Mei Chao Bing was sure that he was right but he didn’t really know what to do with that thought. This wasn’t really something to share because whether Yang Wu Huang was still alive was something that they couldn’t say for sure. And mentioning this kind of conjecture out loud when there was at least a certain chance that the other person was dead would seem vindictive. In a situation where he wanted to repair his own reputation, that was the last thing he wanted to be labeled as.

No, it seemed that this matter could only be kept in his heart save for talking about it with people that he really knew he could trust and who already had a similar opinion of Yang Wu Huang as he did. In this case, that would probably be the two Elders in the border region, as well as Yun Bei Fen and his first senior martial brother.

Just when he wondered when he would have the opportunity to go back to discuss this, he heard Yan Hong Min call out to him from the other room.

Mei Chao Bing immediately rose to his feet and strode over, stopping in the doorway. "Senior martial brother Yan, did you make a breakthrough?" This was much faster than he had expected, to be honest. Even though it had been several hours, this was already quite good for something that may need to be made completely anew.

Yan Hong Min gave him a look, clicking his tongue. "What breakthrough? I had an idea as soon as you mentioned it, but it’s difficult to make. The device I gave my third junior martial brother was one that reacted to the energy that he was putting in. That isn’t too difficult to create or use. You put in your energy on one side, and it can show you where something similar is. That is the way it works. Unfortunately, it becomes difficult if we are talking about people that aren’t using the techniques of our Teng Yong Sect."

Mei Chao Bing tilted his head. "I can imagine. And in this case, while Mu Qing himself would likely still be using our techniques, the people around him might not."

"Precisely! So that leaves us with a bit of a problem. I was thinking though that from what you told me about your Master’s plan, it seems that it has to do with the four big righteous sects. So it’s likely that even if we don’t know about it yet, there will be disciples from all four of them among them. If any Elders went missing in the last couple of decades, I bet that they are actually on the other side by now too."

Mei Chao Bing furrowed his brows but didn’t have anything to retort. Yes, thinking about it this way, that was true. If they had acquired the abilities of some of the other guardians, then that was definitely because they had been given the opportunity to do so and that required more traitors.

Yan Hong Min figured that Mei Chao Bing understood well enough and didn’t explain any further, instead focusing on the device in front of him, slightly shaking it. "This here, this is something that works the same way as the device I gave my third junior martial brother.

"You put in spiritual energy of a certain kind and it will show you something similar in response. Now, the person operating it can, of course, only use their own energy. So unless somebody had cultivated all the techniques of the sects, we need several people to operate this.

"I know that that isn’t feasible in the border region. Anyway, even outside of it, it would be difficult. So I’ve been wondering what to do about it. So I thought that we could use something that is infused with the energy. We would input that into the device and use it to transmit the spiritual energy, making a comparison to the energy around the carrier possible.

"So I changed this one here so it has several slots to put the items in. I do have something from the Jian Chu Sect here that I got in a tournament some years ago, but I don’t have anything from either the Zhen Yan Sect or the Li Ren Sect. You’ll have to find something from these sects to really try this out."

Mei Chao Bing inclined his head. "We could ask Sect Master Zhang or maybe the Elder from the supply hall. There might be something in the sect already that we can use for this. Alternatively, there might be a chance to get something in the border region."

Yan Hong Min shrugged his shoulders, not caring particularly how exactly Mei Chao Bing wanted to pull it off. In his eyes, the only thing important right now was the device itself and the shortcomings it still had. He wasn’t completely satisfied yet. "Well, you see, even after that, this isn’t exactly what you wanted. You can spot disciples from our sect and our allies, and also the traitors on the other side.

"You won’t be able to distinguish between them though. And then, there’s still the disciples that were originally from the demonic sects. I’m not quite sure how to make them show up on this yet. The device checks for the same kind so that is difficult to do unless you could get me samples from all the demonic sects. I’d imagine that would be too difficult to do in a short amount of time and we also wouldn’t have the slots to insert the items."

"Does it not work if you check for spiritual energy in general?"

Yan Hong Min gave him a look, feeling that Mei Chao Bing was really taking him as an idiot. "You think I wouldn’t have thought of that? Everything includes spiritual energy. So how would you distinguish what is what? In the end, you’d just have the whole cube light up like it’s a small sun shining around midday."

Mei Chao Bing nodded. Just a few weeks ago, he had gotten a very memorable reminder that this was the case when he tried to teach Yun Bei Fen how to use his spiritual sense to visualize the spiritual energy around him. His little bunny had been completely overwhelmed because he was new to it and filtering out the low levels was something that was quite difficult to do at first.

Mei Chao Bing thought for a moment how they could circumvent the problem and, finally, his expression lit up. "I’m sure you can adjust the level that is being displayed, right? Mu Qing and my other senior martial brothers should all be at the nascent soul stage at least, as would my Master. So maybe you could filter out anything below that?"

"You’re not worried they might have an army of core formation stage disciples around them?"

Mei Chao Bing smiled wryly. "Well, is there a way to do both? Maybe separately from each other?"

Yan Hong Min pursed his lips and then motioned at Mei Chao Bing’s nose. "You? I like you. I didn’t know before what my little junior saw in you but I’m starting to realize what it is." With that, he went back to fiddling with his device, clearly approaching some kind of solution.