Our group walked ahead inside the palace, only to find it a massive room. Empty of course without an entrance or exit.
Since the way, we came from suddenly shut down.
The massive door behind us was locked tight causing everyone to flinch from the sudden realization that we were trapped.
"What the hell is going on?!" spoke Wei Lei, "We're trapped!" he added.
"I can see that," I said as I touched the door. There was something, some sort of energy around it.
It wasn't an inscription, no this was more like Qi, Saint Qi, completely shutting this whole palace down.
"I don't like this," Spoke Lin, her ears were perked up and her hair was slightly ruffled.
Her instincts were screaming at her and I can see it from how the irises of her eyes were wide. This usually happens when cats are anxious, their pupils dilate taking in more light to increase their vision and awareness of the situation.
"Move aside," spoke one of the Fire Palace Disciples.
"I'll break through it," he said.
"Stop that," I said, "You'll die," I added.
"What? I'm trying to help here and you're threatening me?!" he said.
"You're an idiot, if you use your Qi, you'll burn the stored fat, and you'll die from poison before you can even break the wall, also it's Saint Qi, I don't suppose you have the ability to break through it, none of us has, even if we were perfectly healthy and worked together we wouldn't be able to cause a dent in this thing," I said.
"Then what? Should we just die?" the Fire Palace disciple said.
"No, if whatever trapped us here wanted us dead, we'd be dead already, they want us to find something…" I said
"But there is nothing here," someone else said, from Lin's race a male person with a strange-looking nose and a hood over his head.
Two protrusions from the side clearly indicated that he had some sort of long ears…a dog maybe?
"I can see that there is nothing here, but that can't be all it is to it to this place. Keep looking, look at the tiles, look at the ceiling, there must be something here," I said.
The group then understood their task and began moving about, looking for any clues.
I focused my eyes on the ground trying to see if there was any small gap between the tiles or if one of them was fake or an entrance to another area.
"Shen," turning it was Yuyu, she looked a bit fatigued.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"Do you have a way out of this? I feel like I'm at the end of my wit, in a strange place, hunted by a Poison Cultivator, a strong and devious one, and fully wounded without access to any of my belongings." She said.
"Yeah, I know that feeling, I'm having it too, but don't worry we'll find a way," I said then looked around.
"Hold on… where is Liang Yu," I said.
This caused everyone to pause, they looked around then another person spoke, "Where is lady Xuan?"
"Did anyone touch anything?" I asked around.
No one answered as they all shook their heads.
Suddenly, someone pointed behind me, "LOOK!" he said.
We all turned and saw… nothing, turning back to him, he too was not there.
"What the fuck is going on?!" spoke Wei Lei, "They are disappearing one by one!"
"Check carefully check under where that person had disappeared there must be something here!" I said.
Just as I moved about, "Shen!" I heard, but just as I turned Yuyu was nowhere to be seen.
"Fuck!" I cursed, rage began filling my mind. We were being toyed with.
And I can't even use my divine sense to scan around the area, mine is far too weak for any usable detection.
Suddenly, more seemed to have disappeared from the room, whenever I looked away or my focus was on something else someone would disappear.
"LIN!" I said to the cat girl who seemed to be frightened by what was going on and her eyes were darting all around us.
She snapped to me, eyes full of wonder and questions.
"Focus your eyes on me!" I said, "Whatever is happening, it's taking people who aren't being looked at directly. God damn it." I said as I kept my eyes on Lin. And so did the rest of the people they all focused their eyes on the people in front of them, and everyone kept a lookout on the other.
"Anyone gone?" I asked after a few minutes.
"No, I'm still looking at the same person," someone said, "Same here…" others replied.
"Good, my guess was correct, whatever, and whoever was taking them, needed to be unnoticed while doing-"
Suddenly, darkness flooded the room.
Utter complete darkness.
My heart felt like it had stopped for a moment, and soon light came back.
"H- he is gone!" someone said.
"Here too, she is gone!"
This kept happening until Lin disappeared from my sight and I was the last one in the room. Panic and worry filled me as I didn't know what to do.
Then before we could even think up another plan, the darkness seemed to flood the room once again, and this time I felt it, like my legs were pulled from under me. It was my turn.
Before I was pulled to god knows where I spat in front of me managing to land it on some sort of solid space before I was forced to go down below.
I felt like I was falling, for an awfully long amount of time, before suddenly something cushioned my fall and I was able to stand up.
I checked myself, and nothing seemed to be broken. Whatever had stopped me from falling was the same thing that was at the entrance of this place.
Gravity is still under strict laws. But the divine sense is restored.
I used mine like the floodgates had opened when it shot everywhere, angry and finally free from being confined all around me. My divine sense spread out everywhere scanning detecting and giving me all sorts of information. It was free.
"People!" I said as I detected a group of cultivators not too far away from me.
I hurried towards the people only to find them all sitting in front of a monolith of sorts. An obsidian dark stone that had the shape of an octagonal prism with two octagonal pyramids on each end. It was erected in the middle of a hall and seemed to be hovering without any supporting powers…
The whole hall had several arched doorways leading everywhere. But every pathway seemed to be close off beside the one that I just came from.
"Hello," I said.
Suddenly everyone turned to me.
They were all here, all safe.
"Finally you show up," spoke Liang Yu, "We've been waiting for you for ages," she said.
"Ages? How long have I been away? It couldn't be more than a minute," I said.
"It's been thirty days," spoke Liang Yu.
"For me, it's been twenty days," spoke Yuyu.
"Forty days here I thought I'd die before I would see anyone else…" spoke another person.
"Time dilation," I said as I looked at the large stone in the middle of the hall.
"What do you mean?" asked Yuyu.
"Time goes faster here, unlike up above… also, why did you stay here for so long?" I said as I looked around.
"We couldn't go anywhere," said Lin who seemed to have droopy ears. "It's locked tight, and we can't use the way we came from to go up."
Suddenly, the monolith in the middle of the room began moving.
"Oh, that's a first," spoke one of the Fire Palace disciples.
"It didn't do that before?" I asked.
"No, this is the first time that thing moved, we thought it was just a rock, a very sturdy one…" he said.
"Hold on a minute," I said.
"Why are you all alive?" I said.
"You bastard, why are you cursing us with death?"
"No, he is right. No one seemed to question it before until you brought it up Shen… why are we still alive," said Wei Lei, "We should be dead, if not from thirst and hunger at least from the poison, are we cured?" he asked.
I frowned then moved to Ling Yu, "Give me your hand please," I said as I grasped her hand and did a quick scan.
"No…the poison is still there, but something isn't right…do you not hear it," I said.
"Hear? Hear what?" asked one of them.
"You don't hear it? something that has been with you, all your lives, something that should be with you until the day you die, the sound of life… the sound of your heartbeats…" I said.
The sudden realization downed on everyone…and once they checked they all seem to come to the conclusion.
"We're…dead?"