Death... and me

Back at the Cosgles Race's village, Rean, Aien, and Aelua finally began to enter the cave. Aien asked Rean if he could come as well. If that thing really became the energy source of the formation, the better he knew more about it. Rean also found it a good idea, so he agreed to bring Aien together.

"So, which direction should we go, Aelua?" Rean asked while he kept a Divine Energy barrier activated around himself, Aien, and her.

Aelua nodded and began to explain, "To not lose my way out, I left several marks along the way. Come with me."

Rean obviously couldn't fly yet, so he could only walk together with Aien and Aelua. "Alright. By the way, is there any danger down there other than the bad energy?"

Aelua shook her head in response. "As far as I've seen, I didn't find any kind of danger. Perhaps the danger of getting lost?" Aelua then looked at Aien and continued, "But Elder Aien had always said that you could also find some creatures inside. It's just that I didn't find any."

Rean looked at Aien, waiting to see what he had to say.

"To be honest, I haven't seen them either," Aien responded. "It was something passed down to me from the previous village elder and the village elder before him. We always considered this place a forbidden zone, so no one entered back then...well, before that idiot in front of you, of course."

Rean couldn't help but ask, "No other cultivators tried to enter this place before? I mean, you don't receive many visits as you said. However, at least one or two would bump into this cave sooner or later, no?"

Aien shook his head, saying, "We never talk about this cave because we don't want to give the cultivators a wrong idea. If they try to enter and some of them die while the others escape, wouldn't they blame us for it? We can't afford to create enemies."

He then continued, "As for whether some found it before or not, I believe they did. However, they most likely never tried to venture down the path."

"Why?"

Aien shrugged his shoulders, telling Rean, "Can't you feel it? We have been walking inside this cave, but we can't feel a thing! Anyone who enters it will think it's nothing but an empty cave that might have a demon beast or two inside it. Didn't your friends enter this cave by coincidence, but they still didn't think there was anything special about it? You also found them here and never thought anything about this cave either, or am I wrong?"

Rean had to admit Aien was right. "True. This cave isn't exactly very easy to find either. Maybe no one actually tried to go down this path before."

Aien shook his head. "I don't know. Perhaps someone did find it and did try to go down. But as far as I know, no one came back from it other than Aelua."

Aelua wasn't lying when she said it went much deeper. Nevertheless, Rean and Aien couldn't feel the bad energy of the place yet. It truly gave the impression that it was nothing but an empty cave. It wasn't before an hour and a few minutes after that they finally arrived somewhere different.

"Hey, look! It's my first marker!" Aelua then pointed forward.

Rean used his Light Element to illuminate the place and was able to see an arrow pointing in a certain direction. It just so happened that the cave was divided into five different paths where she drew her arrow. "This is the first division we found after more than an hour walking down. This place is supposed to be a labyrinth, so I guess it'll get even more complicated from now on."

Aelua nodded while her eyes glistened. "Yes. I think I got through at least a hundred or so divisions. They always had at least three to ten different paths going up and down. Sometimes I even thought I was going back in circles, but since I didn't find my markers, I pressed forward. Just so you know, I always selected the tunnels the seemed to lead further down."

Rean and Aien nodded after hearing that. However, Aien had to ask something else after seeing it. "Isn't this a little too far away from the village to use this place's energy as the energy source of the formation?"

Rean smiled as he shook his head. "Don't worry. This distance is truly nothing at all. Even if it's ten times further away, it'll still be easy. My problem with the underground magma was that excavating all the way down there would be too hard. In this cave's case, not only is it not nearly as far as a thousand kilometers or deeper, we don't need to excavate anything as it's already open."

Aien asked another thing. "What about some enemies coming in here and cutting off the connection? There has to be a connection, right?"

Rean nodded. "Of course! However, I'll be using the Divine Energy gathered here in a spatial formation that will transfer the energy to the village's core. There's no need to worry unless the enemies find the exact place the spatial formation is located." In the Mortal Realm, such a thing would be extremely hard. But here in the Realm of Gods, Divine Energy made everything simpler. Not to mention that Rean learned a lot in the Formation Hall of the Sacred Land.

If there's enough Divine Energy in the air, Rean could even make a teleport formation to send energy up to a thousand kilometers! Of course, there would be a need for a lot of Divine Energy in the air if one didn't rely on Divine Stones. Nevertheless, considering a straight line to the village's center, Rean's group hadn't even gone 100 kilometers away. Let's not forget that Aelua mentioned that she thought she was walking backward sometimes. So, this cave labyrinth was definitely not moving in a single continuous direction, which was even better.

"Oh!" After some time, Rean noticed something. Though, not only him but Aelua and Aien as well. "It's very faint, but I can finally feel that energy I found in Aelua's body."