Pillar of Yita

According to Hilveld’s account, very few truly knew she had gone underground.

Since the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team had entered the ruins before her and the Alice sisters had not encountered her, Fang Hong realized that what they said might be true—she had entered the ruins later than they had, and the progress of the Rain Listeners was almost the same as theirs, so it was very possible that the two groups had no interaction.

Besides the few Rain Listeners and the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team, other people also wouldn’t recognize who Hilveld was, this likely included the Blood Oath Alliance as well, since the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team had no reason to share their guild’s secrets with subordinate guilds unless the subordinate relationship was reversed.

Which meant, the only knights aware of this were him and the few people around Miss Atira.

Among them, Xiangzi, Parker, and Tainaric had only learned about the information from him after the eighth level, thus could be excluded.

Moreover, Atira, Big Cat People, and Hilveld’s Miss Maid, as natives, had neither the motive nor the means to contact the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team, so they were also out of the equation. Similarly, Tianlan could be excluded as well, since her home competition region was not the China Competition Region, and she had no vested interests with the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team, Rain Listeners, or any other factions.

That left only Gita and Luo Yu, but Fang Hong thought it over—even if the two were insiders for the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team, they would at most know that Hilveld had gone underground, and would not know who exactly was by her side, let alone where they would go.

Having worked closely together, Fang Hong was well aware of the Lady Noble’s caution and care, even he didn’t have certain information, where then could Luo Yu and Gita have obtained it from? Thus, their suspicion was also not significant.

The remaining possibilities were twofold, the first thing he considered was whether Hilveld was lying—

But it seemed unlikely, for those Undead appeared timely, but weren’t actually commanded by Hilveld, otherwise why would those Gunslingers of the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team have waited for them to intervene?

Moreover, although Hilveld was accompanied by these men in black, they had already identified themselves as either humans or Dwarves, and Fang Hong, having listened carefully to their voices, found nothing unusual. Of course, it couldn’t be ruled out that this might be deliberate, but another crucial point followed, capable of clearing these men of suspicion.

What reminded him was a detail, during the dispute with those guilds, the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team mentioned: ”She has killed so many, not just Chosen, but also the villages of the Andrett Ratmen above, and we have been chasing this woman to this place—”

This statement seemed contradictory to what Hilveld had said, but recalling this moment, he found some doubts. What constitutes a chase? A chase definitely involves one party leading and the other following; if the fact that the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team was chasing Hilveld to the twelfth level existed, then as the Chasers, the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team would definitely be trailing behind Hilveld.

But in fact, Fang Hong still remembered, the Dragon Boat appeared much later than the Jiefulite Red Cloak Team’s journey to the twelfth level, a statement from a small team of Adventurers they encountered after reaching the twelfth level also corroborated this.

The Jiefulite Red Cloak Team naturally had no reason to fabricate anything for Hilveld, so this might actually be the true reality.

But if Hilveld was not lying, then the matter became peculiar.

Fang Hong mulled it over again and again, and only then did he realize that from the beginning, he had overlooked one possibility, that apart from them, there was actually another ’being’ who was very clear about who had entered these ruins.

More precisely, it knew every person who had entered these ruins, and knew when they would appear and where.

It was a Dragon.

Over the many past years, it had been respectfully known as Toragotos.

In Fang Hong’s mind, it was as if a bolt of lightning had flashed, many things that had been obscured in mist suddenly seemed to clarify in an instant—according to Sophie’s description, the old dragon was consistently greedy, so why had it suddenly become so generous to him, a stranger?

Was it because of the Dragon Chosen?

And because of Tainaric’s reasons?

But Fang Hong only unconsciously raised his right hand and looked at the back of his hand.

There was a silver Mark there, something Nikopolas had referred to as the Pale Glory more than once, and that Dark Giant Dragon had shown an extraordinary greed for it.

If it were just for cementing the black Sealing underground as per the Covenant with the Goddess Milaila, then why wouldn’t the opponents grant privileges to the Silver Weslan and their party, instead insisting on keeping this most powerful combat force of Fenris outside the rules of the game?

That was illogical.

But on the contrary, it was quite comprehensible—

He had been deeply puzzled before, but it was Princess Hilveld of Silver Weslan, accustomed to Toragotos’s greed, who did not develop any alertness toward it.

And thinking back to the chaos in the Saint Peru Valley, it now also seemed full of doubts; while it was meant to select the best of the best, wouldn’t there have been a better method? Fang Hong carefully recalled the other party’s indifference at that time; the Giant Dragon clearly wasn’t too concerned about the lives of the people.