Lightning crashed all around as John flew through the sky while forcefully pulling Gerrid along. Before Gerrid could even react, he found himself dragged forward by John. He tried to pry his arm free, but found John's grip to be like a steel vice, unable to be budged at all.
Bang!
A powerful lightning bolt slammed onto the lightning cage, causing Gerrid to activate his full power to resist the blast. However, the bolt slammed onto the lightning cage, and after a brief struggle faded away.
A look of slight surprise appeared on Gerrid's face as he observed this happening. The power of John's lightning cage was impressive, but it was not that much stronger than what he himself could muster up. However, he could tell that the quality of the lightning itself was the highest he had ever seen from another cultivator, which allowed it to resist the lightning bolt.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Lightning bolts continuously slammed onto John's lightning cage, which he ignored as he flew forward at great speed. Some of the trees below pierced up into the clouds, which caused him to weave between the canopies as he sped forward.
While using such a method was very taxing on his essence Qi, it was definitely worth it. The journey continued for over an hour as John started to feel the burdens of keeping his lightning cage activated for so long. Thanks to his incredible dantian, he had been able to keep the cage up for over an hour. However, it was starting to become draining.
A short while later, the trees that pierced into the clouds became less numerous, until they disappeared completely. Taking this as a sign that the forest had ended, John started his descent.
He broke through the bottom of the clouds, and an extensive clearing came into view, over a dozen miles wide. The circular clearing was made right in the center of the forest, and the tree line could be seen in the far distance. An expansive grassland lined the surface, while grazing animals could be seen occasionally.
At the very center off the clearing was a dark blue object, bȧrėly noticeable as it was only a few dozen yards tall. However, a massive crowd of disciples were gathered around it, making it much more obvious to see.
John deactivated the lightning cage as they had left the clouds, and allowed Gerrid to fly on his own once again.
"Sorry for the rough ride," John said to Gerrid, "but it was the fastest way forward. I'm sure you understand."
"It's fine," Gerrid replied. "You saved us over a day of travel time, so I can't complain…but I can complain about that," Gerrid said as he gazed at the distant object.
"Why? What is it?" John asked.
"The Labyrinth," Gerrid replied. "Every year the opportunity at this location changes. Sometimes it's a palace, or a pagoda, or a lake, or a multitude of other things. Those things I just mentioned all have great opportunities, and they are much easier to obtain. However, this year seems to be the Labyrinth, which is agreed upon as the hardest and most dangerous one of all."
"Is that so?" John replied as he gazed at the Labyrinth entrance. "What makes it so hard and dangerous?"
Gerrid sighed deeply, as if seeing the Labyrinth entrance made him depressed.
"I haven't personally entered it, but there are accounts from previous disciples who had. The other locations I mentioned all could be solved with brute force. If you were strong enough, you could obtain treasures and rewards. However the Labyrinth is different. Brute strength can't solve everything inside, and it's incredibly easy to get lost and trapped until the realm closes. Not only that, but there have been quite a few disciples that have gone missing in the past, and are ȧssumed to have perished inside. So not only is it the hardest to traverse, it is also the most deadly."
John frowned upon hearing this, as it was not exactly good for him. His specialty was brute force, and it seemed as though that would only get him so far in the Labyrinth.
"Let's go, we've wasted enough time getting here," John said as he speed forward. Gerrid followed behind, and the two of them arrived at the Labyrinth entrance shortly after.
A large crowd of several thousand disciples had already gathered outside the Labyrinth entrance. John and Gerrid landed at the edge of the group and began to move forward through the scattered crowd, causing many to glance at the new arrivals. Many of them had gathered in small groups, and heated discussions could be heard from each group.
"Come on, let's try again!," a voice boomed out from one of the groups.
"No way," another replied. "We almost died to those guardians yesterday, and you want to try again? We'll die for sure this time."
"I've got a better plan this time," the first youth replied as he started explaining his plan. His voice faded away as John moved through the crowd, although many similar discussions were audible.
"Goddamnit. Those fuċkɨnġ guardians are a pain in the ȧss," a exasperated voice cursed out, catching John's attention. He knew that voice.
"That's because you're too slow," a female voice replied mockingly. "Maybe you should work on your speed and not your cursing in the future."
"You-" the first voice replied angrily but was cut off by a different voice.
"There's nothing we can do about it," a calmer voice replied. "At least not until he arri-"
Pat!
John's hand rested on the shoulder of the one who was speaking, cutting off his words as he turned around.
"John!" Chase exclaimed, which caused the two others to look over as well.
"Hey guys," John replied with a smile on his face as he stared at his friends. Chase and Adam were gathered together, and surprisingly even Iris was there.
"What took you so long to arrive?" Adam replied with a grumpy tone. "We've been waiting here for two days already- Ow!"
Adam's complaining was cut off as John flicked a finger onto his forehead, knocking him back and leaving a red mark on his forehead.
"Stop complaining," John chided Adam. "I was transported to the very edge of this realm. Since you're all here already, I'm guessing you had a much better starting point."
"Mhm," Chase replied. "In fact, Iris was transported right into this field apparently."
John glanced over to Iris with a dry expression, who stared back at him with a large smile on her face.
"How the hell did you get so lucky?" John asked.
"No idea. Just luck I guess," Iris replied with a shoulder shrug.
John shook his head in self-pity at the different treatment the realm had shown between him and his friends. If he had not had Gerrid with him, who knew if he would have found this location in time before the realms closing.
"Who's your friend by the way?" Adam asked as he spotted Gerrid standing behind John. They were surprised that an Early Heaven Tribulation disciple, one that was a third year as well, was following John.
"This is Gerrid," John introduced. "He helped me arrive at this location, so he'll be tagging along with us inside the Labyrinth."
The group greeted Gerrid, who greeted them back warmly despite the fact that they were first years and much weaker than him.
"Anyways, why are you, as well as all these other disciples gathered around the entrance?" John asked.
"We were waiting for you," Adam replied, his ċhėst puffed out as if such a thing was something to be proud of.
"Ow!" Adam cried out again as Iris had flicked him on the head this time.
"You say that, yet you tried to enter the Labyrinth as soon as you arrived. Only Chase and I waited without trying to enter. How shameless can you be?" Iris scolded Adam.
Adam wanted to curse back but remained silent as he realized she was only telling the truth.
"So why couldn't you enter?" John asked, although he was sure he had an inkling as to what the reason was based on the earlier conversations he had heard. "Does it have to do with these 'guardians' you were speaking of?"
"Yes," Chase replied as his gaze shifted to the Labyrinth entrance behind them. John's gaze followed, and he soon spotted what Chase was looking at.
The Labyrinth entrance was like an open maw, a few dozen yards tall and wide. It was dark blue, and descended down until it became darkness. Before the Labyrinth stood four stone statues, each ten yards tall.
"Those four statues are the guardians of this place," Chase explained. "If you try to enter, you have to get past the guardians. Also, there's a strange restriction around the entrance, so that only six people can approach at a time, so we cannot all rush past with sheer numbers."
"Is that so?" John mused. "How strong are they?"
"Early Heaven Tribulation," Chase replied, "which is why we waited for you. Although we would have waited for you regardless of if we could enter or not," he continued as he glanced sideways at Adam, which caused Adam to smile wryly.
John nodded his head at Chase's words as he began to move forward, and beckoned the rest to follow him.
"Let's go.. We're entering the Labyrinth."