The stature gave off a real person like feeling but there were still some differences.
The main difference that made the statue look different from a living woman was that it was wholly made of a pure white marble-like material except the see-through cloth attached to it that was made from another unknown matter and… its size was three times bigger as a normal human woman.
Maybe it was just his imagination but when Rex looked at the statue, he felt a connection. He subconsciously wished to get closer to the statue but just at this time….
{Brother Rex… Hello Brother Rex, Are You There? Can You Hear Me?} Jiang Shuang's annoying voice broke his fantasy.
Rex snapped out of it and looked at him in slight anger.
{What do you want? can't you just keep quiet for a second why did you started shouting?} Rex was a little annoyed, he was quietly observing that sacred piece of art and now he was interrupted.
{Bother Rex, what one second are you talking about? I am calling you for the last fifteen minutes because you are flying in the wrong direction, we have already passed by Monster Hunting Sect fifteen minutes ago,} Jiang Shuang said while rubbing his forehead, he wasn't able to figure out why was Rex dreaming in the middle of the day, just when they were in a situation where they can be attacked by others anytime.
Rex froze on the spot, he didn't doubt Jiang Shuang because when he checked his surroundings and he was indeed in the wrong place.
When Rex thought about what happened earlier he broke into cold sweat.
'Rose what were you doing? how can I be charmed by a statue to that extent and its when I have Calm Mind,' Rex hastily asked.
[You might not think of it but I was in the same condition as you, I wasn't able to process normally which means if your mind, soul, or sea of consciousness is affected then my working efficiency will be affected too. As for the matter of Calm Mind not working, it's too weird I just checked it and according to the information.
Whatever the stature did, it still didn't break any rules of Calm Mind, its means were somewhat unknown and it's better if you check you HP right now.]
'What do you mean by that? well, lets me just check it first,' (Rex)
'Status: HP' (Rex)
[HP: 630 P / 983 P]
'What the…. after fighting that old man I still had 700 Hp left, where did my 70 health points go? Rose you cheater, you are doing corruption here,' Rex felt like he was tricked.
[…]
'Okay, I was kidding I trust you, but seriously what type of damage was that? I don't have any wounds on my body, you were also not working so I am sure you didn't heal me and if Regeneration had healed me then I would have recovered my HP… wait I remembered, I finally remembered that feeling when I saw that status… it was fake love,' Rex exclaimed.
[Fake Love?]
'Well the love that's only based on interest, mostly on someone's body, for example, I saw a hot woman and I started perusing her because of her status, beauty, money or…etc but its mostly done when someone coverts for an opposite gender's beauty and body, for example, if I did it towards a woman then it would have nothing to do with her personality, her feelings towards me or her personality and just her body… in simple words it was Lust.
At that time I wasn't able to think rationally, I believe if it wasn't for my mental strength, memories of the time I spent little Ru and others, and lastly, the desire to know about her rather than just pouncing on her based on the primal instinct, if I had done that then it would have been hard for me to regain my consciousness.
At that time it would be hard to say what would have happened, the frightening thing is my Regeneration also stopped working at that time… wait aren't we missing a point if the statue is that frighting then how did that old man be able to withstand its charm attack?' Rex said.
[You are right, if the statue's charm attack was always that strong then he won't be able to survive unless he was a eunuch or had some weird taste.]
'Actually, there is one more explanation… what if the statue changes its charm attack's power depending on the target…. but still, was that old man qualified enough to pass the illusory trial of such a beauty? after seeing the nature of men here I didn't think they will pass on such opportunity… even when its illusion, why are you so quiet?' Rex said.
[Nothing special, it just felt a little weird when you were the one defining the nature of men.]
'You bastard, what do you mean by that if I didn't have principal then do you think I can't resort to violence to force others or brainwash them to do what I want? if I really become someone like that then its better for me to die, a life without principles is no different from the wild animals, what is the use being human….by heart at least.
Wild animals also eat, cultivate, mate, have families, it's not the race that makes the difference but the way of living, if you can't even restrain your urges and follow the principles then what's the use, and these type of things only bring temporary joy which doesn't last long but leaves many regrets behind.. as long as you are human that is,' Rex finished his lecture with that.
[You don't have to give the whole presentation you know, I know you more than anyone. What I meant is it's funny when you say it but I didn't say its wrong.]
Rex nodded in satisfaction but then he realized that Jiang Shuang was giving him a strange look for a while now, so he decided to put aside the matter of statue for now and headed towards the Monster Hunting Sect.
Monster Hunting Sect Treasury...
When Rex and Jiang Shuang arrived at the treasure hall of the sect they were speechless.
Rex saw that the treasure hall was empty and it was literally empty, that is if it could be called the treasure hall anymore.
There were several pits on the floor and the beastman was digging out the hard rocks below the floor using their weapons, few beastman passed by them while carrying the big rocks on their back, the floor wasn't the only victim Rex could also see the area of other halls from the big holes in the walls.
One beastman was collecting the bright red bricks from the wall when he saw Rex and Jiang Shuang, he greeted them then again started collecting brinks and putting them in the storage ring.
Rex's lips were twitching uncontrollably. He felt like he was the leader of a poor bandit gang who thoroughly robbing a small sect in his territory.
Jiang Shuang was also speechless, he didn't have any words that could describe his current emotions.
{The fukkk they are doing?} Rex asked Jiang Shuang.
Jiang Shuang took a deep breath and calmed himself down before replying.
{Maybe because it was their first task so they got a little over-excited and… this happened,} Jiang Shuang said as he looked at the beastman who was a little too passionate about their work.
{You sure it's just a little over-excited because I seriously doubt it.} Rex said while looking at a beastman who was removing a Chandelier hanging under the ceiling.
{Cough.. what I mean to say is, it's actually not as bad as it looks, the red bricks are made from volcanic sand and the big rocks below the floor are magma rocks, although they are not that much rare material but its still good to build a decent treasury hall.
As they say, mosquito meat is still meat so these things also have some value if Brother Rex doesn't need them then I can sell them to some merchant who deals in mineral & Ore business to convert it into money} Jiang Shuang explained.
{Hmmm…} Rex agreed.
Just at this time he saw Fred entering the hall with many beast-man following him, the noticeable thing was that the beastman following them were unfamiliar to Rex and their condition didn't look good.
They were wearing rags, their neck and hands were covered in metal shackles. Most of them were females but the thing common in them was that they all were thin, it looked like their vitality was sucked for a very long time and they can collapse anytime.
When Fred saw Rex, he walked towards him but before he could speak they both heard some the sound of a metal object being dragged on the floor.
Rex saw that Aiden was dragging a big metal box with a solemn face, he was not alone there was another unfamiliar beastman following behind him. The beastman had the bulky body and in the base form he was bigger than Aiden, he had long yellow hair with a tinge of red shade the combination would have looked good considering his appearance but right now those hair were like a bird's nest and there were many burned marks all over his body like he had gone through some intense torture.
But even in this state, his eyes didn't have any lifelessness or despair in them moreover his temperament was emitting prestige although it was faint but the special pretense made him look like the type to bow down even in death.
Like other beastman, he was also covered in shackles and his body looked slightly thin but he still had enough strength to carry the big metal box.
When Rex was still observing the beastman, Jiang Shuang slightly frowned then closed his nose. A pungent smell was coming from the boxes, Rex also smelled it and it almost made him vomit but instead of covering his nose he quietly stopped his breathing because he could guess the reason behind the smell and as the leader, it won't leave a good image if he also made such mistake… after all, he could see that Aiden had enhanced sense of smell but even so he was still not covering his nose.
Jiang Shuang looked at the insides of the boxes, one box was half-filled with blood with a lot of herbs floating in it and the other was filled with cleaned bones, half of this box was filled white powder which was made from the bones in it.
"Evil path…" Jiang Shuang frowned.
"It's not right if the Sect Master of this sect had directly used Evil path then I could tell by the change in his Qi but he looked normal," Rex said.
"He didn't use Evil path to cultivate but to increase his life span," The big beastman said in a hoarse voice, his expression was still solemn as he looked at the content of the box and his voice sounded like his throat was dry for days.
"The alchemist had used an Evil art to refine longevity pills than can slightly increase the life span of the users, as long as someone doesn't take too many pills in a short period of time the change in their Qi will be almost unnoticeable," Aiden said in an angry tone.
Seeing his own people being treated as raw materials for pill had crossed his bottom line long ago, these kinds of things were the reason that no non-human race wants to come and live in Golden Bird Continent anymore, furthermore the big organization like Alchemist Association, Artifact Refiner Association all had many higher-ups of the non-human race so seeing this condition of the continent they called back all the genius and capable person from their branches in Golden Bird Continent.
'No wonder this level of Sect had an Alchemist, Inscription Master, Talisman Master with them, all those old folks were here for the longevity pills. I killed that Alchemist and Inscription master because I knew they were lying and would stab in the back if I let them come with me or will make trouble for me if I let them go and erasing memory is not up to my likes so I chose to kill them.
As for them being innocent, someone working for this kind of sect cannot be innocent if they are then there is no evil in the world it's just our imagination. If I knew they were like that I would have turned them in Lesser Zombie with using Fake Soul Seed,' Rex thought while looking at the skulls and bones in the box.
There were many different sizes of bones and skulls in the box and a few of them were small enough to tell that they belonged to very young beastman.
Fred conversed with Aiden for while to comfort him then came back to Rex.