Return to the Sect Through Wind and Snow, Bearing Only Cold Bones! Beneath an Overturned Nest, How Could One Sit and Wait for Death?

On the stone steps leading up to the Clear Sky Sect's towering mountain gate, the wind was bitingly cold.

A burly, hunched figure was slowly making his way up the steps.

It was Tang Hao.

His tattered gray-black cloak was wrapped tightly around him, concealing even his shape.

From a gap in the cloak hung a bloodless, pale wrist, devoid of life.

Upon receiving the mountain guards' report, the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Elders hurried over from the sect's main hall.

They had thought the Sect Master had returned in triumph after leading everyone to victory.

Even if they had suffered injuries, that would have been a supreme honor.

But when they looked closely—

Amid the vast wind and snow, only Tang Hao stood alone.

The stiff outline in his arms made all three elders' hearts sink.

An icy chill shot from the soles of their feet to the crowns of their heads.

The Fourth Elder took a hurried half-step forward and blocked the stairs.

"Tang Hao!"

"Where is the Sect Master? Where are the Second, Third, and Seventh Elders?"

Tang Hao stopped.

His cracked lips moved. His voice was hoarse, as though it had been savagely scraped by coarse sandpaper, thick with exhaustion and deathly desolation.

"Bury Yuehua first."

"We'll discuss the rest... afterward."

The Fifth Elder's tone immediately rose, his voice trembling violently.

"Bury?"

"Explain yourself!"

"Why didn't the Sect Master and the others return?!"

The wind and snow howled.

Like a soulless corpse, Tang Hao walked past the three elders without saying a word and headed straight into the depths of the sect.

The three elders were left standing in the wind and snow, as if they had fallen into an ice pit.

Tang Hao carefully placed Tang Yuehua's body onto a soft couch in a