I'll Take You with Me
Zhao Feng's voice came from the darkness, edged with obvious tension.
"Your Excellency, what's going on? Is there a problem with the Underground City's energy system?"
Before he had finished speaking, other voices rang out around them. It was not just Zhao Feng and the Guards; there were other Cultivators in the hall as well. A rough male voice sounded in the darkness, thick with a strong local accent.
"Damn it, why'd it suddenly go black? Was the energy system cut off?"
Another voice came from farther away, thin and shrill.
"This isn't the first time. It happened once last month too. It'll be fine after a while. The Underground City's energy system malfunctions from time to time."
"Last month, it was only dark for an incense stick's duration. Who knows how long it'll last this time."
"Don't move. Stay where you are. If anyone runs around and smashes into a wall, don't blame anyone else."
Voices rose and fell in the darkness. There were at least seven or eight people in this hall, and with Lin Taichu's eleven people, nearly twenty people in total were crowded into this dark space.
Lin Taichu stood where he was without moving. He closed his eyes.
In complete darkness, his eyes had lost their use, but his ears still worked. He heard Zhao Feng's breathing two steps away on his left.
He heard the faint scrape of the Guards' hands pressing against their saber hilts behind him and to his right. He also heard the voices of those Cultivators in the distance, roughly thirty steps straight ahead.
Then he heard another kind of sound.
Very soft, very fine, as if something were crawling across the ground. The sound came from the direction of the rock wall on the