As Hao Ren and the others entered the main peak of the Holy Mountain, two other groups also made their way into the mountain through different passes.
The final manhunt for the heretics began in full force. Thousands of kingdom knights and church soldiers soon spread throughout the rugged mountains, forming over a hundred mutually supporting search parties, each led by several Wolf Riders. After these search forces entered the mountain, even more ordinary soldiers set up checkpoints along every major route at the foot of the Holy Mountain, preventing any heretics from escaping.
High in the air above the Holy Mountain, a faint, eye-shaped magical pattern hovered silently, as though embedded in the sky. Countless nearly invisible lines spread out around it, enveloping the entire region of the Holy Mountain. This was a large-scale divine spell cast by the Radiant Pope. With it, the pope could detect every movement in every corner of the Holy Mountain, even the faintest footsteps of a rabbit—except for that strange space deep within the mountain.
Hodius hovered along the western edge of the crystal mine, facing the Holy Mountain from afar like a ferocious beast poised to attack. The shield-shaped fortress wall at the front of the floating fortress glowed with magical light. Some of the crystal bricks had retracted into the wall, revealing the muzzles of enormous, brilliantly glowing magic cannons. The cannons blended seamlessly with the magical patterns on the surrounding walls. They were Hodius's most powerful weapons.
The magic cannons pointed toward the Holy Mountain, and the magi responsible for commanding them were sweating cold bullets. In Hodius's command center, several people watched the movements on the walls and in the direction of the Holy Mountain through magical screens. Prince Huffman's bald head gleamed brightly. He wiped away a trace