Read Rise Of The Worm Sovereign Chapter 251 - Lin Wu Versus Demon Spine Ape? online for free - AllNovelFull
Spikes covered Lin Wu's tail as it turned into a mace and smashed against the Demons spine ape.
~Thud~
The demon spine ape took the hit head on and pushed his hands against the mace like tail. He slid back about ten meters before he was able to stop the tail. Lin Wu's body was over fifty meters long currently thus he had the advantage of reach.
He had not used his full form as he thought that it would be better to hide it for now. He knew having a bigger body was both an advantage and disadvantage but so far it could be used as a trump card if needed.
After the Demon spine ape got thrown back, it looked at Lin Wu with a furious face and jumped towards him. But this time maroon flames were now burning on his body. The flames covered his exposed spine and his hands.
"DEMON FIRE EXTERMINATION!" he shouted before the flames exploded from its hands.
An area of over hindered meters was instantly covered in the maroon flames and burned everything in it. Even Lin Wu was fully inside the area and his body could not be seen in the dense flames.
The flames showed no signs of stopping but then the sound of a collision was heard coming from inside of it.
~bam~
A figure shot out of the flames and broke tens of trees before stopping. This figure was none other than the Demon Spine ape. Soon after it, another figure flew out. But this one did not seem like it was thrown, rather it was flying out on its now.
Who else could this be other than Lin Wu?
But this time, he seemed to be a bit unwell. Fine cracks could be seen all over his body, and the glow on his body had gotten slightly dimmer as well.
"Well, well, I guess I at least know what this body can handle now…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
The Slim arm ape watched on in horror as Lin Wu came out of the demonic flames unharmed. When the flames were finally extinguished, all the things that existed in the area had been reduced to ash and even the ground was scorched black.
"This… how can it be possible? The demonic flames of a demon spine ape are dangerous to even an Adult stage Nascent soul realm cultivator…" The slim arm ape said to himself.
~Crumble~
The demon spine ape picked itself up from the ground and threw all the trunks of trees covering him aside.
"YOU!!" he shouted before running towards Lin Wu.
~Sigh~
"This should be enough for a test…" Lin Wu said before a blinding glow emitted from his body.
The demon spine ape couldn't help but freeze in his tracks as the light assaulted his eyes. The slim arm ape covered his eyes with his arms while looking through the gaps. While the Split thorn horn beetle king was just fine due to his compound eyes.
The beast kings switched to their spirit sense to observe and saw a terrifying scene. Lin Wu's body started growing till it reached a length of over a hundred meters and two meters thick. The spikes on his body became longer, and his crimson eyes glowed as well. The cracks that he previously had completely disappeared.
~Screech~
A loud screech was let out by Lin Wu, which spread far. This was his natural cry, which he seldom used, but he just felt right using it right now.
Spirit Qi swirled across his body as the area suddenly started to heat up. But there were no flames like before, it was just heating up as if the sunlight was doing it.
The three rulers suddenly found it hard to control the spirit Qi in the air. It was as if the spirit Qi had become heavy with lead and it took them a lot more effort to move it. While the spirit Qi they had in their body was still usable, once they emitted it from their body, it became hard to use as well.
"What is this?!" All of the rulers shouted.
Lin Wu was currently using his radiation manipulation innate skill at its full force. He was suppressing all the spirit Qi in the air with the radiation emitted from his body and forcing it into the body of the Demon Spine ape.
The slim arm ape king and the beetle king didn't know what the demon spine ape was currently feeling. The effects those two rulers were feeling were not even targeted on them and were just passive effects.
Lin Wu's focus was fully on the demon spine ape and he was trying to see how much he could suppress others using just the radiation. He had seen the effect of radiation on the Lu Clan Head who was also a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, but these beasts were all many times stronger than him.
"Time to end this!" Lin Wu said before his body shot forward at a great speed.
~boom~
The winds shook the trees nearby and directly uprooted some of them.
~Crack~
Lin Wu directly collided with the Demon spine ape and a sick cracking sound was heard. The demons spine ape was launched back again, but before he could go too far, he collided with a hard object.
~thud~
This was nothing but Lin Wu's tail, which had appeared to block him.
"ARGH!" The demon spine ape grunted in pain as blood spilled from his mouth and nose.
~swishy
Lin Wu flipped his tail and slammed the Demon spine ape into the ground next.
~thud~
~Rumble~
His body created a crater in the ground as an ape shaped imprint was formed. Lin Wu slithered ahead and coiled around his body while constricting hard. He actually had to shrink a part of his tail so that it could wrap around the demon spine ape.
If he just used his full size, he would just end up squeezing the beast instead.
"So what do you say now?"
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None of the rulers could believe their eyes. The battle in front of them was no battle but rather a one sided beat down. It didn't look like Lin Wu was even taking it seriously from the start.
But now that they had seen Lin Wu's capabilities and his true size, they knew that he was no common worm that could be looked down upon.
The Demon Spine ape looked at Lin Wu with fear in his eyes for the first time. The anger and rage he was feeling due to his bloodline's ability were no longer there and he felt like if he protested anymore, he would be crushed to death.
"I… Accept defeat…" The demon spine ape answered unwillingly.
~Sigh~
A sigh was released by the Slim arm ape and he knew that the demon spine ape's position was now as good as gone. According to the ancient mandate, Lin Wu had the right to kill and take over the position of the Demon spine ape.
The slim arm ape knew what his son had in mind, when his son asked Lin Wu to defeat him. He had thought that even if he won, it won't be a once sided victory like this and that they would have to struggle for a while.
Even if the demon spine ape lost like that, Lin Wu would be in no condition to take over his position. In a way, this was a trap devised by the father and son. The father accepted Lin Wu's proposition by taking the benefits, while the son denied it to reduce Lin Wu's authority.
If their plan had succeeded, not only would Lin Wu have to fulfill his end of the agreement, he would likely be suppressed by the two ape rulers.
Still, what they did not know was that Lin Wu would not be fazed by their low grade scheme. He had far too much experience in matters such as these and had seen many situations like these in various media such that they had become overused tropes.
"So you admit defeat… good." Lin Wu said before releasing the demon spine ape.
~thud~
The ape fell to the ground and created another imprint on it. At least this time it was not as injured and could pull himself out of it. Lin Wu, on the other hand, turned to the Slim arm ape king.
"Well then… I guess we can proceed." Lin Wu said.
~Sigh~
"Alright… you can be the ruler now then." The Slim arm ape replied.
Lin Wu looked at him with confusion in his eyes upon hearing his words.
"Ruler? What ruler?" Lin Wu questioned.
"You defeated my son, who is one of the rulers, you get his seat now." The slim arm ape replied, feeling strange now.
"I don't want it though." Lin Wu replied.
"Huh?" Both the slim arm ape and the demon spine ape looked at him in bewilderment.
"But didn't you just use this as an excuse to get his seat?" The slim arm ape questioned.
"Why would I need to do that? If I really wanted, I could have just started the fight the moment we met. Like I said, I only intended to do what I explained before. I do not want his seat, I want the Olive Viper King's seat." Lin Wu answered.
In reality, the reason why Lin Wu didn't want the seat was that it would end up putting him in the limelight far too early. He would like to stay relatively hidden, at least until he reaches the child stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
While he had shown that he had defeated the Demon Spine ape wease, it was not so. In exchange Lin Wu had also borne the injuries which took quite a bit of vital essence to heal. Even the amount of spirit Qi he needed to suppress everyone with radiation manipulation was high.
It wasn't as high as when he diverted tribulation lightning, but it was still quite substantial. Another thing was that he didn't want to expose more of his skills by prolonging the fight. This was the fastest way he could do it right now.
'Keeping my size small, definitely worked in my favor…' Lin Wu thought to himself as he shrank back to his previous size.
The three rulers looked at this with peculiar gazes as a thought appeared in their minds.
'So he can't keep this large form for long. It is just a temporary ability.' All of them thought.
The demon spine ape was still injured but it did not have any life threatening injuries. It would just take him a week to fully recover to his peak state. As a demon spine ape, he naturally had a greater regeneration ability than other beasts and thus could fix his bones quicker too.
"What now then?" The Beetle king, who had been silent till now, spoke.
"Now… we just do as I said. I don't require anything in particular of you three and just want you to stop the olive viper king's subordinates when the time comes. As for my end of the deal, if you want to mutate your subordinates, make sure they bring beasts for me to eat, spirit herbs or fruits." Lin Wu answered.
"That's all?" The slim arm ape asked.
"Yes. No wait… I have another thing I want to ask you three." Lin Wu replied.
"And what's that?" The slim arm ape questioned.
"I wanted to take a look at the Dark Bloom caves. What would be the best place to enter from that is not in the Twin Lights liger king's territory?" Lin Mu replied.
"The Dark Bloom caves? Why do you want to go there? That is a forbidden area." The Slim arm ape and the Beetle king questioned.
"Forbidden? Doesn't the Twin Lights Liger king live in one of the caves?" Lin Wu asked.
"He is the only one that does and that's because of his strength. Other normal nascent soul realm beasts won't have the same luck."
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"So there is no way to enter the Dark Bloom caverns?" Lin Wu questioned.
"No, there is… the entrance is open. But, the other beasts will not allow someone to enter." The Slim arm ape answered.
"Why is that? I heard the entry was free, it was just that due to danger no one entered." Lin Mu asked.
~Sigh~
"It used to be like that, but then two years ago when the stars fell from the sky something changed. If a beast went into the Dark Bloom caves the other beasts would suffer bad luck.
This has happened twice such that misfortune descended on the entire forest. The first time it was a random core condensation beast that wanted to test its luck. But when it went in, a terrible sound was heard coming from the caves.
The sound was strange and we could hear it nonstop. No matter what we tried the sound would not stop and it would keep on ringing in our heads." The Slim arm ape answered.
"That is strange… and what about the second time?" Lin Wu questioned.
"Back when the Olive Viper king was battling the previous owner of his seat, the battle had occurred near the Dark Bloom caves. This had scared the previous rulers' subordinates, who ended up running into the Dark bloom caves to escape the attack.
After so many beasts entered it, our misfortune began again. This time not only was there that sound, but a strange odor emanated from there which made us restless. No matter what we tried, we couldn't sleep or rest for a week.
Some beasts went mad directly and started raging. We ended up having to forcefully kill them, or they would have triggered a beast swarm, which is not what we wanted at that moment.
The beast's numbers had already reduced due to the stars falling and if the beast tide occurred, it was likely the humans would send their experts to cull the beasts. With all the problems we already had we didn't want the humans adding to it." The Slim arm ape king explained.
Lin Wu did not know that all this had happened and wondered why the mole beast and the beetle beast servants had not told him this.
"Wait this matter… do the beasts from the third ring know about it?" Lin Wu questioned.
"No, they don't. We don't involve less intelligent beasts in things like these when they can't understand it. They can't get near the dark bloom caves anyway." The slim arms ape answered.
'No wonder they didn't know… they were simply too weak to know at that time. And I also didn't ask the swan and sparrow beast about it. They have been living in the fifth ring for longer and should have probably known about it.' Lin Wu thought to himself.
Having obtained the answer, Lin Wu knew it would not be good to pursue more about it now. If the mandate was anything concrete, then something like this should not have happened. It was clear that whatever happened two years ago, it was related to the meteor.
'Hmm… what could it actually be? Strange sounds and foul odor?' Lin Wu wondered to himself.
"Alright then. I guess we can drop this for now. When you need me, you can contact me using this." Lin Wu said before making another communicator like he had done for the beetle king.
The slim arm ape king looked at it with amazement.
"A communication jade slip? You can make them?" The slim arm ape king questioned.
"Yeah, just think of it as one of my abilities." Lin Wu said before handing the communication jade slip to the slim arm ape king.
"I trust you know how to use it?" Lin Wu asked.
The slim arm ape king nodded his head as he spoke, "yes I do."
"Alright then. I'll go back to my place. If you want to mutate your subordinates, do as I instructed and tell them to ahead to the tomb, I live there now." Lin Wu said, much to the shock of the Slim arm ape.
With this final shock, Lin Wu flew away to his 'nest'. He had another plan hatching in his mind, but he would need to wait for a while to enact it. If he did it rightaway, he was sure the suspicion would directly fall on him.
Even though the Slim arm ape had told him not to go to the Dark bloom caves, Lin Wu was not going to listen to it. He had an idea that perhaps whatever was causing the disturbances; it didn't want them to see what was in the depths.
And since it happed after the meteor fell, it was related to that as well. Lin Wu would wait a few days for the situation to normalize before he would make his way there. He already knew where the caves actually were and he was just asking the rulers as he had thought that they may know more than others.
That very hunch turned out to be true as Lin Wu would now be aware of these 'dangerous' that would happen. Besides, Lin Wu knew that if he really wanted to get in, there was no way they could stop him anyway.
He was not going to go from the surface, he was a worm. He would just dig his way in and nobody would know unless they met him on the way there. Lin Wu also had the backup of using the teleportation formation to return to the tomb if he was ever in danger.
That was his safety net that he would keep handy at all times. It would also help him hide if he ever aroused the suspicion of the other rulers. If they claimed he went there, he could just teleport back to the tomb.
~Sigh~
"I guess I'll just cultivate for a while more… I got a lot of spirit Qi to refine anyway…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
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Lin Wu had been cultivating at the tomb of the Taiji celestial for about a week now since his battle with the Demon spine ape. The things at the millennium forest had calmed down by now and most of the conflict caused due to the territorial battles were also reduced.
The territory had finally been divided among the five rulers and a strange sense of peace was achieved in the forest. Even the Olive Viper King had been staying silent for a while and had not been seen.
Lin Wu's servants had also woken up by now and were now at the tomb as well.
"Greetings master!" All of them said together.
This was the first time the four of them were meeting each other officially. They all had met up outside of the tomb and had a conversation amongst themselves. Their ranks were also decided by them.
Right now the mole beast was at the top not only because he was the first one to become Lin Wu's servant but also because he was the only one who had successfully broken through to the Late stage of the Core condensation realm.
The next was the beetle beast who was at the very cusp of reaching the late stage of the core condensation realm. The third was the sparrow beast and the final was the swan beast. Both of them were at the mid stage of the core condensation realm.
All of them knew that the reason why they had reached their current cultivation bases was due to Lin Wu and they were grateful to him for that. If it were not for him, it was likely it would have taken them another hundred years to reach this point.
There was even a chance that they would have never been able to reach the peak stage of the core condensation realm and their life span would have ended. Most beasts in the core condensation realm had the same life span as that of the human cultivators, but some unique ones would live longer.
But these four beasts were not among those lucky beasts and thus would have ended up extinguishing their longevity, never having the chance at the Nascent Soul realm. They now knew, as long as they server Lin Wu diligently they may actually have a chance at something like this.
"Hmm… so you four finally woke up. And I see you all progressed quite a bit in your cultivation too." Lin Wu who was in his full sized form spoke.
This was the most comfortable form for him to cultivate and thus he stayed in this, unless he was going out when he would switch to a smaller form instead.
"It was all your doing master, we dare not take the credit." The mole beast boot licked quickly.
"Humph…" The beetle beast felt frustrated that she missed her chance again, but for some reason this mole was just too fast at things like this.
While the two bird beasts were simply bird brained and did not have thoughts like that. All they wanted was to stay safe, eat and cultivate. They had seen Lin Wu's strength and did not dare to protest about anything.
Lin Wu nodded his head as he liked their response. They were willing to serve diligently, which was something he was happy with.
"What is it that you wanted to ask us, master?" The beetle beast questioned.
"Oh yeah, do any of you have an idea about cooking." Lin Wu questioned.
"Cooking?" They all said in unison, confused looks on their faces.
~Sigh~
"I should have expected…" Lin Wu said as he shook his head.
"Take a look at this and tell me if you will be able to do this." Lin Wu said before giving each of them four jade slips that he had made.
All of these contained information about cooking that Lin Wu had gathered. It even included various ingredients descriptions and how they could be used. The four beasts took the jade slips apprehensively before reading them using their spirit sense.
It took them an hour before they were able to go through it and after they were done, sweat appeared on their faces.
"Master this…" The mole beast said as he gulped.
"I never expected humans had skills such as these…" The beetle beast said.
"I know, right? Food is just food, why do they need to do so many things to it?" The sparrow beast said.
"Umm… I once ate some of the things a group of humans left. It did taste better than what we usually eat…" The swan beast added.
"Exactly!" Lin Wu suddenly interrupted.
"The food cooked by humans is exquisite and can even enhance the quality of it which can help you speed up your cultivation." Lin Wu explained.
The four beasts did not think there would be an effect like this and they instantly perked up.
"I am interested in this master but then…" the mole beast said before looking at its crystalline green claws. "I don't think we will be able to use their techniques using our limbs." He added.
The other beasts took a look at their bodies and reached the same conclusion. None of them had the right dexterity to do things like that and there was no way they would be able to handle certain cooking utensils.
"Yeah… that's true. So, instead of that what I want you to do is to gather ingredients. You all should have the list in the jade slip, so if you find things resembling that, you can gather them. You all should also start to recruit your own underlings and put them on the task.
If you find interesting things you can also gather them. Oh, and don't forget the cultivation resources like spirit herbs, they can be used in cooking too and their effects can be multiplied by that." Lin Wu spoke.
"We understand master." They all spoke in unison.
"Though master, if you want someone to cook for you. Why don't you try getting one of the monkey beasts? They have limbs similar to humans and should be able to replicate all that." The mole beast suggested.
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What the mole beast had said was exactly what Lin Wu had originally wanted to do. But he had seen the monkey beasts when he met the two ape kings and knew that recruiting them on that day would be hard.
If he asked them to give him a few monkeys he would have definitely been rejected. Thus he wanted to wait for the right opportunity.
"I did have that idea, but haven't gotten the chance for it." Lin Wu stated.
"There are a lot of monkey beasts in the outer three rings of the forest, but I doubt they are intelligent enough to learn this." The swan beast thought out loud.
"Indeed. Well… anyways you all can go about your way." Lin Wu said.
"Master, do you still want me to keep an eye on the Olive Viper king?" the mole beast questioned.
"No, there is no need now. I have other sources of information." Lin Wu said.
This was one of the things he had added in agreement for the cooperation with the slim arms ape, demon spine ape and the split thorn horn beetle kings. They did not mind something like this and had their subordinates watching the snake anyway.
This was a better and more efficient method for Lin Wu as it would get him more information. Lin Wu returned to cultivation and returned his mind to his avatar.
"Hmm, I should be able to upgrade my cultivation base in two more weeks." Lin Wu muttered to himself after seeing the window.
~Ding~
——
AVATAR CULTIVATION BASE: Peak stage of the core condensation realm
-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [8416/24,000] units (liquid spirit qi)
——
Shirong had left the Deer Wood city a day after Lin Wu had his battle with the Demon Spine ape.
He was now close to the capital city of the Ling Kingdom and would reach it in an hour. Originally he was going to directly fly there but then decided to take a carriage instead. The reason for this was some new information that he had obtained.
Shirong had asked Clan Head Lu to send out his people to search for more information on his two followers Ye Dai and Bei Wen who had gone missing. Apparently, they were seen being taken by some group which had been found to be involved in human trafficking.
This group operated in between the routes going to the capital city and was said to be quite strong too. They were said to have plenty of Core condensation realm cultivators and were rumored to have a nascent soul realm expert as their backer.
The clan head and Shirong knew that they were definitely not the ones who had made the plan to take Shirong's two followers and there was another party behind them. But these people would be the key to getting to them and thus Shirong made a plan.
He would disguise himself as a rich nobleman and travel by carriage. He would intentionally have low security and make it as if he was a good target for these 'bandits'.
But just this would not have been enough and it was known that they only targeted specific people who were vulnerable and rich. They were also smart and would not just fall into a trap like this directly.
Because of this, Shirong had to plot a very long route to the capital. That way there was a greater chance of encountering these bandits. He even got the clan head to spread the news that the young master of a noble clan who had never gone out into the world before was visiting the capital for the first time.
This was to incite the bandits to take action. They knew that there was still a large chance they would not succeed but Shirong was still willing to take it. The route they had taken went through multiple villages and towns, making sure that they covered the more 'desolate' parts of the routes too.
But it seemed like Shirong's luck was not as good and they did not encounter any of those 'bandits' They had been traveling for six days now and there was no progress in their plan.
Usually, it would have taken a person two days to reach the capital of the Ling kingdom by a carriage but even after expanding this journey to six days, their plan seemed to have failed.
"What should we do now, young master?" One of the servants asked.
Shirong had been assigned a few servants to act as the part and they were all cultivators who were hiding their cultivation base as well. Shirong looked out of the window and sighed, feeling a bit lost.
"Seems like our journey was in vain. These rats are way more cautious than we thought, or they moved to some other place at the last moment." Shirong spoke.
"Indeed. Our scouts have also reported that there have been no recent bandit attacks on any of the carriages or caravans traveling." The servant spoke.
Shirong simply nodded his head without answering. He had gotten bored at this time as he barely had anything to do. Since they were traveling to the capital city, most of the paths were well developed, and rarely did any beasts get near this.
And even the ones that did, were quickly killed by the guards. After reaching the Nascent Soul realm, Shirong wanted nothing more than to fight and test his new skills, but he was not having the chance.
Even if he did do that, there was a great chance his cover would be exposed and their plan would just fail. And now finally after all this time, they were close to the capital city.
'Seems like I'll just have to get onto my mission first…' Shirong thought.
He spread his spirit sense fully for the first time in days and checked the area. In the few days, while he was in the carriage, Shirong had taken the opportunity to further refine his spirit sense. His spirit sense had now reached a radius of about three hundred meters.
But just as he did that, he spotted something he had been waiting for.
"So they have been hiding here all this time…"
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Shirong found none other than the very bandits they had been looking for since the start.
'Who would have thought they would make their base so close to the capital.' Shirong thought.
They were mere hours away from the capital city and if any illegal activity was detected by the guards a strict action would be taken. This was the reason why criminals did not dare to do anything out of the capital.
Though once one entered the city, things were different. Crime was not as uncommon in the city itself and certain powers were behind this. Often times leaving the city was an easy way to get a robber to stop his pursuit than going to the guards yourself.
It was a strange situation created over many years and had now reached an equilibrium. But perhaps to take the advantage of this very balance, the bandits had chosen to create their base here.
Their base was also rather apparent. It was an outpost located half a kilometer away from the main path, hidden behind a dense patch of trees. Had it not been for Shirong's Spirit sense he would not have spotted them.
"Looks like we won't be failing this time. They are coming to us themselves…" Shirong said to the others.
"What do you mean young master?" The servant asked.
"The bandits, they are coming for us now," Shirong replied as he opened the window slightly and peeked out.
"Hmm… there are ten of them. Three in the core condensation realm with the rest in the Qi refining realm." Shirong counted.
"Should I act young master?" The servant asked as his face turned serious.
These 'servants' that Shirong had with him were no normal people and were core condensation realm clansmen from the Lu clan. They were no soft persimmons and had been through their fair share of battles.
"No, just wait here. I want to see how they go about their business. What could they have done that they were able to get two of my subordinates captured?" Shirong said in a cold tone.
It didn't take long for the ten men to approach them on horseback. The three core condensation realm cultivators were at the front and were looking at them with grim expressions.
"HALT!" the man at the front shouted.
The carriage subsequently stopped and the few guards that were with the carriage showed a tense expression just as they had practiced.
"Wh-what do you men want?" The carriage driver questioned, while stammering.
"Surrender your belonging and come with us. If you don't listen peacefully, prepare to lose your life." The man ordered.
"Ahahahahahah!" Lin Wu couldn't hold back anymore and laughed out loud.
"These dumb fucks! Can't they be any more generic?" Lin Wu said, feeling amazed at this.
The carrier driver gulped loudly to show his fear and looked at the back of the carrier.
~creek~
The door of the carriage opened and out walked the servant, with a scared look on his face.
"The young master told us to do as they ask. Just don't harm him." The servant spoke.
"Hehe, seems like this guy has some brains, at least. This will make it much easier for us." The leader of the bandits spoke.
"Come on, take the entire carriage to the hideout. We'll check the loot there." One of the core condensation realm cultivators ordered.
The Qi refining realm cultivators surrounded the carrier and prodded them ahead while the three experts led them to their hideout. They didn't travel fast though, as the path was rather rough. This was off the main path and it took them ten minutes to travel a mere half a kilometer.
On the way there though, the three core condensation realm cultivators were all very alert and were looking around.
"What do you think first brother? Is this the silk pants we got the information about?" The third core condensation realm cultivator asked the first one.
"Should be this one. The clan name of the carriage reads 'Ji' so it's definitely them." The first brother spoke.
"What if we got the wrong person thought? Perhaps this is the young master of the great Ji clan." The second brother asked with apprehension.
"Ahahha! Second brother, your joke is really good. Why would a young master of the great Ji clan travel in a carriage like this that too with so weak guards? Not to mention the guards, they themselves should be strong enough to fight us alone. This is clearly the young master of the local Ji clan." The first brother replied.
"Ahahah!" Lin Wu laughed again. He couldn't believe how accurate the words of the second person were.
The two men took another look at the carriage and indeed found it to be normal looking. There was nothing peculiar and the guards also had weak spirit Qi fluctuations. The concealment talismans that the Lu clan head had prepared were working well for them.
These talismans were single use ones, that could hide the spirit Qi fluctuation of a cultivator making it seem like they were one realm below the actual one. This talisman needed to be activated before someone detected you and worked for about six hours.
The guards and the servant had activated them, the moment Shirong had announced that these were the bandits they were looking for.
After approaching the hideout, the carriage was halted and a few more men walked out of the small building that was made from wood and stones.
"Seems like a good haul this time. We will make a fortune ransoming this guy." The first brother spoke with joy.
"But what if his clan is unable to pay or does not want to pay his ransom?" The second brother asked.
"You are as doubtful as ever, second brother. We have never had a clan who did not pay the ransom for one of their heirs. Besides, even if they don't pay us, we can very easily sell him off. The costs for well maintained and good looking slaves from rich clans are quite high. We will not be making a loss either way." The first brother spoke.
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Lin Wu was enjoying the entire thing while sitting in the ring carefree. He was even eating some of the fruits he had stolen… taken from the Lu Clan. Since he didn't have a lot of them he was eating them piece by piece while savoring the flavor and the drama as well.
"I really need to get a lot more snacks… storing them in the system's inventory makes them frozen in the state they were put in so I should be able to keep a lot of things." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
The first brother looked over to the carriage and shouted. "Come out now! Show us your face!"
Inside the carriage, the servant looked at Shirong with apprehension.
"Young master, should we act now?" The servant asked.
"Just wait… I'll take care of this myself now. I've gotten bored sitting here all these days…" Shirong said in a tired tone before standing up.
~gulp~
The servant couldn't help but gulp in slight fear. Just because Shirong was bored and perhaps frustrated due to the time spend, he a Nascent Soul realm cultivator was willing to take action himself.
'These men are gonna regret this day…' The servant thought before opening the door for Shirong and leaving the carriage first as was the etiquette. Even if he was only pretending to be a servant, that didn't mean he would stop the act right away.
Besides, it was not bad to do things like this, since Shirong was a Nascent Soul realm cultivator not to mention the heir of the great Ji clan. He would not be making a loss by serving him.
The bandits saw the servant leaving the carriage and looked on at the open door, only to show confused expression on their faces.
"Who is that?" They wondered.
They had an idea of how the said young master was supposed to look, but Shirong was no way like that. It was not just the appearance, but the demeanor which had given him away.
"You people have been saying a lot of things without thinking about the consequence… now it's my turn to act without thinking of the consequence," Shirong said as he moved towards them, temps by stem.
The bandits couldn't help but feel anxious for some reason.
"Stop! Take another step and we will chop your legs!" one of the Qi refining realm bandits that was near Shirong threatened.
~flick~
~swish~
~thud~
The people watched in horror as a head fell down effortlessly on the floor and rolled towards the bandit leader's foot.
"You guys were thinking of taking advantage of a noob when it was actually a smurf." Lin Wu chuckled.
It barely took Shirong a flick of a finger to chop off the head of the bandit using the wind attribute spirit Qi. His control over the Immortal Sky shaker art had gotten terrifyingly better. And he required much less effort to do something like this.
If he truly wanted to, he could just kill all of them with a flick of a hand. The wind blades would split them in half instantly. But that was not what Shirong wanted. He wanted information about his subordinates, and he was willing to get it by hook or crook.
The bandits finally understood they had hit a steel plate and all they could do now was to escape. While they could still now sense Shirong's cultivation base, they were easily able to assume that he must be vastly strong compared to them, considering the ease with which he beheaded their companion.
~shua~
In less than two minutes, all of the men were on the ground with their limbs having been broken. Shirong moved at lightning pace and barely took a second for each person.
"Well then… we should start now…" Shirong said with a dark smile on his face before getting the guards to carry these bandits' insides and then telling them to wait outside.
What happened next was a torture session that lasted an hour, in which Shirong took out all the boredom that he had been feeling these past few days. At the end, all of the bandits were limbless, and some were just dead.
Shirong had been able to gather quite a bit of information from them, which he had expected, especially with the application of his 'skills'.
"So their actual head is off doing business with a big 'client'. But they still don't know much about Ye Dai and Bei Wen. They have seen them, but they were originally captured by their leader and the elite bandits." Shirong muttered to himself.
Lin Wu watched on and knew his turn was about to come. He had watched the entire thing from start to end and actually had to stop eating as he didn't feel it to be as appetizing as before.
Shirong willed it and a gauntlet appeared under the sleeves on his harms. He went to each of the bandits and stabbed their heads with the spike of the gauntlet, while Lin Wu got to his usual task.
"Ahh… it still feels got to absorb spirit Qi and vital energy like this. This will save me a few days of effort." Lin Wu said as he waited for the system's prompt.
~Ding~
——
DATA NODES OBTAINED: Ten nodes analyzed
TRANSFERRING DATA: please wait a moment
——
Lin Wu closed his eyes and watched the memories that had appeared in his mind now. All of them were a bit jumbled at first, but the system was able to sort them out. Eventuality Lin Wu got the proper timeline of things and saw the scene where Ye Dai and Bei Wen were brought in.
The two men were unconscious had were tied up. Their bodies looked injured and their clothes were torn in many places due to the attacks they had sustained. There were many more bandits standing there over a hundred, along with an old man who looked like their leader.
"So that is the Nascent Soul realm leader they have… but that symbol… where have I seen that before?"
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In the memories, Lin Wu had seen a symbol on the belt of the Nascent Soul realm cultivator. The symbol was that of three daggers arranged into a 'Y' shape. He felt like he had seen it somewhere before.
"System, check the data bank for the symbol." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The symbol belongs to the shadow dagger pavilion. They are an organization that undertakes jobs like assassination, heist, robbery, espionage and sabotage. They are one of the bigger criminal organizations in the Ling kingdom and a few nearby kingdoms.
A lot of clans have dealings with them and have involved them at some point in time. Even the Xiong clan has had a few dealings with the shadow dagger pavilion a few years ago.
——
Lin Wu nodded his head as he finally realized where he had seen the symbol. It was in the records of the Xiong clan where it recorded their business deals and trades. Lin Wu went over those records and saw their involvement.
"Oh, so they just hired them to cripple the business of a few merchants ten years ago. That's not as problematic…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Originally Lin Wu wanted to go over all the information as he didn't want to pass everything to Shirong. He would only give the part which would be more beneficial to him and would help him manipulate the man in his favor.
"I can just give him everything and see if he can figure out more from this…" Lin Wu decided before continuing.
"Alright system, transfer the memories to Shirong." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
INITIATING DATA TRANSFER: Data nodes selected
DATA TRANSFER: Initiated… please wait patiently
——
Shirong finally felt the connection between him and the Immortal Crystal Armament become active again and got the response. He had been wanting to get the memories like it had gotten from the traitor Elder Pei, and it was exactly what Lin Wu had done.
Shirong closed his eyes and let the memories pour into his mind. They started playing in his mind and he watched them one by one. Unlike Lin Wu who had the support of the system, Shirong couldn't control which memory he watched or the order, thus he ended up seeing the entire thing.
It took him over an hour for this and he felt a bit tired at the end of it as well. Had it not been for him reaching the Nascent Soul realm, he probably would have had a splitting headache at this point.
'Digesting the memories of fifteen men is not something easy even for me…' Shirong thought to himself as he analyzed the memories.
After the memories were fully transferred, Shirong could go over them as he liked and did not need to watch the entire thing from start to end.
If Lin Wu compared this to his past life, it was like watching a live stream. One could only watch as everything happened, but once the live stream was finished, they could rewind or directly skip to the part that they wanted to watch. The potential for control was much better, and it made it very convenient.
~Ding~
——
DATA TRANSFER: Completed
——
Unlike Lin Wu though, Shirong was easily able to recognize who the old man was.
"The shadow dagger pavilion… you have made a grave mistake targeting my people and in turn targeting me," Shirong said in a grim tone.
He looked through the memories further and imprinted the faces of the bandits on his mind.
"One of the branches of the Shadow dagger pavilion is in the capital itself. No wonder these guys had the courage to set up their hideout here. Hmm… the head should be either in the capital, or his whereabouts can probably be found from there." Shirong muttered to himself.
Lin Wu was amazed by this as he did not have this information and neither did the system.
"Ooo… seems like giving it to Shirong was indeed the better choice." Lin Wu nodded his head in appreciation.
Shirong opened his eyes that were filled with a fierce glint and he left the building. The corpses of the bandits were all desiccated as Lin Wu had sucked them dry and now he needed to get rid of it.
"Are you done, young master? Did you find clues!?" The servant asked.
"I did… they are much closer than I expected," Shirong replied.
"That's good. Should we head out then?" The servant questioned.
"Yes… but just a moment." Shirong said before turning around to face the bandit's hideout.
He extended his finger and spirit Qi waves rolled off him. Arcs of electricity traveled across his body before shooting out from his finger.
~Boom~
The power contained in that single small bolt of lightning was nothing to be scoffed at and exploded the hideout of the bandits.
~shua~
Fire ignited on its remains, and soon, everything burned down.
~gulp~
The guards and servant that were accompanying Shirong couldn't help but gulp in fear. They had seen him display his strength before when he fought with the bandits, but this was on a completely different level.
'Young master Shirong is truly a dragon amongst men…' They all thought.
Shirong nodded his head at this result and walked back to the carriage before climbing in.
"Let's go! I'm getting sick of this carriage. Continue at full speed." Shirong ordered.
"YES, YOUNG MASTER!" They all replied before the carriage started running at a much faster speed than before.
In fact, it was over three times as fast as before. They had been intentionally traveling slowly so that the bandits would have caught up to them in these past scene days. And now that they had found them and obtained more clues, they no longer had to keep hiding.
In less than thirty minutes, the carriage had already reached the entrance of the Ling kingdom's capital city. A long line could be seen outside of it, all different carriages waiting for their turn to be checked.
"MAKE WAY! THE YOUNG MASTER HAS ARRIVED!" A voice came from behind the gates.
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The people and the guards that were checking the carriages became surprised at the sudden interruption. The guards particularly recognized the voice to be of their superior and quickly turned around to salute.
"CAPTAIN!" They all saluted with cupped hands.
"What are you all doing here standing!? Get these commoners moving, Young Master Shirong of the Ji clan is on his way!" The captain ordered, anxiety visible on his face.
Originally Shirong was supposed to arrive over three days ago and they had no idea why he had not come yet. So as to not alert the bandits or whoever was behind the kidnapping of Ye Dai and Bei Wen, Shirong had not allowed information about him to be revealed beforehand.
Still, the capital needed to be informed and thus, Shirong simply asked clan Head Lu to tell them that he will be coming there in two to five days. He had expected that he would be able to find the bandits in that time period but it had taken him much longer to do that.
Still, Shirong was carrying the jade slip and the guards that were accompanying him informed the city only when they had taken care of the bandits. Because of this, the people from the city had to hurry up and prepare for Shirong's arrival.
While Shirong was was the Heir of the Ji clan, if one considered his social standing he would still be below compared to the King of a kingdom. But the king would not miss out on this and did his best to prepare for the meeting.
Good impressions were important and were absolutely necessary for the higher social circles.
The guard captain had to be prompt due to this order and rushed to the entrance. He knew there would be people at the city gates waiting for verification, since it was soon going to be the time for the annual ancestral worship ceremony. On normal days, it would have been less traffic.
Shirong though, did not really care for all this stuff and only wanted to get onto his next task. Right now his first Job would be to meet the king and pay his respects before meeting the merchant who worked for the Ji clan.
He would have to collect his token from him and also give him some information that is to be sent to the clan. Then he also needed to collect the supplies that would b needs for the mission that his clan assigned to him.
Then after this came two jobs that were personal to him. The first was Minister Du Yang, who had dared to conspire against him and the second was the Shadow Dagger pavilion who had kidnapped his subordinates.
Overall, he knew it would take him a few days before he would be able to leave the capital.
~Sigh~
"Hopefully, the king doesn't pull any extra acts to show to the people. Or he'll really delay me a long time." Shirong thought to himself.
While Shirong was fine with the treatment that the Lu clan gave him and all the celebrations they held for him, he did not want the king to be doing the same for him. In the case of the Lu clan, they were meant to be allies and thus it was fine.
But in the case of the King and his family, it would never work out as they were two opposing parties in the end. While he would present a genial and friendly front to him, he knew that the king would still be displeased about him coming here and recruiting allies from his people.
It was the same as poking holes in one walls. The king was the owner of the house while aristocrats were the walls that held it up. When holes were poked in it, the wall would get weaker and there would be a greater chance of the owner that lived inside it getting harmed or injured.
~canter~
The sound of the horses could be heard by the people from far and they soon spotted Shirong's carriage coming towards them at great speed. There were two horses pulling it, and six guards that followed at the sides on horseback as well.
From afar these horses looked like normal horses, but in reality, they were thousand-mile horses that had the stamina to run for a long time without tiring out. Before they had barely used them due to searching for the bandits and thus the horses were well rested.
Now taking advantage of that, Shirong quickly approached the gates. The guards had already gotten to making a free area for Shirong to pass through and had gotten the commoners to move from the path.
Most of the people did not dare complain, but did feel a bit displeased by this. They did not know who the Ji clan was, but seeing the reaction of the guards, they knew better than to make any problem here. If they really did so, they would be swiftly arrested and sent to the prison for a few days. Or worse, flogged till they bled.
Shirong did not stop at the gates as they had already received the signal from the city guards to proceed. The guards made two files, one to each side, and cupped their hands while bowing their heads in a formal salute.
Just this gesture showed how much respect was demanded by the Ji clan.
"Where should we head to first, Young master?" The Servant questioned.
"Hmm… head to this place first…" Shirong said before describing the location to him.
This was the location of the merchant who would be giving Shirong his supplies. While he had initially planned to go directly to the king, Shirong now thought that perhaps he should prepare for a bit beforehand.
He didn't know but he was having this strange gut feeling that was prompting him to be prepared for everything that came.
"He's going to jinx it, isn't he?" Lin Wu said upon seeing Shirong's actions.
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Shirong went straight to the location of the merchant that worked for the Ji clan secretly. There were many of these people all over the continent, in each kingdom. They would gather intelligence for the Ji clan and also help supply the things to their other members that were current in that kingdom.
In some cases, they also brought a lot of business and profit to the Ji clan. These people were still merchants in the true sense only difference was where their loyalties lied.
It took Shirong much longer than he had expected to reach the merchant. The place was much smaller than one would expect and looked a bit run down too. His carriage couldn't progress beyond a certain point due to the road being smaller and he stopped.
"Wait here, I'll be back later," Shirong ordered the servant and guards before walking into a narrow alley.
There he found the Shop that he was supposed to enter. There was no name board on it, and it was hard to identify for anyone. Unless they knew about it, they would have no idea that this place even worked.
~knock~ knock~
"The will of Ji is absolute." Shirong muttered the password before the door.
~creek~
The door of the shop opened and an old man stood behind it. He didn't speak anything and simply let Shirong in.
He went to a trunk that was placed on the ground and waved his hand over it.
~shua~
A formation appeared on the surface of the trunk and glowed for a few seconds before fading away. Then, from that trunk, he pulled out more trunks that were the same size as it. It was evident that the trunk was no common object and was rather a High Grade spatial storage tool.
The old man placed these trunks before Shirong and gestured to them.
"Here are the supplies that were provided by the clan, for the Young master's mission. If you need more, I can provide them for the right price." The Old man spoke.
"Let me take a look," Shirong said before opening the trunks one by one.
There were plenty of alchemical pills and spirit stones present in each of the trunk. There were even defensive talismans and some spirit tools that could come in handy for Shirong.
Then in one of the trunks, he found a small palm sized box. Upon seeing the Ji clan's crest on top of it, Shirong instantly realized what it was.
He opened it and saw the identity token that was placed upon a soft velvet cushion. Shirong cut his finger with a little bit of wind and dripped his blood onto the identity token. The token absorbed the blood in less than a second and glowed with a red light.
Its surface started to change as new letters appeared on it. The letters read: Shirong. This now fully confirmed that it was indeed Shirong who was the owner of the token.
This token was actually a high grade spirit tool as well and had the functions such as verifying the user's identity, tracking their position, tracking their vitals, sending distress signals and also as a key to the Ji Clan's lands.
"Is there anything else you need? The merchant questioned.
"Yes, I do; The teleportation formation to contact the clan." Shirong stated.
The merchant looked a bit apprehensive, but upon seeing the token in his hand became relaxed.
"Please come with me." The old man said, before taking Shirong to another room in the back. In this room, a lot of expensive goods such as spirit tools and weapons were being kept.
One of such things was a cabinet that had a lot of runes carved on it. These runes were intricate, and Lin Wu could tell they were runes used for spatial teleportation. He had seen the better and higher version of these runes in the Tomb of the Taiji Celestial and was well aware of them.
"Here it is." The merchant said, gesturing to the cabinet.
Shirong walked to the cabinet and took out a jade slip from his storage. He had recorded all he needed to report to the clan in this during the past few days, and just needed to send it now. He opened the doors of the cabinet and placed the jade slip in the center before locking its doors.
He placed his hand on the cabinet and poured spirit Qi into it.
~shua~
The runes on it lit up and the entire formation appeared on it now. If it was any other person they would have needed spirit stones to operate the formation as it required a lot of spirit Qi at once. Even if someone had that much spirit Qi they may not be able to output it all at once.
Thus the spirit stones helped in that aspect. But for Shirong, this was no problem now that he was in the Nascent Soul realm and could handle it just on his own. It took a minute before the formation was fully ready and the jade slip disappeared.
Shirong lifted his hand from the cabinet and nodded his head.
"This should be fine now…" Shirong muttered to himself.
After this, he didn't say much to the merchant and simply left the shop, returning to the carriage.
"Head to the royal palace!" Shirong ordered.
~Neigh~
The horse neighed before the carriage headed towards the royal palace. It was not hard to find the royal palace, as it was located at the very center of the city and could be seen from each point in the city.
It was the tallest building in the city and no one would have a problem finding it. The carriage came to stop at the inner gates of the palace before it could not progress anymore. Shirong got down and headed into the building while being greeted by the servants.
It was evident that they had already been informed of his arrival and were there specifically for him. It was now that he heard a voice call out to him.
"Young master Shirong, You're finally here!"
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