”No need.”

The middle-aged man responded, ”I’ve met him.”

Ye Hua paused, a bit surprised, as he turned back.

...

The door of the Holy Sanctuary was not locked.

In fact, Marlan’s Holy Sanctuary was rarely locked — because no thief with the slightest sense would dare to steal from such a place.

This was the abode of the Lady of Justice and Courage, guide of wars, Judge, whose Paladins were natural enemies of all evil and injustice. Unless a thief wished to ’turn over a new leaf’ from here, he would certainly consider staying far away from this Lady’s Holy Land.

When Fang Hong pushed the door open, it emitted creaking sounds, dust falling down in a shower from above.

Fang Hong immediately sneezed, helplessly shaking his head, regretting that he had taken off his hood too early, resulting in dust covering his head.

As he shook his head, he suddenly sensed something unusual, as if a gaze was falling upon him. He paused slightly, remembering that he had come uninvited. Looking up, he saw an old knight clad in a linen robe, face ageless, staring at him in astonishment.

The knight had a pair of gray eyes rarely seen in this region, perhaps hinting at some Giant Spirit ancestry, and was indeed tall, though not as towering as the pure Giant Spirit lady, Aierna.

This guardian knight had obviously come out to investigate upon hearing noise from outside and unexpectedly bumped into Fang Hong.

”Who might you be?”

The knight seemed to recognize his identity, knowing he wasn’t a local. After some thought, he spoke in perfect Colin language.

Fang Hong momentarily gaped at the man; he couldn’t possibly tell him he was actually on the run, came here without any reason, just summoned by some inexplicable calling, could he? Although such callings were common among the believers of Eteliria, the problem was that they were quite rare among Invokers.

Moreover, he hadn’t figured out yet what kind of calling he had received, whether it was from Ameya or Marlan, it was still unclear.

Even though the two ladies had always been steadfast allies, their believers were still sharply divided.

And just as he didn’t know how to respond, a commotion came from behind them.

The Bain Knights had caught up.

...