Not just Baili Chao, the disciples of the Teng Yong Sect also regained hope when they heard this. They turned to the Elders with shining eyes, clearly wanting to hear that they wouldn’t give up searching for them.

Baili Chao looked at them and smiled faintly. No matter what the result was, knowing that there were so many people who cared about his oldest disciple, he knew that even in the worst of cases, he would never be forgotten. His sacrifice would be remembered and these people would always think of him as the hero who had given his life to give them a slightly better chance at survival. Considering why Zhi Guan had taken this path of becoming a cultivator, he knew that he would be satisfied if this was the way he left.

He took a deep breath and his gaze traveled over those bodies once again, going through everything they had found so far in his mind. He didn’t know if it made sense to search again. They seemed to have gone through everything at least once and covered many spots twice already. What else could they still find?

Just when he wanted to tell the disciples that maybe the seniors had managed to make it outside so there was no telling where they were by now and searching the building again wouldn’t help at all, someone outside seemed to have stumbled onto something.

“Elder Fa, look at this!”

Fa Ai Jun walked out of the room with the bodies to take a look at what the disciples of the Zhen Yan Sect had found. When she did, she raised her brows. “Looks like a spiritual beast.”

“Yes, yes, it’s a bunny! It even has a collar!” The disciple sounded faintly excited as she said this.

Baili Chao didn’t need to think twice to figure out what this was. Not many cultivators took in spiritual beasts and those who did usually decided on one that was … uh … more useful in their day-to-day life. It was only his youngest disciple who apparently went by looks and picked the soft, furry creature he could squish and play with. He was also rather irresponsible as an owner, constantly forgetting poor Xiao Hui everywhere so that Mei Chao Bing or one of his seniors needed to pick it up and carry it after him. So really, hearing someone pick up a spiritual beast that looked like a bunny and was without their owner, he had no doubt that this was indeed the one his youngest disciple was trying to raise.

He stepped out of the room and indeed, he found the disciple holding a gray bunny with blue markings on its fur. As usual, the little thing didn’t seem all that surprised at being picked up by a stranger and just kept quietly resting in her arms.

Baili Chao’s lips twitched and then he sighed deeply. “That is the spirit beast of my youngest disciple.”

“Oh.” The disciple immediately handed Xiao Hui over but gave it an extra pet. Anyway, she wouldn’t get this kind of opportunity again anytime soon.

Baili Chao looked at the spirit beast now in his arms with mixed emotions. He really couldn’t do anything useful with it so under normal circumstances, he would have handed it right back to the disciple and told her to keep Xiao Hui safe for now. But after maybe losing his oldest disciple and not knowing where his youngest disciple was either … he actually held onto Xiao Hui tightly. Right now, this was his only link to the two of them. How could he give it to somebody else?

Holding the spirit beast and petting its furry head, he couldn’t help but wonder what its appearance here meant. When Yun Bei Fen vanished, Xiao Hui had likely been with him. This was somewhat surprising considering his youngest disciple’s track record but … it was also a good thing in this case. This meant that they could be sure that at some time, Yun Bei Fen had to have been here. Since Mei Chao Bing had followed him, maybe he had also made his way here. If this was true …

He thought of the bodies they had found and suddenly felt that maybe things weren’t as hopeless as they had seemed. Yun Bei Fen was likely to be useless in a fight but the same couldn’t be said for his fiance. If Mei Chao Bing teamed up with Zhi Guan, Liu Bao Ru, and Mu Qing, those four together stood a much higher chance of doing serious damage to the other side. They should also be able to flee, even if they had to drag Yun Bei Fen around and protect him at the same time.

The possibility was there. The only thing that was a little questionable was whether Yun Bei Fen had truly been able to get away from whoever had kidnapped him in the first place. Surely, Feng Bai Xiao should have had his people keep a close eye on him since he was necessary to control Mei Chao Bing who, in turn, was the vital point to this whole plan even working in the first place according to what they knew.

And, well, even though he loved his youngest disciple, Baili Chao naturally had to admit that Yun Bei Fen wasn’t all that great at fighting or coming up with plans. Escaping from the clutches of evil demonic practitioners all on his own seemed pretty impossible. So if anything, he should have only been able to get away if he got help.

So, what had happened? Had Mei Chao Bing caught up to him so fast that he managed to snatch Yun Bei Fen back and then fled to the underground palace of all places, met up with Zhi Guan and the other two, and somehow fought his way outside, losing Xiao Hui in the process? Right now, that seemed to be the most logical explanation but there was little actual proof so he really couldn’t tell. More than anything, this might just be a theory fueled by his own hope that his two disciples were still alive and well.