The ground under me shook, heavily so, enough that one would think it was an earthquake.
Something was coming and it was coming fast.
The problem is, I have no idea where it was coming from. But standing still is meaningless. I randomly picked a direction and legged it.
As I was running away, I pulled up a batch of talismans, explosive ones that blow up the moment they're stepped on. I threw several of them behind me as I ran forward taking any turn left or right as I moved.
Suddenly, a loud explosion echoed behind me, the talismans were triggered. They were obvious for any cultivator meaning that anyone would have jumped or dodged away from them, but not for beasts, because beasts have no idea what those are, and thus they blew up.
The problem is, more explosions echoed even after the first one, meaning that not only one wolf, but an entire pack was coming after me.
Shit.
I continued moving forward until I was met with another cultivator who seemed to be running toward me.
As we passed each other, "I wouldn't go that way," I said.
"NEITHER WILL I!" he said back.
The two of us stopped and realized that both paths we came from had wolves in them.
"Temporary truce?" I asked.
"Yes, let's head here," he said as he pointed at the only path we could go and didn't have any wolves coming at our form.
The two of us nodded at each other then we ran up the new path.
"Damn, you got nerfed even harder than I did," said the other cultivator.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"The poison that seals Qi, it dropped my cultivation all the way to the Soul Transformation peak, you on the other hand seemed to have dropped to the Middle rank of Soul Transformation."
'That was actually the normal cultivation level of Shen Mo, but I wasn't going to correct him. Also, this is great, I now understand what the poison hiding in my Dantian and meridians is.'
"It doesn't matter, let's keep running," I said as we continued moving and the three of us had to stop. Because another cultivator was coming toward us.
"No fucking way!" said the cultivator next to me.
The third incoming cultivator was panting as he was desperately trying to run away.
Just as he approached us, "Help me!" he said. But the moment the words came out of his mouth, his entire body was ripped into three parts. The look of shock was still clear in his eyes as he didn't even know how he died.
Blood sprayed all over the walls as it revealed a bloodied claw. The owner of this claw was invisible on the other hand.
The guy next to me began sweating bullets, "I thought there were only Steel Fang Wolves here… what the hell is a Nargacougar doing here!"
"Nargacougar? What is that?" I asked.
"It's a hybrid between a Demonic Night Prowling Cougar and the Seamless Giant Bat. This creature is basically a Feline with wings that can become invisible… We're fucked…" he said.
"Wait, you said bat?" I asked.
"Yes, why are you asking about the bat portion? I'd be more afraid of the Cougar part…" he asked.
"Because a bat part is the more terrifying for us, Bats can locate their prey using hypersonic soundwaves. Like a sonar," I said.
"What is a sonar?" he asked.
"Never mind that, I have a way to get us out of here, but I'll need you to act as bait," I said.
The cultivator thought for a moment before he said, "I don't think I have a choice in the matter do I, the wolves are approaching and this thing ahead of us is not going to stop moving. What is it doing?" asked the cultivator.
"It's clearly licking the blood off his claws, if it does that it'll turn to be fully invisible again, we can't have that. Anyway, grab this," I said as I gave him a couple of pills.
"What's this?" he asked.
"Paint Pills, throw them at the Nargacougar on my mark," I said.
"What is that going to do for us thought?" he asked.
"You'll see," I said as I pulled a couple of canisters and placed them in front of me and then pulled out two revolvers one in each hand.
"Now, throw them," I said.
The cultivator threw both pills with incredible speed and accuracy, they looked dangerous enough to be threatening so the Nargacougar swiped at them.
Upon contact the pills blew up and painted the Nargacougar, revealing its face and a few its wings and body. It looked fucking terrifying.
Realizing that its stealth has been revealed the creature screeched so loud I felt that my ears were about to bleed.
"Well, we managed to make it more pissed…" the cultivator said.
I placed two pieces of wax against my ears and spoke "That's the idea. Close your ears, protect your organs using Qi, and be ready up to run," I said.
The creature placed both claws on the ground, hissed one more then lunged forward.
I kicked the canister next to my feet forward and with both revolvers shot dozens of bullets at the incoming creature and the canister in the air.
One of the bullets accurately hit the canister enabling its inner mechanism.
The canister blew up almost right next to the Nargacougar's ear. And that was fucking beautiful.
The canister was actually a stun grenade, that detonates creating a massive sound and shockwave.
The shockwave was powerful enough that you can see the walls of the maze bend slightly. As for the Nargacougar, since it blew up right next to its most sensitive organ which is its ears, it screeched out as blood sprayed out of its ears and eyes. It began spasming on the ground and shaking, slicing at the walls with its massive claws, completely disoriented dazed, and frightened.
"RUN!" I said as the two of us headed out fast leaping above the Nargacougar, which was thankfully a good option because the two packs of Steel Fang wolves that were chasing us had arrived.
Thankfully instead of resuming their hunt, they all lunged at the disabled Nargacougar, tearing it limb from limb as it tried to desperately fight for its life.
"Keep running," I said.
"I'm not gonna argue that, but tell me something," he asked.
"What?" I replied.
"Why did you pull two of those canisters when you used only one," he asked.
"Who said I only used one?" I grinned.
And almost immediately, the second canister blew up, paralyzing the pack completely and rendering them unable to move from the sudden and close shock.
With this, the Nargacougar who already seemed to have lost its hearing from the first canister was able to 'survive' the second, and with the tables turned, the Nargacougar was back on its feet, wounded and bloodied, but ready to fight for its life against a stunned and shocked pack of predators.
A fight started and once it's over one side will win, and that's one less variable to fuck us over in this maze.
"Those are some interesting trinkets you have," said the cultivator.
"Yes they are," I said as I threw several pills through every corridor we didn't decide to go through.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Bread crumbs, if we face a dead end, we can backtrack. Those pills will act as a sign and at the same time a trap if we end up needing to fight another pack of monsters."
Soon the two of us managed to enter a slightly large room that had only one exit. But the room itself had several bodies on the ground, with two cultivators in the middle. The both of them had bloodied swords and were talking to each other.
Once they locked eyes with us, I felt murderous intent.
"Seems like we entered a hunter's area… this is going to be annoying," I said.
"What do you mean? A hunter?" asked the cultivator next to me.
"Yes, these two, are killers, they're killing the opposition, you can see from the traces of the battle. Ready up," I said.
"Why would they even fight here, isn't it forbidden, the rules state you can't fight," said the cultivator.
"Don't be na?ve, the rules didn't forbid fighting, you only get an infraction if you kill someone, and once you kill one you pay off the infraction using a marble. And since thy killed other cultivators, they can simply take their marbles and wipe their infraction while having even more marbles. They're coming," I said as I flexed both my hands.
Between each of my fingers was a pill.
And just before the first enemy cultivator got to me, the second one grabbed him by the shoulder.
"You're not turning on me are you?"
"No you fool, look at the pills he has, those are poison pills, in this locked and small place, the moment one of those pills detonate we're doomed. We can't fight them here, let's back off."
"What a smart person," I said smiling but I wasn't buying it.
I sent a divine sense message to the guy next to me, "They're going to attack us, don't believe the shit they're saying." I said.
"How do you know that, they just realized they can't fight your poison."
"That would have been true if the two of them were normal cultivators, but the one in the back, poison does not work on him.
"How do you know that?"
"Because he is a Poison God Cultivator!"
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