Soon enough, it turned out that Kui Min had been wrong. It could always get worse.
The demonic practitioners took her away, getting further and further away from the place where they had originally been attacked until they finally reached a large building. Looking at the eerie building in front of her, Kui Min shivered. She really didn't like this place. If only she had been able to escape, unfortunately ... she wasn't strong enough.
She pressed her lips together and forced herself to try and stay calm. Right now, what she had to do was to take everything into consideration that she had ever learned in her life. Maybe then she would be able to get out of here and warn the others back in the town. Her life might depend on this. The lives of the others might also depend on this. Whatever she could do, it would be best if she somehow got a message out. She just needed to find an opportunity.
The disciples brought her inside, not bothering to speak to her since the moment they had taken her way. Kui Min tried to remember the way they took but it wasn't easy.
This place ... It was like a maze. Half of the corridors looked exactly the same and the place was even bigger on the inside than it had seemed from the outside. In fact, she had no idea how big it actually was. She was only sure that it was much larger than any of the palaces back in the Teng Yong Sect.
Also, it seemed that this building didn't have just one floor. There also seemed to be quite a few below the earth level. This wasn't good at all. In that case, it would be harder to get out. Escaping from aboveground was one thing but if she was deep inside, then even if she somehow managed to escape the guards' attention, getting out would be almost impossible. It seemed that she wouldn't be able to do anything.
Even though she felt despondent, Kui Min still didn't get up. She couldn't. So she continued to pay as much attention as she could, trying to take in every detail that she could. She at least managed to note that there were quite a few disciples passing them, all wearing different robes.
If she remembered correctly, then the demonic practitioners were just like them organized in different sects. So having different robes had to mean that this place was not that of just one sect but a combined effort of several of them. This really wasn't good. It probably meant that they were planning something even bigger than the righteous sects had ever anticipated.
Kui Min became even more anxious when she realized that. Unfortunately, there was no way to use that information and warn the Elders. She glanced at the disciples next to her, trying to see if they were also from different sects but I didn't seem like it. While there was some slight variation among the robes, it was only in the way in which they were decorated with patterns. This was probably a sign that they were of the same sect but disciples of different parts of the sect.
Unfortunately, she couldn't tell just which sect it was. While she had heard the names of a few of the famous demonic sects, she didn't know much else about them. Recognizing them just based on the robes ... That really wasn't something she was able to do.
Kui Min inwardly gave herself a kick. If she had known that something like this might happen, she would've asked her Master or her seniors to tell her a bit more about the demonic sects before coming to the border region. But, well, they had never been intended to get embroiled in this kind of conflict. From what her Master told her, everybody had assumed that this would just be a simple mission of gathering some information before they finally returned to the Teng Yong Sect and let the older disciples handle the rest. Nobody had ever thought that this would be anything dangerous.
The group finally reached a long corridor and the other disciples stayed back while the man who caught Kui Min continued forward until the door at the end of the corridor. When they arrived in front of it, he let go of her and cupped his fists, bowing toward the door.
"Master, we've returned. It is done. Also, I brought one of the disciples from the Teng Yong Sect back. Her name is Kui Min. She is acquainted with Ah Bing and that Yun Bei Fen."
Kui Min's eyes went wide and she turned around to the man incredulously. This ... How come he knew her name and even who she was acquainted with? Furthermore ... What was with that way of calling senior martial brother Mei?
Don't tell her ... No. No, it couldn't be. She refused to believe that Mei Chao Bing was a traitor. There had to be some other kind of explanation as to why he would know him. She had no idea what that might be but it had to be that way.
Before Kui Min could think any further, the door in front of them opened on its own, exposing a dimly lit room behind it. Kui Min felt her hair stand on end but the man already grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the room, the door once again closing on its own behind them.
Kui Min looked ahead, her whole body tense. When she did, she finally saw a man sitting on a cultivation platform on the other side of the room. She didn't think much of it at first but when the man opened his eyes, she gaped.
"Elder Feng?!"
Feng Bai Xiao smiled at her. "What a smart little girl. It seems my good disciple got quite the catch there." He didn't bother about her any longer and instead turned to the man next to her. "What about the rest?"
"That Yang Wu Huang and the others already went in the direction of Ah Bing just as we planned. They should meet up in at least a day or two. The other disciples ..." He shook his head and didn't say anything more.
Next to him, Kui Min shivered. So they had planned all of that. And seemingly not just from the moment that they saw them at the place with those lines. No, they had originally been planning to do something like this. It was true: From the very beginning, they had been played by the demonic sects.