Mei Chao Bing ignored him and just went with his group of five again, tightly holding onto Yun Bei Fen and following Gongsun Chen's lead. They left the town, got onto their flying swords and then rushed to the stone desert they had gone through yesterday.
Gongsun Chen made them fly to the middle where they had stopped yesterday and then looked around. He tightly furrowed his brows before he turned to the others. "We'll split up here again. Don't forget what Elder Xing said: We'll have to pay special attention to any kind of array the demonic practitioners left behind."
Yuan Lei and Mei Chao Bing gave a curt nod while Yun Bei Fen nodded eagerly.
Kui Min looked around with a thoughtful expression. "Should we have taken a look at the parts we checked again?"
Gongsun Chen also looked back but shook his head. "We didn't discover anything so it should be unlikely for there to be any arrays. Just keep your eyes open from now on."
Mei Chao Bing looked away. Just how were these people trying to look for arrays? Just with their eyes? It couldn't be that other disciples were only trained to this degree?
He glanced at Yun Bei Fen next to him and sighed. Well, his little bunny was an extreme case but that didn't mean that his situation wasn't an indicator of problems the sect head. Especially the youngest disciples would often be coddled by their Masters and didn't gain too much experience outside of the sect.
But even the older ones would often only go on big missions where they would be under the supervision of the Elders or some disciples that were of a much higher level than themselves. In that kind of situation, the experiences they could make were limited. The effort put in would often be less than possible as well since they would always have a sense of security. After all, there was somebody stronger than them who had to take care of them. How could they effectively learn in such an environment?
The path of cultivation was long and rough. If you never got into danger, then there would come a point where you couldn't advance further. That was one of the reasons why he who had always been sent on dangerous missions by his Master had managed to reach the Nascent Soul stage so early. It was the benefit of the harsh requirements his Master had always enforced.
The five of them finally split up again with Gongsun Chen and Yuan Lei going in one direction while Mei Chao Bing and Yun Bei Fen followed Kui Min in the other. This time, Mei Chao Bing mostly paid attention to what Kui Min did instead of looking for clues himself. He was sure that there was nothing close by. Otherwise, he would have felt it yesterday already.
No, this was a much better opportunity to observe one of the other disciples. It would be even better if he was able to see how Gongsun Chen and Yuan Lei worked but it wasn't something that could be done so easily. Maybe things would change when they entered another terrain behind this desert. He'd have to see about it.
The three of them moved forward step by step. Kui Min looked around but there didn't seem to be anything special about her way of 'investigating'. In fact, she didn't notice the big array they were walking on at all. Seeing this, Mei Chao Bing couldn't help but sigh. If all or most of the disciples were like this …
Yun Bei Fen also looked around and also tried to sense the spiritual energy in the surroundings. He could feel the strange waves surrounding them but he didn't understand what they meant. Neither did he have any idea how to detect an array.
He pondered and finally reached out and tugged at Mei Chao Bing's sleeve. "Say, how do you find an array?"
Before Mei Chao Bing could answer, Kui Min already turned around. "You have to look at the ground! Arrays are made of lots of lines and symbols so you just have to keep your eyes open and look for those. If you see strange markings on the ground, those are likely part of an array."
"Oh." Yun Bei Fen nodded and then looked at the ground, trying to see if there were any lines on the ground. He couldn't see any though.
Mei Chao Bing tightened his lips. She wasn't wrong but … It wasn't that easy, was it? The array would still be effective if it was covered by something as long as the lines themselves weren't disturbed. Speaking of which …
Mei Chao Bing narrowed his eyes at the ground and wondered if he should deactivate this array. As strong as such a gigantic spirit gathering array was, it was just as easily destroyed. As long as he cut one of the lines or destroyed one of the symbols, it might already collapse. If one line wasn't enough, then two or three would definitely do the trick. If he did this, then they would see just how important this was to the demonic practitioners.
Before he reacted, he stopped himself though. The demonic practitioners would notice very soon that something was up. And if this truly was important to them, they would run over here to see what had happened. If they ran into them …
He closed his eyes and gave up on that plan. Never mind Yun Bei Fen and Kui Min, right now, all the disciples were running around outside. Who knew if the demonic practitioners would happen upon any of them? Then this one action of his might bring them the information they needed but it would also end in a disaster for the Teng Yong Sect. Who knew just how many lives might be lost or how many people would be injured?
No, this kind of risk couldn't be taken. Even if it was a feasible way to attain information, they still had to wait for the right moment. Right now, it would be better to just search for further clues.