A Glimmer of Hope

The towering ship crushed the waves beneath its feet, shattering the silver moon on the sea. It steadily sailed towards Yao Zhou, carrying with it an aura of decay.

The ship was completely silent, the atmosphere extremely oppressive.

Inside the ship's cabin, in a lavishly decorated room, a group of maids carefully applied ointment to Su Fuyun's face, afraid that their movements might be too forceful and displease the Holy Maiden.

But Su Fuyun couldn't care less about any of that at that moment; she was filled with fear of returning to the sect and facing the sect leader.

She came with great confidence, assuring the other party that she would definitely return with the prize for first place in the competition. But now, because of the false accusation, Mara Gate didn't even get a last-place ranking.

She could already imagine what kind of punishment she would face.

For a moment, Su Fuyun's mind was in turmoil.

But at a time like this, someone still had the audacity to disturb her peace.

The one who came was a male cultivator, who had already reached the Golden Core. A few days ago, he challenged Dong Fuzhu and ultimately lost to her.

As soon as the male cultivator entered, he explained his purpose, "Holy Maiden, Elder Xu ordered me to count the number of people who participated in the competition today, but after I just finished counting everyone, I found that apart from Chi Yan, there are actually two people missing."

Su Fuyun was taken aback, then waved her hand and scattered the water mirror in front of her.

"Are you sure you've counted them correctly? Are you sure there are two people missing? Which two are they?" The Mara Gate had sent out quite a few disciples this time, almost all of the new recruits from the past few years.

Firstly, we wanted to broaden their horizons and expose them to the world. Secondly, we wanted to use this sect competition to demonstrate our power and gain the trust of these new disciples.

Unfortunately, it seems neither of these two things were accomplished.

Upon hearing this, the male cultivator quickly replied, "We've lost two Foundation Establishment Realm disciples. One of them is Jing He, the eldest son of the Jing Household in Yao Zhou. I heard that his Spirit Root suffered a problem, and he's now fallen from the Golden Core to the Foundation Establishment. The other one seems to have been sharing a room with him; it seems he suddenly disappeared on the day we returned to the Azure Feather Sect."

The loss of disciples is no small matter for a male cultivator. He had finally managed to get a job from Elder Xu, but ended up losing both of them.

At best, it's his poor performance; at worst, it's a serious matter.

Upon hearing Jing He's name, Su Fuyun was momentarily stunned, but soon an arrogant face appeared in her mind.

She remembered this person because he messed up the task assigned by the sect leader. So, after he finally entered the sect, the sect leader arranged for him to become nourishment for Su Fuyun's Cultivation Method.

After thinking for a moment, Su Fuyun reassured him, "It's nothing serious. I'm afraid those two saw that our Mara Gate lost face in the competition, so they started to have ulterior motives."

"Don't worry, just pretend these two aren't there. They're only at the Foundation Establishment anyway; our Mara Gate has plenty of Foundation Establishment disciples."

Having received Su Fuyun's instructions, the male cultivator felt much more at ease. He didn't necessarily agree with Su Fuyun's words, but as long as the other party took responsibility for this matter, even if it escalated later, he wouldn't be the one to suffer in the end.

Having found someone to take the blame for him, the male cultivator bowed and took his leave with satisfaction.

Just as Su Fuyun said, she really didn't care about the person whose luck she had taken away. After all, in her opinion, without luck, Spirit Root were also destroyed, and Jing He's life was over.

What's there to care about a useless person?

But at that very moment, the useless man she spoke of, under the cover of night, secretly infiltrated the Azure Feather Sect using the high-level concealment talisman he had obtained by sacrificing everything he had.

He skillfully found the courtyard where Mara Gate had stayed before, and then tiptoed towards the abandoned, dilapidated pond on the west side of the courtyard.

The pond had dried up, revealing a shallow layer of silt at the bottom, emitting a strong stench that also masked some other unpleasant smell.

Jing He counted the dead willows by the pond, and finally stopped under the fifth tree.

The soil beneath his feet was still soft, so he dared not use Method Formula and could only dig with his hands.

After digging for an unknown amount of time, a pale, bloodless hand stiffly emerged from the soil.

At that moment, Jing He breathed a sigh of relief.

He immediately sped up, fortunately he hadn't buried it too tightly, and the body of the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator was much more resilient.

Before long, the thing buried in the soil was finally revealed completely to Jing He.

The man was wearing cheap religious robes, and thankfully he hadn't been buried in the ground for long, so he was only slightly dirty and disheveled. His face was splattered with black blood, and he looked many times worse than when he was alive.

"Come on, I'll take you away," Jing He whispered to the corpse he had dug up.

After all, he was a talented individual nurtured by the Aristocratic Clan. Even without his powerful cultivation, Jing He was able to quickly ascertain the patrol and defense situation of the Azure Feather Sect with his intelligence.

After many twists and turns, he finally left the Azure Feather Sect with the corpse.

Gazing at the moon rising over the sea, he turned and looked in the direction of Mara Gate, clutching the corpse on his back tightly.

"Chi Yan, I'm afraid we can't go back to Mara Gate." He seemed to be talking to himself, or perhaps asking the lifeless person behind him.

The eldest son of the Jing Household in Yao Zhou, having lost his enviable Spirit Root, seems destined to lose his identity as well...

Jing He discovered the strange behavior between Su Fuyun and Medical Cultivator Chen on the night Chi Yan died.

After Chi Yan died of vomiting blood in the cabin that day, Jing He was terrified and did not dare to tell anyone about it. He hurriedly left Chi Yan's house.

But later, he was so tormented by guilt that he couldn't sleep, so he took advantage of the night to go and see his old friend.

No one knew that this trip would allow Jing He to overhear Su Fuyun instructing Medical Cultivator Chen destroy Chi Yan's corpse.

Out of guilt towards his friend, Jing He didn't want anyone to desecrate Chi Yan's body. So he went ahead and stole it!

Unfortunately, he was out of luck; the fellow disciple who had previously stolen his pills discovered him and threatened to inform Elder Xu and the others.

Having already suffered a lot of trauma, Jing He's fear and resentment towards the Mara Gate prevailed after he heard his fellow disciple's intentions. Taking advantage of his unpreparedness, he ruthlessly killed the man!

Then, what Medical Cultivator Chen saw was that fellow Foundation Establishment Realm who had changed into Chi Yan's clothes and had been tampered with by Jing He.

As the memories faded, a yearning for life welled up in Jing He's mind.

He couldn't just become a Foundation Establishment cultivator like that; it was harder than killing him!

But he could no longer return to the Mara Gate or the Jing Household; the former would cost him his life, while the latter would only implicate him.

The stench of the corpses behind him made it hard for Jing He to breathe.

Suddenly, Jing He's eyes lit up.

I've heard that there's a Corpse Fiend Gate in the Hidden Nether Realm. Disciples of this sect don't need to have excellent Spirit Root; all they need is the corpse of a cultivator with exceptional talent!

Jing He swallowed hard, and his grip on Chi Yan tightened.

"I helped you once, so please help me this time. Believe me, the day I regain my strength, I will return to help you avenge your enemies!"

At that time, whether it's Chi Yan's grudge or his own, he should settle accounts with Mara Gate together!

The young man walked forward step by step in the darkness, his steps more resolute than ever before.