Seeing how relieved the disciples were to meet them, Zhi Guan felt even more that matters should have been bad. Even though that Nian Tao had given a pretty detailed answer to his question, just hearing about the situation couldn’t compare to being in it yourself. Especially for these disciples, some of whom were on the weaker side.
Looking at Yi Ju and Kui Min who were only slightly stronger than his own little junior, Zhi Guan actually felt quite angry. That Yang Wu Huang definitely couldn’t be trusted. They’d better stay with these disciples until the end and then make sure that they arrived safely back at the camp so the disciples could recover and this Yang Wu Huang be dealt with.
The hall that they were in right now was the one that Yang Wu Huang’s group had originally entered through. The hole in the ceiling above let in some light, allowing them to see slightly more clearly. It also finally gave them back the sense of time that they had long lost since entering this building.
Seeing that it was already in the dead of the night, Zhi Guan was even angrier. He turned to Yang Wu Huang, his expression showing his displeasure. "It is already this late and you’re still out and about with a group of younger disciples. Do you think that you did the right thing?"
Yang Wu Huang pressed his lips together. He had known that Elder Baili was biased but now he realized that his disciples weren’t any better. "The way here was rather long and investigating took quite a bit of time since there was some trouble on the way. I’m afraid it just took a little longer than expected. I would’ve returned with them as soon as I could."
Zhi Guan glared at him, not even sure what to say anymore. This kind of thing, he really loathed dealing with it. It would be better to have his Master do so but after knowing that he had even put this guy and his little junior in the same group before, he wasn’t sure if he would be strict enough.
Shen Lei took one glance at him and then turned to take over the situation. "Well, no matter what your intentions were, you didn’t handle it right. It is already much too late now to just go back with them. You would need to camp out here. And now imagine that the people you met on the way hadn’t been us but a group of demonic practitioners. You would all be dead by now or, even worse, might’ve been captured and locked away.
"What then? Would anybody know what happened to you? Would anybody know where to look for you? You might be able to take it. But would they?" He motioned over to the other disciples who didn’t look happy at all. "No matter what, you’ll have to take responsibility for this when we get back."
Yuan Lei couldn’t help but speak up at that. "Senior martial brother Shen, then when do you think we should go back? Just tomorrow morning?"
Shen Lei glanced up at the sky and shook his head. "Well, you definitely can’t return now. Definitely not alone and we’re not at leisure to accompany you. For now, let’s sit down and find out what you know about this place so we can deliver the combined information back to the sect.
"After that, we’ll take you to the other side of this building. There’s an array there that will take us back to the place that we were investigating originally. There are more disciples there. I’m sure that we will have a few to spare to accompany you back. You definitely won’t have to go alone." He once again glanced at Yang Wu Huang, making it pretty clear that he wasn’t just afraid to let them go alone but absolutely didn’t want them to go with Yang Wu Huang as their leader.
Whatever small chance Yang Wu Huang had had of continuing to lead this group in the future, it was definitely lost now. He clenched his hands but there was nothing he could do about it. In any case, clearly, whether it was Zhi Guan or Shen Lei, they had both made up their minds already. Now, he could only go along with things and hope that there would be another opportunity in the future. But with each step back, that would become more difficult. It seemed that whether it was his plans of exposing Mei Chao Bing or his plan of getting closer to Yun Bei Fen, neither of those would be easy to accomplish now. It really was vexing.
The older disciples didn’t give a damn about what he thought. They sat down with the disciples that seemed trustworthy and collected the information that they had found, adding it to what they already knew about this place. They still didn’t have the whole layout of this place but there was a good amount that they already knew about. As for the other floors, they felt like it was alright not to know at the moment.
In any case, they at least knew that the building that the younger disciples had entered and the one they found through the array were the same. Most likely, all these floors were connected in the same way as the one that they had met in. That gave them quite a few more ideas about how the building was structured. The Elders would definitely be able to make something out of that and there would still be opportunities to investigate further in the future.
Soon enough, all the information had been exchanged. Shen Lei and Zhi Guan exchanged a glance and then sat down with the disciple leading the ones from the Zhen Yan Sect.
"Should we explore the other corridors on this side?"
The disciple pondered for a moment but then shook her head. "I didn’t don’t think that would be a good idea. We have been here for pretty long. I think it would be best to bring these disciples to the other side as fast as possible and then return. We can still come back here later on. For now, taking care of the youngsters is more important." She glanced over to where Mei Chao Bing and Yun Bei Fen were sitting, her gaze softening a little. "They’re looking a little scared."
In fact, Yun Bei Fen looked quite happy now that he was with Mei Chao Bing but the situation with the younger disciples did need to be solved. Also, there was no reason for Yang Wu Huang and the others to explore this place if there was this group of seniors that could do so as well. Thus, bringing them back to safety was indeed the most important for the time being.
