Pillar of Yita

”Although we should be able to handle it, I don’t want them to be on alert so soon. In this trial, the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team and the people from Silver Weslan are almost certainly our main rivals. Of course, we can’t rule out the possibility that there are other experts participating in this trial,” Fang Hong said.

”Don’t forget the Rain Listener, we should not underestimate them either,” the teenager with a flair for the dramatic reminded.

Fang Hong looked at him surprisingly, ”I thought you would deliberately skip over that.”

”One issue at a time. If it were people from the Storm Brigade here, I definitely wouldn’t lay a hand on them,” Xiangzi answered, ”But since the boss of Lonely White Field and his group can’t enter, I’m not familiar with the others from Rain Listening.”

”Then shall we head for the third exit?” Parker asked.

”There’s a good chance we will run into people from Silver Weslan at the third exit, but if we take a long detour, we will have a hard time catching up with those from the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team,” Fang Hong said to the others, ”What do you think?”

”The warriors of Andasok don’t know the meaning of retreat,” Tainaric answered in a deep voice.

”Then let’s have a fight with the people from Silver Weslan first,” the Papalarians said excitedly, dancing with their hands and feet, ”I don’t think they’re that impressive. Back in the day, when I was on Giant Tree Hill, those guys...”

Fang Hong interrupted him, ”All right, the first layer has no threatening monsters besides adventurers, they are all low-level phantoms created by Toragotos. We’ll take a shortcut and cut through the center.”

He looked at the Lizardman Prince from Andasok and added, ”Tainaric, we’ve only seen the map, but these second-hand maps might not be reliable, especially the layers below. But the cities of Xinsas are largely similar, you should be more familiar, so you take the lead.”

Tainaric nodded slightly.

As Fang Hong said, they passed through the central courtyard of the ’Slave Market’, encountering only inconsequential undead phantoms along the way—merely Level 4 or Level 5 monsters that didn’t even require Fang Hong to make a move. Parker, as the vanguard, was enough to sweep them all by himself.

After those things fell, the illusions dissipated, turning into dust on the ground, leaving no spoils of war.

The Slave District was divided into seven areas. The third entrance was located in the center of the second area, which had already been destroyed once by natural forces, leaving the ruins fragmented and interlaced with natural rock layers.

The purchased map indeed had some issues, but relying on Tainaric’s familiarity with the route, Fang Hong’s group managed to reach the location in time. Unexpectedly, they didn’t encounter people from Silver Weslan but instead ran into an Adventure Group.

Those people, fearing that Fang Hong’s group would activate the mechanism first, launched an attack as soon as they met. However, the combat was unsurprisingly one-sided. Xiangzi took control of the other group’s Magic Guided Conductor right away, Tainaric left their two Iron Defenders unable to rise to their feet, and Parker struck opportunistically from the side, tipping the scales heavily in their favor.

The other party collapsed at the first blow.

Besides Xiangzi, the others hadn’t even exerted their full strength, so only the Magic Guided Conductor died on the spot. Xiangzi even found some fully charged Magic Storage Crystals on their bodies and casually handed them to Parker.

Although it was difficult for the other group to continue forward without their Magic Guided Conductor, as they passed by the exit, Fang Hong still activated the mechanism, awakening the Guarding Golems here, to prevent the other group from plotting revenge by catching up.

This was also a minor setting within the trial.

At each layer’s exit, there were two Guarding Golems designed by Toragotos slumbering, ready to obey the first group of Trialers that passed by, barring subsequent entrants.

Of course, the golems could be defeated, but with inevitable casualties and wasted time, failing to be among the first to enter the twelve exits meant almost certainly losing the chance for a high score.

In this trial, the competition was even fiercer because there might be only one winner in the end.

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