The situation wasn't looking good.
How the hell are creatures this strong held up in a place like this? The facility clearly doesn't seem fully capable of containing them. If things like this were to be released outside, a calamity will ensue.
However, I had to immediately eat my words, as I saw what they all had on their wrists. They all had the same shackles as we did.
Meaning, that they were also prisoners of this place, and if they were to leave, they'll lose their ability. No wonder they remained here. For at least here they could defend themselves, while outside they're completely useless.
Our goal was ahead of us, in sight, but we couldn't get to it easily.
To walk between all these things, undetected would be close to a miracle.
"How are we going to go there?" Liang Yu asked me.
I frowned trying to think up a way to cross the room, then I almost facepalmed myself and only stopped because the sound would have woken them up.
"Get a bit back," I sent through transmission.
Liang Yu walked away from me and watched carefully as I crouched down as low as I could and opened my mouth.
A faint purple-colored smoke slowly left my mouth, and it dropped to the ground as if it was liquid smoke.
It slowly began moving forward premating the room, bit by bit, foot by foot, until it touched the first half-human.
The moment the smoke touched the first half-human, he shook slightly but didn't seem to care.
Then it began spreading, slowly, but surely, it spread all across the room, making sure to make contact with every one of these things.
My poison Qi reserves were being exhausted at an extremely rapid pace, but it was needed, this 'poison' I was using wasn't something simple.
It was a mix of the Braided Mourning Petal poison, a highly toxic and paralyzing poison, along with a mix of Joyful Weed.
The mix of these things worked wondrously in knocking out targets and then slowly paralyzing them. The concentrate of the Joyful Weed was strong enough to knock out a beast, and the best part about it was its numbing effect.
The numbing effect worked in countering the painful effects of the Burial Mourning Petals. As the latter worked in a way that caused the muscles and nerves to freeze and become immobile, causing immense pain.
The mixture was highly toxic, but at the same time, an unaware person hit with it will never realize when they had died.
It took several minutes before the room was fully permeated with the poison and soon, I could hear the breathing of these creatures ceasing one after another. Unable to wake up from the trance, nor call for help, many opened their eyes, shuddering but unable to release themselves from the trap.
It felt awful, to kill so many of these creatures without them having a chance to defend themselves, but if the administrator of the test threw this as a test for us, it was obvious that we were meant to fight for survival against them.
Soon, the room fell to a deathly silence. As all the creatures have died, with horror painted in their wide-open eyes.
I stood up, and said, "Don't walk into the room, you'll get poisoned," I said as I took the first step into the room.
The poison within it parted away from me. This very poison that killed so many creatures far stronger than me, parted way as if afraid.
I walked forward in between the corpses. It was a sad sight, but it had to be done.
Once I arrived at the other side of the room, I pulled up the box.
Just as I did, I heard something clicking, there was something underneath the box. And a loud bell sound echoed within the room.
However, the bell toll for no one.
It was a trap all along. A trap enticing people to risk themselves into walking right in between these creatures, to get the box, only to die a moment later when the bell woke all the creatures here.
"What a sad joke," I scuffed at the situation, because, once again the bell tolled to no one.
I opened the box and pulled the Piece of Information from it.
Seven, we need three more.
"Let's go," I said to Liang Yu and the two of us walked away from this prison now turned tomb.
Once arrived to the exit of the floor, we saw the cultivators on the other side of the bridge still waiting, but it was clear from their reaction that they were surprised to see us alive.
We had no way to cross the bridge without fighting them, however.
"What are we going to do now?" Liang Yu asked.
Looking around, I didn't seem to find a way to solve the situation peacefully.
I sat down and pulled my pipe.
Liang Yu looked at me in wonder and asked me, "I'm surprised you still find the time to smoke," she said.
"We're at a stalemate," I said as I filled my pipe with Joyful Weed then lit it up using the Veridian Heart Flame released from my finger as if it was a lighter.
"I also need this to recoup my Qi reserves," I said as I took a strong whiff from the pipe.
We can't move across the bridge because they can destroy it and have us trapped, and we can't actively hurt them or we'll be disqualified.
However, they can't cross the bridge towards us, but I'm still unable to understand one thing. Why hadn't they destroyed the bridge yet?
If I was them, I'd destroy the bridge and keep us trapped on the other side, so why didn't they?
I could hardly believe that cultivators that cultivated for hundreds of years wouldn't have come to this conclusion yet, so I strongly believe that it's not that they didn't want to destroy the bridge, it's that they are unable to. Or are not permitted to.
"I could probably do something about them, but I'll need to attack from inside the Gaol," Liang Yu said.
"No, if you actively hurt them, we'll be disqualified," I said.
"We need to figure out another way," I added after taking another puff.
"The poison you used before," Liang Yu said.
"That's deadly, it will kill them not to mention, I'll need a way to get them to inhale the poison first, and from here they'll see it coming," I said.
"Not that one, the one you used against the scorpion," she said.
"Oh, the Breath Sealing Poison… that could work," I said. But how can I get them to inhale it, I can't abuse my ability to ignore the shackles. So, I must use it from within the Gaol, but using a poison breath over this distance, and not to mention the powerful winds… there is no shot it'll ever reach them.
But this gave me an idea.
"You're pretty smart," I said and then pulled something from my inventory.
It was my revolver. A very reliable revolver.
I then pulled a long tube and linked it to the muzzle increasing its length, then added another part at the back of the revolver to act as a stock. Then added a scope.
The revolver immediately transformed into a sniper rifle.
"That's a strange-looking treasure, what is this thing's function?" she asked.
"I'll show you," I said as I loaded the sniper with a normal bullet.
I pulled the weapon and aimed at the group from inside the Gaol.
They clearly saw me cocking the weapon and looked pretty worried at first.
Suddenly, the first shot echoed and the bullet traveled at extreme speed.
However, that speed to the eyes of a cultivator was nothing worth writing home about.
One of the cultivators easily sliced the metallic bullet in half and snorted.
"What a pitiful weapon you have, just surrender," he said.
"I don't mean to be rude," Liang Yu said, "But that is truly, a pitiful weapon," she said.
I sighed and loaded another bullet.
I shot again but this time the man didn't even slice at it, because it didn't even come close to him and flew far away.
"HAH! You can't even aim, your first blow was far more precise," the same man taunted.
I ignored him and continued shooting, several of the bullets were flying all over the place, and the few that came close to them were sliced in half.
"This is getting on my nerves! Administrator! This man is clearly going against the rules, the prisoners shouldn't assault the guards," the cultivator said.
Soon a voice echoed through the prison, "No rules have been broken yet, and he is in all his right to use a tool, the condition was to not use martial arts." The voice said.
'Good, I was banking on this confirmation.'
The man after hearing this was vexed, but still shrugged, "Even if, that thing is useless you won't even be able to harm us at this rate, might as well give up." He declared proudly.
I pulled another cartridge full of bullets, but these were different, and Liang Yu was able to spot the difference.
"These…" she muttered.
I grinned and loaded one of them and shot it, a bit far from the first cultivator but at the same time against a wall near him. The bullet planted itself comfortably against the wall.
More bullets were shot, but not a single one of them was even close to coming in contact with the cultivators and only landed a few feet away from them.
I continued doing so, and they continued to stay vigilant.
"Don't even try to lower our guard and hope for a clean shot, that'll never happen especially with how slow those slugs, just give in man, we all need to get to the next test, you already lost," he said.
I didn't speak and continued shooting, then something unexpected happened, one of the cultivators went out of his way to jump and slash at one of the bullets.
The moment the bullet was cut in two, a small pill fell down.
"What? What's this?" the cultivator spoke as he held up half of the pill in his hands.
His head snapped towards me and he saw a wide grin on my face.
Of course, I wasn't missing on purpose, but I didn't want them to see the content of the bullets.
"Shit…" the cultivator spoke just in time with me snapping my fingers.
All the bullets planted next to them exploded at the same time and they all released a powerful wave of Breath Sealing Poison that immediately invaded the nerves of the cultivators causing them to start shacking.
They looked at their hands as if they couldn't believe themselves.
"My…my Qi!" one of them spoke.
And that was our cue, "Let's go!" I said as I ran as fast as I could forward with Liang Yu following after me.