As Wuxie began to walk ahead, he could feel the weight of the cultivators' gazes on his back.
Wovi, always the little worrywart, chirped anxiously from his perch. "You absolute fool," he scolded in a hushed tone. "Do you even realize what you've done? If they don't come with us, we're as good as dead!"
Wuxie glanced at Wovi, his heart pounding in his chest, and replied, "Hey, if you can't chirp something nice, chirp nothing at all." Then, with an attempt at confidence, he muttered back, "Just trust me on this. They'll follow. They have to."
And to his immense relief, as he glanced back, he saw the shadowy figures of the cultivators falling into step behind him.
A wave of triumph washed over Wuxie as he led the way deeper into the caverns, his heart pounding with a heady mix of excitement and fear. This, he thought to himself, is where the real adventure begins.