No matter how unreliable the spiritual item looked, Xiao An still accepted it graciously, thanking Luo Lin for the help before bidding them goodbye again. She watched them leave and then looked at the headband again, sighing faintly. In the end, she still closed the door and put it on though.

As soon as she mobilized her spiritual energy … she found out that Luo Lin had indeed not promised too much. Her level wasn’t that high so her spiritual perception was limited. While this item couldn’t work miracles, it could indeed increase the range she perceived spiritual energy in. And that even without causing more strain on her consumption. No, it was as if it simply added a little more to what she could naturally sense, completely free of charge.

To be honest, if she was allowed to keep this after this battle was over, she might wear it all the time, no matter how it looked. Who didn’t like to have more power and be just a little safer? Especially at a lower cultivation level, you were vulnerable. So that was the time when you needed items like this the most. Sure, it also couldn’t keep her completely safe if the other side was of a much higher level but it slightly raised her chances and that was more than she would have dared to ask for.

While Xiao An was testing out Yan Hong Min’s invention to make sure she wouldn’t accidentally misjudge the situation due to it, Luo Lin and Shen Lei made their way back to Zhi Guan and the others. As soon as they did, the group left the small town and headed for the underground palace.

At that time, the mixed group from the Teng Yong Sect and Zhen Yan Sect who had already gone there had finally gotten lucky. They had been trying to catch the demonic practitioners who were still trying to catch Zhi Guan, Liu Bao Ru, and Mu Qing on their part. For the longest time though, the two groups missed each other and the only ones who were dealt with were the few disciples at the beginning who had been left behind in the cave system to be on the outlook for the three people. After that, they checked one array after the other but always seemed to be a step too late.

The most frustrated had been Elder Baili. Knowing that his oldest disciple was still out there but being unable to catch up or deal with the demonic practitioners who might have already ganged up on him and killed him … it was driving him crazy.

Zhi Guan was clearly the strongest of his disciples and with his serious personality, he was also the one he had had to worry the least about. Not to mention that he had been the oldest when he took him in, even when it came to practicing sword arts or cultivation, he had basically raised himself. As his Master, he felt that he had done little for him, apart from finding him a few books every now and then at the beginning. Maybe because of that, he felt even worse now as if he hadn’t supported him at all throughout these years.

But then, no matter what had happened in the past, today, he had spectacularly failed him for sure. After all, there might have still been a chance for Zhi Guan to be alive when they reached the underground palace and found the traces of that fight but after several hours … he knew that he shouldn’t keep up hope.

Even Zhi Guan would be hard-pressed to make it out of that situation. After all, they had only been three people and had been up against ten times that number. How could they survive? It really seemed impossible.

No matter how he felt, he couldn’t magically revive his disciple or even find the body. He could only channel those emotions into his frantic search and finally into the fight with the demonic practitioners.

This time, when they actually found the rest of the group, he didn’t bother to ask questions either. The people of the demonic faction would never tell him and might instead just laugh in his face or use the opportunity to attack again, maybe killing someone in the progress. He couldn’t risk that.

This fight wasn’t as easy as the one before. Their own group had split into two so they weren’t as many people any longer. At the same time, the disciples from the other faction seemed stronger this time. Obviously, the ones sent out to hunt down Zhi Guan and the other two had truly been the elite among the elite.

Baili Chao tightly furrowed his brows and rushed ahead, intent on taking revenge for his oldest disciple. He confronted the disciple who was obviously in the lead and finally managed to overwhelm the person after exchanging a few rounds of blows. Thankfully, Elder Fa took on the second-in-command, allowing their disciples to fight demonic practitioners they could certainly take on.

In the end, while it wasn’t an immediate win like the previous fights, they still managed to finish this small skirmish quickly. In fact, Elder Xing’s group who had checked out the destination of another array only arrived after they were already done.

Elder Baili heaved a sigh of relief when the last demonic practitioner had been defeated and then motioned for the disciples to start looking for further clues. After all, while the fight was important, he still wanted to bring back their disciples if possible somehow. In a way, this was more important to him than winning this fight. No matter whether alive or dead, his disciple had to be found. He couldn’t simply leave him here.

The two groups searched but … nothing could be found in this place either. They went back to check out the few remaining arrays but still couldn’t find them even after the last one had been investigated. It was almost as if those three had vanished off the face of the earth.