Mei Chao Bing didn’t need long to find Yun Bei Fen. The little bunny had returned to his Master’s courtyard and was currently training his attacks again. Seeing him like this, Mei Chao Bing stopped in the doorway, crossing his arms in front of his chest, and just watched silently.

In the beginning, Yun Bei Fen hadn’t known anything. He had been surprised because he didn’t feel that Elder Baili was the kind of Master who would neglect to teach his disciples. He still remembered how when they had been young, Yun Bei Fen had often been trailing behind his Master, looking like they had a very good relationship.

Clearly, Baili Chao was the kind of man that a disciple could ask any question and he would answer. In fact, Mei Chao Bing was pretty sure that even if another Elder’s disciple had asked him something, he would’ve tried his best to direct them to the answer, not to mention how we would be when it was about his own disciples.

Yes, maybe Yun Bei Fen needed some more guidance, but surely, Elder Baili should have provided that, or at least, he should’ve tried his best to do so. To think that Yun Bei Fen still hadn’t been able to use the simplest attacks … it had been so odd.

But in the end, Mei Chao Bing felt that he realized just why this had happened. Originally, Yun Bei Fen had probably been too young for these things and since he needed longer to understand matters, Elder Baili had probably put things off, feeling that there would be time later to teach him these matters.

Unfortunately, there hadn’t been time. Because Yun Bei Fen entered closed-door cultivation for five years, when he emerged, he had already been a young adult, old enough to also go on this mission to the border region. Now, he was not prepared in the least and things were getting more dangerous every day. Most likely, Elder Baili really regretted his previous decisions now but there was no way to turn back time and have a do-over.

Mei Chao Bing glanced over to the door that led to the room where Shen Lei was currently resting and felt that even if Elder Baili had tried harder to teach his youngest disciple before, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

Actually, it might have made Yun Bei Fen more of a target if he had been strong because then, he would’ve been sent out more with the others, not kept behind like the other young disciples. In this regard, they should probably be happy that Yun Bei Fen hadn’t made that much progress yet.

No matter how the circumstances were, Mei Chao Bing was still happy to see Yun Bei Fen try hard. It just … gave him a feeling of security to know that no matter what would happen to him, Yun Bei Fen would be able to grow into his own in a few years and become a strong cultivator in his own right. Until then, there would be his senior martial brothers and his Master to take care of him.

So even if he went to become a spy on the other side, even if he got gravely injured or even died, Yun Bei Fen wouldn’t be alone and he wouldn’t be helpless. Knowing that was comforting.

Mei Chao Bing would never dare to say that out loud but it was something that he couldn’t help but think about. Yes, as much as Yun Bei Fen might think that he was undefeatable, he himself knew that he was.

At that moment when he had attacked Qu Yijun, he had actually been afraid. He might not have shown it and the others might not have realized but he knew that, deep down, there had been panic. It was just that he hadn’t really had the time to rest and think about that since then. So even though it had been several hours since then, he only now had the time to examine what had really happened and how it had made him feel.

Looking back, it had mostly been luck. Qu Yijun had underestimated him. The knowledge that he had always been their Master’s strongest disciple, that he was older by several years and had cultivated for much longer than this junior of his, had probably made him believe that even if Mei Chao Bing tried something, it wouldn’t be a problem to deal with.

He might also have had some information that he was still in the core formation stage and had never doubted that for a single second because it made sense. But even if he hadn’t been, Qu Yijun probably wouldn’t have been worried. After all, he had also managed to almost kill Shen Lei.

Yes, part of that might have been because Shen Lei’s group had been heavily outnumbered and he had likely tried to save the others but it couldn’t be denied that Qu Yijun had been a strong opponent.

In his own fight against him, he had only won because he had caught him off-guard with the attack in the first place, then surprised him again with being stronger than expected, and finally went all out. If not for all of that, he never would have been able to pull this off.

In fact, Mei Chao Bing could still hardly believe it. He kind of wanted to go back and make sure that he had really won even though he knew that he had already done that. Qu Yijun … was dead. There was no doubt about that.

But yes, things could have ended differently. The one lying on the ground, looking up to the ceiling of that underground palace with lifeless eyes, could’ve been him. And then not only would the message of Shen Lei’s condition not have been delivered, probably causing Shen Lei to die, the others might have brought back the news of his death as well, resulting in two of Elder Baili’s disciples being inconsolable over the death of their lover the same day. Thinking of that was quite sobering.

Mei Chao Bing shook his head at himself, trying to clear his thoughts, and then pushed off the doorframe, stepping into the courtyard. "Still working hard? How about coming here and giving your fiance a hug instead?" Heaven knew, right now, he really needed one.