"We're gonna be trapped in that pit!" Adam screeched out in panic. "Chase, work faster!"
Chase grit his teeth as he heard Adams cries of panic, which were quickly cut off as John sent Adam a stern glare of warning to be silent. Adam's panicked expression remained, but he remained quiet as he allowed Chase to work in silence.
'If Chase can't resolve this issue in time, I'll use my Asura Transformation to get us out of it. But this is a rare chance for Chase to shine and show his talents, as well as hone them in a high-pressure situation.'
The group all watched Chase in silence as he went about his work at his fastest rate possible. Using several flasks and other various alchemy items, Chase trapped some of the mist within several flasks and started doing some experiments on it.
Drops of various types of liquid were occasionally dripped into the flasks before him, while other flasks were boiling atop some small heat-based formation disks that he had taken out. Chemical reactions were taking place nonstop, causing several of the flasks to bubble violently, change colors, and almost freeze.
The wall behind them slowly encroached upon the group, filling them with a sense of slowly approaching death. Although they didn't know if falling into the pit was dangerous or not, of them wanted to find out.
The scraping of stone on stone continued to screech out behind as the time passed by. Chase's expression grew more and more frantic as he worked as fast as possible, and John could tell that he was getting flustered at the pressure put upon him at the moment.
'A frantic mind will be filled with thoughts of failure and other distracting things. He won't be able to get us out of this in his current state.'
"Chase," John called out, which caused Chase to look up from his work. "There's no need to panic. We trust you to get us through this, so trust your skills and focus on the task at hand calmly."
Chase's eyes widened slightly upon hearing John's words of encouragement, as such things were incredibly rare throughout his brutal life. A warm smile appeared on his face as he nodded his head and focused his mind and calmed himself down. He wanted to take a deep breath to focus himself even more but doing so within the poison mist would not be wise.
After fifteen seconds of calming down, a resolved look appeared on Chase's face as the previous panic was completely erased. John nodded his head in approval as he watched Chase get back to work.
His hands had become steadier and his movements more committed. While his actions before were filled with doubt and unsteadiness, his current actions were steady and resolved. The speed at which he worked increased, and even John stared in awe at the alchemical prowess he was seeing from Chase.
'I guess he truly is a Pill Dao genius. Poisons are not even his specialty and he's able to work at such a speed. Adam with his formations, Iris with her eye talents, and Chase with his alchemical talents. It seems as though I've put quite the impressive group together.'
The scraping of stone on stone slowly encroaching from behind continued ceaselessly, although this time Chase completely ignored it as he went about his work. John stared at the stone wall approaching, as he mused over it.
'Why is the wall moving so slowly? If the purpose was to make us fail this trial, then the wall could move instantly. Which means there's two reasons for its slow speed. The first is to give those within an opportunity to pass the trial through wits or other methods, while the second is...to screw with those within and instill them with dread and panic. I would normally think its the first, but based on what Gerrid has said about his Labyrinth, the second option is becoming more and more likely.'
"I got it," an excited cry from Chase stirred John from his thoughts as he glanced over. "This poison is derived from the Nethermist Vine. No wonder I took so long to identify it. It's an incredibly rare plant."
After his short burst of excited exclamation, Chase began rummaging through his spatial ring and searched amongst the thousands and thousands of pill jars before he finally found what he needed. A jar suddenly appeared in his hand, roughly a foot tall and wide. Over a dozen pure white pills with blue dots on it were contained within.
He quickly took one of the pills and popped it into his mouth. The group stared at Chase with hopeful anticipation as he continued to sit there for a few seconds while the wall slowly approached from behind. It was almost upon them.
Their hopeful expressions turned into ones of elation as Chase stood up, completely unhindered by the poisonous mist.
"Well done, Chase," John called out cheerily.
"Ahahaha, we're saved," Adam exclaimed happily as well.
Chase smiled as he walked over to each of them and popped a pill in their mouth. Each person thanked him gracefully as he did so, and as soon as the pill hit their stomachs, it began to do its work of neutralizing the paralyzing toxin within their body.
They stopped at the very edge of the pit and gazed over, their eyes going wide as they saw what was within.
"There must be over two hundred disciples down there!" Iris exclaimed in shock as she and the rest observed a massive pile of disciples at the bottom of the pit.
They were all standing and walking about, seemingly no longer affected by the poisonous mist.
"Why don't they just leave?" Chase asked.
"There's an incredibly strong one-way defensive formation directly above this pit," Adam replied as he threw a stone over the edge. A brief flash of subtle light flickered out when the stone fell into the pit, before it returned back to normal as if the defensive formation didn't exist.
"One can enter this formation but cannot leave. Even I wouldn't be able to break this formation. It's far above my level," Adam continued.
"What should we do then?" Chase asked, slightly concerned for his fellow disciples. Despite the fact that he grew up in the Bloodfiend Sect, his heart was gentle and kind.
"What can we do for them?" John replied. "We are unable to help them, and they should be safe down there until they're expelled from the realm. The only thing we can do is move forward."
After saying this, John jumped over the massive pit and landed on the other side. He gestured for the others to follow, who quickly jumped over as well.. John sent one final glance at the pit and those trapped within, before he turned around and walked into the next passageway to head deeper into the Labyrinth.
