Long Shu Fen’s brows furrowed tightly. Even though it had been so long ago, she still sometimes had nightmares of that day. She would see the ground split apart and hear the mournful screams everywhere around her. She could sense the spiritual energy dispersing upward while some of it fell down, staining the ground and twisting into the resentment that haunted the southern chasm nowadays.

To put it frankly, that part of her ability and the fact that she had used it twice, causing so many deaths, and only barely got out of it without making an even bigger blunder by releasing that person trapped by the array, it had long since become an inner demon. For a cultivator, this type of thing could happen. As long as you didn’t completely cut off your emotions, you could always be influenced by them and she had never thought badly of that. Still, being tortured by this inner demon was anything but pleasant and she knew it would only become worse if she did the same thing a third time.

Of course, her grappling with her morals was not something she could base her decision on. Too much was at stake in this situation. If she did nothing, chances were that many of the disciples currently in the border region would die in the following days. Maybe the young couple behind her wouldn’t make it out of this alive. Maybe their junior and senior martial brothers wouldn’t survive. So, so many souls would be lost and she couldn’t square that with her conscience either.

Long Shu Fen sighed and stopped thinking about it for the time being. Even if she decided to do this and created another chasm to bury part of the demonic faction’s forces, she couldn’t do it now. She’d have to wait until the final battle and also had to prepare so their own people wouldn’t accidentally be caught in this deathtrap. For now, the task at hand would be to transport the bodies of the disciples who had already fallen. That should take her a while. She could take that time to think more clearly.

They arrived at the outside of the underground palace and Long Shu Fen looked at the couple. “Where to now?”

Luo Lin looked at his fiance, wanting him to decide.

“The others don’t know about Ah Lin’s ability so I suppose it would be best to just walk in normally. That way, we can still pretend that it was simply a coincidence you came here and met us.”

Long Shu Fen hummed and opened the dreamscape so the three of them could go out. She also started to look around more closely, trying to get a feeling for this place. Even though this might not be the place where the fight would erupt later, it still couldn’t hurt to be prepared.

She didn’t utter any of those thoughts though and simply followed behind the young couple, building her own understanding of the place without asking for their opinions. Anyway, someone who hadn’t been to a place could sometimes see something others had missed. Not to mention that she had an ability and knew those of the other three guardians very well. She could probably come up with ideas the others wouldn’t know enough for.

The group soon made it to the place where everyone else was busy. The bodies of their fellow disciples had already been moved out of the hallway and even the bodies of the demonic practitioners were gone by now, probably having been moved elsewhere so whichever group came next wouldn’t immediately expect a trap. Of course, with the two walls next to it broken down and all of the blood on the floor, it might still be tough not to cause that impression.

Long Shu Fen took a longer look at the obvious signs of a fight and couldn’t help but think that things might be difficult. If they did want to use the prepared trap, could it still work with this? She turned to Shen Lei and motioned to the hallway. “Is that trap you prepared close by?”

Shen Lei shook his head. “No, thankfully, we got them further to the front of the building. Otherwise, we’d be in trouble now. Although … I guess they’ll be on high alert anyway.” After all, not just one but two groups had been killed in this building. Certainly, a third group would take precautions.

Long Shu Fen nodded but didn’t say anything else. She simply followed the two of them the rest of the way to the hall where everyone else was healing up, waiting for the next battle or quietly preparing for that time.

When the three of them stepped inside, only a few people glanced over but nobody took more than a second glance. It wasn’t that surprising. The four guardians were well-known only in theory: While most disciples knew that they generally existed and had an important role, hardly anyone had ever seen them. Even some of the Elders in the sects hadn’t. Thus, Long Shu Fen naturally wouldn’t be easily recognized.

Shen Lei glanced at her and then motioned toward the Elders. “We should probably tell them that Senior Blue Butterfly is here.”

Long Shu Fen nodded and walked over there with the young couple. She indeed wasn’t familiar with the two Elders from the Jian Chu Sect. Among the four guardians, she was probably the one who least liked to interact with people from her sect. She couldn’t help it. After basically being told to stay put for the rest of her life, the good feelings she had for her sect had dwindled a lot. While she would always be loyal to the Jian Chu Sect and protect them when she had to … the original love wasn’t there anymore. At most, it was a dim liking that was mostly based on nostalgia for her younger years. Time could be cruel like that.