Back in the study, Elder Xing had turned to Elder Baili. "You’re not really thinking about it, are you?"

Elder Baili sighed and leaned back, shaking his head. "I don’t know. Really, I don’t know." He shook his head some more and then turned to the side, looking at Elder Xing with his brows furrowed. "You know, he isn’t wrong. Currently, things are indeed dangerous.

"We don’t know what the other side has planned, everything we find might be a clue but might also be something they deliberately left for us to find, getting us to assume the false things. And meanwhile, they can prepare trap after trap for us.

"If they want to, they can make us lose disciples bit by bit until we are only left with a few scared ones that won’t be able to do much because we will still be just as blind as in the beginning. We really don’t have much of a choice."

Elder Xing nodded at that. "And if sending a spy would be something that could help, Mei Chao Bing would be our best bet. But what you said before is true as well: The timing isn’t right.

"If it had been before? Yes, it would have been doable. If we had used the accusations that Yang Wu Huang had made before, then maybe it could have worked out. But currently, there’s no reason to distrust him.

"On the contrary, the other disciples saw him kill Qu Yijun. He also handed over the evidence, playing completely by the book. This should have gained him an even securer position. Feng Bai Xiao wouldn’t believe that. He’s too smart for that and we know it."

Elder Baili nodded. "That’s precisely what I’m thinking. If there isn’t anything that suggests Mei Chao Bing might have a reason to go, then he won’t believe it. And we can’t very well fabricate one, can we? So until something happens that could be interpreted that way, our hands are bound even if he doesn’t want to see that."

Elder Xing nodded and couldn’t help but sigh. "The question is how to let him know that. He doesn’t seem willing to listen."

"No, he doesn’t at all. He wants to solve this. He wants to somehow help. And I can understand that. It’s not strange in his situation. But it also doesn’t really help."

Elder Xing nodded but he didn’t have anything to suggest either. Making Mei Chao Bing’s stay … "Well, what about your youngest disciple? Do you think he could …?"

Elder Baili gave a huff. "If I told Yun Bei Fen about this and he heard that Mei Chao Bing wanted to do this, he would probably just cheer him on. You know how he is! No, Yun Bei Fen is really the last person I want to get involved in this.

"Well, I don’t know. I think we should first give this a thought today and then tell him tomorrow what we think about it. Right now, everyone is agitated because of what happened. Maybe by tomorrow, he will have thought a little more and also realized that there is no way."

Elder Xing nodded. "Yes, or maybe he will be able to come up with something that would actually work. When it comes to Mei Chao Bing, I wouldn’t be surprised."

Baili Chao couldn’t help but chuckle at that. "Well, if you say it this way, then I guess it’s true as well. There’s a chance he might really be able to come up with something. If he does … well, I’m the last person to say no. I would love to have a way to deal with this. I don’t really want to see anybody else die. It’s bad enough that we lost Yu Min and Di Huan Bo."

Elder Xing nodded and then motioned over to the door. "Speaking of which, you should probably go and see how your third disciple is doing. He seemed pretty distraught when they brought young Shen back."

Elder Baili nodded and then got up, but still continued to stand there for a moment. "If we don’t let Mei Chao Bing go, we still need some other way. This matter … we all know that there isn’t much time left. So we have to somehow figure something out. No matter what it is, we need something."

"That is easier said than done. If you can think of anything, let me know. Because currently, I don’t have a single idea."

Elder Baili sighed, knowing fully well that he was very much the same. They had arrived at a standstill. Worse even, it seemed that while they were trying to find a way out of this, there was somebody barricading all the ways that might be left. It really wasn’t a good feeling.

The only thing that helped a little was that despite all that, they had managed to bring one person back from the brink of what had seemed like certain death. It might not be much in the grand scheme of things but to him, it was already great.

He really wished that they would have more such small victories in the future. In any case, one of these might be able to uncover something. Maybe Shen Lei had heard or seen something that would help.

If that was the case, that truly would be good. Not that his hopes were very high. Because Qu Yijun probably would’ve rather told Mei Chao Bing about anything than Shen Lei. But then again, one could never know. They’d just see about that when the time came.

With that, he left the study and really walked to the other room where Luo Lin had already finished washing Shen Lei’s body and had just put a new robe on him, making it seem as if he had just fallen asleep now after a tiring day and hadn’t actually been grievously injured.

Seeing him like this, Baili Chao smiled faintly. He walked over to his third disciple and reached out to rub his head. "He made it. Now, you really don’t need to worry anymore."

Luo Lin nodded but kept quiet. Until the time when Shen Lei finally woke up, he still wouldn’t be relieved. No, he first wanted to look into his eyes again and hear him say with his own voice that he was alright. Only when that had happened, would he believe that they had won against death.