Looking around, Lin Wu saw a lot of ducks. Or more accurately, people wearing clothes with duck patterns on them.

"Either they are big fans of ducks or there's some festival going…" Lin Wu said.

"System, what's the info on this kingdom?" Lin Wu questioned.

~Ding~

——

ANSWER: The Ivory Heron Dynasty is a mid level kingdom that has existed for two thousand years. They are famous for their rivalry against the Ebony Duck Dynasty. Their patron beast is the Ivory Heron, which is said to be an Immortal Beast.

——

There was more detailed information added to the second window that Lin Wu went through, but he had gotten the information about the question that was bugging him. But it still didn't answer why he was seeing ducks here.

"If this is the Ivory Heron Dynasty, shouldn't there be Herons here and not ducks?" Lin Wu wondered.

~Ding~

——

ANSWER: The rivalry between the two kingdoms of Ivory Heron Dynasty and Ebony Duck Dynasty goes for thousands of years. It was said that both of them were established by eccentric kings who had the bloodlines of the respective beasts.

Both the Ivory Heron and the Ebony Ducks are immortal beasts and were considered to be unparalleled in their might among the bird beasts according to the records. But, according to the system's analysis, this may be mere propaganda.

Even if the beasts are immortal beasts, the royalty of the kingdom does not even have a trace of their bloodline left in them. Otherwise they would be comparable to the Three Great Clans; the Long clan, The Gui Clan and The Hu Clan.

Every year they would hold a competition between the two kingdoms which would be hosted alternately each year. This time the host is the Ivory Heron Dynasty.

——

"Huh… so they're like… Sports fans?" Lin Wu realized.

The whole situation felt hilarious to him, which made him look into it more. He read the info in the window and learned that the winner of the last year's competition was the Ivory Heron Dynasty and they had been winning for three years straight now.

This made Lin Wu wonder what Shirong was thinking about it and looked at him. Shirong though, seemed to be at ease about this all and didn't pay attention to it one bit. Instead of that he just kept cultivating silently even while walking.

"Man's become focused huh…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.

He looked at the map and saw that they were just a few days away from the Dread Coil marsh, though if they rushed there they may reach it in less than three days. This made Lin Wu wonder why Shirong had taken a halt in this city. In the last few memories, Shirong had directly bypassed most of the cities when he passed over them.

Lin Wu continued observing the sights and finally saw Shirong moving towards one of the better looking buildings in the city. Lin Wu read the name board and discovered that this was the City hall.

Shirong casually strolled in and entered a locked room by snapping its door off the hinges.

"What the hell…" Lin Wu couldn't help but say.

Inside the room, a man was sitting. He had a stunned look on his face, which was probably due to Shirong bursting in unannounced and breaking the door. Though after a moment of astonishment, the man stood up.

"M-master Shirong!" The man recognized.

"You've got some guts, Yu Guowei!" Shirong said in a stern tone.

'So they know each other.' Lin Wu thought.

"Where are all the records of the expedition and why were they not updated? The clan is not happy with you." Shirong said, his gaze turning serious.

~thud~

Yu Guowei directly kneeled on the ground and bowed.

"P-Please forgive me, Young master. This was not my intention, but my hand's are forced. All the records that we gathered were destroyed." Yu Guowei answered.

"Insolence! You dare lie!?" Shirong questioned, arcs of electricity already flickering around his body.

"I tell the truth young master, I'm willing to take a blood oath!" Yu Guowei hurriedly replied.

"Oh? You are now, huh? Then DO IT!" Shirong scoffed.

Yu Guowei seemed to be a bit taken aback by Shirong's response, but nodded his head.

"I Yu Guowei swear upon my lifeblood that I will speak the truth and only the truth to young master Shirong! If I lie, may my life be extinguished by the world!" Yu Guowei said with slight hesitation.

A powerful aura emanated from Yu Guowei's body before calming down. This was the aura of the world itself and would only appear when an oath like this was taken. Taking an oath like this was no easy thing and it could be seen from Yu Guowei's face, which had gone a few shades pale as if he had lost some blood.

Seeing that the man had kept up his end of the bargain, Shirong nodded his head and decided to give him a chance.

"Explain… Explain to me what exactly happened at the Dread Coil marsh and where is my uncle." Shirong demanded.

~Sigh~

"Everything was strange from the very start, but master Quan did not want to stop the expedition and wanted to continue it. Of course, the Dread Coil marsh has always been dangerous and the ghosts there are a problem too.

Even if they don't trouble most cultivators of a high cultivation, they can still be a pain. After a month at the marsh, our people started to get strange nightmares and they got anxious.

This anxiety turned into paranoia, and they started to act crazy after another month. By that time, even Master Quan wanted to stop the expedition, but it had been too late. Our people started disappearing and the ones who tried to find them were killed.

Eventually, Master Quan decided to check it out personally and went deep into the marsh… only to never return. The records which we had so painfully made were all destroyed in a fire.

The strange thing was… the vault they were kept in was never opened and the fire only burned those records and nothing else there." Yu Guowei answered.