What to do?

This question really put Zhi Guan in a pinch. He couldn’t fight against ten people and maybe he should count with twelve instead, considering that the two people inside the hall seemed to be about to heal from whatever injuries Mu Qing had managed to inflict upon them. But other than that, what could he do?

Acting his way out of the following mess was impossible since Song Yu Zheng and Wen Xiang had likely figured out his identity. Even though everyone was still wearing veils, that didn’t mean that they weren’t recognizable. He himself was still wearing the same robe of the Yu She Sect. Coupled with his height and stature, there was no way he could muddle through. Even if he had thought of changing robes before, there was a certain likelihood of being recognized since they had lived together for several days, and with them being more vigilant now … he had no chance at all.

So, neither acting nor fighting would work. Then the only other alternative seemed to be to either flee or resort to trickery. The former seemed impossible because of how many people there were. Not to mention that the corridor they were currently in was rather long and even though he had familiarized himself with the underground palace, it wasn’t like he had had the chance to find good hiding spots or easy ways to lose pursuers. Mu Qing could do so but he wasn’t in the same position.

Trickery it was, then. As to what exactly to do … He’d probably have to rely on his second junior martial brother’s inventions again. Which one to use though, that was a difficult question to answer.

Yan Hong Min’s experiments ranged from absolute madness to useless to sometimes applicable to single-use awesomeness. The proportions of those stages weren’t equal either and most things should unfortunately be counted among the former categories. Which left him — who was often presented with the fruits of his junior martial brother’s labor as a ‘thanks’ for his own hard work of getting new ingredients for him or … maybe more aptly put as his guinea pig for his latest creations — with an assortment of rubbish he couldn’t use and a few gems strewn in there. Keeping both apart was difficult and he had long since stopped trying.

Zhi Guan pursed his lips. The Sweet Dreams powder he had used before to infiltrate the demonic faction in the first place had been quite useful. But now, apart from the fact that he didn’t have any left beside maybe a little speck clinging to the bottom of the vial, there was the problem that everyone was wearing veils which would have made the powder useless anyway since it had to be inhaled to work.

Apart from that one, there were only two similar inventions in his spatial bag: A stun talisman that could immobilize a cultivator for a few seconds and the blue version of what Yan Hong Min had dubbed the ‘Rainbow Jade Orbs’ which was able to completely freeze a person mid-action if you threw it at them and they got stained with the resulting dust. It was a pity that the former was almost useless unless he was trying to gain a short-term advantage while he only had a single orb of the latter since he had never thought he’d need this kind of thing. With only this, he couldn’t do much.

Zhi Guan felt complicated in his heart but he didn’t have the time to dwell on it. Incapacitating some of the disciples so they couldn’t fight against him for a while at least would be for the best but his expectations weren’t high. This situation likely needed a different plan.

Then, what else was there?

He mentally searched through his spatial bag but just like with the Blue Jade Orb, he often only had a single copy of his second junior martial brother’s inventions. There weren’t any of the genius-level contraptions like the magical box that had been given to Mei Chao Bing either so there was no way to use one of them to take out everyone or make his way out of here by using that. No, he could only rely on utilizing several of them the right way to achieve maximal benefits.

Of course, any plan he could come up with was also one prone to error in such a case because every step would hinge on the previous one being executed just right. As such, the simpler the plan, the higher the chance of success. He truly had to pick the best items and combine them just right, with not a single one too much being used.

The ultimate goal was to get out of the encirclement and later out of the building while taking Yun Bei Fen along. This meant that he had to pick up his little junior and would also have to carry him while he escaped. As a result, he would only have one hand he could use to defend and attack. Minimizing the people pursuing him would be just right. The fewer attacks could be thrown, the fewer he’d have to deal with, after all, and fewer people usually meant fewer attacks.

Most of the items he had couldn’t be used to attack though. They were only … supplementary, if even that. He might be able to give himself a bit of an advantage though. At the very least, a head-start might be possible to gain. Then, he could at least get out of the corridor for now, and in the multitude of rooms and halls after that, it would be easier to lose his pursuers. Especially so if he managed to keep them busy for a moment longer.

Zhi Guan narrowed his eyes, took stock of the items he had at his disposal one last time, and then decided to make his move, risking everything on the most rudimentary plan he had ever tried to make.