Read Rise Of The Worm Sovereign Chapter 101 - Stealing Spirit Qi? online for free - AllNovelFull
Now that the back door function was in place, Lin Wu felt that he could take a few more liberties.
Now that his spirit qi fluctuations were hidden, he would actually be able to pretend to be an 'Immortal weapon' better. He had a few ideas in his mind on how to do it too, all he had to do was to wait for Shirong to test it out himself.
'Hmm, do I prod him on a bit?' Lin Wu wondered as he lay in Shirong's hands.
Shirong was staring at him intently, trying to find the changes that had happened. But even after an hour of non-stop checking, he couldn't really come to a conclusion. The only thing was that, deep down in his mind he could feel as if the connection between him and the spear had deepened.
~Sigh~
"I should recover first, then I'll test the rest of the things out…" Shirong muttered to himself in a helpless tone.
He then stored the spear back into the spatial storage ring. Shirong sat back down and ate a few healing pills before starting to recover from the new injuries that had been inflicted due to Lin Wu's creating the new back door function. He spent the rest of the day doing this and by midnight was finally recovered.
But even now his spirit qi stores were at merely half. He needed to recover them too if he wanted to be at his optimum condition.
"Hehe, nows the time… System, turn on the spirit qi steal property." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
INITIATING: Spirit qi steal property
ACTIVATION SUCCESSFUL: Spirit qi steal property on line
——
~Phew~
Seeing it activate, Lin Wu took a breath of relief.
"Now to see if it works as intended…" Lin Wu muttered.
The system had told Lin Wu that it may need to make a few adjustments along the way as the property was activated. It was not a 100% stable thing and could have some problems. But Lin Wu could care less and let Shirong take all of the weight of the risks.
In the real world, Shirong started creating the seals according to the Sky Shaker Immortal Art, and spirit qi started swirling around him. Lin Wu watched on with bated breath and kept an eye on his spirit qi storage.
~Ding~
——
QI STORAGE: 2 units [liquid spirit qi]
——
The system had used some of the energy in the creation of the new back door function and thus Lin Wu was low on spirit qi. A few minutes later, it finally started.
QI STORAGE: 2 units [liquid spirit qi]
.
.
.
QI STORAGE: 3 units [liquid spirit qi]
"YES!" Lin Wu shouted in joy.
The Spirit qi Stael function was finally working, albeit slowly. Lin Wu looked on, and tried to get an estimate of the rate at which he was getting the spirit qi from Shirong. He realized that the rate was not exactly the same, and there were quite a few fluctuations in it.
"Well, can't complain about free stuff…" Lin Wu said.
He kept on looking as the spirit qi storage slowly started to rise.
3 units
.
4 units
.
5 units
.
.
.
30 Units
.
.
.
.
96 units
Finally, twenty hours later Lin Wu had obtained about 96 units of liquid spirit qi from Shirong. While it could not compare to the previous gains, it was still quite a bit and he did not mind it.
"Hmm, this will be good for a passive gain…" Lin Wu reckoned.
~Huu~
Shirong finally opened his eyes and let out a breath. His complexion had improved greatly and the spirit qi in his body was also thrumming rhythmically. He felt a bit better than he originally was before the injuries, but could not find a reason for that.
"Is this the effect of the spear too?" Shirong wondered.
"Yeah, yeah, it's me. Now go on, I'm getting bored here." Lin Wu said upon hearing his words.
"Perhaps, it is time to test out the spear." Shirong decided.
Lin Wu nodded in approval and watched as Shirong went to the exit of the courtyard. But just as he left it, he was blocked by tens of people.
"YOUNG MASTER SHIRONG!" One of the persons shouted.
"The Young master has recovered!" Another shouted.
"Quickly inform the clan heads!" Someone else added.
In his excitement to test out the green crystal spear, Shirong had completely forgotten about checking his surroundings with his spirit sense. Usually, he would never make a mistake like this and was always cautious. But he had missed all the formations and protections that had been placed on the courtyard he was staying at.
'How did I make a novice mistake like this?' Shirong thought, feeling a bit stupid.
It wasn't exactly Shirong's fault though. He had been through quite a lot of misfortunes lately and with the influence of a little certain someone, he couldn't help but let this occur.
"Looks like the back door function had a few side effects… System analyze this and make appropriate improvements." Lin Wu spoke.
~Ding~
——
NOTED!
RECONFIGURING: Masking property.
——
Wanting to immediately rectify his mistake, Shirong spread his spirit sense around, scanning everything in its range.
The guards and servants that had been assigned to the courtyard all shuddered as they felt the strong spirit sense pass through their bodies. They all fell silent and did not speak a word, simply letting young master Shirong finish what he was doing.
Finally, Shirong knew of the situation that he was in.
'Looks like they set up additional security around the courtyard.' Shirong realized.
He looked on at the guards, and servants who were all tensed.
"Ah, I believe the clan heads will be expecting me now?" Shirong said with a gentle smile.
"Ye-yes… Young master Shirong." A guard answered.
"We were instructed to tell clan head Lu the moment you recovered. We had been waiting for the past four days." A servant explained.
Shirong nodded at this and found it to be reasonable.
"Well then, shall we proceed…" Shirong stated.
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Shirong was brought to the courtyard of the Lu Clan. It was perhaps the largest building in the entire Deer wood city and took up around ten percent of its entire area. There were a lot of separate buildings in the courtyard for the different members of the clan and they all lived according to seniority.
Shirong looked around for a moment before looking straight. The courtyard was nothing fancy to him as he had lived in the Ji clan's ever since he was born. The Ji clan's home was more near to the size of a city rather than a courtyard.
There were multiple luxurious palaces in there and the level of resources used to make it could never compare to Deer wood city. Even the capital of the Ling kingdom would not be able to compare with it and would barely come to 1% of its cost.
Very few people had the fortune of seeing the home of the Ji clan and there were a lot of rumors about it. Even if the Ji clan was the second rank, it was considered to be more mysterious than the Long clan which was considered the first.
At least the location where the Long clan lived was well known, and a lot of people had seen it. Whereas the Ji clan's location was hidden and was secret.
Soon Shirong was guided to the main hall where the clan head and the other important people of the clan were waiting with bated breaths. When he finally entered, a collective breath of relief was taken by everyone.
Shirong looked around and could see that clan head Mu was also here for some reason.
"Greetings clan head Lu, clan head Mu," Shirong said while cupping his hands.
"Ahaha! Young Master Shirong is healed, good… good… good." Clan head Lu said with a joyous tone.
"Young master has the will of a tiger, there is no way he would be harmed by something so small." A voice came from the back.
Shirong turned around and saw that it was none other than clan head Xiong that had entered.
'Looks like he got the news too…' Shirong thought.
"How are you feeling now, Young Master?" Clan head Mu asked with concern.
"I am quite fine, clan head Mu. You need not worry." Shirong answered.
"That's a relief. We are happy that you were able to come through." Clan head Lu said.
Shirong nodded and then spoke, "I am thankful for all that you did, in order to help me."
"You do not have to thank us for that. The Ji clan has supported us before thus this is our duty." Clan head Lu replied.
"Well then, on a happy occasion like this, I believe it's time for a feast!" Clan head Lu said out loud.
The corner of Shirong's lips twitched hearing this.
'Dammit, they'll waste more of my time.' Shirong thought.
"Clan head Lu, I would like if we postpone this feast for later." Shirong stated.
"Why young master, is there a problem?" Clan Head Lu asked with concern in his voice.
"No, it's not exactly a problem. It's simply that I have gained a few insights into my cultivation and would like to train for a bit." Shirong replied.
"Ahh! Is that so? Then that is all fine and well. We can always have a feast later." Clan head Lu agreed.
"Then, if the clan heads may give me permission; I'd like to head back." Shirong stated.
"Yes, yes, leave." Lin Wu urged inside the ring.
The three clan heads agreed immediately and Shirong swiftly left the courtyard. After he was gone though, the expression of clan head Mu turned serious.
"It is as I expected." Clan head Mu said in a straight tone.
"Is there really a problem with Young master Shirong's physique?" Clan head Lu asked.
"There are certain changes I was able to perceive from his aura and the spirit qi fluctuations but I cannot exactly tell what the effects of that will be. But one thing is sure, the energy that attacked him certainly did something to him." Clan head Mu answered.
~Sigh~
"We can only hope it will be fine…" Clan head Lu replied.
Meanwhile Clan head Xiong simply looked on without a change in his expression.
Shirong headed straight to the exit of the city. He had thought of getting his two followers Ye Dai and Bei Wen first, but then changed his mind. He reckoned that it would be better for him to check the abilities of the green crystal spear on his own, alone.
About an hour later, he had left Deer wood city and was now in a part of the Millennium forest. While coming here he had to hide from the people that had been assigned here. The clans had made this arrangement after the fainting incident and wanted to be kept aware about anything that was happening.
It caused Shirong a bit of displeasure, but there wasn't much he could do. He landed in a small clearing that was wide enough for him to test out some moves. The trees covered a 360 degree angle, thus there was less chance that he would be discovered.
He wanted to set up some formations too, but didn't know how they would interact with the spear, thus chose not to.
"Now let's see what you can do…" Shirong muttered as he withdrew the green crystal spear from his spatial storage ring.
The spear gleamed slightly which put a slight smile on Shirong's face.
He closed his eyes and felt the connection with the spear. There was something that he could feel it was telling him but it seemed to be very vague.
"Looks like I'll have to directly test it out." Shirong said.
He then held the spear in his right hand and stood in a proper stance. Waves of spirit qi emanated from him as the dust on the ground was kicked up. He tilted the spear forward and stabbed with force.
~Bang~
Shirong looked at what had just happened with wide eyes. Right in front of him the group of trees that were there, were now all broken. Just that was not the reason why he was shocked though, the reason he was shocked was because he had not attacked the trees at all.
In fact, he was about ten meters away from the tree and there was no chance he would have hit it. But here he was standing with the spear that had become over ten meters long.
"What the…" Shirong muttered as he looked at the spear in his hands.
While the weight of the spear was still the same, it had suddenly increased in size. It had prodded him to give it a bit of spirit qi, and that was what he had done. After all, it was an Immortal weapon, it wouldn't make sense if it didn't use some qi to work.
Shirong moved his hand, and the spear moved with it.
He thought for a bit and then tried to communicate with the spear through the connection.
~Swoosh~
In the next instant, the spear started shrinking at a rapid speed.
~Deng~
A couple of seconds later it was back to its previous size.
"This is… unusually… but good!" Shirong stated.
"Hahaha! This is merely the icing that I prepared for you, you still got the entire cake left." Lin Wu said in his mind.
Shirong stood in the stance again, but this time of stabbing out, he waved the spear around.
~Woosh~
~Crash~
~Shatter~
This time the spear extended as well, but it was not rigid like before. It was now acting like a whip instead. The whip like spear hit the other trees that were to the side and broke them apart. Shirong willed it again, and the spear returned to its normal size.
"This is simply amazing, I've never seen a weapon that can work like this before," Shirong said, feeling amazed.
Meanwhile, Lin Wu was also thinking of a few things in his mind while he was being waved around.
"Hmm, I barely felt that… Seems like my defenses increased by quite a lot after reaching the Mid stage of the core condensation realm." Lin Wu realized.
Lin Wu had been prepared to bear some damage ever since he had decided to become a spear, but now that his defense had increased so much, he felt like he could bear it. Another thing that Lin Wu was happy about was that the Back door function was working very nicely.
Right now, what Lin Wu had used was nothing but his innate skill: Cellular manipulation. That was how he was able to shrink and extend. Another good thing that happened was that he had a zero consumption of his spirit qi while he was using the innate skill, rather he was actually gaining it.
What Lin Wu was doing was actually using the spirit qi provided by Shirong to use the skills. Basically, he would demand the amount that was used by the innate skill from Shirong, who would give it to him without a second thought.
Also, due to the spirit qi steal property of the Back door function, not only was Lin Wu using Shirong's spirit qi, he was also absorbing a small amount in extra from it when it was given to him. This was the more Shirong used him, the more spirit qi he would actually obtain.
Now that Shirong knew what the spear could do, he became excited at all the possibilities. He started swinging the spear around and instructed it with his mind, and it acted as he wanted it to. It extended, contracted, wrapped, coiled, crushed, pierced and whipped.
He held it in the middle and spun it in the air. This time, both ends of the spear extended and became like whips. The trees around him were only getting more and more damaged, as he brandished the 'Weapon'.
After fifteen minutes of testing it around, Lin Wu was getting a bit bored.
"Let's show him another move… Hehe," Lin Wu muttered in his mind.
Shirong was just about to swing the spear again, when he felt a vague thought appearing in his mind. He couldn't tell what it exactly meant, but it was asking him for more spirit qi. Not thinking much about it, he poured more spirit qi into it.
Then it happened.
~Shing~
The spear blade changed shape and became covered in long spikes that extend from its surface.
"Now it's a mace?" Shirong uttered with surprise.
The spear in his hand now looked like a morning star mace. Shirong also felt like the balance of the spear was shifting. It became more heavier on the spiked end. Now he needed to hold it with both of his hands to wield it properly.
~HAA!!~
Shirong lifted it up high and slammed it into the ground. He felt a wave of energy passing through the mace and transfer to the ground.
~Crack~
~Split~
The ground in front of him split apart and an inch wide long crack appeared. The crack extended for a meter but was still quite deep.
Shirong was impressed by this, and even more ideas appeared in his mind.
"Hahaha! How did you like my new technique!" Lin Wu uttered in his mind with jubilation.
This was a move that Lin Wu had devised after thinking for quite a bit. What he did in this was he would activate qi amplification and then concentrate the spirit qi in his 'head', which was the top of the Mace. Then he would release it all at once when he hit something.
This was how he had made the deep crack, even in something like soil, which was not hard. It was now that an idea occurred to Shirong.
"Wait, if it can change its form like this then…" He muttered.
Shirong willed the mace to change back into a spear form and then stabbed it into a large rock that was nearby. Then he willed it to change form, but not completely. It was a bit difficult for him and he felt that it was taking up quite a bit of his spirit qi, but he was still willing to try it out.
A dull sound came from the rock, but Shirong knew it had worked. He lifted the spear with both his hands and the rock was lifted as well
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What Shirong had done was actually making the spikes extend from the spear while it was inside the rock. He couldn't help but imagine how deadly this skill would be if it were used on an enemy.
"Ha ha ha! This is just amazing!" Shirong uttered in jubilation.
~Shatter~
He then swung the spear along with the rock and smashed it on the ground, making it break into multiple pieces. Shirong started to think of various methods that could be used and was lost in thought for a few minutes. He rubbed his chin while pondering on it.
Meanwhile, Lin Wu was also feeling a bit happy that Shirong had figured out a few more techniques that he had made on his own.
"This is good, at least the person I got is not dumb." Lin Wu said to himself.
But just as he did this, he suddenly felt something.
~Ding~
——
DETECTED NEW VARIABLE: Spirit qi signature making contact.
——
Seeing the notification, Lin Wu was a bit surprised and wondered if there was something new nearby. But then he suddenly felt an energy covering his body.
"Wha-what's this?" Lin Wu wondered.
The energy that was covering him was coming from none other than Shirong's arm. He seemed to be channeling spirit qi into him, but its characteristics seemed to be a bit different.
~Ding~
——
VARIABLE ANALYZED: Reconfiguring Back door function properties.
——
Lin Wu felt as if an intrinsic change had been made in the connection he had with Shirong and some information popped up in his mind.
"This is a… qi skill?" Lin Wu muttered.
~Ding~
——
RECONFIGURATION COMPLETE: Qi skill synchronization property added.
——
Shirong felt like what he was doing was actually working now, so he swung the spear again, but this time upwards. A greenish grey layer covered the entirety of the spear's surface as it started extending like a whip.
~Woosh~
The crack of a whip was heard as the greenish grey layer that covered Lin Wu was shot out along with it. The energy went up into the sky and caused all the leaves around to detach from the trees.
"It indeed works, and the power is increased too. Hahaha! An immortal weapon is indeed an immortal weapon! Even the might of my Immortal Sky shaker art which is considered a top grade cultivation technique is increased." Shirong uttered while a big smile appeared on his face.
He then tried it out a few more times with the different techniques of the spear and found that his qi skills worked with all of them.
Meanwhile, Lin Wu was trying to understand what the system had just done.
"Hmm, so it basically made it so our strengths are combined when the skills are used. This is… rather good. Wonder if it applied to my skills too?" Lin Wu wondered.
"System, can this qi skill synchronization be used with my qi skills too?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: Yes, they can be used with the host's qi skills too as long as I do analysis to make them compatible. But the innate skills cannot be used as they pertain to the host's bloodline.
——
"That's good. Now I just need to figure out how to make it work. Hmm, I do lack in terms of qi skills though, the only one I have right now is the Qi amplification, which is the most basic skill. I need to obtain more skills." Lin Wu reckoned.
While Lin Wu was doing this calm thinking, Shirong was madly swinging him around and destroying the environment. This was the equivalent of a person drinking tea in the middle of an all out bar fight.
There were now broken trees everywhere, splinters of wood, leaves, smashed rocks, upturned soil and some mutilated remains of animals around. It was evident that the animals had been the unfortunate victims of Shirong's testing of the spear.
Nearly three hours had passed by, after which Shirong stopped and felt satisfied.
"This is better than most peak grade spirit weapons, currently. I wonder how much more will it improve once more of the seals are lifted." Shirong said, looking forward to the future.
"Well… well… well… now that you've all 'used me up' won't you take me to dinner?" Lin Wu said in his mind while sending Shirong a different thing.
Shirong felt the spear in his hand hum, and then he felt a slight drain on his spirit qi.
"It wants spirit qi, Hmm… let's go hunt some beasts then," Shirong stated as he took out his spirit sword and flew away on it.
He soon found a six legged spirit beast that had the head of a jackal but small horns like that of a goat. The beast was hunting another smaller beast that looked like a large squirrel. Shirong locked onto the jackal beast and aimed the green crystal spear before stabbing it towards it.
~Shing~
~Slick~
~Splatter~
The spear extended and stabbed into the torso of the jackal beast. The spear had gone all the way through its body and stabbed into the ground, fixing the jackal beast in the process.
~Woo!~
The jackal beast let out a pain filled growl and struggled for a couple of seconds before falling silent. If it were a normal spear, the beast might have survived for a bit more, but with Lin Wu sucking its vitality and spirit qi it would have been impossible.
About ten seconds later, a dried up husk of the jackal beast was left behind while the large squirrel had gone off to somewhere unknown. The Jackal beast that Lin Wu had just killed was a late stage qi refining realm beast, and he was able to absorb about two hundred drops of liquid spirit qi and five hundred wisps of vital energy.
Lin Mu gave about twenty drops to Shirong according to the settings he had made, while keeping all of the vital energy to himself.
"Ahh! This feels good…" Lin Wu muttered, feeling satisfied.
Shirong quickly absorbed that spirit qi that he got from the spear and felt content at this. He didn't mind hunting beasts for the spear as he was benefiting a lot too.
"Hmm perhaps, I should have brought the two with me. Would have made hunting beasts faster…" Shirong said to himself, while making a note in his mind.
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Shirong was flying through the sky over the millennium forest while Lin Wu was held in his hand. He didn't know why but keeping the spear in his hand gave Shirong a strange sense of comfort. He felt as if he would be able to overcome any obstacle as long as he had the spear.
If Lin Wu were to hear his thoughts he would have instantly declared him to be weird. But right now he was rather engrossed in spending time in thinking of more moves. He also realized that he needed to obtain some qi skills but didn't know how to.
He had indeed obtained some qi skills in the past from the two cultivators that he had consumed but they were more weapon oriented qi skills and would not work for him.
"Hmm… should I make him kill more cultivators?" Lin Wu wondered.
Lin Wu also tried to figure out a way by which he could make Shirong give him qi skills and cultivation techniques. It was now that an idea struck him.
"Wait a minute! Now that I have the back door function can't I just use spirit sense for all of this?" Lin Wu realized.
Lin Wu did have thoughts of refining spirit sense but had kind of forgotten it in all the things that had happened recently. He had been ready to secretly do that little by little, so that Shirong would not notice it, but his recent misfortune had solved it all for Lin Wu.
"Hmm, it's not like I need to be in contact with the qi skills and cultivation techniques, merely being close to them should be enough. Then I will be able to use the spirit sense to read them." Lin Wu reckoned.
Lin Wu had already learned from the system that spirit sense could be used for a variety of things, and one of the most basic uses of it was none other than sensing and perception. Cultivators could 'see' things with the spirit sense, and it was as if an additional organ.
"That's decided then, I'll be refining spirit sense in my free time now." Lin Wu stated to himself.
And just as he did this, he was thrown with great speed.
~Woosh~
~Thwack~
~Splatter~
"Ah nice, more qi." Lin Wu said as he started absorbing the spirit qi and vital energy from the beast that he was stuck inside.
The beast this time was quite large and looked like a rhinoceros but had a much longer tail. Looking at the beast made Lin Wu think of a thought that he had a long time ago, back when he was still human.
'The ecosystem and food chain of a cultivation realm is really messed up, huh…' Lin Wu thought to himself.
Seeing the various types of beasts that roamed in the environment really made one think about it. If it were his past world, there was no way a lot of these kinds of beasts could coexist. And just like this while thinking, Lin Wu had finished absorbing all the spirit qi and vital energy from the beast.
This was the 22nd beast that Shirong had hunted, and by now Lin Wu had obtained around 1200 drops of liquid spirit qi and 6000 wisps of vital energy. Lin Wu also learned that certain beasts actually gave different amounts of vital energy, even if they were at the same level of cultivation.
"This should be due to the individual differences in their physique." Lin Wu concluded as he compared it to his knowledge of zoology from his past life. While not all the facts and rules worked in this world, some of the basic things did apply in this world.
"I should head back now, this should be enough for today…" Shirong said as he landed on the ground and pulled out the spear from the ground.
He then started flying back to the Deer Wood city, while thinking of what to do next. Shirong had been making various plans in consideration of the future. He even made back up plans for back up plans, just so that he wouldn't be caught unguarded like he was before.
Still, Shirong knew that fate was a fickle mistress and that the future was unpredictable. Even if he was extremely cautious, there was bound to be something that would make him a loss. The only way he would be able to overcome something like that would be if he was strong.
'I should gain my cultivation base back first.' Shirong thought to himself.
He had used quite a lot of spirit qi in using the green crystal spear today and knew that the consumption was quite high, though it was certainly worth it. Shirong decided not to use the spear for everything, as it was better to leave it when it was necessary.
Besides, this would also help him avoid the covetousness of other cultivators. While he could shield himself from most of them using his clan's might, there were still a few cultivators who were insane and did not give a damn about consequences.
Shirong put the spear back into the ring as it would consume his spirit qi ever second that he kept it in his hand. Because the weight of the spear was quite a lot, Shirong had to amplify his strength with spirit qi, which continuously consumed wisps of spirit qi.
While it was a small amount compared to his stores, it turned to a large one when the spear was used for a longer time. Even with the spirit qi drops that Shirong had obtained from the spear after killing the beasts, his core was still half empty and needed to be replenished.
He reached the deer wood city after about an hour and directly flew to the courtyard, making use of his privilege of flying inside the city. Some people saw him and pointed at him, it was not every day that they saw someone flying like this in the city as it was reserved for influential and strong people.
Shirong landed in his courtyard and quickly sat down to cultivate.
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While Shirong was cultivating, Lin Wu decided to finally start refining his spirit sense. He first went over the method in his mind before getting ready. It was mentioned that one needed to have a calm mind and great focus to be able to successfully refine their spirit sense.
According to what Lin Wu had learned, spirit sense was nothing but tendrils of spirit qi which were made by linking the wisps of spirit qi together and binding them together with the will of the cultivator. Lin Wu didn't understand how the will would bind it, but it was mentioned in the technique that the will of the cultivator naturally imbues their spirit qi.
But this 'will' is quite dissipated and needs to be linked properly for it to control the spirit sense tendril. Lin Wu withdrew a wisp of spirit qi from his core and brought it to float outside his body. This was the very first step and took most cultivates weeks if not months to achieve.
But this was if they were in the qi refining realm and had little to no experience with spirit qi control. For Lin Wu, who had been getting a feel for the spirit qi since the start due to the system, this was extremely easy, not to mention that he was in the core condensation realm.
Usually, a cultivator would refine their spirit sense in the late to peak stage of the qi refining realm and then would keep on extending its range and adding more and more tendrils. Till the peak stage of the qi refining realm, the usual limit for most cultivators was ten meters.
Some more talented ones could even reach a hundred meters, which was what an early stage core condensation realm cultivator had. The range of spirit sense greatly varied in the core condensation realm, and some had short ranges while others had long.
It all depended on whether the cultivator spent his time in refining their spirit sense. Usually, they would stop after a certain level as it would take up their precious time for cultivation. Not to mention that refining spirit sense was actually quite difficult and would result in loss of spirit qi upon failure.
For example, if a hundred wisps of spirit qi were used to make a tendril and the hundred and the first one were being added to it; if a failure occurred all of the hundred and one wisps of spirit qi would dissipate and the cultivator would lose them.
Thus this became a cycle of refining, failure and replenishing spirit qi. Because of this, once a cultivator reached a satisfactory level, they would stop refining their spirit sense. There were many methods of refining spirit sense, and all cultivation techniques included one method in them.
Lin Wu was an exception here, such that he actually had no cultivation technique as he relied on direct absorption to get it. Most beasts used this method, while some of them had their innate cultivation methods. Even the beasts that developed their spirit sense did it instinctively, which was an advantage when compared to humans who had to manually learn.
Perhaps Lin Wu would have experienced that as well eventually, but due to him having the soul of a human and the system, this process was changed by quite a lot.
Lin Wu was now focusing on the wisp of spirit qi that was floating around his body and controlled it to move all around. This was the second step and was meant to help the cultivator get used to controlling spirit sense.
"Man, this is easy… why did it say that it was hard in the manual?" Lin Wu said, feeling a bit bored.
Thinking for a bit, he recalled the next few steps and found that all of them were something he could do automatically.
"Let's try skipping a few steps…" Lin Wu decided.
He thus went directly to the step where it said to draw out the second wisp of spirit qi. He did it, and now another wisp of it was floating around him.
"Huh, that was… nothing," Lin Wu muttered.
He then jumped to the next step, which was the tricky bit. One had to link the two wisps of spirit sense while trying to make the imbued will in them to obey him. Lin Wu brought the two wisps close together and found there to be some resistance.
"I guess I found the hard part…" He muttered.
Lin Wu increased the pressure and the two wisps of spirit qi started to come closer and closer until they were almost touching. But they were still resisting, and it was as if one was trying to bring the same poles of a magnet close to each other.
"Come onnn… link up!" Lin Wu ordered.
~Phut~
Suddenly a small explosion occurred and the two wisps of spirit qi disappeared. Lin Wu was knocked back a bit in the ring due to the force of the explosion, but was not injured at all. His body was too tough for something like this to affect him.
"Huh, I guess I'll have to try a few more times." Lin Wu realized.
He then repeated the same thing again and again till he was finally able to link the two wisps of spirit qi together. When they linked up, Lin Wu could feel a new connection with them. This was due to the imbued will in those wisps responding to him.
"Finally…" Lin Wu said as he took a breath of relief.
He took a glance at his core and felt the loss of the spirit qi to be minimal.
"If this is all it costs, then it'll be worth it. Even if it takes me a long time, I'll do it!" Lin Wu declared to himself.
With new found determination Lin Wu began his own seclusion in refining spirit sense, all the while ignoring the hundreds of spirit qi explosion that he was causing. Shirong was busy cultivating too and did not notice this.
Meanwhile, an inaudible ~Crack~ happened inside the ring.
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About five days had passed since Shirong had started his cultivation and Lin Wu had begun refining his spirit sense. Shirong still had a calm look on his face as he cultivated in peace, meanwhile Lin Wu was floating in the spatial storage ring in his actual form.
His eyes were glowing as if bloodshot and strange laughter was coming out of his mouth.
"Hehehe! I'll be damned if I don't get it right this time!" Lin Wu uttered in a hoarse voice.
Mid way through the refining process, Lin Wu reverted to his normal form as he found that this allowed him to have better focus than being in the spear form. He had no choice to do this since the explosion of spirit sense kept on happening the more he tried refining the spirit qi.
Lin Wu had actually reached nearly a hundred meters in range but was stuck at 99.9 meters. Somehow this seemed to be a big border for him, and he was unable to scale it. This was his fiftieth attempt at refining his spirit sense, and he had refined the spirit sense all the way to 99.9 meters every time.
If it were anyone else, perhaps they would have given up. But Lin Wu was still attempting it with a crazed vigor. He had actually started absorbing the spirit qi from the spirit stones that were kept in the ring too when he ran out of his own.
He gave no thought to what Shirong would think of it and simply focused on refining the spirit sense.
~Boom~
Another explosion happened, which knocked Lin Wu to a corner of the ring. The more the length of the spirit sense, the stronger the explosions had become. Lin Wu even had a few small cracks on his body due to the explosions, but they soon healed under the effect of his innate skills.
"DAMMIT! AGAIN!" Lin Wu said with anger.
Lin Wu didn't know why this was happening and wondered if he didn't have talent in refining spirit sense. He had even asked the system to analyze the problem but couldn't find anything. It said to him that everything was within its parameters and the only uncontrollable variable here was Lin Wu.
Lin Wu asked the system if it would be possible for it to refining and show him the process, but it simply said that since the intangible factor 'will' was involved in the refinement, the system could not do anything. Only after Lin Wu had refined it could the system replicate it, but that too wouldn't help Lin Wu as its properties would be vastly different.
Having no choice, Lin Wu could only keep on repeating till he got it right. He had overcome a few bottlenecks in the refinement process before which appeared at the 1 meter mark, 10 meter mark, 25 meter mark and now at the 100 meter mark.
Lin Wu had gained quite a bit of experience with spirit sense now and had pinpointed the instant where he lost control. For some reason, the entire spirit sense tendril would destabilize when it started to reach the hundred meter mark.
When it got close to it, it was as if some unknown force acted on it and broke it apart. Even the system was unable to analyze it further and told Lin Wu that it would need to obtain more data on other spirit sense refining techniques to obtain a new conclusion.
~Sigh~
"One more try… if it still doesn't work I'll just have to wait till the system can obtain more data on the spirit sense refinement techniques." Lin Wu spoke in a helpless tone.
He once again started with a single wisp of spirit qi and added more to it, one by one.
1 wisp
2 wisps
5 wisps
10 wisps
.
.
100 wisps
.
.
.
250 wisps
.
.
.
.
900 wisps
.
999 wisps
Lin Wu finally reached the 99.9 meter mark again. A single wisp was enough for about ten centimeters of spirit sense.
But at this point a sound was heard.
~Crack~
"Huh? Again? Where is that sound coming from?" Lin Wu wondered.
He had been hearing the cracking sound for a long time now, and he didn't know where they were coming from. At first they had been very faint, but now they were as if someone was breaking glass. Lin Wu had asked the system to scan the entire ring as he thought some of the items in it may be getting damaged due to the explosions.
Lin Wu had already moved the items to the corners of the ring so that they would be relatively safe. But systems scan told him that everything was the same as before and it couldn't find the source of the crack either.
~huu~
Lin Wu gave pushed the thought to the back of his mind and took a deep breath, trying to focus on the refinement again.
"This is the final chance, gotta get it right…" Lin Wu perked himself up before adding the final wisp of spirit qi to the tendril.
~Shua~
The spirit sense tendril started getting destabilized again and trembled non stop.
"NOO! I WON'T LET YOU!" Lin Wu shouted.
A non stop stream of spirit qi started coming out of his core as he released nearly a few thousand wisps at once. He was still able to control them better individually than together as a long tendril currently. He then pushed those singular wisps of spirit qi against the long tendril that was getting unstable.
"HAAAA!" He groaned with pressure.
The wisps of spirit qi that made contact with the spirit sense tendril started dissipating due to the repulsion but Lin Wu didn't mind it and simply replaced them with more spirit qi wisps. This way a cycle of destruction and suppression was created.
An hour passed, and this was the longest he had been able to maintain the tendril for. But he couldn't do it for any more as his spirit qi was nearly depleted and he couldn't spare effort to absorb anymore.
~Deng~
Finally, somehow the tendril stabilized and the rest of the spirit qi wisps that Lin Wu had released dissipated.
"Finally…" Lin Wu muttered with exhaustion.
But then…
~CRACK!!!!~
Lin Wu was quite startled after hearing the loud crack and had a bad feeling about it.
"What the hell was that!?" Lin Wu said as he looked around feeling a bit scared.
~CRACK!~
"Damn, system scan the entire area!" Lin Wu ordered as he started withdrawing his newly refined spirit sense.
His joy of finally succeeding was doused by the fear that Lin Wu feeling right now. He had suspicions about the sound and now it had reached its peak.
~Ding~
——
ERROR!
UNKNOWN VARIABLES DETECTED!: Host is advised to leave immediately!
——
"What! You mean leave the ring? What's happening exactly?" Lin Wu questioned feeling unsure.
Still, he started changing his form back into the spear and got ready to leave. Even if he was unsure, he was not stupid enough to ignore the system's warning.
~WEENG~
A strange sound was heard when Lin Wu was midway through to his transformation. A different kind of energy suddenly hit Lin Wu and knocked him to another corner.
"DAMN THAT HURT! What is happening?" Lin Wu yelled as he started healing the new cracks that had appeared on his body.
This time he had been inflicted with the most cracks, even more than from the spirit qi explosion. It was evident that whatever this energy was it was much stronger than normal spirit qi.
~ALERT!~
——
UNKNOWN ENERGY DETECTED!: Highly volatile
——
"That's it, I'm leaving!" Lin Wu declared as he activated the virtual ring interface and triggered the option to leave the ring. But then…
"Huh? Why isn't it working?" Lin Wu questioned feeling confused.
~ERROR!~
——
VIRTUAL RING INTERFACE: Corruption detected! Functions offline!
——
"What the F*ck! System get me out of here right now! Use any method possible," Lin Wu ordered with urgency.
~Ding~
——
RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS: Checking for alternatives.
DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE: Alternative found.
INITIATING: Brute force attack.
——
Lin Wu then felt a strong wave of energy that was comparable to the previous one coming from his body. The wave of energy seemed to have hit the borders of the ring and a white opening had appeared there. Lin Wu could feel the air coming from it and knew this was his escape route.
He jumped out of the opening, and it closed behind him.
Shirong had been calmly cultivating all these past days and had a rather rude awakening. He was knocked off from the place he was sitting in and fell to the side.
"WHO DARES!" He shouted in rage.
But when he looked for a culprit, he found none. Instead, he saw the green crystal spear lying near the place he was sitting at. He then felt the spatial storage ring on his hand starting to tremble.
His expression turned confused for a moment before becoming shocked.
~Cling~Cling~Cling~
The sound of the ring hitting against the floor was heard as Shirong threw it away. But sadly, that was not enough.
~WEENG~
A high pitched sound came from the ring as it broke apart and turned into dust. But not before a silver streak of energy was shot out from it.
~Woosh~
The silver streak of energy went upwards and destroyed the roof in the process. But the destruction was quite systematic, it was as if the roof was atomized as no residue of it was left behind from where the silver energy passed.
~Sheng~
~Tear~
The silver energy struck something in the air as if it had met some kind of a barrier. Then a tearing sound came and an irregular black line appeared in the air.
"No… it can't be!" Shirong uttered, feeling speechless.
The irregular black line started expanding and reached the diameter of a meter within a second. A strong suction force came from it and started sucking things inside it.
"DAMMIT! How in the name of heavens did a spatial rift open here?" Shirong yelled.
He braced himself, but the suction force of the spatial rift was too strong.
~Shing~
One of the metal fixtures of the room was unable to stay fixed and was ripped out, but in the process of being sucked into the spatial rift, it struck Shirong's thigh instead.
"Aargh!" Shirong grunted as the blood spilled from his thigh.
He instinctively wanted to withdraw something from his ring, but then realized that was the entire reason behind the spatial rift. All his belongings that were inside the ring were now either destroyed or lost in some fragmented spatial dimension.
Shirong internally cursed but knew that there wasn't much he could do now. He had taken hold of a pillar and that was the only thing that was preventing him from behind sucked into the rift. He tried using his cultivation, but it was all for naught.
In the face of a spatial rift, which even nascent soul cultivators would be wary of, Shirong could only hold on for his dear life. All he could do was amplify his strength with his spirit qi and hold on to the pillar and pray to the heavens that it stayed solid.
~WEENG~
~Tear~
The sound of the spatial rift got louder as it started expanding even more. The suction force was now doubled.
~DA,DA,DA~
Suddenly formation arrays appeared all around the place and Shirong's eyes lit up.
"Yes! The formations should be able to restrict it perhap…" But before Shirong could continue his sentence, he saw the formations breaking as well.
"NO!!!" Shirong shouted unwillingly.
Even the formations that were set up by the clan head Lu were able to withstand the force of the Spatial rift and broke under its power.
Meanwhile, Lin Wu who was lying on the ground was barely moving even after the suction force had increased. His heavy weight prevented that from happening. He himself was dumbstruck at all that was happening and was speechless.
He stared at all that was happening and it took him a minute to come to terms with it. The system was giving him non stop error reports, and he had no idea what to make of it.
"What the f*ck did I get myself into…"
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At the Lu clan mansion.
The clan head was sitting in the grand hall and was listening to the daily reports from the stewards and other juniors of his clan. This was one of his main duties as the clan head and also a rather boring part. But he never showed it as such and fully focused on the things that were being said.
Accompanying him were a few of the elders of his clan and the people related to the matter that was being discussed.
"Our shops have suffered a loss of 8% in the last month, while the traders have instead increased their profits by 14%. We suspect that they may be undercutting us in the trade routes and showing us the wrong ones." The Junior of the clan reported.
"Hmm, send someone to check if the other clans were affected too, and report back to me." Clan head Lu said after thinking for a minute.
"As you wish, clan head." The Junior clasped his head and went away to do his work.
~Sigh~
Clan head Lu let out a breath as he rubbed his forehead. The last few weeks have been hectic and a lot of things had happened which honestly overwhelmed him a bit. He almost felt like he should enter seclusion and leave the rest of the matters to the other elders instead.
But then he shook his head and laughed in his mind.
'They are not ready… why does my clan not have a good successor yet?' The Clan head questioned himself as another sigh escaped his lips.
While there were quite a few juniors in his clan that were capable and talented, none of them could be said to be qualified to lead a clan. Clan head Lu would never pass the seat of the clan head to them unless he had no choice left.
While thinking of this, his mind wandered to Young Master Shirong.
'Now that is a capable and wise young man. I wonder if… something could be arranged…' Clan head Lu wondered as he stroked his chin.
He wanted someone that would be good enough to lead his clan and had the wisdom to do it too. He knew that such things could not be found easily and were related to the bloodline. Sadly in his clan, even after so many years, none of his descendants were decent enough.
After he came into power, it was as if the luck of the clan in terms of talent had fallen. While the clan had greatly grown and became richer since then, it had fallen in terms of the quality of people.
Clan head Lu couldn't help but think of his grandchildren. He had lived for over five hundred years now and had a lot of descendants. He had also seen a lot of his descendants die due to old age too. They could at most reach the core condensation realm, having the life span of three hundred years.
Right now, he had a little over a hundred grandchildren, if he remembered correctly. He filtered them out and picked the granddaughters that he had in his mind.
"Hmm, which one would the young master like…" Clan head Lu muttered to himself.
He wouldn't dare propose a marriage between his clan and the Ji clan; NO, they had no power to do that. What he merely wanted was to have the bloodline of young master Shirong to mix with his clan's. If one of his granddaughters were to get impregnated by the young master, it would solve this problem of his.
Heck, if the Young master wanted it, he would give all of his granddaughters to him. That would only be that much more good as it would mean more choice from the pool of descendants.
Clan head Lu still had a little more than four hundred years of his lifespan left, which was more than enough for him to raise a successor for his position.
"That's it!" Clan Head Lu suddenly exclaimed.
All the elders and the juniors in the room were startled due to the sudden action of their clan head.
"Father, what's the problem?" Asked one of the old men sitting in the room.
This person looked even more older than Clan head Lu but was evidently one of his sons. It could be perceived from this what the distance between a core condensation realm cultivator and a nascent soul realm expert was.
"Problem? No! What I have is a solution instead!" Clan Head Lu said as he laughed a bit and stroked his beard.
"Lu Peng, we'll be having a grand banquet tomorrow and the guest of honor will be Young master Shirong. I want you to get all of my granddaughters ready to serve him to the best of their abilities." Clan head Lu ordered.
Lu Peng's eyes went wide as he realized the true meaning behind his father's words.
"I understand, father. It shall be done and sister Miao shall personally see to it that the girls are ready." Lu Peng replied.
The other elders also understood what was happening here after learning that sister Miao was involved. This sister Miao of theirs was a woman of great beauty, but that was not all. She was also strong and had a cultivation base that was at the peak stage of the core condensation realm.
But her specialty was actually in the seduction arts, which she excelled at. She had been quite helpful in making some business deals and had helped the clan grow quite a bit.
"Speaking of Young master Shirong, what is he up to these days?" Asked one of the elders that was sitting near Lu Peng.
"From the last report I heard, he has been cultivating in seclusion since the day he came back." Lu Peng replied
"Good, good, young men should be like this. I'll go and personally invite him for the banquet. Let's hope he…" Clan head Lu spoke and trailed off at the end as his eyes went wide and his face turned pale.
"NOO!!!" Clan head Lu shouted as he flew up, breaking through the roof of the mansion.
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Clan head Lu had sensed the barrier that he had placed on the courtyard of Young master Shirong break. But if it was just that he would have not been this scared, the thing that he was scared of was the spatial fluctuations he felt after the barriers broke.
"How are there such strong spatial fluctuations here? Did an expert decided to attack Young Master Shirong or something?" Clan head Lu wondered.
He had directly thought that Shirong was being attacked and had not even considered that a spatial rift might have been opened there. There were a few reasons behind this though, spatial rifts were quite rare and seldom appeared without any interference.
They only appeared if someone used a treasure, there was a disturbance in the spatial fabric or if some strong cultivator used a treasure to open a spatial rift. So it was easy to imagine the utter shock that clan head Lu had after seeing the large black rift that had been opened in the air.
"YOUNG MASTER! YOUNG MASTER SHIRONG!" Clan head Lu called out with urgency.
He couldn't see him as the black rift was sucking in a lot of debris and dirt from the area. Clan head Lu did not dare to use his spirit sense either as if it got sucked into the spatial rift, he would be severely injured too.
A spatial rift wasn't something that even he would deal with lightly. Besides, he had no spatial treasure that could help him in this situation. All that was on his mind was to find young master Shirong and get away quickly.
"I'M HERE!" Shirong shouted after hearing the voice of the Clan head Lu.
He felt a bit relieved, but then looking back at the spatial rift, he was getting even more scared. The pillar he was holding onto was the main support pillar and was thankfully quite firm and study. Even if the walls around him were being broken down, the pillar was holding on.
But he was not a fool to believe that he would be able to last long like this. If the spatial rift kept on expanding, it would become nearly impossible for the pillar to stay embedded in the ground. He looked back at the clan head Lu who had now landed on the ground, not daring to fly anymore.
If his control was lost even for a moment, he would be pulled in if he was in the air. At least on the ground, he would be able to hold on.
Clan head Lu quickly started to think of solutions to this, but realized nothing would work from his current position. He thus moved to the other side and came to stand some distance away from Young master Shirong's back.
He then took out a spirit tool that looked like a rope from his spatial storage ring.
"Young master, hold on to this, I'll throw it to you!" Clan head Lu shouted.
He knew that normal ropes would easily break and perhaps only a spirit tool might be able to hold on.
~Woosh~
The rope spirit tool was thrown, and it flew towards Young master Shirong. But just as he was about to catch it, the suction force of the spatial rift changed its direction and pulled it away.
"Dammit!" Shirong shouted.
"I'll try again, Young master!" Clan head Lu shouted.
By now a lot of people had noticed the spatial rift in the air. It was stirring up winds, and even the high pitched noise from it was heard across the city now. Many cultivators rushed to check up on it, along with the elders of the Lu clan.
They had seen their clan head run out with urgency and knew that something dire must have happened. Otherwise, their clan head who was a calm and composed person would never act like this.
"Heavens! It's a spatial rift!" Lu Peng exclaimed with shock.
The others had similar reactions and were dumbstruck. There were a few people who did not know what it was, but the others soon explained to them about the dangers of a spatial rift, especially one like this which seemed to be quite unstable and was sucking in everything it could.
"We have to help Young master Shirong and clan head Lu!" Clan head Mu spoke.
The clan heads of the other clans had also appeared after seeing the commotion. By now Clan head Lu had thrown the rope treasure a few times towards Young master Shirong a few times, but each time was a failure. On the other hand, the spatial rift was still growing in size and had now reached a diameter of three meters.
Its force had more than doubled by now, and the roof of the courtyard had long since been sucked into it, leaving the insides of the courtyard bare. The furniture that was not bolted down was also sucked into it, and now the walls were breaking apart.
The paved stone tiles in the garden were getting ripped out of the ground as well, turning them into deadly projectiles that clan head Lu had to dodge. The other people couldn't help but put more distance between them and the spatial rift.
A few of them finally made a team and went towards clan head Lu.
"Clan head Lu let us help!" The cultivators said.
They were a mix and from multiple clans with some being from the Lu clan too. The only thing in common was that they were all core condensation realm cultivators. Qi refining realm cultivators were not qualified to even approach it, or they would be pulled in easily.
"Brothers set up the formation array." One of them shouted and started making hand seals.
The others followed and did the same, meanwhile clan head Lu took a look and coordinated with them. Soon, formation runes appeared in the air and started to move into the positions as directed by the cultivators. A triangular area was set up, with Young master Shirong at one vertex, clan head Lu at second and the team of cultivators at the third.
"Let's hope this works, or even if we survive this spatial rift, the Ji clan wouldn't leave us alive…"
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