Golden-red light surged through the second-floor hall.
Cultivators below the transcendent grade were still wondering why Ancestor Lü Yan had lost his composure so badly, while the transcendent-grade ancestors all looked stunned.
Not only did they understand Lü Yan perfectly, even Ye Yunchi rose to her feet, wanting to join him in a cry of heartache.
After all, none of the cultivators present had seen the mask in the box, but anyone who walked the path of cultivation would certainly have 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 elsewhere also worshipped it. Even the Human Emperor's shrine had a statue.
This person's name was Zhu Man, one of the Ten Ancestral Witches, hailed among the common people as the Fire God who presided over the south. He had once sat at the same table as the Human Emperor, chatting and laughing freely, and was also the Gu Poison Sect's Founder.
The Zhu Man Sacrificial Witch Scripture compiled by the Corpse Ancestor had been named after this Grandmaster.
Witch Ancestor Zhu Man was of the Human Race, so he could not possibly have had a bird's head. His portraits all showed a Bird Head and Human Body, and shamans of later generations also wore bird-head masks during their rites. Clearly, Witch Ancestor Zhu Man had worn a bird-head mask himself.
With the mask removed, a mortal; with the mask on, Fire God Possession. This item could be called the artifact of every fire-technique cultivator's dreams, the ultimate goal Lü Yan dared not hope for even in his dreams.
Yet right here, right now, a fellow cultivator had opened a box containing this legendary Immortal Artifact