Ao Jing nodded, not too worried. He knew that Yang Wu Huang was willing to go further to make some achievements but he wasn’t too worried about what that would mean for himself. In any case, there was a whole group following them. If somebody had to be sacrificed, Yang Wu Huang would definitely choose that Yuan Lei who had dared to offend him before. Even if that wasn’t possible, between him and Di Huan Bo, he knew who was more valuable. Hadn’t the mess the last time shown that quite clearly? In that case, he could trust him.

Yuan Lei slightly furrowed his brows but there wasn’t really anything to say. Yang Wu Huang was also right in that they shouldn’t give up immediately just because they couldn’t figure out at first glance what was up with this place. Hadn’t they also needed some time to make out what the other clues were?

In that case, what Yang Wu Huang said actually made sense, and arguing with him over something like this wasn’t worth it if they might have bigger differences in the future. He’d rather wait until then to raise his doubts instead of compromising his own standing in the group by always opposing Yang Wu Huang even at the smallest thing.

After all, if the worst came true and they got into a crisis, he needed the others to be on their side, not Yang Wu Huang’s. He didn’t have to worry about Yun Bei Fen, Kui Min, and Yi Ju, and even junior martial sister Tan wasn’t somebody he figured would just blindly follow Yang Wu Huang. After all, they had worked together before and she had seen that Mei Chao Bing wasn’t a bad person. On the other hand, the two junior martial brothers … well, he’d rather not put his trust in them.

With everybody having their own thoughts, the group finally stayed behind after all. Yang Wu Huang motioned at the edge of the smooth surface in front of them and made a decision. "Let’s first take a look around the edge of this place. Maybe we can find out something. Let’s split into two groups for that."

Yuan Lei’s gaze shot over and he almost spoke up again but hesitated. Just as he had thought before, it wouldn’t be good to oppose him too much if there wasn’t a big problem. The place in front of them actually wasn’t that big so maybe splitting up at this moment wouldn’t be much of a problem. In any case, they would definitely be able to still see each other even if they were on opposite sides of this place.

While Yuan Lei might not want to say it, Kui Min had the same thought. "Didn’t Elder Baili tell us not to split up under any circumstances?"

Yang Wu Huang turned to look at her, barely keeping the faint smile on his lips that he usually showed. "Junior martial sister Kui, I can understand that you are worried. But you don’t have to be. In any case, we’ll split into two groups. If you’re worried about me, you can even be in the other part of the group. Would that be alright with you?"

Kui Min furrowed her brows. Yang Wu Huang was clearly making her out to be unreasonable. "Senior martial brother Yang, I’m not saying this to slight you but the Elder clearly gave us this instruction. At this moment, is there really a reason to just ignore it? If we were in dire straits, I might still be able to understand it. But we’re clearly not. So why take an unnecessary risk?"

"Isn’t that precisely why I am suggesting this? Right now, there’s no danger that either of us noticed. Splitting up doesn’t come with any danger at all. If there was danger, I would be much more reluctant to suggest this."

"We also didn’t notice that there was danger the other time. Now, look at the ones who are dead and injured. Doesn’t that weigh on your conscience at all?"

Yang Wu Huang furrowed his brows. "Junior martial sister Kui, don’t go too far! Of course, I’m very good regretful that such a thing happened. But how would I have been able to know? I cannot see into the future and those demonic practitioners were much too well-prepared. I’m still trying to figure out myself how something like that could have happened. I don’t think it is as simple as it looks from the outside."

In any case, he really felt that there had to be something wrong. While he had intended to draw them over, so that his plan could work, they should have had a lot more time to prepare. In that case, most likely, nobody would have died. Now though, things had turned out like this and he was looking like the bad guy.

He didn’t believe for a single moment that this was just a simple mistake on his part. No, he had planned well enough so that had to mean that somebody had deliberately sabotaged him. Who knew? It might be Mei Chao Bing who had somehow figured out what was going on. And then he had informed his Master. After all, he was pretty sure that these two were actually still in contact. No matter what anyone else said, the disciple of a traitor would inevitably be a traitor themselves as well. He was sure of that.

Kui Min wanted to argue further but Yuan Lei reached out, and lightly touched her arm, shaking his head.

"I know what you want to say and I think that your worries aren’t without merit. There really is a certain chance that things might go wrong. But in any case, senior martial brother Yang is currently the leader of this group. And we will have to investigate quickly if we want to return before night falls. So I suggest we just let it go this time and focus on going back. The sooner we return, the better." He gave her an imploring look, indicating that even though what was happening right now wasn’t good, it was still best if they could return to the camp in the town as soon as possible. By then, they could inform Elder Baili about what had happened and maybe manage to make him rearrange the groups. Then, they wouldn’t have this problem in the future. But if they didn’t manage to make it back in time … who knew what else was going to happen to them? He’d rather not find out. For now, they had to pick their battles.