Although she didn't understand why Lin Yu suddenly asked her for the statue, Li Nian, trusting Lin Yu, still directly handed him the mermaid statue she was holding.

"You're actually taking something from my hands, huh," Li Nian remarked with a sigh. "That's impressive, sis—things that enter my hands rarely ever leave them."

Lin Yu took the mermaid statue, and a notification appeared before his eyes.

【Obtained Item: Siren's Blessing!】

Lin Yu looked at the blood text notification and replied, "No need to transfer ownership to me—I won't be using this thing anyway. I just want to 'reset' it for you."

As he spoke, Lin Yu pulled out the 【Repaired Fog Pocket Watch】.

The hands turned, mist surged, and the dimmed mermaid statue radiated light once more.

He returned it to Li Nian and mentally transferred the ownership of this 【Item】 back to her.

Li Nian looked at the statue with a somewhat astonished expression—whether because Lin Yu had immediately given it back to her or because the 【Siren's Blessing】 could now be used again.

She held it once more in her palm, and the ethereal, haunting song of the mermaid rang out again. An invisible barrier unfurled with the melody, once again pushing back the surrounding spiders and spider silk!

"Bam!"

Those spider demons pressed unwillingly against the barrier once more, unable to advance an inch.

"Whoa—we're saved!"

Seagull exclaimed excitedly as he watched the scene. "You guys even have a refresh orb, huh."

Li Nian also looked at the pocket watch in Lin Yu's hand and clicked her tongue in amazement. "Hey, this is a really good item."

High Mountain spoke up with a reminder, "Be careful, Ms. Yao... Make sure to check if your 【Item】 is still there before you leave the 【Dungeon】."

Li Nian looked at High Mountain. "Hey, hey, hey, how are you talking? You're trying to stir up trouble, you Order guy!"

"How could I ever steal from this beautiful sis? I only steal from people I hate."

As Li Nian spoke, Lin Yu also said seriously, "Thank you for the reminder. I'll be careful."

Then, he deliberately made a cautious gesture and put the pocket watch away again.

"I'm so heartbroken," Li Nian said, playing along with Lin Yu with an exaggerated, plaintive tone. "See? Prejudice in people's hearts really is a high mountain."

However, the other three had no idea these two already knew each other and were putting on an act together.

High Mountain said earnestly, "The direction of a tree is determined by the wind; a person's path is determined by themselves. If you don't like being suspected, then in the future, try stealing fewer 【Items】 from others, Master Thief."

Li Nian looked at High Mountain and curled her lip. "You're trying to reform someone now... Why are you suddenly lecturing me, old man? This is the Death Game, not a game of house!"

High Mountain frowned slightly, but perhaps mindful that they were still cooperating, he didn't argue further with Li Nian—this member of the Free Alliance—over these differences in philosophy.

Seagull was more easygoing. "Ah, no need to say all that—besides, we're relying on her 【Item】 anyway."

After this brief interlude, the two sides resumed their journey forward.

But the already slightly distrustful group now felt an even more noticeable rift growing between them.

Lin Yu, blending into the group, didn't really care about any of this.

After all, as long as this trio didn't directly clash with Li Nian, that was enough.

And since they now roughly knew the limits of the 【Siren's Blessing】, the group's pace sped up noticeably this time.

High Mountain led the way, with Li Nian protected in the center—if there were too many clogging spiders and spider silk, or if boulders or other obstacles blocked their path, Seagull and Snowy Owl would clear the road.

With the group's clear division of labor, and as they moved further outward where the spider silk and spiders were sparser, they quickly reached their destination!

Lin Yu looked at the steep, jagged peaks near their destination—a series of small summits lined up one after another—and spoke up.

"No wonder there's a bandit stronghold here. If I were a bandit, I'd choose this spot too."

As he spoke, High Mountain pointed at a certain peak ahead. "Over there is the stronghold where we first appeared. There's a fork at the entrance—one path leads to the main road, and the other leads to an old Taoist temple."

"That's right. Now that we're here, I recognize it. It's definitely that way."

"Although I only took a distant look back then, it should be the Taoist temple you mentioned. It looked quite extraordinary—its surroundings were completely different from the barren peaks around it. We only avoided exploring it because the letter mentioned the escort team, and we were afraid of missing the best time to intercept them," Snowy Owl said. "I never thought it would be hiding such a key item."

Compared to the trio of Little Fire Dragon, Squirtle, and Deadshot, this trio not only outclassed them in strength but also completely dominated them in navigation.

Within the entire squad, only Seagull had no sense of direction—High Mountain, on the other hand, could lead everyone directly to the correct destination even in these mountains where spider silk and spiders had covered nearly every visible path.

Along the way, although Captain High Mountain did stop occasionally to confirm their bearings, he never took a wrong turn. Every route choice was completely accurate.

Lin Yu wondered at one point if he was using some kind of 【Item】 to pull it off.

Following the path High Mountain indicated again, the three of them advanced toward the small peak—and soon, they arrived near the stronghold.

Compared to the clustered buildings of Chen Family Fort, the architecture of this mountain stronghold was far more wild and crude.

Although also built from piled stone, nearly all the living quarters here were carved into the mountain, relying on natural caves and expanding inward, with just a door and wall erected at the entrance.

The outer walls were highly irregular, bearing the marks of multiple repairs and patches.

And at the same time, Lin Yu finally understood why these two Night Watchmen and one Order member would rather make their own clear the dungeon harder than cooperate with these mountain bandits.

Because within the walls of this stronghold, in the gaps between the stones, a massive number of human bones had been embedded.

Piles of bones discarded along the walls had formed small mounds.

The threat these bandits posed to the surrounding villages, mountain folk, and passing merchant caravans was no less than that of the demons lurking in the mountains.

But now, they had received their comeuppance—at the crudely built stone gate at the stronghold's main entrance, three fresh corpses hung from the doorway, with more corpses piled up below.

Judging from their attire...

These were likely the former masters of this stronghold, the mountain bandits who had once ruled here.