Ascension of the immortal Asura

Much like the first passageway, the passageway the group was walking through at the moment was dark and dreary, with not a single source of light. Lightning flickered over John's outstretched palm, illuminating the way as the group descended deeper into the labyrinth.

"I wonder if there is going to be another trap in this passageway?" Adam spoke out, breaking the silence other than the faint sound of footsteps.

"If there is, I'm sure we'll be able to handle it," Iris replied. "We're a rather talented group after all."

The passageway twisted and turned on their way forward, making it quite odd to traverse. At times it would seem to spiral, which made them walk up at a sloped angle, only to descend a short while after.

The passageway was well over a mile long, and took some time to traverse as the group carefully made their way forward. While they could speed forward without care, the trap from the last passageway cautioned them against such actions.

"There's light up ahead!" Iris called out, her eyes locked forward. The rest of the group looked forward, but were unable to see any sort of light.

"I don't see anything," Adam replied with doubt. "It's just endless darkness before us. Are you sure you're seeing things correctly?"

Iris rolled her eyes at Adams disparaging comment. "You have your formations, I have my eyes. Should I start saying you know nothing about formations?"

"You wouldn't dare," Adam replied quickly.

"Then shut up about things outside your area of expertise," Iris replied with a huff.

Adam opened his mouth to reply, but closed it after a moment of thought.

Soon after however, an incredibly faint light appeared in their vision. Iris sent a smug glance at Adam, who did his best to ignore her while the group moved forward. After several more twists and turns in the hallway, the group arrived before the source of the light.

"Its a room…a large empty room," Adam exclaimed, his initial enthusiasm turning sour as the room was completely empty.

The room was roughly one hundred yards on each side, and was completely empty. On the far side of the room seemed to be a pit that spanned the width of the room, although the group couldn't see what was inside the pit.

"It's not completely empty," Chase replied. "There appears to be a faint mist hanging in the air."

"Is there anything strange with this mist?" John asked, as Chase was the most likely to be able to identify such things.

Chase inspected the mist for a moment before he shook his head. "I can't detect anything wrong with the mist, other than the fact that it blocks divine sense. However, to be safe, we should hold our breath and form a protective barrier of Qi over our bodies."

"Maybe it's a trial of some sort, that we'll be forced to use our eyes or reflexes to pass instead of relying on our divine sense," John mused out loud before turning to Iris.

"Do you see anything strange with this room?" he asked.

Iris's gaze swept across the room for a moment before she shook her head.

"No. The only thing of note is that pit on the other side of the room, although it's covered with a formation of some sort. That's all I can tell," Iris replied.

John mused over everything for a moment before he shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess we can only move forwar-"

Boom!

A loud sound boomed out behind them, which caused all five members in the group to jump as they turned around to look at the sound. Behind them where the passageway had been was now a solid wall. The sound had been from a falling door that had closed off the passageway, sealing their retreat.

"I guess we really can only go forward now," John commented wryly as he observed the sturdy door blocking their way.

The group turned around to look back at the room before them, and followed after John as he took the first steps into the mist. As a precaution, John held his breath as the mist was quite mysterious, and formed a thin layer of protective Qi over his body. The others in the group did the same as they carefully ventured through the mist, keeping their heads on a swivel as they looked for any potential danger to appear.

After traversing several dozen yards into the mist, a soft thud sounded out behind John. John, as well as the others, turned around to look at the sound.

"Adam? What are you doing?" John asked in a confused manner as Adam was kneeling on the ground. His legs were shaking, and he was struggling to stand up.

"I…I don't know. I suddenly can't move," Adam replied.

Thud!

Thud!

Another two soft thuds sounded out as Iris and Gerrid fell to their knees, finding it hard to move.

"What's going on!" Adam exclaimed as he struggled to stand up but couldn't.

"I was wrong," Chase suddenly spoke up. "This is not regular mist…it's poisonous mist!"

"Poisonous mist?" Adam replied. "We've been holding our breath. How is it affecting us?"

Chase inspected the mist for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on.

"It must be absorbed through our skin, and must be able to somehow ignore the protective Qi layers we formed," Chase replied through gritted teeth. "Quick, take whatever poison neutralizing pills you have."

The group quickly followed Chase's instructions and took out many different poison neutralizing pills they had on hand. They downed them one after the other, hoping for it to neutralize the poison. However, nothing seemed to work.

By now, even John started to feel his body start to grow weak and weary. He found his movements grow sluggish, and found it hard to even take a step.

'Using my Asura Transformation would solve this issue, as it empowers my body and rids any negative effects within. However, I promised Thunderzen I wouldn't use it unless my life was at risk. How else do I get us out of this mess?' John mused internally as he tried to figure out a way out of this mess.

He glanced over to Chase, who was surprisingly still standing, although he seemed to be struggling as well.

"You're still fine?" John asked Chase.

"I'm from the Bloodfiend Sect, and also a Pill Dao expert…I grew up around poisons and other nasty things, so my body is much more resistant than normal cultivators," Chase replied.

"Do you have any way to get us out of this mess?" John asked Chase, as he was the expert on such a subject.

Chase glanced at the other's, who were all still under the poison's effects.

"I guess of the pills any of you took helped at all," Chase mused out loud, before his gaze locked back onto John.

"I might," Chase replied, causing the eyes of the others to widen in hopeful anticipation. "I have over ten thousand different poison neutralizing pills, each specialized for neutralizing a different type of poison. However, we don't have enough time to try each one before this poison completely overwhelms us. The only solution I have is to study this mist and figure out what poison it is, and hopefully I have the corresponding pill to give to you all."

John nodded his head in approval at Chase's plan, and Chase quickly sat down and took out many different vials, pots, and potions. He started going to work doing alchemical things that John had no idea of, as he tried to figure out what the poison was.

The process continued for several minutes, before a clunking sound echoed out behind them. John and the group turned their heads to look at the sound, and grit their teeth at what they saw. The wall behind them had started to slowly move towards them. Their heads all turned to look forward as they remembered something, and their gazes locked onto the pit at the other side of the room.

The seemingly harmless pit now looked like a death trap that was slowly encroaching on them.