Big Sister Ruan talked to Le Nan quietly but Mo Fan overheard their conversation.

“The road ahead is the walkway. The ancient wall looked like it was overgrown with vines and ivies. I only hope that the ancient statues are still around,” Bis Sister Ruan said sadly.

Mingwu Ancient City was strangely quiet. The outside had turned into a hunting ground infested with monsters. The tribes, hordes, and Ocean Demons fought for territories. Corpses and carcasses were strewn everywhere…

When they entered the Mingwu Ancient City, it had gone deafeningly silent. There were screams or roars of ferocious beasts. Apart from the spiders who wove their webs, nothing really jumped out.

Even though the Mingwu Ancient City was abandoned and overgrown, there was this strange sense of peace and tranquility almost as if some ancient mysterious power was still protecting this city from the ferocious demons outside.

As they followed the walkway, they came across an opening where there were many ancient statues. All around those statues, the ground was overgrown with weeds but there was a clear demarcation where the weeds ended and the statues arose, without any sign of impairment or damage.

Mo Fan and young women made their way to the ancient statues. He sensed that something was strange here. He studied his surroundings closely. He realized that the ancient statues were unusual. There were no vines, no ivies, not even the spiders on these statues.

He saw that the veins and ivies had merely grown along the periphery and avoided the statues. The statues themselves looked regal and solemn as if the passage of time and change of environment were of no significant consequence to it.

They were just made out of stones, but how was it possible for them to be so untouched and full of ancient wonder?

He now knew the reason for the absence of demons in this city. They were scared away by the holy aura exuded by these statues.

“This is the Thundercat statue.” Big Sister Ruan walked towards a big statue that looked like a cat.

Mo Fan looked at it. The statue looked very lifelike. The sculpted cat appeared to be smiling like an elder who knew of many secrets.

“Is this the one that caused the lightning storm?” Mo Fan asked.

No matter how long he looked at it, he couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. ‘Could the stone material be some sort of natural stone that attracted lightning elements, and that it could trigger a more powerful lightning storm during cloudy, rainy, or lightning days?’ wondered Mo Fan. ‘Or was it a totem?’

He studied it very carefully. He noticed some strange patterns on the Thundercat’s paw. The pattern was mismatched with the totem seal which Jiang Shaoxu had previously shown to him…

“What are you looking for?” Du Mei asked him.

Mo Fan had never expected Du Mei to be so polite to him suddenly. She had always been suspicious of him from the time they left the fortress. It seemed being powerful was the key to resolving many things in life.

“Nothing in particular,” he said with a smile. “Have you lived here before?”

Du Mei shook her head. Mo Fan did not continue their conversation. Instead, he walked to Big Sister Ruan and showed her the totem pattern picture that Jiang Shaoxu had given him.

“You seem to know so much about this place. Have you seen something like this anywhere here?” he asked.

Du Mei turned her head away sulkily when he ignored her. Big Sister Ruan looked at the picture. “No.”

Mo Fan was a little disappointed. “Are there any other ancient statues here?” Mo Fan asked.

“All of them are here.”

Mo Fan studied each and every one of them. The ancient statues exuded some holy aura but not one matched the totem pattern in the picture.

“Are you sure all of them are here? I’m looking for an ancient creature. My friend passed me this picture and said I can certainly find some clues at the Mingwu Ancient City,” Mo Fan said.

Mo Fan was sure that the totem was here, in this city.

In ancient times, totems played the role of guardian angels who protected certain lands. Each totem guarded a human tribe. If the Mingwu Ancient City started as an ancient tribal land, it would have a totem. In fact, he believed that this totem was what was preventing the demon hordes from marching into the city and devouring everything.

Jiang Shaoxu and Lingling’s analysis was correct. There was a totem in this city. But the totem couldn’t really be these statues despite them exuding a certain magical aura.

“Move it! Move it now! Quick! What are you waiting for?!”

They heard a man’s voice from the woods. They had been resting, but now many of them walked out of the woods and into the clearing where the statues were.

A man in dark green armor led the way. Others followed behind him. There was commotion in the woods. It sounded as though trees were being felled.

“Who are you…?” asked the man. “Ah, forget about it. I have no interest in knowing about you. Could you step aside? We want to move stuff.”

“What are you moving?” Mo Fan asked the man.

“That cat statue, of course!” said the man and smirked repulsively. “Kid, traveling with a group of ladies, eh? Aren’t you physically exhausted?” The man looked inappropriately at the group of women from Licheng Afterglow Island before his gaze rested on the Thundercat statue. His eyes lit up.

“Heixiu! Heixiu! Heixiu! Heixiu!” A group of men chanted, followed by the sound of a large tree being felled. They walked out of the woods dragging an enormous golden-armored beast.

The enormous golden armored beast was almost five-stories tall. Its limbs were thick, and its body was as large as a mammoth. It was the culprit that had crushed the trees.

On the back of the golden mammoth sat an ancient statue. The ancient statue was grayish white in color. It was a lifelike Flute Heron.

The Flute Heron was an ancient and rare species. It usually made flute-like sounds, hence, the name. It was once native to the Mingwu Ancient City. But it had soon gone extinct like other ancient creatures.

Mo Fan looked at the Flute Heron statue before turning to Big Sister Ruan. “I thought you said there weren’t any more of the ancient statues?”

Mo Fan had never seen the Flute Heron statue before. But he realized that these men had moved the statue from another part of the Mingwu Ancient City. They planned to move it out of the city entirely.

Their next target was the Thundercat statue. The men headed towards the ancient statue. The statue itself was not very big. It was only about as tall as a human. But the weight of it was shocking. Even the mighty golden mammoth-like beast struggled to the Flute Herron statue alone.

The hunter group came together to try to help. There were cracks at the back of the golden armor of the huge beast, and each step sunk in the ground at the weight.

“Boss Jin, the beast looks strained by just carrying one statue. The Thundercat statue looks to be about the same size as the Flute Heron statue, how do we move it?” One of the hunters said.

“The Thundercat statue looks more valuable. We’ll leave the Flute Heron here and move the Thundercat statue first!” said the man called Boss Jin.