About two more minutes later, Elder Qian finally reached the end of the stairs and saw the hundreds of statues that were built in the hall.

~shua~shua~shua~

With his appearance, all the others along the walls of the hall also lit up with red flames. The torches were the same as Lin Wu had seen before, being that of a bird claw holding up the flames.

The torches being lit up made the entire hall illuminated, making it easy for Elder Qian to see.

"Heavens…" Elder Qian exclaimed under his breath.

He could see the elegant and beautiful statues of the vermilion bird carved in detail now. Looking at the statues he could tell that they were carved by except sculptures and probably would cost a lot if they were sold.

Just one of these statues would be enough to obtain a small fortune. But when he looked at what was basically hundreds of statues, his eyes lit up with excitement.

"AHAHAHA! WE'RE RICH! WE'RE GONNA BE FILTHY RICH!" Elder Qian shouted out loud, his voice traveling all the way up the stairs and out into the crowd.

"What could have elder Qian found?" someone questioned.

"Who knows, but it must be something really valuable otherwise he would not have reacted like this." Another person replied.

"I know, right? Seems like luck was on our side. Look at those traitors, they are regretting going first now." Another man said while pointing to the cultivators who were on the side of Old Man Tiandi.

Sneers and smirks were visible on the faces of Jiao Fan's subordinates as they rejoiced in the misery of the others. But a second later, those smirks were wiped off their faces.

"AAAAHHHHH! SAVE ME! SAVE MEEEEEEE!" A blood curdling cry for help came from the temple.

The terror in the voice was apparent and sent chills down the spines of everyone here. Even the cultivator show was on the side of Old Man Tiandi were not excluded and could understand that Elder Qian might have come across something terrifying.

"What's happing to Elder Qian?" Jiao Fan's other Nascent Soul realm subordinate asked with concern.

His spirit sense range was not long enough to sense the insides of the temple and thus he could only ask Jiao Fan.

~gulp~

Jiao Fan and Old Man Tiandi both swallowed their saliva as they witnessed the scene inside the temple.

"Fire… endless fire…" Old Man Tiandi muttered.

"Elders Qian… he's gone…" Jiao Fan spoke in disbelief.

"WHAT! HOW?" The Nascent Soul realm subordinate could not help by say.

The wave of depression spread quite fast among the crowd as they understood the implication behind this. If an Infant Soul Stage of the Nascent Soul realm cultivator like Elder Qian could die in mere moments like this, then they were not likely to be able to do much either.

Perhaps here, the only humans that would be able to do something were none other than Jiao Fan and Old Man Tiandi, both of whom were at the Adult Soul Stage of the Nascent Soul realm. But they were too shocked by this to speak anymore.

Jiao Fan kept on observing with his spirit sense and hard to keep it maintained there.

In the hall with the hundreds of Vermillion bird statues, red flames burned endlessly. The statues were all lit up as countless runes surrounded them. The runes arranged themselves into fomentations around each vermilion bird statue.

Then each of these formations, linked up with each other, turning into a massive formation array that released flames that could easily melt metal and evaporate blood. Elder Qian, who had just entered this place a mere moment ago, could no longer be seen.

The only traces of him that were left here were now a few pieces of metal jewelry which had also started to melt and a spirit sword that laid in a pile of ash. The spirit sword was also glowing as runes appeared on it.

These were evidently defensive runes that increased the durability of the spirit sword. But one could see that the runes were having a hard time maintaining themselves as the red flames continually assaulted them.

~SHATTER~

After five more seconds, the runes were unable to hold up against the red flames and were destroyed.

~SIZZLE~

~DRIP~

With the runes protecting the spirit sword gone, it became red hot before melting into a puddle of molten steel. Its wooden handle was reduced to ash while the gem stone on it cracked and shattered into dust.

The power of these red flames was on a different level and was mind boggling to the two experts watching it.

"What kind of a formation array is this even?" Jing Luo couldn't help but wonder.

"How many statues are there in there? Each of them is an individuality formation… how can one even set up such a complex array?" Old Man Tiandi was also lost.

Jiao Fan furrowed his brows and felt like he would be on the losing end if he did not do anything right now. He had already lost two Nascent Soul realm subordinates till now, one in the battle before and Elder Qian in the formation array now.

He was only left with two more of them now, and they were not people he could afford to lose anymore. After all, unlike Old Man Tiandi who had become an impromptu leader of a group of different parties, Jiao Fan had nurtured each of his subordinates on his own and had personally spent resources for them.

His losses were far greater than that of Old Man Tiandi, who was actually not losing anyone close to him. Even if these people were united currently, they did not care for each other deeply and were only in it for their benefit.

Jiao Fan thus gritted his teeth and took out a pale yellow stone from his spatial storage treasure. Old Man Tiandi looked at it and showed a surprised look on his face.

"The Mind Expanding Lardite?"