Pillar of Yita

The ’Eye of Revelation’ headquarters has taken action, with a group of arcanists leaving the Cloud Lighthouse, heading north into the desert after leaving the port.

And this direction is precisely the location that Fang Hong recently identified from the scan map.

Thus, he immediately realized that these arcanists might have made a discovery, which is precisely the reason they are here now.

However, as professionals skilled in Divination Magic, the ’Eye of Revelation’ arcanists are not easy to track — among Eteliria’s three scouting methods, divination spells have the widest range, with spells above the tenth circle capable of investigating matters thousands of kilometers away.

Of course, the arcanists they are tracking might not be that exaggerated. But if they become aware within a few miles, it would still be enough to expose them.

After all, the two major shortcomings of magic scrutiny are inflexibility and lack of detail, but these two shortcomings have little impact in the desert environment. Placing an Eye of Detection in high air makes them as conspicuous as ants on a smooth concrete surface.

Therefore, Fang Hong didn’t just follow over rashly.

His plan was to first determine the general location of the other party and then use ’Hornet-I’ to track their position from a distance. After being upgraded to ’Hornet-I’, with the enlarged main control crystal, the magic power effects naturally further enhanced, extending the controllable range by over fifty percent, with the maximum distance stretching to seven or eight kilometers away.

At this distance, even if the other side discovered the Clockwork Fairy, it would still be difficult for them to detect their position.

However, the downside is just as it is now—

In the desert environment, the use of common flexible constructs is greatly restricted. Although the Clockwork Fairy II was upgraded to ’Hornet-I’, sand would still get inside.

The result, as expected, is obvious.

Fang Hong put down the Communication Crystal, took a few steps forward, and finally found his silver Clockwork Fairy beneath a sand dune with the help of a reflection. He bent over, picked it up from the sand, and patted it, yellow sand flowing out like a waterfall from the construct.

He shook the thing, sighing. Though the new toy isn’t completely beyond repair yet, if he doesn’t carefully clean the inside, it’ll be a while before it can fly again.

No wonder Istania gave birth to a school like Magic Guided Constructs; mechanical constructs simply can’t be used here.

But fortunately, only the mechanical parts malfunctioned, yet the vision crystal can still connect; otherwise, it would have been really hard to recover it in this vast Sand Sea.

A construct he just spent a lot of money upgrading would make him cry out if one were scrapped right after going out.

Fang Hong digitized and stored the jammed mechanical structure ’Hornet-I’ into the crystal, then looked around. Because they only sent out one ’Hornet-I’, it naturally lost its target after its crash.

Yet what puzzled him was, even if the target was lost at that time, how could they have suddenly disappeared while being pursued across this vast Sand Sea?

This area is near the coastline, with a wide-open view. Theoretically, the short time they wasted shouldn’t have caused them to lose track.

He couldn’t help but pick up the crystal again and asked, ”Hilveld, did you see those arcanists?”

”There’s nothing to see in this direction.”

Fang Hong couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

At this point, Elisa seemed to come back to her senses, having heard the conversation through the Communication Crystal. She walked a few steps forward to the edge of a nearby cliff.

She squatted down, brushed the ground lightly a few times with her hand, revealing solid rock under a shallow layer of sand — taking another look ahead, she suddenly realized something, glancing downward once more before standing up and asking:

”Could they have gone below?”

”Below?”

An idea suddenly flashed through Fang Hong’s mind.

He immediately raised the Communication Crystal, changed to another contact, and asked, ”Forest, have you found out if there’s any hidden location northwest of Tansnier?”

Before coming to this place, they had, of course, considered the possibility of losing track, therefore preparing with two strategies. Trying to follow the ’Eye of Revelation’ arcanists was one, but if they missed it, they had left a group on the platform, narrowing down the range through the scan map to ascertain the arcanists’ destination.

Though the chance of uncovering useful clues in a short time was low, it serves as a supplementary measure, ensuring they wouldn’t be completely helpless in such a situation.

Unexpectedly, this backup measure indeed came in handy at this moment.

And shortly, Tianlan’s voice came through the crystal: ”Brother Ade, there’s no such place on the map, north of Tansnier is just an unnamed coastline. Mr. Abed sent a map used internally by the royal household, but there’s nothing there—”

”Ah, wait, there is...”

Her voice suddenly turned into an excited shout: ”Forest just found a document stating that northwest of Tansnier there’s a smuggling port, but Mr. Abed told us it was cleaned out by the Grand Princess before, leaving only...”

”Leaving only what?”

”... hang on, the Big Cat is asking... right, the Grand Princess dismantled the simple port facilities there, but there’s still a natural anchorage.”

”Where is it?” Fang Hong immediately asked again.

”It’s very hidden, hard for me to describe, but roughly below the cliff, three or four hundred meters from the ground.”

Tianlan suddenly stopped there.

But after a while, she supplemented: ”Mr. Abed also said, there’s a path leading down there, Brother Ade, you should look carefully.”

”Then please convey my thanks to Mr. Abed.”

Fang Hong said this and then turned off the Communication Crystal.

He looked up at the steep cliff ahead, carved as if by knives and axes, and couldn’t help taking a few steps forward, joining Miss Nightingale at her side.

The others followed behind, with the Papalarian peeking down, showing a shocked expression as if they had seen a ghost: ”We aren’t going down from here, are we? You really think those arcanists could climb down, that wouldn’t just be one or two people...”

”They certainly didn’t climb down from here,” Elisa replied, turning around: ”There’s likely a path leading down nearby. Their sudden disappearance from our view might be due to this.”

Fang Hong nodded, agreeing with this viewpoint.

Nonetheless, this wasn’t an easy matter.

The Sky Sea’s coastline isn’t cut straight down like slicing through butter; the cliff is sleek as a mirror, everything below is clear at first glance. However, this meandering coastline, shaped by millennia of wind erosion, inherently presents a complex landscape.

Cliffs descending hundreds of meters often form layers upon layers of erosion structures, these erosion layer structures create similar landforms to those on Earth’s coastlines — fjords, capes, even shoals, but the difference is, it’s three-dimensional.

More resembling a grand maze.

This type of terrain exists in the gray rocky regions north of Colin Ishurian but is even more convoluted in this desert region.

Finding something in this maze within a short time truly isn’t an easy task.

Moreover, what frustrates Fang Hong even more is the risk of releasing ’Hornet-I’ here. If it falls into sand, it can still be retrieved, but if it falls into the Sky Sea, must they venture beneath the Abyssal Sea to retrieve it?

While hesitating, he suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from below.

Then, in full view, a bald head popped up from below the cliff.

That bald head scrambled up from below, evidently not expecting people atop the cliff, momentarily staring wide-eyed at everyone. But when he saw Fang Hong, his eyes grew even wider:

”What?!?”

”Dragon Slaying Master?”

...