It was obvious to Lin Wu who had seen the Vermillion bird's image many times in his past life. He could very easily recognize the beast and was sure that this was one of the four guardian beasts of the world.

Before, when Shirong and his two companions had blocked the ritual by using the old temple, he was wondering why there were only three guardian beasts instead of four, but now it could be seen that there really were four.

But then the question stood, why were there so many statutes of them here and why did the Vermillion bird look like the most authentic guardian beast. The other three looked like some defective versions.

Lin Wu even wanted the system to do a scan, but the interference field was not letting it do that.

"System, just do a visual scan and see if you can find anything unusual." Lin Wu ordered.

~Ding~

——

SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target selected

WARNING!: Limited functionality

SCAN COMPLETED: Target identified

TARGET: Vermillion bird statue

INFO: According to the system's data banks, the target matches the description of the Vermilion bird. The Taiji Celestial's tomb also has archives about the beast but they are in the encrypted part, the system can only obtain a fraction of the information.

——

Seeing the system giving its confirmation, Lin Wu understood that there must have been some problem that happened when the three beasts were first awakened in this world. It was still a mystery that was beyond him right now.

All he could do now was to wait and watch. And that's what he did as Shirong continued going further into the temple. He passed by hundreds of Vermillion bird statues before reaching the end of the vast hall.

Here there were a pair of wooden doors. They were carved with the Vermillion bird's motifs along with some faded words. These words though Lin Wu could read, due to them being in the Dao Script.

He focused on them and tried to read them.

"The beast that fell,

The beast that slept,

The beast that never awakened,

Here lies the forgotten beast,

Forever gone, forever forgotten…"

There were more things written on the doors but they were illegible and could not be read. But Lin Wu definitely got some guesses upon reading the words.

"So whoever made this temple, knew about the vermilion bird. And since it is in this world it should have been made by its inhabitants. But this is in the Long continent which is under the domain of the Long clan who has the bloodline of the Guardian Dragon beast.

Did they perhaps intentionally hide the existence of the Vermillion beast? What could be the reason behind though… just increasing their own power doesn't make sense since the three guardian beasts were awakened together ten thousand years ago." Lin Wu analyzed.

There were far too many questions that were unresolved and he felt an increasing curiosity towards them. In this world, Lin Wu did not have any great goal. He wanted to become strong just because he could. He wanted to see the world, just because he could. He didn't need anything to motivate him, all he needed was for something to exists and if he desired it, he would get it.

And now that the mystery of the Vermillion bird had pulled him in, he would very well go ahead to learn more about it. After all, he was a beast as well and he may gain some benefits if he learned more about them.

Shirong too looked at the door and read the words. Though he was barely able to read them due to not being as proficient at it as Lin Wu was. Lin Wu had the support of the system because of which he had a massive data base of Dao Script, allowing him to read nearly any character.

"A beast? Is this temple about this bird beast?" Shirong muttered.

He checked the doors and saw that they didn't have any formations on them. They were just simple doors, albeit massive. Shirong placed his hands on them and pushed it hard.

~Rumble~

~Creak~

Dust fell from the doors as Shirong pushed it with all his strength. The creaking of the door was loud enough to echo thoughtful the temple and even out of it since the trap door on the surface was open.

***

Some distance away from the Trapdoor of the temple, a few men in strange garbs appeared.

"What was that sound?" One of them questioned.

"Quickly identify it." A man who was in better looking clothes than the others ordered. He was evidently the head of this group.

One of the men then took out what looked like a very long and narrow come from a spatial storage tool before holding it up to the sky and attacking it to his ear. It looked extremely comical but if one were to look at the inscription on the cone, they would see that it was actually a spirit tool!

The man who was using the cone gasped in surprise and spoke, "it's a lost temple! Another one has appeared!"

"Are you sure?" The head asked.

"The sound is the same as that of the others we have seen." The man assured.

"Hmm… what does this mean, though? If the sound appeared, that means someone opened it." Another man questioned.

"It could just be automatic too. Don't forget that a couple of temples opened without anyone needling to interfere." The head spoke.

The others nodded in agreement and looked in the direction from where the sound had appeared.

"And if it really is someone else… we just get more sacrifices…" The head added with an evil glint in his eyes.

***

Shirong had just opened the door fully and saw the interior of the chamber. This room was much smaller than the previous one and was dark too.

~whoosh~

But the moment Shirong took another step, multiple torches with red flames ignited, illuminating the entire room.

"This…"