Yu Jin pretended not to know anything about what was going on in the back. He just divided the disciples into small groups and had them search the village.

Since they knew what they were searching for this time, they didn’t need as long. In the end, they indeed found another exit to the underground hideout. Just like the one that Qiu Ling and Jing Yi had accidentally discovered, this one was also protected by a spell and could only be found after the disciples used their spiritual energy.

Thankfully, one of the disciples that Yu Jin hadn’t known before was proficient in dealing with arrays and was able to deactivate the spell in a matter of minutes so they wouldn’t have any trouble opening the newfound entrance.

The group gathered around it, wondering what to do. Yu Jin kept quiet but the others slowly started to utter their thought out loud.

"Having two entrances means that the demonic practitioners will be able to leave from one while we enter from the other." Mao Xun looked at Yu Jin when he said so and then turned to Nian Hong Fang next.

His lover nodded. "That is true. On the other hand, it also means that we would have two options in case something happens. If they managed to block one exit, we could still go to the other. Since we don’t know what is down there, that might be good for us."

The disciples from the outer sect stayed quiet and turned to look at the inner sect disciples that hadn’t spoken up yet.

While Cen Fu just nodded, Elder Wu’s disciple Su Jian spoke up himself. "I’d say it might be better to find out what is going on down there first. I’ll be able to seal this entrance off but we should first make sure that we won’t get into trouble because of that. What do you think, senior martial brother Yu?"

Yu Jin nodded slowly. "Yes, that might be for the best. It is unsure what to expect. The demonic practitioners were already disturbed once. It could be that they have already abandoned this hideout since then. We’ll have to find out ourselves." He kept quiet for a moment and then motioned to the staircase in front of them. "There’s nothing we’ll be able to do up here. Let’s go down and see what is happening there. Be careful." He didn’t wait for them to answer and took the lead in going downstairs.

At the end of the staircase was a long corridor. Yu Jin looked around, using his spiritual energy to get a sense of their surroundings. It seemed that this one was leading away from the other entrance. It seemed to be the same on the other side. That meant that the underground hideout would either indeed be a vast expanse or there was more than one underground level and the entrances were connected on another floor.

He didn’t know which would be worse. If there were several floors, then that would mean that it would be more difficult for them to get back to the entrance in case something happened. It would make this mission more dangerous.

Walking down the corridor, they finally arrived at a junction. Several paths were leading away from it but neither of them was going in the direction of the other entrance. It really wouldn’t be easy to make their way through here.

The team slowly went forward, choosing their path seemingly on random when they arrived at a junction. The further they came, the more they realized just how big this underground hideout was.

Mao Xun furrowed his brows. "This should be much further than the original village. Most likely, we’re already somewhere below the Long mountain range."

Su Jian nodded and reached out to touch the wall of the corridor they were currently going through. "I think the walls also look different here. It might be because of the different environment they were created in. What do you think?"

He looked around at the others but didn’t get a response at first.

Yu Jin was still walking the front, not saying a single word. Qiguan Cheng Da had stuck to him as if he was really worried and couldn’t see his good friend suffer. The other outer sect disciples still didn’t dare to say anything out loud even though Shao Hai had been whispering to Xiao Dong more than once on their way.

In the end, it was Cen Fu who spoke up again. "I think so as well. I have paired earth and metal spiritual veins and this place gives me a different feeling than the one we entered from. I haven’t been to the Long mountain range in a long time so I can’t be sure that it’s there but at least we’ve come a great distance from the village and a mountainous place seems likely."

Yu Jin glanced over his shoulder at that. "We’ve been going in the direction of the Long mountain range." He didn’t wait for a response and turned back to the front, taking a look at the junction that had once again appeared in front of them. He hesitated for a moment and then chose the direction again, leading the group further into the hideout.

Behind him, Cen Fu couldn’t help but feel happy. Senior martial brother Yu actually answered him! Normally, that wouldn’t mean anything but to get a response from a person that disliked talking was very good.

While Cen Fu was happy, Qiguan Cheng Da was feeling the opposite. He hadn’t even gotten a response when he showed care for him before but this Cen Fu actually got a whole sentence from him. What was this Yu Jin trying to do?!

This was basically asking for him to be humiliated. He couldn’t help but second-guess Yu Jin’s behavior, wondering if he had somehow displeased him in the past few days. He couldn’t think of anything but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t right.

Even if it wasn’t that he had displeased Yu Jin, it might very well be that Cen Fu had somehow managed to get into Yu Jin’s good graces. What then? As long as there was nobody else around, he would have an undisputed good relationship with Yu Jin just based on the fact that nobody would be there to refute him. But if that changed … Then what was he supposed to do?