Pillar of Yita

The courtyard was filled with these Bain Knights, blocking every exit below and beginning to encircle in this direction, with the knights moving in teams of at least five, and sometimes several teams acting together.

Of course, when the pursuit was too close, Fang Hong would sometimes take advantage of the informational advantage to hide nearby temporarily and let the knights pass first. Thanks to the Clockwork Fairy scouting ahead, he could always anticipate the enemy’s moves. The opponents seemed to lack a Combat Artisan — but even if they had one, he wasn’t worried.

About halfway through the Central Court, he once again hid in the shadows, observing through the Clockwork Fairy’s vision, the Desert Knights wrapped in turbans and cloaked in robes. The opponents’ arms bore blue wolf eagle tattoos, with the leader having a scorpion tattoo on his left arm. Each team of knights had at least one such Scorpion Knight.

According to Little Fatty, knights with wolf eagle tattoos were at Level 20, and the leaders were of even higher levels.

Under no circumstances could he come face to face with these knights.

He could barely handle three to five of them, but escaping would be difficult, let alone defeating them in combat.

But he couldn’t always let them pass first; with too much hiding, more and more knights would get ahead of him, and the path behind would only become harder to traverse.

Moreover, if the opponents discovered they had gone too far and decided to search again, they would be more meticulous. Although the Central Court was large, it was merely a part of the fortress, and besides a large number of knights, the opponents had even more guards. Though the guards couldn’t stop him, they were like walking alarms.

A large number of alarms was also a troublesome matter.

After a nearby team of knights passed, he advanced once again. To prevent the opponents from realizing they overshot and returning, he changed his route again. But he hadn’t gone far before facing the guarded main gate; although there weren’t many opponents, a few ’Eye of Revelation’ Hall Guard Knights stood in the courtyard in another direction.

These opponents were equally tricky.

Fang Hong thought for a moment and set up a Mirrorer in place.

The guards at the gate soon saw a shadow flash by in front, and in this situation, they tensely shouted immediately: ”Someone’s over there!”

The guard’s shout quickly caught the attention of the Hall Guard Knights in the courtyard, who ran over from a distance and asked, ”What’s happening?”

”Someone passed over there!” the guard gestured.

The Hall Guard Knights didn’t suspect anything and all chased in that direction.

Just as they left, a shadow flew overhead, dropping several Floating Bombs.

After a flash of light, the guards stood frozen in place. Fang Hong and his Energy Angel instantly flashed into the scene. The Energy Angel dealt with two guards in one strike each, while Fang Hong fired a Flying Fist, sending the last guard crashing into a door pillar, his fate unknown. But Fang Hong didn’t have time to worry about it, nor could he retrieve the Mirrorer, and with the Energy Angel, he burst through.

Once through the gate, the road ahead was quite familiar to Fang Hong; he’d traversed it a few times, and the outer area of the fortress was now close at hand.

But Fang Hong suddenly stopped abruptly, retreating into the shadows. From the direction he retreated, a streak of Silverlight flew into his hand. Moments later, a team of over twenty Bain Knights hurriedly walked by, passing his direction and running to the other side.

Fang Hong waited before stepping out of the shadows, looking in the direction the Bain Knights had left, unable to help a sigh of relief. He looked at the ’Hornet-I’ in his hand. Thankfully, there was the Clockwork Fairy; this was the umpteenth time he’d barely avoided detection. But this was the last usable Clockwork Fairy; the flexible construct was too costly to use in the sandstorm.

Fortunately, getting into the sand didn’t mean it couldn’t be repaired; it just wasn’t the right time.

From this point on, he’d have to rely on himself.

Honestly, Fang Hong wasn’t accustomed to acting without a ’vision advantage,’ giving him a apprehensive feeling as if walking in total darkness. He even, quite unusually, prayed to the Goddess of Fortune, hoping she would bring him good luck, though he didn’t know whether such last-minute prayers would be of use. Fang Hong thought and prayed a few words to the Lady of the Forest, Ameya.

Since he had ’met’ this Goddess, she’d at least show some favor, right?

And Lady Roman, generally as long as you offered money, you could seek her protection. So Fang Hong promised that if his luck held and he didn’t run into enemies, he’d donate to Lady Roman’s Commercial Temple. Though it seemed rather laughable, given that she was the Shelter of Commerce, surely the concept of ’credit’ existed?

In short, Fang Hong had called upon every deity he could think of for help.

He didn’t know if the deities heard this insignificant prayer, but if they did— they might want to drag out this False Believer and kill him.

Fang Hong usually didn’t believe in such intangible things as luck, but in this dire situation, there was nothing else he could do.

Yet he had just stepped out, taking a few steps forward, when he felt something amiss. He paused slightly confused, turned around, and saw a skunk-like little creature, in the corridor, following behind him step by step. When he stopped, the creature looked up, gazing at him with eyes like small black beans.