Withered Earth Island was one of the Condensed Jade Sect's only two third-tier islands.
The sea breeze, laden with the salty damp of seawater, battered the exquisitely carved wooden windows.
At that moment, first-tier mid-grade rhinoceros horn incense burned in a three-legged bronze censer inside the room.
Fragrant smoke curled upward as the incense entered its fourth two-hour period of burning. Though its scent was delicate and tranquil, it could not mask the heaviness in the room.
Yue Chengfeng, dressed in plain robes, knelt on a meditation cushion.
The dark red bloodstains along the cushion's edge were from the first spurt of hot blood that had splashed onto his spirit sword's blade several days earlier, when he had sliced the lord of Hidden Spirit City into a human swine.
Yue Chengfeng had not wiped it away.
It was said that the lord of Hidden Spirit City had been one of Qing Chen's trusted confidants, someone he valued highly.
He gently stroked the crystal-clear memorial tablet at the very top of the offering table, which looked as though it had been carved from ice. His fingertips repeatedly traced the three ancient seal-script characters of Yue Zhongqi's name.
"This memorial tablet made of hundred-year cold jade may be humble, but it bears the glory of generations of our Yue Household. Ancestor, may your spirit in heaven not blame your descendants for their incompetence."
Beneath the tablet lay a copy of the History of the Yue Clan, recording the hundreds, even thousands, of years of glory of the Yue Household of Mysterious Mountain Island.
On the second row of the offering table, a red sandalwood memorial tablet was somewhat dust-covered. Yue Chengfeng carefully brushed away the fine dust upon it, revealing a small portrait hidden behind it-the face of his elder brother, Yue