The two Elders’ brows furrowed even further. No matter what, this didn’t look good. It seemed that the demonic faction had even more information on them than they had thought. "Any indication as to why that might have been? Maybe something he had on him or some kind of spell he used?"

Mei Chao Bing shook his head. "No, nothing of the like that I noticed. Apart from that, he also tried to pull me over to their side and gave me some kind of jade slip that can be used to enter the Wu Yun Sect." He glanced at Zhi Guan, happy that he hadn’t kept it to himself, and immediately told the others. "I gave it to senior martial brother Zhi for safekeeping. This is the same kind of jade slip that my Master left with me back when he betrayed our sect. I gave it to the Sect Master though. I would assume he should still have it."

The two Elders nodded at that. This matter, it wasn’t a secret. In fact, it was the reason why some of the Elders hadn’t been too worried about Mei Chao Bing back then. Clearly, if he wanted to join his Master, he wouldn’t have given up this piece of evidence and kept it to himself. In fact, he did want to join him, why sound the alarm at all?

Was there supposed to be some nefarious plan behind it? But clearly, as Elder Feng’s direct disciple, he wouldn’t make a good spy for the Wu Yun Sect since everybody would be guarding against him anyway. In all these years, since he hadn’t left his house more than a handful of times and had only ever come to Elder Baili’s place to ask about his youngest disciple, he also hadn’t been up to anything suspicious. Such a thought was just laughable.

Since Mei Chao Bing had mentioned it, Zhi Guan took out the jade slip, putting it down in front of the two Elders. He also used the opportunity to mention his own side of things. "We were also attacked while in the underground palace not too long before we heard the commotion from junior martial brother Mei’s fight. We originally thought that it was empty but there were suddenly several demonic practitioners.

"We fought and … well, they weren’t that strong but it was a little weird. They didn’t want to seem to give up even though they were clearly losing and badly hurt already. In the end, they managed to get away."

When it came to this, the Elders actually weren’t that surprised anymore. "Those disciples should have been like the one the group Yang Wu Huang led originally encountered. They don’t seem to feel pain."

Zhi Guan thought for a moment and then slowly nodded. He hadn’t been there when Da Hei had finally told Mei Chao Bing the whole story so he hadn’t known that information yet. But being informed now that there had been such a thing, he felt that it would indeed explain what had happened when they were attacked.

Yes, if these disciples didn’t feel any pain, then there was no reason for them to fight carefully. Despite their lower level, they could just take attacks head-on because while they would get injured, they wouldn’t feel the pain. They would likely only stop and flee when they were close to death.

The four of them fell silent, all of them trying to make sense of the situation by themselves.

Mei Chao Bing glanced at the two Elders and then at the jade slip on the table and finally cleared his throat. "I don’t know if I’m conceited but I have this feeling that my Master might have some specific plans involving me."

Elder Baili raised his brows at that. "What makes you think so?" In fact, he wasn’t sure if it wouldn’t be exactly the other way around: Mei Chao Bing might be a threat to Elder Feng’s plans. Surely, in that case, he would want him to be as far away as possible.

In fact, the only plan he could think of was making Mei Chao Bing look so suspicious that they would send him back to the Teng Yong Sect instead of letting him stay here. That way, he wouldn’t have to worry that his disciple might be able to figure something out based on what he knew about him.

Mei Chao Bing also furrowed his brows, not quite clear on how to say this. "Back then, when I found out that my Master killed Elder Wu, he tried to take me along but I refused. He left such a jade slip with me, telling me that I could always come to the Wu Yun Sect. Now, years have gone by and suddenly, Qu Yijun approaches me, handing me the same kind of jade slip again and reiterating what my Master once told me.

"I just feel like … I don’t know, neither my Master nor my senior martial brother is the emotional type. They wouldn’t do this just for past feelings’ sake. No, if they want me to join the Wu Yun Sect — and it seems like it — then there has to be a reason for that. They need me for something. I have no idea what or why but it has to be the case."

Baili Chao stared at him, an uncomfortable thought in his mind: What if Sect Master Zhang wasn’t the only one who had a good guess at how important this disciple of the sect actually was? What if Elder Feng had known as well that Mei Chao Bing was able to make or break the future of the Teng Yong Sect? What if back then, he might’ve even taken him in precisely because of that?

Maybe from the very beginning, he had had a plan like that. Mei Chao Bing witnessing him killing Elder Wu had upset that plan. Now, he was trying to get it back on track but it was difficult because Mei Chao Bing wasn’t willing to change sides. So he was trying to drive him further and further away from the sect, hatching one plan after the other on how to make him doubt whether he was really welcome or not.

That was certainly a possibility even though it was one that he didn’t even want to think about.