Chapter 14: Cavern

The search this time took them half a day as they came upon a cave. The desert had become an orange heaven as the last rays of the sun landed on the sand, the dunes in the distance appeared to be tinted a reddish orange colour.

The cave entrance was blasted open, judging by the debris spread out around the hole, it wasn't long ago.

"Someone must have found this before us." Gong Yu came to the same conclusion as him. "Let us go inside, someone may still be there so be careful."

The cultivators entered with Gong Yu and Lance leading, the cave surprisingly wasn't damp at all but overflowing with essence energy. The way was illuminated by glowing orbs on the ceiling, they seemed to work on essence energy itself as Lance sensed a small amount essence energy entering them.

After 10 minutes of walking Lance sensed something up ahead, he noticed essence energy fluctuations in the distance but none of his compatriots seemed to notice anything as they kept moving forward. Soon, the narrow path expanded into cavern, but they stopped and retreated a bit so as not to let themselves be discovered after Gong Yu motioned to them.

"I sense cultivators in the cavern, but I don't know how many are there. Can any of you tell?" Everyone shook their heads including Lance but he had long sensed their fluctuations and he could even tell the number. He seemed to be more sensitive to essence energy fluctuations than the others. He could roughly tell that they were 8 cultivators in the cavern but he couldn't identify their cultivation level.

Gong Yu seemed to come to a decision as he said, "There seems to be a treasure inside, even if there are more cultivators than us, we have an advantage over them as long as they don't detect us."

"Brother Lance, let us take the vanguard this time. We can kill off a couple of weaklings and thin their numbers as long as we can surprise them.", Gong Yu looked at him.

"Is it necessary to kill them brother Gong? Can't we just defeat them and throw them out?", Lance asked hesitantly.

Gong Yu looked surprised by the suggestion but immediately answered, "Brother Lance must not have killed before this." He shook his head and continued, "Remember this, Survival of the Fittest, even if you let the cultivators go there will be a grudge born. They will sooner or later lead to your death, some people may even hurt someone vulnerable in your family or friends if they have an evil heart. But if its someone from the demonic path, there will cause a bloody disaster for your loved ones. A long time ago, a cultivator let his enemy live after defeating them, but his enemy bore a grudge. The cultivator went on a journey to progress his cultivation but after returning he only found the mutilated bodies of his family. His wife and 2 children were tortured and brutally murdered, the cultivator went insane after seeing their bodies. He soon went on a rampage among the demonic path sects to find the perpetrator, but he got to know that he had already died to someone's hands. The cultivator kept up his murder spree for revenge until he was killed after a divine realm cultivator of the demonic path found him."

Lance pondered upon this as the image of his destroyed village came to his mind. He no longer hesitated and nodded his agreement to the plan.

Gong Yu gave them a couple of minutes to get ready.

"Go!", he shouted as he burst ahead, Lance soon followed along with the others who took out their weapons. He steeled his heart as he took out his twin swords and kept pace with Gong Yu.

They soon saw the cultivators who seemed to be digging a hole at the centre of the cavern. They soon turned towards them and some discarded the pickaxes in their hands. They tried to draw their weapons but Lance and Gong Yu were upon them by then.

Lance swung his sword at a young woman who seemed to be frozen with the pickaxe still in her hands, the woman raised the pickaxe to block his sword. But Lance's sword cut through it like butter and bisected the woman in half as a miserable scream tore itself out of her throat. He froze after seeing 2 pieces of her body falling on the ground but roused himself after more screams rang out beside him. He soon cut through another young man without resistance but didn't find any more easy targets as the remnants of the cultivators organised themselves. Gong Yu seemed to have killed 2 cultivators too

The cultivators appeared from to be from the same sect based on their similar clothes. There were 2 early-stage cultivators among them too. But Lance's team held a number advantage.

"Brother Lance, we will each take on one of the early stage cultivators." He then turned towards the others, "Kill off the rest of the cultivators as we keep the early stage ones occupied." They nodded and went after the others but gave the early stage cultivators a wide berth.

The early stage cultivators were furious after seeing their sect members murdered jumped at them to get revenge.

A tall and lanky cultivator with a long sword was Lance's opponent. He furiously swung his sword at Lance, but Lance easily deflected the clumsy attack. Lance then stabbed at the cultivator's chest with his other sword but missed as the man freed himself and retreated a little. Lance's short swords didn't have the reach of the man's long sword. The man though furious still noticed this and tried to leverage his advantage. He then thrusted towards Lance but didn't commit fully.

Lance saw a chance as he gathered his strength and forcefully knocked the sword aside, he then immediately lunged to attack with his other sword. He scored a cut on the shoulder but missed the heart as the man managed to deflect but not fully.

Lance took a deep breath as he saw the man retreat a bit again.