Golden light shone into the hall, illuminating every detail within with crystal clarity.
Three majestic, ten-meter-tall statues stood in the hall. The figure in the center wore armor made of overlapping metal plates and carried a two-foot-long bronze sword, looking like a military general from the Warring States period.
The statue on the left wore a Daoist robe, with a long beard flowing in the breeze and an iron sword strapped to its back, the very image of an immortal master detached from the mortal world.
The statue on the right wore a loose, unkempt robe, its hair bound only by a wooden pin. The locks hanging by its temples and across its forehead gave it a wild, uninhibited air.
The three statues were the most conspicuous and thus the first things to enter Zhang Yuanqing's sight, but he did not care which deities the Shu Mountain Main Hall enshrined or which historical figures they represented.
His gaze merely swept over them before dropping to the coffin lying horizontally in the middle of the hall.
The coffin had a rough, ancient design. It was about three meters long and a full meter wide, forged from bronze. Spirit Talisman runes covered both its body and lid, which were blanketed in verdigris.
Zhang Yuanqing recognized them at a glance as Spirit Sealing Talismans.
The coffin was an artifact, one used to seal the evil thing inside. Yet more than a dozen deep sword marks marred its lid, damaging the Spirit Talisman formation patterns.
The monstrous thing inside the coffin had escaped its seal and destroyed the entire Shu Mountain Immortal Sect.
Zhang Yuanqing immediately looked toward the three figures beside the bronze coffin. They wore the Daoist robes of Shu Mountain elders—two men and one woman—with dry, curled hair hanging loose around