Pillar of Yita

”Even if this is a prank, who would pull such a prank in such terrible weather?”

Indeed, it was suspicious. In the forests around the Great Canyon, even adventurers were rarely seen in the wild, let alone in the dead of winter when it was largely deserted. How could anyone come here to play a prank?

Fang Hong carefully inspected the armor. Inside, there were some magic guided structures, but those were merely components necessary for transmitting and utilizing magic power in ordinary magic guided armor. This wasn’t a construct armor, as it lacked both a connecting mechanism and a power core inside.

”Could it be a binding spirit?” he asked.

”I’m a paladin,” Sophie shot him a look.

Fang Hong smacked his forehead, realizing he had asked a foolish question. If it were the undead, the other party should have already detected it clearly, so why would they come to ask them?

”But I do recognize the emblem on this armor,” he replied. ”This is the armor of the Dulun City Guards. The phoenix is Dulun’s city emblem, and the owner of this armor might be a knight captain, as ordinary people can’t afford such full-body magic guided armor.”

”There’s a name on the neck guard, but it’s too rusty to read clearly.”

”I can solve this.” Rust removal is just a little trick for an alchemist.

Fang Hong walked to the cabinet, took a bottle from the second compartment, shook it, and poured the translucent liquid onto the armor. He then took a small knife from Hilveld, who was beside him, and gently scraped a few times, revealing a bright metallic sheen beneath the rust.

Sophie watched the two cooperate seamlessly, thinking of her and Xi and feeling a bit envious.

After the scraping, the metal still bore a faint layer of inscriptions, and the letters were barely discernible: ’—Loshelle-Modekais.’ ”Modekais,” Sophie’s eyes flickered slightly. ”I’ve heard of this family name.”

”The Phoenix Family,” Hilveld had already answered for her. ”Modekais means ’Phoenix’ in Ishurian. This family founded Dulun and still holds most of the power in Phoenix City.”

The so-called Phoenix City is naturally another name for Dulun. Compared to Dulun, the natives prefer this name, although the other two can understand it as well.

”The Phoenix Family members also hold positions in the City Guard Army,” Sophie replied. ”This person’s identity is likely not simple.”

Hilveld nodded in agreement.

Fang Hong stood up, gazing at the armor and feeling something was off. ”I always feel this armor looks familiar,” he asked the Miss Ship’s Officer beside him, ”Have we seen something like this before?”

Hilveld thought for a moment before recalling, answering, ”It should be under Dolifen. Tianlan and Atira have seen something exactly like this.”

Fang Hong also remembered that armor. It indeed seemed similar, but from a much older time. Thinking of that event, he couldn’t help but think of Red Leaf and Diket. The two had not had contact with them since one returned to Tabopolis and the other went to Elpaxin for several months.

However, they didn’t have any means of communication. Especially after his communication crystal was damaged, he added Red Leaf, but the latter hadn’t replied since going to Charter City.

Additionally, Diket had given him an introduction letter for Sir Roban. But while in Golande, the latter seemed busy with some court matters, unable to find time to meet them, so that introduction letter had not been useful —

He drew back his thoughts, looking at the armor. If it happened once, it could be considered a coincidence, but the repeated appearance of such items raised suspicions.

Furthermore, the last time this item appeared in Dolifen, a place deeply influenced by the Dragon Worship Sect. Though there wasn’t any evidence that the underground armor was related to the sect, the possibility couldn’t be ruled out.

He turned to Sophie. ”Did you notice anything else at that time?”

”Other discoveries?” Sophie furrowed her brows, thinking. ”It seemed like there were some... but I’m not sure. At that time, in the blizzard, I heard some strange voices, like footsteps, but also like whispers, as if they were calling someone’s name...”

”Calling whom?”

”I’m not sure.”

Fang Hong and Hilveld exchanged a glance. Atira, too, had heard such a call. For this reason, Diket had believed that armor to be a blight object and brought it back to the Artisan Association for examination.

Only, they didn’t know if there had been any result since.

He squatted down again to examine the area where the rust was removed. Beneath the rusty layer, the sheen of the metal faintly revealed a layer of magic patterns, identical to those they had seen on the previous armor.

But those were not traces left by Magic Guided Engineering. The Magic Guided Path was clearly visible and would not leave such oily-like colorful light.

”Have you seen this thing?” Sophie couldn’t help but ask.

”Yes,” Fang Hong nodded without raising his head. ”But we don’t know exactly what it is. We only know it might be a blight object.”

”Blight object,” Sophie frowned. ”That’s possible.” There are countless monsters in Eteliria, from the living to the undead, but most have textual records in various documents.

Only blight objects, those hidden existences, might fall outside the general people’s knowledge. They might be gifts from some dark deities or merely a mistake of divine strength—a divine miscreation.