Elder Baili’s group soon happened upon the corridor with the arrays. There was blood next to one of them and in a few more spots around the corridor. Apart from that, some walls had clearly been hit by spiritual attacks. It seemed that the fight that Xi Ju Hai had found traces of outside had spanned a much bigger area than expected. Unless, of course, these weren’t all remnants of the same fight.

Furrowing his brows, he stared at the array with the blood. Maybe Zhi Guan and the other two had managed to escape through this. In that case, they might still be somewhere out there, fighting for their lives. This was his own disciple so, naturally, he wanted nothing more than to go and help. Unfortunately, he didn’t know if he was even right about any of these assumptions, not to mention that he couldn’t just leave here.

Elder Fa looked from the array to his face and sighed. She understood his dilemma. If it was her, she’d also want to go and find her disciple and save them if possible. But they were in charge of all these other disciples as well and couldn’t put them in additional danger just because they cared for one person especially.

Thinking for a moment, she motioned down the corridor. “If the fight started at the main entrance, they managed to get quite far. Not to mention that there actually isn’t much blood. Even though they are injured, it shouldn’t be too badly. They have a chance out there, maybe a better one than in here. Let’s go and deal with the demonic practitioners still in here. After that, we’ll come back here and follow them.”

Baili Chao nodded, even though he was well aware that not rushing after them at once might be what made the difference between life and death. But since they didn’t know what was on the other side of this array, they simply couldn’t risk it.

The group left the corridor behind and slowly made their way toward the other side of the building, keeping an eye out for any demonic practitioners.

Elder Baili’s group didn’t meet any of them but Elder Xing’s group did. They actually stumbled upon a small group of them that was going to the main hall, wanting to check out why nobody had returned yet. They had naturally heard the fight between Zhi Guan and the group led by Song Yu Zheng earlier so they knew something was up and finally didn’t feel comfortable simply waiting around.

The disciples had been ready to maybe need to fight but there were only four of them and more than two dozen disciples on the other side, not to mention the two Elders. Of course, they stood no chance.

Elder Ximen sheathed his sword and looked down the corridor, motioning for everyone to follow him in that direction. He couldn’t say for sure where these demonic practitioners had come from but they had seemed like they were looking for something so maybe whatever fight had happened before had actually started in the direction they had come from and then been brought to the outside. These four might have only been scouting to see whether the fight had ended and which side had won. If that was true, there might be more clues at the source and also more of their people. Also, there was a slight chance that Elder Baili’s disciple and his group had managed to escape. That would naturally be for the best.

The four disciples had only left few clues on their way so it was tough to say where exactly they had come from. Thankfully, with his level being higher than the disciples on the other side and with few having the luxury of hiding their presence through items, he soon found the position of the corridor where the remaining disciples were waiting.

He pointed the direction out to Elder Xing and the disciples behind them and everyone moved over as quietly as possible. Of course, with such a large group, it was almost impossible not to be noticed but under the cover of the two Elders who managed to make the spiritual energy their group gave off seem more uniform, the demonic practitioners weren’t too alarmed.

Those of a lower level couldn’t exactly distinguish between higher levels so to them, it only seemed as if two nascent soul-stage cultivators were moving closer. Since they had heard that Wen Xiang had been injured, they naturally assumed that this had to be Song Yu Zheng and Lu Wei returning with instructions.

They all filed out of the rooms right as the group from the Teng Yong Sect and Zhen Yang Sect arrived, turning themselves who were unprepared into easy targets. In a matter of minutes, the fight had been decided.

Ximen Chang sighed as he looked at the bodies on the ground. Some of them had also been at a slightly higher level so their own disciples hadn’t escaped completely unscathed. Still, thanks to their advantage in numbers, as well as him and Elder Xing taking on the strongest disciples themselves, there hadn’t been any deaths on their side. This result could be considered very good so far.

“Let’s head further up and regroup with the others.” He couldn’t sense any other people close by so this should be it on their side of the palace. Everyone else should have been on the other side. With about three dozen people, that meant more than twenty for the other group. While they should be able to deal with that, there might still be serious injuries depending on their level. He’d rather not risk that.

Elder Xing nodded and the group left the corridor, making their way further to the other side of the building, soon meeting up with Baili Chao’s group. Quickly reporting what each of them had found and realizing that currently, there hadn’t been anyone apart from those fourteen disciples Elder Ximen’s group had encountered, they hurried back to the array Elder Baili and Elder Fa had found earlier, hoping to catch up with Zhi Guan and the other two to save them in time. After all, their findings so far suggested that those three might be facing off against more than twenty demonic practitioners on their own. If this was indeed true … it wasn’t looking good for them.