Mei Chao Bing continued to watch Yun Bei Fen as he practiced conjuring up a small shield of spiritual energy. After a while, he told him to give it a rest for today and continue tomorrow. Then, he went to discuss the patrol for this night with the others, once again excluding Yang Wu Huang and his two followers. He just wasn’t willing to count on them. For all he knew, they might purposefully ignore any attackers to push the blame for any injuries on him.

Yang Wu Huang wanted to speak up but Mei Chao Bing just ignored him or spoke up before he could, not giving him any chance to insert himself. Soon enough, everything had been organized and the groups for the night were set.

Mei Chao Bing went back to Yun Bei Fen’s side and sat next to him, gently stroking his back until his little bunny had fallen asleep. He looked up at the sky that was growing darker until the first stars finally lit up the darkness.

What was about to come was something that he dreaded if he was honest with himself. His relationship with Song Mu who had been one of the best before his Master betrayed the Teng Yong Sect. In fact, even thinking back now, Song Mu had probably been his only real friend at that time while the others were only taking advantage of his position and knowledge, trying to gain an advantage for themselves by clinging to him.

Song Mu hadn’t been like that. He had been strong enough that he could rely on himself so there was no need to play any games. But exactly because of that, it had especially hurt when he turned his back on him at the time when he needed him the most.

Being set up with him for this kind of task … It really wasn’t something that he liked to think about. And now, needing to trust him when they had to get rid of Yang Wu Huang and the other two to make sure that everyone else would stay safe, was an even worse feeling. After all, how was he supposed to trust somebody that had already broken his trust ones?

He sighed to himself, gently picked Yun Bei Fen up from where he was lying on his lap, and put him on the ground, kissing his forehead before pulling the blanket higher up so he wouldn’t be cold. Then, he got up and slowly walked out of the camp.

Song Mu was already standing a few steps away and looked over his shoulder when he heard somebody behind him. He didn’t say anything and the two of them just walked further away into the darkness before finally stopping a few steps apart from each other.

Mei Chao Bing stretched out his spiritual sense to make sure that nobody was around before he turned to Song Mu. "Let’s keep this short."

Song Mu turned to him and gave a nod. "I can imagine what you want to ask. I did not know about this. But I guess it isn’t unexpected. We definitely can’t take them along."

Mei Chao Bing continued to look at him, trying to gauge whether he was able to trust him. "What do you think happened?"

Song Mu sighed and turned to glance at the camp. "Di Huan Bo was pretty badly beaten up but it didn’t look like the wounds of an actual fight. Those were done deliberately. Most likely, the three just ran away when the attack happened and then pretended that they got hurt as well, spinning this grand tale of what has happened."

"The others?"

Song Mu shook his head. "I don’t know and I’m not sure if I even want to imagine it. Frankly, it could be anything. Maybe they were lucky and got away or maybe nobody made it out alive. Yang Wu Huang isn’t a good leader."

Mei Chao Bing couldn’t help but scoff. He really couldn’t help but wonder why Song Mu had followed him if that was the case. Had he only found out now? The idea was laughable. He didn’t say that though. After all, it wouldn’t change anything. "What do you propose we should do?"

Song Mu kept quiet for a moment and then motioned toward the town they had come from. "Send the message to the Elders ourselves. Then tomorrow, ask Yang Wu Huang and the other two to return as soon as possible to report the details of the incident."

"They will try to argue against it."

Song Mu nodded. "There will for sure and I guess it won’t be easy to actually make them leave. In fact, even if we do manage to do so, it could be that they will just come up with a new plan. After all, if they say that they were attacked again, who are we to deny it? Then most likely, sending them back would also be troublesome. Also, it might not leave the others with the best impression if you were to demand this."

Mei Chao Bing raised his brows, feeling kind of funny that Song Mu would say that. His standing with the others couldn’t be called high anyway. So, what was he even saying there?

Song Mu looked away, keeping quiet for a while. In the end, he sighed. "You don’t want to hear what I have to say. Anyway, I’m not against you."

"It is hard to believe that."

Song Mu turned toward him and gave a faint smile. "I can’t be angry about that. It’s my own fault. I know that and I know that I can’t do anything to change what has happened. Anyway, in this case, you will just have to trust me."

"But can I trust you?"

Song Mu smiled slightly, a hint of the person he had once been visible in his gaze as if the years of separation had never happened. "Do you have another choice?"