Shen Lei sighed to himself, feeling troubled. There didn’t seem to be a good solution but something had to be done. He tugged at Luo Lin’s hand, took a few more steps forward, and finally called out lightly. “Elder Cai!”

With the empty hallways, sounds carried easily, not to mention that everyone was on high alert. The only reason the people of the Jian Chu Sect hadn’t immediately reacted to Shen Lei and Luo Lin was because they were focusing on what was in front and the two people had appeared silently, after all. Now that a familiar name was called, the disciples turned around at once, some of them obviously spooked and almost attacking.

Elder Cai also turned but kept his composure much better than them. Seeing that it was the two people who had originally informed them, he faintly raised his brows but then waved for them to come closer while instructing the stronger disciples to keep their defenses up against any other threats. They definitely couldn’t be distracted by anything now.

Shen Lei and Luo Lin hurried over and the former quickly explained what was going on. “It’s definitely impossible to meet up now though with the demonic practitioners between us and the rest of the group. Ah Lin and I could potentially squeeze by since we’re just two people but with such a large group …” He showed a troubled expression.

Elder Cai nodded. “Indeed.” He fell quiet, his brows furrowing. There wasn’t much time and limited options. In fact, there were only two: They could head back and wait outside for everything to be over before trying to find the others again. This bore the risk of being noticed and then pursued by the demonic practitioners though. The alternative was rushing ahead and fighting the group in the middle head-on, hoping for the help of the group waiting inside. It would ruin their plan but that could potentially be re-purposed. The issue was that this couldn’t be discussed now.

He held back a sigh and quietly made a decision. Anyway, in battle, you had to take some risks to have gains and this was the perfect opportunity. “I’m afraid we’ll need to change the plan. You said you can squeeze past them? Do that and inform your Elders that we are here. The demonic practitioners are now in the middle. We can attack from both sides together and deal with them without too many casualties on our side. After that, we can meet up and keep the original plan for later. The other side is bound to send more forces if this group doesn’t return.”

Shen Lei nodded. This was indeed a good adjustment.

Next to him, Luo Lin pulled out the paper duck with some embarrassment. “We have a way to contact them from here.” He had stopped imbuing spiritual energy when they went against Elder Diao’s orders and rushed to figure out how big the second group was so the Elders didn’t know yet what had happened. He hastily imbued spiritual energy again and then looked at his fiance.

Shen Lei quickly shared Elder Cai’s idea, not waiting for Elder Diao to make a fuss about their ignoring his command. He knew they shouldn’t have but with Luo Lin’s ability and the circumstances as they were … this was the right choice.

On the other side, Elder Diao indeed had mixed feelings but he also understood that this was ultimately benefiting everyone and those two disciples were still alive and well so he had worried too much.

The other Elders shared looks and Elder Ximen quickly took the lead. “We’ll do as Elder Cai suggested. Let’s move out at once! We can’t have the fight happen too close to the hall we prepared or the explosion might be set off inadvertently. Then, we’ll be the ones to suffer.”

Elder Cai leaned forward and hastily agreed. “Yes, we’ll go ahead and distract them closer to the entrance.” He nodded at the two disciples from the Teng Yong Sect, then waved at his own. “You heard everything. Let’s move out. We have no time to lose. Catch up quickly and attack with everything you’ve got. The younger disciples move to the back, the older ones take charge. Go, now!”

The disciples didn’t answer to not draw more attention but changed positions as ordered and rushed ahead.

Elder Cai weaved through them and took the lead, not wanting his disciples to fight alone.

Shen Lei glanced at Luo Lin and then pulled him forward as well. He didn’t take center stage, not wanting to put Luo Lin in too much danger right off the bat. His fiance wasn’t used to fighting head-on so he shouldn’t put him in that situation. Still, they couldn’t hide behind everyone else when their levels were clearly higher.

Luo Lin put away the paper duck and kept close to Shen Lei. Despite his ability, he knew that he was now the weak link in this fight. Shen Lei had to protect him while fighting while he couldn’t support him too much. Of course, there was the ability he had copied from his little junior that would allow him to project Shen Lei’s figure but they hadn’t practiced much with that yet so he wasn’t sure it’d help much. Plus, he didn’t want to expose his ability unless absolutely necessary.

But other than that … he wasn’t that strong and the things he could do were limited. Usually, he relied on being fast and flexible while fighting, evading the other person when they attacked and striking out right after. He had to rely on that kind of perfect timing to be able to win and those fights had never been battles to the death but only competitions or quick skirmishes that he abandoned as soon as he got the opportunity to run away. Now though, that wasn’t possible. Hopefully, he wouldn’t drag Shen Lei down.