Niu Ben kicked open the heavy door.
The door crashed down, kicking up a cloud of dust.
In the blink of an eye, a foul stench hit them.
Even Niu Ben, a demon through and through, couldn't help wrinkling his nose. "What kind of hellhole is this? It stinks worse than the Cave Abode I used to live in."
Inside the great hall, beneath the dim lamplight, pairs of numb, hollow eyes stared back at them.
At the sound, the figures working mechanically beside the pill furnaces merely raised their heads with sluggish movements, then lowered them again, as if every upheaval in the world had nothing to do with them, a pack of walking corpses.
Zhou Xuan hurriedly pushed past the obstructive Niu Ben and strode into the depths of the hall.
With every step, his heart grew heavier.
The Cauldron Sect, once so full of spirit, a sect famed throughout the Eastern Territory for its alchemy, now... had been reduced to this roomful of despair.
"Who... who is it?"
An old, hoarse voice came from the depths of the hall.
A ragged, emaciated old man tottered out from behind a pill furnace.
He squinted through his cloudy old eyes, trying to make out the newcomers by the dim firelight.
Zhou Xuan stopped.
Thump.
The man, now a mighty Tower-Ascending cultivator, dropped heavily to his knees on the hard stone floor.
"Your unworthy disciple, Zhou Xuan..."
"...came back too late."
The old man's body jolted.
He stared at Zhou Xuan on the ground, his dry lips trembling violently. Tears welled in his cloudy eyes.
"Zhou... Zhou Xuan?"
"You're... Zhou Xuan?"
At that call, the deathly silence in the hall shattered.
Countless gazes converged on them.
At last, hope appeared on those numb faces—a hope too incredible to believe.
"It