Pillar of Yita

Tang Xin looked at him speechlessly, but after glancing at her cousin’s notebook, a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes. After hearing Ye Hua’s description, Fang Hong planned to return the notebook to the Grand Princess. However, because it involved the Bridge of Heaven and was somewhat related to the search for Hilveld’s father’s whereabouts, he wanted to check the notebook one last time before returning it.

Previously, they hadn’t found useful clues in this notebook, and their investigation had shifted in another direction afterward, so Tang Xin was seeing it for the first time now.

”I seem to have seen this notebook indeed...” She reached out to flip open the front page, somewhat dazed.

”Really? Can you remember anything else?” Fang Hong quickly asked.

Tang Xin just shook her head.

”That’s all. I’ve indeed seen it a few times.”

Fang Hong couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed, but he was actually just the same.

Everyone studied the notebook, but even Miss Fairy couldn’t make much sense of it, only Nini chirped away, lightening the mood a bit.

Finally, Fang Hong decided not to waste more time; he would visit the Great Library a few more times in the coming days, and if nothing was discovered, he would prepare to return the item to the Grand Princess. Once everything in Quistack was settled, they would officially leave this place—likely staying a bit longer in Tansnier.

Until the Seven Seas Traveler launched—

After that, they would leave this millennia-old sand sea.

Thus, Fang Hong formally declared the end of the Seven Seas Travel Group’s third gathering.

Everyone prepared to leave, but after the meeting, Luo Hao, accompanied by Gita and Luo Yu, sought him out.

This military officer, with a serious expression, approached him, saying, ”Captain, I have some words to discuss with you.”

Fang Hong looked at him with some surprise.

Luo Hao took out a handful of fragments from his pocket, spread out his palm, and showed them to Fang Hong.

They were some faintly glowing green, semi-transparent crystals, resting in his plump palm. They looked like a mix between emerald and turquoise, resembling gemstones but the uncut gemstone wouldn’t be this brilliant, nor were they ground and cut by a jeweler given their fragmented state.

More like shattered glass fragments, but glass doesn’t possess such beautiful luster.

Fang Hong was slightly stunned upon seeing these fragments:

”These are...”

”You should be aware of their origin, right?”

”Emerald Star, during the Giant War, the Mages of the Silver Tower used it to create the First Dragon Soul Crystal. This type of crystal is extremely rare in nature, and it seems to be one of the few pieces of evidence that they’ve appeared in this world.” Miss Tata’s calm voice came from over Fang Hong’s shoulder.

There were only three First Generation Dragon Soul Crystals, the beginning of the artificial dragon souls, and using alchemy to create souls was akin to a miracle, thus people referred to it by its legendary name—Philosopher’s Stone.

Kapuka preserved one of the three First Generation Dragon Soul Crystals, though it had long been empty inside, leaving only an empty shell. The first owner of the dragon soul within this crystal was none other than the founding monarch of Colin Ishurian.

Fang Hong had seen that crystal, which was almost identical to the fragments in Luo Hao’s hand.

However, the fragments in Luo Hao’s hand occasionally emitted an azure glow, seemingly when the incidence angle of light was different, such brilliance would appear.

But as Fang Hong looked at that light, he always felt a kind of repulsion, with a vague sense of unease.

”Only the First Generation Dragon Soul Crystal was crafted from the Emerald Star,” Luo Hao said, ”Later, people discovered its flaws; the artificially created dragon souls had great unpredictability, which in turn affected their knights. Most of the first-generation Dragon Knights died young for this reason.”

Later, people found a simpler method.

Using containment rather than creation, resulted in a more stable dragon soul, thus Emerald Star faded from history.

Yet people believed those crystals could ’create’ life, Philosopher’s Stone, thinking they were gateways to the ultimate path of alchemy, a gift from the gods—

”Thus, around seven hundred years ago, alchemists sparked a trend of ’creating life,’ but Emerald Star was so rare, it nearly sparked wars between nations. And of the three Dragon Soul Crystals, two were destroyed during that era... but those attempts all failed, and the creation matter gradually became dormant.”

Miss Fairy’s voice remained calm.

The era in history was known as the Creation Event.

But its ending was far from Miss Fairy’s understatement—

The creation using Emerald Star didn’t just fail, numerous accidents occurred, creating deformed monsters.

And people quickly discovered—these monsters inherently possessed divine power characteristics, and were almost perfect revival shells for those deceased Dark Saints—thus in varied ’creation experiments,’ the shadow of Dark Followers swiftly emerged. The largest among them was the predecessors of the Blind Followers hidden in this vast sand sea today.

Of course, they had a resounding name back then.

Fallen Alchemists.

Dark Followers almost shaped a new Vassal God, Mephisto—but before Dika genuinely descended, nations finally reacted and eradicated the Fallen Alchemists one by one, causing the resurrection incident at that time to fall short.