Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

by Srtyi

Lin Wu was a university student that died after having one too many energy drinks and then reincarnated into the body of a worm. He awakens to find out that he now has a system, but even it doesn't have a clear idea of where they are. He comes out of the ground and discoverers that he’s no longer in his previous world but rather in a cultivation world. Witness Lin Wu’s journey as

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Lin Wu had certainly not expected a beast like this to be hiding in the temple like this. Rather, he wondered how it got in here.

"No wait… perhaps it's been here since the start?" Lin Wu said as a thought came to his mind.

He observed the Specter Skull Hound which was growling at him and got ready to attack.

~Shua~

"Come at me, bitch!" Lin Wu said as he grew his body to the full size.

The Specter skull hound was over five meters tall, but even it was dwarfed by Lin Wu's body, which was over a hundred meters long. Even though he could not raise his body much more than ten meters in this hall, as that was its height, Lin Wu still looked massive.

Lin Wu's crimson eyes and emerald body glowed in the dark, creating an imposing presence that filled the hall. But while Lin Wu was doing this, he was also looking for the thing he had come here for.

'Where is the bloodline crystal of the Vermillion bird?' Lin Wu wondered.

His spirit sense searched the statue of the vermilion bird and soon found it to be hidden within its beak. The beak of this status was damaged as well and thus the crystal had fallen deeper into it.

Though another strange thing was Lin Wu did not feel the same intense desire that he had felt before.

"Why is this?" Lin Wu wondered.

'Still I guess it's better that I'm not affected by it with this guy here.' Lin Wu thought to himself.

He looked at the Specter Skull hound, which was still gazing at him without any eyes.

"Fuck it! I'll do it!" Lin Wu said before whipping his tail at the Specter Skull hound with a speed that was blinding.

~Swoosh~

His tail almost created a sonic boom and knockdown away all the dust in the hall in one go.

~boom~

The Specter Skull hound was hit square in its torso and crashed into the wall of the hall. But Lin Wu gave it no chance to respond and immediately lunged at the beast. This time his tail turned into a sharp blade that was covered with wind attribute spirit Qi.

~shing~

The blade like tail slashed at the Specter Skull Hound but missed.

~Crumble~

The tail ended up breaking a part of the wall instead as the Specter Skull Hound dodged it at the last moment.

"It's definitely more durable than the last one alright." Lin Wu stated upon seeing the minimal damage borne by the beast.

"But I have just gotten started…" Lin Wu said with a chuckle as he sent out a wind blade at the Specter Sulk hound.

~Grrrr~

The Specter Skull hound let out a growl and sent out a black mist from his mouth. This black mist met the wind blade and nullified it.

"This is new…" Lin Wu muttered before rushing at the beast.

~DENG~

~DENG~

~shing~

~Rumble~

Attack after attack was exchanged by the beasts, with no one coming out on top. Lin Wu was also taking this chance to practice his own moves now. He had not gotten many opportunities to fight a Nascent Soul realm beast before, and this was his second opponent.

Lin Wu couldn't tell what stage of the Nascent Soul realm was this Specter Skull Hound at, but it was definitely not at the same level as him. Even the system could not estimate it exactly as according to its records. All specter Skull hounds were of this size when they were at the Nascent Soul realm whether they were at the infant stage or the adult stage.

The battle between Lin Wu and the Specter Skull hound had been going for about an hour now. Both beasts had sustained several injuries by now, but Lin Wu was looking completely fine. He after all had the system to regenerate his injuries with the vital energy he had.

As for the Specter Skull hound, it had cracks on its mask like face while dark blood seeped out of the cuts on his body.

"I guess this should be enough practice for now… time to end this!" Lin Wu said with determination as waves of radiation emanated from his body, surrounding the Specter Skull hound completely.

~yelp~

The Specter Skull Hound let out a strange screeching yelp which Lin Wu identified as the same move the other one had used.

'It trying to attract those marsh ghosts, huh? Dunno if they can come this far in the ground, but I'm gonna have to end this before that.' Lin Wu thought as his eyes shimmered with a murderous intent.

Back at the surface. The Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle had been waiting for a long time now. It could not sense Lin Wu's position directly using his spirit sense, but the unique bloodline aura that came from his body was still like a beacon to her.

"What's he doing there? It's been a while…" The Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle muttered to herself.

It was now that a strange sound was heard by her.

~yelp~

The Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle's eyes turned sharp as it scoured the area with its spirit Qi.

"Humph! Pesky ghosts!" The eagle beast said, upon sensing that the beasts were about to appear.

~Piiii~

She then let out a loud chirp that traveled wide before opening her wings wide and flapping them.

"Be vanquished under the flames of the Vermillion bird!" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle proclaimed, as the flapping wings created flames that covered a large swathe of land.

~Crackle~

~shua~

The flames covered all the trees in a radius of ten kilometers and started to burn them.

~Qiyaaa~

The sound of the ghosts wailing could be heard echoing across the skies as they perished with the burning trees. Normally they should be impervious to attacks like this and even spirit Qi attacks would only interrupt them.

But these were no normal flames… these were the pure flames of the legendary vermilion bird!

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The Vermillion flames turned the marsh into a sea of flames, evaporating the water and drying out the mud. The beasts that were nearby also died as for the ones that were hidden in the ground, were boiled alive.

A minute later, the flames died down and all that was left behind was a desolate and empty area filled with ashes. All the trees had been reduced to ash, including the beasts. The ground had cracked due to drying out and no sign of life could be seen.

"Humph! and they dare appear in my presence." The Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle stated before starting to preen her feathers.

Down at the temple, Lin Wu had exchanged a few more blows with the Specter Skull hound and was trying to end the beast quickly.

But the beast kept on dodging and blocking. Evidently, it was trying to stall for time and wanted for the Marsh Ghosts to appear so that it could consume them and restore all of its injures.

After a minute though, it got anxious as no ghost had appeared.

"Seems like your attempt failed. Now stop struggling and DIE!" Lin Wu yelled with a distorted voice before colliding with the beast.

~Kiii~

The Specter Skull hound let out a pain filled shout as it got badly battered. It had become stunned from the impact and Lin Wu decided to take advantage.

"GET OVER HERE!" Lin Wu said, before shooting out his tail.

~yelp~

The Specter Skull hound let out another painful shout as it was hit with Lin Wu's spiked tail that pierced into its body.

"Gotcha!" Lin Wu exclaimed before pulling him into his 'embrace'.

More and more spikes protruded out of Lin Wu's body as he started to coil around the Specter Skull hound. The hound kept on letting out growls of anger and pain, as Lin Wu kept on constricting his body.

~Crack~

The mask like face of the beast suddenly cracked into multiple pieces as dark blood seeped out from the cracks. The beast could no longer let out any more sounds as his mouth had been clamped shut by Lin Wu's body.

~shatter~

Its ribs and bones shattered as Lin Wu finally exerted his full power at once, reducing it to a mush.

~huu~

Lin Wu let out a breath of relief once he confirmed that the beast had died. But he found something to be strange here.

"Huh? Where is its nascent soul?" Lin Wu said.

Usually once a beast or a cultivator that was at the Nascent Soul realm or above died, they would escape using their nascent soul unless it was destroyed along with the body, beforehand. But Lin Wu had surely not done that.

"System, scan this corpse and tell me what you think." Lin Wu ordered.

~Ding~

——

SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target's interference field has been nullified upon death.

TARGET IDENTIFIED: Specter Skull Hound

CULTIVATION BASE: Equivalent to Child stage Nascent Soul realm Beast.

NASCENT SOUL: None

INFO: The Specter Skull hounds are unique beasts and don't cultivate spirit Qi. They cultivate Nether Qi which composes their bodies and that is also how they can consume ghosts to replenish their stores of energy along with their injuries.

Their bodies are unique in such that while they are physical in nature, they are still composed of the intangible Nether Qi. This is the reason why sensing them with the spirit sense is difficult and why they can negate quite a bit of attacks.

Their Nether Specter Toxin is deadly to most beasts, but the host is highly resistant to it in his crystalline form.

——

After having read the entire thing, Lin Wu realized that this was a completely different type of being he had just killed. It was a type of beast that should have not even been present in this world. Yet here it was, but they didn't know why.

Lin Wu looked at the corpse of the Specter Skull Hound, which had now started to dissipate into thin air. It was as if its body was sublimating and there was nothing Lin Wu could do to stop it.

"Hmm… system can you store this Nether Qi and analyze it?" Lin Wu questioned.

~Ding~

——

ANSWER: The Nether Qi is currently beyond the scope of the system and cannot be stored. The system will need to gather more data and upgrade its data banks before it is able to handle a new type of energy such as the Nether Qi.

——

"I see… guess I was hoping for too much. But still, this means whatever this is, it is beyond any normal cultivators capabilities." Lin Wu stated.

Lin Wu understood that the Specter Skull hound was likely the guard dog of this temple. Though he didn't know why this temple had one, and not the other one. And if that one had it then why was the one that was killed by Shirong being controlled by those people in strange garbs.

There were many questions that arose in Lin Wu's mind and he got entranced by the secrets of this word.

~Sigh~

"Better to focus on the task at hand." Lin Wu said before moving towards the statue of the Vermillion bird.

He touched the small bloodline crystal that was hidden in the beak of the statue before storing it in his storage. Lin Wu made sure that he was not feeling anything strange before leaving the temple.

He ended up shrinking his body so that he could get through the trapdoor before rising up through the soil. But while coming up, he sensed something different.

"Why is it hot here?" Lin Wu wondered.

He continued going up and realized that the ground here was much drier than before. He spread his spirit sense and discovered that the upper layers of the ground had been fully dried out and even the trees there were gone.

"What the hell did the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle do?" Lin Wu wondered.

He soon reached the top of the hole and resurfaced.

~Rumble~

The Eagle Beast stared at the place from where Lin Wu had entered the ground and saw that it was shaking again.

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~thud~

The ground which had been closed up due to the attack of Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle split open and out came Lin Wu.

"What the hell happened here?" Lin Wu questioned, poking his head out of the ground.

His neck swiveled as he took in the wide area that had just become empty. There was ash everywhere and the part of the ground that was free of ashes was completely dried and cracked, as if there was a drought here for years.

The Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle saw that it was Lin Wu had just appeared and spoke.

"Just took care of some pesky ghosts." She said.

"Ghosts?" Lin Wu said with confusion. But then he recalled what the Specter Skull Hound had tried to do before.

'No wonder it could not call any ghosts… the Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle wiped all of them out.' Lin Wu realized.

"Wait… but I thought the ghosts are not affected by spirit Qi easily." Lin Wu said. "Only lightning works against them from what I've seen." He added.

"My fire is no normal fire. They are the flames of the legendary Vermillion bird! Ghosts such as these are nothing in front of it." The Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle said with pride.

"Ah… I see." Lin Wu nodded his head upon getting clarified.

The eagle beast kept on staring at Lin Wu, scanning him from top to bottom.

"Did you find the temple?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle Questioned.

"Oh yeah, I did. Met a little problem there too; A specter skull hound. Needed to take care of it before I was able to get the Bloodline crystal." Lin Wu explained.

"A Specter Skull hound? What's that?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle asked, curiously.

"It is a beast who is unable to be sensed by spirit Qi. It's easily identifiable with a featureless mask like white face." Lin Wu stated.

"Oh those, yeah I've seen them before. They're a pain to kill." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle replied.

"Wait… you knew there was going to be a Specter Skull hound in the temple?" Lin Wu questioned.

"I've encountered three of them before. One of them was from a temple such as that one, while two of them I just found randomly wandering. I didn't know that they lived in the temple though." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle answered.

Lin Wu was intrigued by this as it made him think that there were way more of the Specter Skull hounds in the Dread Coil Marsh than he had thought.

"Were any of the ones you encountered wearing a collar?" Lin Wu inquired, remembering that the one Shirong and he had encountered had a collar on its neck.

The Eagle beast tilted its head as if trying to remember before speaking.

"I think the two I met wandering outside had collars on their necks. But the one I met in the temple did not have one." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle Beast answered.

"I see… so the ones in the temple are the actual guardians of some kind… and the ones wandering are captured ones…" Lin Wu muttered.

He was trying to think of what the difference was there between these beasts when he was reminded of something.

"The specter skull hound you fought in the temple and the one with the collars, what were their sizes?" Lin Wu questioned.

"The ones I fought wandering were small while the one I fought in the temple was bigger than them and also much more resilient. I had to use my flames to kill it." The Sliver Beak Sky Soar Eagle answered.

"Just as I thought… they have different functions. The weaker ones wander around looking for the temples from what we've heard from that priest. They are servants of some 'skull god'." Lin Wu stated.

"Skull god? The god those strange men always talk about before dying?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle asked.

"You know about it? I thought you didn't understand the human tongue?" Lin Wu asked, feeling curious.

"Well, I do understand certain parts. Plus, these men kept on repeating those two words multiple times so it stuck in my mind." The Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle replied.

"Hmm… so that's it. I should tell you then that it's this 'skull god' that is getting those men to gather the Bloodline crystals of the Vermillion bird." Lin Wu said.

"Humph," The Eagle Beast grunted as flames came out of her nostrils. "They can try, but they will all burn under my flames!"

'Good… good… get angry…' Lin Wu internally thought while keeping a straight face… not that there was ever a change in his face usually.

"Where is the bloodline crystal you got from the temple then?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle asked.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot." Lin Wu said before withdrawing the red crystal from the system's storage.

"Here you go," Lin Wu threw the crystal to the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle, who quickly caught it mid air and swallowed it.

The moment she did, Lin Wu could feel her aura increasing slightly. Looking at her neck feathers, the Vermillion color had spread a little bit more. It was evident that the bloodline crystal was already having an effect.

'Wonder what will happen if I ate one?' Lin Wu thought.

He wondered if he could try stealing one for himself.

'It's not like the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle would know, would she?' Lin Wu wondered.

~Ding~

——

Answer: The Bloodline crystal will leave a trace behind wherever it is brought. It is likely the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle may be able to sense it, just the way the Host can sense the green crystal from the meteors.

——

"Aw, shucks! This won't work then…" Lin Wu cursed.

"What did you say?" The Eagle beast asked, seeing Lin Wu's strange reaction.

"Uh… nothing. I just meant to say, we will have to speed up or it won't work." Lin Wu made up an excuse.

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The Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle nodded his head and Lin Wu's conjecture and did feel like her bloodline was threatened. Who knows how many bloodline crystals had been taken by those men in strange garbs and how many more will be taken.

Alone, she could not do much to get to those crystals and had to wait for the temples to surface. They were far too deep in the ground and even with all her strength, it was simply not possible to dig it out in a short time.

In fact, the more likely thing was that by the time she is done digging out one of the temple, another one would readily pop up. So it was better that she spend her time reaching and waiting for a temple to naturally rise up.

Though now that she had teamed up with Lin Wu, she thought that she might not have to wait for too long.

"Alright, let's head to the next place." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle stated.

"Where is the next location that you can sense?" Lin Wu asked.

The eagle beast turned her neck to point in the northern direction.

"There? But didn't we pass by there before?" Lin Wu questioned.

"We did and there was nothing there at that time. But now I can sense something from there." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle stated.

"Hmm… if you are able to sense it now it may mean that the temple may be about to rise up naturally." Lin Wu guessed.

The Eagle beast got tense after hearing this and thought about the men who would try to steal the crystal.

"We should hurry then… if those men try to steal my bloodline crystals I will not leave them alive!" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle declared.

'As if you would leave them alive even without that…' Lin Wu internally said.

The two beasts then flew away in the direction that the Eagle Base had just said. Lin Wu simply followed behind her while thinking about some plans. It took them about twelve hours before they reached the location that the Eagle beast felt like had the bloodline crystal.

"We definitely did pass by here." Lin Wu said, before landing on the ground with a thud.

"So… where do you think the crystal could be?" Lin Wu asked.

The eagle beast closed her eyes for a bit before opening them.

~shua~

She spat out a small ball of fire that shot towards a spot on the ground.

~boom~

That small fireball was enough to make a crater that was about half a meter deep in the ground. The power of the beast could be felt from this small demonstration.

"There." The Silver Beaks Sky Soar Eagle simply said.

"Umm…. Alright…" Lin Wu said and was about to dig before a thought came to his mind.

"Wait, before I go. Can you destroy all the trees nearby so that no marsh ghosts appear? If there is another Specter Skull hound in the temple, it will definitely try to heal itself with the ghosts. Last time it was still early before sunset so the ghosts had not appeared fast enough, but if its night time they will be roaming around.

Better to eliminate their hiding place beforehand." Lin Wu stated.

The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle thought about Lin Wu's words and found them to be understandable.

"Okay, I'll get rid of the trees." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle said.

"Lemme just… get in the ground first." Lin Wu said before digging into the ground and getting to a sufficient depth.

"Alright! You can do it now!" Lin Wu shouted from the ground.

~flap~

~flap~

~flap~

~Shua~

The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle started to flap its wings as flames soon spread from it. The Vermillion flames devoured all the trees in the area of ten kilometers while drying out the marshy ground. The ponds that were nearby were completely dried out as well and nothing was left, except for ashes, and scorched earth.

~gulp~

"Okay, she's definitely beyond my control level for now." Lin Wu said to himself.

Lin Wu had actually asked the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle to use the flames for two reasons. The first was as he had stated, so that the Specter Skull hound would not be able to heal itself, while the second was that Lin Wu actually wanted to observe the flames.

Upon seeing the flames with his radiation perception, Lin Wu could tell that they were similar to the tribulation lightning on a certain level. That 'colorless' part he would see in the tribulation lightning as radiation was present in the flames of the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle as well.

"Hmm… is this something related to the Vermillion bird's bloodline or is it something else?" Lin Wu wondered.

The heat of the flames was also much higher than any flames that he had seen until now. The only flames that could probably compare to it would be the ones he had seen back when the meteor fell in the now forbidden area of the millennium forest.

Besides that, there were no flames that were as powerful as them. This only made Lin Wu more interested in the bloodline of the Vermillion bird, and he felt like he needed to get his hands on those… or his tail.

Having seen the Vermillion flames, Lin Wu started to get back to the task that he had come here for. He spent about a day digging in the ground before he was able to find the temple. This temple was much closer to the surface than the previous one, but looked the same as the two before.

"Alright… let's see what's inside." Lin Wu said before shrinking his body and opening the door of the temple.

~creek~

The trapdoor opened as dust fell from the sides, along with small stone fragments. The area that Lin Wu had dug into had a lot of boulders and rocks that he had to break through to get to the bottom.

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Lin Wu's body glowed, revealing the path ahead. The look of the temple was the same as the ones before and Lin Wu simply rushed to the inner hall without caring much for the statues here.

~creek~

The large stone doors swung open and along with all the torches lit up.

~GRRRR~

This time Lin Wu didn't even have to go step in, before he heard the sound of the Specter Skull Hound. The beast had been lying at the base of the statue of the Vermillion bird and seemed to be ready for any intruders.

Lin Wu could even see the thick layer of dust that had settled on its body.

~flap~

The Specter Skull Hound shook its body like that of a dog, shaking away all the dust that covered it.

"Just how long has it been there for? That dust has definitely not been accumulated in just a few days." Lin Wu said upon seeing the scene.

~step~

~step~

The Specter Skull Hound stepped towards Lin Wu while baring its teeth. It was the same size as the one he had seen bore and was equivalent to a Nascent Soul realm beast.

"Let's get started!" Lin Wu said as he used radiation manipulation from the very start.

~boom~

His tail swung like a whip, causing a sonic boom and knocking the dust from the walls around. The end of the tail was like that of a spear and shot towards the Specter Skull hound.

~thud~

The Specter Skull Hound was not expecting such a response and was hit square on its head.

~Crack~

In a single hit, the mask like face of the Specter Skull Hound was cracked as dark blood seeped out from it. Lin Wu's tail was also covered with wind attribute spirit Qi that was laced with radiation.

This wind laced witih radiation, penetrated into the wounds of the beast, and started to ravage its insides.

"Huh? That's it?" Lin Wu said upon seeing the beast getting knocked away.

The beast didn't even twitch after the hit and it seemed like it was done for. Lin Wu approached the specter skull hound to check up on it.

~BOOM~

"THINK YOU CAN TRICK ME, BITCH!" Lin Wu yelled as he slammed his entire weight on top of the Specter Skull Hound.

~pwesh~

The minced meat and blood leaked out from below Lin Wu as the beast was smashed. Lin Wu had seen the faint movement of radiation with his radiation perception and knew that the beast was trying to trick him by pretending to be faint.

Lin Wu didn't fall for it though and took a decisive approach… Body slamming the beast to a mush. One had to know, Lin Wu weighed over a thousand tons and had an incredibly hard body that was covered with sharp spikes.

All this combined was enough to take the life of the Specter Skull Hound.

~shua~

A few seconds later, the body or rather the remains of the Specter Skull Hound started to sublimate and turned to smoke. A couple of minutes later, it all disappeared and only a spiderweb like crack was left on the ground.

"Looks like this is the way… to kill the Specter Skull Hounds, not letting them react fast enough." Lin Wu muttered to himself.

~huu~

Feeling content that he had figured out a method to take care of the beasts and also managed to save time and energy, Lin Wu took a deep breath. He then looked at the statue of the vermilion bird and looked for the bloodline crystals.

He approached the statue and raised his head to the level of the beak.

"Huh? Two crystals?" Lin Wu said with surprise.

Inside the beak of the Vermilion bird's statue, Lin Wu could see two small red crystals. He broke the break, releasing the crystal into his grasp. Lin Wu looked at the two crystals on his tail and was stunned for a bit.

"Why are there two of them here? Does this mean a temple can have more than just one of these bloodline crystals?" Lin Wu wondered.

But after a minute of thinking his eyes lit up.

"AHAHAHA! THAT'S IT!" I FOUND A SOLUTION!" Lin Wu exclaimed.

Lin Wu was originally conflicted about helping the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle because it meant that he would have to give the bloodline crystals to her and would not get to take advantage of it himself.

It was not like he could say he didn't find a crystal in the temple and just consumed it himself as the beast would be able to sense its aura on him. But if there were two or more crystals in a temple, Lin Wu would not have this problem.

He could very well take one himself and give the other to the Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle and she would be none the wiser.

"No, wait! I can't consume it here… not to mention the possible incompatibility with my bloodline, the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle may even sense it on my body. If the bloodline is accumulated even a little bit in my body she would be able to tell it due to bloodline resonance." Lin Wu suddenly said.

Lin Wu thought over it for a bit to figure out a solution which came to him as a reminder from the System.

~Ding~

——

NOTE: The host can store the bloodline crystal in the system's inventory. No signs will be visible if the bloodline crystal is kept in the inventory.

——

"That's right! I just need to use the inventory." Lin Wu agreed.

"Alright system, store the bloodline crystals in the inventory. I'll just give one of them to the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle." Lin Wu stated.

~Ding~

——

NOTIFICATION: The bloodline Crystals have been stored in the system's inventory.

INVENTORY: Broken Spear, Broken metal plate, Pink Women's underwear, Dagger, Iron Bark Wood Tree, Eight Sigils Chrysanthemum, Bloodline Crystals of the Vermillion bird (x2)

——

Lin Wu nodded his head and made his way back to the surface, excited about later.

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The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle was not expecting for Lin Wu to be back so soon and was surprised when his head popped up again.

"You're back so soon?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle questioned.

"Yeah, got rid of the Specter Skull Hound rather fast." Lin Wu said before leaving the gorgon fully.

"And did you get my bloodline crystals?" the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle asked.

"Of course!" Lin Wu said before withdrawing one of the bloodline crystals.

This was the time of the test and he needed to see if what the system had said was working or not. Tossing the crystal to the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle Lin Wu watched on carefully, ready for anything.

~gulp~

The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle easily caught the bloodline crystal mid air and swallowed it instantly.

~shua~

Spirit Qi fluctuations came from her body for a minute before subsiding. The vermilion colored feathers on her neck had spread a little bit more, showing that the bloodline crystals were working.

~phew~

Seeing that nothing problematic had happened till now Lin Wu took a breath of relief.

'It should be fine now.' He thought.

The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle opened its eyes have having assimilated the bloodline crystal fully and huffed out some flames from her nostrils.

"Where is the next location?" Lin Wu asked.

"The next one?… I can't sense it right now." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle stated.

"Can't sense it? How?" Lin Wu asked, feeling strange.

"There are no temples that are nearby it seems like it. There is no sign from my bloodline either." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle answered.

Lin Wu thought over it and found it to be reasonable. It was not like they would keep on finding the temples one after the other. Even the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle had to spend a long time searching for them and had only found three after many months of effort.

"What should we do now then? Do we just roam around?" Lin Wu questioned.

"That's what I did till now. The two temples that I've shown you till now were found by me while roaming. The bloodline resonance only works up to a certain level. While I can tell that there are a lot more of these bloodline crystals in the Dread Coil Marsh, the is signal is far too weak for me to tell where exactly." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle explained.

"I see… I guess we can just look around for the time being." Lin Wu said.

The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle nodded her head and agreement and the two beasts flew away. They flew for many hours in silence when Lin Wu finally got bored and decided to ask a few questions.

"Say… after you gather all the bloodline crystals or… awaken the bloodline of the vermilion bird completely, what will you be doing?" Lin Wu questioned.

The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle did not respond to Lin Wu at first and flew silently for over fifteen minutes.

'Am I getting ignored?' Lin Wu wondered.

But just when he was gonna give up hope, she spoke.

"I don't know…" the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle said.

Lin Wu was frankly surprised by the words of the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle and had thought that the beast would have some high expectations or goals.

"So you just want to get strong?" Lin Wu asked.

"Yes." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle replied simply.

"And nothing more? You don't want to rule? You don't want to have fun?" Lin Wu questioned further.

"Rule?" the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle said in a strange tone.

"Yes, rule. You were one of the Rulers of the Millennium forest before so didn't you like to command other beasts below you? You don't want their servitude again?" Lin Wu questioned.

"Hmm… it wasn't really something I wanted when I was a ruler. I just because one because I broke through to the Nascent Soul realm. Back then the goal I had was to only get stronger and defeat the other rulers since they were the strongest beasts. But now that I'm at the Dao Shell realm, I don't feel like it anymore." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle stated.

Hearing her answer Lin Wu felt intrigued.

'Her conflicts are quite similar to that of humans… even though she has the power to take revenge on the old rulers, she no longer feels like it.' Lin Wu thought but then he remembered something.

"You said before that the rulers of the millennium forest were actually slaves to it… what did you mean by that?" Lin Wu questioned feeling curious.

"That forest… it's strange… back when I was a core condensation realm beast it seemed to be pleasant. And then when I reached the Nascent Soul realm I still felt the same and could absorb as much spirit Qi as I could in the center of it.

But when my cultivation base progressed further and over a hundred years passed, I felt that the forest had become strange. There was a strange aura in it…" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle said.

"The Dark Bloom caverns…" Lin Wu said in response.

"Yes… that place. There is something there… something that makes me uneasy… it is also something that can control the entire forest, making the beasts its slaves. But how it does that… I do not know." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle said.

Lin Wu felt strange as he had not felt anything like that there.

'Is it perhaps related to the Taiji Celestial's tomb? The Dark Bloom Caverns likely contain the main energy source of the Tomb that powers it. If it really is like that then there should be more to it than that.' Lin Wu thought.

He had not expected that there was something like this to the Millennium forest.

"Have the other rulers not sensed anything like that? Did you ever ask them?" Lin Wu questioned.

"They don't feel it. But the Twin Lights Liger King… he knows something…" the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle answered.

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Lin Wu was intrigued by the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle's words.

"What does he know?" Lin Wu questioned.

"The Twin Lights Liger King is the oldest beast of the Millennium forest. He has been here for over five hundred years now and has seen over ten rulers in that time. All of them perished to the time though.

He is the only one who has lived till now and has been the supreme ruler since then. At first, I thought that he was this strong due to his bloodline. But now that I've become a Dao Shell realm cultivator myself I realized a hint of truth behind him.

I think that he can break through to the Dao Shell realm at any moment if he wants to. But he is restricting himself for some reason. Over the years he should have gained enough resources for multiple breakthroughs. But he still hasn't used them." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle answered.

"Why would he do something like that? Doesn't everyone want to get stronger?" Lin Wu asked, feeling weird.

"The forest… I think it has something to do with it. The forest can suppress the minds of the beast somehow and only those that are strong enough can tell the difference. Among the beasts, I think only I and the Twin Lights Liger King were able to do something like this.

There were more of them before though… but they all perished." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle answered.

Lin Wu immediately realized what she meant by this.

"The beasts that tried to enter the Dark Blood Caverns… they all died due to that didn't they?" Lin Wu said.

"Yes… back when I was still a ruler, there were two rulers who tried this. They were the rulers who were there before the Slim Arm Ape and the Olive Viper King. They were all strong beasts, almost the same strength as mine back then.

They were very interested in the Dark Bloom cavern and it was as if it attracted them. Both of them were at the Adult Stage of the Nascent Soul realm too. But once they entered the Dark Bloom Cavern they never appeared again.

We could sense their aura's disappearing and the seats of forests freeing up again. I think that is why the Twin Lights liger King has been staying at the Nascent Soul realm and is not breaking through." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle replied.

"So that's why the Twin Lights Liger King obsessively stays in one of the caves of the Dark Bloom cavern. He can't resist it but cannot also enter it. He fears that if he breakthrough he will be unable to hold himself back from entering…" Lin Wu hypothesized.

It was a really strange situation from what Lin Wu could tell. He himself had not felt any attraction from the Dark Bloom caverns yet but he reckoned that it may be due to his special circumstance. Even the Tomb of the Taiji celestial could not accurately sense him for the trials because his soul was that of a human while the body was that of a beast.

'If the attraction is only for the beasts then it may make sense. Though if it also depends on the bloodline then the Olive Viper King might also be able to resist it as he has a similar bloodline to mine.' Lin Wu thought.

This conversation with the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle had given Lin Wu a lot to think about. He even asked the system to analyze the findings and see if it could come up with something. The system simply said that it will analyze it and inform him when it was done.

The two beasts continued flying for over three days non stop. They had no aim so they just wandered around. On the fourth day though, they suddenly saw something.

"Huh? Are those the men from before?" Lin Wu spotted.

The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle looked down and with her sharp gaze accurately observed them.

"Yes it is those same men from before. Those… Skull god's followers." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle replied.

"Hmm… if they are here then they must know the location of the next temple. Or at least have an idea where it is. Let's mug 'em!" Lin Wu said before dropping from the sky.

Both of the beasts were flying above the gloomy clouds of the Dread Coil Marsh and hence the followers of the Skull god had not seen them. But Lin Mu's body that was descending like a missile was hard to miss.

~Weeng~

A tearing sound could be heard as Lin Wu's tore through the air and opened a hole in the clouds.

"Wh-what! What is that!" The follower of the skull god pointed at the air.

Lin Wu had streamlined his body which made him move even faster. The moment it touched the ground strong tremors spread across the area.

~BOOM~

The followers of the skull god all fell to the ground. Lin Wu had fallen over a kilometer away from them, yet the tremors were terrifying. After a few seconds, the followers of the Skull god managed to stand up.

"What in the name of Skull God was that?" Someone asked.

"Did a treasure fall from the sky?" another one commented.

"Come, let's go check it out. Maybe it will be a good sacrifice to the Skull god." The man who was dressed like a priest stated.

They started to walk ahead and their spirit sense was spread to the full extent. But not even a minute after they started moving they stopped.

~Rumble~

The followers of the skull god could feel the ground beneath them shift and move. It made them wonder if another quake was coming or what.

~thud~

A massive emerald green head popped out of the ground as two crimson red eyes started at the men.

"No need to go ahead… I've come to you." Lin Wu said in human tongue, his voice eerie and cold.

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The followers of the Skull god were frozen in place upon seeing Lin Wu and did not know what to make of this. They could tell that what was in front of them was a beast but this was the first time they were seeing a beast talk.

"Na-Nascent Soul! It's a Nascent Soul realm beast!" The priest spoke.

Unlike the priest Lin Wu had seen before, this one was not at the Nascent Soul realm. It was evident that the last one had a greater status than this one. Looking at the team, Lin Wu counted five men and three women.

'This team is smaller… I guess the last one was out for a different reason.' Lin Wu thought.

The followers of the Skull god were frozen with fear as Lin Wu gazed at them.

~gulp~

The Priest suddenly found courage out of nothing and pulled out a sword from his spatial storage ring. The sword started to let out dark smoke, similar to the man Lin Wu had killed before.

Lin Wu was interested in that sword before but it was a strange weapon. When the man who wielded died, the sword melted into a puddle of black liquid before seeping into the ground.

"KILL! For the Skull God! If we have him with us, why should we fear this beast!" The Priest proclaimed.

"KILL!" The other followers also gained courage and shouted in unison.

They all withdrew their weapons and lunged at Lin Wu. But then…

~splat~

Lin Wu casually pressed upon one of the followers and smashed him into a mush. Blood and gore splattered on his companions as they all froze up mid-run.

"Huh? No more bravado?" Lin Wu taunted.

~splat~

Lin Wu crushed another follower this time a woman into mush.

"Gotta keep it equal or people will say I'm sexist…" Lin Wu said with a nod.

The followers of the Skull god were both scared and confused by Lin Wu's words as they did not know what they meant. Lin Wu had unknowingly switched to a different language than the one that they spoke.

"Oop! I forgot they don't speak English here…" Lin Wu said.

The followers kept on watching in terror, but this was just the start.

~Piiiii~

A loud screech of a bird could be heard echoing through the sky.

~Whoosh~

The clouds were suddenly blown away as the figure of the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle became visible. She originally wanted to see what Lin Wu would be doing but seeing that he was just talking around she decided to come herself.

~Shing~

~shing~

"ARGH!"

"NO!!"

The sharp winds caused by the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle cut through the robes of a couple of followers that were standing too close to her landing location. The ones who were hit by the sharp winds were now profusely bleeding and could not help but scream in pain.

~thud~

After landing, the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle looked at Lin Wu with a questioning gaze.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Ah, I was just about to ask them if they know anything about the temples." Lin Wu said.

To the remaining followers of the Skull god, only screeches could be heard being exchanged between the two beasts. But the arrival of the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle also made them fearful, much more than the appearance of Lin Wu.

"RUN! IT'S THAT EAGLE BEAST!" The priest shouted upon seeing the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle.

"Oh? Looks like someone's popular." Lin Wu said upon hearing that the followers of the skull god recognize the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle.

"Humph!" the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle simply huffed out flames through her nostrils in response.

"Alright, alright! I'll get to the interrogation." Lin Wu said as he pulled out the rest of his body from the ground.

~Rumble~

The ground trembled again and the Followers of the skull god saw an Emerald Green crystal wall surrounding them. Lin Wu had been surrounding them with his body from the start!

~thud~

"OUCH!" One of the women followers of the Skull God even ended up hitting her head against Lin Wu's body when she was running. Since it had appeared so abruptly she could not stop in time and hit it at full force.

"Well then… let's get to talking shall we." Lin Wu said with a grin.

His sharp teeth looked terrifying to the followers and they no longer dared to move.

"Who are you people exactly?" Lin Wu questioned.

Dead silence was spread in the area as no one dared to speak.

~shua~

"AHHHHHHHH!!! IT BURNNNNNS!!!" A fire ball suddenly hit one of the men and made him into a human torch.

Lin Wu turned to look at the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle who rolled her eyes at him. He let out a chuckle before staring at the followers of the Skull god again.

"See? If you don't speak all of you will die~" Lin Wu said.

~gulp~

"Now then… answer my question." Lin Wu spoke again.

"We-we… we're the followers of the great Skull god." The priest was the one who answered.

"And… who's that?" Lin Wu asked.

"The great Skull god is the great god of darkness and has ruled over the Dread Coil Marsh for eternity!" The Priest said with enthusiasm.

"Pff~ what eternity?!" Lin Wu couldn't help but laugh. "What's this charlatan Skull god been telling you? The Dread Coil Marsh has not even existed for ten thousand years and you say eternity."

"You dare humiliate the Skull god?!" the Priest said in a fit of anger but then realized his mistake.

~splat~

"Hmm? You said something?" Lin Wu said as a blade of Wind dismembered the arm of the priest.

The priest did not even dare scream and simply gritted his teeth. He took out a pill from his spatial storage ring and quickly ate it.

"Don't! Attack! I'll speak!" The Priest pleaded.

"Go ahead then. Tell me what does this Skull God look like and where is he?" Lin Wu questioned.

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By now Lin Wu had put the fear of himself in the hearts of the followers. They were helpless, being surrounded on all sides by Lin Wu's body. Not to mention there was an even more powerful beast next to him.

But what these followers and the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle did not notice was that the few people that were killed by Lin Wu had actually disappeared. They were originally smashed below his body and the blood had spread from there, along with some flesh and guts.

If one saw it now, they would see some blood, but no minced flesh. It was as if it had disappeared into thin air. Not even the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle noticed this, and it was not like she would care about that either.

'Hmm… so this is the Skull god huh…' Lin Wu thought to himself as he went through the memory that the system was showing him.

This was the memory extracted from the data nodes Lin Wu got from killing the two followers. In reality, Lin Wu didn't really need to interrogate these followers as he could simply kill them and let the system extract the data nodes from them.

But as Lin Wu had experienced from the Bandits Shirong had killed near the capital of the Ling Kingdom, there was a slight loss of information during the death of the person. Plus, the longer it took for him to retrieve the data node, the more information would be lost.

With that in mind, Lin Wu first chose to kill two of the followers and see what they had in their memories. Then he would interrogate the others and cross reference the points. Once this was all done, he would get to consume them all and get the final bits of memories from them.

This method ensured that there was the least amount of data loss. Plus… it was kinda fun for Lin Mu.

The priest trembled on the ground as he finally gained enough courage to speak again.

"The skull god… he's an ancient being. Our prophet found his altar and got blessed with the grace of the Skull god, gaining great powers. The skull god looks like just as his name is… he's a floating black skull.

His altar is deep in our sanctuary." The priest spoke.

Lin Wu heard this all, and it matched what he had learned from the memories.

"And where exactly is this sanctuary of yours?" Lin Wu questioned.

"It's… It's… I can't…. I can't remember?" The Priest suddenly said as his eyes went wide.

He held his head as if he had a headache and wailed.

"I can't remember!!! WHERE IS THE SANCTUARY!" The Priest shouted out loud.

His fellow followers looked at him with confused eyes before one of them realized something.

"THE SKULL GOD'S CURSE! THE CURSE WILL TAKE HIS LIFE! NO ONE CAN SURVIVE BETRAYING THE SKULL GOD!" The one renaming female follower suddenly uttered.

But her voice was strange… it was hoarse and definitely did not seem like that of a human female. Lin Wu also narrowed his eyes, as he could sense something change in the air.

"YOU!" The female follower said while pointing at Lin Wu; no fear was visible in her eyes.

In fact, one could not even see her eyes anymore as they had turned into black, empty orbs.

"WHO DARES CHALLENGE THE AUTHORITY OF THE SKULL GOD!!!" She shouted, in an even worse voice.

~Splat~

"Next!" Lin Wu casually said before looking at the other follower, who seemed to be normal.

"You speak now, since this priest seems to be mad now." Lin Wu stated.

"I… I…" The man was filled with fear and found it hard to speak.

"III III!!!!!" but in the next moment his eyes went black just like the woman, and a hoarse voice came from him.

~SPLAT~

"Next one," Lin Wu said.

~gulp~

The three renaming followers including the priest, were now shocked by Lin Wu's actions. They were more scared than before seeing him smashing the vessels of their god.

"No one gonna speak now?" Lin Wu asked one last time.

"YOU DARE!!!" another follower changed and uttered in a hoarse voice.

~splat~

"Seems like I should just end you all now…" Lin Wu muttered.

"STOP! KILLING! MY! FOLLOWERS!" The second last remaining person uttered with rage.

~Splat~

"Nope." Lin Wu stated.

He then looked at the priest, who was the only person remaining. Lin Wu's mouth opened wide as the thousands of sharp teeth in his mouth became visible. The priest didn't even have a chance to transform before he was swallowed by Lin Wu.

~gulp~

"Should have done this from the start. Sad that he messed up my show…" Lin Wu said, much to the confusion of the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle.

He then consumed the rest of the smashed followers and let the system sort through the data nodes.

"What are we going to do now? They're dead." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle asked.

"Just a minute," Lin Wu asked her to wait.

He closed his eyes and went through all the memories that the system had prepared from him.

'Hmm… the location of the sanctuary is indeed protected. Even in the memories, they are secured and any attempt to see them leads to corruption of the memory. Though… seeing as all of them came from the West, the location of the Sanctuary should be there.' Lin Wu thought.

He went through a few more memories and gained some valuable information.

"Bingo!" Lin Wu suddenly exclaimed.

"What happened?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle questioned.

"I got the location of a temple that's going to appear soon. The servant of the so called 'skull god' is searching for it right now." Lin Wu answered.

"Servant?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle asked before realizing what Lin Wu meant. "You mean those strange beasts?" She added.

"Yeah… they're called Specter Skull Hounds." Lin Wu answered.

"Then let's go." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle said before flapping her wings and flying away.

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Lin Wu had not gotten the exact location of the next temple, but knowing that a specter skull hound was searching for it meant that he would be able to find it too. Plus, he knew the approximate direction that the Specter Skull hound had gone in.

But this was not all that Lin Wu had obtained from the memories of the followers of the Skull god. He learned how they operated and why they were doing what they were doing.

The so called followers of the Skull god were nothing but cultivators that had been brainwashed by the Skull god. They would then be sent out to search for the temples of the vermilion bird and get the Bloodline crystals of the Vermillion bird from them.

Of course, finding these temples was quite hard as they were hidden deep within the ground and only occasionally would one of them pop up in the ground. Why they did, this was not known to the followers though and thus Lin Wu did not know either.

But he did learn that the larger specter Skull Hounds that were guarding the bloodline crystal in the temple were also kept there by the Skull God. He was also the one who had sealed these temples a long time ago and had put those specter Skull hounds as a means to guard the temple.

The smaller Specter Skull hounds though… were created by the Skull God. But Lin Wu doubted the authenticity of that. Unlike the followers he knew that the specter Skull hounds were not the creation of this Skull god and were actually normal beasts of a different kind of a world.

He reckoned that there was more to this than was being let on.

'I'll find it out eventually…' Lin Wu thought.

The two beasts flew through the sky as Lin Wu told the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle where to go. The followers of the skull god had a pendant that could track these Specter Skull hound, sadly Lin Wu could not use that as it needed that 'black smoke' that the followers used.

Lin Wu reckoned that it must be some kind of an ability given by the Skull god and even the system could not find a workaround for that. Thus right now, Lin Wu depended on the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle's sharp eyesight that could spot things from over a hundred kilometers away.

Even in a dark and gloomy place like this, it was no problem for the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle to find the Specter Skull hound. Four hours had passed since Lin Wu and the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle left the location where they killed the followers of the Skull hound.

They finally managed to spot the said Specter Skull hound in the distance.

"There it is!" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle stated.

Lin Wu followed her gaze and saw the beast walking through a bog. It would sniff the air every so often and then change its direction.

"Now we just need to follow the specter Skull hound and we'll find the temple. Though, there is likely to be another team of those followers somewhere. They will probably come after the temple too once it appears." Lin Wu said.

The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle just agreed in silence and slowed down so that they could match the speed of the Specter Skull hound. Another hour passed like this when they finally saw the specter skull hound stopping near a patch of the Marsh. It just laid there, as if waiting for something.

"Do you feel anything?" Lin Wu asked the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle who closed her eyes for a bit before speaking.

"Yes… there is something in the ground. It's coming closer, but it's slow." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle answered.

"Perfect! I'll get it." Lin Wu said as he dived down from the sky.

~BOOM~

Lin Wu aimed so perfectly that he landed just on top of the specter skull hound. The poor beast did not even get a chance to react before he was utterly annihilated. Not bothering with this, Lin Wu continued digging straight down for a while before reaching the temple.

"Huh, it really is moving. Though seeing the speed… it will take it at least a day before it reaches the surface." Lin Wu muttered.

He landed on top of its entrance and shrunk down his body. He triggered the formation on the trap door and opened it.

~Woo~

A strange wind blew out from the sealed door, which felt weird to Lin Wu. He spread his spirit sense and scanned the interior of the temple while moving inwards. When he reached the interior area though, he saw that the door of the inner hall was already open.

"Why's it open?" Lin Wu wondered.

Broken pillars and torches could be seen everywhere as chunks of rocks fell from the roof, upon Lin Wu's movement.

"Damn, this is the most damaged one till now." Lin Wu said as he looked around for the Specter Skull Hound that should have been guarding the temple.

"Nothing?" Lin Wu said, feeling weird.

He approached the statue of the vermilion bird at the end and tried searching for the bloodline crystal. The statute was greatly damaged and half of it was missing. Its beak, where the crystal was kept was also missing.

"It's not here… but the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle sensed there was something here…" Lin Wu muttered.

He searched through the rubbish and debris, trying to see if the bloodline crystal was lost within here. The desire for the crystal that Lin Wu had felt previously was also not here.

"Perhaps there is no crystal here?" Lin Wu wondered.

After over thirty minutes of searching, Lin Wu was unable to find anything.

"Was the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle mistaken?" Lin Wu questioned himself.

But just as he was about to turn leave the inner hall, something caught his eye.

"What's that?" Lin Wu said as he approached a fragment of the statue.

"A feather?" Lin Wu picked it up and then saw it glow faintly.

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