"We can use the idea given by Elder Tu," Yuan Shuchun shrugged, "We can divide them as per their peaks."
"And the only reason why I suggested volunteering Heavenly League members for help was to save time. We need to find the sleeper cells as soon as possible."
"Yes, we can't trust them. That's why I will also suggest that we will first search through those disciples who will be helping us. And then, we will start searching through other disciples."
Suddenly a question struck her mind, she looked at Sect Leader Su and asked, "Sect Leader, do these sleeper cells know that they are sleeper cells? Or they have no idea that they are walking bombs?"
Sect Leader Su however had no answer to this question, he could only turn towards Grand Elder Li for help, who answered the question, "This isn't confirmed yet. There's no proof that the sleeper cells know what they are doing, or if the explosion is spontaneous."
Grand Elder Xuan rubbed his chin while saying, "I think this reaction is spontaneous, and those disciples have no control over this, nor do they have any knowledge that they are actually human bombs."
"Why would that be, Grand Elder Xuan?" Peak Master Duan asked.
"Because if those disciples knew that they were about to explode, then there could only be two outcomes: they would have exploded then and there when they heard that shout or they would have tried to escape this fate by informing us about this and saving their own lives."
"Now as Grand Elder Li has mentioned, that we have three hours to find the sleeper cells, it is this thing that stands out the most. Why do we have three hours? If those sleeper cells have free will, then what are they waiting for? When they heard the shout, that time was the best time to explode. The explosion would have most likely caused the death of everyone in the banquet hall."
"Yes," Grand Elder Li nodded his head in agreement. What Elder Xuan had said did make sense, after all, the main aim of sleeper cells was to kill as many disciples as possible. But then, why didn't they explode at the right time? Why waste three hours?
"We can't take the risk," Sect Leader Su quipped in, and said, "We can't assume anything positive right now, we need to assume the worst possibility - the sleeper cells know what is going to happen and they are willing to do it."
Everyone agreed with this point. After all, if anything unexpected were to happen, it would only make the situation worse.
In such a situation, it was best to assume the worst from the very start so there's no bad surprise in the end.
Yuan Shuchun nodded her head and said, "Alright, then assuming that the sleeper cells know about what they are going to commit, we can't let them know why we are searching or what we're looking for."
"I propose this plan: We will divide the disciples into their peaks and assign elders and disciples to check through them for any sign or thing which stands out.
"We won't do this in front of everyone, but rather we will have disciples come to the outside of the banquet hall, one by one, then have them scanned, and then send them to the upper floor."
"Under no circumstances will we tell them why we're doing this. We will just go and start doing what needs to be done. Can't afford to waste any more time in the hall. We have already wasted more than ten minutes here."
Seeing many nod their head to her plan, she asked, "If anyone has anything to add or any loophole they can see, please say before it's too late."
Peak Master Duan was first to say, "We don't need to assign the same number of elders and disciples to the groups, but rather, we will assign in proportional to the group size."
"Agreed," Sect Leader Su nodded his head, "After all, not all peaks have the same number of Inner Court disciples."
"Why don't we focus on only the new Inner Court disciples?" Yuan Shuchun added while rubbing her nose, "Since, most of the new Inner Court disciples have only entered the sect five months ago. And if anyone was planning this, then sending sleeper cells through the Sect Entrance Exam was the best choice."
"As Sect Leader Su had said earlier, let's assume the worst possibility," Jun Xie who was standing beside her shook his head and continued, "The very definition of a sleeper cell is someone who remains dormant until he is called upon, and no one said there's a time limit. We can't assume that those sleeper cells came only five months ago."
"The enemy is very discreet and they could be planning this for a long time now." He added at the end.
"Alright then," Sect Leader Su said, "Let's move out now, first thing to do is call some core members who could be trusted, search them, and then start dividing the disciples as per their peak."
"Yes!" Everyone agreed and started moving. In no time, they were at the Heavenly League Headquarters Entrance.
…
A Few minutes ago.
Ye Tian Yun who had been thinking about his plan for the future suddenly remembered a small incident that happened earlier during the banquet.
It was that faint shout which was heard throughout the hall.
It felt familiar.
When he heard the shout earlier, he did feel a bit uneasy, however, at that time he suppressed it thinking that it was most probably due to what Xiao Ming was going to answer when Yuan Shuchun invited him.
He was a bit uneasy because he didn't wish for Xiao Ming to change his original answer because of his interference with today's events.
Fortunately, Xiao Ming did what he was supposed to do. Rejecting Yuan Shuchun's invitation.
But the feeling of uneasiness didn't go away. He could only suppress it by thinking about something else.
And now, it kept growing. It felt as if the answer was right in front of him, but he just couldn't see.
Even though that shout felt familiar, he couldn't remember from where.
For the first time after rebirth, he was facing problems in remembering things from his previous life.
...
A/n (same as on ch148): We will be resuming 2ch/d from tomorrow.