Pillar of Yita

The towering monster spread its flesh wings, landing with a ’roar’ on a remnant of beam and pillar. Its strong claws kicked off the stone wall, turning to pounce on them again.

The knights drew their curved blades with a clang and turned in that direction. But before they could engage, a feather arrow shot through the air, striking the monster’s chest and pinning it with a crashing sound against the stone wall behind.

The stone wall emitted a low, muffled sound, collapsing, and the ground trembled slightly, raising a cloud of dust.

Ye Hua put away the longbow, and the knights looked over with some awe. However, amid the smoke and dust, the monster wasn’t immediately dead, struggling and screaming for a long time before its voice gradually faded.

Fang Hong silently looked over, and his eyes met Ye Hua’s, both seeing the silence in each other’s eyes.

The monster was nailed to death by Ye Hua’s arrow. But it was an arrow from the Ten Kings, yet even so, it wasn’t killed instantly, showcasing its formidable life force.

What if an ordinary person faced it?

After the monster’s death, its massive flesh wings weakly flopped to the ground. The dark red blood vessels on them, like lava flowing over volcanic ash, glowed red, slowly flowing downward. Wherever they went, the muscles and skin melted in turn, turning into sparkling spots of fire, drifting into the sky.

In an instant, it seemed, the enormous corpse was reduced to a pile of charred bones. And the bones soon vanished with the wind.

Watching the embers rising into the sky, Hilveld told him that these ashes would soon turn into new monsters. ”They can never be completely killed, and soon they’ll resurrect on this battlefield—”

The knights then told him there were two kinds of monsters here, and that was just one of them.

And Fang Hong soon encountered the other kind.

He had actually seen such monsters before, the Blood Servants he had seen in Tansnier. They emerged in groups from the alleys, and encountering them meant facing a fierce battle.

Luckily, the combat power of the Blood Servants was far less than the previous monster, and the knights could handle them with ease. But these monsters couldn’t be killed either; even if you cut off their heads, they would resurrect quickly.

”They were Sand Thieves in life,” a knight told him.

Fang Hong remained silent. It seemed the Blood Worms nurtured by the Blind Followers in Tansnier were used on those Sand Thieves first. Though they deserved it, the cunning tactics of the Blind Followers still left one uneasy.

The deeper he went into the Inner City, the more the traces of combat gradually disappeared. Lying on the stretcher, he saw live Sand Pirate prisoners for the first time. They were strung together with a rope, and many knights in silver helm and armor stood nearby.

Seeing those knights and the flag on the opponent’s lance, Fang Hong was momentarily stunned. If he was not mistaken, they were from Colin.

The knight from before explained to him that the Colin people had joined the battle at the last moment, defeating the Sand Thieves. The gratitude in his tone was evident.

Fang Hong was a bit surprised to hear this. The Colin people had an envoy group here, but he knew the alliance between Colin Ishurian and Istania, and without the King of Sand or Quistack’s presence, they typically wouldn’t interfere in Istania’s internal strife.

A Colin knight in the distance saw their group at this point, suddenly leaving his entourage and walking over.

The knight came close, lifted his visor, revealing a pair of eyes looking at them, and spoke gruffly from under his helmet: ”Everyone, can you help us find someone? Have any of you seen a young girl, about nineteen years old, with blonde hair, light blue eyes, exceptionally beautiful—”

He had a necklace tied to his gauntlet, with a round pendant hanging at the end. The knight moved it a bit to open the pendant, revealing a photograph beneath the crystal.

He gestured to the girl on it, saying to the crowd, ”Like her, but a bit older. Have any of you seen her?”

The Istania knights shook their heads.

When Fang Hong saw the pendant, he turned back somewhat surprised, only to find that Hilveld had at some point donned a headscarf and veil, looking like a maidservant of the Royal Palace.

He remembered that she also used to have a beautiful silver hair arrangement, just like in Golande.

Meeting his gaze, Hilveld playfully winked at him from under the veil, and reached out to silently hold his hand.

”Did you call the Colin people?” Fang Hong immediately understood what had happened, writing in her palm.

Like a child caught in a prank, the noble lady’s eyes curved into a very lovely smile.

”But they’re also looking for you.”

”Don’t worry,” Hilveld gently offered in his palm, making his hand tickle a little. ”There won’t be any problems.”

Fang Hong was still somewhat worried, fearing Hilveld would attract the Colin Royal Family’s attention. Here, they were just peripheral people, but in that court rivalry, the noble lady was at the center of the vortex.

Fortunately, the knight indeed didn’t pursue further. After politely inquiring, he bid them farewell.

Within the Kashan Royal Palace, the atmosphere remained intensely tense.

”The Sand Thieves have retreated.”

”To be precise, most of them have become those monsters...”

”Those monsters don’t yet seem intent on attacking Kashan Palace, but they’re hovering outside the defenses, and are clearly drawing closer...”

Saisheer’s tone was calm, but the underlying anxiety was not hard to detect. ”More importantly, North City...”