Chapter 264: Where Is Your Daughter?! (2/2)

Therefore, the design of ancestral halls differed according to the nonhuman race, the most commonly seen being shrines filled with wooden ancestral tablets.

Being one of the more affluent of tribes, the Mountain Tigers had several statues of their ancestors, with more recent predecessors being held in memory with ancestral tablets.

Nonetheless, exposure to light had caused the color of both ancestral table and statues to fade or even change shape, which led to the claim that ‘the ancestors shuns the light’, and therefore most ancestral halls were built to be the darkest places in the village.

And the Mountain Tigers were no exception.

And because it had been too dark, the scrawny tiger didn’t notice it when he first came inbut when his eyes became used to the darkness, he found that the statues of the ancestors had been moved to face the walls as if pondering their misdeeds, and on their backs were unusual symbols painted in a red so dark it could well be black.

The other ancestral tablets were in turn moved to various corners in the hall in an utterly bizarre sequence. One could find the same dark red symbols painted on the floor just a few feet away from them as well.

“W-What’s going on?” The scrawny Tigerman was at once enraged and confused towards the desecration of the ancestral hall. “Has our enemy reached here already?”

Being their most important place, the ancestral hall was always kept closed. Only the chief and several high-ranked elders had the keys to it.

With those elders now fighting, the only one who could open the ancestral hall is the chief. So when could their enemy have come inside?

“No time to explain.” Taiga Roar’s face was solemn and spoke with a tone that allowed no refusal. “Have those children came and flee through the secret tunnel!”

The little Tigermen went ahead as instructed as instructed, but was stopped by the scrawny Tigerman, who was staring behind the chief.

There lay an otherworldly stone coffin which was painted with the same dark red symbols.

The scrawny Tigerman certainly knew that the stone coffin was, just as he knew that it should not be here.

The ancestral hall wasn’t exactly huge and did not actually have many secret tunnels, but even if the scrawny Tigerman didn’t know how to open them, he had some theories after praying in this hall for so long.

And the stone coffin was covering the one spot he thought to be most likely leading to one.

The uncomfortable feeling in the scrawny Tigerman’s gut grew.

It stared at Taiga Roar, and suddenly found that the wise chief had become very unfamiliar.

“I’ve just returned from the battle where our tribes fought hard against our enemy. That is why I assumed that my nose had become accustomed to the scent of blood that when I picked up the same scent of iron rust here in this hall, I thought that my nose has gotten accustomed to it.”

The scrawny Tigerman bared his fangs as his visage turned fearsome. “That’s not the case when I think about it now. Chief… no, Taiga! I’ve asked other tribesmen but all of them told me that they had not seen Nina leave your house! So answer me: Where is your daughter!?”