Golden-red light surged through the second-floor hall.
The cultivators below Transcendent Grade were still wondering why Patriarch Lü Yan had lost his composure so badly, while the Transcendent Grade patriarchs all stared in shock. Not only did they understand Lü Yan perfectly, even Ye Yunchi had stood up, wanting to join him in a howl of anguish.
After all, none of the cultivators present had seen the mask in the box, but anyone who walked the path of cultivation had surely seen a Bird-Headed, Human-Bodied Statue.
It was normally enshrined in the ancestral halls of the Blessing and Sacrifice Faction and the Gu Poison Sect, but many tribes in Western Rong, the Grasslands, and other regions also worshipped it. Even the Human Emperor's shrine had one.
This person's name was Zhu Man, one of the Ten Ancestral Witches, hailed among the common folk as the Fire God who presided over the south. He had once sat at the same table as the Human Emperor, talking and laughing with ease, and was also the Gu Poison Sect's Founder.
The Zhu Man Sacrificial Witch Scripture compiled by the Corpse Ancestor was named after this Grandmaster.
Witch Ancestor Zhu Man was of the Human Race; he could not possibly have had a bird's head. His portraits all depicted a Bird Head and Human Body, and later generations wore Bird-Head Masks when performing spirit-invoking dances. Clearly, this was because Witch Ancestor Zhu Man had also worn a Bird-Head Mask.
With the mask off, a mortal; with the mask on, Fire God Possession. This item could be called the dream artifact of every fire cultivator under heaven, the ultimate goal Lü Yan dared not hope for even in his dreams.
Yet at this very moment, a fellow cultivator had opened this legendary Immortal Artifact right