Read Rise Of The Worm Sovereign Chapter 271 - No Response From The Clan? online for free - AllNovelFull
By now it was morning and Shirong had woken up from his cultivation session as well. Since reaching the Nascent Soul realm, his speed had dropped greatly and knew that it would only keep on getting slower.
~Sigh~
"Such is the way of cultivation… if going against heavens was easy anyone would do it…" Shirong muttered to himself.
But then his eyes opened and he focused over the Immortal Crystal Armament that was in his ring.
"But as long as I have you and there are other creatures in this world, my speed won't slow down…" Shirong said with a fierce glint in his eyes.
He then stood up and walked out of his room. A few servants were already there waiting for his orders.
"Any messages for me?" Shirong asked.
"No, Young master Shirong." The servant replied in a respectful manner.
'Hmm… the king should have said something till now. Is he busy with something else?' Shirong wondered.
"Do you need us to do anything, young master?" The servant questioned.
"Call my carriage for me," Shirong replied.
"At once," The servant said before going to do the task he was asked to do.
Soon the carriage was brought to the front of the courtyard and Shirong quickly entered it.
"Head to the place we went to yesterday," Shirong ordered.
The place he was going was nowhere but the merchant that worked for the Ji clan. Shirong needed to wait for his clan's response to the report that he had sent. While he was free to proceed without seeing it, he reckoned in the current situation it would be better to wait and see their response.
He knew there were many changes currently happening in the continent and it was better to be cautious than to act blindly. After all, if he made a loss due to ignorance he would have no one but himself left to blame for it.
The roads of the capital city were still as lively as ever, with many people from all walks of life going about their day. Lin Wu watched everything and found that it was actually quite similar to his past life, the only difference being that these people were much stronger than the humans of his past life and that the animals here were quite deadly.
Listening to the people's conversations and gossip was quickly becoming his favorite pass time with the exception of the drama that happened around Shirong. For him, who was used to consuming a lot of entertainment media in his past life, this was the closest replacement.
"Hmm… though I need more snacks." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
He still had some fruits left and continued eating them while listening to the people. But he was not slacking by doing this either. His body was still cultivating with the Taiji Dual Unity scripture, and his spirit Qi stores were steadily increasing.
"System show me the avatar's data." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
AVATAR CULTIVATION BASE: Peak stage of the core condensation realm
-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [12,951/24,000] units (liquid spirit qi)
BLOODLINE: 1. Crimson Eyed Emerald Worm (System Manufactured)
QI SKILLS: 1. Qi Amplification (Great)(Proficiency: Novice)
INNATE SKILLS: 1. Radiation Manipulation (Lesser) (Proficiency: Expert)
2. Cellular Manipulation (lesser) (Proficiency: Expert)
3. Cellular Crystallization (great) (Proficiency: Intermediate)
BEAST CORES: 1. Fully Condensed (Crimson Eyed Emerald Worm)
——
"Hmm… should take me fifteen more days to gain enough spirit Qi for the upgrade. Though I'll still need to figure out how the Heavenly Tribulation will work for this body." Lin Wu spoke to himself.
He had even more spirit Qi than he did currently. This was the spirit Qi he had absorbed from the bandits that Shirong had killed. But Lin Wu had used it all up for practicing the Immortal Sky Shaker art to the first level. Also, converting the attribute less spirit Qi into wind attribute spirit Qi was not fully efficient.
Unlike the other types of energies, System was not able to freely convert this and it was one of the drawbacks that it will take a while to solve. The current ratio of conversion was not like the spirit Qi or vital energy when they could be converted between their forms in a ratio of 1:1.
Rather for the wind attribute spirit Qi the ratio varied from 1:10 all the way to 1:100. This was a very wide range but Lin Wu knew he would eventually improve on it as his proficiency with the skill improves. All he had to do right now was to continue his routine and steadily improve himself.
While Lin Wu was dealing with his cultivation matters, Shirong had just reached the Shop where the merchant stayed. He stopped the carriage outside the narrow alley and walked into the shop.
"The will of Ji is absolute." Shirong muttered the password before the door.
It was the same old man who opened the door for him after he said the password. Shirong looked at him for a second before heading in.
"Has there been any response from the clan?" Shirong questioned.
"No." The man simply answered.
"Nothing? No latter, no jade slip or document?" Shirong asked again.
"No, absolutely nothing. There have been no signs of activation in the teleportation chamber." The merchant replied.
"Hmm… strange. How long is the usual response time for this teleportation formation?" Shirong questioned.
"When I use it, the clan responds in three to seven days. The letter or report reaches the clan within a day or at most in two days if the spatial channels are turbulent." The old man answered.
"I see… well, inform me if anything comes. I'll give you the authority to send a report to my courtyard." Shirong said before leaving the shop.
'Hmm… how long since I wait here? The king should organize the banquet by tonight or tomorrow, but I don't know when the clan will respond.' Shirong thought.
He returned to the carriage and ordered the driver to take him to the Royal place. While in the carriage, Shirong made up his mind.
"Five days it is. If I still don't get a response after that, I'll leave the city and head on to the Marsh…"
Report chapter
In the royal court of the Ling Kingdom, a plethora of people were currently sitting. The king sat at the head of the hall on his throne while the highest ranking ministers sat beside him.
But they were not as eye-catching as the man who was sitting near the wall to the left of the king. He was wearing blue robes with a crane motif on its back and had his eyes closed.
If one looked at him, they would think that he was an erudite man, detached from the worldly desires. This man was none other than Shirong.
He had chosen to go to the royal court to speak with the king about some matters. Once they were done, he had nothing left but to sit there for a while. Since they had been discussing about what to do about the bandits and the Shadow dagger pavilion, Shirong simply listened with his eyes closed.
"Your majesty we have already set up the squads that will be investigating the Shadow Dagger Pavilion and their involvement in the bandit attacks." One of the ministers spoke.
"We were also able to find the link between the recent kidnappings of rich nobles and merchants for ransom. They are supported by the Shadow Dagger pavilion as well." Another minister said.
"Hmm… and how is it that these bandits find out about the travel routes of the nobles and merchants?" The king asked.
"My king, the travel routes of the merchants can be daily found as they trade on those routes, but in the case of the nobles, we suspect that someone from the Postage department may be involved.
All the nobles that were involved sent letters to their location of travels which mentioned the route they would be taking and when they would be coming. If someone was leaking details from there, it could be possible that they are part of the conspiracy as well." The adviser spoke.
"Then it is decided. Dissolve the current administration of the postage department and set up a new one. Make sure that you only fill it with people who have been vetted beforehand. As for the ones who are suspended, investigate them thoroughly and find out the traitors." The king ordered.
"My king! If we dissolve the postal department without a notice, there will be great lapses in the delivery of letters and packages. Even the royal decrees will find it hard to spread." A minister spoke in an anxious note.
"There is no other choice. We cannot let this continue. If we have to take such a severe step, then so be it. As long as you all are fast enough in setting up the new department there shouldn't be a lapse." The King affirmed.
…
Silence descended on the court as everyone thought over the king's orders.
"As you command, my king." The ministers finally accepted it and got to work.
Lin Wu was listening to the entire thing while munching on some fruits.
"Bah! This is boring. Now it is like I'm watching one of those parliamentary debates from my past life." Lin Wu said, feeling bored.
"I'll just read, I guess…" He muttered to himself and opened a window that showed the information that had been collected till now.
Lin Wu was now reading about the different kinds of formations that existed in this world. The system had collected a vast amount of information, and he now had plenty of things to learn from.
He was just waiting for the night to come again so that Shirong would cultivate and he could go out.
Then… as if his wishes were answered, Shirong stood up from the seat he was sitting on. The king and the other ministers noticed this and looked at him.
"You're leaving, young master Shirong?" The king asked.
"Yes. I'll go cultivate as I don't think there is a need for me to stay here anymore." Shirong replied.
"That is understandable. Forgive me that we aren't able to hold a banquet in your honor tonight." The king said.
"No need to apologize, King Huo. I understand that there are far too important things that need to be dealt with before that. I would do the same thing if I were in the same place." Shirong replied in a calm tone.
The king nodded his head and directed the servants to take care of young master Shirong.
Shirong quickly returned to his courtyard and got engrossed in cultivating, giving Lin Wu the opportunity to leave once again.
"NICE! I'll have even more time now." Lin Wu said as he waited for Shirong to enter his deep state of cultivation.
Once he was there, Lin Wu quickly left the ring and crawled away. He opened the map window and picked his next target.
"Hmm… we already got stuff from the royal library, so I guess we should check out the public library now. There should still be some things that are not present in the Royal Library." Lin Wu said before he entered the ground.
Thankfully, the public library was not protected by any formations thus it was much easier for Lin Wu to get there. Upon reaching there thous, he found out a lot of people currently reading in it, or looking for books.
The public library was thrice as big as the Royal library and definitely contained more books than the Royal library. To Lin Wu's luck, the library was constructed such that there was a large crawl space below the floorboards of the building.
Lin Wu was able to easily get there and scanned the entire building. But it was then that he realized that the large size of the library was not due to many books, but rather due to multiple copies of the same books.
"Uff… I should have expected this from a public library. Obviously, there would be more than one copy of a book here so that many people can read it." Lin Wu muttered to himself as he shook his head.
"System, begin your scan." Lin Wu ordered.
But when the scan was finally completed, he found something rather surprising.
—
"Never expected that I would see the trope of a powerful technique hidden in trash books myself." Lin Wu said feeling shocked.
Since about ninety percent of the books were already scanned and analyzed by the system in the royal library, this scan was completed rather quickly. But then the system gave him a notification suddenly.
~Ding~
——
NOTIFICATION: High grade cultivation technique found
NAME: Undaunted Sapphire Body Art
DESCRIPTION: The user of this technique can gain unique meridians called as the sapphire meridians. This changes the spirit Qi properties of the user and allows it to bypass many kinds of restrictions, thus the name undaunted.
NOTE: Please view the relevant window for detailed information.
——
Looking at the description of the technique, Lin Wu knew that this was something good. While it was not a top grade technique like Shirong's Immortal Sky Shaker Art, the effect that it had was still quite amazing.
"Hmm… this seems like a good choice to learn next. Alright system, begin the analysis for it and make it compatible." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
NEW TASK ADDED: Cultivation technique analysis
ESTIMATED TIME OF COMPLETION: 26 hours, 35 minutes, 18 seconds.
——
"Oh? That's a decent speed. At least it has a time of completion this time unlike before when it just told me to wait patiently." Lin Wu chuckled.
"Buuuut… where is the technique actually placed in the library? Lemme see where the 'jade was hiding among trash'." Lin Wu said, before checking the marker on the map.
It took him to a rather unexpected place in the library.
"The desk of the librarian?" Lin Wu said, before seeing the small note that was written on it.
"Please put overdue books here." Lin Wu read. "Huh? What the hell…" Lin Wu felt surprised.
The cultivation technique was written in a booklet that was trapped in the overdue book compartment. The compartment was built such that a box with a slot was placed beneath it and on the top of the compartment, another slot was made.
These two slots aligned so that when one put a book in, it would enter the box directly. This box could be taken out by the librarian so that he could put them in their respective places on the bookshelves.
But the booklet that contained the Undaunted Sapphire Body Art had fallen behind this box.
"Hmm… I guess someone put this book when the collection box was not there and it fell down directly. But then when the librarian put the box back in, the booklet was pushed back to the very back and has been stuck since then." Lin Wu analyzed.
He saw that a thick layer of dust had collected over the book and the interior of the compartment, which meant that whoever took care of this had not cleaned it in a long time.
"Well, I guess the technique was really hidden in 'trash'…" Lin Wu chuckled to himself as he pierced a spike through the bottom of the compartment and stored the booklet in the inventory.
'No way I'm gonna leave this here for others… this is mine now.' Lin Wu thought to himself as he withdrew the spike.
But Lin Wu still wondered who put the book there. He reckoned that whoever found the technique probably thought it to be fake or something and thus put it back. If Lin Wu did not have the system verify it for him, he probably would have thought the same.
Now that system had a large Data Bank, it could easily cross reference and extrapolate data to form conclusions.
"Hmm… let's see what's actually written in the booklet. I saw the description made by the system but I want to see what the author actually wrote…" Lin Wu muttered to himself before opening an info window.
Lin Wu started reading the things written in the booklet with interest.
According to the booklet's contents, the Undaunted Sapphire Body Art was made by a female cultivator by the name of Lan Baoshi. She was a hidden genius who had been abandoned by her clan because her husband-to-be accused her of adultery.
She was hunted by the groom's clan and barely managed to escape their clutches. Because of this dishonor, the groom's clan demanded compensation from her clan, which was so great that their clan eventually collared after a few years.
But what her clan didn't know was that she had been falsely accused so that the groom's clan could usurp their businesses. Swearing to take revenge, she cultivated for many years before she reached the Dao Shell realm.
It was then that she had a bout of enlightenment and created this technique. But alas, her clan had already perished to the annals of time and when she went to take revenge she found out the man she wanted revenge on had also died a long time ago.
She wanted to massacre the man's clan but could not bring herself to kill the innocent. Hundreds of years had passed since that day and the people from back then did not exist anymore. If she were to kill these people, all she would be doing is sowing bad karma that would only hurt her in the future.
Thus instead of that, she chose to pass on the technique that she had created. Still, it was as if the heavens were against her and a tragedy happened. Even after all these years, she had been unable to resolve her hatred with the groom's clan and thus a heart demon was formed within her.
This heart demon eventually led her to a Qi deviation and finally to her demise.
She wrote the final parts of the booklet on her deathbed, as could be seen from the bad writing on the pages. Not only that, but the ink used for it was actually her blood.
~Sigh~
"I guess this is what happens in a cultivation world. She should have just taken her revenge and prevented the heart demon, but what can I say now that she is gone…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Report chapter
Having obtained a new cultivation technique, Lin Wu felt content. It had barely been two hours since he had left the courtyard and he had already scored a good item. He now wondered if something like this could be seen in other places too or not.
"Hehe… let's check out the other places." Lin Wu said to himself before leaving the public library.
There were many other places where Lin Wu could find books. There were hundreds of nobles that lived in the capital city who all had a collection of books. Though it was likely that they could be personal records and such.
Still, Lin Wu did not care for it and just went to get them. The only thing that was actually slowing him down was the formations that protected the residences of the nobles and aristocrats.
Lin Wu had to spend several minutes near each residence before the system was able to resolve the formation and make a virtual interface for it. The number of virtual interfaces in his list were now growing more and more.
It won't be long before he would have more than a hundred virtual interfaces.
~Ding~
——
SUGGESTION: The host can sort the virtual interfaces into different categories as he deems fit.
——
"Oh? I can do this… nice! I'll do this while waiting for it them." Lin Wu said, feeling pleased.
He opened the list of virtual interfaces that were currently in the fifties. He started sorting them according to their importance and use. For example, the virtual interface that was used with the back door in Shirong's Dantian was kept in the most important category.
Other important virtual interfaces such as the one for Taiji Celestial's tomb and Shirong's spatial ring were also kept in this category. As for the minor virtual interfaces such as the one for the different courtyards he was visiting would be kept in unimportant category.
Lin Wu also set a filter so that the system is able to automatically sort them according to his needs in the future. This would make things more convenient for him and make it much easier for Lin Wu to check things.
It was night by the time Lin Wu was done with half of the residences that belonged to the nobles and aristocrats.
"Damn, it will take me more time. Should just get the food first tomorrow if Shirong gets late in cultivating." Lin Wu decided.
With this in mind, Lin Wu returned to Shirong's ring and read the information that he had obtained. About ten hours had passed since he had obtained the Undaunted Sapphire Body Art and sixteen more hours were left till it would be fully analyzed.
Lin Wu was excited to see what the effect of sapphire meridians would be. And while he was reading, he felt a faint change in his body.
"Oh? I can cultivate the Immortal Sky Shaker Art again." Lin Wu realized.
A day before he had to stop the process as the stress on his meridians and Dantian had gotten quite a lot. If he had continued even after that, he would have likely damaged them instead. This was not something he wanted. While he was confident that his Cellular Manipulation ability allowed him to regenerate injuries to his body. This specifically applied to the physical aspects body and not the spiritual ones like meridians and Dantian.
If he wanted to repair them, he would need specific healing pills or depend on the system to slowly repair them. But the thing is, even the system would slow down its speed if his meridians and Dantian were damaged.
Thus Lin Wu did not carelessly mess with them and took proper caution.
Morning arrived rather quickly, and Shirong woke up from his cultivation session.
~huu~
He let out a breath of foul Qi that traveled to the other end of the room, piercing a hole in the wooden wall. The foul Qi was corrosive and easily passed through the wall before dissipating in the outer garden.
"Hmm… so the effects of the technique are starting again." Shirong muttered to himself, referencing the Vital Resurgence technique.
Lin Wu heard it too but did not pay any particular attention to it as the technique was currently useless to him. He then saw as Shirong stood up and went on to do his tasks. He changed his clothes and went to the Royal court. Today was the day when they were gonna get the very first reports about the bandits.
Another thing that was likely to happen was the banquet for Shirong. It was for a few things such as congratulating him for breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm, for protecting the Ling Kingdom in times of great trouble which was the Spatial rift and also exposing a traitor amongst their ranks who was none other than Du Yang.
Shirong had done plenty of things that were worthy of being rewarded and even the banquet was not something that would be enough usually. Thankfully, Shirong was not someone to mine customs too much and was fine even if the banquet was small.
At the royal court, he simply spent the rest of the day hearing different reports while Lin Wu continued reading and expanding his scope of knowledge. He truly could spend months just reading all this and it still won't be enough.
Lin Wu didn't know whether the information was just too interesting for him or if his personality had been vastly changed in this world.
"Hmm… now that I think about it… where did I live in my past life?" Lin Wu questioned himself.
His eyes narrowed and he thorough about it. But the more he focused on it, the more he discovered things. That was not the only thing he had forgotten about himself. Vast tracts of his memories were now missing from his mind.
He didn't remember how his personality was in his past life, either.
"System, why did this happen?" Lin Wu questioned, feeling a bit anxious.
But then he saw something that he had not seen for a while now.
~ERROR!~
Lin Wu had not seen the error notification for a while since the system had obtained a lot of energy stores and a Data bank that was sufficient for a lot of things. If it still got an error, then it meant that the problem truly was something beyond it.
~ERROR!~
——
NOTIFICATION: An external interference is preventing the system from obtaining the answer to the question.
——
"Huh? What the hell! What kind of external interference?" Lin Wu couldn't help but ask.
~ERROR!~
"DAMMIT!" Lin Wu cursed.
~Sigh~
"No use getting angry over this… better just wait and see it later." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
He pushed the matter to the back of his mind for now and returned to reading. Just like this time passed and the court's session finally ended.
"Now that we are done here, let me announce something." The king suddenly spoke.
The minsters all looked at him, and even Shirong opened his eyes.
"For all the merits young master Shirong has earned, I ordered that a banquet be organized in his honor." The king announced.
"Of course, my king. We cannot forget young Master Shirong's current contributions." One of the close advisers of the king spoke.
The other ministers and advisers agreed, and thus the matter was sealed.
"We shall hold the banquet tomorrow night and it is to be done with the utmost resplendence." The King added.
The people of the court nodded their heads and soon distributed the tasks among themselves. Shirong did not have a change in his expression, as he didn't really care for this banquet.
For him, this was a mere formality, and the only reason why he was still in the city was to wait for his clan's response. If it had come beforehand, he would have long since left it and went on his mission.
Lin Wu though, was excited about this.
"Ooo, another banquet! More food for me. This time I gotta steal a lot of food, I don't care if they start to suspect a food thief… Hehe." Lin Wu said with excitement.
Shirong returned to his courtyard to cultivate while the city was sent into a minor frenzy. The servants and people of the royal palace could be seen going around the city procuring things needed for the banquet while decorations were quickly being set up.
Some of the commoners living in the city went out to see what all the commotion was about and found out about the banquet. Rumors spread like wildfire that a banquet was being held in the honor of young master Shirong and that the king would be giving out gifts to the commoners as well.
The people got excited and started praising Young master Shirong for his presence. Because of him, they would be able to get delicious food and things they would have never gotten normal or would have been difficult for them to get.
"These people really like to make up stories, huh? The king never said he was going to gift commoners too." Lin Wu suddenly spoke as he watched from the top of a building.
He had left Shirong before and was now busy in stealing food from the restaurants and eateries of the city. He made sure that the amount he stole was not enough to be noticed, but also enough for him to enjoy for a bit.
'Hmm… this much should be enough for tonight. I'll be getting more food tomorrow night at the banquet, anyway. It will also be much more delicious.' Lin Wu thought to himself.
He looked up the map and found a few nearby houses that belonged to the nobles. Lin Wu started his task of obtaining more information. By now, he had gained a lot of dark information about the things these nobles and aristocrats did in their lives.
There was so much information that he didn't know how he would even sort it. Thankfully, the system was here to handle stuff like that. While this information was not useful for him now, it would probably come in handy later on.
He was on his tenth house for the night when a notification sounded.
~Ding~
——
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE ANALYSIS: Completed
COMPATIBILITY INCREASED: Undaunted Sapphire Body Art- 100%
——
Seeing the notification, Lin Wu smiled and exposed his sharp teeth slightly. If anyone were to look at him right now, they would definitely find a smiling worm creepy.
"Perfect… now I have something to do tonight after I'm done with these houses." Lin Wu said to himself.
He quickly finished up as many houses as he could and returned to Shirong's ring. Once he was there, he was free to begin cultivating the new cultivation technique. He scrolled to the window that had the instructions for the Undaunted Sapphire Body Art and read them thoroughly before beginning.
Lin Wu followed the circuits that were mentioned in the booklet and felt the change rather quickly.
"ARGH!" Lin Wu couldn't help but grunt in pain.
He felt as if his meridians were being pulled out of his body for some reason.
"System, are you sure this is safe?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The cultivation technique: Undaunted Sapphire Body Art is 100% safe, and any pain caused due to it is temporary.
——
"If you say so…" Lin Wu muttered before returning to his practice.
The pain returned as soon as he started it, and the meridian truly felt as if they were getting pulled out. He observed it with his spirit sense and saw that it was not the meridians that were actually being pulled, but rather the spirit Qi that flowed within them.
The spirit of Qi was being passed through the meridians causing him pain that felt like they were being pulled. Lin Wu simply gritted his teeth and continued after confirming that it really was safe.
Hours passed by but they felt far longer to Lin Wu as he was in constant pain. Even his spirit Qi was now starting to get greatly disturbed. But then, just when he was about to give up, he saw the effect.
~Crack~
A crack had suddenly appeared on Lin Wu's body. It started spreading across the length of the body in a very specific pattern. But once it was done, a sapphire blue glow replaced it.
Then after a few minutes, another crack appeared.
~Crack~
It too spread along the length of his body and a sapphire blue glow replaced it. More and more of these cracks appeared along his body and after an hour their number had reached ten.
Lin Wu gritted his teeth as he bore through the pain. Finally, two more hours later it stopped and the sapphire blue glow faded away.
~huu~
Lin Wu took a breath of relief as he relaxed his body.
~Ding~
——
[AVATAR]
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE ADDED: Undaunted Sapphire Body art
HOST DATA: Updated
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE: 1. Taiji Dual Unity Scripture
2. Immortal Sky Shaker Art
3. Undaunted Sapphire Body art
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE PROFICIENCY UPGRADE: Undaunted Sapphire Body art- First level (10% Meridians converted)
"Finally, it's over…" Lin Wu muttered in a tired tone.
This was the first level of the Undaunted Sapphire Body art that he had completed. Currently, ten percent of his meridians had been converted into Sapphire meridians. This was the first level of the cultivation technique.
In total, the technique had four levels.
The first level needed 10% of the meridians to be converted.
The second level needed 30% of the meridians to be converted.
The third level needed 60% of the meridians to be converted.
And finally, the fourth level needed 100% of the meridians to be converted.
The creator of the technique Lan Baoshi herself, had only reached the third level of the technique herself before her death. Because of her heart demon, she had been unable to fully reach the peak of the technique, yet she had the confidence that her technique was perfect.
It was because of this that she had written the last part of the booklet on her deathbed. Lin Wu knew this and because of that had chosen to practice the technique with his avatar first and not his main body.
But now that he had the confirmation that the technique truly worked, he would be able to practice it with his main body as well. Thankfully, he didn't need to refine spirit Qi using the technique, as its efficiency was even lower than that of the Immortal Sky Shaker art.
Lin Wu had the Taiji Dual Unity Scripture and thus didn't need to use any other technique for the time being.
"Another thing added to my list now, I guess. Damn, my spirit Qi expenditure is only increasing. But… this is reasonable as it would only be increasing my own strength." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
'Let's see how my main body fares with this technique…' Lin Wu thought before transferring his consciousness to the main body.
When he was manually controlling one body, the other one would still do the tasks that were assigned to it. For example, Lin Wu would usually leave one of the bodies to cultivate and they would continue to do that until Lin Wu told them to stop or do something else.
This was the reason why he could keep up his cultivation even though he had double the work.
After returning to his main body Lin Wu checked the spirit Qi that had been accumulated till now.
~Ding~
——
HOST CULTIVATION: Infant stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.
-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [9875/1,500,000] units (liquid spirit qi)
SPIRIT QI STORAGE: 1,014,405 units [liquid spirit qi]
——
~Sigh~
"Still got a long way to go till the next upgrade and the two new cultivation techniques will only take more from me." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
He then practiced the Undaunted Sapphire Body Art just like he did with the avatar and watched its effects. Unlike in the avatar, Lin Wu did not feel as much pain in his main body. He didn't know what the reason for it was, but the second difference was that it took much longer for him to reach the first level of the Undaunted Sapphire Body Art.
He ended up spending the rest of the night on it before he was finally able to reach the level.
~Ding~
——
[Main Body]
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE ADDED: Undaunted Sapphire Body art
HOST DATA: Updated
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE: 1. Taiji Dual Unity Scripture
2. Immortal Sky Shaker Art
3. Undaunted Sapphire Body art
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE PROFICIENCY UPGRADE: Undaunted Sapphire Body art- First level (15% Meridians converted)
——
But upon seeing the conversion percentage Lin Wu was surprised.
"Why is the percentage different? System?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The host's main body has better innate compatibility with the Undaunted Sapphire Body Art than was anticipated by the system. Due to this, the first level's threshold was raised and now it is at 15% instead of 10%.
——
"Hmm… that's fine, but what's the actual difference?" Lin Wu questioned, not feeling satisfied.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The host's main body has multiple bloodlines assimilated into it, but the unknown bloodline is particularly contributing to this property.
——
"Ah, so it's because of the unknown bloodline again. Just what is it that it can bring about so many effects? I can't wait to find out later." Lin Wu said, feeling a bit excited.
He then realized that he had just forgotten something.
"Oh wait! I still need to test out the effect of the undaunted Sapphire Body Art!" Lin Wu recalled.
It was mentioned in the technique's description that the technique allowed one to bypass a lot of restrictions. Lin Wu reckoned that this must include barriers as well.
"System active one of the barriers in the tomb for a test." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
COMMAND: Accepted
FORMATION ACTIVATED: Barrier formation
——
Lin Wu then saw some rune appear in the air in front of him, which then gathered together to form a translucent barrier in front of him. This was the barrier formation that Lin Wu had asked for.
"First should be the baseline experiment. I'll just use my own strength for this one…" Lin Wu said before raising his tail.
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Lin Wu didn't want to directly use the effect of the sapphire meridians as he wouldn't be able to tell how much of a difference they made in his strength. Choosing to use his own power first would give him a good way to compare them.
At first, he lightly tapped with his tail onto the barrier and saw no effect. The barrier stood there as strong as ever. Lin Wu then increased his power and used about a quarter of his strength.
~thud~
The barrier was still able to bear it and did not show any change.
"Okay, time to amp it up more." Lin Wu said as he now used fixity percent of his strength.
~DENG~
The barrier finally showed some effect and slightly flickered. Lin Wu could tell that while it had successfully taken the blow, it may not be able to take multiple of the same level attacks.
~DENG~
Lin Wu attacked it again and saw the barrier flicker once more. Knowing that this was not enough, he attacked again and again until the stability of the barrier started to reduce.
By the 20th attack, the barrier was barely holding up and the runes were flickering nonstop.
~Crack~
~shatter~
He raised his tail and attacked one last time before the barrier broke apart and faded away.
'Hmm… so it takes more than twenty attacks with half of my physical strength to break the barrier. I can get a good estimate with this, so let's try with spirit Qi now.' Lin Wu thought.
"System, create another barrier." Lin Wu ordered.
~shua~
Lin Wu used Qi amplification on his tail this time, which allowed the properties of Sapphire meridians to be activated. He only used a quarter of his strength at first as he had done in the first trial.
~DENG~
The effect was better this time as he could visually see the thing layer of spirit Qi passing through the barrier barely. While the barrier itself had not broken, the spirit Qi managed to extend beyond it, even if it was only a millimeter.
Lin Wu kept on hammering on the barrier and counted the number of attempts that were needed for it to break this time.
~Crack~
~shatter~
Finally, after fifteen attempts, the barrier was broken. But unlike before, when he needed half of his strength and twenty attempts to do so, he did it with only a quarter of it. This showed the effectiveness of the Sapphire meridians.
"Make another barrier system." Lin Wu ordered again, not feeling content yet.
~shua~
A third barrier appeared in front of him, and he raised his tail again. This time it was using fifty percent of his strength along with Qi amplification.
~Shatter~
The tail passed through the barrier like a brick through glass. There was little effort needed and Lin Wu couldn't help but feel impressed.
"If this is the effect at just the first level, then what would it be at second, third, or even the fourth level?" Lin Wu wondered to himself.
Lin Wu had just tested the effect of the sapphire meridians on one of the basic types of barrier formations of the Taiji Celestial tomb and knew that the results won't be the same with other ones. The likely thing was that as the grade of the formation rose, the difficulty in breaking it would increase as well.
"Well, this was the physical test, now for a Qi skill." Lin Wu said before getting ready.
The Qi skill he was going to use was none other than one that came with the Immortal Sky Shaker Art: Cloud Parting Gale. This was actually the first time he was even using a Qi skill that was part of a cultivation technique and was looking forward to learning more about it as well.
He raised his tail like Shirong would do to him in the spear form. The tail lit up in an emerald green glow as wind attribute spirit Qi swirled around it. Then Lin Wu swung it hard towards the barrier.
Immortal Sky Shaker Art: Cloud Parting Gale!
~Shua~
A different result could be observed now. Instead of breaking the barrier, the Qi skill passed through the barrier for about ten centimeters before fading away.
While this seemed like an underwhelming result, one must consider that a physical attack was only able to pierce for a millimeter. And it had still taken multiple attacks to break it with the amount of strength that Lin Wu had used.
When he used Immortal Sky Shaker Art: Cloud Parting Gale, Lin Wu had barely even used ten percent of his strength in terms of spirit Qi. This showed that the sapphire meridians' effect WA bests suited to Qi skills that were of energy emission type.
"Perfect, these two cultivation techniques work well in tandem. Once they are all at the peak level, I'm sure it will have a terrifying impact." Lin Wu exclaimed to himself.
~Ding~
But just as Lin Mu had finished testing the technique, he got a notification from the system.
"Oh? What's this?" Lin Wu muttered as a screen appeared in front of him.
On the screen, Lin Wu could see a few insect beasts standing outside the border of the Taiji Celestial's tomb. They were waiting anxiously and tapped their feet in nervousness. Lin Wu could even see that they had some things with them.
One of the insect beasts that looked like a scorpion was carrying a spirit beast in his pincers, while another beast that looked like a ladybug was carrying a bunch of fruits on its back.
"Ah, seems like they finally finished whatever tournament they were having amongst themselves…" Lin Wu said, before looking at the other insect beasts that were not carrying anything.
He narrowed his eyes and thought for a bit before activating the teleportation formation of the tomb.
"Bring them to one of the isolated halls, system." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
TELEPORTATION FORMATION ACTIVATED: Targets selected
——
Then, to the surprise of the insect beasts, they suddenly felt their vision go blank for a moment before they appeared in a wide hall.
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The insect beasts were a bit overwhelmed by this, as they didn't know what had just happened. One moment they were outside the tomb in the forest and then in the next, they were in a wide and tall hall.
The tiles on the floor were a pale gray and its walls were of the same color. Overall, it looked extremely unnatural to these beasts who had lived in the millennium forest all their lives.
"What is this place?" The scorpion beast questioned while looking around.
It was tapping its legs in anxiety, and its beady eyes showed a hint of fear as well.
"Ah… seem's like you guys are finally done choosing." A voice suddenly stalemated them.
The voice came from the back and was powerful despite not being loud. The insect beasts turned around and saw the coiled emerald green body of Lin Wu lounging on the ground.
The fearfully looked up and saw his crimson red eyes staring at them. Lin Wu's mouth was closed so they did not see the sharp teeth that were hiding within or they would have definitely been scared to death.
"S...S-senior!" The scorpion beast let out while stammering.
The ladybug beast had also snapped out of its daze by now and finally realized what was happening.
Immediately bowing its head, it said, "greetings senior! It's our honor to meet you."
Lin Wu raised his non-existent brows upon hearing the words of the ladybug beast and looked at it with interest.
"Hmm… those things you are carrying, I believe they are for me?" Lin Wu asked.
"Ye-yes. These are all part of your payment." The scorpion beast spoke.
There were a couple more beasts, along with the scorpion beast and the ladybug beast. Since they were not carrying anything for payment, Lin Wu guessed that they were here to observe or to take these two beasts back when their mutation started.
"I'll take them then." Lin Wu said before he put all of the fruits that the ladybug had brought him in the storage.
As for the spirit beast, the scorpion beast was carrying in his pincers, it was conscious but still alive.. Lin Wu simply extended a spike from his tail and raised it.
~shing~
The spike impaled the spirit beast in the scorpion beast's pincers, and Lin Wu picked it up effortlessly.
~crunch~
Throwing it into his mount whole, Lin Wu casually chewed it for a few seconds before swallowing it.
"That should be enough for the mutation." Lin Wu said, before looking at the two insect beasts.
"So who wants to go first?" Lin Wu asked.
"I-I'll do it first senior. I was the first winner of the tournament thus I'll go first." The scorpion beast replied.
"Come closer then." Lin Wu said.
The scorpion beast hurriedly got closer to Lin Wu, fearing that any delay in his actions will cause Lin Wu to be offended. He was stopped by Lin Wu's tail which came towards him. The scorpion beast then saw a small spike extend from the tail which Lin Wu then rested on the top of his head, right above where his eyes were.
The scorpion beast was secretly trembling in his place, but it was still apparent to Lin Wu. He didn't pay much attention to that as he had already expected such a reaction. There had been a subtle change in Lin Wu's aura after he cultivated the Immortal Sky Shaker.
And now that here was the Undaunted Sapphire body art added to it, the change was even greater. His aura exuded a pressure that made lower beasts tremble and fear. Even those that were above his cultivation base would think thrice before choosing to attack him.
Right now Lin Wu had not even used his bloodline suppression or it would be even more terrifying for the beasts.
'Controlling beasts is so much easier than human… plus they are not as fickle as them either. Their schemes are a joke compared to what I've seen. Only makes manipulating them an easy task.' Lin Wu thought to himself as he started the mutation process.
The small spike was touching the scorpion beasts head and had actually pierced into its brain. But the process was so fast that the beast had no idea and thus did not feel any pain, either. If one were to look from the side, they would not be able to see that the spike was extending deep either.
Lin Wu then let the system handle the rest of the process and about five minutes later it was done.
~thud~
A low thud was heard as the scorpion beast fell asleep on the ground. There was now an emerald green rhombus shaped gem in its head and a faint vortex of spirit Qi could be seen hovering over you.
"Oh? Already absorbing spirit Qi, this is fast…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Unlike the other servant beasts he had gathered, this scorpion beast was much more talented and his higher aptitude allowed it to accelerate the mutation process. The faint vortex of spirit Qi was a sign of this, as his cultivation base started to grow already.
Lin Wu withdrew his tail and looked at the ladybug beast.
"He is done, now you can come next." Lin Wu spoke.
~gulp~
The ladybug beast secretly swallowed its saliva before walking towards Lin Wu, just the way the scorpion beast had done. It had its eyes closed as it watched Lin Wu place the spiked tip of his tail on its head.
The tip was placed right below the part where its wings were attached to. The spike then quickly entered its head and it trembled for a second before getting still. The system got to work quickly and imprints were created on their brain and Dantian.
Five minutes passed while the system did its work. Lin Wu was observing both the insect beasts for changes and once it was done, he did not see the same level of reaction as that of the scorpion beast.
"Hmm… so his talent was truly a notch above the others." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
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Lin Wu looked at the other insect beasts that had accompanied the two contenders.
"I believe you are here to take them back?" Lin Wu questioned.
"Yes senior!" They hurriedly responded.
"I'll let you guys out." Lin Wu said before triggering the teleportation formation.
~shua~
All the insect beasts disappeared in the blink of an eye and reappeared in the area outside the tomb. They looked around feeling dumbfounded again but were able to recover much faster than before since they had already been through it once.
"Quick, quick! Take them back to the nest!" The insect beasts said before they dragged the two sleeping beasts to the nest.
Lin Wu watched them on the screens and once they were gone nodded his head.
"That scorpion beast is likely to be much stronger than the others. System, show me its data." Lin Wu ordered.
The system had automatically scanned the scorpion beast when Lin Wu was starting the process of mutation.
~Ding~
——
TARGET: Barb-Pincered Scorpion
CULTIVATION BASE: Late Stage of the Core condensation realm
SPIRIT SENSE RANGE: 100 meters
INFO: The Barb-pincered scorpion is a beast that lives in the fifth and fourth ring of the millennium forest. It is an overall strong beast with its dangerous stinger and sharp pincers. When given the right conditions the Barb-pincered scorpions can awaken their bloodline and evolve into Dual Stinger Scorpions which have the sentential to reach the Dao Treading Realm.
——
"Oh my… seems like I found a diamond in the rough." Lin Wu said, feeling amazed.
Seeing that its bloodline awakening already put it at such a big level, Lin Wu didn't know what would happen now that he was mutating it further.
"But how does a beast like this exist here and none of the rulers know about its potential?" Lin Wu wondered before realizing something.
"System, where did you get this information about the Barb-pincered scorpion?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The initial part of the information was obtained from the Lu clan's vault, but the additional information about its awakened bloodline was obtained from the restricted section of the Royal Library.
——
"Of course! No one even knows about it." Lin Wu said before opening that part of the book and checking it.
"Just as I thought. There is no link here between the barb-pincered scorpion and the Dual Stinger Scorpion." Lin Wu stated.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: This information was extrapolated by the system by thorough analysis and comparison between different characteristic.
——
"Hmm… the benefits of gathering new data are already showing. So system, since you know what its bloodline awakening could be, do you also have a method for that?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The system does not have the methodology currently but if a task is assigned, the system would be able to extrapolate it from the obtained data. Though with the mutation being initiated in the Barb-Pincered Scorpion, there are some unknown parameters that would be added to it.
If the host still wants to go ahead with the analysis, the system recommends that he wait till the Barb-Pincered Scorpion is done with its mutation.
——
"I guess we can wait and see for now. Besides, taking control of that scorpion just after I mutated him would not look good to the rulers. Better bide my time…" Lin Wu decided.
This was one of the aspects of Lin Wu's bigger plan. Each beast that he would mutate would become linked to him and would thus have to listen to his orders due to being part of his bloodline. His bloodline suppression on them would be much stronger than any other beast.
Not to mention these beasts would feel an innate desire to serve Lin Wu, which would only make things simpler. But… this would only happen once he fully activates the imprint that had been placed on their beast cores and brains.
"Let's see what's going on in the forest recently…" Lin Wu said, before contacting his other servants.
He talked with them for about an hour and listened to all the updates that had happened while he was cultivating. He had asked them to find some spirit herbs and fruits, including vegetables and spices last time he had met them.
"Master, we found some of the things you wanted as well. We marked the areas where they grow like you asked too." The beetle beast spoke.
Lin Wu had told them to not take all of the fruits, vegetable and spices as it would mean destroying the main plant. Instead of that he had told them to mark the location so that they could be collected later on carefully and transplanted into the Tomb's grounds.
He wanted to do this since the Taiji Celstial's tomb even had areas where spirit herbs and other plants could be cultivated. There were special formation arrays that helped with that and he was 1000% intending to use them.
Lin Wu had wondered why there were no herbs in those areas if the Taiji celestial had chosen to add them here, but then the system told him that most of those areas had stopped working due to the lack of spirit Qi source and the rest of them were intended to be used as rewards for the heirs.
Lin Wu could not get them directly even if he wanted as it would go against the basic rules that had been set up in the tomb. He had all these treasures in his view but could not touch them. It was really a tease for him.
"And what about rebutting spirit beasts as your subordinates?" Lin Wu questioned.
"Ah, that part was easy master. We didn't even have to do much and a few beasts willingly came to us and told us that they want to become subordinates." The mole beast answered.
"Excellent. Continue your work and report to me when something happens." Lin Wu said, before stopping the communication link.
~huu~
"So many things to do and so little time…" Lin Wu muttered to himself as he closed his eyes before returning to his cultivation.
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Three days passed in the blink of an eye. The banquet was done with great pomp and glamor, making the entire capital city light up with joy.
Shirong was the guest of honor and thus celebrated for his merits. Lin Wu though took this opportunity to steal a ton of food. His task was made even easier because the king actually ended up giving some food to the commoners, too.
He had been forced as the rumors about the king gifting food to the commoners had spread so much that if he denied it right now, the public outcry would be bad. While he would be able to suppress this rather easily, doing so would be bad for him in the long term.
Lin Wu took advantage of this very fact and took a lot of food, while the people in the royal court simply thought that it was the commoners taking advantage of freebies. Still, there wasn't much they could do and thus let it happen.
In reality, it was Lin Wu who was stealing the food from the large kitchens that had been set up. His main body was also cultivating during this time and had progressed a bit with the Immortal Sky Shaker art.
But he had hit a snag with the Undaunted Sapphire Body Art. He didn't know why, but more meridians were even more difficult for him to develop. He had even asked the system for the solution but did not get one.
The system merely told him that it was the normal progression and that it depended greatly on his body itself. He would just have to continue practicing and he would eventually progress further with the Undaunted Sapphire Body art.
~Sigh~
"I guess this is what they mean by a bottleneck. I never truly experienced one before due to the system's help but now that I have, it feels a bit bad." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
While Lin Wu was spending time dealing with his problem in the ring, a knock was heard on the gate of Shirong's courtyard. Shirong himself was sitting inside the bedroom busy in cultivation, thus a servant had answered it for him.
An old man was standing out and he passed a letter to the servant. The moment the old man arrived, Shirong's eyes opened.
"Seems like they finally responded…" Shirong said before standing up.
He was just about to walk to the door when a voice spoke out.
"Young master, there is a letter for you." The servant spoke.
~slide~
The door was opened by Shirong, and he took the letter from the hands of the servant. The servant bowed his head and returned to his work while Shirong sat down to open it.
~shua~
Shirong waved his hand and set up an isolating formation before he opened the letter. Then tapping his finger on the wax seal, another formation appeared. This one was shaped like a lock which then opened, allowing Shirong to unfold the letter.
'First of all, I would like to congratulate you on breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm. You did not disappoint me and even went beyond managing to trigger a dual layered heavenly tribulation. This is an ode to your talent.
Now for the second part, we looked over the actions of this 'Shadow Dagger pavilion' and you are right, they need to be eliminated. They tried to target the heir of the Ji clan! For this, they and their seven generations will pay the price!
The clan will be sending an extermination squad, so you need not worry about them anymore. We are also sending an envoy to talk with King Huo about his administrative actions in the kingdom. While the Lu Clan will also be getting an envoy but for their official induction as an ally of the Ji clan.
There are no more instructions from me and you can proceed as was directed in the previous letter.
—Patriarch of the Ji clan'
The letter was relatively short than the previous one but conveyed the message very well. Lin Wu also read the content of the letter and knew that perhaps it was the end for the Shadow Dagger Pavilion now.
'Even that king will probably be grilled by the envoy,' Lin Wu thought to himself.
He then observed Shirong, who was still silent while staring at the letter.
~spark~
A small arc of lighting appeared on his hand and turned the letter into dust.
"Finally… I can head on." Shirong said in a relieved tone.
"SERVANTS!" Shirong called out.
~thud~thud~thud~
The sound of footsteps hurriedly approaching could be heard.
"What are your orders, young master?" The servant asked.
"Tell King Huo I'll be leaving as of now," Shirong said.
"Now? But young master…"
~whoosh~
Before the servant could even complete his sentence Shirong flew away, leaving behind a whirlwind. The speed of his flight was so strong that Gales spread in the capital city, knocking up dust and dead leaves from trees.
The people of the city were confused and didn't know why such a strong wind had suddenly appeared. They looked up but did not spot anything in the air either. Shirong was simply too fast.
Wind attribute spirit Qi wrapped around his body, boosting his speed even further as he soared into the sky.
"Dread Coil Marsh, here I come!" Shirong said with a smile on his face.
He was finally enjoying himself after a month of boredom. Battling to his heart's content and finding the cause behind his uncle's death should keep him entertained for a while.
Lin Wu also watched on and checked the map which was rapidly moving.
"Hmm… if I didn't know it, I'd say that he's even faster than me. But my digging speed is still greater…" Lin Wu compared.
Lin Wu then closed his eyes before leaving the instructions for his avatar to cultivate while Shirong was still traveling. He knew that his avatar would soon be able to break through to the Nascent Soul realm as well.
~Ding~
——
AVATAR CULTIVATION BASE: Peak stage of the core condensation realm
-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [45,698/48,000] units (liquid spirit qi)
——