When the news arrived, Chen Ming was in the stone hall, poring over a formation manual he had just bought from the Auction House. The book had cost him a full three thousand Spirit Stones and described an ancient formation called the Nine-Curve Yellow Springs Formation. Once set up, it supposedly had the power to trap and kill Golden Core Stage cultivators. He was so absorbed in studying it, repeatedly working through the principles behind its operation in his mind, that he had not even noticed his spirit tea had gone cold.
Wan Yao'er pushed the door open and entered, her steps a little more hurried than usual. Rather than sitting down and pouring herself tea as she normally did, she walked straight up to Chen Ming. Her voice was crisp and direct, with a rare trace of gravity. "The Corpse Refining Sect is gone."
Chen Ming's fingers paused as he turned a page, and he looked up at her. Wan Yao'er had been with him for so many years, yet he had rarely heard her speak in that tone. "What do you mean, gone?" He set down the book and straightened in his seat.
"Exactly what it sounds like. Gone. Collapsed. A name with nothing left behind it." Wan Yao'er sat down opposite him, poured herself a cup of tea, and drained it in one gulp. Only then did she take a breath and explain in detail. "Three days ago, the Star Palace sent a grand elder at late Nascent Soul and three elders at mid Nascent Soul to lead five hundred Golden Core cultivators in a surprise attack on the Corpse Refining Sect's headquarters. Both of the sect's early Nascent Soul patriarchs were killed on the spot. Dozens of Golden Core elders died in battle, and the remaining