Daliku Jade Mine.
After a day's journey, Sa, Long Na, and the others finally reached the entrance to the jade mine.
It was a very small jade mine. Only five to eight miners had originally worked there, so its entrance was extremely narrow, just wide enough for two people to enter shoulder to shoulder.
"Jin Dong, Trevor, stand guard at the entrance. Long Na, come into the mine with me. Coal-Eating Dragon, wait for word. If I tell Trevor to send you in, hurry in and help," Sa said.
Trevor nodded. "Be careful. If it's too dangerous, get out right away. Even if Jin Dong and I wanted to go in and help, we'd probably only get in your way."
Their armor was too bulky. With such a narrow entrance, there was no way they could enter wearing it.
They could go in without their armor, but out in the wilderness, taking it off left them far too vulnerable to ambush. Even if they did enter without it, the interior might not be any wider than the entrance. It might even be narrower.
The best choice was therefore for the two of them to guard the outside, preventing Lion-Ant-Bees or other enemies from following the women into the mine and ambushing them.
Sa and Long Na entered the mine and immediately switched on night vision.
The mine had been excavated haphazardly and was unsafe. Its winding passages alternately widened and narrowed, and many spots had been chiseled into but never excavated any farther.
Sa walked ahead with Silver Edge in hand, while Long Na followed with her spear.
Neither spoke. They simply advanced at a steady pace, gradually moving deeper into the mine.
In fact, Sa had been constantly expanding her field of vision. The colonies of bats in the