Deep beneath the shattered ruins of the Iron-Cloud Administration Fortress, the subterranean catacombs vibrated with a terrifying, rhythmic intensity. The air was unnaturally cold, thick with the cloying, metallic stench of ancient, rotting marrow and the sharp copper tang of freshly spilled blood. Sickly green flames danced erratically in massive bronze braziers lining the jagged, obsidian-carved walls, casting long, monstrous shadows across the assembly of the damned.
Sect Master Gui Wuchang stood at the absolute precipice of the descending stone stairwell, his skeletal hands gripping the hilt of a jagged, weeping-willow cane. He was a ghastly figure, draped in tattered, multi-layered gray shrouds that seemed to writhe with trapped, spectral faces. As the supreme leader of the Nether-Soul Grudge Sect, his cultivation had long ago eclipsed the boundaries of a standard Peak Martial King, pushing into the twisted, unnatural realms of demonic augmentation.
