Cultivation Starting from Choosing Augments

Chapter 319 - 177: White Lantern, Maze, a Unique Way to Advance (Part 2)

With a flip of his right hand, a large ball of Spiritual Fire surged to life in Xiao Chen’s palm.

He then casually tossed it forward. Under the influence of the Demonic Qi, the Spiritual Fire—originally the size of a millstone—rapidly began to shrink.

It traveled less than ten zhang before shrinking to the size of a walnut, then was quickly snuffed out.

And the deeper he went into the palace, the denser the surrounding Demonic Qi became.

Xiao Chen’s range of vision grew shorter, gradually shrinking from an initial ten-some zhang to only about a single zhang.

Beyond that range, it was pitch-black; he couldn’t see a thing.

If he hadn’t found a winding corridor right from the start, he would likely be lost by now.

However, with the Demonic Qi obscuring their vision, almost no one realized at first that they had unknowingly wandered into a maze.

This, however, did not include the Demon Cultivators from the Divine Fire Sect.

Relying on their Demon Techniques, they naturally had ways to borrow from or even utilize the Demonic Qi, so they were affected far, far less.

Furthermore, unlike the cultivators of the Righteous Dao, who had initially mistaken this place for a Relic, the Demon Cultivators of the Divine Fire Sect had all come prepared.

After entering the maze from the other side of the Yellow Springs Traveling Palace, their objectives were perfectly clear.

One group deliberately stayed behind in the maze, using the cover of the Demonic Qi to begin searching for and hunting down Orthodox Cultivators.

Another elite group quickly sought the exit, rushing into the inner mausoleum to collect Evil Qi.

.

The many Cultivators who had entered the Yellow Springs Traveling Palace in search of treasure unknowingly became the prey of the Demon Dao.

After five straight days of bloody slaughter, over thirty percent of the Cultivators had been killed outright.

Only less than ten percent—the masters and the lucky few—managed to find a way out.

The remaining sixty percent of Cultivators managed to fend off the ambushes by sticking together, but they were now surrounded.

Not only were they trapped in the maze, unable to find an exit, but they also had to constantly be on guard against Magic or Magical Artifacts that could strike from any direction at any moment.

Gradually realizing this, the Demon Cultivators of the Divine Fire Sect also began to move in groups.

They picked off the smaller groups and harassed the larger ones.

At this moment, Du Mingjie was trapped in the maze.

Fortunately, he stuck close to Yang Huai’an, so his safety was more or less guaranteed for the time being.

As a member of the Demon-slaying Guard, Yang Huai’an possessed impressive Combat Power even with the interference of the Demonic Qi, and he quickly gathered more Cultivators around him.

However, having to look out for them also tied him down in the maze, and he had yet to find an escape route.

Moreover, as time went on, the number of Demon Cultivators hiding in the surrounding darkness seemed to be growing.

In fact, the other Cultivators in their group had noticed this as well.

The group had already endured several days of ambushes in the dark; they were exhausted and disoriented.

Sensing the situation worsening, their faces tensed and they grew even more anxious.

Yang Huai’an quickly noticed the group’s flagging morale and tried to offer some comfort. "Fellow Cultivators, keep your spirits up. We’re not far from the exit now."

"If we just hold on a little longer, we’ll be out of this maze."

"Once we’re out, without the Demonic Qi to interfere, those Divine Fire Sect bastards won’t dare to throw their lives away."

However, his words were met with only a few scattered replies.

And even those were weak and listless.

Thanks to the Divine Fire Sect’s interference, they hadn’t rested in five straight days. On top of that, they had repeatedly engaged in Magical Combat with Demon Cultivators in the dark, draining a great deal of their stamina.

Their enemies were all at the Foundation Establishment realm, forcing them to go all out in every fight.

After several days, even though they could take turns resting, they were all reaching their breaking point.

Yang Huai’an saw all this and was deeply worried, but he was helpless to do anything about it.

He was under immense pressure himself, because he had discovered that he couldn’t find the exit at all.

The marks he had left along the way seemed to have been altered by the Demon Cultivators lurking in the darkness.

Although his opponents had been careless once, leaving a sloppily drawn mark, the problem was that now the area was littered with fakes.

Worse, Yang Huai’an had no idea when they had started forging the marks.

Combined with the Demonic Qi blocking his vision and leaving him no landmarks, he was completely unable to tell which marks were real and which were fake.

"ARGH!"

Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream rang out from nearby.

"SQUELCH!"

It was followed by the sound of a sharp weapon piercing flesh.

"I’LL FIGHT YOU TO THE DEATH!"

A defiant roar followed, and the nearby Demonic Qi trembled violently, as if something had exploded just a short distance away.

But in the end, everything fell silent.

"THUMP!"

Yang Huai’an slammed his fist against the wall. His eyes were filled with rage, but even more with helplessness.

Judging by the fluctuation in the Demonic Qi, he had been at most three zhang away.

But a thick wall stood between them, separating them.

The walls were all forged from Spirit Ore and varied in thickness.

Even for a cultivator like Yang Huai’an, at the Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment realm, it would take at least two attacks to blast a hole in even the thinnest of these walls.

To widen it enough to pass through would require another two attacks.

As for a thick wall like this one, it would be impossible to break it down in less than a Quarter Hour.

Even if he had wanted to go and save them, he was powerless to do so.

"BOOM!"

Another loud crash.

The wall in front of Yang Huai’an trembled.

Hm?

’What’s going on?’

He was suddenly startled. ’Someone on the other side is trying to break through the wall!’

’Could it be that he wasn’t killed by the Demon Cultivators? No, that doesn’t make sense. At a time like this, what good would breaking the wall do?’

In that moment, several thoughts raced through Yang Huai’an’s mind.