"Your Majesty, there's an urgent report from the Dawn Region!" A guard walked into the office and placed a thick sheepskin bag on Roland's mahogany table. "The messenger said it was entrusted to them by Sean!"

"Oh?" Roland perked up. He put down the twin-engine aircraft design he was working on and stood up. "Quick, open it and see."

The exploration team had been gone from Neverwinter for almost two months. The last time he received news from them was when they crossed the Graycastle border. The moment he learned that the source wasn't within his territory, Roland was quite worried. After all, mining and transporting ore was a long process, and the First Army's mobility was limited. The further away from his sphere of influence, the harder it was to control the plan.

Now that he finally had a reply, he naturally paid extra attention to it.

However, what puzzled him was that the package was too large, almost reminding him of express mail from later generations. Whether they found it or not, a single letter could explain the situation. What kind of situation did the exploration team encounter that would make Sean send back such a large package?

"It's all paper inside," Nightingale said softly, probably noticing his confusion.

"Paper?" Roland tilted his head and asked in a low voice, "Has your ability evolved to the point where you can see through objects?"

"I wish, but no." Nightingale said lazily, "I just reached into the bag and felt around when they came in."

So that was it. Her alertness was truly... Wait, Roland suddenly felt something was amiss. When Evelyn visited with a new Chaos drink, or when the chef pushed in the dessert cart, did she "feel" around like that too?

Come to think of it, the portions for afternoon tea seemed to be smaller lately?

"Your Majesty, it's all paper inside," the guard's words interrupted his thoughts, "and most of it is covered in ink."

What new way of reporting was this? Roland peered inside. "Isn't there a letter?"

"Please wait..." The guard finally made a new discovery after emptying the contents of the sheepskin bag. "There's a sealed letter at the bottom."

"Bring it here."

"What about these blackened papers—"

"Spread them out on the floor," he ordered. "Sean wouldn't spend so much effort to send back a pile of useless things."

"Yes, sir!"

Roland sat back in his chair and opened the envelope.

Judging by the date, it should have been sent a week and a half ago. Like the bag, the letter was also quite long, a good ten pages or so—it was hard to imagine that an exploration result would require such a lengthy description. Perhaps this was why they used the urgent report method, but didn't transfer it to animal messengers after entering the Northern Region of Graycastle.

"Your Majesty, Aqi Ma xiaojie has found the source you wanted—at the northeast border between the Dawn Region and Wolfheart, in a place the locals call Cage Mountain."

Sean's first sentence put Roland at ease.

Fortunately, the trip wasn't a complete waste. The fact that the mining area was still within the Dawn Kingdom meant that he could control the entire mining process through the Quinn family. Although it would cost a lot more, it was better than being restricted by Wolfheart and Everwinter.

Moreover, the other party's wording didn't seem cumbersome, which made him even more optimistic about the content that followed.

"However, the source isn't in a mine, but in a very ancient ruin. What's even more incredible is that it doesn't belong to the underground civilization, nor is it related to the Taquila refugees. We once suspected that it might have come from the hands of the sea devils, but the witches xiaojie's discovery negated this guess."

"Your Majesty, this is definitely a ruin left by a race we have never known."

Roland's brow furrowed.

An unknown new alien race, that once appeared within the Four Kingdoms?

This was information that even the Witch Union hadn't mentioned.

Although this territory was poor and backward in the past, it didn't mean that they would ignore their own rear. If there was alien activity, it was unlikely to escape the witches' detection.

That is to say, if Sean's conclusion was correct, then their existence was likely even earlier than the underground civilization.

The key question was, why would this race be so interested in uranium ore?

He continued reading.

"The builders left a large number of murals on the stone walls of the lower level of the ruins. The various monsters depicted in the paintings are inconsistent with the images of alien races known to us. Through speculation about their content, Ms. Roser and I believe that this building is likely a place of execution."

"It's not only located on the source vein, but the builders also burned the ore into bricks to pave the walls and floors—Aqi Ma has observed the same element in every corner of the ruins, and even the murals use a large amount of mineral raw materials. In the surrounding area of the lower level, we found a large number of cages and bones, which is also reflected in the murals."

"They seem to have imprisoned a large number of enemies here—not only including alien races, but also those of the same kind as the executioners, and then used the power of the source to torture them, as if doing so could please their gods."

"I have tried my best to rub down those murals and send them to Neverwinter with the messenger of the Tokat family. However, due to the limited number of protective suits and the huge size of the paintings, the progress is relatively slow. The murals you see are only part of them, and it is expected that it will take another one to two months to complete all of them."

"In addition, I am very worried about Ms. Roser's situation. She entered the underground without wearing a protective suit, and I don't know if she will encounter the danger you mentioned. The locals discovered this ruin earlier, but as a result, they contracted a strange plague during the search process, and many people died. Therefore, it also has the name of a cursed temple. In addition, judging from the execution purpose of the ruins, this danger should exist."

"Damn it." At this point, Roland couldn't help but whisper.

"What's wrong?" Nightingale asked in the mist, "God's Punishment Witches ignore curses. Changing bodies can solve everything. There's no need to worry about them, right?"

"I'm not worried about the God's Punishment Witches, but Sean and Aqi Ma." He shook his head with a solemn expression. "According to the plan, they shouldn't stay in the mining area for so long."

Whether it's uranium ore or highly enriched uranium, its decay radiation is mainly α particles, which are difficult to penetrate the skin and cause damage to the human body, but this doesn't mean that it's the same in the mining area. Considering that these radioactive elements have existed for hundreds of millions of years, some of them have decayed into more dangerous elements, such as radon, and the situation becomes different.

Radon has a half-life of only 3.8 days and is a gas, which is easily inhaled into the body to form internal radiation, so it must be shielded. The protective suits he prepared for the exploration team were designed for deep mining—the fully enclosed coat can effectively isolate various highly toxic elements decayed from uranium ore, and the activated carbon mask can absorb radon gas and other toxic gases, which can basically guarantee safety as long as they don't stay in the mining area for a long time.

But it's different after a long time. The adsorption of carbon particles is limited, which means that people involved in rubbing down murals may inhale radon gas exceeding the safety standard, and thus be exposed to excessive ionizing radiation.

"They must evacuate the ruins immediately," Roland grabbed a pen and paper from the table. "Call Honey over. This reply must be delivered to them as soon as possible."