Read Rise Of The Worm Sovereign Chapter 281 - Unexpected Tribulation? online for free - AllNovelFull
~splatter~
~thud~
The head of ten beasts rolled like marbles on the ground while their blood seeped into the soil.
It had been a day since Shirong had left the Capital city and he was now at the border of the Ling Kingdom. Most of the area there was plains but there were some small patches of trees as well.
The beasts that had just been killed were some unlucky beasts that decided to disturb Shirong's rest. They were killed with a single swing of his Immortal Crystal Armament before they could even get close to him.
~humph~
"Filthy pests… may as well become part of my strength," Shirong said before he stabbed the crystal spear into each of the corpses.
~shua~
The corpses started to shrink rapidly as they dried up. A minute later all ten beasts that were barely in the Qi refining realm were reduced to desiccated husks. While Shirong felt a faint stream of spirit Qi coming from the spear in his hand.
"No matter how many times I do this, it's always refreshing." Shirong muttered to himself with a faint smile on his face.
But this smile soon turned tense as he felt the spear shake in his hand.
~Huala~
Suddenly strong winds started blowing in the area and the Immortal Crystal Armament started glowing.
"What!?" Shirong said, feeling surprised.
The spear started to tremble in his hand and suddenly left his grasp.
~Rumble~
The faint sound of thunder could be heard coming from afar, making Shirong look up.
"No way… how can this be?" Shirong said upon seeing the dark clouds that were gathering up in the sky.
He could sense the suppression that was coming from those clouds and the warning that was contained within them.
"A heavenly tribulation… did a seal? Yes, that must be it, another seal was released." Shirong muttered to himself.
A complex expression appeared on his face, and he hesitated for a moment before retreating. He knew that if this heavenly tribulation had arrived, that too, for a weapon it was likely to be much more terrifying than his own. If he was in its range, there was a great chance he would be injured.
While he was a bit unsure of leaving the Immortal Crystal Armament out of his grasp, he knew this was something he needed to do.
~Rumble~
More thunder could be heard as the clouds got denser. Lin Wu, who was in his main body at this moment, sensed it as well and quickly returned.
"Huh? What happened?" Lin Wu said before checking the avatar's data.
~Ding~
——
AVATAR CULTIVATION BASE: Peak stage of the core condensation realm
-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [49,459/48,000] units (liquid spirit qi)
——
"How did it…" Lin Wu wondered but then noticed the beast corpses that were lying around the area.
"Ah, he absorbed the spirit Qi and vital energy from these beasts… no wonder it didn't trigger my alarm." Lin Wu realized.
Lin Wu had originally set it so that the avatar would inform him when he reached the spirit Qi required for him to break through to the Nascent Soul realm, which was 48,000 drops of liquid spirit Qi.
It was only a few tens of drops away from that point, but then Shirong had suddenly killed these Qi refining realm beasts which directly pushed the spirit Qi store beyond the current limit. Lin Wu had set the alarm so that he would be able to choose a time to undergo the Heavenly Tribulation.
He did not want it to happen in the middle of a battle or in the wrong place. If he was still in his avatar, he would have been able to delay the heavenly tribulation till he was in a better location, but since the alarm did not work because of a loophole, he was left with no other choice.
"System, show me the updated map." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER: Activated
MAP: Updated
——
Lin Wu saw all the markers on the map and almost facepalmed.
"These dumb beasts… how unlucky were you guys…" Lin Wu could not help but think.
In the entire map, Lin Wu could see that where Shirong had originally been was empty in a radius of over four kilometers. This meant that the beasts had intentionally come to sacrifice their lives to Shirong.
~Sigh~
"Thankfully this place isn't that bad for a breakthrough either…" Lin Wu said before taking a look at Shirong, who was now standing nearly ten kilometers away from him.
"Man, is he scared or what… guy ran away so far." Lin Wu chuckled.
Lin Wu reckoned that the man was still a bit traumatized from the last Heavenly tribulation that he went through and did not want to take another chance with it. Thus, wanting to be cautious, Shirong had run away quite far.
~phew~
"Well… no use waiting, let's get this over with. System, upgrade!" Lin Wu muttered.
~Ding~
——
UPGRADING AVATAR CULTIVATION BASE: Peak Stage of the core condensation realm - Infant Stage of the Nascent Soul realm
SPIRIT QI CONSUMED: 48,000 units [liquid spirit Qi]
——
~Crackle~
~RUMBLE~
As soon as Lin Wu allowed his body to break through, the Tribulation which had been mild till now exploded. The clouds covered the sky and arcs of lightning could be seen coursing through them.
The first thing Lin Wu noticed was that the pressure being exerted by the Tribulation clouds was much less than the last time. In fact, when he observed it with his radiation perception, he saw that the transparent part of the energy in clouds was only at one percent.
"Better set some privacy…" Lin Wu muttered to himself as his body glowed even more.
Then wind attribute spirit Qi started swirling around his body, which then turned into a shade of pale red due to radiation being added to it. This created a curtain around Lin Wu which prevented Shirong from seeing him. Or rather his body, which was now rapidly growing to its full size.
"COME ON!" Lin Wu said as he looked at the clouds fearlessly.
~Rumble~
The lightning bolt condensed in the clouds before falling towards Lin Wu.
~BOOM~
Shirong watched on from far as bolt after bolt of lighting felt on the Immortal Crystal armament. He could not it due to the red vortex that was spinning around it and blurring its appearance.
But whenever the lighting stuck it, there was a moment when the entire area would glow up with a blinding light, it was during this time that he could see the faint outline of something huge behind the curtain.
Shirong didn't know why the blurry figure behind it was so big but reckoned that it was just the shadow that was appearing bigger as the actual Immortal Crystal Armament was much smaller in size.
By now, the third lightning bolt had already struck the spear which was a lot considering that it was not an actual cultivator. Even if it was a cultivator, that was still a sign of how talented that person was.
Shirong felt goosebumps appearing on his skin every time those tribulation lightning bolts fell. He took a deep breath and moved back a few hundred meters more.
'Just to be on the safe side…' he thought.
Lin Wu on the other hand, was feeling rather calm. The tribulation lightning bolts were not really hurting him as much as they had before. He didn't know if this was due to the increase in the innate skill radiation manipulation or the Immortal Sky Shaker Art.
But the tribulation lightning bolts simply hit his body and spread towards his core before affecting it. Though the side effect of this increased resistance was that it took longer for his core to start developing cracks.
~Rumble~
~boom~
Another lightning bolt struck Lin Wu's body and the cracks finally covered fifty percent of the surface of the core. Lin Wu had been wondering what the situation would be like with his avatar.
His main body had two nascent Souls that looked different and with the addition of the avatar Lin Wu reckoned that he may be the first beast to have three nascent Souls.
~Boom~
~Boom~
~Boom~
Three more lightning bolts fell and now his core was fully covered in cracks, just on the cusp of breaking.
"Come on now bro, don't keep me hanging." Lin Wu said, while looking up at the tribulation clouds.
~Crackle~
His words seem to have aggravated the tribulation clouds as they suddenly started to expand. Then a hole opened up in the center of the clouds, within which a tribulation lightning bolt that was four times as thick as before was suspended.
"There you go… nice and thick…" Lin Wu said with a chuckle as he amped his defenses.
Lin Wu had drawn the conclusion that the stronger the tribulation lightning was the better the spirit Qi infusion that came after that would be. That spirit Qi infusion was quite good for a cultivator and Lin Wu reckoned that it may help with his bottleneck in the Undaunted Sapphire Body art.
~Kaboom!~
The thick lightning bolt finally fell from the tribulation clouds and struck Lin Wu's body, spreading fine cracks over his body.
"Ooo! Hurts like a bitch!" Lin Wu cursed, but held on.
The lightning coursed through his body before finally reaching his core and impacting it.
~shatter~
A blinding light came from the core before it finally shattered. But when the light finally faded, Lin Wu saw something he had actually not expected.
"What the hell!? What's up with this nascent soul?" Lin Wu exclaimed.
Inside Lin Wu's Dantian, a new nascent Soul was floating. It was emerald green in color like Lin Wu and was also… a worm.
"I thought it would be like the previous two, being in the human form. But this… how did it become a worm?" Lin Wu couldn't help but question.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The host's avatar is inherently part of this world and was created here, thus the system had reached the hypothesis that the Worm Nascent Soul may be due to that. In the case of Host's main body, that belonged to the host's own soul which was of a human, and thus the Nascent Soul born was also in the form of a human.
The system does not have an accurate reason behind this, but according to the extrapolated data from the Data banks, the system concludes that it is the workings of the heavenly laws of this universe.
——
Lin Wu read the answer of the system and went silent for a few seconds.
"Hmm… that's doesn't really justify it, but okay. I guess we can deal with it for now. Doesn't seem like it's gonna cause any problem either way." Lin Wu said to himself and prepared for the spirit Qi infusion that was about to happen.
~shua~
A massive vortex of spirit Qi now started spinning around the previous red vortex that was glowing due to radiation. This vortex was strong enough that it directly bore through the curtain of radiation without being restricted and entered Lin Wu's body.
His body started to grow rapidly and his spirit Qi also started restoring. Lin Wu took this opportunity to heal his injuries as well and fill up his depleted stores.
~Huala~
The spirit qi vortex lasted for about five minutes before dissipating. Lin Wu's avatar had been growing during this entire time and had now become fifty meters long. This was something that confused him again, as it was smaller than his main body.
"Now why is this happening?" Lin Wu wondered.
He had expected it to be the same as his main body, which was over a hundred meters long, but his avatar had only reached the half of that for some reason.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The host's avatar does not have the unknown bloodline and thus will not have the same level of growth. Even the Unity Avatar Technique cannot overcome the limitation of a bloodline and thus the size of the body will be dependent on the bloodline that the host already has.
——
Seeing the answer of the system, Lin Wu almost facepalmed.
"Is my mental damage returning? How the hell am I missing things like these?"
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Lin Wu assessed the size of his body and checked the system's notifications that had piled up by now.
~Ding~
——
CULTIVATION BASE UPGRADE: Successful
AVATAR CULTIVATION BASE: Infant stage of the Nascent Soul realm
-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [0000/1,500,000] units (liquid spirit qi)
CULTIVATION TECHNIQUE: 1. Taiji Dual Unity Scripture
2. Immortal Sky Shaker Art- First level (Wind attribute spirit Qi initiate)
3. Undaunted Sapphire Body art- First level (15% Meridians converted)
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)
NASCENT SOUL: 1. Crimson Eyed Emerald Worm (Beast soul)
——
Seeing the updated Host data and the upgrade Lin Wu felt satisfied. And the assumption he had about the bottleneck getting loose turned out to be true as well. Seeing the Progress of the Undaunted Sapphire Body art which had risen to 15% he was happy.
"Excellent! So I just need to cultivate regularly and it should aconite to grow. Though it is likely that each level's bottleneck would get harder and harder to overcome." Lin Wu said.
He also saw the part about the nascent soul. It particularly said that the type of soul was a beast soul, unlike his main body where they were human souls instead.
"Hmm… let's check out the nascent soul in person." Lin Wu muttered before sinking his consciousness into his Dantian.
Lin Wu's Dantian was currently filled with spirit Qi, that too of two types. There was the normal attribute less spirit Qi which was in the majority and then the Wind attribute spirit Qi that was five percent of the total amount of spirit Qi.
This spirit Qi was in the liquid form and was bathing the nascent soul in it, nourishing its growth. Lin Wu looked closely at the Nascent soul, which was tiny and coiled up. It was perhaps only thirty centimeters long in length and had its eyes closed.
The Nascent Soul calmly sat in the center while absorbing the sprint Qi from the Dantian. It would faintly glow every time a wisp of spirit Qi was absorbed. Having seen it, Lin Wu didn't find his new Nascent soul special except for being in the form of a worm.
The heavenly tribulation had started to dissipate by now and Lin Wu noticed it too.
"Better return to a smaller form. Though the first time will hurt again…" Lin Wu muttered to himself before triggering the two innate skills, cellular manipulation, and cellular crystallization.
It was a bit difficult for Lin Wu to reduce his size as he was five times as big, but he was able to do so after two minutes. He was now five meters instead of the previous two meters and would be hard for Shirong to use.
"Well… I'll leave it to him on how he decides to use me." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
"Though wait… what's my weight and length now?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The host's avatar weighs 105,847.1 Kilograms and is 51.31 meters long.
——
"Hmm… isn't that exactly half my main body? Okay… but I doubt Shirong will still be able to use me with the weight. He may be able to lift me but will probably struggle a bit, even with his nascent Soul realm cultivation base."
Lin Wu then stopped the red curtain of radiation that was surrounding his body till now and descended to the ground, inserting into it.
Shirong, who had been watching the entire tribulation from afar, took a breath of relief after it ended.
"Finally, it's over. The Immortal Crystal Armament even took nearly the same number of tribulation lightning bolts as me… truly terrifying." Shirong muttered to himself before approaching the area.
By the time he reached the area, the red curtain had finally disappeared and he could see the full form of the Immortal Crystal Armament. It was now more than twice as long as he and he didn't know what to do with it.
"This… what kind of a person was this even made for?" Shirong wondered.
While Shirong had used the immortal weapon in its extended form for different attacks, that was only temporary and the normal form was merely two meters long. Which was much more manageable for him.
But now, seeing this long spear, he felt a bit lost. Still, he approached the spear and placed his hand on it.
'Lemme give him a little excuse for the size…' Lin Wu thought before sending him some made up memories.
As soon as Shirong's fingers grasped the spear, he felt a scene appear before his eyes. It was of a huge man who was nearly five meters tall. Shirong could not see his face, but the man's torso was bare, with his bulky muscles on display.
His back was like a wall, and he wore metal bracers on both his hands. In his right hand though, there was a long spear that was nearly as tall as him. It was none other than the Immortal Crystal armament that Shirong had.
The giant of a man then swung the long spear, creating a slash the split apart the world and thus ending the memory.
~Gasp~
Shirong couldn't help but take a breath upon seeing the scene and the giant man. Beads of cold sweat had appeared on his forehead and his eyes trembled slightly.
"So the previous owner… was such a man." Shirong muttered to himself.
That was the conclusion that he had reached. It would make sense to him if the Immortal Crystal armament had been made for a completely different kind of a person and thus was much bigger than most weapons he knew.
"That skill the giant man executed… what was that? Can I replicate it?" Shirong wondered.
But upon hearing the words of Shirong Lin Wu couldn't help but laugh.
"Bro, that wasn't even a real skill. I just didn't want to make it too detailed."
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While Shirong obsessed over the skill that he had seen, Lin Wu checked the map for their location. In the past days, he had collected a lot of data from books and records, thus the system now had a map for the entire continent.
While it was not as accurate as it would be after a system scan, it was still good enough for Lin Wu to approximate their location.
"Hmm… let's see, the dread coil marsh." Lin Wu muttered as he scrolled through the map.
There were about two kingdoms that they would have to cross before they would reach the Dread Coil Marsh. These two kingdoms were not part of the thirteen kingdom alliance that the Ling kingdom was part of and thus a normal cultivator would need to prove his identity to pass.
It was similar to how one would need a passport and visa to travel to different countries, except in this case their identity would be confirmed with some things like tokens, badges, and jade slips.
As for if they would be permitted to enter, it would depend on what reason they had come here and also the kingdom's security. Still… for Shirong, this was of no concern. Not only was he the heir of the Ji clan, which would allow him to go to nearly every place in the continent.
But even without that Shirong still had the identity of Nascent Soul realm cultivator. He would be permitted entry rather easily and even if he was denied he could just pass through the wilderness.
These areas were usually unguarded, but the reason why people did not pass through them was because of the spirit beasts that lived there. Any place that was not populated by humans would usually be taken up by beasts.
Thus the kingdoms often did not need to protect against intruders in these areas as the beasts would do it for them. Besides, the areas that they needed to protect the most were their cities and thus it didn't really matter what happened to the rural areas in their territory.
"Seeing the distance, it will probably take him a month or more to reach there. But I don't know how accurate this map is, plus he may take some detours I don't know of." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Lin Wu was finally getting to see how vast this world truly was. If he estimated the distance they had traveled in the past day, he'd say that they had already traveled a couple of thousand kilometers. And this was the result after Shirong traveling leisurely.
If Shirong traveled at his full speed, Lin Wu didn't know how fast they would reach the Dread Coil Marsh.
'Should take a look at the information about the Dread Coil marsh as well. Better to know what I'm eventually gonna end up dealing with. Don't want to be caught in a pinch when my main body can't come help.' Lin Wu thought to himself before looking through the data window.
"Here it is, Dread Coil Marsh." Lin Wu said upon finding the right entry.
The Dread Coil Marsh was one of the more dangerous areas of the continent. While it was not completely a forbidden zone, there were parts of it that were considered to be a death sentence for most cultivators.
Another thing was that once one entered it, it was quite easy to get lost. That was where its name came from. The marsh was like a maze that would could around you and make you dread ever coming there.
Not only were there poisonous insects and plants there, but it was said that even ghosts lingered there. Once upon a time, it was said to be a sprawling jungle within which a prosperous sect was located. But one day someone from the sect fell into the evil path and used a forbidden technique to kill everyone from the sect, absorbing their cultivation.
He then drained the vitality of the land around it which cause it to die and decay. Later, many kingdoms and sects felt the danger from this person and fought a great battle against him. Countless people died, leaving behind a battlefield of blood and death.
The unfulfilled desires of the people along with the fear they felt, is said to have turned them into the ghosts that haunt that marsh now. Though if this all truly happened is difficult to confirm and has been left behind as a legend.
Though along with all this danger, there are also opportunities in the Dread Coil Marsh. There are natural treasures and spirit herbs that are not found anywhere else but there. Also, since a lot of cultivators died there, their tombs and remains can still be found.
These tombs or remains can contain their inheritance of legacy. It is said that even Immortal Ascension Realm cultivators had fought in that battle back then and as such many people desired to find a tomb of a peerless expert.
Of course, all this was wishful thinking on the part of most people, but for Lin Wu though… "hehehe… the system and I will have a great time here, won't we?"
Lin Wu reckoned that if there was someone that could be claim to be first in finding treasure, then the system would at least be at the second position.
"No wait… that's not the saying, is it? Hmm… what was it exactly? Oh yeah, if the system claims to be second then no one can dare to claim first!" Lin Wu said, while nodding his head.
'At least I still have these parts of my memories with me.' Lin Wu thought.
He then felt Shirong suddenly turning him around.
"Oh? What is he doing?" Lin Wu wondered as his focus returned to the man.
Shirong held the spear by his side and closed his eyes. A faint pressure exuded from his body as his aura started to rise by the second. Half a minute passed before he opened his eyes that were now glowing with power.
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~shua~
Massive waves of spirit Qi were rolling from Shirong's body as he gripped the immortal Crystal Armament hard.
~huu~
Taking a deep breath Shirong roused the wind attribute spirit Qi and lightning attribute spirit Qi in his Dantian. Arcs of elasticity coursed across his body and streams of wind circled around him, forming into a vortex.
Once his aura was at the peak, Shirong swung the Immortal Crystal Armament.
~Whoosh~
"Immortal Crystal Armament: World Splitter!" Shirong yelled.
Tens of notifications appeared in front of Lin Wu at that moment and he felt a little overwhelmed by them. On the side of his body though, the Qi synchronization function was working well and automatically adjusted it.
There were different waves of spirit Qi traveling through his meridians and they even interacted with the wind attributed spirit Qi in his Dantian. Once it passed throughout his body, it was emitted from the surface spreading out like a wave.
~Swoosh~
A long horizontal slash traveled across the land cutting everything that came in front of it. The small forested area that Shirong was in, was now devastated. Half of the trees that were in it were now cut in half, their tops lying on the ground.
Some specs of red blood and flesh could also be seen from afar. It was evident that the slash had cut apart more than just trees. But the most shocking thing was that the slash had not stopped it.
It had already traveled across the span of the forest, not having slowed down at all. After a few more seconds, it completely disappeared from their field of vision.
Lin Wu narrowed his eyes and spoke, "system track the energy of the slash and see how far it is going."
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target selected
PARAMETERS ANALYZED: Target Found.
CALCULATION COMPETED: The target has traveled for twenty kilometers before fading away.
——
"Dang! Twenty kilometers… that's some power." Lin Wu exclaimed to himself.
He looked at Shirong and saw him standing with his eyes closed again. He seemed to be deep in self reflection and was not moving at all.
'Something seems wrong.' Lin Wu thought.
"System check Shirong's vitals." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target selected
SUBJECT VITALS: Abnormal - elevated pulse rate, spirit Qi depletion and aura insatiability
——
"I knew it! This guy… did he really attempt to use a skill that is not even real? Heck, I literally came up with it in a couple of seconds!" Lin Wu said, feeling surprised.
Lin Wu used his own spirit sense to check Shirong's Dantian and saw a surprising scene. Shirong's Dantian was now nearly empty and all the spirit Qi that was in his Dantian had been drained instantly.
Even his blueish nascent soul seemed to be looking a bit dull. It was evident that Shirong had overexerted himself.
"Though, what kind of a ridiculous talent does he have? Making a new skill from a random memory…" Lin Wu couldn't help but say.
Shirong was now trembling and if it were not for Lin Wu's body being partially pierced into the ground, there was a hundred percent chance that Shirong would have already collapsed from the weight.
He struggled to move, but managed to sit down.
~shing~
Once his grip was loosed from the Immortal Crystal Armament, the spear pierced even deeper into the ground from the sheer weight that it had. Half of Lin Wu's body was now stuck in the ground but he didn't mind that much.
He just kept on observing Shirong and saw the minute changes in his Dantian. There was more than just spirit Qi that was changing in his Dantian.
"Hmm… this… is this what they call… weapon intent?" Lin Wu wondered.
This was not the first time Lin Wu was seeing weapon intent. He had seen Shirong use it a few times before and had even experienced it himself when he used it on his Long sword form. The power exerted by the sword intent was definitely many times more than it would be normally.
"So if he already has the sword intent, then what kind of a weapon intent is this?" Lin Wu questioned.
After thinking for a while more, Lin Wu was unable to reach the conclusion and decided to try the system.
"System, you got any idea?" Lin Wu asked.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: According to the data extrapolated from the data banks, the subject seems to have gained some insights and is thus forming a new type of weapon intent. Since the subject achieved this by using the host who was in his spear form, the system hypothesizes that this may be spear intent.
——
"Hmm… I guess this seems fine enough. Though him using up this much spirit Qi is definitely risky." Lin Wu muttered.
Lin Wu observed him for a little while more, and Shirong seemed to have entered a deep state of meditation.
'He's probably comprehending the profundities of insights or all that stuff…' Lin Wu thought.
Hours passed by like this and nighttime arrived. Even now, Shirong had not woken up. Lin Wu was now starting to get bored and realized that he had forgotten something after having broken through to the nascent soul realm.
"Hang on! I can fly now. That should help with quite a lot of things." Lin Wu exclaimed.
He followed the same method he had used before with his main body and was able to slightly lift his body up into the air. His past experience made it much easier and about ten minutes later, he was now freely soaring through the air while in his spear form.
And while he was doing this an idea popped into his mind.
'If I do this, I will be able to kill two birds with one stone." Lin Wu thought.
Lin Wu flew around a bit more and checked the forest for some interesting things. He was able to find a couple of fruit trees and what looked like ginger growing in one of the areas.
"Well… snack time it is…"
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Lin Wu had gotten some fruits and even some wild vegetables here. He stored them for now and would eat them later. The fruits were the only snacks he could eat as of now, and anything complex would need cooking.
Thankfully, in that aspect, he had plenty of food that he had gotten from the banquet and the capital city's restaurants. As long as he ate them sparingly he should have enough for a couple of months.
After all, he was eating them for taste and not actually sustenance. For that, he had the dead beasts that he got to drain and even the stored energy and spirit Qi he had would last him a long time.
Lin Wu waited for Shirong to wake up for about a day now. And the moment he got the notification from the system, he returned to the previous position he was in.
~huu~
Shirong let out a breath and opened his eyes. A fierce aura erupted from his body at that moment and the grass that was around him was chopped in half.
"Spear intent… so this is what it is like… but it still clashes with my sword, intent making it unstable. I'll need to find a way." Shirong muttered to himself.
He turned his eyes to the five meter long spear that was stuck in the ground next to him and sighed again. While he had gained an insight into spear intent from the memory he saw, he was still unable to use the Immortal Crystal Armament to its full potential.
But then the connection between him and the Immortal Crystal Armament suddenly became active.
"Oh? What's this?" Shirong said before seeing something that made his eyes go wide.
The spear slowly rose up from the ground and turned to a horizontal position in front of him. It lightly floated in front of him, unmoving, as if waiting for his commands.
"I… I can use it to fly now?!" Shirong exclaimed.
He used his spirit sense to link up with the spear and saw it move according to his instructions.
"AWESOME! Just what I wanted. So this is what the release of seal brought about this time." Shirong said out loud.
He then thought for a moment before sending some orders through his connection. The spear lightly hummed in front of him before starting to enlarge.
~shua~
The spear was now four times as wide and more flat.
"This should make it easier for me to fly now," Shirong muttered to himself, as he felt happy.
Meanwhile, Lin Wu was feeling happy too.
"Haha! This form is much more comfortable. Just gotta keep this up, and eventually, I won't have to hide my true form. Though I'll probably have to act more puppet like then." Lin Wu said to himself.
Shirong checked the Immortal Crystal Armament one last time before jumping on it. As soon as he did though, he started to feel the drain on his spirit Qi.
"Sure enough, the drain is no joke either…" Shirong chuckled to himself but did not mind it.
He had seen the increased weight of the weapon and knew that even if he tried to fly on his own spirit sword, it would be impossible for it to lift off the ground with all that weight. Even flying himself with all that weight put a lot of burden on him and made him use up more energy.
But now that the Immortal Crystal Armament could fly on its own, while the energy consumption was still high, it was much less than Shirong carrying it and then flying.
"Hehe, I get more spirit Qi from Shirong too this way. At least I'm not exhausting my own spirit Qi to fly now." Lin Wu chuckled to himself.
This was Lin Wu's goal that he had thought. Using this method not only would he be more comfortable, but it would also allow them to reach the Dread Coil Marsh faster.
Shirong looked towards his intended location before commanding, "FLY UP!"
~Zoom~
"Oh No!" Shirong suddenly shouted.
Lin Wu sped ahead like a missile, almost making Shirong fly off him. Shirong luckily held onto one of the spines that rose from his back, and did not fall down.
Pulling himself back onto the body of the Immortal Crystal Armament while making it slow down a bit, Shirong got habituated to the speed. He made a few more changes to its structure using his connection and made what was basically a socket for his shoes.
By putting his feet in these two sockets, the crystals would lock around them, preventing him from falling down.
But seeing this modification that Shirong did, gave rise to another thought in Lin Wu's mind.
"Am I a hoverboard now?" Lin Wu wondered, seeing his shape and function.
Thinking back to those fictional hoverboard designs from his past life, Lin Wu found them to be similar.
"I'm pretty much hoverboard… if it was made of crystals and flew at a great speed while being able to eat living things." Lin Wu joked to himself.
They flew past the plains and great speed, leaving the destroyed trees behind. With the Immortal Crystal Armament helping him travel, Shirong was both tired and pleased at the same time.
He could see that the speed of the Immortal Crystal Armament was faster than him, but it also took up a substantial amount of spirit Qi from him. Though overall he was still covering more distance than he normally would have.
Lin Wu also learned of the limit that Shirong could supply him with spirit Qi. They could fly for at most ten hours, after which Shirong would have to pause and take a break. He would then cultivate for twelve hours to restore his spirit Qi, and repeat the same thing.
While it looked like he was spending more time cultivating than traveling, the distance they traveled was the same as what they would travel in a little more than two days. Though this routine of flying and resting didn't last long.
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About five days later, Shirong and Lin Wu had crossed over the border of the Ling Kingdom officially and were now in a new region. Officially it was under the administration of the Tielao Kingdom, but because it was heavily inhabited by beasts it was left alone.
But since there were beasts here, Shirong did not let go of them. Killing the beasts allowed him to restore the spirit Qi that he depleted and even making a little profit on top too.
With this new addition, Shirong had a great time and Lin Wu was also steadily expanding his collection of raw bloodline data. Though these beasts were mostly Qi refining realm beasts with a couple of core condensation realm ones mixed in between.
The ratio was about 1:1000 so it was still hard for him to get a bloodline that may be useful in the future. After a few days of travel like this, Lin Wu decided to return to his main body and leave this one to function on its own.
He still set a few alarms so that the system could inform him when certain unexpected conditions arose that could not be dealt with normally.
Back in the new body, Lin Wu opened his eyes and checked the progress.
~Ding~
——
HOST CULTIVATION: Infant stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.
-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [12,750/1,500,000] units (liquid spirit qi)
——
"Damn… gaining spirit Qi even with a top grade cultivation technique is hard. Adding the two other ones that I need to practice also makes it slower…" Lin Wu muttered to himself, feeling a bit bored.
But he knew that this pave was still much faster than the others.
"Let's get some routine tasks done then…" Lin Wu muttered to himself before contacting his servants for daily reports.
Most of the things were normal in the Millennium forest and his servants were still continuing their search for the items Lin Wu had asked for. The first shipment of fruits that they had found were also going to be shipped to him today.
The mole beast had required a few beasts who were going to bring the fruits to the entrance of the tomb and leave it there. They were warned not to get near the tomb all their life and thus were still scared to see it.
Thankfully, they were not asked to step into the boundary of it and thus were still willing to do tasks. In exchange, they were getting to stay near the fifth ring allowing them to absorb more spirit Qi from the air.
"I haven't spoken to Wang Xiong for a while now either, I should try him." Lin Wu said before contacting him through the jade slip.
"Senior?" Wang Xiong answered after a few seconds.
"How are things going there?" Lin Wu questioned.
"Umm… we had some trouble at the sect." Wang Xiong answered.
"Oh? What kind of trouble?" Lin Wu asked.
"Upon arriving we went to report to the mission hall and told them about our success. While we were able to register out mission details, the rewards we got were minuscule since we did not hunt as many beasts as we were supposed to." Wang Xiong replied.
Lin Wu nodded his head as he knew this was the original mission that Wang Xiong and his team had used as an excuse to come to the Millennium forest. Since they had spent most of their time in getting to the Tomb of the Taiji celestial and then returning back, they had not obtained enough beast materials.
In truth, Wang Xiong could have very easily hunted a lot of beasts with his newfound skills, but he was fixated on Lin Wu's mission that he had given him. Also, hearing the story of Taiji Celestial had ignited a flame of purpose in his mind.
He now thought that these sect merits and rewards were useless in the long term. Instead of the sect's approval, he needed to grow stronger himself and then help Lin Wu form an organization in this world.
"While the sect itself didn't say anything about our low yield, our fellow disciples did not leave this chance to insult us. A few of those we already had disagreements with in the past and they did not leave this chance to mock us further.
Things got escalated and they threatened the rest of my companions. With that said and done, I could not stand back and challenged them to a duel." Wang Xiong explained.
"So… you now have a few cultivators to kill, that should be easy." Lin Wu said.
Wang Xiong went silent upon hearing Lin Wu's words. Or rather the ease with which he had said them.
~Sigh~
"Do not forget your identity now. You are the disciple of the Taiji Celestial! Those maggots should be happy that they are getting to die by your hand." Lin Wu said in a booming voice.
Wang Xiong who was sitting in his room at this moment, almost fell back due to the power in that voice.
~huu~
"Forgive me, senior! I forgot that things have changed now, I was still stuck in my old ways. I shouldn't let the honor of master be solid in this way. I swear I shall let his name thunder across this world again!" Wang Xiong said with determination.
"Very well! Now get to it. Use the inheritance well and you shouldn't have any problem defeating them. Besides, you are already at the peak of the core condensation realm. What kind of cultivators can even threaten you at this point?" Lin Wu replied.
"Ah, they are at the Nascent Soul realm." Wang Xiong answered.
Lin Wu: ….
"Say what?" Lin Wu asked for clarity.
"They are at the Nascent Soul realm." Wang Xiong repeated.
"How did you get in conflict with a Nascent Soul realm cultivator? Aren't you all inner court disciples?" Lin Wu couldn't help but question.
"Well, I am an inner court disciple but they are core disciples." Wang Xiong replied.
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Lin Wu was a bit confused by this but figured it out on his own.
"So you picked a fight with a Nascent Soul realm cultivator despite knowing?" Lin Wu questioned.
"Yes…" Wang Xiong answered, his tone getting a bit anxious now, understanding that he may be in more trouble than expected.
~Sigh~
Lin Wu was now thinking of how to recover from this. He didn't want his first pawn to fail before it even started. Now that Lin Wu was in the nascent Soul realm, he knew the difference between a core condensation realm cultivator and a nascent soul realm cultivator.
The chasm between them was quite vast. It was the reason why there were so many peak stage core condensation realm cultivators but few nascent soul realm cultivators. Only a few would survive the heavenly tribulation and come out on top as nascent soul realm cultivators.
In fact, most cultivators were so scared that they would intentionally stop cultivating after they reached the peak stage of the core condensation realm because they were scared of dying to the heavenly tribulation lightning.
What they would do instead is accumulate resources so that when their lifespan of three hundred years was close to end, they would speed up to the pseudo nascent soul realm and then approach the heavenly tribulation.
They thought that by keeping it a final option between life and death was the best thing and they would reduce their chances of dying.
But it was this very indecisiveness that often caused them to fail. Over the years, the more they waited, the more scared of death and weaker they would become. This would deter them from achieving their optimum condition and thus make them fail the tribulation.
Still, most commoners and average cultivators did not know about this. They just thought about enjoying their long life. Only the cultivation sects and aristocrats knew that the earlier one entered the Nascent Soul realm, the better their chances of survival were.
Because their bodies would be younger, they would have a higher vitality which would increase their chances of survival. One didn't have to be as young as Shirong either. Shirong was in his early thirties as of now, and even Wang Xiong was in his forties.
Most Core condensation realm cultivators would try to break through to the Nascent soul realm in their 200's as that was the period of time needed for them to reach the peak stages of the core condensation realm.
"Is… there a problem, senior?" Wang Xiong asked, seeing that Lin Wu had become silent.
"This person you are going to fight, is he the only one in nascent soul realm or is there more?" Lin Wu questioned.
"There are three of them, that is a group. But I'm only going to fight against one of them that is at the infant stage of the Nascent Soul realm." Wang Xiong spoke.
"What about the other two what stages are they at?" Lin Wu questioned, still feeling unsure.
"They both at the Child stage of the nascence soul realm." Wang Xiong answered.
~Sigh~
"Are you confident in defeating him? And that too… without taxing yourself too much as you did in the trials?" Lin Wu questioned again.
"I… with the inheritance I believe I can take him down, surely." Wang Xiong replied.
"And do you think that the other two won't interfere after you have defeated him?" Lin Wu asked.
"They… they would never. If they did, they would be breaking the rules of the sect." Wang Xiong said quickly.
Lin Wu held his silence for a bit, as he knew how these people would really act.
"Tell me the entire thing from the start. Don't miss anything, I want their personalities and what they do as well." Lin Wu spoke.
"Okay, senior." Wang Xiong said, before beginning the entire explanation.
Lin Wu listened to the man for about two hours before he got the gist of it. The situation was kind of what he had guessed. Just some core disciples taking advantage of lower ones. And when they protested, they want to put them in their place.
By now he was also sure that the other two nascent Soul realm cultivators won't take it lightly if their friend is defeated. What Lin Wu was particularly concerned about was their core condensation realm authority.
This gave them a few benefits that others did not have, for example proposing a duel one-sidedly. They won't need the agreement of the other side and could force them to take it, and this could be done once a year. Usually, this was only done among those of equal status, but there were no particular rules that were there to prohibit them from targeting juniors.
This was mostly because there wasn't much chance they would do so, and these duels were done for a certain reward. There wasn't much they could get from a junior disciple anyway, and thus it was useless for them to use this chance.
But Lin Wu knew these disciples would be hot headed and try to do something when their ego was challenged.
"How long do you have till the duel?" Lin Wu finally questioned.
"The duel is in five days from now." Wang Xiong answered.
Lin Wu thought for a moment before asking, "can you break through to the Nascent Soul realm in that time?"
"Um… if it was before I would have been, but with the inheritance, my physique is slowly changing, which I had not expected. The spirit Qi I have in my core is being used to temper my physique. This is why I think I can defeat the Nascent soul realm cultivator." Wang Xiong said.
"Alright… is there a restriction on the weapons that you can use?" Lin Wu further asked.
"No, there is none. The only restriction is on certain talismans and poisons that are considered to be lethal." Wang Xiong answered.
Lin Wu listened to everything and came up with a plan.
"Okay, now listen to me closely and do as I say…"
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After finishing his explanation and making sure Wang Xiong understood it, Lin Wu stopped the connection with him.
~Sigh~
"Seems like I gotta accelerate my plan now… anyway I get to collect more data now at least." Lin Wu muttered to himself as his eyes glowed.
Overall, the plan that Lin Wu had made was simple. He was going to go to the Frost Cloud sect and wait there for Wang Xiong's duel. If the duel went well and he defeated his opponent without any additional problems, then it would all be fine.
But if that did not happen, Lin Wu would be helping him win this fight. Though Lin Wu did not tell Wang Xiong that he would be heading there himself. He simply told him that he would help him in a certain way that he would only know at that time.
This way if something happened to Wang Xiong beforehand he would not spill this accidentally. Lin Wu's existence would stay hidden even if that happened and he wouldn't have to think much.
In either case, Lin Wu would be taking the resources from the sect. In fact, he was now thinking that this duel came at the right opportunity. Lin Wu had been wanting to fix the problem with the power supply to the Tomb and the sect could be a good option.
He would also be able to gain quite a lot of data for the system's data banks there, which would only improve the performance of the system. Now the only problem left for Lin Wu was that whether he would be able to enter the sect without being detected.
The system would be able to find a solution to this, but the chat was that he would have to be there early for that.
Wanting to be quick, Lin Wu contacted all his servant beasts.
"I will be entering seclusion for the time being, so just put the things you bring outside the tomb and leave someone to guard them." Lin Wu gave his orders.
But before they could reply to him, he cut the connection. Next, Lin Wu checked up on Shirong's condition and that of the avatar. The avatar was functioning as it should have, and Shirong was simply traveling without any interruptions for now.
Seeing that both sides were in order, Lin Wu brought up the formation screen of the tomb.
"Alright system, teleport me to the southern most part of the millennium forest." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
ACTIVATING TELEPORTATION FORMATION: Coordinates set.
SPIRIT QI CONSUMED: 2000 units [liquid spirit Qi]
——
Runes started to appear around his body as they combined into a formation before wrapping him.
~shua~
Then, in a glow of bright light, Lin Wu disappeared from the hall inside the tomb. The feeling of teleportation was quite unique to Lin Wu. During it, Lin Wu could see the teleportation channel through which he was traveling at a great speed.
The inside of it was mostly empty, but there were still a few random glowing lights that he saw. Some of them looked like twilling stars, while a few were blaring like the sun. He couldn't tell what they exactly were but knew that they were out of the range of the teleportation channel.
The way a teleportation formation worked is that it would create a channel through the lesser void and connected two points in the world. Traveling through the void was much faster than the real world and was often the fastest way of getting to far distances.
Lin Wu was barely in the teleportation channel for about thirty seconds before he reached his intended location.
~THUD~
A loud thud was heard as Lin Wu's massive body fell to the ground, leaving a long imprint on it. The beasts that lived around this area went silent as well as they sensed the aura coming from Lin Wu's body.
This was the 1st ring of the millennium forest, which was the outermost part and mostly had body tempering realm beasts along with a few Qi refining realm beasts. The presence of a Nascent Soul realm beast was crushing for these weaker beasts, and they did not even dare to move.
Lin Wu though, felt a little dizzy from the travel that he had just gone through and calmed himself down.
"Damn, that's almost like going through a roller coaster." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
He took a look around and spread his spirit sense, checking out that area. Finding everything normal, he opened the map window of the system.
"System, mark the Frozen cloud sect on the map and plot a route to it." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
CALCULATING PARAMETERS: Please wait a moment.
PARAMETERS CALCULATED: Location found
PLOTTING A ROUTE: Navigation HUD activated
——
Seeing the notification of the system, Lin Wu felt better and looked at the route on the map.
"Hmm… I should just dig through the ground. Would be faster and people won't see me either…" Lin Wu made up his mind.
He then activated the innate skills of Cellular Crystallization and Cellular Manipulation before changing his shape. His body became a bit more slender, and the spikes on his back became streamlined. Grooves appeared on his head and the spikes on his body started to move around before arranging themselves into a spiral pattern.
These spikes that were arranged in a spiral pattern were bent inwards which allowed it to have a better grip. It would increase the speed at which he could now dig. His red ears that were due to the Hard Eared Limber Mice King also receded into his head and he entered the ground.
~Rumble~
~crack~
The soil was pushed aside at a fast speed as whatever rocks and stones that came in his path were crushed. Once Lin Wu was fully in the ground, he followed the navigation HUD and oriented his direction before straightening his body.
He was now over a hundred meters deep in the ground, so as to avoid any random person's spirit sense and also to reduce the vibrations felt.
"Frozen Cloud Sect here I come!"
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Three days passed by in the blink of an eye. Lin Wu had been digging his way through the ground nonstop and did not feel tired at all. In fact, this was the first time he was levying his capabilities as a nascent soul realm beast for the first time.
While he was not able to cultivate like this, the passive absorption of spirit Qi that he got was still enough to compensate for most of the exhaustion of spirit Qi. The distance between the Millennium forest and the Frozen Cloud sect was truly quite a lot for him.
Though once he saw the notification on the HUD, he knew he was close.
~Rumble~
The earth suddenly started to shake in an isolated part of the forest, startling the nearby beasts who all ran away at great speed. All the beasts knew about earthquakes and knew it was best to run beforehand from disasters such as those.
The tremors only got stronger before a huge crystalline head upper out of the ground.
"Ahh~ finally! Fresh air really is good." Lin Wu said as he took a deep breath.
He looked around the forest and saw the different types of trees. Lin Wu could tell that these trees were adapted to a more colder climate and seeing the white areas of the map, he knew there was snow nearby.
Currently, it was summer and thus there was no snow here. But there were higher areas here, where the snow layer stayed all year long. The Frozen Cloud sect was located on a group of such snow covered peaks some distance from here.
The reason why Lin Wu had stopped here was to check out the area and get a sense of it.
"You know what to do system, scan the area!" Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Large area selected
TIME REQUIRED: 2 hours, 12 minutes, 7 seconds…
——
"Damn, if it's taking this long then there are definitely a lot of things in this region." Lin Wu said to himself.
He pulled out the rest of his body from the ground and spread his own spirit sense to check the area. Lin Wu noticed the Maple trees that grew here along with a few more conifers. There were also plenty of pine trees that towered high over two hundred meters each.
'The plants in cultivation worlds are really massive, huh. I bet this isn't even the taller ones here.' Lin Wu thought to himself.
Along with all the trees, there were also a ton of normal animals and beasts in the area. Lin Wu was still in the outer area of the forest, thus there were mostly normal animals here, but a few beasts were also roaming around.
Though the beasts that he saw were herbivores. He couldn't really see any predators here, either. The strongest spirit Qi fluctuation that he could sense currently was that of a Qi refining realm beast.
He then opened the map window and saw the area details appearing little by little. There were hundreds of markers appearing by the minute, and more of them would be added as time passed by. After about an hour, Lin Wu finally saw the outline of the Frozen Cloud sect.
The Sect was about ten kilometers to the south and he could see the large formation barrier around the sect on the map.
"Hmm… so this will be the first thing I'll have to get past." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
In these three days that he had been traveling, he had not talked to Wang Xiong as the man had been busy in cultivating. Ever since he said that his physique was changing to Lin Wu, he had been advised to fully focus on that part before the competition.
Lin Wu didn't know what exactly was the change as he would have to physically be near him to scan him and see the difference but if it was related to the Taiji Celestial's Inheritance then it was bound to be good.
'Though I wonder why I did not experience the same. After all, I have the superior version of the cultivation technique that was given to Wang Xiong.' Lin Wu muttered to himself.
"Any data on this system?" Lin Wu asked.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: There should be more data in the encrypted part of the inheritance but the system can estimate that this may be due to the host himself. While the Taiji Dual Unity Scripture was made to be practiced by nearly any creature, it was not meant for a hybrid like the host.
Due to being an anomaly, the system reckons that the technique will either take longer to show the effects or it may be that the host's body simply does not need it. The basic version of the cultivation technique is likely to be modifying the physique of the user so that they can accommodate the higher versions.
In fact, the talent and physique were some of the other aspects that would have been considered during the trials for the inheritance of the Taiji Celestial. Depending on how talented the trial taker was, they would have received an appropriate level of inheritance.
——
Seeing the system's answer, Lin Wu found it to be reasonable. Overall, he knew his talent was much higher than that of the humans. He even had the perfect benchmark to compare himself to, which was none other than Shirong.
If that man's talent was among the best in this world, then Lin Wu was far above him. Not to mention his bloodlines that were unique, whose potentials were yet to be unearthed.
Just like this Lin Wu spent the rest of the time thinking and the system finished its scan.
~Ding~
——
SCAN COMPLETED: Map updated
MARKERS FOUND: 6,857,419
NOTE: Please see the relevant window for more details about the markers.
——
"Just as I expected, there were bound to be these many things here." Lin Wu muttered to himself as he opened the window, which had the detailed list of markers.
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