Both people stood next to each other, their expressions behind the black veils solemn. Time was running out and there was no easy solution in sight. Well, to be honest, they could easily leave. They just had to pretend to go in search of ‘the traitorous senior martial brother Mu’ or to ‘support senior martial brother Lu’. According to how things had gone so far, they were likely to get away with it as long as Song Yu Zheng or Wei Xiang didn’t see them. The biggest problem was Yun Bei Fen and that … was indeed difficult to navigate.

Liu Bao Ru glanced at Zhi Guan who had his brows tightly furrowed. Even though she had managed to draw everyone’s attention first to ensure nothing worse would happen, he clearly hadn’t calmed down completely. She really couldn’t say that she was surprised. Zhi Guan clearly loved his junior martial brothers. How could he be willing to leave one of them behind?

Zhi Guan’s thoughts were indeed going in that very direction. Liu Bao Ru’s interruption had given him time to collect himself a little so he wasn’t about to grab Yun Bei Fen and try to run out of the building. He did want to get him out of here if he could though. As for how to do that …

He glanced at the disciples around them and pursed his lips. Ten were too many to fight, not to mention that it seemed like Song Yu Zheng and Wen Xiang were close by. In fact, using his spiritual sense, they were likely still in the main hall. The worst part was probably that the other groups should also send someone to check out the situation over here or would even come over altogether.

Thinking of the latter option, Zhi Guan’s eyes narrowed. Actually … He turned to Liu Bao Ru, his gaze intent. “You should go and tell the others what happened. I’ll stay to wait in case senior martial brother Song has any further instructions.”

Liu Bao Ru raised her brows in doubt, not sure what he intended to do. This was indeed a good way to get her out of here but … what about him? What about Yun Bei Fen? Unfortunately, she couldn’t ask and Zhi Guan wouldn’t have done this if he didn’t have some kind of plan. In the end, she nodded. “Alright, I’ll go and tell them. Should we come back?”

Zhi Guan glanced at the others. “I guess it shouldn’t be necessary. If you’re needed, the seniors will likely send someone to inform everyone still in the corridor.”

“Mn.” Liu Bao Ru inclined her head, turned around, and left. She still felt worried but she just had to trust in his ability to deal with this. Even if he wasn’t able to and had just sent her away to get one of them out of a situation he deemed inescapable, she should still leave. Her being there when they couldn’t communicate wouldn’t help him at all and would instead only make him be more on edge because he had one more person to consider.

Anyway, as long as she was in the building as well, she could try to come up with a plan herself. Maybe she’d be able to think of something after she had some time away from the demonic practitioners. Then, it wouldn’t be too late to go back and get him out of there.

Liu Bao Ru silently walked back in the direction of the corridor since those disciples all assumed that she came from there. Speaking of which … there were roughly three dozen disciples who had gone to the underground palace. So far, Zhi Guan and she had taken out eight of them. Mu Qing had defected to their side and Lu Wei was currently busy chasing him. Song Yu Zheng, Wei Xiang, and an additional ten disciples were gathered over at the main hall. Minus Zhi Guan and her, that meant that there were only sixteen disciples left in the corridor, maybe less if some of them were now out to check for clues as to what had happened elsewhere in the underground palace.

Liu Bao Ru sighed to herself when she realized this. Under normal circumstances, being able to split the group of enemies into two would be the best thing that could happen to them. The problem was that both groups were still too big to take on, especially now that Zhi Guan and she had also had to split up.

If they were still together and managed to find a group or two wandering around alone … they could have tried to take care of the demonic practitioners bit by bit. Maybe they could have actually halved their numbers. Now, it was impossible though. Unless she met somebody who was alone as well, she couldn’t risk it. In fact, even if she did, it wasn’t all that clear whether she should risk it or not.

She didn’t know for sure but then, this also depended on the specific situation. If there was nobody else nearby, maybe she indeed would. The demonic faction being one more person down would definitely be to their benefit. For now though, that wasn’t her main focus. No, for now, she had to try and come up with something she could do.

She quietly walked through the corridors, her mind churning. Right now, there only seemed to be three things she could do: First, she could try to get rid of more demonic practitioners but this was indeed difficult. If she had that flower map to find out where single ones were, it could help but … Zhi Guan was the one with the item so that wasn’t an option. The second possibility was trying to think of a way to get Zhi Guan and Yun Bei Fen out from the spot in front of the main hall. The third and currently the most likely option was trying to find Mu Qing and help him out. That way, she might also have a better chance of getting around to the first and second options later. After all, they’d be one more person by then.