Morning Light's northeastern border, the Cage Mountain region.

The further they went, the more difficult it became, with intertwined vines and giant trees everywhere. The thick canopy overlapped, allowing only glimpses of the grey sky through the cracks.

The only thing that comforted Aqima was that they didn't have to contend with knee-deep snow—the influence of the Devilish Month was less here, and there wouldn't be heavy snowfalls. If it were like the Endless Mountains, they might as well have waited until xiàzhijiao before coming.

But that didn't mean traversing the deep mountains was an easy task.

Standing at the foot of the mountain, Cage Mountain was just a gentle high slope, not even considered steep. But once inside, they found there wasn't even a small path, making it unsuitable for a large force to cross. On the first day of climbing, the group traveled less than two miles, and three people were injured. Helplessly, Sean, the king's personal guard accompanying them, had to leave the army stationed in the small town at the foot of the mountain, selecting only a few elites to continue with her.

A local guide, Nav, a God's Punishment Witch, Roser, a liaison from the Tocat family, Mal, plus her and Sean, made up the entire bizarre exploration team.

—No wonder things felt strange!

The God's Punishment Witch claimed to be entrusted by His Majesty to take care of her life, as it would be inconvenient to be with men all the time. But Aqima was sure that if she tried to escape, the other party would break her legs immediately.

Mal Tocat was a liaison sent by the King of Morning Light, but what needed to be liaised in the deep mountains? Instead of staying obediently in the town, he insisted on going up the mountain, obviously with a purpose. If he wasn't under the name of the Tocat family and hadn't helped a lot along the way, Sean would probably have put him in a burlap sack and thrown him back already.

Not to mention the exploration team, this "unhostile" mining team was armed to the teeth, even shovels could be used to cut people. When facing knights from individual lords, they seemed ready to annihilate the other party with a single order, not at all like a group of ordinary miners at the bottom of society.

Moreover, none of these people knew what they were looking for, including Aqima herself—not gold or silver, nor copper or iron. The only guide was the small coin of unknown material in her hand.

"Wait... wait," the guide in front suddenly raised his hand to signal a stop, "Careful, there's a trap here!"

Aqima heard a series of clicks behind her—she knew those were the preparatory actions for firearms being ready to fire. Over the past month, Sean had talked to her a lot about His Majesty's legendary battles, and she had a basic understanding of the combat capabilities of this unit. In fact, compared to Roser, who was once a witch, she found herself preferring to be with ordinary people.

Roser's reaction was much calmer. She didn't even bachulai her sword, calmly walking to the guide's side, "Oh? This is... a spear tripwire?"

"That's right," Nav pointed to the top of a tree trunk, "See, the spears are hidden there—if we accidentally touch the mechanism, those things will shoot us full of holes!"

Aqima looked in the direction of his finger, and saw several sharpened wooden sticks exposed between the branches and leaves, as if coldly overlooking them from above. If they fell on someone, they would inevitably injure important parts such as the head and neck. This was definitely not a trap set by hunters, but more like it was set up against people.

"Where's the mechanism?" Sean asked in a deep voice.

"You won't find them," Nav shook his head, "Every vine and every branch under our feet could be part of the tripwire. Unless we burn this place down, it's hard to completely destroy it."

"What should we do then?" Mal muttered.

"We can only take a detour, my lord."

"No, you all step back." Roser suddenly spoke, "Let me try."

"You said... what?" Nav looked at the God's Punishment Witch in surprise, "Hey, this is not something to joke about—"

However, before he could finish speaking, the latter had already slowly entered the danger zone.

The weeds were so dense that it was impossible to see the ground without cutting them down.

Before she had gone far, Aqima heard a pop, as if something had been snapped. Then the canopy made rustling friction sounds, like a snake spitting its tongue!

The noose, hidden somewhere, suddenly tightened, launching the wooden sticks from the top of the tree in one go! At the same time, Roser also drew her long sword!

"It's over..." The guide immediately closed his eyes, seemingly unable to bear to watch the woman die on the spot.

But Aqima witnessed everything that followed—

She saw the God's Punishment Witch holding the sword hilt with both hands, swatting the incoming wooden sticks back one by one as if swatting flies! Under the impact of the great force, most of the sticks shattered upon impact, but she seemed to be handling it with ease, as if it didn't require much effort at all!

When the commotion subsided, the grass around her was already a mess.

"The trap is disarmed," Roser sheathed her sword and shrugged at the crowd, "Let's continue on our way."

After realizing what had happened, Nav was so frightened that he sat down on the ground with a thud.

...

"Ah ha... I know you are all masters with extraordinary skills, truly great figures from the royal capital!" After finally recovering from the shock, the guide immediately changed his tune, "Especially this warrior, your swordsmanship can simply be described as divine!"

"Enough nonsense," Roser interrupted, "You better explain why there are such traps in the mountains? Those wooden spears are unlikely to be of much use against beasts, right?"

This was also the question Aqima wanted to ask.

"It is indeed used to deal with people," Nav replied honestly, "The further up the mountain you go, the more traps there are. Therefore, Cage Mountain has another nickname, called Trap Mountain—these things were left by successive lords, with the sole purpose of guarding against the Wolfheart Kingdom."

"Wolfheart?" Sean repeated.

"That's right, this mountain range stretches almost from the coast to the Old Holy City, which can be regarded as a natural dividing line between the two countries. Since the terrain of Morning Light is lower, it is surrounded by it like a cage, hence the name Cage Mountain," Nav explained, "But the problem lies in the shape of the mountain—you should have noticed at the foot of the mountain that the south side of Cage Mountain is like a gentle slope, which looks very high, but is very easy to walk down. This has led to bandits, hunters, and refugees from neighboring countries frequently invading the border territories of Morning Light through Cage Mountain. At first, they only searched for resources in the mountains, but later they simply ran into the villages to steal and rob, causing the local people to panic. The lord was also very troubled, so he simply came up with a once-and-for-all solution, which was to abandon Cage Mountain."

"I see..." Mal Tocat suddenly realized, "Such things have actually happened on the border."

"The Lord naturally doesn't want to attract the King's attention," Nav continued, "Besides, we are not the poor people on the other side. They can't survive without relying on the mountains, we just need to find another way to live. After the mountain was closed, the lord sent people to plant fast-growing weeds and vines, and set up a lot of traps. This custom has been passed down from generation to generation, and Cage Mountain has become what it is today."

So you turned it into a real cage, which blocked the other side, but also imprisoned yourselves, Aqima thought. If it were Roland Wimbledon, he would not have chosen to do this. That guy's eyes were always looking into the distance, even when he was giving her tasks, his focus was not always on her.

Wait, why should she think of him at this time?

Aqima shook her head repeatedly.

His Majesty is just an employer.

She should finish the task quickly and strive to return to Doris and the others as soon as possible.

...

As the guide said, the group encountered several traps afterwards, but they basically had no effect on the God's Punishment Witch. As night was approaching, Aqima suddenly saw the green light of the coin suddenly become stronger!

After a dense forest, there was also a dazzling source of light, as if countless light spots were running back and forth between the two, forming a bright bridge of light.

This is a source-level reaction!

She finally found another source!

However, when the exploration team followed Aqima's instructions and passed through the dense forest, everyone couldn't help but froze in place.

It turned out to be an abandoned building half-hidden on the mountainside, the dilapidated stone door was bottomless, and the pillars carved with strange symbols on both sides clearly proved that it was not a natural object.

Aqima also widened her eyes in surprise.

Didn't His Majesty say that she was looking for a special kind of ore?

Why would the source appear in a ruin that seemed to have been abandoned for a long time?