Inside the inner hall, Shirong could see countless torches made the form of a bird claws. They were holding the vibrant flames in their talons and looked fierce. But the torches were a mere accent to what existed at the end.

A massive statue of the same bird as outside was located here. But unlike those statues, this one was in a different pose and was heavily damaged. Multiple chunks were missing from the statue that towered over Shirong.

He looked up and estimated the statue was over a hundred meters tall.

"So it really is dedicated to this beast. But why is it abandoned? Was it left behind by the sect when it was wiped out?" Shirong wondered to himself.

Lin Wu though was having a different reaction. It was as if a fire had been lit in his heart and feeling rose from deep within his bloodline. It was a desire… a desire to devour.

"What… is… this…" Lin Wu uttered, finding it hard to control himself.

"System! Analysis!" Lin Wu ordered.

~Ding~

——

ANSWER: The host's bloodline is being stimulated by something. There is likely a resource that is extremely desirable to the host located here.

——

"A resource like that… it can't be a crystal from the meteor… then what could it be?" Lin Wu wondered to himself.

He extended his spirit sense to the full extent, even more than what was permissible by the backdrop function. Since Lin Wu's spirit sense had grown more and more, it had gotten a bit difficult for the backdrop function to keep on masking it.

And since Shirong's cultivation base had increased as well, it had only become harder. But it didn't matter usually since Lin Wu didn't need to exert it that much and the system could take care of the rest with the scanner function.

But now that he did it, Shirong could feel a pressure exuding from around him. His eyes went wide and he became alert.

"What! Who's there!?" Shirong said as he entered an offensive stance, wind and lightning swirling around him.

Since Lin Wu was inside the ring which was on Shirong's finger, it was as if the spirit sense was coming from his own body, which made it hard for him to pinpoint it. Lin Wu though didn't care about this for now as it was the least of his concerned.

If he didn't take care of this desire, he reckoned he would probably come out of the ring on his own, that too, in his actual form.

His spirit sense soon found the source of his desire. Shirong was also tracing this random spirit sense that had suddenly arisen out of nowhere and saw that it was going towards the top of the statue.

Shirong soon spotted where the spirit sense's target was. It was a small red stone that was clamped the beak of the beast statue. Since the stone was very small compared to the beak, Shirong had missed it the first time.

"That stone! I can feel it! It has a bloodline in it! A strong one!" Lin Wu uttered with excitement.

Shirong had a similar reaction and wanted to take a closer look. He flew up and picked the red stone out of the beak of the statue. He looked at the small red stone that was barely the size of a coin and could not sense anything from it.

He also discovered that the spirit sense that had appeared out of nowhere had faded away. He probed the red stone and could not feel anything different from it. Unlike Lin Wu, who was a beast, Shirong couldn't sense the bloodline within.

~BOOM~

An explosion suddenly occurred behind him, which caught him off guard.

~tak~tak~tak~

The red stone fell to the ground and skipped away.

~Thud~

Shirong was sent slamming into the wall and was stunned from the impact.

"WHO DARES!" Shirong yelled as blue sparks appeared around him.

The tearing sound of the wind could also be heard as sharp gales surrounded him.

~whoosh~

Shirong flicked his sleeve and blew away the dust and smoke in front of him. There he saw the culprits behind the explosion. A bunch of men in strange garbs were standing and one of them was holding the red stone in his hand.

The man who had the red stone in his hand looked at Shirong with the gaze of a hawk and scoffed.

"Let's go, we got the god flesh!" The man said.

"Wait Priest! I can sense the aura of a god servant on this man!" One of them, who was holding a pendant in his hand, suddenly said.

"A God servants' aura? Was there any that were sent to this area?" Another man who was shorter asked.

"Yes, there was one sent out a couple of days ago. I was not actively tracking it since I was not ordered to, but now that I checked the talisman it has gone out." The man with the pendant replied.

"That means… KILL THIS MAN! He killed one of the God Servant!" The man who was called as priest ordered.

The men in the strange garbs quickly rushed at Shirong with the intention to kill. Shirong though felt this to be ridiculous.

"TRASH like you dares to speak? I'll show you your place!" Shirong uttered with rage.

His hands spread apart as a whip made out of wind and lightning formed between them. He grasped the whip and swung it at the incoming men, who were caught off guard. Lin Wu who had probed the men with his spirit sense, found it to be ridiculous too.

Like Shirong had said, these men were indeed trash compared to him. They were at the core condensation realm with the man called priest at the Nascent Soul realm. He wondered if they had even checked his cultivation base before attacking.

"Humph! Puny tricks!" the man who was leading the charge spoke as he took out a black sword from his spatial storage ring.