The Murderer’s Trench

Rubble and rocks were everywhere. Who knew that underneath a whole grass field was a huge underground tunneling system that had been abandoned for some time. The disciples who fell in were covered in rubble. Bingwen coughed, dust surrounding every inch of the place. He was indeed much weaker. He looked up at the huge opening that would be impossible to get out of. One of the disciples tried to fly on his sword but it didn't work. There was some kind of aura keeping the swords from working properly. Jinghua went to help Bingwen up but Bingwen backed away and got up on his own. Bingwen was still assured that Jinghua had tried to kill him when he was shot with the arrow. But of course he wouldn't know since he had forgotten it. Jinghua was pissed at Hung Liang. "You bastard! Look what happened to us!" Jinghua shouted. His voice echoed through the tunnels. Something dropped on Bingwen's nose. He wiped and on his finger was a red liquid. He was startled at what was on the ceiling of the tunnels. Jinghua watched him back up in fear, looking at the ceiling. All the others looked up too. The whole top of the tunnel was covered in blood. Maybe the Mei clan had kept a much bigger secret. Bingwen was not fond of blood. He hated it. He started muttering, "..No, no, no, t-this isn't- this can't be real!" Jinghua ran to him and grabbed his hand. Behind Bingwen was a huge drop that led to a trench. It looked as if it had been dug out. On the walls of the trench was carved calligraphy. It told a story.

"The murderer's trench." Bingwen started reading. "We spent years making endless tunnels to protect the clan from invaders and Hybrids. They took us away from our families and made us work. They told us once the tunnel was finished we would be free. But they lied to us. We dug for years and years, endless days and nights. We didn't know that by the halfway point we had made a maze. We never dug up. We were too tired. And then we found it. The beast. The human eating monster of these tunnels. So we dug a trench. It was its feeding bowl. We would throw the weak and dying people in there to eat them. And it would give us food in exchange. We think it came from the gods. But it's dangerous. It has spikes on its back. If you make it angry it will take you and pierce your body with its spikes, dragging you on the tops of the tunnels. It knows its way around although it is blind. It can hear everything. We made it angry and now it's got us too. It wants blood. The only way out of the trench is'. It ends there.." Bingwen finished. A loud screech echoed through the tunnels, shaking the whole place. The ground underneath the disciples crumbled, resulting in them falling into the trench. Jinghua activated his Chi before everyone fell to their deaths. He made everyone levitate.

Jinghua, Bingwen, Hung Liang, and 4 disciples were now stuck in the trench. There had to be some way out. The trench was dark. Jinghua lit the tip of his sword as if it was a torch. Bingwen found a cave and hid in it, sitting with his back against the wall of the small cave. "There has to be a way out. The writing even says." Jinghua says, his voice echoing. "But the paragraph never finished. It doesn't say. We're trapped down here." Bingwen said hopelessly. Hung Liang chuckled. "Is this funny to you?" Jinghu said aggressively. "It seems that you both blame this accident on me! Yusheng Jin, you're the one who read that whole story out loud. Which probably resulted in that thing to make itself clear that we're not alone down here." Hung Liang said. Bingwen got up and angrily walked toward Hung Liang, pulling out Baiyu. "So it's my fault? If we wouldn't have run into you, we would still be up there instead of down here with that thing roaming these tunnels! How selfish can you be?" Bingwen said angrily. Suddenly, a large thump came from a bigger cave in the trench. There were many caves and tunnels in the trench but this one was the biggest. The stomp made the blood from the ceiling drip much more as if it was raining. It was definitely the 'Thing'. But that's impossible. The terrible screech came from the other way above the trench. The disciples ran to the cave Bingwen had been in. Jinghua blew out the fire.

The stomps grew louder as the thing emerged from the cave. And then it came into view. It was a Giant Dire animal spirit. Not only that but it had the marking of a deity on its head. It was a giant bear but it had the feet of a mole and the tale of a reptile. The disciples were terrified besides Jinghua. "The writing said it was blind. If we keep quiet and stay out of its way, we'll be fine." He said. One of the disciples was so terrified he backed up deeper into the cave. He didn't notice a puddle of blood and stepped in it, making a splashing sound. The creature reacted with a grunt and then screeched. The sound was awful. As the creature screeched, spikes emerged from its back, showing corpses on multiple spikes. The creature sniffed around. It knew they were present. Another screech came from farther back in the tunnels. There was definitely more than one in the tunnel system. They needed help and fast.