Read Rise Of The Worm Sovereign Chapter 91 - Ceremony? online for free - AllNovelFull
Lin Wu was surpassed by Shirong's words and didn't think that they were here to kill someone. Still, it was not really a concern of his and all he could do right now was to observe.
As soon as Shirong gave the order, all of them jumped down from the roof and entered the old temple. The doors of the temple were already open and seemed like they were never even closed. But looking at it closer, Lin Wu could tell that the reason was simply because they were broken from the hinge and were simply left like that.
Shirong looked around and scanned the area with his spirit sense only to find that the priest that he was looking for was right to the corner. Lin Wu also got to take a look at the temple due to this and saw that there were actually three statues placed in the center of the temple.
There was a circle in the center, and around it, the three statues were erected in a triangular pattern. Although the rest of the temple was rather deteriorated, the statues were still relatively well maintained. The three statues were each of a beast.
The statue at the top of the triangular formation was that of a turtle, the one to the left of the triangle was a tiger, and finally to the right was the dragon. Looking at them, Lin Wu was reminded of the three guardians of the Ming Dao world.
"Hmm, I think I read something about this, didn't I?" Lin Wu muttered and tried to remember.
A moment later he remembered the importance of the three statues. The temple that Lin Wu was in was called as the temple of the three guardians and was the biggest religion of the Ming Dao world. Each and every clan and sect in this world worshiped the three guardians beasts.
Even if there were other religions in this world they did not really conflict with the religion of the three guardians, so nearly everyone was fine with it. Though there were certain exceptions, such as the unorthodox cultivators and cults that would worship evil gods and deities.
Lin Wu knew that in a cultivation world like this, while religion seemed a bit strange as there were people that were literally 'gods' they still had a certain value. At least in terms of the religion of the three guardians, they seemed to provide some actual blessings to people.
Lin Wu wanted to take a deeper look at the detailed information, but realized that he should focus on what was going on in front of him right now.
"There he is!" Bei Wen pointed.
The priest who had been kneeling all this time in the corner opened his eyes. The priest looked like he was in his sixties and had wrinkles on his face. He was wearing some old but clean robes that depicted the three guardian beasts on the back.
"Ah seems like some fellow Daoists have come to visit this old temple." The priest spoke with a calm voice.
Shirong did not reply and simply gestured with his eyes. The three men that were under their control moved forwards at a great speed and surrounded the priest. The priest seemed shocked by this and could not really react before the three men made a move.
~Shing~
~Splatter~
Each of them had stabbed a dagger through the body of the priest. One of them entered from his left side of the body into the heart, the second one did the same but from the right side and then the third one from the very center of his chest.
~Cough~
"Wha-what did this old priest do to warrant this? We have nothing of value here…" The priest uttered with difficulty before falling silent.
His eyes rolled back into his head and he took his last breath. In that moment, Lin Wu was able to sense that the three men who were being controlled were actually all core condensation realm cultivators! Even the priest that died was a core condensation realm cultivator.
"What are they doing? Why would they randomly kill that guy?" Lin Wu wondered.
Shirong then looked at Bei Wen and Ye Dai.
"Are they ready?" He asked.
Both of them held their respective communication jade slips and closed their eyes for a moment before answering.
"The ceremony has not started in the main temple. The men will act when it reaches the correct moment." Both Ye Dai and Bei Wen spoke.
"Good," Shirong said as he nodded his head.
He then started making certain mudras and formation runes appeared in the air. Ye Dai and Bei Wen stood to the side and did not dare to interfere in whatever their young master was doing. The three men who were being controlled had been ordered to stand in front of the statues instead.
Shirong kept on making more and more mudras, controlling the runes that were floating around. The runes would attach to the walls of the temple, while some of them would simply float around in the air. Five minutes passed and by now a complex formation array had been set up.
Ye Dai and Bei Wen were a bit dumbstruck by seeing this, as the entire formation array was set up without the use of any additional components.
"Young master's attainments in formations are simply outstanding." Ye Dai praised.
Shirong finally stopped setting up the formation array and wiped the beads of sweat that had appeared on his forehead.
"Nows the most sensitive time, how's the ceremony progressing on the other end?" Shirong asked.
Bei Wen checked and furrowed his brows.
"They have still not started for some reason." He informed.
"Did they suspect something?" Ye Dai asked with concern.
"Doesn't matter, we already have the scapegoats. Even if they find us, we shouldn't have much problem." Shirong replied.
They then waited for about eight minutes, after which Bei Wen suddenly spoke.
"They've started the ceremony!"
"Get in positions," Shirong ordered, making Bei Wen and Ye Dai move to each of the controlled men.
Shirong stood in front of one of the controlled men as well and took out a dagger. This was mirrored by the two followers as well.
They stood still for a moment and then stabbed into the hearts of the three controlled men at the same time.
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The entire thing seemed extremely creepy to Lin Wu and looked like an evil ritual.
"Are they cultists? What the hell are they doing?" Lin Wu wondered.
After the three controlled men were stabbed their blood did not spill out. Instead, it started floating and formed a stream of blood which then started covering the three statues. Soon the three statues were stained blood red.
Once all of the blood had been drained out of the three men, their bodies fell to the ground. A different formation array appeared in the circular area between the three statues and sent out waves of spirit qi. These waves of spirit qi reached the dead priest and tried to affect him.
But perhaps because the priest was dead, nothing happened and the waves failed. Then the three statues glowed in a blood red light which slowly increased in intensity.
Shirong and the rest moved to the back and let everything happened. Bei Wen had a slightly confused expression and seemed to want to ask something, but did not want to disturb. A minute passed during which the blood red light kept on increasing in brightness and was now covering the entire room.
"Why are we doing this though Young master? I mean what use would be this old and broken temple of the three guardians?" Bei Wen questioned unable to hold back his curiosity.
Ye Dai looked at Bei Wen and Shirong fully expecting him to be bothered by Bei Wen's question. He knew that his young master did not like to be disturbed at important moments such as these. But surprisingly Shirong was calm and did not become angry.
"Most people do not know, but each of the temples of the three guardians are linked together. This is a secret that only a few clans and sects know. Even if this temple had now nearly been abandoned and is not used for worship, it still has the formation array that links it to the other temples. And as long as this formation works, the temples can interact with each other." Shirong spoke.
While Bei Wen got the answer, he still seemed confused.
"But what is the use of this Young master?" Ye Dai asked, seeing that his young master seemed to be in a good mood.
"You know the story about how the three guardians came to be?" Shirong questioned.
"Yes, the three guardians appeared in a time of strife ten thousand years ago. They stopped the great war that was happening back then, and peace was restored to the world. After that, the people started worshiping the three guardian beasts and the three great clans were established." Ye Dai answered.
"Correct, but what most people don't know is the reason behind the great war. The great war was actually… an invasion." Shirong revealed.
A shocked expression appeared on both Ye Dai and Bei Wen's faces. Even Lin Wu was very interested in this, as this was not mentioned in any of the documents that he had read in the rings. Even the data nodes that he had obtained from the dead men did not have this kind of information.
But the story about the establishment of the three guardian beasts that Ye Dai said was something Lin Wu had learned from the data nodes. This was something that nearly every person in the world knew.
"Hmm, so the full truth behind it was hidden from the masses. How… cliche," Lin Wu muttered.
"Back then this world was quite backward, and there were no immortals that had ever appeared. The invaders were actually cultivators from a different world and were attacking this world to obtain its resources. This is something that was quite common and is the same thing that happens every day in our world too. The only difference is that we fight for resources amongst ourselves while they were fighting an entirely different world.
The invaders were clearly much stronger and proficient than the people of that time. Our world's people were on the losing side until when three powerful clans of that time found ancient relics. They didn't know where these relics were from, but had just randomly found them one day.
These relics were none other than the three original statues of the beasts that became guardians of our world. The clans awakened the relics and summoned the three great beasts. The might of the three great beasts was incomparable to the invaders, and they were quickly defeated.
After that, the three great beasts were requested to become the guardians of our world. The beasts agreed, and in exchange, the clans established the religion of the three guardian beasts. The guardian beasts would bless some people when they were happy with them and bestow them with great abilities.
They would also help in the times of distress and could answer questions. Though a lot of these things reduced and the three clans started controlling the worlds. They erased the information about the things that the temples could do and only let the people know of worshiping them." Shirong explained.
Ye Dai and Bei Wen had complex expressions after hearing this and knew that this information was something that they never would have been privy to had it not been for Young master Shirong.
"Then what the clans want to do is…" Bei Wen uttered with realization.
"Yes… somehow they were able to find an old tome which mentioned a ceremony that can be used to seek the guidance of the three guardian beasts. Since they think the bloodline suppression was created by the beast of the forbidden zone, and that it is an otherworld beast, they thought it would be best to seek the guidance of the three guardians.
I do not know what the three guardians would do, but it is likely that the presence of the green crystal spear could be revealed. These past few days I could feel that the spear had suppressed itself, and now I knew why it was so.
The guardian beasts stopped the invaders, thus they would definitely know if a beast and weapon of a foreign world appeared in this world. While I want this information too, I cannot let the clans find out about it." Shirong spoke.
"Damn, this is some big brain play." Lin Wu said, feeling amazed.
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After listening to Shirong's words, the two followers Ye Dai and Bei Wen understood the reasoning behind what they were doing. But just as they did this, they felt a wave of qi emanating from a place that was away from their current location.
"Young master, it has started!" Bei Wen said.
"But this… isn't it too strong. I don't remember any other ceremony having an effect like this. Even the blessing ceremonies were much more low key than this." Ye Dai said with concern.
"That's exactly what I was worried about. The clans were able to find out one of the rituals that had long since disappeared. The rituals that most people now know aren't that powerful and thus don't have the same effect.
The one they are using is certainly quite different, and we have to stop it." Shirong said with a serious expression on his face.
He then walked out of the temple and gazed outside in the direction of the qi fluctuations. The two men also followed him and soon saw the glow in the distance. They could see a three colored light from the direction of the main temple of the three guardians.
The light was in the form of a triangle with the top vertex being black in color, the left one being white in color and the right one being blue in color. The three colors represented the three guardian beasts, with the black representing the turtle beast, white representing the tiger beast and the blue representing the dragon beast.
Seeing the Tri colored light presented a few questions to Lin Wu. From all the novels he had learned, there were usually four guardian beasts pertaining to the four cardinal directions. While the three guardians here represented three out of the four directions, the final beast which should have been the vermilion bird was missing.
Another thing was that the names of the beast weren't exactly the same from what he knew and even looking at the statues of the beasts he could tell that they were exactly not the same beasts as those from the myths.
'Perhaps I'm wrong and they are some other beasts. Could it just be a coincidence?' Lin Wu wondered.
Ye Dai and Bei Wen were looking at the light with complex expressions. Bei Wen received a message from his communication jade and looked towards his young master.
"It has been done, young master." Bei Wen stated.
"Good, let's go back in. I want to see if we were successful or not." Shirong replied.
The two followers nodded and they entered the old temple only to see that the three colored light was emitting from the three statues as well. But it seemed to be restricted by the blood that covered the three statues.
The circular formation array that was in the center of the statues glowed with strange characters and the Tri colored light coming from the main temple increased as well.
"Now!" Shirong shouted.
Ye Dai and Bei Wen gestured with their hands, forming seals, while Shirong did the same. Tens of seals were formed and new runes started appearing in the air. The runes kept on increasing in number until the entirety of the temple was filled with them.
"SEAL!" Shirong commanded with bloodshot eyes.
Bei Wen and Ye Dai flicked their hands and the runes sticked onto the statues of the three beasts. This seemed to have created a chain reaction which could be felt by Shirong. It was being transmitted from the circular formation array in the center of the three statues and transferred over to the main temple as well.
Back at the main temple, there were many people standing around in the hall. They had a myriad of expressions on their faces. Some were angry, some were sad, and some were scared. In the side, three people could be seen lying dead.
The ceremony for which they had been planning for the past week seemed to have taken a wrong turn. All was progressing well until something strange happened and the formations in the Temple became unstable. Even the statues started shaking and the light emitting from them dimmed down.
Then a wave of spirit qi came from the formation array that was located in the center of the three guardian beast statues and knocked over most of the people. Some of them even sustained injuries, but the most serious ones were none other than the three men that had died.
Their condition was gruesome, and they had died by bleeding out of their seven apertures. They had all seen something like this before and knew that the bleeding of seven apertures was a classic sign of extreme qi deviation.
But qi deviation did not always cause death, besides in this case these men were not cultivating at all but were rather participating in the ceremony.
"Who were these men?" Clan Head Lu questioned the people.
"Senior, they were some of the wandering cultivators of our city and applied to the notice that we had sent out." One of the men there spoke.
"What do we do now, clan head Lu?" Asked Clan Head Meng with concern.
A troubled expression appeared on Clan head Lu's face as he scratched his beard.
"What can we even do at this point? What's done is done, the lives have been lost." Clan Head Lu spoke.
"But the ceremony…" Clan Head Xiong interrupted.
"The ceremony was defective, that's all. We all knew that we were only trying our luck at performing what clan Head Mu Had discovered. Nothing was mentioned in the scriptures that he found about there being a chance of people dying. It's obvious that either the ceremony was incorrect or we missed some instructions." Clan head Lu stated with a little anger in his voice.
~Gulp~
Clan head Xiong swallowed his saliva after hearing his words and knew that this would be bad for the reputation of their city. The men who had died were core condensation realm cultivators, and in most of the kingdoms, they would have high enough position.
If they had any backers they would definitely be coming to question them and they would be needing to give them sufficient compensation.
~Sigh~
All of the clan heads shared A collective sigh in the hall.
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In the old temple, Shirong and his two followers were staring at the three statues. The glow from them had dissipated and the blood covering them was also starting to fade away.
Not only were they tired after making all the formations and controlling the runes, they knew that they now had to retreat soon. While they had made effort to make sure that they would not be suspected, Shirong still wanted to be cautious.
But they still had to wait and see if there were any changes to the statues after the process was fully completed. Thus they waited for about five more minutes and saw that everything returned to how it was before.
"It should be fine now, collect the corpses and dispose of them at a right time," Shirong ordered.
Bei Wen nodded and went to collect the corpses of the three men who were controlled and that of the old priest. He stored them in his spatial storage ring. After storing them, he had a slightly displeased expression on his face as his spatial storage ring was now fully filled.
Bei Wen's spatial storage ring was a mid grade one and thus did not have much space. Before storing the corpses it was already half filled and now adding the three corpses had fully filled it. If it were up to him, he would have disposed of the corpses right away, but according to the plan he had to wait for the right time.
Depending on the situation, the corpses could still be used to divert attention and thus they had to keep them. If they disposed of them early on, then it would be a shame.
"Let's go now," Shirong ordered.
The three of them created the tiger masks again on their faces and walked out of the temple. Sometime while making the formations, the tiger masks had dissipated, most likely due to it lacking energy. After making the tiger masks though, Ye Dai and Bei Wen's qi fluctuation became significantly lower. It was evident that the technique used up quite a bit of spirit qi to operate.
They circled around the path they came from just to be cautious and returned to their respective courtyards. Just a minute after Shirong had returned to his courtyard, a knock was heard on his door.
"Young Master Shirong, the clan heads have called in an emergency meeting." Spoke a voice from outside.
"That was fast… seems like they were more worried about this than I expected," Shirong muttered.
He walked to the door and opened it, only to see one of the Juniors of the Lu clan waiting for him there. He had seen the man before and nodded at him.
"Alright, let's go. But what is the reason for the emergency meeting?" Shirong probed.
"Umm, I do not know. The clan head simply instructed me to bring you." The junior answered.
'Hmm, so they want to keep it hidden for the time being.' Shirong thought.
But while following the junior, he realized that they were not heading towards the meeting hall but rather the direction of the main Temple of the three guardians.
"Are we not going to the meeting hall?" Shirong questioned.
"No, Young master. The clan head asked for the meeting to be held at the temple for some reason." The junior spoke.
Shirong did not speak anything and simply nodded.
'That makes sense considering the speed of this response.' He reckoned.
"Why do I feel like something big is going to happen?" Lin Wu said inside the ring.
Far beyond the Ming Dao world, there existed a gigantic palace.
Precious stones and metals had been used in its construction, and an auspicious aura could be felt all around it. Even the qi in the area was dense enough to be condensed into clouds that varied in a myriad of shades. There were purple, blue, pink, green and golden clouds in the sky forming a mystical scene.
There were countless precious herbs and flowers everywhere in the lands around the palaces and all of them emanated a thick qi. The fragrance of the Flowers was absolutely tantalizing and if a mortal were to come here, just being in the vicinity of them would push them to the peak of health.
There were spirit beasts flying in the air that had various forms. The beasts would let out cries and growls while traveling through the clouds, enjoying it very much.
Inside this giant palace, there was a long hall. This hall was a throne room and at the end of it was a twelve feet tall golden throne.
A regal looking man was currently sitting on this throne. He himself was over fifteen feet tall and had a long mustache that came all the way down to his chest. He had a blue crown on his head and his hair was tied up in the style of royalty.
He wore azure blue robes and various designs were present on the robes. But the most eye catching thing about him was the power coming from him. Just the qi that he was breathing in and out was dense enough to cause immortal Ascension realm experts to explode.
One could tell that this was no common man, if he was a man at all.
The man was sitting silently on the throne and had his eyes closed in contemplation. The rest of the throne room was empty, yet it did not feel like that. If one looked at it closely, they could see hundreds of ethereal silhouettes sitting on the rest of the seats in the hall.
All of them were emanating qi, but not just any qi, it was immortal qi!
Yet in front of all these figures, the qi from the regal looking man was oppressive. One could not even tell what kind of qi was surrounding the Azure robed man.
A few steps were heard as a nine feet tall man walked into the hall. The man was wearing green robes and had long hair as well. But the attitude he presented was rather servile and could be seen as he kneeled in greeting after reaching the hall.
"My king, an old beacon was activated…"
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The Regal-looking man spared the servant no glance and kept his silence.
"And why would you bring an issue like this to the king?" One of the illusory figures sitting in the hall questioned.
With his question, a might spread in the hall and put pressure on the servant. But even then the servant was unfazed and kept his posture.
"My king, the old beacon was incomplete after the activation." The servant added.
Finally, some sense of response could be seen in the king's posture. He still didn't open his eyes, neither did his lips move, but a voice was heard in the hall. The voice was powerful, and it was as if it spoke to their souls themselves.
"An incomplete beacon? Were the avatars summoned?" The king questioned.
"They were indeed, but it was for an invokement ceremony." The servant answered.
"An invokement ceremony?" The king asked and opened his eyes.
"Yes my king, I checked ten times and it was indeed that." The servant hurriedly confirmed.
"Shouldn't it be the turn for the vermilion bird clan this time? Why were we asked?" The king questioned, feeling a bit confused.
"My king, for some reason this beacon… does not have the relic of the vermilion bird clan." The servant answered.
"What? How?" This time it was one of the illusory figures that asked.
"What junior was assigned to that beacon?" Another one of the illusory figures questioned.
The servant seemed a bit hesitant to speak after hearing the questions, but he still brought forth courage and spilled it.
"It… it wasn't one of the Juniors of our clan, my lords." The servant answered.
"Then who was it?" The king questioned this time with furrowed brows.
"It was… one of my great grand descendent's from the twenty second branch." The servant spoke in an embarrassed tone.
"What! So it's not someone with the true bloodline and not even a servant? A mere descendant beast!" shouted one of the illusory figures that had questioned the servant.
"Ye-yes, my lords." The servant confirmed.
"Why are we even discussing this? What kind of a backward world was that beacon assigned to? If it's one of the descendant beasts then it should be a mortal world right?" The king replied.
"Yes, my king. The reason I believed this to be worth your time was because while the beacon was activated for the invokement ceremony, someone or something suppressed it breaking the connection. If it were a true beacon that was handled by one of the disciples, then this would have been impossible.
But since this lowly servant's worthless descendants were involved, I beg for forgiveness. Another thing that bothers me is that the beacon is incomplete, it is missing the vermilion bird clan's avatar. I do not know how something like this happened." The servant explained.
The hall went silent after this, and no one dared to disturb the king while he was thinking. Even if they were given ten thousand guts, they would still not attempt something like this. Their king had reached a level which they had no idea of. All they could do was look up to him.
It was as if the time itself had slowed down in the hall and the silence had still the minds of the people. The servant was still kneeling on the ground even after ten hours had passed by.
"What is the name of this world?" The king finally asked after thinking for a long while.
"According to the records, this was originally a nameless world till a few millenniums ago, but after the first few immortals ascended from that world it was known as the Ming Dao world. Not that unique for a mortal world. I cross checked the other worlds that have the same names and only found this one to be assigned to my branch.
The beacon in the world had fully been activated only once, and that was during the inception ceremony. After the awakening of the avatars, and the linking of celestial energy, it was never awakened. There were some blessing ceremonies conducted and invokement ceremonies that were done, but none of them were directed to us.
But suddenly this has happened." The Servant explained in detail.
The king went silent for a few hours again, and the servant did not move either.
Perhaps if this was the court of the mortal world, a scene like this would have already created a huge uproar. But for a celestial world like this, a scene like this was nothing. For the people living here, time was the one thing they had the most.
"Go ahead then. Since it has been assigned to your descendant, investigate it as you see fit. If the beacon is found to be broken, send another one." The king spoke.
"Thank you for your guidance, my king." The servant replied with great respect.
"You are dismissed." The king added.
The servant stood up and moved out of the hall without facing away from the king. Showing one's back to the king was doing great disrespect to the king. Once the servant was gone, the king looked towards one of the illusory figures that were sitting to his right.
"Ao Dian Mo, inform the vermilion bird clan about this as well. Ask them to check on their end." The king ordered.
"As you command, my lord." The man named Ao Dian Mo spoke.
Outside the palace, the servant stepped up into the sky and turned into a streak of light. It was as if it passed through countless kilometers before arriving in a sea of stars. There, the light changed and turned into an Azure dragon that was ten kilometers long.
~ROAR~
An earth shattering roar was heard as the azure dragon swam in the sea of stars disappearing into the darkness.
Back at the Deer Wood city, the people were a bit startled by the events of today but were still relatively calm.
Shirong was walking towards the main temple of the three guardians and had no idea that his little act of stopping the ceremony had set into motion a grand chain of events.
A few minutes later, Shirong entered the main temple and saw all of the people standing there. There were the clan heads and also the other people they had recruited for the ceremony. Shirong's gaze wandered around the hall and spotted the three dead bodies.
A wide berth was given to the dead bodies, and it was as if the people were afraid of gaining bad luck if they were near the dead bodies. Shirong's eyes flickered for a moment and the calm look returned again. The people were facing away from him and had not seen his face.
Shirong's face twitched for a moment before an expression of great worry replaced the calm look.
"And there we go, Drama queen mode on!" Lin Wu commented while pulling out his imaginary bag of popcorn.
"What happened here Clan heads?" Shirong spoke with a troubled tone that concealed a hint of concern.
The people trained around to face him and a lot of changes were seen on their faces. Some were of regret, some of fear, and some of indifference.
~Sigh~
"We should have listened to your suggestion, Young master Shirong. We really had a misfortune as you had stated so before." Clan head Lu spoke answered with a crestfallen expression.
Shirong looked at the dead bodies with a sad look and nodded at the clan head Lu's words.
"No clan head Lu, this was simply something out of our control. All I said back then was that this could be possible, even I was not a hundred percent sure about it." Shirong replied.
"Still, perhaps we should have consulted about it more before attempting this. A week was too short, perhaps." Clan head Lu spoke.
"I admit the error in my research as well fell clan heads." Clan head Mu added.
Clan head Mu was the head of one of the top three clans and was neutral in most of the matters. Him admitting a mistake like this was a great thing, and the smaller clans were surprised. They knew that this was a collective decision and no one would blame clan head Mu even if something worse had happened.
'This is what you get when you do not listen to me.' Shirong thought in his mind.
A week ago, the clans had collectively decided to conduct the ceremony and for that, they needed a lot more core condensation realm experts. Shirong of course did not want them to do this and showed his disagreement. He posed that there could be dangerous effects and that the ceremony was most likely not correct.
The clans were willing to listen to his words but still chose to conduct the ceremony.
To make sure that this failed, Shirong had set up the entire thing and such was the result. But it was this very thing that had perhaps created an even bigger trouble for not only Shirong, but the entirety of the Ming Dao world.
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The clan heads looked on towards Clan Head Lu and Young master Shirong. They were waiting for a conclusion to this as they knew that things had already become complex.
"Young master Shirong, I believe that it would be better if you take the beast shell fragment back. I think it would be better if you search it with your resources." Clan Head Lu spoke after thinking for a bit.
"If you believe that's the best then I will not reject this clan head Lu. But do the other clan heads agree with this? I'll be fine if they are in a disagreement." Shirong spoke diplomatically.
"I am fine with it, Young master Shirong. And I believe the rest should be too." Clan Head Xiong replied.
"Yes, Young master it is all right." Clan Head Mu added as well.
The rest of the clan heads chimed in agreement, and none of them rejected this proposal. They had already seen what happened before and they did not want a thing of misfortune such as the beast shell fragment to be near them anymore.
"Since everyone is in agreement I shall accept it in my possession then," Shirong stated.
"Please take it, Young Master Shirong." Clan head Lu spoke and gestured with his hand.
The people moved to the side, revealing the beast shell fragment that was kept on an altar in the center of the three guardian statues. Unlike the statues in the old and broken temple, these were well maintained and not a single scratch could be seen on them.
There were also faint fluctuations of a certain kind of energy emanating from the statues, but they seemed to be different than those of the spirit qi.
"Hmm, this is interesting." Lin Wu muttered.
Shirong moved forward and secretly checked the statues with his spirit sense.
'Looks like everything went well, they are the same as before. No traces were left behind.' Shirong thought.
He then extended his hand and went to take a hold of the rock like beast shell fragment. But the moment his hand touched the fragment, he was knocked back flying.
"GAH!" Shirong yelped as he flew through the air helplessly.
The force released from the fragment was strong enough to break through his defenses.
"YOUNG MASTER!" Clan head Lu shouted.
The others did the same and rushed to check up on him.
~Cough~Cough~
Shirong coughed out some blood as he tried to move from the ground. He had been knocked about ten meters away and had slammed into the wall of the temple. The damage he bore was not due to slamming, rather it was due to the force that was released from the fragment.
Just slamming into the wall would have not even come close to harming Shirong as his body was quite tough for that, being in the pseudo nascent soul stage previously. The Clan heads gathered around Young master Shirong and clan Head Lu pulled out a pill to feed to Shirong.
Shirong could sense that it was a high grade healing pill and accepted it without much thought.
~Haah~
Shirong let out a slightly pain filled breath and sat down cross legged to recover. While it did not look like he had sustained any physical injuries, that was not so. His core had been rocked hard and Shirong could sense the spirit qi within it getting restless.
If he did not stabilize it quick, it would have become quite dangerous for him. He had barely recovered from his internal injuries recently and did not want them to open up again.
"What was that?" One of the clan heads questioned.
Clan Head Lu had a serious expression on his face as he looked back at the altar. It looked the same as before, and not a smidgen of energy could be felt from it.
"Seal the temple! No one gets close to the fragment till we know what happened." Clan head Lu ordered.
The clan heads quickly nodded and clan head Mu took out some things from his spatial storage treasure. He immediately started setting up restrictive formations around the altar while the others placed barriers around the temple.
The people who were outside were surprised on seeing all the influential clan heads suddenly flying out of the temple and setting up formations.
"Look! What are they doing?" One of the commoners questioned.
"All people are ordered to keep a distance from the temple until further notice." One of the guards that had been stationed outside the Temple shouted.
It was evident that they had been instructed to do so, and the people heeded those orders hurriedly. The people knew that nothing good would come out of lingering around here, and they should not challenge the authority of the clan heads.
After the people were all gone, more guards arrive and set up a perimeter around the temple's area.
"The area is secure, my lord." One of the guards reported to the clan head that was overseeing security.
"Good, ensure no one comes near." The clan head spoke before returning to the temple.
Shirong had been recovering for about an hour now, and no one dared to disturb him. Clan head Lu was standing near him as a Dharma protector and kept his spirit sense extended around. While he was sure that no one would dare to do anything here, he still had to keep up certain pretenses.
If the Ji clan ever learned that he did not act as a Dharma protector when their heir was injured, his life could be on the line.
Meanwhile, Lin Wu was wondering what exactly had happened. Unlike the others who had not felt the wave of energy as it had been concentrated on Shirong, Lin Wu had. His link with Shirong ensured that he received full feedback from it.
Besides, the system was always keeping a close eye on Shirong's body so as to gain more information about the cultivation techniques and had fully recorded everything.
"Man, that guy got folded…" Lin Wu muttered, recalling how Shirong flew through the air.
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Lin Wu was currently reading through the report that the system had compiled after analyzing the energy that had knocked Shirong back.
"Hahaha!" Lin Wu laughed, "So it was his own fault that this happened to him."
According to the system's analysis, the force that Shirong was struck with was directly proportional to the sum of all people's average strength in the hall. Even the weakest person in the hall was at the core condensation realm as had been decided by the clan heads for the ceremony.
The three strongest people were the top three clan heads; Lu, Xiong and Mu. Clan head Lu was a nascent soul realm cultivator while clan Head Xiong and Mu were at the pseudo nascent soul realm. In total, there were thirty three people in the hall.
"So it was the thing that Shirong did back at the old temple that caused this." Lin Wu said as he continued reading the report.
The seal that Shirong had created there had blocked the operating of the three guardian statues in the main temple. While it seemed like it had been stopped, the truth was all the spirit qi that had been poured by the people in this hall was still trapped within it.
It was not able to go to its intended place due to the seal; this was when Shirong touched the fragment, and the energy escaped to the only place it could go to- Shirong's body. But the thing was this energy was not pure spirit qi, if it had been so, Shirong would have been able to forcible manage it.
"Heck, I would have directly absorbed it if it was spirit qi. I don't think Shirong would have minded it either." Lin Wu chuckled.
But no, the energy had been changed due to the effect of the three guardian statues and the ceremony. Even the system was not able to tell what kind of energy this was, and all it got was errors. While there were some similarities to the spirit qi, there were also some unknown variables mixed in.
What Shirong had just felt was nothing, but the combined attack of all the people in the hall, in simple terms. This was why he was having such a hard time controlling his spirit qi now and had to focus on it totally.
In fact, Shirong had to forcibly cut off his senses so that he would not be disturbed. He knew that he was at a critical juncture and any minor mistake could lead him to suffer from a qi deviation.
"Clan head Lu, I've checked the altar and the fragment. There are no traces of any kind of energy there. Whatever it was, it was contained on Young master Shirong. Another thing is that all the formations we set up for the ceremony had been shattered." Clan Head Mu spoke.
Clan Head Lu had a frown on his face after hearing this.
"What do you think will happen if someone were to check the fragment?" Clan head Lu questioned.
"From all my analysis nothing should happen, but I cannot be sure seeing that we had no inkling of this before Young master Shirong touched the fragment." Clan head Mu stated.
"Hmm, then you think we should ask someone to test it out?" Clan head Lu asked.
"That would be for the best. But I do not know if this would be good for the person attempting this. What if they were not able to bear the brunt of it? We cannot forget that Young master Shirong is much stronger than most people here." Clan head Mu replied.
One of the smaller clan heads seemed to have heard them talk and went forward.
"Please let me try it, I volunteer." Spoke the small clan head.
"Clan head Tie are you sure of this? We can ask a slave to do this too." Clan Head Lu asked.
"No clan head Lu, a slave will not be able to sense if something were to happen. Besides, I got a few defensive treasures on me that I shall use. Young master Shirong was simply caught off guard I believe, or he should have been able to resist it easily." Clan head Tie replied, not forgetting to bootlick Shirong, even when he was unable to hear it.
~Sigh~
"Alright, if that is what you wish." Clan head Lu permitted.
Clan Head Tie cupped his hands before taking out a few talismans from his spatial storage treasure and activating them. A few defensive barriers appeared on his body and he got ready to approach the fragment. The rest of the clan heads watched closely and were ready to act if anything were to happen.
Clan Head Lu waved his hands and created a few more barriers around Clan head Tie. The others were in awe when they saw clan head Lu do this, as it was something only nascent soul realm cultivators could do. When one reached the nascent soul realm, they were able to freely manipulate the spirit qi in the air.
Thus creating a few a barrier like this was quite an easy task for clan head Lu. Clan head Tie cupped his hands once again in gratefulness and continued onward.
~Gulp~
He swelled his saliva and took a deep breath before extending his hand. His heart started beating faster and faster the closer his hand got to the fragment.
"Huh?" Clan Head Tie uttered in confusion as his hand easily touched the beast shell fragment.
He picked it up and checked it in all angles before a relieved expression appeared on his face.
"It is safe, Clan head!" Clan head Tie shouted.
Lin Wu was unable to see this as his means of observation had been cut off with Shirong restraining his spirit sense. But he was still able to hear the things that people were speaking close by. This was done by letting a small opening in the spatial storage ring's dimension and letting the sound reach inside.
"Of course it wouldn't do anything to you, there is nothing left in it you dumbos..." Lin Wu said with a humored tone.
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After it was established that everything was fine and there was no risk in coming close with the beast shell fragment, the people in the hall took a breath of relief. But the restrictions and formations placed in the Temple were still not removed.
Even if it was confirmed that they were safe, there was still Young Master Shirong who was injured. They wanted to let him recover first and did not want to disturb him. Thus they all waited patiently for Young Master Shirong to wake up.
But after a day had passed and Young Master Shirong had not shown a single response, they were getting worried. Not to mention that they now had tasks to do that had been pending for a day.
"Clan head Lu, what do we do?" Clan head Meng asked with concern.
All of the clan heads had the same question in their minds and they wanted to return to their clans. Normally they were all quite busy men and seldom had time to do something like this. Them giving time to Young Master Shirong like this was already quite a big thing.
But on the other hand, they had no choice but to do this so as to give face to the Ji clan. They all knew the power of the Ji clan, and their influence was spread far and wide. A few bad words reaching the ears of the clan could easily spell doom for them.
"Set up a secure path, we will move Young master Shirong to his courtyard and lock down the city. No one new comes in or goes out." Clan Head Lu ordered.
The people in the room took a breath of relief. Some of the other non affiliated cultivators that had been recruited by the clan for the ceremony were simply watching this. They knew that they had little say in this and besides, they were getting paid by the clans.
The clan heads nodded their head and some of them went to get things ready. Within an hour everything was done, and they were proceeding to the next step. Clan head Lu waved his hand and floated the tile that young master Shirong was sitting on to a palanquin.
The palanquin had been specially brought here and was big enough for the entire tile. The temple hall looked a bit strange with the tile missing, but the people did not bother with it much. The tile would be easily replaced.
After placing the Young master Shirong in the palanquin, it was moved over to the courtyard he was staying in. They moved at a slow speed so as to not disturb the young master. Even a curfew had been declared in the city and everyone was ordered to stay indoors. If anyone was seen outside, they would be sent to prison without any chance for complaints.
People took this very seriously, and the small criminal groups in the city were shaking in their boots. They did not know why a curfew like this was initiated, but they could not help but think that it could be to catch them.
But when the curfew was lifted six hours later, the people were a bit dumbfounded as nothing seemed to have happened. No one knew that all of this was done, just so that young master Shirong could be safely transported to his courtyard.
After placing him in the courtyard the clan heads all took their leave, while the clan head Lu personally set up a protective formation array on the courtyard. There were already a lot of them there, but he personally reinforced them.
A lot of guards were also placed around the courtyard, and the security in the entire district was raised by a notch.
Lin Wu was observing some things but was restricted to the immediate vicinity of Shirong.
~Sigh~
"What am I supposed to do now? Do I just wait and watch?" Lin Wu wondered.
~Ding~
——
SYSTEM ANALYSIS: complete.
——
Just as Lin Wu thought of that, the notification sounded again. This time it was a surprise for Lin Wu as he did not know what the system had analyzed. He opened the new window that popped up on the side and started reading it.
~Ding~
——
REPORT: The system has analyzed the energy that has infected Shirong's core. It is still unknown what kind of energy it is, but the system can remove it from Shirong if the host wants it. Though this procedure has a 60% rate of success and in the event of failure will harm Shirong.
——
Lin Wu had not expected that the system would take initiative and do something like this on its own. Still, Lin Wu did not mind it and reckoned it was fine. But this opened up some more ideas for him, and he started to think of how to take advantage of this situation again.
"System, what is the condition of Shirong now?" Lin Wu questioned, wanting to know more aspects first.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: Shirong is trying to resolve the infective energy on his own and is currently attempting to isolate it. System's prediction is that he will eject the energy after it has been isolated. The energy has slight compatibility with spirit qi, but Shirong's current cultivation base seems too low for him to handle it.
——
"Hmm, let's see. He's trying to isolate it, huh?" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
He then formed a plan in his mind and took an hour to do this. After it was done, he started instructing the system to do certain things.
"If this works, then I'll be able to control this guy much better." Lin Wu uttered with anticipation.
"System, DO IT!" Lin Wu ordered.
Shirong who had been sitting calmly all this time suddenly trembled. He had cut off his sense all this while and was fully focused on resolving the problem that he was in currently. He had not expected that the connection he had with the Green crystal spear would suddenly activate, when it had been silent for all this time.
Then he felt as if a burning hot blade was stabbed into his abdomen.
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Shirong could not help but let out a pain filled grunt. He felt scared at this as he had sealed his senses and yet this was able to pass through them. The pain in his abdomen seemed to be coming from a foreign source that Shirong felt was a bit familiar.
He wanted to resist, but as soon as he tried that, his hold over the rampaging energy weakened as well.
~Cough~
Shirong inadvertently coughed out blood as the energy rocked his core again. He was able to hold on with great difficulty and could not even use a healing pill. He felt that losing even a moment's focus could spell doom for him.
He was helpless and could only let the foreign source enter his body. But in a surprise to him, the foreign source looked like a spirit qi construct. The construct entered his dantian but did not harm him, rather it started covering the entirety of his dantian.
Now it was as if a shell had been created in Shirong dantian. This shell contained his core and was present in a different layer of his dantian. The shell that was formed released needle like spikes from it that suddenly stabbed into his core.
"GAH!" Another painful cry escaped his mouth.
But the pain was momentary: as soon after the needles had stabbed into his dantian, he felt as if the rampaging energy in his core was getting restrained. He kept on watching curiously and saw that it started stabilizing.
He could then feel as if channels were being carved into his core and within them, the rampaging energy was being directed. Little by little it entered the channels, but what Shirong did not notice was that its quantity was decreasing.
By the time all of the ramping energy had entered his core, it had unknowingly reduced by half. The channel was a new thing that Shirong had never heard of before. He knew that certain cultivators could form unique cores that had different properties.
This could be a result of their cultivation techniques or their unique physiques. Shirong had not expected that he would one day have a unique core as well. But there was still the question of whether this would be beneficial for him or not.
After more time, the shell that had formed over his core started shrinking and merging with his core. The channels that were once present on the surface of the core were now hidden beneath the shell. Once this was done, he suddenly felt a lot more comfortable.
All the rampaging energy had disappeared and he felt his control over his core return. Shirong wanted to immediately check the changes with his core, but then restrained himself with great difficulty.
'I need to first verify what it actually is…' Shirong thought.
Shirong unsealed his sense and opened his eyes. His complexion was a bit pale, but overall he seemed to be well. After seeing that he had been moved from the previous location he was a bit surprised but then realized that it must have been the clan heads that must have done it.
"Looks like they moved the very ground I was sitting on, smart." Shirong stated seeing the tile that he was still sitting on.
He stood up and pushed the stone tile from beneath him to the side. He then went and got a supportive meditation mat from the inside. This kind of a meditative mat was a low grade spirit tool and could help enhance the sense of the cultivator that used it.
Shirong sat down on the mat in a meditative pose and closed his eyes, ready to check his core again. His spirit sense entered his dantian and observed his core. There were lines going all around his core in a complex pattern. These lines were the channels that were formed.
These lines would glow from time to time and he could see the energy which was previously rampaging in his core. The energy had changed its form a little bit and was now pale blue colored. There was a thin transparent shell that coated his core and made it look like an exquisite gem.
"Marvelous…" Shirong couldn't help but utter, seeing his core.
Now came the time for the big test, Shirong started using his cultivation technique and refined some spirit qi. He was quite nervous as he did not have any idea of what would happen after this. But his worries were soon dissipated as he saw his core working the same as before.
It was able to freely absorb his spirit qi, and his cultivation technique was working as well.
"Now to test the limits…" Shirong muttered.
This was another big thing that he thought he needed to do. He focused on his core and tried to influence the pale blue energy that was coursing through the channels. But as soon as he did, he felt as if he was being stabbed by a burning blade again.
He didn't flinch through and continued trying to influence it. But after he went past a certain limit, the pale blue energy seemed to have become disturbed and leaked into his core.
~Cough~
Shirong spat out another mouthful of blood as the pale blue energy returned to its rampaging form. He immediately stopped doing what he was doing and saw a new phenomenon happening. The thin shell that covered his core glowed a bit, and the rampaging energy was being drawn back to the channels on his core.
A few minutes later, his core stabilized again and the energy returned to being pale blue. It calmly circulated in the channels. But this time Shirong sensed something else.
The moment that the shell had activated, he had felt the connection between him and the green crystal spear activate for a moment. It was then that it struck him.
"The spear! It… it solved the problem and tamed the energy."
Meanwhile, Lin Wu was happily watching everything.
~Ding~
——
PROCESS COMPLETED: Back door function created.
——
"Now you shall be my puppet… MUAHAHHAHA!"
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What Lin Wu had done was something he was not fully sure that it would work. Even the system had only told him of a fifty percent probability of success. He had not actually healed Shirong in the complete sense, rather he had used the Unknown energy as a shackle.
Lin Wu had asked the system whether it would be possible to create a unique function that could control the unknown energy and manipulate it while still keeping it in Shirong's core. The system had told him this would be possible, but Shirong may find out about Lin Wu.
But Lin Wu figured since his senses were restrained, this would not matter too much. And even if he did find out that Lin Wu was fully sentient, Lin Wu would easily be able to kill him in his current condition. The interface that the system had created already allowed Lin Wu to leave the ring if he wanted to do so.
Seeing that the benefits outweighed the risks, Lin Wu went ahead with the plan and ordered the system to initiate the process. His bet turned out to be good as he had succeeded, albeit with a few injuries to Shirong. Which to be honest didn't matter to Lin Wu.
The function that Lin Wu had asked the system to create had multiple properties. Not only would this function mask the operation of his spirit sense from Shirong, it would also make his own perception skewed in terms of things that pertained to Lin Wu.
There was also a spirit qi stealing property that Lin Wu asked the system to make. This would allow him to obtain around 1% of all spirit qi that Shirong cultivated and refined. Lin Wu kept the percentage low since he did not want to push Shirong to the very brink.
If Shirong got spooked and decided to get to his clan for help, he would have to kill him. The current situation was more beneficial for Lin Wu as he could reap the benefits for a long time. Besides, the best thing for Lin Wu in terms of benefits was none other than Shirong's identity and knowledge.
Still, not all of the properties of the new back door function were active currently. Only the one that hid his spirit qi was active. The other properties would be activated once the system verified that everything was stable.
The biggest variable currently that forced Lin Wu to do this was none other than the unknown energy. While the system could absorb and manipulate it to a certain extent, they still didn't know what exactly it was. Neither did they know what kind of effects it could have.
Thus erring on the side of caution, Lin Wu decided to observe it for the time being. He had also asked the system to absorb around half of the unknown energy for its own analysis. But even then, the half portion that was in Shirong's core was enough to harm him.
Lin Wu merely had to 'loosen' the restraints a bit and 'punish' Shirong.
He also looked at the Host data window and saw that the new entry had been created in it.
~Ding~
——
VITAL ENERGY STORAGE: 0 units
SYSTEM ENERGY STORAGE: 4980 units
UNKNOWN ENERGY: 2 units (wisps)
——
Seeing the amount, Lin Wu was a bit surprised. He had not expected that such a small amount of it was enough to harm Shirong to this extent.
"Wait, a minute! This energy is in wisp units!" Lin Wu uttered with absolute shock.
"This means… merely four wisp units were enough to overpower thousands of drop units…" Lin Wu stated.
'The energy was formed from the combined strength of over thirty people and Even then it is so low, how? What kind of form was this changed into?' Lin Wu wondered.
"System, do you have more information on it, now that you've absorbed a portion?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The system's preliminary analysis shows that the energy was modified by the effect of the three guardian statues. What they did is currently beyond the understanding of the system, but it can be assumed that it had been refined and condensed to a great extent to turn into this kind of a form.
——
Lin Wu was astounded by this and couldn't help but think of the story that Shirong had said to his two followers before about the three guardian beasts.
According to it, the three ancient clans had awakened the relics that they had found and summoned the beasts. They had then fought with the invaders and protected this world. In turn, the religion was established.
"Seems like there is more to these statues than I thought…" Lin Wu muttered.
Then another idea came to his mind.
"If there are so many temples, then these statues should be made by someone, right? Perhaps the manufacturers know more about this energy, because if there is something that can refine spirit qi to this extent then it should be quite valuable.
Perhaps it is a formation or a material of some kind?" Lin Wu said.
Meanwhile, Shirong was thinking about the unknown energy too in the real world.
'What kind of energy is that? But I'm lucky the spear was able to restrain it or I would have likely died.' Shirong thought to himself.
He looked inside the ring and saw that the Green crystal spear was still the same, floating around in the spatial dimension. Unknown to him, the new back door function was already working. Even the few spirit qi fluctuations that Lin Wu was intentionally emanating were hidden to Shirong's perception.
"It is a 'Backdoor' indeed…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Shirong looked at the spear for a bit before finally withdrawing the spear from the ring. He felt it to be the same weight as the last time, but there was something strange about it. He felt as if his connection with the spear was both closer and farther at the same time.
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