Read Rise Of The Worm Sovereign Chapter 311 - Holiday? online for free - AllNovelFull
Shirong had taken residence in one of the many hotels in the city. There were plenty of them available currently, and more of them had even opened up to handle the influx of the people coming for the tournament.
Though Shirong wasn't exactly living in the room itself. He had instead chosen one of the private courtyards that were located in the compound of the hotel. The privacy was much better, and the cost was nothing to Shirong.
It was good for Lin Wu as well because he could leave Shirong with ease. When it was nighttime and Shirong was deep in cultivation, Lin Wu left the courtyard and went to the sites he had chosen.
It was a bit more simple for him now that he could fly as he could sneak in through smaller spaces and not need to maneuver through beams and other structures. By the time it was morning, Lin Wu had completed gathering all the data and had returned to Shirong.
He had learned quite a few things during his outing. For example, that the entire rivalry between the Ivory Heron kingdom and the Ebony Duck kingdom was fake and made up by none other than Ji clan itself.
That's right! They had set it all up as a marketing scheme to let people spend more money on things every year. Plus they did get to enjoy it, so it was not fully unreasonable either.
Though it was a rather well hidden fact and was kept under literate lock and key. In reality, the top powers of the continent already knew about this, but they couldn't care less. As for the weaker ones they would be unable to find it out.
Both of the kingdoms were actually pawns set up by the Ji clan from a long time ago, and they used them as one of the revenue streams. Ji clan needed massive amounts of funds every year to keep their members satisfied.
All of this was brought in from multiple sources, with the two kingdoms being one of them. Though Lin Wu didn't get how much revenue they actually got from this as that information was not found by him.
He could find it if he wanted to, but he couldn't be bothered, either.
"Though with all this festive mood, there is one good thing… FOOD!" Lin Wu cheered.
His mouth couldn't help but water when he saw all the new dishes he had seen in the city. There were dishes with Duck as the main ingredient which was a sly way of mocking the people of the Ebony Duck Dynasty. Lin Wu found it to be both funny and delicious.
He hadn't got to eat much as he was mostly busy with the information collection, but he managed to take a few bites when he was passing by. He definitely didn't steal it from some random person who looked away for too long.
"I'll get it all tomorrow. Shirong is gonna spend a couple of days here anyway and wait for more information to come from the scouts." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Yu Guowei had asked the new scouts to get the latest information about the swamp for Shirong, and thus had asked him to wait for a bit. Shirong also knew that rushing in would do him no good, thus he chose to wait.
Besides, two days wasn't much to him and he could tolerate that much. That time would pass away in the blink of an eye if he spent it in cultivating. Lin Wu only realized this in the afternoon when Shirong had still not woken up.
"Huh? He's really going at it… Guess I can wander for longer then." Lin Wu reckoned.
He left the ring and went around the city, taking in the sights and the snacks; though mostly snacks. He even went to one of the sites of the tournament and observed the fights. They were okay to him but the cultivators fighting were mostly at the Qi refining realm.
They felt boring to him after a while and he looked for better ones.
"This is the schedule I guess…" Lin Wu said as he spotted the long list that was pasted on a board in the middle of the city.
There were easily thousands of names pasted on it and were divided according to the cultivation realms. Lin Wu though only wanted to see the Nascent Soul realm fights and perhaps the core condensation realm as well.
Though he was disappointed to find that for the coming one week there were only Qi refining realm fights. The core condensation ream fights were the end part of the tournament with there only being eighty contestants. As for the Nascent Soul realm, there were only four of them; two from each kingdom.
These fights were the main attraction of the tournament, with there being bets worth millions of spirit stones being made on them. They would be held on the final day of the tournament and would be attended by over twenty million people at once.
They had even made a special area for it outside the city as there was no space for that inside. Another reason why Lin Wu was interested in them was to gain information about their techniques and skills.
While he had obtained quite a few cultivation techniques and Qi skills from the various locations here, they were not really worth for him to learn. Thus he had just let the system analyze them and store them in its data banks.
While lounging around one of the battle stages, an idea appeared to Lin Wu.
"Should I… try to take a look at the Dread Coil Marsh myself?" Lin Wu wondered.
He checked the viability of the plan and found it to be possible. The Dread Coil marsh was three hundred kilometers away from the city and Lin Wu would easily be able to cover that in less than two hours. Plus it was unlikely that Shirong would use him here, anyway.
There was literally no one who could challenge Shirong here or threaten him. Thus it was a good chance for Lin Wu to roam around.
"Dread Coil Marsh, here I come!"
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Lin Wu dug through the ground and made his way to the Dread Coil marsh. Along the way, he could see the change in the soil as he got closer to the marsh.
The soil was normal before, but as he approached the marsh, it started to get more sticky and mushy. Only when the soil was completely changed did the Dread Coil Marsh start.
~shua~
The mud was pushed apart as a large head emerged from the ground. This was none other than Lin Wu.
"So this the Dread coil marsh…" Lin Wu said as he looked around.
There were strange twisting trees that coiled around each other. The soil here was black where it was a bit dry while in the rest of the places it was mostly mud. There were puddles of water everywhere and if one looked far, they could see large bodies of water.
That was evidently the main area of the Dread Coil Marsh.
~Wooo~
~Wooo~
Eerie sounds could be heard coming from around him as wind made its way through the twisty trees. The loops and hoops that were formed by the branches were why the wind made such a sound.
"Definitely a creepy place." Lin Wu stated.
He spread his spirit sense around and checked his immediate area, finding a few beasts. But these beasts were mostly insect type beasts that lived in the mud or below soil. They weren't even spirit beasts, being normal beasts.
"System scan the area and update the map." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: New parameters found
SCAN COMPLETED: Map updated
NOTIFICATION: Please check the relevant windows for detailed information.
——
Lin Wu saw a lot of markers pop up but they were not comparable to the Millennium forest. In fact, they were less than that even if the area of the Dread Coil Marsh was larger than that of the forest.
The Dread Coil Marsh extended from the west of the Ivory Heron Dynasty all the way to the western coast of the Long continent. It came under the territory of three kingdoms, one of which was the Ivory Heron Dynasty.
The other two kingdoms were the Burrow Light Kingdom and the Bing Kingdom. Both of these kingdoms were located along the coast and were quite affluent due to the rich trade that happens between the coastal nations.
Though around half of these kingdom's land was taken up by the Dread Coil Marsh. The marsh also prevented them from trading with eastern kingdoms directly, and they either had to take the long route or just use the sea route.
This was the reason why sea trade had flourished so much for them. Lin Wu had learned all this from the information he had collected over the past few days.
But now that Lin Wu was looking at the map, he found it to be a bit strange. The number of beasts on the map was far too less than there should be. From the information he had, there were a ton of beasts in the Dread Coil Marsh.
But in his map, there was not even a quarter of them shown. Lin Wu knew that the system had only scanned a part of the Marsh as that was its current limit, but even then the number of beasts was pathetically less.
"System is there some problem? Why is the number of beasts so few?" Lin Wu finally questioned.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: There is interference in the entire Dread Coil Marsh. While the system can still scan the area, the strength of the scan will be less. If the host want's the system can do a concentrated scan of a shorter area.
——
"Hmm… strange place indeed. Even the system is affected by it. What could be this interference? Could it be the same as that of the Taiji Celestial's tomb?" Lin Wu wondered.
Lin Wu thought for a bit and came to the conclusion that scanning the area manually would be the best choice for now. He didn't know why but he felt a bit apprehensive about Shirong coming here.
"Better figure out what's the problem here before heading back…" Lin Wu muttered.
Having made up his mind, Lin Wu roamed around the Dread Coil marsh while letting the system scan the area. He saw a lot of things there as the topography of the Marsh changed accordingly.
There were other types of trees here too, and not just the strange twisting and coiling trees. There were some trees that were filled with thorns that were like swords, while some were large like walls and spread horizontally.
These wall like trees often crisscrossed making a maze like area. Lin Wu though just plowed through them, making a clear road for himself. Seeing the sun was difficult, as well as the sky above the Marsh was mostly cloudy, and the leaves of the trees also prevented most of the light from coming down.
Lin Wu had to fully extend his head above the trees to actually even see the sky. Though this also helped him in taking a wider look around the Marsh. In the time that he roamed, Lin Wu encountered some beasts that were native to the marsh.
One of them was a mud crab that had large claws. The mud crab was called as the Dread Coil Crab and was bigger than a dog in size.
Then there were the countless different types of insect beasts that flew and crawled around. These ones though, did not dare to come close to Lin Wu and kept a good distance between them.
They were much more sensitive to the bloodline of Lin Wu, as he was also an insect type beast like them.
Lin Wu of course, ate all the beasts he came across to increase his list of raw bloodline data. They weren't really anything interesting and didn't seem worth it for Lin Wu to assimilate and use. A lot of them didn't even have innate skills.
"Even the beasts are strange…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
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During the entire time, Lin Wu roamed around, the strongest beast he came across was a centipede that was at the early stage of the core condensation realm. Lin Wu actually tried to talk with it but the beast did not respond.
Or rather the beast didn't understand Lin Wu at all, despite the system's adjustments.
"What's the problem here system, why doesn't the translator work?" Lin Wu questioned.
~DING~
——
ANSWER: It's not that the translator is not working, but rather the beast is simply responding with beastly cries. It does not have the intelligence that Core condensation realm beasts should have.
——
'Huh? Are they just naturally dumb or something else is affecting them?' Lin Wu wondered.
"System, do a detailed scan on this centipede beast." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target selected
SCAN COMPLETE: Target Identified
TARGET: Dread Coil Centipede
CULTIVATION BASE: Early Stage of the core condensation realm
INFO: The Dread Coil Centipedes are one of the native beasts of the Dread Coil Marsh and thus named after it. They proliferate quickly and are mostly found in moist areas. Their fangs are venomous and can kill beasts stronger than it.
Note: The beast's brain is affected due to the interference field that is spread all over the Dread Coil marsh. This has permanently reduced the intelligence of the beast, making it act on mere instincts.
The other beasts of the Dread Coil Marsh may be the same are probably affected by this interference field.
——
Having read all this, Lin Wu nodded his head.
"So it is an environmental effect. Still, this will kinda make my task easier. If the beasts are unintelligent, they will be easier to trick than the beasts in the Millennium forest." Lin Wu reckoned.
Eventually, the sun went down and absolute darkness descend upon the Dread Coil Marsh. The moon already let out a faint light which was then hidden by the clouds and then again by the leaves of the trees.
For normal humans this would have made it harder to see things, but not for Lin Wu. He had multiple ways to 'see' now. He could use his spirit sense to scan the area, watch it on the map of the system, use his radiation perception or simply make his body glow to illuminate the area.
"Boohoo…" Among the whistling sounds of the twisty trees, Lin Wu suddenly heard a strange cry.
He focused on it and heard more of them. Little by little their numbers started to increase and it was as if the entire Marsh was now crying. Lin Wu then saw something that would absolutely terrify children and women.
Pale white specters started coming out of the twisty trees. The cries were coming from these very specters.
They had no specific features and were basically a torso with arms and no legs. They didn't have a face or eyes and ears, except for a mouth that was letting out the cries.
"Woo~" The specters cried.
Though when Lin Wu looked at them, he found them to be funny instead.
"AHAHAHA! What is this shitty design? They look like some kids in a lame ghost costume," Lin Wu laughed.
The specters wandered around the marsh, seemingly looking for something. It was now that Lin Wu realized there were no more beasts visible in the area. He looked at the map and saw their numbers had decreased even more. Even the system's markers had disappeared.
"System, did some change happen?" Lin Wu questioned, having some guesses.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The interference field has gotten stronger and is preventing the system from scanning. The field is approximately four times as strong as before.
——
Lin Wu narrowed his non existent brows as he looked at the specters.
'Could they be the reason behind the interference field?' Lin Wu thought.
"System, scan these specters." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Selecting target
SCAN FAILED: Target not recognized
DATA BANKS: Activated
DATA EXTRAPOLATED: Stored information about target found
TARGET: Marsh Ghost
INFO: The ghosts are entities that roam the Dread Coil Marsh during nighttime. They are said to be from a long time ago and are the remains of people who died in this area. The dread coil marsh used to be a flourishing jungle within which a prosperous sect was located.
All these ghosts are said to be victims of a forbidden technique that was used by an evil cultivator who drained the vitality of everyone and everything. The ghosts are chained to this world from their unfulfilled desires and laments.
The ghosts are said to affect the minds of all that pass through them and they ail actively seek out living creatures. They are able to affect cultivators and beasts alike, despite their cultivation bases. The ghosts themselves though have no cultivation base and are unique entities.
——
Lin Wu recalled reading this a while ago but a bit more information seemed to have been added to it since then. He reckoned it was system updating it since he had scanned so many information sources.
"Wait a second, it says they will actively seek out living creatures… so why are they not attacking me?" Lin Wu wondered.
Lin Wu wasn't truly scared of these ghosts as he was cautious, but since he didn't see them being antagonistic against him, he decided to test some things out. Lin Wu got closer to one of the ghosts and touched it with his tail.
~poof~
His tail passed through the ghost as it was air, and nothing happened. The ghost didn't react and simply floated around, letting Lin Wu do whatever he wanted. Seeing this, Lin Wu got bolder and slapped it hard with his tail.
~Whoosh~
~Thud~
A crater was formed on the ground and mud splashed all over as Lin Wu's tail hit the ghost, and then the ground. The Ghost's body distorted before reforming in the air. It was completely unaffected by Lin Wu's attack.
"Maybe it's just this ghost that's like this? I should use a bigger sample size…" Lin Wu said before starting what was pretty much a 'Whack-a-Ghost' game.
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Lin Wu spent some time testing out the ghosts that were around. He discovered that physical attacks did nothing to the ghosts, merely making them flicker for a bit before their bodies returned to normal.
He then tried using spirit Qi and amplified his tail with it before attacking them. This time the effect was similar, except that the ghosts were pushed back. Though not as much as the force should have.
Lin Wu then used the wind attribute spirit Qi and send out wind blades from his tail, and saw that while the ghost were uninjured, they were still pushed back.
"Hmm… so physical attacks are useless, while the spirit Qi attacks can only keep them at bay. What about my radiation though?" Lin Wu wondered.
He then activated his innate skill Radiation manipulation before attacking the ghosts with it. The effect this time was the same as when he had used physical attacks. The ghosts were unaffected, and the radiation simply passed through them.
Though there were some distortions that Lin Wu sensed. He used his radiation perception to see the ghosts and discovered that they didn't let out any radiation. But even then he could see the spirit Qi being pushed around them as they passed.
"So they have a different type of energy that they function on… that is what I am observing here." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
Doing a few more tests, he thought back to his past world's knowledge.
'Don't they say lightning is effective against ghosts?' Lin Wu remembered.
But then he realized he couldn't actually use any lightning yet. His Immortal Sky shaker Art was not at the third level yet.
~Sigh~
"Guess I'll have to wait for Shirong…" Lin Wu muttered.
He thorough the data that the system had stored about these ghosts and read up on how to deal with them.
The methods to deal with the Marsh Ghosts were quite less. The first method was to use a defensive talisman which prevented them from coming close to you, the second was to use a ghost banishing talisman which could exterminate them, the third was to use Qi skills to keep them at bay and the final was to use items of extreme yang to repel them.
Lightning was one of the things mentioned in it, but there weren't many people who could use a Heavenly element like lightning, thus all they could rely on were talismans and some spirit tools in this case.
Even fire was ineffective against these ghosts as the yang in that was not enough to affect them.
"No wonder all the kingdoms are helpless against the ghosts. While they can get the lightning attribute treasures and even cultivators who can use them, they are simply far too less to deal with such large numbers. Even the ghost banishing talismans would burn a hole in the pocket of the kingdoms if they kept on using them." Lin Wu said upon reading the information.
'Though the question still stands… why don't they attack me?' Lin Wu thought.
After a few minutes of thinking, he realized the problem may be his physique.
"Wait, a minute… could it be due to my crystal form? What if I revert to the organic form?" Lin Wu said before changing his body to the organic form.
~SKREEE~
The moment Lin Wu was fully in his organic form, the ghosts let out a high pitched screech and rushed towards him. They passed through his body and let out a faint chill while doing so.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Lin Wu said upon seeing the explosive reaction of the ghosts.
He had known that the ghosts don't actually cause physical harm and thus didn't care that they rushed him. But when they passed through his body, he felt uncomfortable. In less than a minute, over a hundred ghosts had passed through him and now he was getting a headache.
"Oof~ it's like I'm having a brain freeze." Lin Wu said before deciding to change back.
The moment he returned to his crystal form, the ghosts stopped screeching and went back to their previous state. It was as if nothing had ever happened. Though when Lin Wu checked the number of ghosts, they had gone down.
"Huh… where did they go?" Lin Wu wondered before checking the map, unable to see any difference.
"System, do a full scan of my body and check for abnormalities." Lin Wu said upon being unable to find anything wrong himself.
~Ding~
——
CHECKING HOST VITALS: Scanning
HOST VITALS SCANNED: Normal
——
"Hmm… so nothing there. Perhaps it is due to my cultivation base? Yu Guowei did say that Ji Quan was resistant to the ghosts unlike the other cultivators of their team." Lin Wu murmured.
Having come to this conclusion, Lin Wu thought to check out the rest of the forest. There were far too many things here, and he wanted to see if he could find some of the treasures that could be found here.
Two days passed like this and Lin Wu decided to return. He had mapped out around thirty percent of the Dread Coil Marsh in this time and could have said to be covered the entire part that existed within the borders of the Ivory Heron Kingdom.
Lin Wu had also obtained a few spirit herbs and materials that were good. The herbs that were more low quality were directly eaten by him while the better quality ones were saved for later. He reckoned they would be better refined into pills.
As for the materials, he just kept them as they were something that would come in handy later as rewards.
'Seems like a good enough harvest for now. I'll find more with Shirong later, anyway.' Lin Wu thought to himself before taking flight.
He had gotten bored of the dark and gloomy environment of the marsh and wanted to be above the trees in the sky.
~Whoosh~
~rustle~
The trees moved while some of them were directly uprooted by Lin Wu's flight. When he was gone though, a few people had appeared out of the fog in the marsh.
"Did a new Nascent soul realm beast appear in the marsh?"
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Lin Wu was checking the status of Shirong and saw that the man had not moved one bit from his position.
"Alright… that makes it easier for me I guess…" Lin Wu said before diving down, letting his body free fall.
~Rumble~
His body was like a bunker buster missile and directly penetrated the ground. Lin Wu switched to his drill form and made his way to the city. He was still over fifty kilometers away from there and wanted to enter the ground beforehand so that the people of the city don't sense him.
Lin Wu swiftly returned to Shirong and entered the ring. He spent a few hours there before it was finally time for Yu Guowei's report to come.
~humm~
Shirong's jade slips hummed, and he opened his eyes to check it. He closed his eyes and read the message that had come.
"So the Marsh has been calm with no extreme changes…" Shirong muttered before standing up.
He flew out of the courtyard and went to Yu Guowei's place. The man was currently with a few other people who seemed to be pretty important looking. Shirong same as before swaggered into the room without a care for the others.
"Who are you?!" The people in the room questioned looking angry.
Shirong simply gave them a look and exuded the spirit Qi pressure from his body. The faces of the men went pale as they realized the man in front of them was a Nascent Soul realm cultivator.
"Gentlemen, can we talk about this in a little while? I got something more urgent to attend to." Yu Guowei spoke.
The men didn't reply to anything and simply went out of the room, leaving the two alone.
"What is it that you need, young master?" Yu Guowei asked.
"I'm going to leave for the Dread Coil Marsh now. If you have anything to say, this is your last chance as the jade slips won't work there." Shirong said.
This piqued Lin Wu's interest as he had not known of this fact. There was no information about this in what was gathered by the system either.
'Why is that?' Lin Wu wondered.
Yu Guowei looked at Shirong and shook his head.
"There is nothing as of now, young master. I will be busy with the Tournament this entire time as it is the time when we make the most profits. I believe you would like it too if the Ji clan got a bigger share this time." Yu Guowei stated.
"Alright…" Shirong curtly said before leaving the building and flying away.
Once he reached the outskirts of the city, he withdrew the Immortal Crystal Armament and transformed it into the hoverboard form before flying away on it. Lin Wu was much faster than he was and they would reach the destination much earlier.
Just like this, six hours passed and Shirong had finally seen the Dread Coil Marsh for the first time. He had never come here before and had only heard the stories and reports about it. Also, unlike most other powers of the world, the Ji clan had more information on the Dread Coil Marsh.
It was that very information why the Ji clan had sent out Ji Quan to investigate when they discovered that a sect had appeared in the marsh. This in itself was quite strange as the ghosts would be quite a trouble to deal with normally.
For a sect to choose the Dread Coil Marsh as their base meant that they had some secret information that the Ji clan did not. Of course, the Ji Clan could not let that go and would investigate it themselves, wanting to find out the reason.
Once Ji Quan had died, it was already confirmed that whatever it was, it was worth the Ji Clan's time and effort to investigate.
Shirong descended onto the ground once he reached the edge of the Dread Coil Marsh and stored the Immortal Crystal Armament back into the ring. He walked into the marsh and scanned the area with his spirit sense.
During this time he had encountered quite a few dangers which included the beasts, poisonous insects and also the ghosts. He was able to get rid of the beasts pretty quickly but when the ghosts finally appeared at night Lin Wu observed it with full interest.
~SKREEE~
"Ugh! These ghosts!" Shirong said with disgust before extending his index finger.
~Spark~
Electricity coursed around his arm before being shot out from his index finger. The lightning was extremely effective and was the bane of these marsh ghosts, wiping them out in one hit. Shirong simply waved his finger around, making the lightning act like a whip.
~KIIII~
The ghosts let out shrill cries before being destroyed. Lin Wu specifically observed what happened to ghosts who were already supposed to be dead. It was nothing… they simply faded into air, leaving behind no trace except for their voice that echoed for a while.
~Sigh~
"Don't know what I was expecting…" Lin Wu muttered to himself as he popped a piece of chicken drumstick into his mouth.
~nomnomnom~
He ate the meat and spat out the bones, before realizing he could eat the bones too.
~shua~
Lin Wu sucked the air in, making his mouth act like a vacuum, and pulled the bone back.
"Oh? That's another idea… I can be a vacuum too." Lin Wu said, feeling strangely pleased with himself.
"No ghost can touch me as long as I can use the Immortal Sky Shaker Art!" Shirong proclaimed.
He made his way through the forest, exterminating what everything dared to oppose him and kept looking around. It took Shirong over five days to reach the same point that Lin Wu had gotten to in one day.
Though it was reasonable since Lin Wu was simply moving around aimlessly, while Shirong was actively searching for clues to his uncle Quan.
~splatter~
The sound of water splashing could be heard as Shirong snapped his gaze towards the source of the sound. There he saw a different beast than the ones he had seen before.
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Shirong and Lin Wu gazed at the beast that had just appeared in front of them.
It was long and slender with no face having only teeth and a strange mask like skull. It had six pairs of legs and could move very quickly. But that was not what attracted Shirong's attention. What did was the collar on the neck of the beast.
"A Tamed Beast?" Shirong muttered as his brows furrowed.
Shirong spread his spirit sense and probed the beast, only to find it impossible.
"WHAT? Why can't I sense the beast? It's as if it doesn't exist there." Shirong said, feeling shocked.
To Shirong the beast was like air. When his spirit sense touched the beast, it passed through it. He knew the Ghosts of the Dread Coil Marsh were like this being hard to sense with spirit sense, but this beast was even beyond that.
Shirong even thought that perhaps this was actually a different type of a Ghost, but when he saw the foot prints of the beast on the ground, he knew it was not. The ghosts did not leave behind physical traces like these.
Even Lin Wu felt interested in this and used his own spirit sense to try the same, coming upon the same result.
"System, can you do a scan?" Lin Wu asked.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target found
SCAN COMPLETED: Target Identified
Target Name: Specter Skull Hound
Info: The Specter Skull Hounds are dangerous beasts that are found on dead worlds or worlds with nether Qi. There are many variants of them and their attacks are deadly to most humans.
Their claws and fangs can infect others with Nether Specter Toxins that will continually drain the life force of the being till it dies.
——
"What the literal hell! Where did this random high level mob come from?" Lin Wu said upon reading the information.
Along with the information that the system had given, there were additional windows that had popped in the side that showed more details. It was there where Lin Wu read about the source of this information.
The information about the Specter Skull Hound didn't come from this world. Rather, the information was gained from the Taiji Celestials Tomb. It meant that this was not a native beast of this world.
When Lin Wu read more about the beast, it showed that the beasts could reach a realm that was above the Immortal Ascension realm.
"System, what's the cultivation of this Specter Skull Hound?" Lin Wu questioned.
~Ding~
——
ANSWER: The system cannot scan the cultivation base of the Specter Skull hound, but comparing its size to those in the database, the system estimates that it should be equivalent to a beast at the Peak stage of the Core condensation.
——
"Peak stage of the core condensation realm? ~Phew~ okay that should be manageable." Lin Wu said.
In the time that Lin Wu had spent getting the information from the system, Shirong had been observing the Specter Skull hound. The beast was also doing the same and looked at Shirong with its eerie, featureless face.
There were no sounds coming from the beast and it simply looked at Shirong without moving. The only reason why Shirong had not attacked the beast was that the beast had not attacked him and also the assumption that it was a tamed beast.
Since Shirong couldn't tell the cultivation base of the beast, he reckoned that it should be strong; at least at the same cultivation base as him or higher. But then came the fact that if the beast had such high cultivation base, then its owner must be even stronger.
Killing the beast would likely bring the owner's ire, and Shirong did not want to randomly offend someone stronger than him without knowing more.
~Kikikiki~
A strange crackling sound came from the Specter Skull Hound's mouth as it opened it wide, showing its eight sharp fangs, four on each jaw.
~Kiiiiiiii~
The Beast suddenly broke in a sprint that was fast even for Shirong, and rushed at him.
~Shua~
Shirong immediately responded with a slash of wind and lightning. The wind spread from his palm as the lightning spread through his arm and mixed with the wind, turning into a beautiful ribbon.
But this ribbon was also deadly and the moment it touched the beast it showed its effect.
~Kiyaaaa~
The beast screamed in pain as the ribbon hurt its body. The wind tore through its body like a sharp blade while the lightning scorched it, causing it further pain in its entire body. The beast flinched and took ten steps back, now looking at Shirong warily.
"Who is this beast's master! Come out now or I'll kill it!" Shirong shouted.
Shirong was a bit relieved upon seeing that the beast could be harmed by his power, but was still wary of his surroundings. For all he knew, the beast could just be a distraction while the main hunter may be lurking.
Shirong waited a few seconds and seeing that there was no response, he decided to go ahead. He flicked his sleeve as a long sword appeared in the air, Shirong tapped its handle infusing spirit Qi in that soon sparkled with blue sparks.
"Sword GO!" Shirong yelled as the spirit sword was sent shooting at the beast.
~Huala~
The beast moved like the wind dodging the spirit's sword, surprising Shirong once more. He flicked his hand, guiding the spirit sword back at the beast from the other side while he himself attacked from the front.
A gauntlet made out of lightning formed on Shirong's hand as he punched at the beast, knocking up strong winds that splashed the mud around him. Some of the weaker Twisty and coiling trees were directly broken and their dry leaves blew away.
The Specter Skull Hound jumped straight up in the air to dodge both of the attacks.
"Ha! You can't escape me!" Shirong said as he twisted around mid air and kicked beast with his heel acting like an Axe.
The beast was hit and sent back flying, breaking a few trees in the process.
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The beast was greatly injured having broken plenty of bones in the process. Even its featureless mask like skull was cracker and crying sounds came from its mouth.
"Damn this noise!" Shirong blocked his ears.
The noise was quite loud and gave Shirong a headache. It seemed to contain a strange power as it spread wide and made the trees shiver like a wet man in snow. It was an eerie sight, and Shirong couldn't help but think something was wrong.
Lin Wu felt the same and checked the map for any anomalies, but couldn't see anything different. Though he could see the position of the Specter Skull Hound on the map which was a good sign.
"I'll end this noise!" Shirong said in a pissed tone as he sent the spirit sword flying at the beast's head.
But before it could reach the beast it was blown away by a strong gust of grey wind. It seemed to have come out of nowhere and what was even more shocking was Shirong's Wind attribute spirit Qi which should have negated it was useless against it.
"What kind of a wind is that?" Shirong couldn't help but say.
He recalled the spirit sword and heard more cries coming from around him.
~WOOOO~
The ghosts started to come out of the twisting and coiling trees and soon populated the area. It didn't take it long for them to notice Shirong and they came rushing at him while letting out screeching sounds.
"Begone!" Shirong said as he shot out lightning from his hands.
~zap~
The Marsh Ghosts that were rushing at him were easily exterminated by the lightning and faded away into nothingness.
~KIIIII~
But at the same time, the Specter Skull Hound let out a sound that seemed like a mix between a howl and scream. The sound was sharp and hurt Shirong's ears. But that was not the only effect that it had.
The nearby Ghosts that were attacking Shirong were suddenly frozen in mid air. Then, they were sucked towards the Specter Skull Hound and entered his mouth. The beast's mouth acted like a vacuum and it sucked all the ghosts that were in the area.
~Huala~
The beast consuming the ghosts seemed to have an effect on it and the injuries it had all started to heal. In less than five seconds it was fully healed and even seemed to be better than its original state.
"Oh boy… this is not just a high level mob, it's also a regenerating mob." Lin Wu commented as he popped a slice of a fruit that looked similar to papaya.
~nom~
Shirong felt a bit dumbfounded at this action of the beast and had not expected this to happen. His dumbfounded expression soon turned to that of fury though.
"Enough! This ends now!" Shirong spat out.
"Oop! Duty time!" Lin Wu said as he was drawn by Shirong.
Lin Wu changed its form and Shirong clasped him firmly in his hand. His over ten meter long body looked massive compared to Shirong.
"Immortal Crystal Armament: Glaive From!" Shirong shouted as the spear morphed into a huge Glaive.
Shirong flew up in the air and twirled around, infusing the spirit Qi into the Immortal Crystal armament.
~Shua~
The immortal weapon started to glow with a bright green light as arcs of electricity jumped across it.
"Oo it tingles…" Lin Wu said internally.
Then Lifting the Glaive high up Shirong swung it hard, straight at the Specter Skull Hound. The attack wasn't just in a single line though. Instead, it spread in a cone like shape and by the time it reached the beast its range had expanded to over thirty meters.
"Immortal Sky Shaker Art: Thunder Purge!"
The cone of lighting decimated everything in its path and left a long gully in the earth. It lasted for five seconds after which it finally disappeared. The Specter Skull hound was now nowhere to be seen.
Lin Wu checked the map and saw that it's marker had now disappeared.
"Dead." Lin Wu confirmed.
~DENG~
Shirong stabbed the Immortal Crystal Armament in the ground and kneeled, feeling exhausted. It was evident that the skill he had just used was not something that could be used often. Shirong was already in the Nascent Soul realm and had large stores of spirit Qi along with a quick recovery rate too.
If a skill put him in this condition in just a single use, it meant that it was no common skill. Lin Wu felt curious and checked Shirong's Dantian, finding that he had depleted around half of his liquid spirit Qi in there.
"Damn, that's a powerful skill. I haven't seen him use it before though… did he learn that recently?" Lin Wu wondered.
Lin Wu's guess was actually correct. Shirong had learned this skill when he was cultivating in the city a while back. He had already known about the skill of course and all that was left to do was to comprehend it. Which he did, taking advantage of those two days.
It was understandable why the skill needed some extra few steps to learn, seeing its power.
"System, you recorded it, right?" Lin Wu questioned.
"Affirmative." The system responded simply.
"Good. Gotta collect the best attacks." Lin Wu said, feeling happy.
After about ten minutes of rest, Shirong stood up and stored the Immortal Crystal Armament in his ring before scanning the surroundings with his spirit sense.
"Hmm… no ghosts or any other beasts?" Shirong spoke.
This felt unusual to him, as what he had done was basically a huge beacon for others to find his location. While he could understand that the ghosts would not approach him due to the extreme Yang of the lightning and the beasts due to the sheer amount of spirit Qi in that attack, he felt like others should have still come.
Shirong was dead sure there was someone observing him, but couldn't tell where or who they were. His eyes randomly went to the path from where the beast had come from, and he went there.
"Let's see where this leads too…"
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Shirong had found the footprints of the beast that had attacked him. He still didn't know what kind of a beast it was but Lin Wu did and he knew it was nothing normal.
'There's definitely something happening in this marsh…' Lin Wu thought.
Finding an otherworld beast was never normal and he wondered if it was really linked to the death of Ji Quan.
Shirong could see that the tracks of the Specter Skull Hound were getting harder to see after a while as a few other beasts had covered them with their own tracks. There were many beasts in the Dread Coil Marsh and they would all run and hide from the Ghosts that came out every night.
Still, most of the beasts of the marsh were already crazy due to the Ghosts so they didn't care much about it at that point. The only reason why the ghosts even had more beasts to attack was that the newborn beasts would still be normal as compared to their parents.
This was one of the discoveries that had been done a long time ago. If the ghosts were changing the entire physiologies of beasts on their own, the situation in the marsh would have been quite different.
Shirong ended up tracking the beast's footprints for over a day before he got to a location where they just disappeared. Even Lin Wu was in the blind about this place as he had not gotten to this point when he came here alone.
"System, scan the area and update the map again." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Please wait a minute
SCAN COMPETED: Map has been updated
——
Lin Wu observed the map and saw that the new markers were rather sparsely populated. Usually, there should be more beasts, in the deeper parts of an area like this. But here it seemed to be the opposite.
There wasn't any information in the system's data banks either as there simply weren't many people who had come this deep or recorded this. Only a preparedly organized expedition that came to investigate the entire area would be able to do something like that.
But this place was dangerous and would need a lot of resources to be researched. That was the reason why no one had tried to do this ever before. To them, it was simply a waste of time and it was easier for them to just declare the Dread Coil marsh a forbidden zone.
Along the way, Lin Wu was wondering why he had not seen the Specter Skull hound when he came to check the area.
'Did it arrive later or did someone else brought it here? Hmm… seeing as it had a collar it was probably brought by someone else. Though who would tame a beast like that?" Lin Wu wondered.
Shirong spread his spirit sense to see if there was anything nearby but he couldn't find anything except for a few beasts and ghosts.
~Sigh~
"I should take a break and restore my spirit Qi. Anything could happen in the Marsh and I need to be ready for it." Shirong murmured to himself.
He then chopped down a few of the trees and made a platform on the ground to rest. He now had a few spirit tools that were perfect for outdoor expeditions. Shirong took out a rolled up sheet from his spatial storage ring and threw it on the platform he had made.
~clink~clink~clink~
The sheet rapidly spread open and six metal poles rose up from its corners, propping it up on itself. The sheet split into multiple layers before joining together into a large walk in tent. This was a special spirit tool tent which was made to live outside.
It was quite popular among cultivators as it had multiple functions. It could protect from cold, heat and rain while also having defensive formations.
Shirong entered the tent and sat down cross legged to cultivate. While he was doing this, Lin Wu decided to take a look around himself. He was now personally interested in all this and wanted to look around.
Leaving the tent, Lin Wu first checked the area with his sprint sense. His spirit sense was now longer than Shirong's and could cover a wider area. Unlike Shirong though, he also checked the depths of the ground wanting to try his luck and see if he could find anything.
"Oh my… didn't really expect there to be something down there." Lin Wu said upon sensing something solid underground.
It was not rocks as he could tell from the structure, it was man-made. Lin Wu went a short distance away from the are before digging down and heading towards the location that he had discovered.
He was only half way there when he suddenly felt the ground shake. To others, it would be imperceptible, but to Lin Wu who was a worm and also had the sensitivity of the Hard Eared Limber beasts, it was easy.
He immediately extended his spirit sense and saw the source of the vibrations.
"Oh no, I need to return quickly." Lin Wu said before going back up.
In the system's feed, he could see that Shirong had already woken up once the shaking had gotten stronger. The beacon was still in Shirong's ring which would make him think that Lin Wu was still in it. So Lin Wu still had some time to get to him.
But he wouldn't be able to get out directly, thus he thought of a different method. He continued to the site of the vibration and saw that something was rising up from the depths. It pushed the earth away as it moved to the surface.
Soon it reached the surface, revealing a platform that seemed to be made out of stone tiles. These tiles were small and intricate; definitely man made. There were carvings on it which were faded away due to the effect of time along with many cracks.
But that was not the only thing special about it. At the center of it, a large trapdoor could be seen.
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Seeing the trapdoor Shirong narrowed his eyes. He stopped there and first made sure that there were no actual traps on it. Only when he was sure did he approach it further.
Lin Wu, who was just below him simply extended a blunt spike from his head which came under Shirong's foot. Having touched Shirong, Lin Wu instantly entered the spatial storage ring.
Shirong didn't even pay attention to the little obstacle that had come under his food, thinking of it as a random stone. He instead stepped onto the platform and tried to read the carvings on the tiles.
They were in a language he couldn't understand though he felt like he had seen these before.
"What are these?" He wondered.
"System, any input on this?" Lin Wu asked.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target selected
UPDATING DATA BANKS: New parameters found.
ANALYZING: please wait a minute
…
ANALYSIS COMPLETE: The carvings on the tiles have a 58% similarity to those in the temple of the three beasts.
——
"The temple of the three beasts?" Lin Wu repeated.
He went through his memories and could indeed link some of them with the carvings in there.
"Why is this here though? Is this perhaps another temple or something like that?" Lin Wu wondered.
'They did say there was a sect here, so perhaps it is an old temple that was buried deep in the ground?' he hypothesized.
Unlike Lin Mu, Shirong did not know this and kept on staring at the carvings. Not being able to figure it out, he just decided to open the Trapdoor. There were no handles on the trap door and only the seam could be observed which differentiated it from the other tiles.
He probed it with his spirit sense and discovered the formations that were inlaid. With his little expertise with the formations, Shirong found the correct one and managed to unlock the door by infusing a little bit of spirit Qi in the right node.
~Rumble~
The trap door moved slowly before opening up to reveal a long staircase that went to unknown depths. Shirong couldn't see the end of it in the darkness and even his spirit sense couldn't reach the end.
He turned around and saw that the foot prints of the Specter Skull Beast actually ended right at the point where the platform had ended. The reason why there were no traces of the platform was because the mud and water would come and hide it below it quite easily once it went inside the ground.
"Seems like it came from here," Shirong said in understanding.
He then created a small arc of lighting that turned around his body, as a source of light. Only Shirong who had mastered the Immortal Sky Shaker Art could do something like this. No one else would use lightning attribute spirit Qi as a mere lamp!
The lightning kept on circling around Shirong's body, providing him with 360 degrees of illumination.
The steps were made of a similar stone like those of the tiles of the platform. Though these did not have any carvings on it and were plain. Both Shirong and Lin Wu constantly observed the area with their spirit sense.
Lin Wu had also gotten the system to scan the area but it had faced a restriction in the form of an interference field again. This one was even stronger and wouldn't let it spread its signals anywhere in the area.
The most the system would be able to do was to do an observational scan if Lin Wu asked it, but not an exploratory scan. Seeing that even the system was in the dark, Lin Wu decided to be even more careful.
He activated his innate skill of radiation manipulation to create an invisible shield around Shirong and in turn himself. This Shield would either stop spirit Qi attacks or at least weaken them before they would reach Shirong.
Shirong felt that something was different when the shield appeared but couldn't place his finger on it and attributed it to the strangeness of this place. Having traveled for over an hour, Shirong finally reached the bottom of the place.
It was a wide open temple that had many statutes. Pillars rose up from an equal distance, supporting the roof of the temple. Shirong walked up to one of the statues to observe it properly and saw that it was of a bird.
The bird had a long neck and lustrous feathers that were all over its body. The color of the bird could not be told because of it being a stone statue, but the sculptor's skill in it, showed that the feathers were vibrant.
It had five long tails feathers with the center one being the longest and the others decreasing in size as they went toward. It had a sharp beak and fierce eyes. Its crown feathers were majestic and would inspire glory within the eyes of the viewer.
It had five talons on each leg that grasped upon a long branch of an unknown tree. It was made in the posture of letting out a cry.
Shirong felt impressed upon seeing the statues and could tell the effort made in it was extensive. This statue could easily compare to those in his own clan. But when he looked at the large number of them, he realized that even his clan may not be able to afford to make so many of them.
It was not just the skill that was involved in the making of the statue, but Shirong could see formations being inlaid in each of the statues. All these formations were unknown to him but his best guess was they were an offensive formation.
Seeing that there were over a hundred of these statues and each had the same formation, they probably worked together as an array.
But while Shirong was marveling about the statues and the formations, Lin Wu was surprised about something else.
"All these statues… aren't they… aren't they of the Vermillion bird, one of the four guardian beasts?" Lin Wu said.
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It was obvious to Lin Wu who had seen the Vermillion bird's image many times in his past life. He could very easily recognize the beast and was sure that this was one of the four guardian beasts of the world.
Before, when Shirong and his two companions had blocked the ritual by using the old temple, he was wondering why there were only three guardian beasts instead of four, but now it could be seen that there really were four.
But then the question stood, why were there so many statutes of them here and why did the Vermillion bird look like the most authentic guardian beast. The other three looked like some defective versions.
Lin Wu even wanted the system to do a scan, but the interference field was not letting it do that.
"System, just do a visual scan and see if you can find anything unusual." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target selected
WARNING!: Limited functionality
SCAN COMPLETED: Target identified
TARGET: Vermillion bird statue
INFO: According to the system's data banks, the target matches the description of the Vermilion bird. The Taiji Celestial's tomb also has archives about the beast but they are in the encrypted part, the system can only obtain a fraction of the information.
——
Seeing the system giving its confirmation, Lin Wu understood that there must have been some problem that happened when the three beasts were first awakened in this world. It was still a mystery that was beyond him right now.
All he could do now was to wait and watch. And that's what he did as Shirong continued going further into the temple. He passed by hundreds of Vermillion bird statues before reaching the end of the vast hall.
Here there were a pair of wooden doors. They were carved with the Vermillion bird's motifs along with some faded words. These words though Lin Wu could read, due to them being in the Dao Script.
He focused on them and tried to read them.
"The beast that fell,
The beast that slept,
The beast that never awakened,
Here lies the forgotten beast,
Forever gone, forever forgotten…"
There were more things written on the doors but they were illegible and could not be read. But Lin Wu definitely got some guesses upon reading the words.
"So whoever made this temple, knew about the vermilion bird. And since it is in this world it should have been made by its inhabitants. But this is in the Long continent which is under the domain of the Long clan who has the bloodline of the Guardian Dragon beast.
Did they perhaps intentionally hide the existence of the Vermillion beast? What could be the reason behind though… just increasing their own power doesn't make sense since the three guardian beasts were awakened together ten thousand years ago." Lin Wu analyzed.
There were far too many questions that were unresolved and he felt an increasing curiosity towards them. In this world, Lin Wu did not have any great goal. He wanted to become strong just because he could. He wanted to see the world, just because he could. He didn't need anything to motivate him, all he needed was for something to exists and if he desired it, he would get it.
And now that the mystery of the Vermillion bird had pulled him in, he would very well go ahead to learn more about it. After all, he was a beast as well and he may gain some benefits if he learned more about them.
Shirong too looked at the door and read the words. Though he was barely able to read them due to not being as proficient at it as Lin Wu was. Lin Wu had the support of the system because of which he had a massive data base of Dao Script, allowing him to read nearly any character.
"A beast? Is this temple about this bird beast?" Shirong muttered.
He checked the doors and saw that they didn't have any formations on them. They were just simple doors, albeit massive. Shirong placed his hands on them and pushed it hard.
~Rumble~
~Creak~
Dust fell from the doors as Shirong pushed it with all his strength. The creaking of the door was loud enough to echo thoughtful the temple and even out of it since the trap door on the surface was open.
Some distance away from the Trapdoor of the temple, a few men in strange garbs appeared.
"What was that sound?" One of them questioned.
"Quickly identify it." A man who was in better looking clothes than the others ordered. He was evidently the head of this group.
One of the men then took out what looked like a very long and narrow come from a spatial storage tool before holding it up to the sky and attacking it to his ear. It looked extremely comical but if one were to look at the inscription on the cone, they would see that it was actually a spirit tool!
The man who was using the cone gasped in surprise and spoke, "it's a lost temple! Another one has appeared!"
"Are you sure?" The head asked.
"The sound is the same as that of the others we have seen." The man assured.
"Hmm… what does this mean, though? If the sound appeared, that means someone opened it." Another man questioned.
"It could just be automatic too. Don't forget that a couple of temples opened without anyone needling to interfere." The head spoke.
The others nodded in agreement and looked in the direction from where the sound had appeared.
"And if it really is someone else… we just get more sacrifices…" The head added with an evil glint in his eyes.
Shirong had just opened the door fully and saw the interior of the chamber. This room was much smaller than the previous one and was dark too.
~whoosh~
But the moment Shirong took another step, multiple torches with red flames ignited, illuminating the entire room.
"This…"