Seeing Zhu Mu struggling against a strong adversary, Lu Bei and Zhu Xiushi understood why help never arrived - the reinforcements were intercepted.
Without a doubt, the last reinforcement involving Chief Minister and Zhu Xian was also held back.
They had planned to apply a raid but instead ended up being raided themselves, suggesting a hint of Qi Yan manipulating the situation and pre-emptively knowing the plan.
Considering Qi Yan's anxiety-inducing intelligence capabilities overseas, especially his ability to spy on information and deliver himself through Ji Xin, Lu Bei thought it was all a coincidence. He insisted there was no domestic spy within the Imperial Sect, equating it to a blind cat likely to chance upon dead mice.
At this point, debating whether there were high-level spies inside the Imperial Sect or not was irrelevant. The key question was how many fighters Qi Yan had dispatched at the Kalpa Passing Stage and whether Chief Minister and Zhu Xian are captured.
