Everybody else also heard what the three of them were talking about. Yang Wu Huang tried to ignore it even though he was seething with anger inside, while Di Huan Bo and Ao Jing shot Yun Bei Fen an angry look. No matter how good-looking a junior was, there was still a limit to how much they could be forgiven. To the two of them, Yun Bei Fen had already managed to reach that limit. Not that he would mind. If he knew, he would probably be quite happy and hope that he would be reaching Yang Wu Huang’s limit as well soon. After all, who wanted the attention of these three guys?
The other members of the group had their own thoughts, but it was quite eye-catching that just a while later, Tan Xin also secretly took out a sword, continuing to hold it in her hand as if she was actually agreeing with the others. Yuan Lei hadn’t put his away anyway and continued to hold onto it after Yun Bei Fen reminded them.
As for the other two junior martial brothers … they actually weren’t worried about Yang Wu Huang and his ability to lead the group — much less than they had been when it came to Mei Chao Bing at least — but they still figured that there wasn’t anything wrong with what Yun Bei Fen said in so far that it was always best to be prepared in case the demonic practitioners attacked them. Even if they didn’t want to flee, having a sword in their hand would also allow them to start fighting sooner. That way, they could protect the disciples younger than them. As their senior martial brothers, they felt that this was also what they should do.
In this way, the newly-formed group started with their investigation. In the beginning, there was nothing to be found though. In fact, it looked a bit as if there was absolutely nothing in this region that distinguished it from the others. But based on the guess that the two Elders of their sect had made, that shouldn’t be the case. Thus, they still continued forward, trying to see if there was something special about this place that they hadn’t noticed yet.
Several hours passed by, and finally, things took a turn.
Yuan Lei looked to the front with his eyes narrowed and then spoke up. "Wait. Something is strange up ahead."
The others immediately stopped and turned to look at him for an explanation while Yang Wu Huang seemed quite unhappy with him. Still, after what had happened the last time, he also knew that he couldn’t allow himself any blunder, so he turned to Yuan Lei after a moment and gave a faint smile. "Junior martial brother Yuan, what might be the matter?"
Yuan Lei didn’t bother about Yang Wu Huang’s attitude and motioned to a place a few hundred meters away. "Looking at the ground, it is too smooth. Not only aren’t there any traces at all of anyone or anything passing by, but even the stones are missing. It looks a bit as if somebody bothered to flatten the ground completely."
Di Huan Bo raised his brows, giving Yuan Lei a nasty look. "Some stones are missing, are you sure? That’s why you’re stopping us from our investigation?"
Yuan Lei didn’t bother about him and just looked at Yang Wu Huang. In any case, they weren’t here to argue. While he might not like either of these three, they were still a group that was supposed to work together.
Yang Wu Huang also knew that right now wasn’t the time to be petty. He looked over and tried to compare the place over there with the one where they currently stood. "Well, it does seem like there is a slight difference. I’m not quite sure if it isn’t a natural occurrence though. In any case, people seldom pass by here. Maybe the disciples before us already stopped at the place where we are now and didn’t go there. Wouldn’t that be an explanation?"
"It might be an explanation for the missing traces of people, but there is still some wind and rain in the border region. The ground shouldn’t look like that. You can believe me when I say that somebody did that from the outside."
Yang Wu Huang faintly nodded, not bothering to argue. "Well, this might indeed be some kind of clue. We should all be more cautious while we go and check it out."
He waved for them to follow but Yuan Lei hesitated.
"Senior martial brother Yang, I know you are the one leading the group right now but I am not sure if we should go about it this way. If this is some kind of trap, wouldn’t we be in trouble?"
Yang Wu Huang raised his brows. "Well, there is certainly such a possibility but what am I supposed to do? We won’t be able to find out more without checking it out, will we?"
Yuan Lei smiled wryly. It was definitely much easier to work with Mei Chao Bing or Song Mu. He just didn’t know how to talk with Yang Wu Huang. "Maybe it would be better to survey it from further away though. How about taking a look from above?"
Yang Wu Huang’s eyes faintly narrowed, not happy with this. Clearly, he was the one leading the group. While it wasn’t necessarily a problem to make a suggestion, having his commands ignored repeatedly definitely wasn’t something he would just tolerate. "Junior martial brother Yuan, I’m glad that you want to help but I’m afraid you’re not. You might not know but in our last group, a disciple precisely went up to check out the situation from above. In the end, that was the disciples that died first. I surely do not want a repeat of that."
Yuan Lei really wanted to argue that point, but in the end, he could only raise his hands and motion for him to go forward. In any case, Yang Wu Huang was indeed the leader of the group. Whether he wanted to or not, he would have to listen. Otherwise, he would be the one making trouble. Then, he would only give Yang Wu Huang ammunition. He just hoped that this decision would not cost either of them their lives.
