"Born a king, and for that, I'm sorry."

Three-Heat Plains, the Vermilion Bird Clan's old Palace.

There had long since been no trace of the living here. Everything was deathly still, yet there was no dust in sight. The door was imposing, too; an ordinary person probably couldn't even budge it.

Fortunately.

Baobao was quite strong.

Boom!

Baobao puffed out his cheeks and pushed hard against the Palace doors, which creaked and groaned.

After who knew how long, everything inside finally revealed itself to the world once more.

The Palace was spacious.

It was the size of three or four banquet halls, with no pillars in the middle. Uniform white stone covered the floor, with only a red carpet, still vivid despite the ravages of time, stretching from the entrance to the Throne.

In the middle of the Palace.

There stood an enormous Throne, made entirely of bright red stone.

Behind the Throne was a hollow-eyed Vermilion Bird statue, only this one was redder and larger.

Besides that.

Numerous "Vermilion Bird statues" also stood on either side of the red carpet. Like the reliefs outside the Palace, these statues had hollow sockets and no eyes, yet they stared straight at Baobao, who stood at the entrance.

The whole scene felt solemn and eerie.

Fortunately, it was daytime.

Anyone seeing this at night would probably have turned tail and run.

"Baobao."

Chen Fan narrowed his eyes at the scene. "Back out first. Something feels wrong."

However.

Baobao didn't answer. He merely walked slowly forward and stepped onto the red carpet.

"Baobao?"

Still no response.

As Baobao stepped onto the red carpet, the Vermilion Bird statues on either side slowly turned their heads, their gazes fixed on him the entire time, as though witnessing their New King's coronation.

They couldn't see Baobao's expression.

They couldn't see his face.

But something