Pillar of Yita

”Three more hours till Liming.”

Fang Hong muttered to himself.

A moment later, he asked again, ”Any news on the community?”

The one who answered was Parker. ”You asked at just the right time, Alchemist, I just found a post from our Miss Nightingale,” the Papalarian replied smugly. Ever since the lesson from the last dust storm, they had picked up some new tricks and agreed on how to keep in touch if they lost their usual means of communication.

They had split it into three scenarios: comms system down, community down, and all normal means down—right now it was actually just the comms system that was down. Something unknown was going on over in Quistack, cutting off contact with the outside. But unlike the great dust storm, the community was still accessible as usual.

Under those circumstances, they had agreed in advance to post in a fixed section using a fixed format to reach each other. Of course, for secrecy, the posts themselves were anonymous, and the titles were the kind that made normal people scratch their heads:

”Selling cabbages, 100,000 Lycel per jin, or trade for Rocket Fist.”

”Pretty much what the Captain guessed,” Luo Yu had clearly opened that post as well, and spoke up now. ”The Sand Thief have launched an Attack on Quistack.”

”Have they breached the Outer City?”

Luo Yu nodded.

”And Alchemists suddenly popping up too?”

Luo Yu nodded again.

”What’s the situation now?”

”Princess has ordered the Royal Gards and the Knights of Marlan and Androma to take the initiative and engage the Sand Thief outside the Inner City, to buy time for the citizens to be evacuated to the northern districts...”

”But once the King of the Sand Thief Mahazar forced his way onto Patrick Great Bridge, the moment the King of the Sand Thief and his men showed up, the battle stopped looking optimistic... Fortunately, the Paladins of Marlan escorted Princess Rupert and the others back into the Inner City. Relying on the Inner City’s walls, they should still be able to hold out for a while...”

But Alphonse, standing off to the side, shook his head at that.

The Half-Person had come with them and would leave with them as well. He actually wasn’t keen on taking this risk, but the King of Sand had made heavy promises to this only Half-Person guide who could sail, and with such a huge reward dangling in front of him, how could a ”Bounty Hunters” ever say no?

As for whether he’d live long enough to collect, that was naturally not something to think about.

The Half-Person suddenly cut in at this point. ”Since Quistack was built, no one has ever broken through its Outer City wall. The boundless Sand Sea is this Royal City’s best defense. Very few armies can cross the Sand Sea to get here and then conquer this city. Besides, who would even fancy such a barren place...”

”So after hundreds of years, the Quistack people have become used to living easy. The Outer City’s defenses are barely passable when it comes to handling Sand Thief on a normal day, but as for the Inner City—its guard has long since gone slack... Even with a full garrison, it’s hard to say if they can take a real hit, let alone now.”

Fang Hong heard this and didn’t argue, just asked again, ”Luo Yu, that’s the latest battle update?”

This time, before the latter could answer, Parker piped up in his shrill voice, ”No need to look. That was from half an hour ago.”

”Half an hour ago?”

Luo Yu glanced at the timestamp of the last reply as well. Aside from the irrelevant responses from other users on the community, Miss Nightingale’s last reply was indeed thirty minutes ago. ”Yeah. Nothing after that?”

”It’s not just this thread,” Parker added. ”I checked the other related posts on the community. There are about thirty or so threads about the Sand Thief Attack on Quistack, and all the main-thread replies cut off thirty minutes ago. The latest one was thirty-one minutes.”

Fang Hong frowned silently.

If it were just Elisa not replying for half an hour, it could simply mean nothing new had happened over there in that window. But when every single related topic on the community went silent within the same thirty minutes, it could only mean that something else had happened in Quistack.

Even the community had gone dark.

He immediately turned and shouted up to Pasha on the top deck, ”Pasha, send a Magic Messenger back.”

A crisp boyish voice came from the mast at once. ”Got it, Lord Captain!”

Alphonse let out a sigh then. ”Half an hour, that’s about two Talia Tick, right? The Sand Thief were already past Patrick Bridge before that. If we can’t speed up, odds are they’ll only leave us a pile of rubble.”

The Half-Person shrugged again. ”Honestly, I don’t really get why you accepted the King of Sand’s terms. Even if we make it, so what? Are we supposed to stop Mahazar, or help the Princess hold the city?”

Fang Hong was weighed down with worry and didn’t respond to him right away. Instead, he said to Luo Yu, ”Can we go any faster, Luo Yu?”

Luo Yu nodded. ”I can try.”

Only then did Fang Hong turn back and counter Alphonse, ”Then why did you agree, Mr. Alphonse?”

”Me?” Alphonse thought for a moment. ”Naturally, for the money. The odds aren’t great, but you’ve got to take your shot. Besides, I’ve only collected the deposit from Princess so far. Job done means payment due. Mr. Ade should understand that, right?”

That line almost made Fang Hong forget the current mess they were in. He looked at the guy, half exasperated, half amused. ”So basically, even if the King of Sand hadn’t brought it up, you’d have gone back anyway?”