Just as he was about to say something, a piercing screech sounded in their ears, it was a sort of wail combined with a guttural roar.
The sound wasn't loud or disorienting, it was purely terrifying, the type of sound one would imagine in their nightmares.
The two girls were speechless and could only stand there with their mouth wide open.
"Fuck." Fang could only get one word out as he retrieved his short axe as well as a lantern powered by spiritual energy from his storage ring.
"Don't lose focus, it's just trying to scare us." Fang managed to say while gritting his teeth.
The two girls slowly took out their weapons and lamps as well.
"Oo-ok brother Fang." Hua moved very close to fang as she spoke, almost latching on to him.
"I'll cover our back." Hani stood behind them, trying to keep up a brave front.
Fang slowly lit his lantern.
What it revealed made him wish he had been born blind, the mud they thought they had been walking on was actually the mashed up remains of cultivators strewn across the ground like a fleshy carpet.
"Close your eyes!" he yelled at the two girls behind him, he already had enough problems, he didn't want his only allies in this place to go crazy.
Hua had been staring directly at his back, so she didn't have a chance to look at the ground, and Hani had been trying to look at the roof.
He instantly changed the position of the lamp to stop illumination of the ground and pointed it up towards the roof of the cave.
"By the heavens." he whispered as quietly as possible, in a tone that seemed almost defeated.
Corpses were prostrating on the roof, bowing towards whatever lay at the end of the cave. Some were rotting while others were fresh and almost looked alive, taking into account the length of the cave there must have been thousands of people planted on the roof.
Fang extinguished his lantern and nearly lost strength in his knees.
Ethereal Core stage cultivators, beings that could overturn mortal kingdoms by themselves, beings that could wipe countries off the map if given enough time. They were actually trembling at the thought of facing a monster.
He could feel the fear actively eating away at his mind.
"No lanterns ok… New plan, we have no exit, so we only have two options."
The two girls looked at him expectantly, Fang was no pushover he was a candidate to become a sect elder after his Spiritual Awakening, surely he must have a way.
"Either we kill this thing or it kills us." Fang gripped his axe tightly while holding it close to his chest.
The two girls were disappointed that there was no secret method they could use to escape.
"Let's hold hands so we don't lose each other in the dark." Hani suggested.
Fang agreed and stood at the front of the line, one of his hands held Hua and the other held an axe, Hua stood in the middle while holding the hand of Hani who was behind her.
They managed to take a few steps forward when a gust of wind flew past them.
"Are you ok Hua, Hani!?" Fang asked while looking behind him.
At this point it was absolutely dark, so he was unable to see anything, not even the hand that he was holding.
"I'm Fine."
"I'm also ok."
Both girls sounded scared, but at least they were alive, Fang sighed in relief.
"I feel like we're going to die here, and it's your fault we should have never come here."
Hua's voice slowly shifted over the course of the sentence, becoming strangely more and more monotone,
"Are you ok, Hua? Don't talk like this, trust me, tell her Hani."
Fang was the only one there with some willpower left he could not collapse, otherwise they'd all be dead for sure.
They stood there for a moment and awaited Hani's input.
Goosebumps started to appear on Fang's skin.
"Why isn't she replying, aren't you holding her hand?"
Fang spoke, his voice slowly losing composure.
Hua tugged Hani's hand and found out why she wasn't replying.
"Senior brother, I have her hand here, but that's all I have."
Hua no longer had the fear that plagued her earlier, after all, how could she fear when she thought she was already dead.
"You mean."
Fang understood from that statement that something had torn Hani from her own hand without making a single noise or creating enough force for him to notice a tug on the other end.
"It's speaking to me, but I don't know what it's saying, but I know what it's saying, I think it said a word, but I can't remember it sounds like a letter, but I forget it I wonder if it'll repeat itself, but I forget…"
Fang came to a grim realization, from the very beginning it was never a matter of cultivation stages or strength or even techniques.
From the instance they stepped in this cave it was over, for this was no demon or spirit beast, this was something else, something sinister.
He slowly lit the lantern to reveal Hua pulling out her own hair while talking to herself as she stared at something behind him with wide eyes that were bleeding profusely.
His gaze turned to the roof and saw that the corpses that had been bowing towards the end of the tunnel were now all bowing towards him.
At this moment he understood, death was not the passion in a fight that might kill you, death was not a funeral, death wasn't fear. Death wasn't even the act of losing your life.
At this moment, trepidation had taught him, true death was what stood behind him.