While Liu Bao Ru came up with a plan on her side, Zhi Guan still remained in the corridor, standing among the demonic practitioners. He had kept an eye on Yun Bei Fen’s body for the last few minutes and his brows slowly furrowed.
It was never a good sign for a righteous sect cultivator to be among demonic practitioners and it certainly wasn’t indicating anything good if they were lying on the ground but … Yun Bei Fen hadn’t moved at all. Usually, even if he was unconscious, there should be some faint reactions of the body even if it was only a furrowing of the brows or at least their chest rising and falling. The problem was that even that didn’t seem to be happening.
Zhi Guan didn’t want to think about the worst but, at this moment, reality didn’t seem to want to give him any alternative. What was the reason for Yun Bei Fen being like this if not …
He raised a hand and rubbed his forehead, trying not to go there. Every situation could be solved somehow. His little junior wouldn’t leave just like that. Anyway, how could it be? Wasn’t he important for the demonic faction’s plan? So as long as it hadn’t come to fruition yet, they wouldn’t do anything to him. They needed him to pressure Mei Chao Bing into doing what they wanted, after all.
Of course, these were demonic practitioners he was talking about. Deceiving someone and then doing something else than promised behind their back wouldn’t be odd at all. He trusted that Mei Chao Bing wouldn’t be stupid enough to fall for something like that though. No, if Yun Bei Fen vanished, he’d search for him, and if he didn’t see him being unscathed, he wouldn’t give the demonic faction what they wanted no matter how they tried. And surely, Mei Chao Bing’s Master knew that as well. So really, they had no reason to kill him.
He continued to watch the motionless body and finally couldn’t help but tilt his head. Actually … considering that this was the demonic faction and that they practiced the oddest things, it might not be impossible that they wanted to make extra sure that everything would go according to plan. A dead person couldn’t come up with any countermeasures and couldn’t connive with others. As such, they were a lot easier to guard. And for the demonic practitioners, it might not be impossible to bring them back after the fact which meant that they could still hand them over seemingly unharmed.
The longer he thought about it, the more Zhi Guan felt that it made sense. Yes, the demonic faction wouldn’t care about killing a righteous cultivator. They didn’t care about such things as honor or the like either. Using such nefarious means to gain what they wanted absolutely wasn’t impossible. He shouldn’t delude himself into thinking it was.
Zhi Guan had been staring at his little junior’s body for so long that the disciple Liu Bao Ru had spoken to before couldn’t help but notice. He raised his brows and looked at the body as well, wondering if he had missed something important. When he couldn’t see anything off, he leaned closer to Zhi Guan. “What’s the matter?”
Zhi Guan glanced at him and then tried to seem calm. “I was wondering … if he was … you know.” He finally couldn’t bring himself to say it and answered somewhat evasively. “He isn’t moving at all.”
The disciple also looked at Yun Bei Fen again and nodded. “Seems like it.”
Zhi Guan gave a hum. He wasn’t quite sure what to think of this response. Clearly, the other person didn’t care much but he hadn’t expected anything else either. On the other hand, it didn’t seem like he had been told anything before. He had sounded more as if he checked and figured that he was right. This … to be honest, he wasn’t sure what to make of this.
Did it mean that all of this was part of the plan and had to be kept secret so they couldn’t come up with countermeasures? Or was it just that this had been somewhat of an accident, collateral damage from the fight between Mu Qing and Song Yu Zheng’s trio? He didn’t think Mu Qing would let Yun Bei Fen get injured willingly but at that time, he had likely had his hands full with his own fight and couldn’t spare much attention for anyone else. Yun Bei Fen might have … been gone without anyone noticing.
Zhi Guan lowered his gaze, almost unable to cover up his emotions. He had always thought that if anything, he’d be the one among the four of them who would go first, unable to protect his three juniors any longer. He even thought that as cultivators, maybe one day they would follow because not everyone could make it to the end of this road. But … this wasn’t how he had imagined that end to come and he didn’t want to admit that it was there either. This just couldn’t be it.
“I wonder what the senior martial brothers intend to do with him.” Zhi Guan forced himself to focus, trying to find an angle to work from. He might not have been able to save him but he certainly wouldn’t just leave him here. “I mean, it seems odd to keep watch on a body. Are there others we are trying to lure over?”
The other disciple didn’t care much. “I don’t know. As I said earlier, it’s best to just wait for what senior martial brother Song says. Senior martial brother Wen should be back to normal in a short time. After that, we’ll probably get onto whatever they have planned next.”
Zhi Guan gave another hum but his heart sank further. This meant that in a few minutes, the situation would become even worse for him. He definitely couldn’t fight so many people at once. So if he wanted to bring Yun Bei Fen out of here, he had to do so now. He couldn’t waste any more time.
