Pillar of Yita

Beyond the place where the shipyard connects to the dry dock is a cliff. In Eteliria, there’s actually no fixed term for dry or floating docks; the locals call it ’Uridar’, simply because it’s what the Invoker prefer.

In front of the dry dock is a lock, outside the lock connects to the Sky Sea, and the towering cliff stands there. Fang Hong noticed that even within the Colin Ishurian Sky Land, there are significant differences in the coastal rock layers in different regions.

The steep cliffs made of the commonly seen grayish-white chalk in the north and the Black Forest covering them disappear in the south. Here, there are only rolling yellow sandstones and sporadically growing thorny shrubs on the cliff, rustling in the breeze blowing across the Sky Sea.

Fang Hong sat on the edge of the cliff, gazing at the distant horizon, where the cotton-like floating cloud islands blurred with the sea-sky boundary. On Earth, ’sea-sky boundary’ is just a metaphor, but here, it is difficult to tell the line between sea and sky.

This is a transparent sea; aside from clusters of cloud mountains floating above this ’sea surface’, you can only see Sky Sea fish swimming between the cloud islands, or from afar, three little white dots with triangular sails, sailing above the sky, trailing three long streaks behind the ships—turquoise.

As the vision goes down, you can see the cliff descending vertically for over a thousand meters, resulting in rock layers appearing in different colors. Closer to the ground, there are green shrubs, and further down, the rock color darkens, barren and bare.

Beneath the distant clouds is a truly azure sea, shimmering in the sunlight—but it appears too calm, like a dark blue Crystal. It’s not the water surface, but the Stratosphere, where there is no Wind Element, and Floating Ships entering would lose lift.

Although it seems near, the Sky Sea layer actually reaches ten kilometers high, from the middle layer of Sky Land to the Windless Layer, also nearly four thousand meters. The thickness of the Stratosphere is half of the Sky Sea layer; crossing the Windless Layer of the Stratosphere leads to the entrance of the Abyssal Sea.

To date, those reaching the deepest part of the Sky Sea have actually not truly entered the Abyssal Sea; it’s merely a surface relic from the Xinsas Era left in the Abyssal Sea, including the Spire site visited by Hilveld.

In the midst of thoughts came Tata’s voice: ”Mr. Knight.”

Fang Hong snapped back to reality and hurriedly asked: ”What’s wrong?”

”Something has happened in the community.”

Fang Hong was slightly taken aback as Miss Fairy already projected a light screen in front of him, now quite adept at handling these matters. Fang Hong looked at the screen, first seeing a bold title indicating a sudden incident—below was the content, as he looked downwards, he froze again:

”Trouble in the Southern Region again?”

The article states that BBK’s integration of the New Southern Border Alliance faced trouble once more—while settling in White City, a group of officials faced spontaneous resistance from local Invoker. In fact, it resembles what happened last time in Dulun.

However, this time the issue is much more severe. It’s reported that after the attackers killed the BBK people, they declared White City outside the jurisdiction of the Southern Region Alliance.

Fang Hong has always been concerned about matters in the Southern Region, already so months ago, after the Dulun resolution occurred, most Guilds in the Southern Region, originally part of the Southern Region Alliance, followed Ye Hua’s order like the Forest Guild and disbanded.

Among them, some became real Free Adventurers like the Forest Guild, seeking new paths. Others remained in the Southern Region, though outwardly losing the identity as alliance members, but privately many kept their old connections, forming a potential alliance.

These people are actually the majority.

Fang Hong has heard about this secret alliance; in fact, the Elfendo Council played a role in its advancement—the Southern Region Alliance may have disbanded, but the Elfendo Council remains, primarily a native organization. Even the Super Competitive League cannot meddle with Alchemists.

Through covert means, the Council draws more members of the former Southern Region Alliance into this alliance. It effectively reorganizes the fragmented alliance back together—a method somewhat similar to the Tabopolis Oak Knights’ approach, though one is intentional and one unintentional.

Due to the Fanric incident, the Super Competitive League has been preoccupied, and BBK’s integration of the New Southern Border Alliance stalled for months. Only recently resumed, but during the valuable lost time, this covert alliance grew stronger.

Fang Hong knows these matters naturally through his mentor Ande, who rejoined the Elfendo Council after the Fanric incident, replacing Pudra’s position. Especially after Count Westwood Sibika’s incident, his status in the Council rose further. As one of many council decision-makers, he naturally knows these secrets and shared them with his student.

BBK can be considered the culprit behind the dissolution of the old Southern Region Alliance. Their interests starkly contrast, so certainly, there’s no goodwill between them. In fact, during its southern advance, BBK faced multiple obstructions from the ’Dark Alliance’.