On the twins' side, they had been moving further into the maze. Little by little, Roan began to memorize the patterns and the changes the maze went through every time. His capability was even better than Latalia, who had stayed in this place for several weeks already. Thanks to that, they were not as lost as they had been before. At the very least, Roan could guarantee that they were moving into new areas.
Of course, as the number of cultivators increased as time passed, Rean's group bumped into other cultivator groups, who had been teleported into other areas. Not to mention that they began to find more Demon Beasts as well. The twins understood that those tokens would be of some use sooner or later, so they also focused on gathering them.
When the demon beast group was too big, they would flee. If they were small groups like the first one, they would defeat it, take the token, and leave before they recovered.
However, not all groups of demon beasts had tokens. After some time, Rean and Roan understood. It's not that they didn't have those tokens, but that the tokens inside their bodies were taken by other groups.
Another point was that the number of cultivators inside this place was several times higher than when the cultivators began to disappear in the past. Thanks to that, the demon beasts' damage was a lot smaller. Single groups or lonely cultivators wouldn't resist for long since they would encounter the fake demon beasts several times. They would eventually run out of energy and die inside. But now, because of the numbers in the maze, the demon beasts that ruled this place were scattered everywhere, which gave the groups and lone cultivators time to recover between each battle.
So far, Rean's group had acquired four tokens, and that's because they arrived a lot earlier than other groups. One must remember that Rean's group was far from being considered one of the strongest ones. They weren't weak, but there were groups here with Middle, Late, and Peak Core and Soul Fusion Realm cultivators. Rean and Roan might be able to fight an Initial Stage one head-on and even put up a fight against a Middle Stages. But Late and Peak stages were still far from their league.
The only reason their ambush worked so well against the Umbral Sect group was the several points that aligned together. The Flag Protection Formation made them think no one would take them from behind. Their complacency against Rovan's abilities was also a factor. Not to mention that Rovan himself put his body on the line to further drag the enemies' attention away when the twins appeared. Only after all of this did they succeed that easily. Otherwise, as long as the Middle Stage guy had escaped the ambush, their battle would have turned into a bitter one.
Every now and then, Rovan would take his Thoughts Transmission Talisman out and try to activate it. However, with a limit of 300km of communication, he got no results. Besides, Roan believed that this maze further decreases the talisman's power since it also affected Spiritual Sense to a great extent.
Roan was right in the end. When Rovan's Thoughts Transmission Talisman finally activated, their group was only 40 or so kilometers away from Ervan and Sian.
"It worked!"
Rean and Roan immediately stopped and looked at Rovan.
"Alright, you and Ervan only have another two talismans capable of communicating. We don't know if Ervan's group is on the same floor either. Send a message asking him for all the details he can give you about his location and the direction he is heading to. The more detailed, the better."
Rovan nodded. He didn't waste time asking how they were faring since that could be done once they reunited. Rovan quickly summarized the information in his head and activated the Thoughts Transmission Talisman.
On Ervan's side, he looked at how his Talisman shone, showing that it received a message from his father. He then looked at Latalia.
"Senior Latalia, as I told you before, we didn't come to this place alone. Just now, my father's talisman reached me. Would you mind if I contacted him back?"
Latalia narrowed her eyes before stopping to ask.
"What's his cultivation level? Are there more people with him? I'm not in the mood to fall into a trap."
Ervan sweated as he shook his head straight away.
"Senior. With your strength, you should be able to at least run. Besides, my father is at the Core and Soul Fusion Realm Initial Stage. As for people with him, there are two other cultivators at the Initial Stage of the Core Formation Realm and an Initial Stage Three Demon Beast."
Ervan didn't want more problems to arise, but he didn't want to stay with Latalia either. That being said, he told the truth, expecting her to let them stay with his father. If she really didn't want to force them to do anything else, she shouldn't have a reason to refuse. Of course, that was considering that she believed Ervan's words. She could totally think that Ervan was trying to lead her into a trap and refuse that idea as well.
Latalia pondered a bit about her chances. She did indeed want to keep her word. However, if she can leave those two behind earlier, that would be even better. She considered the risks of it being a trap as she looked at Ervan and Sian. In the end, she thought it was worth a try and nodded.
"Alright, go ahead. But keep in mind that once you reunite with your father, you will have nothing more to do with me. That means I won't owe you anything else and will have no reason to help you go out."
Ervan and Sian were delighted to hear that as they immediately nodded.
"Alright!"
Ervan then organized his thoughts and tried to include as much information as possible into the Thoughts Transmission Talisman. That was the only remaining one he had to use, so he also asked Latalia and Sian for any other information he might have missed.
The issue was that the maze seemed to be almost identical everywhere, so it was hard to give any point of reference. However, Latalia appeared to know the place very well, which helped Ervan explain everything.
When Rovan received the answer, he didn't read it since it could be done only once. Instead, he passed the last Thoughts Transmission Talisman to Roan since he already noticed how much better he was at understanding this place.
"There you go. It's the last one, so make sure you won't miss any words."
Roan nodded as he pressed the Talisman against his forehead. The information then quickly poured inside his mind as he read the entire content. A moment later, his eyes shone.
"It seems like I'm not the only one with a brain in this place. The description was quite accurate. Come with me."
Roan immediately changed direction and headed back. A few kilometers later, he began to enter the superior deeper floors. Every now and then, he would change direction again. Finally, he stopped and pondered a bit about the information he received.
"Alright, they should be just above us. Wait here a moment."
Back on Latalia's side, she had also brought Ervan and Sian to another place and stopped there.
"Let's wait here. We will start to move as soon as things are done with."
Ervan's group became puzzled.
"Why wait? What things?"
Latalia then said.
"That's because there the next passage capable of leading us down is over a hundred kilometers away. It will be a waste of time to go there, and we might reencounter other demon beasts."
That didn't answer their question, though. However, just as they were about to ask why they would wait in this place, the area began to tremble.
On Roan's side, he faintly smiled as he heard the mechanical sounds once again. This time, however, it was a lot louder than usual.
In front of Rean and Ervan's groups, the room around them closed on both sides. Latalia and Roan stopped them from trying to escaping, saying that it was part of the plan.
Right after, they felt the floor under them moving, bringing them somewhere.
"This is why following the walls won't work. The maze changes shape every now and then. I noticed a few small details that pointed to which part of the maze moved. If I'm not wrong, this one should connect to where Ervan is staying right now."
Latalia also explained the same thing to Ervan and Sian, which surprised them. That showed that Latalia's understanding of this place was a lot higher than they expected.
The rooms they were in continued to move for a few more seconds when they finally heard a sound that felt like something had reconnected. Roan immediately understood that the rooms had connected to the new area. It's just that the rooms didn't stop trembling yet, which showed that more rooms would connect to this place any second now.
The side walls began to open again. Sure enough, Roan and Latalia's group saw each other stopped right in front of them.
Rean and Latalia were taken aback, though.
In Rean's case, that was because he did not feel their Life Force presence until the walls finally opened. So he didn't know they were right in front before.
'So these walls can even lock the perception of life force, just what are those things made of?'
As for Latalia, she was surprised about something else.
'How did they come to this place? I was supposed to go meet them somewhere else. Could it be that they already understand the tricks behind this maze?'
Roan, on the other hand, noticed Latalia's presence.
"Is that Latalia, the one we were looking for?"
"Ah!"
Rovan and Rean immediately nodded. In the message from Ervan, he didn't comment about Latalia's presence as per her own request.
However, Rean's attention was immediately taken by another thing. Another path opened in another corner a few meters away. When the walls locking that room sides opened, another cultivator group appeared.
"Umbral Energy!"