Immortality and cultivation begin at age forty, starting with Foundation Establishment.

After the warship set sail, Chen Ying, a Golden Core expert, officially announced the destination of their journey.

The three major sects of Jin—Xuanyang Sect, Tianmo Sect, and Yushen Palace—joined forces to besiege Qian Kingdom, which was located 800,000 li away from Jin Kingdom.

On this journey, the Xuan Yang Sect will act as a righteous force to eradicate the extremely evil "Netherworld Cult".

The Netherworld Cult is a notorious demonic force. Its territory is filled with man-made places for refining yin and nourishing souls. In large areas, sunlight has turned into a thin twilight, barely able to penetrate the clouds but unable to illuminate the desolate land of the human world.

White Bone Mountain, Ten Thousand Souls Cave, Thousand Corpse City—various demonic legends infuriate righteous cultivators, who wish they could slaughter all the disciples of the Netherworld Cult.

The demons of the Netherworld Cult are inhuman demons, the most evil and poisonous synonym in the history of demonic cultivation, and an existence that even traditional demonic forces would despise.

The sect did not inform its lower-level disciples in order to launch a surprise attack on the Netherworld Sect and plunder as many resources as possible from its territory.

When the Foundation Establishment disciples learned of the place they were to go, their faces showed distress and their hearts were filled with bitterness.

Demonic cultivators are generally stronger than righteous cultivators. At the same level, they are not even as good as the cultivators of the Heavenly Demon Sect, one of the three major sects of Jin Kingdom, let alone the renowned top demonic force, the Netherworld Sect.

According to legend, every disciple of the Netherworld Cult is more ferocious than a demon. Many Netherworld Cult disciples at the Qi Refining stage roam the cultivation world with the Myriad Soul Banner, killing countless people.

Chen An once had the misfortune of meeting a disciple of the Netherworld Cult in the State of Jin. The disciple's methods of killing were extremely vicious, and Chen An almost fell victim to them.

In the eyes of the Netherworld Cult disciples, life is merely a unit of measurement for increasing strength. They assume that only by killing more lives, forging stronger demonic artifacts, and cultivating the most evil demonic techniques can they rise higher and become stronger.

The most terrifying thing is that the disciples of the Netherworld Sect do not consider aptitude. Even cultivators with five spiritual roots have the opportunity to establish a foundation core.

This led many cultivators with poor aptitude and no other options to turn to the demonic path, becoming members of the Netherworld Cult and embarking on a path of slaughtering living beings.

Zhou Wen, a centenarian Qi-refining elder, once considered stepping into the demonic path to seek hope of breaking through to the Foundation Establishment stage, but he did not do so.

Under the influence of the righteous culture of the Xuan Yang Sect, even until his death, Zhou Wen only hunted and killed demons, and did not choose to fall into darkness.

Before his death, Zhou Wen told Chen An that he regretted not slaughtering living beings to try to establish his foundation. But in fact, even if he were given another chance to be reborn, he would still not slaughter living beings.

Elder Chen Ying, the leader of the warship, told the Foundation Establishment disciples about the Netherworld Sect information she had heard from the Nascent Soul seniors, and then distributed a mid-grade standard magic sword that was effective against demonic forces to each of the Foundation Establishment disciples.

Chen An's team belonged to the Yu family, so the magic swords they received, although they looked similar to those of others, were actually made of genuine materials and were more powerful than the magic weapons of others.

What was given to Chen An was a high-grade magic sword, which contained rich fire-attribute spiritual power, clearly distinguishing it from the magic swords of the others.

The other Foundation Establishment disciples looked at the magic sword in Chen An's hand with envy in their eyes, but they did not utter a word of rebuttal.

Injustice is the norm; if someone else can get more benefits, it only means that their backing is strong enough.

Standing up to provoke others will only lead to being seen as a clown.

The stronger Foundation Establishment cultivators, who were not lacking in magical swords, all extended goodwill to Chen An, hoping to help each other on the battlefield.

Weaker Foundation Establishment cultivators are in dire need of magic swords, but none of them have the confidence to refute a cultivator with a powerful background.

Mockery, insults, and abuse mostly occur between rogue cultivators or demonic cultivators.

Traditional orthodox cultivators will try their best to maintain a dignified appearance. Except for a few fearless and reckless individuals, most will not show mockery or hatred towards cultivators they do not understand.

The apparent calm does not mean that these people are not thinking anything. Unfair treatment will definitely cause some people to feel a sense of loss.

Chen An noticed that some people with unbalanced attitudes had already lost favorability towards him.

Most surprisingly, Chen Ying, a Golden Core senior whom we've never met before, has the lowest favorability rating among all of us, at -20.

This is not a good sign.

If they went to the battlefield, Chen Ying's resentment towards Chen An would translate into the orders she issued, and Chen An would very likely die on the battlefield.

Chen An and Chen Ying have never crossed paths. Could it be that Ye Hongyi's presence caused Chen Ying's favorability rating to turn negative?

Just then, Ye Hongyi approached Chen An and whispered, "Senior brother, that Golden Core senior said he wants to take me as his disciple."

"Senior, what do you think I should do to respond to her?"

Upon hearing this, Chen An asked, "When did you ask me that, senior?"

Ye Hongyi said, "Just now."

Chen An frowned. The timing didn't match up, because shortly after Chen An boarded the warship, he saw that Chen Ying's favorability rating had turned negative.

Seeing Chen An's strange expression, Ye Hongyi said, "Senior brother, is there something wrong with this? I won't agree. Even if he is a Golden Core senior, he can't force me to become his disciple."

Chen An said, "Chen Ying is a Golden Core cultivator from a different family. If you successfully break through to the Golden Core stage in the future, you will also be considered a Golden Core cultivator from a different family by the sect."

"The sect will not allow two Golden Core cultivators with different surnames who do not possess Heavenly Spiritual Roots to be bound together, after all, the potential of cultivators with Heavenly Spiritual Roots is too strong."

Ye Hongyi nodded, then suddenly remembered something and whispered, "This Senior Chen Ying seems a bit silly, not like what a Golden Core senior should be like."

"When she spoke to me earlier, she told me to call her 'sister' or something, and said that she would definitely help me break through to the Golden Core stage and that we would walk the Great Dao together in the future."

"Not a single word was mentioned about the impending war."

Foolish? How foolish would someone have to be for Ye Hongyi to think they're foolish? For a moment, Chen An was at a loss as to what to do with Chen Ying.

He could only turn to Yu Peiyao and Shangguan Changqing, two members of the family, to learn about Chen Ying through their information channels.

Chen An didn't mince words and directly stated that Chen Ying harbored ill intentions towards him, which could directly lead to danger on the battlefield in the future.

Yu Peiyao and Shangguan Changqing were both worried when they heard Chen An's words. They did not doubt Chen An's judgment, because a seasoned veteran like Chen An would not make baseless accusations and spread rumors about a Golden Core senior.

At this point, Ye Hongyi also recounted Chen Ying's behavior when she accepted Chen Ying as her disciple.

Ultimately, a conclusion was reached.

Chen Ying wasn't stupid, but rather a bit naive.

Yu Peiyao said, "Senior Chen Ying broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage at the age of eighteen, and then became a Daoist couple with Senior Song Qi. I haven't heard of any other experiences of Senior Chen Ying in the sect. I guess she was probably protected by the Song family and didn't know much about the outside world."

Shangguan Changqing agreed with Yu Peiyao's statement and continued, "I think Senior Sister Yu is right. Senior Chen Ying's malice towards Senior Brother may be because she saw her own reflection in Senior Sister Ye."

Yu Peiyao said, "That should be right. Our Yu family and the Song family have a good relationship. Senior Chen Ying has no reason to be hostile to Senior Brother Chen. Otherwise, the sect would not have assigned our team to Senior Chen Ying."