Pillar of Yita

Xiangzi leaned against the mast, indifferent to it all.

”Let’s go, Little Fatty.”

Parker erupted in anger: ”Fatty, who are you calling fatty!?”

”I’m talking about you, Fatty,” Luo Hao replied, ”You can choose to come or stay.”

”Well, let me think about it.”

”Take your time thinking.”

”No, I’ve decided already—wait, why are you guys leaving so quickly!?”

”Don’t pull away the gangplank—”

A Papalarian let out a scream as they fell off the ship.

...

Luo Hao saw someone walking out from the port and disembarked.

The person was his direct superior, the same cold guy Fang Hong had seen last time, possibly named Zhang Tianmiu or something. He wore a black trench coat, with a low-visibility badge of the Stargate Defense Team on his arm, sunglasses perched on his nose, which he only removed upon reaching him, looking him up and down as if seeing him for the first time.

Even though it wasn’t their first meeting.

The scrutinizing gaze left Fang Hong perplexed, making him glance around—did he have flowers on his body? But the other seemed to catch his thought and said, ”No need to look, there are no flowers on you. I was just wondering how you managed to evade capture so well; last time, neither we nor the Descendants of Flor could catch you, and even this time the Colin People couldn’t either. Are you like a mouse?”

Fang Hong caught the implicit meaning, scratched his head, and though he hadn’t evaded much, decided to keep his mouth shut, fearing being struck dead on the spot.

Su Changfeng was also with Zhang Tianmiu, similarly clad in a black trench coat with a low-visibility badge, though slightly different from the former. Fang Hong wasn’t well-versed with the Stargate Defense Team, but since it was akin to a UN peacekeeping force, it had quite a differing rank structure than domestic military.

However, he could discern the stars and bars, indicating Su Changfeng’s rank was significantly higher than Zhang Tianmiu’s. Besides these two, the remaining individuals were guards; Fang Hong glanced curiously at them—they were both swordsmen, with a great sword strapped on their back and an off-hand sword at their waist, the Magic Guided Reactors active, making them fully armed.

The military also didn’t wear armor; generally, under the trench coat, there would be a layer of inner armor, with heavy units using standard Magic Guided Armor during wartime, the black trench coat likely serving as part of a regular uniform.

Fang Hong hadn’t been to a place like Crosswind Harbor before and didn’t know whether this was the usual state of a military base, but Luo Hao, coming over, gave them an odd look.

Then Su Changfeng spoke: ”You’re a bit late from the schedule, didn’t run into any trouble on the way, did you?”

Fang Hong shook his head; it was all thanks to the military’s assistance that they managed to escape Nogness. It was almost as if the military had dispatched an entire fleet just for them, clearing a safe path on the Old World’s Ladder route toward Eldron, so how could they have run into any trouble?

”I haven’t thanked you yet, sorry for causing trouble this time.”

”It’s no trouble; the exercise was part of our winter training, just in a different location,” Su Changfeng smiled, ”You didn’t really think we’d deploy a fleet to cover you, did you? Even if you had the clout, I wouldn’t have the authority. But as I’ve said, within our capabilities, we’ll support you as best as we can.”

Saying this, he paused, giving Fang Hong a look before turning to Tang Sheng and Zhang Rou: ”Mr. Tang, Lady Zhang, we have some matters to discuss with your little one.”

Zhang Rou nodded, having already exchanged greetings with Fang Hong for quite some time, indicating the military had allocated meeting time for them. But she still glanced at Tang Sheng, seeking his opinion, to which Tang Sheng slightly nodded, saying, ”Little Hong isn’t a child anymore, he can decide for himself what he needs to do.”

Su Changfeng then remembered something and looked over at Hilvy: ”Miss Hilveld, may we borrow your captain?”

Hilvy smiled lightly: ”The Lord Captain is free to do as he pleases.”

”Regarding your father...”

”I don’t want to discuss my father here,” Hilvy replied with a smile, ”Mr. Su, this shouldn’t go against your principles, right?”

Su Changfeng paused slightly, surprised by this astute young lady, but after the pause, nodded satisfactorily, dropping the subject.

He then turned to look at Fang Hong.

At the earlier glance, Fang Hong’s heart skipped, reminded of what was said to him not long ago, and suddenly realized something—the information about his parents had been uncovered.

Lightly biting his lip, he then said, ”Uncle, I’ll be back soon.”

”Go on,” Tang Sheng nodded, ”The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll return. We’ll talk about that notebook later.”

Fang Hong paused, remembering it; he gave his uncle a curious look.

”We’ll take care of the other members from your ship,” Su Changfeng said, ”Don’t worry, with Stargate Port reopened, many spaces have been cleared, I’ll arrange for you to be near your uncle and aunt. Once you return, you can go see them directly.”