John flared his essence power to the maximum as the attacks collided against the lightning cage. The first three layers were shattered by the powerful guardian attacks, and the fourth layer was tested.
However, the fourth and fifth layer held up as the guardians withdrew their weapons for their next attacks. John instantly flared his essence power again, relinking the broken lightning nodes and completely reforming his lighting cage.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang
The disciples outside the entrance watched with awestruck expressions as John's group, protected by the lightning cage, strolled right past the four guardians. Constant attacks rained down from the guardians, which would destroy several layers of the cage. However, the protective cage was instantly reformed, making it so that the attacks continued to be repelled.
As if they were sentient, the guardians started staggering their attacks in an attempt to give John no time to fix the cage. Slowly but surely the continuous barrage of incredibly powerful attacks whittled away at the cage, before the fifth layer was finally broken by an incredibly strong attack.
"It broke!" the stunned disciples called out as they waited for what happened next.
They did not know if the group could directly withstand the attacks of the guardians.
"Ahhh, the cage is broken…John, do something!" a panicked cry of a male echoed out from within the lightning cage.
Bang!
A massive golden battle axe image suddenly slashed upwards from within the lightning cage and collided against the weapons of the guardians that were slamming down onto the group. The weapons of the stone guardians were knocked back, revealing the attack to be powerful enough to repel all four attacks at once.
"They made it…how is this possible?" many disciples called out in a stunned daze.
…
"We made it," an excited cry erupted from Adam as they stepped into the labyrinth. "I never doubted you for a second!"
John's lightning cage faded away as his gaze focused on the darkness of the labyrinth ahead. The labyrinth was pitch black, with not a single source of light within, as an endless darkness stretched out before them.
"Shameless," Iris spat out at Adam again. "Who was the one shouting in panic when the cage broke? You could have done something, but all you did was cry out in fear. Are you good at anything, or is all you do is run your mouth nonstop?"
"Why the hell did we invite this wench," Adam spat out in equal disgust, as Iris kept rebuking him. "Just kick her from our group already," he pleaded John.
"Wench? Who the hell are you calling a wench!" Iris yelled out as she suddenly appeared before Adam. Her foot swept out and collided against Adam's waist, sending him flying against the nearby wall.
The force of the kick shook the entrance of the labyrinth, and Adam slowly and shakily clamored back on his feet as he pointed at Iris.
"You…just you wait. I'll have my revenge," he yelled out, his pointed finger shaking from the recent pain.
While the two of them were fighting, lightning flared above John's hand, illuminating the nearby area.
Before them were two passageways, one leading to the left while the other led to the right. There were no markings of any sort to signify which was the direction to travel. The sight caused everyone to fall into silence, as both ways looked quite ominous. Based on what Gerrid had told him of the labyrinth, one wrong move could lead to failure, danger, and even death.
Even John couldn't tell any difference between the two directions. His gaze shifted to Adam and Iris. "I've already done my part. One of you better figure out which way we're supposed to go."
Adam and Iris glanced at each other for a moment, before they both immediately went to work on figuring out which way was the best way to travel. Neither wanted to lose out to the other, and both wanted to prove their value to the group.
After a brief inspection of the passageways, Adam took out a small formation disk and sat on the ground. He closed his eyes as he channeled his Qi into the disk, which started to glow.
At the same time, Iris walked slightly forward and stared at both passageways. Her blue eyes changed slightly, becoming a brighter shade of blue as she stared forward for a short moment.
"This way," Iris called out while pointing to the left passageway.
"What?" Adam called out in surprise as his eyes opened. "There's no way you've figured out which direction to go already. You're just guessing!"
"Please…I'm not as pathetic as you to do such a thing," Iris spat back in disgust.
"How do you know it's that way?" John asked calmly. Iris had seemingly found the way almost immediately, which seemed almost too good to be true.
"Because, I see nothing to the left, only an endless expanse of passageway, while the right side is far more…dangerous. It's almost at the edge of what I can see, but there's a dead end at the right side hallway over a mile away, and there seems to be hundreds of disciples trapped by an invisible formation there," she explained.
"You can see all that from here?" John asked, slightly surprised. He knew Iris had special eyes, but her vision was beyond what he had expected. Even when he used his maximum eyesight, or spread his divine sense to the farthest he could go, he was unable to see anything down the right passageway.
"I can," Iris replied.
"Should we try to help those disciples?" Chase suddenly spoke up.
"No," John replied. "The realm will expel them in ten days, so their lives aren't at risk. They can only blame it on their own bad luck. Let's go. We proceed to the left."
John immediately set off down the left passageway, and the group followed closely behind as they began their journey within the Labyrinth.