Pillar of Yita

Mount Pieriad rises sharply in a near-vertical line in the field of vision, like the silhouette of a giant standing tall between heaven and earth, until it fills everyone’s eyes completely.

As the mountain rises, the surface vegetation quickly transitions from rainforest to broadleaf forest, the trees gradually become sparse, covered with shrubs and rocks, and the gray color begins to dominate.

Further up, there is only moss and lichens, scattered desert rock beaches in the valley, steep cliffs, and clouds swirling around the peaks.

Dark storm clouds rise thousands of meters high, even its corner obscures the glacier line above, Fang Hong feels a slight chill on the back of his hand and looks up to see the rolling clouds bringing a hint of rain.

The downpour is imminent.

Underground, Walnut looks at the shadow of this Chongshan and begins to tell the information he has mastered:

”There’s a camp to the south from here, where they set out from, walking up the mountain path into Mount Pieriad, there should be a valley there.”

Fang Hong is well acquainted with such camps, in areas frequented by adventurers, there are always many temporary stations. Some temporary ones later turn permanent, with locals doing adventurer business—in this place, it’s the rainforest Lizardmen, over time, forming villages, even towns.

Short-distance ships run between Orlenze, Patchiwa, and such camps, carrying adventurers without airships across the great rainforest to these places.

If not for them, Lady Esali and her teammates would probably have taken such short routes.

But most of these ships are not dedicated passenger ships, but exploration ships owned by various guilds and groups in the area.

Running passenger routes just utilizes the airships, preventing guild assets maintained at great expense from idling; though compared to the exorbitant airship maintenance costs, that meager income can only slightly balance the budget.

Some business-minded individuals even extend their passenger services into Asuka’s interior, into those harsh rainforest swamps, reputed as the green ”Hell” Kingdom.

Adventurers who take this line mostly have high levels, long past the stage of penny-pinching for a bit of travel fare, thus the ships running this line mostly maintain considerable profitability.

But in the wild areas far from regular routes, beyond the law’s reach, there will always be people losing their ships, losing their lives, sometimes it’s all about luck.

Fang Hong thumbs through the community, aside from curses and revelations, it’s practically steeped in blood and tears, leaving him tongue-tied.

The community window’s holographic projection is before him, Hilveld silently observes beside him and speaks: ”Eteliria has always been a dangerous and chaotic place, unlike your civilized world. Don’t let the prosperity brought by alchemy you saw in Elpaxin, Kapuka, and the Old Kingdom deceive you; that’s the kingdom’s core regions. But many places don’t even have rules, let alone inside the kingdom, political struggle is brutal and bloody—poisonings, assassinations, you’ll see many things only happening in your histories.”

Fang Hong nods, somewhat touched.

Hilveld’s gaze extends beyond the faint window, looking towards the distant mountains:

”Though for many of you, perhaps this is the charm of this world, risks and opportunities always coexist, here it’s filled with stories of ambitious people, also satisfying the fantasies of those with the same traits.”

She gently fiddles with a strand of hair, ”Actually, I am also one of those people. Did it surprise the Captain?”

Fang Hong indeed looks at her somewhat surprised.

Hilveld smiles softly, ”If not, I would have already resigned to fate. But the more such a person, the more sensitive to their surroundings, thinking of it now, the reason for choosing Lord Captain might be because of this.”

Suddenly she looks back at Fang Hong:

”Does Lord Captain have ambition?”

Fang Hong hesitates.

He doesn’t know if he has the same ambition, but the yearning for heroism might also be part of his heart’s ambition.

Suddenly, Walnut grabs onto the ship’s railing and points to a direction shouting: ”I see that path.”

That narrow mountain path, passing through the valley, appears and disappears in the mist.

The sudden situation interrupts Fang Hong’s thoughts, he immediately calls the Bosun and asks:

”Mr. Bakins, can we descend?”

But the latter tells them that the Seven Seas Traveler can no longer approach Mount Pieriad.

The path through Chongshan is perhaps one of the most dangerous flying areas in the world, the complex air currents caused by different heat levels at various heights and the sparse distribution of Wind Element at high altitudes inevitably present numerous dangers to the airship.

Only those large ships equipped with more advanced Guy generating devices have the qualification to claim conquest over the glacier line above the world, and the Seven Seas Traveler can only circle north along the mountain ridges and valleys.

”We need to think of a way.”

Fang Hong stares at the Overturned Mountain path winding along the cliff.

Luo Hao also shakes his head, ”But we can’t reach that height, Ade.”

However, Fang Hong quickly comes up with a plan:

”Descend to the valley below, we’ll split up, the Seven Seas Traveler will continue north, follow Mount Pieriad’s northern edge route. The rest will cross these peaks on land, we’ll rendezvous about a week later at Kailan Ao.”

The splitting of ship and expedition team is indeed a feasible method.

But Luo Hao looks at Fang Hong and asks: ”Then how do you plan to divide the personnel?”