The mountains around Lost-Trace Lake were covered in a membrane of light that kept out the rain. The river surged, its undercurrents churning, sending water a hundred feet into the air to strike the membranes over the mountains and burst into countless sprays.
Beneath the membranes, the demonic cultivators watched the terrifying weather, their hearts trembling with fear.
On the mountains southwest of the lake, every demonic cultivator wore blue robes and a black cap, with a tattoo of a water ghost struggling upward across the space between the nose and the brows.
This was the garb of the Yin River Ghost Cult.
Originally based along the Nanpan River, at the western border between the Miao Borderlands and the Southern Wastes, the Yin River Ghost Cult was renowned for commanding water ghosts and wielding Corrupt Water Magic. It, too, belonged to the Southern Demon Cult.
Previously, however, its classification as part of the Southern Demon Cult had been more a matter of geography and conduct. Now that the Southern School had been unified, the Yin River Ghost Cult truly was subordinate to it. At a single command from Xinchेंnzi, half the cult had to venture deep into the Miao Borderlands to hunt down Redwood Ridge's remnants.
Inside a cave sat an old man, pale and fat, like a corpse that had soaked in water for days-deathly white and bloated.
Like a lump of dead flesh, his whole body gleamed with a waxy sheen. A slick blue robe hung about him, and a little black cap covered a small patch at the crown of his smooth, bald head.
This sinister, unnerving figure was Yang Xuanla, leader of the Yin River Ghost Cult, known as the Nether River Ghost Master.
"The rain's rather heavy."
He spoke,
but not to himself. He spoke