Mei Chao Bing stared at her, feeling as if he had been enlightened. Originally when his Master betrayed the sect and offered him to follow him over to the Wu Yun Sect, he had thought that he wanted to tie up loose ends.

If he took him along, then he wouldn’t be able to tell the Teng Yong Sect anything that might help with figuring something out. After all, as his disciple, he could have witnessed something in the years before that would allow the Elders or the Sect Master to figure out more than his Master intended to let them know. Even if he himself wasn’t able to make sense of it, Zhang Guan Yu and the Elders might have been able to do so. Mei Chao Bing had always believed that.

Later, he had wondered why his Master hadn’t just slain him as well. Since he had had no problem doing that to Elder Wu, he didn’t think that his own disciple should be different. After all, his Master wasn’t a sympathetic person. He wasn’t somebody who actually cared. If you did, he would have treated his disciples differently in the years before. But he hadn’t. No, had always been cold and heartless.

What should have changed at that moment? So really, his Master should have hoped for him to actually join the Wu Yun Sect like his senior martial brothers even if that was at a later date.

Realizing this had made Mei Chao Bing believe that his Master had some kind of hidden plan. When he came to the border region and witnessed all the things happening, that feeling had only gotten stronger.

But up until now, he hadn’t thought any further. He had always tried to think of this from the perspective of his Master. What could it be that would benefit him? What could it be that could benefit the sect that he had sworn his allegiance to?

Even if he tried to think of it in regard to himself, what he thought of was how he could be used so it was usually in terms of strength or skills. He had never thought that he might be special somehow and that his Master might’ve known that from the beginning. Now that Xi Ju Hai had said it, he suddenly realized that this was a possibility, and a frighteningly likely one as well.

Yes, if he was just a normal disciple to his Master, then there would have been no reason to go through all this trouble. In that case, killing him would have been the right response. Because an ordinary disciple wouldn’t be able to do anything for him.

At most, he would’ve been able to provide him with some information but he hadn’t been part of the inner workings of the sect anymore after his Master had left. And even if he tried to purposefully get involved in everyone else’s business, he didn’t think that anybody would have let him walk out of there with important information. His Master’s betrayal had made sure of that.

So really, he was useless as a spy. But he had to have something else for Feng Bai Xiao to retain an interest in him.

Mei Chao Bing’s brows furrowed tightly. "Senior martial sister Xi, do you think that this is just about me or do you think that the number of his disciples will be important? After all, there were several of us. And most of my senior martial brothers either fled the sect after our Master’s betrayal or vanished long before. They are probably all on the other side by now."

Xi Ju Hai shook her head. "Really, I have no idea. I’m afraid that both options are a possibility but it won’t be easy to make sure of either."

Kang Mu couldn’t help but speak up at that. "Don’t you have a guess? You know your Master better than anyone else. What would he be more likely to do?"

Mei Chao Bing turned to look at Kang Mu, not sure how to answer that. Yes, he had always thought that he knew his Master best but then he hadn’t been able to come up with what Xi Ju Hai had just said. That realization had never dawned on him. But maybe that was also because she was able to look at the situation from the outside while he was right in the middle. He wasn’t unbiased enough in regard to this.

He tried to take his personal feelings out of this and just focused on what exactly he knew. Other than him, there had been at least a dozen, direct disciples that his Master had favored. The others he took in had been thrown to other disciples to take care of after a time of observation while they had started to get special attention. This suggested that their Master had somehow been testing them and he might have found that there was something more about them.

Then again … "I killed Qu Yijun. That kind of thing, it could happen to the other disciples as well. If this was relying on an exact number, his plans would be ruined too easily. Yes, they might all be strong, very much so for their generation but the possibility still exists.

"So if all of us were really that vital, then I think he would have taken more precautions. For example, he wouldn’t have let either of them go outside. No, he would’ve sent other people to do the tasks in the border region.

"So it shouldn’t be about our number. Rather than that, maybe he needs something specific from one of us and not everybody was able to live up to his expectations. Yes, looking at how my Master usually did things, that would make sense.

"Most disciples weren’t able to fulfill what he wanted so he cast them aside pretty early when he was still in the Teng Yong Sect. Among the ones left, there were only a dozen of us who had what he wanted so he made us his direct disciples, investing more time in us.

"From there, I can see two possibilities: Either those eleven senior martial brothers of mine were not able to fulfill what he wanted to complete satisfaction so he continued until he found me who was somehow able to or they did and each one that was taken in at a later time was just back up in case something happened to the first one. He would be cruel enough to do that."

Whether it was Xi Ju Hai or Kang Mu they could only nod. Yes, this was indeed the kind of thing that Elder Feng probably would have done.