Awakened: The Spirit King!

There were only a few corpses, all three missing a limb or two. One didn't have a hand, one lacked both its legs, and the last one lacked a hand and a leg. Not having a head was a common thing about all three of them.

Xie Yang looked at them and saw that they wore the same clothes as the living and breathing humans beside him. Their robe was black, different from the blue and white robes that Mo Mingzhu, Tang Yongnian, Chen Yuan, and Moa Yue wore.

One of the rotting corpses had its hand clenched into a fist.

Xie Yang saw something in it, so he pried open its hand.

He had to exert some force to do so as it had its fingers embedded in its palms.

After opening its hand, he saw a sect medallion in the center of the rotting corpse palm.

That was the last evidence he needed to determine that these three rotting corpses were the members of the black unicorn sect and most probably the outer sect members that Chen Yuan and his junior brother and junior sisters had been trying to find for a long while.

Chen Yuan sighed, blaming himself for arriving too late.

Mo Mingzhu closed her eyes in disappointment.

She prayed that their souls would reach the afterlife safely.

Mao Yue moved her head away in undisguised repulsion, and her eyes reflected a crazed amount of terror.

Her sect members failed to notice it, but it didn't escape the eyes of Xie Yang.

'She has a story of her own, I believe.' Xie Yang thought.

Tang Yongnian was most likely the only one undisturbed by all this.

Xie Yang looked at him and sincerely thought, 'This guy, he must be used to seeing such stuff. He isn't too old, and from what I can discern, he is only a few older than me. Maybe he is in his twenties. Why is he so cold and cold-blooded?'

Chen Yuan stored the three corpses in his magic pouch, which was cheaper than an inter-spatial ring but was what he could afford.

"I will bring their corpses back to the sect for a burial."

He explained why he stored them in his private storage so that they would not misunderstand his actions.

"Since we have met the requirements to complete our mission, let's return to the sect." Mao Yue said in a weak voice.

"No, I want to move on and avenge them by killing the bastard behind that gate."

There was a gate at the end of this passageway. It was tall and made of stone. It was only a few hundred steps away from them. The path to there was shrouded in darkness.

Chen Yuan was certain that whatever hunted his juniors down was behind that gate, and he wanted to slay it to avenge them.

Being righteous was good but trying to perform good deeds without having the necessary strength was a stupid act, and Xie Yang thought that Chen Yuan was making one right now.

"Senior brother, why do you still want to move on? We have already completed our mission. It's best to return to the sect and let our elders deal with this matter. Besides, I feel like there's something dangerous lying in wait for us in the darkness. It would do us no good to fall into our hidden enemy's trap."

Mao Yue could tell that there was significant danger ahead of them, and she felt that they might not necessarily come unharmed if they went towards the gate.

Thus, she wanted to go back the way they came from and return to the sect

Xie Yang suddenly found Mao Yue a bit more strange.

There were three things off about her.

The first was that she looked eerily similar to Mo Mingzhu even though she wasn't her blood relative.

They had different surnames, so they probably aren't relatives.

They both were sticking close to each other.

From that point, Xie Yang concluded that they were close friends.

The second was that she was obviously a cultivator, but she couldn't stand the sight of rotting corpses. If that were all, Xie Yang would not have found her weird. But she was even terrified because of seeing corpses. It was as if she had experienced something terrible in her past that made her unable to stand the sight of rotting corpses

The third was that she could sense danger than even he wasn't able to.

The thing was that Xie Yang was certain that there was something in the darkness as that was the best place for a person to remain hidden and make a sneak attack.

"Stop being so cowardly. It's our juniors that died here, not some strangers. I am going to avenge them. If you want to come, you are most welcome. I won't blame you if you walk out on me. The same goes for the two of you."

Chen Yuan showed an unwavering expression that could only belong to a very stubborn man who refused to listen to others.

'He wouldn't listen to me no matter what I say to persuade him.' Mao Yue pursed her lips.

She looked at Mo Mingzhu and Tang Yongnian with hopeful eyes.

"If we return to the sect, I hope we can return together."

To her surprise, Mo Mingzhu agreed to help her overly righteous senior brother, and to make her stance clear, she went up to him and stood by his side.

Tang Yongnian said not a word, nor did he express anything.

He was waiting for something.

Mao Yue followed his gaze and saw that he was looking at Xie Yang.

'Ah, I get it! He is going to make his decision based on what this young master does.'

She hit the nail on the head.

Xie Yang wasn't interested in taking part in their bickering. After mentally preparing himself to face the enemy that might be lying in the dark as well as the enemy that might be behind the gate, he moved ahead with stable and confident steps.

His one hand was holding the hilt of his sword, and spiritual energy slowly gathered in the center of the other closed palm.

He was ready to attack at any time.

Tang Yongnian saw that Xie Yang was moving towards the gate and smiled before moving after him.

To the other, it came off as him taking Chen Yuan's side.