The information about the four guardian beasts was something that had eluded Lin Mu since he had arrived on the Rust Sky world. Even the people he had met here, like Huyun Chuan and Kunzi had not told him about this.
"Hang on a second… why did no one tell me about it?" Lin Mu wondered.
"Is the existence of such a temple kept secret, Senior?" Lin Mu asked.
"No… quite the opposite, actually. They prefer for everyone to know about them, so that they can obtain their worship." Xukong replied. "Even commoners can pray to them freely and no one can restrict them from doing so. This has been decreed by the four guardian beast clans themselves." He elaborated.
"Then… how did no one tell me such important intimation?" Lin Mu was doubtful.
"Well… why don't you just ask them?" Xukong suggested.
"Yeah! I should do that." Lin Mu opened his eyes and called for Kunzi.
~step~step~
The man appeared to meet Lin Mu rather quick.
"Kunzi, do you know about the Temple of the Four Guardian beasts?" Lin Mu questioned.
"I think I've heard of it." Kunzi said after thinking for a bit.
"Why didn't you tell me about it before?" Lin Mu asked.
"Umm, I don't know much about it either. The only thing I know is that they are a religion that is worshiped by two of the three Empires; the Dao Wind Empire and the Huiqing Empire." Kunzi replied.
"There aren't any such temples located in the Eight Kingdom Alliance?" Lin Mu raised a brow.
"No. There are only temples in the three empires." Kunzi replied.
"Even in the Holy Topaz Empire? I thought you said it is worshipped in only two empires?" Lin Mu asked for clarification.
"I don't know the exact situation. I've only heard this in passing from merchants from the other empires. Some of them were worshipers of these temples." Kunzi replied.
"I see…" Lin Mu felt confused.
He dismissed Kunzi and asked Immortal Taegu the same question. Lin Mu reckoned, since the man used to be a merchant too, he might have better information. And the answer he got from the man was a definitely better than Kunzi's.
"The Four guardian beasts are actually worshipped in all three empires. The only differences is that for the Huiqing empire and the Dao Wind Empire, it is the main religion. In the Holy Topaz Continent their main religion is different.
The Four guardian beasts are worshipped along with the ancestor of the Holy Topaz Empire. They take ancestral worship as their priority. Or at least the royal family and nobles do.
The commoners mostly worship the four guardian beasts." Immortal Taegu explained in detail.
"I understand now…" Lin Mu felt it clearly. "Though why is it that there is no temple in the Eight Kingdom alliance?" he asked.
"I don't know. But the main religion here has always been Ancestral worship. Perhaps that's why no new temples were ever made." Immortal Taegu guessed.
"He is probably right." Xukong spoke at this time.
"He is? So it's not needed for the entire world to worship them?" Lin Mu asked.
"No… the four guardian beast clans are not arrogant enough to ask for exclusive worship. Further more since they are aligned to the orthodox path, almost no orthodox power has conflicts with them.
Or rather, most powers will want to try to curry favor with them. After all, the benefits they provide are quite big." Xukong replied in detail.
Hearing about benefits made Lin Mu's ears perk up.
"What kind of benefits?" Lin Mu inquired.
"The temples of the four guardians often hold competitions and allow the winners to obtain some reward from them. This reward can be in the form of cultivation technique, Qi skills, raw resources or more.
But the one that is most sought after is none other than their bloodline essence." Xukong answered.
"Wait… they offer their bloodline?" Lin Mu was stunned.
By now he had understood that the four guardian beasts would be really strong and were literally worshipped. This meant that whoever obtained their bloodline would become very strong and have great talent as well.
Offering such a reward was not light either. After all, to do bloodline assimilation one needed to kill a beast and extract its bloodline essence. Doing that meant that such guardian beasts would have to be killed.
This seemed rather opposite to their existence.
"Yes, they do. Though it isn't pure." Xukong confirmed. "Which is also why they can be assimilated by humans. If it was pure bloodline essence, it would be too strong for most cultivators to bear." He added.
"They don't need to die to get this?" Lin Mu was still stuck on that part.
"Of course not. For beasts on the level of the four guardians, even a strand of their fur would contain their bloodline. Passing this on as a reward basically costs them nothing." Xukong explained.
"No wonder…" Lin Mu took a breath of relief.
For normal beasts, one needed to utilize their entire body to get the bloodline essence. And even then, the chances of a proper bloodline essence crystal forming weren't 100%. One might need to do multiple tries before making a proper one.
Lin Mu himself had made them before and knew how difficult they were to refine and make.
But this information gave Lin Mu another thought. One that was a lot more ambitious.
"Then can I obtain their bloodline too?" Lin Mu couldn't help but wonder. "It should be above the Great Slumber Bear Bloodline, right?"
"If you are in luck, you might be able to obtain it indeed." Xukong said giving Lin Mu hope. "But it won't necessarily be comparable to the Great Slumber bear bloodline. Don't forget what they give out as reward isn't a full or pure bloodline. Your Great Slumber Bear Bloodline alone is enough to take you to the peak of Immortal realm and perhaps even above it."
"Though… it is still a good thing to visit the temple. You can still obtain their techniques and skills."
