Pillar of Yita

He said begrudgingly, ”It’s the little girl from the Albert family; she wants to give it a try.”

”Ah—”

A low exclamation came from the other end of the crystal.

Then, there was nothing more.

...

Copper Nose—or rather, the current chairman of the Southern Alliance, was walking down from the high platform with an awkward smile. Just as Fang Hong imagined, Sonan Steelbrow is a typical Dwarf, possessing all the characteristics of one.

For example, he’s narrow-minded, bad-tempered with a loud voice, and quite stubborn. However, the Dwarves’ stubbornness and focus have led them far in the path of Alchemy, with Dwarf Artisans like Sonan Steelbrow often having a unique skill up their sleeve.

In fact, he is exactly like that.

Earlier, when he worked at the Golande Artisan’s General Guild, he was one of the authorities on Colin Ishurian’s Magic Potion Studies. After coming south, he also became a top Master in the field of Magic Potion Studies and has served as the vice-chairman of Alchemy for three different artisan guilds.

In his own words, he is a prominent figure in the Colin Ishurian Alchemy Realm.

Of course, Ande Ulriel sneers at this.

The Dwarves of Eldron live in high mountain, cold areas, where their big noses often turn red from the freezing cold. However, Sonan Steelbrow is an exception; his nose, due to early Alchemy experiments, has turned a yellowish color, more like metal.

Hence, he got the nickname Copper Nose.

Like most Dwarves, he doesn’t really mind this nickname—after all, for a Dwarf, not having a loud nickname would be a disgrace.

The hall was bustling with noise—

Just as Ande Ulriel suspected, the Fenlick region is preparing for the final match of the upcoming Colin Ishurian Continental League. Teams from Tarun, the Ancient Tower, Ishurian, and the Scepter Coast had already arrived here in recent days.

Many of these people are Invokers.

Or rather, the majority are.

During this season over the past two years, it can be said that the most outstanding young generation of Alchemists in the Colin Ishurian division gather here. In past years, the final was usually held in Golande.

But this time, it’s held in the Southern Region, apparently to ease the tension between the north and south, a gesture of goodwill from the Artisan Association.

How effective it might be, only the heavens would know.

Sonan Steelbrow’s old face reddened, for he didn’t expect the one to voluntarily propose participating would be the beloved little princess of Alesio Xilin Sibika. He had benefited from her grandfather’s favor in his early years, and although Dwarves have bad tempers, they at least don’t become traitorous.

Besides, how influential was the former head of the Sibika family in the Southern Region?

Even someone as renowned as Ande Ulriel, a legendary Alchemist, was once merely an assistant to him.

So when the latter spoke, the crystal fell silent.

Some people even seemed pleasantly surprised: ”Our little princess is back?”

”Shut your mouth, keep it down!”

Sonan Steelbrow couldn’t be bothered to listen to these old men gossip. He had made the Southern Region his second home after fifteen years. Additionally, the warmth of the south was a much better alternative to the harsh cold of Eldron.

He put down the crystal and stepped down from the high platform before saying to a middle-aged man beside him, ”Did you hear that? They’re sending someone else; their side’s identity is very high, so you should also find another person, someone less powerful as an opponent.”

The middle-aged man hesitated slightly, ”Who is the other side?”

”No more nonsense,” Sonan Steelbrow replied, ”this is your opportunity, make the best of it—hmph, if it weren’t for the young person in your team who I favor most, I wouldn’t even bother with you Ancient Tower people.”

The middle-aged man shrugged.

Whether Dwarves or Humans from Colin Ishurian, they look down on the ’Savages’ of the Knight Nations from the Ancient Tower.

But he is just an Earthling and couldn’t care less about the ’discrimination chain’ between these native people. Upon hearing this, he nodded politely, bowed slightly, and then parted the crowd to walk out.

The middle-aged man threaded through the hall to one side of the hall’s door—where there was a thick crowd gathered in layers. In the midst of the crowd, there was a smaller version of a Magic Guided training engine; it looked almost no different from the one in the center of the hall, except it was not connected to the magic power network.

On the Magic Guided training engine, a light net was being projected.

A young boy and a young girl each held a Resonance Crystal, positioned at opposite ends of the light net.

But compared to the girl’s composed demeanor, the boy was clearly sweating profusely, looking nervous. When the middle-aged man parted the crowd and stepped in, the boy could no longer endure it and released the crystal in his hand, shaking his head in defeat:

”I lost... Damn, it was so close.”

”Close?” The girl lifted her head sharply, a bit aggressive: ”I wasn’t even serious, you still have a long way to go.” She snorted lightly once more: ”The Silver Forest Crown isn’t all that impressive after all.”

The boy blushed at her words, unable to utter a single response.

An angry shout came from the crowd: ”What did you say, you stinking woman!?”

The girl turned her head, only to see a group of Silver Forest Spear members holding back a cursing boy. If Fang Hong were here, he would surely recognize the ID of this person—Liuli Yue. Beside him was a little girl, fuming with anger, shouting: ”You dead stick, what’s so great about that!? If you have the guts, compete with me instead?”

Vikki just shook her head, bothered not by these boring people.

And it was at this moment that a voice came from behind her: ”Vikki, come over here for a moment.”

The girl tossed her hair and turned around, asking, ”What’s up, coach, are they ready over there?”

”No,” said the middle-aged man, shaking his head, ”they’re planning to switch someone out, it’s a native, supposedly with high status...” He looked at the bespectacled, squinting boy beside the girl: ”Yuhao, you’ll be up for this round.”

The boy nodded somewhat mechanically.

”How troublesome.” The girl couldn’t help but complain.

...