Pillar of Yita

A stray bullet hit the shield not far away, sparking a flurry of sparks, but Fang Hong remained unmoved, only closing his eyes, placing one hand on the magic-guided component of the damaged glider backpack, appearing exceptionally calm. Not far away, Sicape slightly opened her mouth, somewhat surprised to see this little guy she had picked up—wasn’t he the same impulsive, head-strong young boy from usual days?

But Fang Hong knew that all of this was an illusion, merely reflections of his inner thoughts: perhaps he truly did want the recognition of Miss Sicape and Captain Kroid, but not in this guise, not in this scenario.

In an instant, a cluster of star-like points of light emerged before his eyes.

It was the structure of the magic-guided component of the glider backpack, not complex, with only a dozen or so clusters of light in the void. Because only a small magic-guided component of the glider backpack needed repair, if the main structure of the backpack was damaged, it would fall under the purview of professional tailors, even an artisan master wouldn’t suffice, this world behind the door might not be logical, but at least made sense, up to now it never given out inexplicable tests and challenges.

Everything is related to the tasks of the craftsman.

Fang Hong calmed his mind, letting his thoughts roam in the mesh-like world, and finding solid points of support. Following his first thought, five threads of light were birthed in the void, advancing side by side, practicing multiple parallel paths, something which he was already quite familiar with.

Within the first breath, fifteen nodes had filled one-third, in the second breath, the progress surpassed halfway. At the third breath, Fang Hong opened his eyes, gently brushing his hand over the magic-guided component. Before the onlookers could see clearly what had happened, with a ’click’ sound, he had reassembled the disassembled magic-guided component, though not brand new, it was restored to its former condition.

In the distance, flames and smoke rose, a volley of shots rang out once more in the darkness.

A barrage of bullets flew, scattering stones wildly over the wall, some pebbles pattered onto Fang Hong, rolling down his Alchemist coat—this was perhaps his only difference from that day, the deep blue Apprentice Alchemist robe, replaced with a more mature and steadier gray coat.

The golden star on his collar shimmered under the dim light.

Fang Hong didn’t bother to look back at the hail of bullets, letting the bullets clang against the shield of the Iron Defenders, only picking up that backpack, tossing it back amid silent gazes: ”Mr. Kroid.” Kroid caught the backpack in one hand and tossed it to another: ”Snail, go first.”

The scout known as ’Snail’ caught the backpack, strapped it on deftly, nodding towards the group, especially giving an astonished look at Fang Hong, gave him a thumbs up, then took two steps towards the wall’s edge, leaping off.

Another whizzing sound in the darkness, someone in the group was hit by an arrow and fell, Elsa glanced while under Shield Guard’s cover, shook her head lightly.

No one spoke, Kroid was the first to step forward, raising his sword to block in front, saying solemnly: ”Form shields, protect Ade.”

A heavy footstep of Iron Guard Feet sounded, Iron Defenders raised their shields before Fang Hong.

No one questioned why—

Sicape finally looked up towards the crowd and said: ”Throw the backpacks down.”

A pile of backpacks was dumped in front of Fang Hong, who didn’t say a word, only quickening his hand movements. His mind kept recalling experiences from training, in that training software, he had surpassed nearly everyone’s rank.

Except for the top one with the ID starting with R****, leaving everyone’s points far behind, but he too had encountered a bottleneck—after a period of rapid progress, the stagnation of skills arrived as expected—lately, he had devoted more time into Margin rather than Multi-Polarity Sphere.

But at this moment, every structural light point on these magic-guided components seemed to give Fang Hong an inexplicable insight. He suddenly remembered how long it had been since he repaired equipment under such a hail of bullets, only extreme environments could forge one’s full potential.

The backpacks in front of him were dwindling.

The figures around him were also diminishing one by one.

The gunfire in the darkness stopped at some point, ’Qin Zhi’ no longer drawing the bow as well.

The world seemed to be collapsing, the cloud wall at the horizon vanished, the forest disappeared, the moon-white ruins returned to void, finally leaving only a section of high wall. Leaving only Kroid and Sicape, ultimately leaving only Sicape alone.

Yet Fang Hong still did not look up.

He held the last magic-guided component in his hand, closing his eyes, in the Mind World secretly looking up, a bit amazed to ’see’ an ocean of light extending from his hand, those thousands of structural points, emitting light akin to stars shining eternally upon the ancient galaxy.

What, what is this?

Not far away, Sicape looked at him and lightly nodded, then turned and walked into the darkness.

As for Fang Hong, he could not clearly recall how he came back to awareness—

Only when he reopened his eyes, somewhat bewilderedly glancing around, was there any Elf Ruins, Forest Sea, or lonely moon, or high wall? Surrounding him was merely a small study filled with books, and not far off the arched window, the silver moon hung like a hook.

The moonlight passing through the sheer curtains, cast a somewhat misty veil over the room, making everything appear silent and ethereal.