Pillar of Yita

The conflict at the entrance to the Inner Court had barely begun before it was declared over, as quickly and suddenly as it had started.

In that moment, the Hall Guard Knight saw a peculiar silver Construct ’drill’ out from within his colleague’s body and pass through an invisible water surface, where the spatial ripples undulated, and his colleague’s face cracked like a mirror, shattering into pieces, gradually disappearing like melting snow.

Although he retreated swiftly enough, he still took a sword to the chest; the blade, like a silver fang, pierced through his robe and the thick ring armor beneath, slashing across his collarbone, leaving a penetrating wound near his right shoulder.

”It’s an illusion.”

Pressing his wound, the Hall Guard Knight rolled back, shouting lowly, ”It’s the enemy, stop them!”

The guards awoke as if from a dream, raising their long knives and spears to stab at the Energy Angel before them, but their whiteboard Magic Guided Device couldn’t penetrate the Angel’s armor, only striking ineffectively, causing nothing but sparks to fly. After rolling back, the Hall Guard Knight showed no intention of lingering; as the guards rushed forward, he decisively retreated.

Upon contact with the bizarre Swordsman Construct, he realized that he could take on either of these Constructs individually, but the Combat Artisan controlling them behind the scenes was a different matter, especially since he was already injured.

With an instinctual awareness, he almost instantaneously perceived the opponent’s intentions, made the correct judgment—taking two or three steps back, then turned around, sprinting wildly towards the door on the other side of the Inner Court.

This left the guards, who hadn’t reacted yet, in a difficult spot.

These charging guards—compared to the Energy Angel, a seventeenth-level Variant Swordsman Construct, exaggerating a bit, their attributes barely surpass those of an unarmed ordinary person—in fact, their attacks appeared slow even to Fang Hong’s eyes. In the next moment, the two silver swordsmen danced among the crowd like butterflies, and the guards’ swords and knives clattered to the ground.

Soldiers were forced to retreat, leaving a clear path.

At this moment, Fang Hong appeared outside the door, raised his right hand, spreading his fingers in this direction: a blue Light Gate opened above the Inner Court, and a giant Knight Construct plummeted from the sky, standing on the ground like a giant, the raised dust and shockwave dizzying the surrounding guards.

People hadn’t even clearly seen what had happened, retreating in terror as though the tide were receding, revealing an emptiness in the Inner Court courtyard.

Luo Hao and his group, bearing the Shield of Lufu, saw this scene upon charge from the gates, stunned—were it any other profession, it might not evoke the same feeling. But when an Alchemist stands among the masses with his giant Construct, surrounded by panicked, scattering guards, it created a stationary tableau, evoking the impression of a Dragon Knight facing thousands—Combat Artisans called Pseudo Dragon Knights, not purely rhetorical exaggeration.

Even Luo Hao thought this, let alone the Shield of Lufu’s members, many seeing this scene, pondering if they too could take up the Alchemist profession. Of course, such thoughts were fleeting, as the battlefield’s clamor quickly pulled everyone back to reality.

As the giant Knight Construct landed, it liberated the two Energy Angels, unleashing a low rumble internally, and with a ’hum’, raised its spear, throwing it towards the escaping Hall Guard Knight.

To the members of the Shield of Lufu, this seemed an eternity, but it was over in a breath; the spear flew from the metal giant’s hand, striking the pillar of the other side’s door. The Hall Guard Knight had just reached the door, witnessing the stone pillar collapse before him, bringing the heavy door with it, about a ton of stone, crashing to the ground.

He braked abruptly, rolling back to narrowly avoid being buried.

But as he halted, next to the Orphen Twins Stars, the two silver swordsmen blinked—like elongated meteors, their shimmering blades traversed the Inner Court garden, arriving before him. The Hall Guard Knight, aghast, retreated and raised his sword to block.

With the sound of clashing metal, sparks flew.

The piercing pain in his right shoulder forced him to retreat.

But as he stepped back, he was pressed against a partially broken pillar, the Energy Angel’s horizontal slash being the last thing the Hall Guard Knight saw.

Yet Fang Hong did not choose to kill; at the last moment, he instructed the Energy Angel to reverse the sword’s edge, striking the foe hard with the spine, knocking him unconscious. Though they were opposing forces, Fang Hong was no sentimentalist, but with absolute advantage, he avoided killing.

This was mainly because he hadn’t confirmed whether his misunderstanding with the Arcanist was genuine; Delan’s information that the opposition also served the Royal House of Penelope left an impression on him.