Lightning crackled atop John's outstretched palm, illuminating the nearby area of the passageway. The hallway was several dozen yards wide and tall, and the walls were made of large stone slabs. After the illuminated area around them, darkness was all the group could see as they slowly but surely ventured deeper into the dark, mysterious labyrinth.
"How long is this damn passageway," Adam grumbled as the group had been walking forward for quite some time already. However, all that greeted them was more darkness as they ventured forward.
"Who knows," John replied calmly as he kept his eyes forward.
"There's something ahead," Iris suddenly spoke up, causing all to look at her.
"What is it?" John asked.
Iris narrowed her eyes as she peered forward, before they widened slightly.
"It's the other disciples," she replied. "Or at least that's what this labyrinth wants us to think."
"Hmmm, what do you mean by that?" John asked for clarification.
"A few hundred yards ahead, there are about a dozen 'disciples' dressed in our sect's robes. They look completely human on the outside, but they're not human at all. It must be a trap of the labyrinth."
John raised an eyebrow upon hearing this but kept silent as the group continued to move forward. After a short moment longer, they heard a voice call out for help.
"Help us!" a panicked female voice rang out from deeper within the hallway. The voice was shrill and fearful, and sounded incredibly real.
"Please, help us!" another voice called out, equally as convincing.
Before long, a group of roughly a dozen cultivators became illuminated by John's lightning. It was a mix of half males and half females, and each wore the robes of the Heavenly Lightning Sect. Their robes were all torn in many places, and blood stained their skin, making them look quite miserable.
"Do you recognize them?" John asked as he turned to Gerrid.
"I do," Gerrid replied as he stared at the group. "These are disciples from my third year class."
A frown appeared on his face as he turned to look at Iris. "Are you sure about what you told us? They look like the disciples I know," he asked.
"I'm sure," Iris replied, not a single hint of doubt on her face.
The group slowly approached John and the rest, and relief appeared on their faces upon spotting the group.
"Thank god, we found hel" one of the female disciples cried out in relief, before her expression turned into one of fear and confusion. "What are you doing!" she cried out in panic.
John's scythe was already slashing outwards towards the group as a powerful scythe image pierced towards them. Before the disciples could react, the scythe image slashed right though them, cleaving them all in half.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The bodies of the 'disciples' suddenly all exploded, unleashing incredibly powerful blasts where they died. The blasts traveled through the passageway instantly, and exploded over the location where John and the rest were standing.
Lightning Cage!
John instantly activated his Heavenly Lightning Domain and formed a protective cage around the group. The explosion was incredibly powerful, and while he would be able to resist it, the weaker bodies of Adam, Chase, and Iris would not. While it would most likely not kill them, it would definitely do great harm to them and render them useless for the rest of the realm's duration.
The explosion washed over the lightning cage, shaking it with its power and collapsing several of the layers of the cage. It continued for a short while before the explosion faded away, returning the passageway to normal once more.
John retracted his lightning cage after confirming the danger was over, and stared at the spot where the 'disciples' had been.
"What the hell was that!" Adam exclaimed with a stunned expression on his face.
"It was clearly some kind of trap," John replied calmly as he surveyed the area. "Those 'disciples' wanted to get close to us, at which point they would blow up. How devious."
"Devious? That was downright lethal!" Adam exclaimed. "I thought this realm was supposed to be relatively safe?"
"It is, normally," Gerrid suddenly spoke up, causing the others to look at him. "However, the Labyrinth is different. The other opportunities in this realm are relatively safe and easy to obtain, but when the Labyrinth shows up, its completely different. Many in the past have gone missing within the Labyrinth, never to return. We can only presume they died within, so while most years are safe, this year's realm is not."
"Great, just our luck!" Adam spat out in disgust and disappointment upon hearing Gerrid's explanation.
"I wonder why that is?" Chase spoke up. "This realm seems to aid the entrants most years, but the Labyrinth seems to punish instead. It's quite odd."
"It is," Gerrid replied. "However, no one has ever made it to the end of the Labyrinth, so we can't say for sure what the reason for its brutality is. The best thing we can hope for is to stay alive and find some opportunities within before we are transported out of the realm."
"Is there any more danger ahead?" John turned to Iris and asked.
Iris and her eyes were already beginning to show their value to John, which caused him to get a slightly better impression of her.
"Not that I see. I just see another fork up ahead," she replied.
John nodded his head and moved forward, followed by the rest of the group. As Iris had stated, there was no more danger, and soon the group arrived at another fork in the passageway. However, this time there were three forks, each completely pitch black as well.
"Which way?" John turned to Iris and asked.
Iris's eyes shifted color as she glanced down all three passageways, before a frown appeared on her face.
"I don't know…the passageways twist and turn quite early on, so I cannot see deeply into them. Also, the material the walls are made of is incredibly unique, and my gaze cannot pierce through them."
John frowned upon hearing this, but said nothing as Iris had already done her best so far. He was just about to guess at random when Adam walked forward. His ċhėst was puffed out and an incredibly proud smile appeared on his face as he passed by Iris, which he made sure she saw.
Iris frowned upon seeing his prideful expression, and couldn't help but curse out at him.
"What the hell are you looking so prideful for?" she asked with a displeased tone.
"Stay back and watch a real master in action," Adam replied with a prideful tone as he sat down on the ground in front of the group. Before he sat down, he took out a large formation disk several yards across and sat down on it.
Many fantastical runes were carved into the surface, and soon another smaller formation disk appeared in his hands. He furled his sleeves up to the shoulder, revealing two small formation disks embedded into his skin. The sight made Iris's skin crawl, as it looked quite brutal.
Three objects, appearing like arrowheads, suddenly appeared in the air before him and floated before his face. Adam closed his eyes and focused his mind, as the formation runes on all the objects he had taken out started to glow.
Che!
Che!
The arrowheads suddenly shot forward, one going into each of the passageways quickly disappeared from everyone's sight as they blended into the darkness.
Everyone remained silent as they allowed Adam to do whatever he was doing, which lasted for over fifteen minutes. Adam's face started to become pale as whatever he was doing was clearly straining his Qi reserves, and his breathing started to become heavier as well.
After thirty minutes, his eyes suddenly snapped open as one of the arrowheads suddenly shot out of one of the dark passageways. It stopped directly before his head, and Adam grabbed the arrowhead and put it away, along with the disk in his hands and the platform below him.
He stood up and turned around to face the group, and his expression became even more prideful than before. He made sure to glance at Iris in particular as a large smile appeared on his face.
"This way," Adam gestured to the passageway that the arrowhead had come out of. "The other ways both lead to traps, and my formation arrows can no longer return to me. Similar to what Iris saw in the first passageway, there are trapped disciples in both of those passageways, unable to return at all."
"Good job," John said to Adam as he patted him on the shoulder.. Without missing a beat, John set off down the passageway Adam had identified, as their journey deeper into the labyrinth continued.