The entrance to the dungeon was a very big cave, within it, one could spot many crystals and stalactites all over the place. Six groups of cultivators flew in the cave to the unknown depth, each group numbered in the hundreds.
One of these groups moved in the very back, it was led by a stunningly beautiful girl.
Ling Tian flew at the very end of the last group alongside Lian Qiu who was on edge as he whispered to Ling Tian.
"Brother Ling, forgive me already! You don't know of the terror I feel toward my sister..."
Ling Tian sighed, "I know you are afraid of her for some unknown reason but I don't get one thing, why would you let your emotions guide your decisions? That is why I am angry at you!"
Lian Qiu asked indignantly, "What was I supposed to do?"
Ling Tian answered with exasperation, "Listen well, I only say this to you because you are a good friend. Woman follow their emotions and Men their reason; As a man, you must always make decisions based on logic if you want to survive..."
When Lian Qiu heard about surviving and with the coming fight, he gulped in fear, 'I might die if I don't make logical decisions?! But I always did whatever I felt like doing...' Then he remembered he had grown up in the sect and suddenly realized something.
'Don't tell me the reason father always made things difficult for me is that I grew up in a sheltered environment... Now that I think about it, I learned and saw more in this short time outside the sect than the last decade in the sect.' As he reached there he came to a grave realization, 'I have become one of those sheltered silk pants whom father hated!!!'
As Lian Qiu was having an internal conflict with himself, Ling Tian studied the cave with his eyes.
'Getting out of here is going to be a problem if the stalactites fall, it's not gonna be pretty if someone were to attack now...' His eyes widened as the cave shook and the walls began cracking, someone was fighting in the front and the shockwave caused the stalactites to fall.
It was like a rain of swords piercing everything on their path, a few people were directly pierced through due to the suddenness of the situation.
Ling Tian's Qi moved around his body forming a shield that managed to block everything for him and Lian Qiu but it instantly began cracking. His face turned pale, 'These are not made of simple stuff! There is Qi in them! Each one feels like an attack from a Peak XianTian realm cultivator...'
He looked at the others and saw that indeed most of them were struggling to block them, the ones with lower cultivation failed and were pierced through.
He quickly moved closer to Lian Qiu and made the shield smaller which caused it to become thicker and not crack under the bombardment. Lian Qiu had seen his fair share of Death when traveling with Ling Tian so he wasn't that shocked but he was caught off-guard and would have died if not for Ling Tian.
"Gather below me!" shouted Lian RuXue as some sort of cloth appeared in her hand and formed a big umbrella above her that blocked everything that was falling. The group quickly obeyed and went under it and avoided most of the crisis.
Ling Tian looked at her with interest, 'She is arrogant but not useless, huh...'
When it was over, 17 had died and 20 were injured. She took the corpses in her storage ring and gave the injured pills then said, "We should move..."
They continued down but this time much more cautiously, in an intersection of the cave system, they entered the designated one chosen for them and went down.
Ling Tian's divine sense was active and searching for threats. His eyes suddenly widened and Lian Qiu noticed it, "What is it?!" he asked hurriedly.
Ling Tian answered with awe, "It is so massive! My Divine sense can't even reach the walls of the dungeon... It's like a different world! There is a forest with trees as tall as hills ahead of us..."
And indeed, a few minutes later, they left the cave and found themselves looking at tall trees thick as 100 ordinary trees. The Qi was so dense that it washed over them like a waterfall, it was a refreshing feeling.
The ceiling of the dungeon was covered with glowing crystals that dimly lit up the entire place in blue and yellow color. It was a magical sight and yet before they could appreciate it, dozens of cultivators in black robes attacked the group.
Before they could even reach them, a few sword rivers met them and slashed them into pieces, their body parts fell on the ground. Ling Tian thought, 'They ambush us with only 12 early inner heaven realm cultivators? Something is not right...'
His Divine sense expanded to its limit and he felt nothing wrong, just as Lian RuXue wanted to move forward, he stopped her, "Wait!"
She stopped with annoyance, "What is it?!"
He landed on the ground and cautiously picked a simple stone and threw it forward. It moved unhindered for a few seconds until it suddenly turned into ashes mid-air.
Lian RuXue turned pale as Ling Tian explained, "They attackers were meant to make us feel safe after dealing with the ambush, 'no one ambushes twice now, do they?' That was what they hoped we would think and then fall into the Trap. It is obvious that this entrance has fallen to enemy hands, we are in enemy territory... this is very bad."
He had read the book unlike many who chose to rest, so he had a basic understanding of the situation in the dungeon. The others just needed to follow orders, they thought.
What he already knew about the dungeon from the book were as such:
The Dungeon's ceiling, depending on the location and depth, would be from 1 to 150 miles high, it had no clear limit horizontally, some places very close to the entrance were said to be 100 miles.
There were castles and military structures similar within the dungeon as strongholds for cultivators, each one had a domain and controlled part of the dungeon and he had a map of them.
Under every Entrance were a few of such castles and based on Ling Tian's guess, the one closest to the entrance they had entered through was lost to the enemy which was why they could place an ambush and Trap array.
If they had walked to the Trap array, the ones in the front would have turned to ashes and died, Ling Tian continued, "The way this is set is obviously made to take out the leader of the group that would usually move in the front. Without a leader, it is much easier to kill the group."
Lian RuXue felt a strange sense of fear as she realized how close to death she had come, the others in the group were frightened as they just realized what kind of enemy they were dealing with, it was unknown how many tricks the enemy had up their hands.
"What do we do, Brother Ling?" someone asked in the group. Lian RuXue felt that as a leader, she was a disgrace, so she didn't say anything, she had her own pride and decided to remain silent.
Ling Tian realized by the silence of Lian RuXue that she had acknowledged him and smirked a little in amusement but continued seriously, "The enemy doesn't expect us to know of this and it is highly probable that they are waiting for the array to activate fully which is a signal for them that some cultivators had died to it. Then they will then rush in and finish the rest..."
The group grew even more frightened and the same person asked again, "Are we doomed? Help us, brother Ling!"
Ling Tian thought, 'These are innocent guys who trained in their sect day and night and sometimes dealt with some demons and such together so it is natural they don't know about war, not that I know, I am just cautious I suppose... But how do we turn this around?'
He thought about it a few seconds and suddenly smiled wickedly, "I have an idea..."
The group including the Lian Siblings were a little taken aback by his plan and saw him in a new light. As the leader, Lian RuXue had the final say and with her acceptance, the group began working.
Outside the invisible trap array, a group of people with black robes were waiting for a sign. The leader among them was a devilishly handsome young man who seemed extremely arrogant.
One of them bowed to the young man, "Lord Mo, the slaves we trapped in there died; Your brilliant plan is amazing! We should get ready to attack."
Suddenly out of nowhere the one speaking was slapped to the face and fell down, the young man said with disdain, "How dare an animal speak to me?" He walked toward the man who cowered in fear and stomped his foot on his face. "That is where you belong, 2nd rate trash. If you order me again, you will lie there permanently, am I clear, Animal?"
The man nodded in fear, the young man spit on him and walked away toward the array's direction, 'Devil Emperor's son, my ass, who is he to tell me, Mo Hui, the rightful heir of the previous Emperor, what to do? This trash mission... I will just slaughter everyone and return.'
The others in the group looked at Mo Hui with part fear and part respect and a little hatred mixed in there as they followed him. He didn't look at them as if they were ants...
Meanwhile inside, Ling Tian placed some treasures together and looked at the group behind him, especially toward Lian RuXue, "Prepare, we don't know how strong they are so don't give them any time and attack with all you have after I tell you..."
They nodded.