Pillar of Yita

”No,” Elisa replied.

”Pure physical destruction,” Fang Hong furrowed his brows, ”It’s not easy to achieve this level—”

”Unless it’s a big creature,” Luo Yu estimated, ”At least three to four meters tall.”

”About two stories high,” Lady Kuisu joined the conversation. She was an experienced woodcutter, very sensitive to the density of the woods, able to discern the general shape of creatures passing through just by looking at the fallen trees. ”About two to two and a half meters wide, powerful.”

Fang Hong turned back and asked her, ”So, what creatures in the area fit this description?”

”Usually an old Dire Bear,” Lady Kuisu thought for a moment, ”an Ishurian Giant Deer, or a Dwarf Giant.”

Fang Hong silently estimated. He thought adventurers wouldn’t attack a giant deer without reason. The mention of Dwarf Giants led him to think of something else, but he didn’t voice this suspicion as there was no evidence.

He opened the system for a check. This sword has an attack of 44-61, with attribute plugins boosting strength and agility, also a self-activating shield with a shield value of 220 points. Not exactly a top-grade item, but quite good quality.

This also confirmed the prior opinion—

It seems that only one side in the battle was adventurers because only beasts and monsters wouldn’t be interested in these Magic Guided Conductors. Moreover, the adventurers must have retreated in defeat, not having time to clean the battlefield, otherwise, they wouldn’t leave these things behind.

The sword requires Level 5 Nightingale level, Level 7 warrior level, suggesting its owner’s character level was at least above Level 9, this being a minimum and not the maximum.

The other item was a pocket watch, also a Magic Guided Conductor. This small Magic Guided Conductor is mainly used to expand Magic Guided Reactor plugin slots. It had two common plugin interfaces haphazardly filled with two lesser agility plugins of +5 and +7.

This is more straightforward, requiring a character level of 11. Fang Hong estimated the level of this—or these Invokers, should be around Level 10.

This suggests that one party in the battle wasn’t the Murderous Vine Elisa encountered earlier; juvenile Murderous Vines are only Level 5, not at all a match for adventurers of this level. Besides, Murderous Vines couldn’t cause such a disturbance.

However, the appearance of juvenile Murderous Vines on this battlefield is indeed strange.

The group checked the stream below again, but apart from the juvenile Murderous Vine killed earlier by Elisa, they found nothing else, nor anything related to Lady Kuisu’s son.

Elisa speculated the adventurers involved in this battle might be related to the Invoker campsite discovered earlier. She had no particular reason, just a gut feeling. However, Fang Hong also agreed with this view.

There aren’t many Outsiders in this area, so it’s unlikely new adventurers would appear one after another. The traces left by the battle are still fresh, happening probably within a day or two, unlikely left by Lady Kuisu’s son’s team since no relevant clues were found at the scene.

The group could only continue upwards along the traces.

The broken trees must have been trampled from the valley below upwards, and that giant creature seemingly ended up inside the castle above.

Fang Hong put away the sword as spoils of war and handed the pocket watch to Elisa for use. However, as part of an official team now, the distribution of these items would need everyone’s consent once they return, to ensure they go to those who truly need them. For the time, it’s just to let them be of some use now.

They walked along the fallen vegetation and soon arrived at the western side of Aimumu Fortress. The collapsed city walls were coincidentally in this direction, with fallen debris forming a slope, submerging the original hillside.

Fang Hong looked up at the gap. ”It seems like it went inside the castle,” Luo Yu remarked beside him.

”Be careful,” Fang Hong reminded.

He released a few Clockwork Fairies and summoned an Energy Angel to follow by his side. The others also drew their weapons, proceeding up the slope formed by the rubble, heading towards the gap in the city wall.

The group crossed the gap, seeing the courtyard beyond lying silent and empty, save for a few barren strange trees, snow everywhere, with sparse weeds growing.

The thick snow buried traces, the trail they followed all the way up disappearing here. Fang Hong glanced over the courtyard, noticing what seemed to be a Holy Sanctuary on one side, adjacent to a dilapidated turret—with dark holes for windows, branches growing out, and in the dead of winter, leafless, their branches still.

On the other side stood the main building, five stories tall, despite rust-colored vines cascading down the mottled walls, the building was relatively well-preserved. Its sharp black roof pointed towards the leaden sky, the inside eerily silent, long past its days of glory.

The group moved through the courtyard, the only sound cutting the silence was their footsteps crunching the snow, the emptiness unnerving.

Gita constantly felt as if those dark windows were peeping at them, a sensation that was truly spine-chilling.

On the rooftop stood a few crows, overlooking them. As the party passed by the ancient well in the courtyard center, the black harbingers of death flapped into the air, startling Miss Natural Historian with a shiver.