Emery

I crept forward. With light coming around the bend in the tunnel, I was able to see far more clearly than I had up to now, relying entirely on essentially mundane vision - albeit improved by Cultivation. It still amounted to feeling my way forward in the dark.

Without utilizing Qi senses, there wasn't much we could do to truly 'scout ahead' around the corner, and because we had no idea what level these people were at, we needed to play it safe until we had some idea of how we stacked up against them. Sure, playing the numbers game meant that the average fully focused Cultivator was in the Sky Realm, but that didn't mean this group couldn't have a leader in the Heavenly Realm as a backer. And that potential danger was enough to be wary of.

As I got closer to the bend, with Avuri a few solid steps behind me, the lack of noises coming from wherever the light was made me nervous. Either the rest of the way was lit up and they had continued down the path, or everyone around the bend was quiet for some other reason, none of which were probably good.

A couple meters away from the turn, I crouched low to the ground, keeping my head as low as possible to peak around the bend, hoping to remain unseen. I could at least tell that there was no one waiting for me right at the curve, because no guard would be as silent as it was. Even just shuffling around would make some noise, unless they were already alert for us.

I slowly pushed my head past the curve to get a sideways view of the pathway forward. Whether it was a stroke of good or bad luck yet I wasn't sure, but the pathway was clear. There was no one in my line of sight, which extended quite a ways down the corridor now, fully lit up with both natural torches and Arrays designed to give off long-term light.

I focused on the edges of my vision the best I could, struggling to see if I could see any movement at all in the passageway; I found nothing. Satisfied for the moment, I slipped back a bit around the corner.

"There's no one there. But the next section of the tunnel is lit up brightly. There's no way we can sneak our way down it." I sent to Avuri.

"What do we do then? Go back? Or just continue?"

"I'm not sure." I said, thinking about the options. Any thoughts on it?"

"Short of coming back with a talented earth Cultivator that could make our own tunnels, I don't think we have a choice." Avuri said. And I agreed with her, nodding.

"I can't imagine Eiry would be willing to help us dig tunnels to get around down here safely. And even then, her attendance as powerful as she is could just make it worse."

Avuri nodded silently.

"I guess we keep moving then. There's no way for us to physically hide in the light, but we should still be quiet and keep the Qi use minimal, just in -"

"I know, Em. I'm not stupid." Avuri interrupted my thoughts with an eye roll. "The real question is whether we keep moving slowly or try to move at speed while remaining silent."

"I think we pick up our pace, to whatever we can manage while remaining quiet. Moving slowly doesn't afford us any advantages in the light."

"Agreed. You keep an eye ahead of us. I'll watch for anything on the sides of the tunnels while we move."

I nodded in agreement, then reached for Avuri's hand, which I squeezed in silent reassurance and comfort, for both of us. She squeezed back. "Then let's go."

All at once, we moved. Avuri kept pace behind me easily, as I wasn't moving full-tilt as we moved down the corridor. Yes, we couldn't hide in the open and fully lit tunnel, but I still wanted to move as fast as I could without making any noise. That turned out to be roughly equivalent to a mortal running speed, which Avuri was able to keep up with easily while maintaining silence.

I kept my eyes focused ahead, watching for any turns in the tunnel or any movement ahead. With everything fully lit up, I could see quite a ways down the tunnel, which was remarkably long and seemingly straight. Under normal circumstances, it would be hard to trust which direction we were moving, but with the enhanced balance afforded to Cultivators, I could tell that the tunnel was virtually flat with minimal ascending or descending under the ground. It felt strange for such a tunnel to be made by antlions, who would almost certainly want to move vertically within the ground, especially over the amount of distance.

Instead, my worries transitioned into a different scenario. I didn't know which direction we were moving, but it was almost certainly deeper into the Highlands. And with the support beams and light set into these cave walls, I was worried that we were being led into a much larger camp than we had bargained for. A straight tunnel of this length made me think that it was used primarily for long-distance underground travel, which wouldn't be necessary for an otherwise small group of demons. It made far more sense that a large group had settled somewhere, and used the tunnels to travel to their ambush point.

"Emery. Tunnels." Avuri sent, breaking my concentration. She was paused a few steps behind me, pointing at smaller tunnels that intersected the one we were running down. They were unlit, and smaller than the one we had been using, but not by much. They also didn't look reinforced.

"Antlions?"

"I think so. The angles are too odd for humans, I think." Avuri said, specifically pointing at the tunnel on the left side, which was set diagonally up into the cave well, traveling upward, while the other was opposite of it, going down.

"The size works out, I think. The tunnel is big enough for us to move into comfortably, but smaller than one we could stand in." I sent. My basic understanding of antlions was that they were massive creatures as adults, standing to an adult human's chest in height. The difference, of course, was that they were built horizontally like most insects, and were typically three or four meters long. They were big, heavy creatures that I would want to avoid if we could. "Tracks?"

Stolen novel; please report.

Avuri shook her head, looking over the tunnels. "Not any noticeable ones, anyway? There's like…scratch marks on the walls, though. So I'm inclined to think antlions, yes."

"Keep your eyes out for the walls then. I try to do the same."

"You just keep your eyes forward. Unless we run into an antlion nest, I think we'll be fine. I'm far more worried about getting ambushed by the demons."

"Alright. Let's go, then." I said, and dashed off again.

The tunnel continued for another few minutes of moving down it before I saw the end of the tunnel. Or at least, the end of moving straight. I could see the wall where it turned to the left, with more light to follow the turn.

As we approached where the tunnel swung left, I slowed. Avuri kept step behind me as we quietly slipped up to the turn. I repeated the same routine I had done upon first entering the lit tunnel - got closer to the ground, and peeked around the corner with my head close to the ground.

It was just more empty tunnel. Which is what I had expected, given the continued lack of noise. I quickly relayed the whole thing to Avuri, and we were off again down the new stretch of tunnel. And it wasn't long before we started on a slight upward incline, headed back toward the surface. We noted the change to one another, but didn't notice any other notable changes.

And then we started passing a rising number of offshoot tunnels. They had the same sort of look as the ones we had passed previously - slightly smaller, no light, no support beams, and moving at weird angles. There were even a few that went nearly straight down that we had to skip over. But we felt it was best to continue on the scaffolded, lit up path.

Finally, we came to an intersection of tunnels that were lit up and had support beams. One way continued roughly straight on the path we had been on, while the other was a clear right turn. But it was even more than that. While the tunnel we had been moving down felt similar to the antlion tunnels that kept branching off, just improved with a bit more excavation and the support beams, the new tunnel wasn't shaped in the same rounded style.

Instead, it had a clearly flat floor with the ceiling and supports built rounded, as if to accommodate for a human's height. Avuri and I immediately agreed that this new tunnel was either made by a human, or certainly actively added to by one, as opposed to the repurposed antlion tunnel we had been in until that point.

It was really no decision at all to follow the new tunnel. We started down it in the same way that we had moved down the others until Avuri took a bit of an extra long leap forward to snag the back of my robes. Feeling her intent through our link before she physically even reached me, I came to a natural stop. She finished beside me, a light touch on my sleeve.

"Listen. There's people."

I paused and did exactly that. She was right. At first I wasn't confident that it was actually humans, but when I heard a distinct call for help followed by a solid impact and a thud, I was no longer hesitating.

"We must be close." I sent, doing my best to reign in my desire to immediately spring in to help whoever was likely just hit. To my knowledge, antlions had no speech mimicry or similar skills, so this was almost certainly the people we were looking for.

I focused, moving around a bit in the tunnel, trying to get a solid angle to see if there were any breaks in the walls of the tunnel anywhere coming up, but I couldn't see any. I took a deep breath, and sighed quietly.

"I'm not sure what the best move is here. The tunnel just keeps moving forward as far as I can see. And the incline is still very gradually going up. I don't think we're headed to the surface though. Probably just close to it for potential emergency exits, I would imagine."

It made sense to me, at least, if I set up a Cultivator compound underground, I would want to be sure that I could escape easily if something went wrong. Having a few tunnels in and out was obvious, but being close enough to the surface to be able to use Qi to escape by digging or manipulating the ground would be equally ideal.

"That makes sense. It's hard to judge how far below ground we are now, but we've been moving upward for a while. It could be close."

There still wasn't a lot of merit to trying to be sneaky, given if anyone popped their head into the tunnel, anyone within it would be obvious. Without using Qi, there really weren't any stealth options for us to make use of. It was just getting into position before we were seen.

"We're moving. Stay close." I sent. Avuri sent over agreement, and I moved. I moved as quickly as I could manage without making noise. Avuri was able to keep up, so I didn't need to adjust at all - I suspected she could probably move even quicker if she had to. She was lighter on her feet than I was.

It didn't take too long before the upward incline evened out, and I slowed as we hit the top of the incline. Sure enough, the tunnel straightened into a fairly short stretch of even ground before opening up into a large cave.

I couldn't see the walls of the large room, given the fairly large number of tents and other temporary buildings set up throughout the space. And the space was wide enough that the doorway didn't offer enough of a view to see the whole room.

But it was big.

The one thing that did catch my eye immediately was the lack of guards at the doorway. I wasn't sure whether it was cockiness, a mistake, or what, but the lack of a physical guard at the door made me make a quick decision. One I hoped I wouldn't regret.

"Follow me if you can. No. Qi." I did my best to really force the last two words home to Avuri. I felt the beginnings of agreement, and then cut off our connection. I pulled every bit of Qi I had into my body, then smothered it. It felt strange; the lack of connection with Avuri was unnerving enough, but the feeling of actively trapping as much of my Qi within my body made my skin crawl.

I shook that off, glanced back at Avuri once, then darted into the room. With our Qi fully suppressed, we would be able to stay hidden from any passive senses. If someone was actively searching the camp for intruders, we could still be caught, but I was betting against that - it wasn't standard in most sects to keep guard like that, as most Cultivators viewed suppressing themselves as tantamount to suicide.

Afterall, if an enemy Cultivator caught you without Qi, their Domain could shred you to pieces in an instant, unchallenged.

I knew I was taking a huge risk, but the chance to get into the compound's space was too good to pass up. We slipped inside the massive room, and I immediately dashed to the left. Everyone in the camp seemed focused on whatever was happening in the middle of it all, which I assumed was dealing with their new captives.

Once we were inside the room and hidden, we could sneak around and use the tents and other shelters as cover. Thankfully, it seemed that everything was set up fairly logically. The room was large and generally circular. All of the tents and things were set up to face the middle of the room, with the rear of most 'buildings' being solid cloth or wood and facing nothing but stone walls. It gave us the perfect places to remain hidden.

I slipped behind the nearest tent, then leapt behind the second, just to make some space from the entranceway. Avuri, acting every bit the master infiltrator, stuck close and remained quiet. Once we were behind the large tent, I breathed out a small sigh of relief.

For the moment, at least, luck was solidly on our side.

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