Jiao Fan and Old Man Tiandi looked at the end of the large hall and saw a large statue. Previously it was hidden in the darkness, but now the torches that had lit up illuminated the entire area brightly.

Normally they should have been able to see it all using their spirit sense and would not have been shocked like this. They should have been able to tell that there was no formation array in the hall as well.

​​

Alas! Them using the Mind Expanding Lardite forcefully like that had temporarily crippled their spirit sense. Even normal spirit Qi usage was painful for them and they were only bearing it because of years of experience.

If it were a normal person they would have long since passed out due to the constant burning pain. It was not a good condition to be in honestly and could even be compared to Qi deviation in a way.

"The statue… it's of the same kind of bird showed in the statues in the outer hall." The subordinate of Jiao Fan spoke.

They looked at the statue of the Vermillion bird, which they didn't really know was the legendary Vermillion bird. To them, it was just some mysterious bird beast that they did not know of.

~step~

~step~

~step~

The four men stepped ahead as they saw the majestic statue of the Vermillion bird. Lin Wu was watching along them as his spirit sense could now enter the door with ease. Them opening the door had left an opening for Lin Wu's spirit sense to drill through.

"This statue is bigger than the others and in the best condition too." Lin Wu muttered to himself.

The statue of the vermilion bird was in the pose of soaring in the sky. Its wings were spread wide apart and only the tip of its left talon was touching the base of the statue. But even then the statue was solid and stable.

If it were any other sculpture making this kind of a statue, it would not be sure if that statue would be able to stay balanced or not. The most likely chance was that it would just fall due to the base being too narrow.

The statue was easily over ten meters wide, while the base was just six inches wide. This showed the wide difference in the two spans. They could see each and every small feather that had been carved on the statue in detail.

Its crown feathers were spread in a splendor while its tail feathers fluttered with elegance. Overall, it was easily the best statue that they had ever seen in their lives.

"Marvelous!" Old Man Tiandi Couldn't help but exclaim.

The four men gazed at the statue intently for about five minutes before they realized something.

"What do we do now?" The Nascent Soul realm cultivator, who was on the side of Old Man Tiandi asked.

"There should be something here, right? Or perhaps this statue is the reward?" The Subordinate of Jiao Fan said.

Jiao Fan too narrowed his eyes and looked around.

"Sss! Using spirit sense is impossible," Jiao Fan hissed in pain. "Spread up and look for anything that looks valuable. There must be something here. There is no way something like this would be built for nothing. There must be something that is being guarded here."

Old Man Tiandi and the other two nodded their heads in acknowledgment and spread up. They searched every nook and cranny of the hall, from the door all the way to the statue.

The hall was quite wide and it took them over an hour before they finished searching it all. They now felt quite exhausted as this was the first time in a long time that they were being forced to do something like this.

As Nascent Soul realm cultivators, they were not used to being unable to use spirit Qi. But now that their meridians were protesting in pain, they could not do much either than go to the ways of the mortals and search it manually.

"Hahaha! It's kinda fun seeing them struggle like this. Look at that Tiandi, he's actually acting like an old man now, with his hand on his lower back!" Lin Wu couldn't help but laugh.

But while he was laughing, the others around him did not think the same. For the cultivators, Lin Wu was simply letting out beastly noises that they did not know the meaning of. But they didn't think much about it either and just thought that it was something a beast did.

To them, beasts didn't really have to make complete sense. After all, if the beasts had decorum and manners, would they still be beasts?

~huu~huu~huu~

"I didn't get even this tired in the battle before and now I can't move anymore," The nascent Soul realm cultivator who was on the Old Man Tiandi's side said in an exhausted voice.

He then slumped to the ground with his back to one of the pillars.

"You didn't find anything either?" Jiao Fan couldn't help but ask.

"No… nothing… this place is empty." Old Man Tiandi said, feeling frustrated. "Absolutely empty!"

Jiao Fan rubbed his forehead as a headache spread through it. He feared that they may have really made a huge mistake in coming here and that they may need to go back empty handed.

'No… that is IF we can go back. With those flames in the outer hall, there is no way we can survive that.' Jiao Fan thought.

He then looked at the others and thought for a bit.

"We will rest for the time being and recover our strength. Perhaps what we seek is hidden and we cannot find it without our spirit sense and spirit Qi. Once we feel better, we will search once more. There will be no use in flailing around blindly." Jiao Fan stated.

"Hmm, that seems right. I need to rest my back too…" Old Man Tiandi said as he sat down as well.

The four men took out their respective resources to recover their bodies and waited. Unaware that a certain someone had just finished her rest.