"WHAT? LING WAS HERE ALL ALONG!?" Wen Jian exclaimed.
Wen Jian took out his sword and ignited the torches with the sparks created from his sword striking on the rock. He immediately swayed the torch around and saw a swift shadow ahead.
Jian noticed something fast heading towards him. He immediately parried it with his sword.
"Yao Tian! Hold this torch and lit the rest of those torches with it! I'll deal with his attacks!" Jian shouted.
Jian detected several qi threads rushing towards him, but he immediately severed them with his sword.
"Impressive, old man. If you used that weapon of yours before, we probably won't arrive in this situation."
Wen Jian swung his sword in the air.
"Humph. If I didn't took easy on you before, knowing the fact that you comprehended a technique that had the same level as mine, I would've used my full power in order to deal you!"
Ling paused for a moment upon hearing Wen Jian's reply.
(Same level? What the hell is he talking about?)
"Ling! What sort of trickery did you used this time in order to lure us here by using one of our guards!?" Yao Tian exclaimed.
Suddenly, Ling scoffs him upon hearing such stupid question.
"Pfft. And why would I answer that?"
"You...!"
Hours before Wen Jian ordered his guards to regroup, Ling detected one of them probing within the cavern's vicinity.
Ling captured the guard by wrapping its hands and feet using his qi threads, and gagged the soldier's mouth in order to prevent him from calling others.
Then, he placed a drop of his qi in the guard's dantian. The guard immediately felt a strong suction inside his body, and noticed that his qi reserve was reduced by half in a matter of ten seconds. He also felt that his vitality was losing at a faster rate.
Ling placed his hand on the guard's stomach and took half of the strange qi back to his dantian. The suction force weakened, and the discomfort that the guard felt before subsided.
"Now, I will tell you this clear and precise. You will follow my command that I'm about to tell you after this. Delaying it further or sabotaging me wouldn't be an option, as that suction force hidden inside your dantian will grow stronger over time, leading towards your doom. Do I make myself clear?" Ling said.
The guard nodded his head while shaking.
"Good. If you manage to pull this off, I will remove that thing inside you and spare your life."
Ling untied the guard and removed the gag from its mouth. He told the guard the task, and that is to lure Wen Jian and Yao Tian on the cave.
The guard walks away in silence. As the guard's figure vanished from the thick bushes around, Ling entered the cave and prepared for their arrival.
...
Ling was looking at the furious Yao Tian, amused by his reaction.
(Humph. I'm glad that Wen Clan's guard fulfill the task successfully, but sadly he made a blunder at the last-minute...)
Suddenly, Ling noticed that the entire cavern trembled, indicating that the conditions were met, and the door finally opened.
(Offering the bloods of fifteen people just to open that door? That door is greedy as heck!)
Wen Jian and the others also noticed the tremors and asked Ling about it.
"Hey brat! What the hell did you do?" Wen Jian asked him.
Ling raised one of his eyebrows.
"Why are you asking me as if I knew everything? Seek that answer to yourself!" Ling said and immediately ran towards the door's location.
"You fucking brat! Chase after him!" Wen Jian ordered his guards.
"Uhm... Patriarch. Only nine of us were left. The remaining fifteen guards were killed by Ling's ambush!" One of the guards said.
Wen Jian looked around and saw the lifeless bodies of his guards lying on the ground.
(Ling... I'll never forgive you for this!)
"Leave them and chase that brat! We'll capture him at all cost!" Wen Jian shouted.
Wen Jian, Yao Tian, and the remaining Qi Condensation Stage guards chased after him. Ling saw them and ran faster in order to outrun them. Upon entering the other side of the door, a bright, red light covered his entire body.
"This...!"
Not long after, Ling slowly opened his eyes. As his vision became clear, he found himself lying inside a strange platform.
(Where... am I?)
Ling looked around and found the nine Qi Condensation Stage guards, Wen Jian and Yao Tian lying on the platforms similar to his.
(Wen Jian... What are they doing here?)
Ling stood up and tried to jump from the platform, but an invisible barrier was preventing him from escaping. He banged on the invisible barrier several times, but the barrier won't budge at all.
(I'll try breaking this barrier using the Three-Dagger Killing Formation!)
Ling used the Three-Dagger Killing Formation to break the barrier, but the result was still the same.
(What about my strange qi?)
Ling unleashed his strange qi, trying to corrode the barrier by absorbing it, but the barrier didn't show any signs of corrosion.
(Even with my strange qi, the barrier won't break at all!)
Suddenly, Ling heard someone calling his name from behind.
"HEY LING! WHERE ARE WE? DID YOU SEND US HERE? WAS THIS ONE OF YOUR TRICKERY!?"
Ling immediately recognized the voice and looked behind. He saw Yao Tian screaming at him loudly.
Ling didn't answer him and continued his attempt to break the barrier.
"HEY! ANSWER ME YOU FUCKING BRAT!"
"YAO TIAN! STOP SCREAMING AND BE QUIET!" Wen Jian shouted him.
Yao Tian fell silent upon hearing the patriarch's order. Tian sat on the ground while staring at Ling.
"You should train your dog how to behave better, old man..." Ling said while attempting to break the barrier.
Yao Tian heard Ling's taunts and went furious.
"You fucking...!"
Yao Tian saw the patriarch staring at him. He calmed himself and exhaled slowly.
"Patriarch... Where are we?" one of the guards asked Wen Jian.
"W-What is this place?" the other one asked him.
"Calm down. Wait for my further instructions. Even I... I don't know where we are right now..." Wen Jian told them.
Suddenly, the barrier began to emit a green glow, and all of them noticed that their injuries healed in an instant.
"This is...!"
Although Ling doesn't have any injuries, he felt that his vitality was replenished. He looked around and saw that the guard's injuries was healed, and Wen Jian and Yao Tian are no exceptions.
"Hah! It seems like we struck gold this time! This place healed us to restore our strength to its peak!" Yao Tian exclaimed.
"Alas! The heavens didn't abandoned us at all!" one of the guards exclaimed.
Out of nowhere, an object similar to a star in a night sky appeared in front of them. All of them fell silent, fixated by the sudden appearance of the object.
"What... is that?" one of the guards murmured.
Suddenly, strange lines emerged from the object and flew directly towards Ling and one of the guards. It permeated through the barriers easily, intersecting each other in quick succession. As the lines began to interact wich each other, they transformed into characters in no time.
One of the guards was puzzled by the situation and asked the guard beside him who received the characters which is words that can be read.
"What was written there? I can't read it properly from this angle!" the guard said to the other one who received the word.
"Uhh... It says... Stay or...Die?"