Time continued to fly by, and another full two days had passed, meaning the siege of Windstone Highlands had now stretched into its eighth day. During those forty-eight hours, another seventeen members of the Mosak tribe managed to slip away. They were undoubtedly fortunate, because as the tribal numbers dwindled and the formidable chieftain, Qierouke’e, heightened his vigilance, the vast majority of those attempting escape over the last two days were slaughtered. Their bodies were preserved as food stores, and this grim tally even included a legendary creature knight.

Upon receiving this intelligence, Fang Senyan began consolidating his available forces, positioning eight hundred Raptors as a reserve contingent on the outer perimeter. The remaining one thousand Raptors were divided into five squads of two hundred each (any more would be ineffective in the narrow terrain, simply charging to their deaths), launching an assault into the Mosak tribal compound every twenty minutes.

Even if each Raptor squad was annihilated within the twenty-minute window, a full hundred minutes would elapse after all one thousand Raptors had completed their charge. Within those hundred minutes, the Black Thorn Swarm’s Triangle Beach base could replenish at least six hundred more Raptors. Coupled with the eight hundred in reserve, this gave him fourteen hundred mobile units at his disposal, meaning Fang Senyan harbored no concern about a counterattack from the Mosak tribe.

More critically, even if those one thousand Raptors were completely wiped out, the time required for Fang Senyan to gather another thousand would be roughly half an hour after the battle concluded. He intended to continue this relentless war of attrition, maintaining a continuous offensive with waves of two hundred Raptors, without pause! This tactic of feeding troops in dribs and drabs was brutal and highly effective, but it also exacted a severe toll on friendly morale.

Fortunately, the Swarm’s morale was solely dependent on the mood of their Overmind, and the Black Thorn Overmind, currently basking in the presence of vast quantities of Pandora Energy Crystals, was as content as a miser reclining atop a mountain of gold— “…”

The cruel war of attrition lasted less than a full day before the remaining Mosak tribesmen could hold out no longer. Fang Senyan calculated the cumulative losses of his Raptors, which surprisingly exceeded ten thousand—a testament to the difficulty of the Golden Branch Mission. However, Fang Senyan approached the endeavor with the mindset of seeking only the final mission reward, not the spoils of war. Unquestionably, this reduced the opposition he faced significantly.

When the siege of Windstone Highlands entered its tenth day at nine in the morning, the Mosak tribe’s sacred site, the Sacrificial Pyramid, was breached. Surprisingly, this majestic and towering structure was hollow. After manipulating several massive, sliding stones, a highly concealed secret passage leading underground was revealed. Fang Senyan had arrived hastily and departed quickly on his previous visit, thus failing to discover this mechanism.

Yet, there was a consolation: the end of this secret passage must surely lead to a dead end or a desperate situation, otherwise, the Mosak tribe would have long since fled through it instead of enduring until now.

Fang Senyan was not in a rush here. He first summoned a former Mosak tribesman who had since joined the Treading Steed tribe and instructed him to proceed down the passage to identify the corpses one by one.

The final conclusion was stark: among the Mosak clan—excluding those killed in battle and those who had escaped—there were barely twenty or thirty survivors left. A comeback was virtually impossible. With this in mind, Fang Senyan hesitated for a moment, then dispatched thirty Raptors into the passage to scout ahead.

The passage was riddled with traps, and the thirty Raptors were utterly annihilated. However, the complex mechanisms that could have easily killed Fang Senyan and his team were now mostly destroyed. After sacrificing nearly a hundred Raptors, the path ahead was largely cleared.

But Fang Senyan thought carefully. Clearly, judging by the age of the mechanisms built into this secret passage, their designers’ presumed enemy was definitely not humans or Raptors; it must have been their own kin, meaning safety hazards were still likely present.

With a change of thought, Fang Senyan saw no need to be polite with Old Murbo. He simply gave a slight nod. Old Murbo, channeling the aura and authority of a clan leader, ordered the rest of his people, along with the remaining Raptors, to proceed.

Once inside, they indeed encountered a few more traps. But since most of the mechanisms had already been sprung, the warriors of the Treading Steed tribe, relying on their exceptional agility, managed to pass through without casualties. It took a full half-hour to traverse the secret passage twice, ensuring no dangers remained, before they signaled for Fang Senyan and his group to enter.

According to the Treading Steed tribesmen, the space below was extremely vast, with no visible anomalies.

It was already evening. The setting sun, blood-red, cast a gentle afterglow upon the structures of the Mosak clan, yet the chilling cold of night was beginning to creep in, giving the impression that even the sun was reluctantly yielding, retreating under the relentless pressure of the encroaching darkness.

Fang Senyan stood before the dark entrance of the secret passage, about to step in, when he suddenly took a deep breath, his heart filled with extreme caution. For a moment, he hesitated. After all, he had directly faced that powerful Qierouke’e, having personally experienced the mystery, savagery, and bloodlust of the entity's true form.

At this moment, Mogensha and Reef noticed Fang Senyan’s hesitation. Reef couldn’t help but urge him, “Boss, we’re on a Golden Branch Mission after all! We can’t afford to be careless.”

This statement jolted Fang Senyan instantly back to reality. He took a deep breath, and with a sharp smack, slapped both his cheeks with his hands. “You’re right. We’ve been progressing too smoothly against the Mocque tribe. Therefore, we must prioritize stability, even if it means delaying things, to mitigate risks as much as possible.”

Mogensha nodded in agreement. “Indeed, Boss. You’re anxious to conclude this mission so you can use your current control over the Swarm to check the RDA base for any side missions, aren’t you? There’s no need to rush. Successfully completing this Golden Branch Mission is already an unexpected gain! Haste makes waste; grasping too much will result in indigestion!”

After the three reached an agreement, they abandoned the plan to enter the cave. Preferring to spend more time ensuring safety, they decided instead to send in the Raptors directly, regardless of how large the space was, to meticulously sweep every corner. They dispatched five hundred Raptors, and even as darkness fell, they had not yet finished surveying the subterranean environment.

The underground void was astonishingly large; one could surmise that the entire top crust of the Windstone Plateau was merely a thin shell. Such a geological formation would be nearly impossible on Earth, but on a planet rich with Pandora Ore, where floating mountains were commonplace, this strange structure was not entirely unexpected.

As the survey data of the cavern gradually became more detailed, and after carefully mapping and studying the findings, the three of them looked at each other and suddenly realized that the entire so-called Windstone Highlands might actually be an extinct volcano that had lain dormant for an immeasurable time.

As mentioned earlier, the exterior of Windstone Highlands resembled a tree stump magnified thousands of times, appearing flat on top. However, this flatness was an illusion. The uppermost layer of the plateau was only about ten meters thick in its thinnest sections, stretched like the skin of a drum over a massive, sunken caldera.

Of course, the caldera floor was riddled with countless natural pillars providing support, as if to conceal the secrets within the volcanic throat. Describing this environment as a work of supernatural craftsmanship would be an understatement, yet Fang Senyan’s mind suddenly grasped something critically important. The Fallen Na’vi, divine techniques similar to—or perhaps even stronger than—those of the Earth Goddess Eywa, a geographical setting so coincidental it seemed designed to conceal something, and the Tree of Souls growing in the water—these fragments flashed through Fang Senyan’s mind, suggesting he was just one clue away from connecting them all. Just as he was deep in thought, he felt a sudden tremor from below. Fang Senyan’s first reaction was that it was an earthquake, immediately followed by continuous, roaring collapses. Soon, Old Murbo came running back, shouting in fury, “Damn it! That damned secret passage has collapsed! Five of my tribesmen are still exploring inside!”

Fang Senyan and the other two exchanged glances, a cold sweat breaking out on their spines, mixed with a profound sense of relief at having narrowly escaped disaster. Their earlier caution had not been in vain! How could such a coincidence happen—the passage collapsing precisely now? Qierouke’e, likely having fled inside, probably possessed the ability to control the passage’s mechanisms!

It was estimated that Qierouke’e was already struggling to deal with the five hundred Raptors.

Therefore, in order to ensure Fang Senyan’s group wouldn’t fall for a direct trap and instead sent cannon-fodder creatures in first, Qierouke’e had been forced to use his ultimate move: sealing the passage to buy time.

Old Murbo was now wringing his hands, sighing deeply, as his nephew was among those buried by the collapse. By his estimate, digging out the rubble would take at least half a month, by which time, even if his nephew survived the collapse, he would have starved to death.

Of course, the most terrifying outcome was being devoured by the starving Qierouke’e.

Fang Senyan, however, let out a long sigh of relief. The secret passage was not only their route of advance but was also most likely Qierouke’e’s only path to survival. Forcing him to destroy his own escape route indicated he was truly cornered.

As for the collapse itself, Fang Senyan was unconcerned. Although he currently lacked heavy human construction tools, he could casually requisition dozens of Swarm Drone Builders on hand!