Seeing that at least one of the boys was thrilled to help them, Wu Min Huan couldn’t help but silently heave a sigh of relief. This was good. This way, they might be able to find out something about the missing children.

He motioned to the entrance of the cavern. "In there, that should be the hideout of a group of bandits? Have you seen them?"

Shao Hai shook his head. "No. There weren’t any bandits when we came here but Xiao Dong also said that it was a hideout. I’m not sure it really is though. I mean we’ve been here for half a day already and nobody came. It was also really dusty. It’s as if nobody has been here in several weeks at least."

Wu Min Huan raised his brows. Several weeks? That was strange. Especially the spy from the inn didn’t seem to have known about that. Well, the latter might not be too puzzling. Since he was probably staying in the town most of the time he wouldn’t be able to come here often. He should only do so every now and then to give them some information that he had gotten. If he regularly came here, then people might notice that something was off. "Then have you seen anyone else in the vicinity? Other cultivators? Maybe some people in dark robes?"

Shao Hai once again shook his head. "People in dark robes? No. There was nobody like that. We only saw a young couple a while ago. Might have been like two weeks ago?"

Wu Min Huan sighed. It seemed even though the children had been here, they hadn’t seen anything of note. He wanted to suggest taking a look at the hideout themselves when he saw that Yu Jin had furrowed his brows in contemplation. "Is something the matter?"

Yu Jin glanced at him and then turned to look at the children. "That couple … Do you know anything about them?"

Shao Hai blinked his eyes. "Well, what would you like to know? Actually, they weren’t anything special. They wore really simple clothes. Probably some village people. We were eating together one evening and they told us they had run away from home and hadn’t taken anything with them. So since Xiao Dong had hunted some animal down, we shared a bit with them."

Wu Min Huan’s brows twitched. A young couple? Village people? Run away from home? He rubbed his brow. "Would you happen to know their names?"

"Oh, one of them seem to be called Ah Yang?"

Wu Min Huan’s lips twitched. "You can’t remember the name of the other person?"

Shao Hai pursed his lips and then turned to Xiao Dong for help.

The other boy rolled his eyes in return. "He was called Ah Lin."

Wu Min Huan looked up at the sky and fell silent. So this was where the boys had vanished to. It actually didn’t have anything to do with demonic practitioners at all. From the very beginning, they had been set on the wrong track. No wonder they hadn’t found anything. "Did they tell you where they want to go?"

Shao Hai pondered. "Well, I think they weren’t so sure themselves. They just said that they wanted to go somewhere else because their families wouldn’t accept them being together. So … they wanted to go and settle down somewhere?"

Xiao Dong jumped in. "We met them two weeks ago already. And it wasn’t here, it was closer to the capital. Who knows where they are already? Anyway, whatever it is you’re doing, you should just leave them alone." He glanced at Shao Hai and tried to see if he had managed to score some points with this. Obviously, Shao Hai was pretty into this running away stuff. He himself had also run away to be with the person he liked and marry him. So, sticking up for that kind of couple should count for something in his eyes, shouldn’t it?

Unfortunately, Shao Hai didn’t seem impressed. Xiao Dong looked away. Heavens, Romancing a mortal was so difficult. If this was a dragon, he was sure that the other person would’ve already fallen in love with him.

Meanwhile, Wu Min Huan furrowed his brows. This didn’t make sense. "Two weeks ago?"

Qiguan Cheng Da stepped closer. "Is there a problem with that, senior martial brother Wu?"

Wu Min Huan nodded. "When we originally investigated, we found out that Ah Yang had been missing for two months while Ah Lin had only been gone for two weeks. It doesn’t make sense if they met them quite far away from here two weeks ago already. It could be true for Ah Yang but it’s impossible for Ah Lin. How could he have gone so far when he had only disappeared about two weeks ago? Wouldn’t he have needed to fly there? If there wasn’t some cultivator passing by and taking him along, then this just doesn’t make any sense."

"Mn." Yu Jin turned to the two of them and shook his head. "The information should have come from the townspeople, shouldn’t it? That Ah Lin, was he from the same town?"

Wu Min Huan shook his head. "No, he was from one of the villages in the surroundings. Why?"

"Then maybe the people in the town were wrong. They will know when the person from their own town vanished but as for somebody from somewhere else … They might not know exactly. Maybe this was just information that was given from somebody or heard from somewhere and then thought to have happened at that time when it was long old news in the village where the boy disappeared."

Wu Min Huan raised his brows. "You mean Ah Lin could’ve left two months ago already too? But the townspeople never knew about that and they thought he had left later?"

Yu Jin nodded. "Or maybe he left a little later so as to not draw attention to the fact that they had left together."

Wu Min Huan nodded. "Well, however they organized it, at the very least, this doesn’t have anything to do with the demonic practitioners." He looked at Yu Jin and his gaze became troubled. "I’m sorry. This … This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. We brought all these people with us and searched but didn’t find any clues. I’m afraid … We won’t be able to find them."

Yu Jin nodded but didn’t say anything.

Wu Min Huan couldn’t help but sigh. He would’ve liked to have better news for him. If he could have taken revenge for his Master, then maybe he would feel a little better. But now … now, there was nothing he could do. It really was a pity. "We’ll search the surroundings again."

Yu Jin shook his head. "We found out what happened to the children. We found another two that want to go to your Yun Zou Sect. Why not just take them back? Everything else … I never held much hope."

Wu Min Huan finally nodded. "Alright." Even though he said so, he promised himself that he would bring this up with his Master again. They really couldn’t let this go just like that. Even if it wasn’t for Yu Jin, if a demonic sect settled down this close to the Yun Zou Sect, it would be a problem in any case. They couldn’t let that happen.

He turned back to Shao Hai and Xiao Dong and smiled. "Alright, it seems that our task turned out a little different than we had thought. In that case, we’ll go to pick up our junior martial brothers and then return to the sect. Since you wanted to go there anyway, you may come with us. Have you ever flown on a sword?"

Xiao Dong snorted. Who needed a sword to fly? He was a dragon! Just wait until he was an adult and could take on his real form! He wouldn’t need any bloody sword to fly! Unfortunately for him, Shao Hai was more than thrilled about the opportunity to fly on a sword. He grabbed onto Wu Min Huan, curiously looking on as the cultivator took out his sword. Ah, wooing a mortal really wasn’t easy.