Read Rise Of The Worm Sovereign Chapter 341 - A Beacon's Key? online for free - AllNovelFull
The feather in Lin Wu's grasp was a stone feather and looking at its shape it was likely from the vermilion bird's statue. It seemed strange to Lin Wu though as the statue itself was made from a single rock.
Thus the feathers carved on it would have been part of its surface and not individual like this. Lin Wu looked back at the statue and could not even tell what part this feather was detached from.
"No… this is not from the statue. The shape and size do not match. The ones on the statue are much longer than this and the size is also bigger." Lin Wu said after comparing it for a bit.
~shine~
"Huh? It glows?" Lin Wu was surprised.
A red vein in the center of the stone feather could be seen. Lin Wu probed it with his spirit sense and realized that it actually had the bloodline of the Vermillion bird in it.
"This is quite different… it is mild… yet powerful…" Lin Wu muttered.
He stored the feather in the inventory and left the temple. Appearing on the surface of the ground, the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle looked at him with furrowed brows.
"Did you not find anything? I can't sense anything on you." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle stated.
Hearing this Lin Wu was able to confirm the fact that the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle could truly sense the aura of the bloodline crystals on him. But this also showed him that the stone feather that he had gotten was different from the other bloodline crystal.
"I didn't find a bloodline crystal, but I did find something else." Lin Wu replied before withdrawing the stone feather.
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle looked at it while tilting her head and then used her spirit sense to probe it.
"It has the bloodline imprint of the Vermillion bird in it… but it does not have the same bloodline source as that of a bloodline crystal." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle stated.
"Do you know what this is?" Lin Wu questioned.
"Hmm… let me try to see if there is anything within my bloodline memories…" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle replied before closing her eyes.
Lin Wu could feel her aura getting silent as if she was entering some kind of a sleep. The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle stayed in this state for about two hours without even moving. If this was the Lin Wu of the past, he would have not been patient for this long.
For the human Lin Wu, it would have been a great waste of time to just wait for two hours doing nothing. But to the worm Lin Wu, who was now a spirit beast two hours was nothing. His lifespan was so long that he had already started to lose the normal sense of time.
For him, two hours passed like a blink of an eye. He had simply cultivated in these two hours and did not even sense it was two hours.
'If one was going to wait around doing nothing, cultivating is the best thing to do…' Lin Wu thought with a nod.
When the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle finally opened her eyes, Lin Wu could feel her aura rising again. He realized that this was something beasts with strong bloodlines could do. When a spirit beast awakened a strong bloodline, they would not unlock all of it at once as that would lead to them getting harmed.
The power of the bloodline was just too much for a body of a beast to handle. Thus the bloodline would slowly resale its potential while the body predated and grew according to its requirements.
Lin Wu also wondered if his bloodline had some sealed memories inside it as well. He knew his unknown bloodline was not fully unlocked and what he had right now was mostly due to the systems' manufactured bloodline of the Crimson eyed emerald worm.
"I think I know what it is," The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle suddenly spoke.
"Tell me then." Lin Wu stated.
"That feather is a key… to some kind of a beacon… I don't know what kind… I could not access the memories, they are far too deep in the bloodline. If I want to see them it will take me a long time and my cultivation base will also need to be quite high for that to happen." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle answered.
"A key? To a beacon…" Lin Wu repeated.
'Seems like there is more to these temples than just the bloodline crystals.' Lin Wu thought to himself.
"Let's go search for the next temple." Lin Wu said.
"But where do we go?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle asked. "I can't sense anything for now… do we go look for more of those followers of the skull god?"
"Yes, we don't know the exact location of their sanctuary, but we do know they are somewhere in the west. As long as we go and wander there, we are bound to encounter more of the followers of the skull god. And who knows… we may even find more temples on the way." Lin Wu replied.
"Alright…" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle said before taking flight.
Lin Wu followed behind her and the two beasts flew to the west. They spend over two weeks flying during which they managed to find one more temple that the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle had sensed appearing.
Lin Wu found another bloodline crystal in there along with a Specter Skull hound that he killed rather quickly. Now that he knew how to deal with them, Lin Wu didn't care much about them.
After they found that temple, they encountered another small group of followers of the Skull god. Lin Wu used the same old routine of shock and awe to gain information from them. While they didn't gain information about the sanctuary, they did manage to learn about something big.
"Six temples will be appearing at once, huh… Interesting."
Report chapter
The information he gained from the followers of the Skull god mentioned that there was going to be a unique event soon. Six temples will be appearing at once and many teams of followers will be sent out to gather the bloodline crystals from there.
"Seems like we have our next goal." Lin Wu said.
"Where are these temples going to appear? I can't really sense them. If they were really going to appear, I should have been able to tell that." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle questioned.
"There is still a week till they appear. I think you should be able to sense them soon. Besides they are far from this location as well." Lin Wu said.
"I see… we should get there quick then. If all six appear at the same time, we will have to be early or the Skull god followers will take them." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle replied.
"That's true… but we can also snatch it from them. It may actually be even easier." Lin Wu replied.
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle simply nodded her head in response and flew up with Lin Wu following alongside her. During the time Lin Wu had spent in the Dread Coil marsh he finally realized just how big it truly was.
Even with his speed, it took them days upon days to cover the distance between multiple points. This made him get a little sense of just how big this enter continent was and then form that the world.
'Once the power source of the Taiji Celestial's tomb is fully activated and linked with the tomb, I'll be able to anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye.' Lin Wu thought, anticipating the future.
Time passed like sand through fingers, as Lin Wu and Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle continued on their journey. They traveled far to the west of the Dread Coil Marsh and were actually nears its western border now.
If Lin Wu continued beyond this for another couple of days he would actually end up leaving the Dread Coil Marsh and appear in the Burrow Light Kingdom. And if they went slightly south from there, they would change borders again and appear in the Bing Kingdom.
Though technically he was already in the Burrow Light Kingdom.
~Rumble~
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle could sense vibrations coming from afar and knew what it was.
"There! The temple is appearing I can sense it!" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle exclaimed.
~Piiii~
She let out a loud cry before flapping her wings hard. Usually while flying the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle did not use her full speed, so that Lin Wu could keep up. But now seeing the temple after a long time she seemed to be excited.
The flap of her wings blew away all the clouds in the area, revealing the crescent moon that was hidden behind it, small twinkling stars could also be seen there accompanying it in a pleasant serenade.
On the ground, a group of men in strange garbs were walking when they heard a loud cry coming from afar.
~whoosh~
"Huh? Where did all the clouds go?" one of the men said in shock.
They all looked up and saw that the gloomy clouds which eternally covered the Dread Coil Marsh were now gone. The moon and stars which were rarely seen in the marsh were now visible to the men,
"No… NO! IT'S THAT BEAST! THAT EAGLE BEAST IS COMING!" The priest who was the leader of the group spoke.
"That Eagle beast which has been terrorizing our men? How did it come here? We are so far to the west." One of the other men asked.
"Who would I know!? But I know only that beast can create winds like these that can blow away the clouds!" The priest exclaimed.
"What do we do now?" The followers asked feeling scared.
"We hurry to the temple! Once we get the crystal we will need to escape quickly." The Priest stated.
Alas! The priest was too late.
~Swoop~
Just as he had said that sentence, he along with another man was snatched up into the air.
"AHHHHHH!! HELP ME!! HELP ME!!!!!" The Priest shouted.
This priest was a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, yet even he could not get out from the talons of the Eagle beast. As for his companion who was in the other talon of the eagle beast? He was already dead from being squeezed by the claw.
The other followers on the ground scattered like flies, unable to decided where to go. They were running randomly when they suddenly felt the ground shake.
"Huh? Did the temple appear?" someone wondered.
But then…
~Thud~
Multiple emerald green crystal spikes sprouted from the ground impaling all the men that were trying to run away.
~Tremble~
The soil parted as the long body of Lin Wu appeared from it. Along the length of his body, one could see over ten men impaled on the spikes. The spikes then started to move towards his head, like some kind of a conveyor belt, and brought the dead bodies to his mouth.
~Crunch~
~mush~
Lin Wu quickly consumed the ten bodies and gained the memories from the data nodes.
"Oh? Didn't know it would work like this…" Lin Wu said in a surprised tone.
Lin Wu had just managed to obtain the location of the sanctuary of the Skull God. He didn't know how exactly he got it as usually the memory would end up getting corrupted by some kind of an influence.
'Seems like eating multiple followers at once, did not allow the 'influence' to erase the memory quick enough…' Lin Wu guessed.
"Still… this just made out task easier." Lin Wu muttered.
~Piiii~
Another cry came from the sky as the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle descends, blood visible on her beak.
"Did you eat them too?" Lin Wu asked.
"I felt peckish…" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle replied while looking away.
"Ha-" Lin Wu barely managed to hold in his chuckle, after hearing the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle words. He obviously did not want to get punished.
Report chapter
Lin Wu scanned the area with his spirit sense and looked for any signs of the temple.
"Ah, there it is." Lin Wu said.
"Yes, that's where I felt it too." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle said.
Lin Wu and the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle went to a location about a kilometer away and Lin Wu got to digging. He already felt that the temple was rising up and just sped up its process. This was the first time they caught a temple mid way to moving up and thus he got to see the mechanism.
"Hmm… so it has an earth manipulative formation array that makes it move. Though we don't know how it chooses a specific time to appear." Lin Wu said.
"System, scan and see if you can figure something out. Now that the formations are fully active, you should be able to do it despite the interfering field right?" Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target selected
NEW PARAMETERS DETECTED: Earth manipulation formation array
ANALYZING: Please wait patiently
——
"Perfect time to get the next task done…" Lin Wu stated.
He helped the temple ascend fully by unearthing the soil above it. The temple was already quite close to the soil, just a bit more than a hundred meters deep. Thus it took Lin Wu just a few minutes to move all the soil.
~Tremors
~Rumble~
The temple finally ascended to the surface of the ground and was on display for everyone to see. The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle also saw it and got closer. The Vermillion colored feathers on her neck slightly.
"Let's go in." Lin Wu said as he opened the trap door.
He easily shrunk his body and entered the temple, but the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle got stuck at the door. She was simply too big for it.
"Humph!"
~Boom~
The entrance of the temple exploded as all the debris was launched in the air.
"Uh… well, that's one way to enter…" Lin Wu said awkwardly.
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle simply snorted in irritation and strutted in. Her claws dug into the stony floor with ease, as if it was sand. Lin Wu simply nodded his head and continued onward.
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle though, was looking at all the statues of the vermilion bird with curiosity.
"Is this the first time you are seeing these statues?" Lin Wu asked.
"Yes." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle answered.
"Huh? I thought you said you got the bloodline crystals of the Vermillion bird from the temples before." Lin Wu asked, feeling a bit confused.
"I did… from the followers of the skull god who got them from the temples." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle stated.
"Ah… I see." Lin Wu replied.
'Well, that does seem like the better solution considering her size…' Lin Wu thought to himself.
Soon the two were in front of the doors of the inner hall and Lin Wu pushed them open with a loud noise.
~DENG~
Dust fell from the doors as the interior of the hall was revealed.
~shua~shua~shua~
Surprisingly this place was different from the previous temples Lin Wu had seen. While the torches that were in the form of bird claws were still there, the other pillars were designed differently.
Even the large statue at the last was in a much different pose than the previous ones. The previous temples had the statue of the Vermillion bird in a soaring pose, as if it was about to fly up. But in this one, the vermilion bird seemed to be looking up to something.
And not only that, but it was also facing an awkward angle. It faced diagonally to the right instead of facing toward Lin Wu. This seemed strange to Lin Wu and he couldn't tell why it was like this.
"Well… let's get the bloodline crystal." Lin Wu spoke before looking for it.
He found it very easily in the beak of the statue, as always. He took it out before throwing it to the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle, who quickly swallowed it down in less than a second.
~shua~
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle closed her eyes as her aura flared up. The Vermillion feathers on her body started or increase in number again and now her neck was fully covered in them. One could tell that her bloodline had gotten significantly strengthened since she first met Lin Wu.
~Piiii~
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle let out a loud screech that echoed in the temple's halls, making it tremble. But this made Lin Wu realize another thing; there was no Specter Skull hound in this temple either.
Not only that, but the defensive formations of the temple also did not seem to become active.
'Have they become defective? I can understand them not activating on me, but it should have worked for the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle, shouldn't it?' Lin Wu wondered.
And just as he thought of this, he heard the notification of the system.
~Ding~
——
ANALYSIS COMPLETE: Earth Manipulation formation array (defective) detected.
NOTE: The temple's offensive formations are active, but the supplementary detecting formations have been disabled. The system suspects that the interference field might be the reason behind this too.
——
"Huh… so the interference field is not a natural thing. If it was, then the makers of this temple would have made either different formations or made them adapted to this.
Who or whatever it is that is causing the interference field should have some links to these temples too." Lin Wu muttered to himself, much to the confusion of the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle.
Then Lin Wu realized another thing; the temples were hidden quite well and even with spirit sense, one would have a hard time finding them. Which meant that the interference field was intentionally placed there by someone.
'If it really is as I'm thinking it is, then this Skull god definitely has a hand in this.'
Report chapter
Lin Wu and the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle left the temple after that to look for the other ones. Since he had gotten the information that there would be six more of them rising up, they must hurry.
The two beasts flew up in the sky before going towards the next location where the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle felt like she sensed the bloodline. It took them about forty minutes before they reached the next temple.
It was already close to the ground and its tip could already be seen coming out of the ground.
"That makes it easier for us…" Lin Wu said as he quickly moved the soil around the temple and unlocked the trapdoor.
As soon as he opened the door though...
~KIIIIIII~
The screeching cry of the specter skull hound could be heard coming from inside.
"Ah, looks like we woke up the doggy," Lin Wu chuckled. "Time to make it go to sleep again."
~Zoom~
Lin Wu then moved at a blinding speed as he rushed to the Specter Skull hound. By now he knew the easiest way to get rid of the specter skull hound was to rush them and break their heads.
"There you are…" Lin Wu said upon spotting the specter skull hound that was coming towards him.
Lin Wu used his innate skill and changed the shape of his tail before flipping in mid air.
"BONK!"
Lin Wu's tail, which now looked like a baseball bat, hit the specter skull hound square in the center of its head which cracked like a porcelain bowl. Dark blood spewed out from the cracks as the beast let out a painful howl.
"BONK!… go to sleep!" Lin Wu hit the beast again, but this time he had enlarged the 'baseball bat' by several times.
The specter skull hound had no chance of survival and was reduced into a dark paste under the weight of Lin Wu. Its body soon started to sublimate and disappeared into smoke.
~boom~
The sound of an explosion was heard right after this as Lin Wu turned around.
"ARGH!"
"HELP ME!!!"
"ITS THAT BEAST!!!"
Cries could be heard coming from the outside of the temple and Lin Wu understood who they belonged to.
"Ah, they're already here. Better hurry up so I can enjoy the extra snacks." Lin Wu said as he picked up the crystal from the beak of the vermilion bird's statue.
He also noted the fact that the statue here was in the same looking up pose, but the angle in which it was looking had changed. Instead of looking to the right diagonally, it now looked straight at it.
"Hmm… interesting." Lin Wu muttered before leaving the temple to see what had happened outside.
There he could see the scattered corpses of around six followers of the Skull god along with the flames that burned around.
"Looks like you go company before me," Lin Wu joked before wiping away the rest of the followers of the Skull god.
It was evident that they were here for the bloodline crystal, and thus he did not want to waste any extra energy in talking to them. Gobbling up the few corpses that had been killed, Lin Wu rejoiced internally.
~Ding~
——
SPIRIT QI OBTAINED: 12,984 units [liquid spirit Qi]
AVATAR CULTIVATION BASE: Infant stage of the Nascent Soul realm
-Spirit Qi required to upgrade = [1,067,887/1,500,000] units (liquid spirit qi)
——
With the rate he was obtaining spirit qi he would have soon gained enough spirit Qi to break through to the child stage of the Nascent Soul realm. He never expected that his avatar would reach this point before his own main body.
Even though the main body was quite close to that as well and if Lin Wu rushed it, he may be able to catch up rather quickly. He did a quick look at the main body's status and saw that it would need more time to reach the needed requirements.
"Here, catch!" Lin Wu said as he threw the bloodline crystal to the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle.
~gulp~
~whoosh~
The vermilion feathers grew in number again and finally reached the back of the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle. She cooed in pleasure and closed her eyes to enjoy the feeling. This was the first time Lin Wu found her acting like this and found it to be a bit funny.
~RUMBLE~
But just as the two beasts were done with the temple, strong tremors could be felt in the ground.
"Ah, seems like we were slightly late. The other temples should have already risen up to the ground." Lin Wu said.
~PIIIIII~
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle suddenly let out a loud cry as her eyes glowed in red.
"I can feel it!! So many!!! So many crystals!!!" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle said in excitement.
It was evident that the stimulation from sensing so many bloodline crystals was a bit too much for the beast. The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle didn't even say a word more before flying towards the nearest temple.
"Wait for me…!" Lin Wu didn't even have a chance to speak when he heard a sonic boom, that knocked him back.
~BOOM~
This was caused by the flap of the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle's wings at full force and uprooted trees in a radius of two hundred meters. The temple that had just been unearthed was instantly covered with the soil.
By the time Lin Wu got to the next temple he saw that its top was already destroyed and the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle had entered the temple.
~Piiii~
Another cry was heard, along with a muffled screech.
~Crack~
Lin Wu entered the temple and saw the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle with its foot on top of the specter skull hound as she plucked the bloodline crystal from the beak of the statue. This time she didn't even take her time to enjoy the crystal after eating it and just flew to the next one.
Report chapter
Lin Wu watched as the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle broke through temple after temple, snatching the Bloodline crystals from the different statues. Lin Wu also tried to keep up with her but found it hard with her speed.
Seeing this, Lin Wu just gave up and decided to take a look at the statues of the Vermilion bird. When he was at the statue of the fourth temple though, he heard the cry of humans coming from far.
"Ah, seems like she met more followers of the Skull god." Lin Wu guessed.
He continued observing the statues and the different directions they were facing inside the temple. Once he was done seeing all of the temples though, Lin Wu ended up realizing they were all facing the same point.
He cross-referenced it with the map and saw their markers. All of the temples were actually located in a hexagonal formation with the statues pointing towards the center of the hexagon.
"This seems too unique for there to be nothing there. Best check it out…" Lin Wu muttered.
He exited the destroyed top of the temple; courtesy of the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle, and saw her standing there with her eyes closed. Flames burned around her body as it underwent a changed.
"Looks like eating multiple bloodline crystals sped up the process of her bloodline awakening." Lin Wu said.
~Huala~
The feathers on the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle back started to change color rapidly and soon half of it had turned Vermillion red from the previous yellow color. Even her beak seemed to have a hint of reddish gloss on it now.
~Piiii~
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle raised her head and let out a loud chirp, shaking the air. Lin Wu could tell that she was happy and this was a cheerful chirp. But for humans, this may very well be a terrifying one.
"Are you done?" Lin Wu questioned.
"Hmm… yes." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle answered.
"Alright, let's go to the next place now. I think I found something more." Lin Wu stated.
"You did? Is it another temple?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle questioned, feeling a bit confused since she had not sensed anything more nearby.
"I don't know… I don't even know if there is something, but I do have a good hunch. It's nearby anyway, so checking it out should not be much of a problem." Lin Wu replied.
"Okay…" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle replied.
Lin Wu nodded his head and flew to the center of the hexagonal fomentation of the temples. It took them about an hour to reach the place and Lin Wu estimated that the center of the cycle should be around here. The Map was not fully accurate right now due to the restriction of the interference field but it could still estimate it.
"Hmm… it should be here." Lin Wu muttered as he searched the area with his spirit sense.
It pierced deep into the ground but did not find anything.
"That's strange… it should have been here…" Lin Wu muttered.
'Is it perhaps too deep?' Lin Wu wondered.
Thinking that this must be the reason, he decided to go deeper.
"I'll dig into the ground, so it will take a while." Lin Wu informed.
"Mm… I'll continue my assimilation… it is not fully stable yet." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle replied.
"Sure," Lin Wu responded before digging into the ground.
This time since Lin Wu was completely unsure that there was anything here, he just decided to dig deep while spreading his spirit sense around him to check for anything hidden there. But even after six hours of searching Lin Wu did not find anything.
He had gone straight deep for over ten kilometers and even then he had not seen anything. He then made circles around that long tunnel and checked if he missed anything, but even after that he was unable to find anything.
~Rumble~
The ground shook as Lin Wu appeared on the surface again. The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle sensed him and opened her eyes.
"Did you find anything?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle asked.
"No… there's nothing there. I went as far as I could, but even there I did not find anything. I don't know what I got wrong." Lin Wu said.
"Hmm… what exactly were you looking for?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle questioned.
Lin Wu then explained to the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle how he thought that since the statues in the temple were all looking in the same direction, there must have been something there. But Lin Wu was proved wrong after his search.
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle spent some time thinking about it herself. While she did have higher intelligence than a human, it was not like she used it all that often. The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle was strong and for her most things could be easily solved with violence.
She was stuck at a bottleneck before and how did she solve it? By even more violence!
Killing most of her subordinates before consuming them to further her bloodline. But now that she had met Lin Wu, she could see the benefit of thinking more.
Before the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle used to despise the Slim Arm Ape for acting like humans, but now she realized there were quite a few advantages to them. She reckoned that if she had not met Lin Wu, she would have still been stuck at the same temple, unable to find any more bloodline crystals.
Thus the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle did her best in thinking and came to a conclusion.
"You said that the statues were facing the same direction, right?" the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle asked.
"Yeah, they were all looking here." Lin Wu said.
"But when I saw them they were also looking up at the sky," The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle stated.
As soon as she said this, Lin Wu realized his mistake.
Report chapter
Lin Wu had been stuck with the norm that all temples must have been hidden deep underground. But now, after hearing the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle's words, he realized he had been short sighted.
"Of Course! The statues were looking up, thus whatever the location is, it must be in the sky!" Lin Wu said out loud.
"Yes, that is what I thought." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle replied.
"That was nice thinking, let's see if it really is there though." Lin Wu stated before flying up.
Lin Wu did not doubt the fact if a temple or whatever the location was could float or not; this was after all, a cultivation world. Whether it be floating buildings or entire mountains, nothing was too unbelievable in a world such as this.
When Lin Wu flew up the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle followed behind him. After all, she was also curious about it now. The two of them flew up straight, piercing through the clouds before coming out on top of them.
When they had originally come to find the six temples, it had been night time. But enough time had passed by now that the sun had come out in the sky. Ascending past the dark gloomy clouds of the Dread Coil Marsh, Lin Wu saw the yellow sun spreading its warmth.
"Ah… this does feel quite good." Lin Wu muttered.
He looked up for any signs of the suspected location, but did not find it.
"Hmm… it must either be too far up such that it looks like a dot, or it must be under some kind of an illusory formation." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
He continued rising up to the point where the system could use the scanner again and activated it.
"System search for it." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: New parameters selected
SCAN COMPETED: Spirit Qi fluctuation detected
MAP UPDATED: Adding new marker
——
Lin Wu saw the system's notifications and realized that he was right. He opened the map and saw that a new layer had been added to it. This layer was at the very top and represented the sky.
Lin Wu switched to the layer and saw that it was mostly empty. There was only one marker on it, which was above Lin Wu. In fact, it was within a hand's distance from where he had been standing.
"Never expected the illusory formation to be this good. I doubt anyone else would have had an easy time finding this place." Lin Wu said.
He used his spirit sense and found that it was as if there was nothing there. The illusory formation was much stronger than he thought. He simply followed the directions of the map and entered the formation.
~Shua~
The formation array did not block Lin Wu and he could easily enter it. The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle though, suddenly saw him disappear into thin air. She searched with her spirit sense and did not see where he had gone.
But then a moment later.
~shua~
"Come in, this place is hidden behind an illusory formation." Lin Wu spoke while poking his head out from the limits of the illusory formation.
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle nodded her head and entered the formation cautiously. Upon entering it, she suddenly saw the area change abruptly. There was now a broad platform in front of her that looked similar to that of the temples.
But in the center of it, there was a wide altar. The altar had multiple steps at the top of which a flat tray like thing was kept. There were formation runes surrounding the entire altar that prevented one from approaching it.
Lin Wu approached the altar and touched it, finding it to be a complex barrier.
"Hmm… this will take a while…" Lin Wu muttered.
~humm~
But upon his touch, the runes seemed to have become active. Lin Wu then saw a red glow on top of the tray that was kept on the altar.
"Huh? Feathers?" Lin Wu said upon seeing the red flow.
On the tray, three stone feathers were kept. They alas had a red vein in the center of them from which the red light was coming from. They were the same as the stone feather Lin Wu had gotten earlier.
"Wait… could it be?" Lin Wu muttered as an idea appeared in his mind.
He took out the stone feather from the inventory, causing a change in the formation.
~heng~
The formation runes started to shift as the stone feather reacted with it. Soon the runes all parted, creating an opening in the barrier for Lin Wu to pass through. Entering it, he was now free to approach the altar.
He climbed the steps and got to the top, fully seeing the tray. There were four indentations in the tray and in three of them the stone feathers were kept. While one of the indentations was empty, as if something was taken out from it.
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle had also entered the barrier by now and was watching the entire thing curiously.
"More of the keys?" the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle stated.
"Yes… seems like this is where they are supposed to be inserted." Lin Wu replied.
"Do it then." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle said straightforwardly.
Lin Wu was a bit taken aback by her words, but then realized there wasn't really anything to fear here. He had the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle with him who was at the Dao Shell realm, thus even if he faced something dangerous he would be able to fight them with her assistance.
"Alright." Lin Wu said before putting the stone feather in the indentation.
~HONG~
A loud sound could be heard as the formations of the platform started to change. New runes appeared in the air before the platform started to move. Lin Wu and the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle trembled slightly but were able to balance themselves.
"Let's see where this takes us…"
Report chapter
Lin Wu flew around a bit and checked the formations of the platform in more detail. He could tell that they were arranged into an array with multiple functions, but they were still far less than others that they had seen.
"System, show me the list of functions this has." Lin Wu ordered.
~DING~
——
FUNCTION LIST: 1. Barrier
2. Identification
3. Access Key
4. Propulsion
5. Transportation
6. Navigation
——
After seeing the entire list, Lin Wu was reminded of only one thing.
"Is this thing… a car?" Lin Wu muttered. "No… an airplane in this case."
Lin Wu didn't know where it was taking them and wanted to know more.
"System, create a virtual interface and see where it is going." Lin Wu ordered.
While the system had shown Lin Wu what the functions were of the platform, it had actually not created a virtual interface for it yet. Previously system needed to make it before it could show Lin Wu the functions, but now with its upgraded data banks, it could directly analyze what the functions were just from a basic observation.
~Ding~
——
TASK ADDED: Creating Virtual interface
Please wait patiently…
——
"Hmm… I guess we can wait and see where it takes up till the Virtual interface is ready." Lin Wu said to himself.
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle was also watching everything with interest. She had never seen such a thing before and thus was curious about it. Her spirit sense was moving around like a child in a new place and scanning everything.
~Swoosh~
The speed of the platform slowly started to increase, as if it was really an airplane. After a couple of minutes, Lin Wu realized its speed had reached the max speed as that of the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle.
"This is fast as hell… looks like the barrier formations protect us from the winds too." Lin Wu said upon experiencing the speed.
This was a rather novel thing for Lin Wu as this was the first mode of transportation that he had seen that could fly. While he had seen spirit weapons that could do the same, they were not fully intended for that.
'I guess this can be classified as a spirit tool too.' Lin Wu thought.
The platform kept on flying for about twenty minutes before it reached a random spot in the Dread Coil marsh. Lin Wu had noted that they were moving to the south of the previous location. So right now they were likely near the Bing Kingdom or perhaps even in its borders.
~Weeng~
The platform came to a halt suddenly and then started to descend. This made Lin Wu check the map and see if there was anything particular here.
"Huh? A village?" Lin Wu muttered.
According to the map, there was an old abandoned village here. This data did not come from the system's own scan, but rather from the information he had gathered from various sources. According to that, there should be a village here.
Lin Wu and the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle peeked down from the sides of the platform and saw the clouds below them. The platform soon passed through them, and they could see the scene below it.
There were old, dilapidated houses and buildings that could be seen as small dots. Slowly, as the platform got closer, they started to expand in size. Though for Lin Wu and the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle that distance was nothing and they could see it clearly.
"These buildings… they are not of a style that I've seen in this world yet." Lin Wu said.
The buildings and houses below were made of stone and wood. The stone looked quite similar to the one that was used to build the temples, except it did not have any of the carvings on it. As for the wood, it was from the twisty and coiling trees of the Dread Coil marsh.
But even then, Lin Wu could tell that the village had been abandoned for a long time, perhaps even hundreds of years.
"Why would the platform take us here? Is there something unique here?" Lin Wu wondered.
~Rumble~
Lin Wu suddenly saw a change in them. The ground started to part as four pillars started to rise up from the ground. The pillars came from between the village and did not affect any of the buildings. Seeing their positions, one could tell that the entire village was actually build around it.
~DENG~
Finally, the platform reached the ground and came to rest upon the four pillars. The barrier of the platform lifted, and the four stone feathers that were glowing on the tray also dimmed down.
"I guess, we're supposed to go down?" Lin Wu muttered.
The two beasts got down and checked out the area, unable to sense anything different for now.
"Can you feel anything here with your bloodline?" Lin Wu asked the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle.
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle closed her eyes in response and tried to check.
"No… there's nothing here." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle spoke.
"This is weird… is the platform not supposed to take us to something important?" Lin Wu wondered to himself.
Thinking that he must have missed something, Lin Wu wandered around the village, taking a closer look at everything while the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle simply continued to assimilate the bloodline.
Lin Wu spent about three hours wandering the village until he found something interesting. It was actually an old board that hung on top of a building. He had not noticed it before because it was covered with moss, but once he cleaned it, he was able to read it.
"Oh? It's written in Dao Script?" Lin Wu said in a surprised tone.
Lin Wu reads through the board and realized it was actually an academy.
"Kou's Martial academy." Lin Wu read.
Feeling curious even more, Lin Wu shrunk his body and entered the building. Or more like breaking through the doors since they had become stuck.
Report chapter
Upon entering the building Lin Wu could see the old equipment that had been greatly damaged and rusted. Not only that but he could even sense the remnants of formations in the building.
From everything that was in the building, Lin Wu reckoned it was a place where some Body Tempering realm commoners trained. Though it was likely, there were some Qi refining realm people here too at that time.
"This is the largest building in the village… or at least the largest building that is still standing. There is bound to be something here… plus this was the only place that had Dao Script on it." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
For someone of Lin Wu's size, it was hard to move in the building, but he still managed to do so by lowering his body a bit more. Eventually, he reached the innermost room of the building.
Lin Wu scanned the room with his spirit sense as he had been doing this entire time and finally found something interesting. There was a and old glass case kept on a shelf at the side of the room.
The room looked like an office of some kind.
'Considering this is an academy, perhaps this is the office of the headmaster?' Lin Wu thought.
He approached the glass case and lifted its dusty lid, seeing the item that was placed inside it.
"Bingo! Just as I expected…" Lin Wu exclaimed.
The item in the case was nothing but another stone feather. Lin Wu picked it up and poured a little spirit Qi into it, making it glow. Here he could see the difference between this stone feather and the previous one.
This stone feather had two red veins instead of just one. Now, since Lin Wu had seen four stone feathers on the platform, he wondered if there were three more stone feathers like this somewhere.
"Hopefully it is just this one and I don't need to search for more of them." Lin Wu said to himself before leaving the room and then the building.
He returned to the platform where the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle was waiting for him.
"Look what I found." Lin Wu showed the stone feather.
"Another one?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle spoke.
"Not just that, it's different, too. Let's see what happens when we use this with the platform." Lin Wu replied before going to the altar.
He took out the first stone feather from the indentation and put the new one in.
"Umm… seems like this does not work." Lin Wu said after seeing no change.
But Lin Wu would not give up this fast. He had played plenty of games in his past life and knew that there must be some trick to this. He looked at the tray and picked up the new stone feather.
He then shifted the stone feather that was in the second position to the first and then put the two veined stone feather in the second position.
~Weeng~
As soon as he did that, the formations of the platform became active again.
"I knew it! They got a specific order to them!" Lin Wu exclaimed in joy.
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle also watched on as the platform started to move again. Unknown to Lin Wu or the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle though, the platform transmitted some kind of energy to the pillars which then disappeared into the ground.
The platform soared to the sky before moving further south. Lin Wu didn't know just how far it would go since they were barely at the border of the Bing Kingdom right now. But if it went too far, he didn't know if others would notice it.
~Swoosh~
The platform soared through the sky, blurring past countless clouds. The gloomy and dark clouds of the Dread Coil Marsh were ever present and were one of the reasons why normal plants did not grow here.
If there was no sunlight, most plants would find it quite hard to glow. Only plants with some unique features would end up growing here, or spirit herbs that did not particularly need sunlight to grow.
Lin Wu had gathered and eaten quite a few spirit herbs in his time here. That was one of the reasons why his spirit Qi levels had grown so fast. Though he had only eaten the spirit herbs of a high grade. All those below it were stored by him, as they would not help him much at this point.
He may as well use them for others when his organization would be fully set up. He had already made separate sections in the inventory of the system using the few spatial storage tools that he had obtained till now from killing and eating people.
In fact, Lin Wu had them on his body at all times. If one looked at his back, one would see some different colored lights on it that were quite faint. These were the spatial storage tools that Lin Wu had just embedded into his crystalline body.
The system had already told him that if he stored them in the inventory of the system directly they may get damaged. So instead of that, he let the system modify them and turned them into something like external hard drives.
With that done, Lin Wu could have items stored just by a touch and would not need to clutter the system's inventory. Yet if he wanted to, he could have it separately displayed on the screen.
Overall, it had made his task quite easier, and he was happy with this. In a happy mood, Lin Wu watched from the edge of the platform. But his expression turned a bit nervous as over an hour had passed by since they had started to move.
"With this speed and time passed… we should be nearly at the edge of the Dread Coil Marsh now. Why is this not stopping?" Lin Wu wondered.
And just as he thought, the dark and gloomy clouds of the Dread coil marsh disappeared a short distance from where he was right now.
Report chapter
Lin Wu saw the end of the gloomy sea of clouds and the plains that extended beyond that. Even farther than the plains, he could see some mountains that blocked the view of the horizon.
Even if Lin Wu could not see past that, he knew what existed there.
"The Great Ocean of the Ming Dao world…" Lin Wu muttered.
The ocean was uniquely shaped in the form of a 'Y' while the continents surrounded it on three sides. Considering the position that Lin Wu was in on the Long continent, he would be just below the center of the 'Y'.
But while the ocean was shaped like a 'Y' it was actually not that narrow. It was still broad enough that it would take years to cross it. And this was only if there was no danger, but that was not so.
The Great ocean was filled with dangers that would threaten even Dao Treading Realm cultivators. The aquatic beasts that lived in the ocean, along with the unique phenomena that occurred there, would spell doom for most people.
If one wanted to cross the great ocean, one needed luck more than anything. Trade between the three continents did happen, but it was quite rare and took a long time to happen. Only the three great clans of the world knew the ocean routes that were considered to be relatively safe.
Lin Wu and the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle watched on as the platform eventually slowed down over some small hills. It then started to descend while pillars rose from the hills.
The hills were pierced through and it was as if they were all built by piling soil on top of these pillars. They were fully covered with plants and vegetation, but the arrival of the platform, disturbed them while uprooting many of them.
~DENG~
Once the platform came to land on the four pillars, Lin Wu and the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle got down from it. Unlike the previous place where the platform had halted, there was no village here.
From the stone feather Lin Wu had gotten from the village, he reckoned that there must be another one here somewhere. Like Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle had said before, they were like keys of some kind.
"What do we do now?" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle asked.
"Do you sense anything?" Lin Wu asked.
"No… once we went past the limits of the Dread Coil marsh, all of my bloodline resonance stopped. Whatever it is, it's in the Marsh itself." The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle answered.
"Hmm… then why did the platform bring us here, and it's not like it went here on its own, there are these pillars here, which meant that it was supposed to come here." Lin Wu muttered.
He spread his spirit sense around and tried to find the stone feather.
"You go that way and I'll go this way. See if you can find another stone feather somewhere. I think that is the key to getting to the end of it." Lin Wu stated.
The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle simply nodded her head and few to the eastern side while Lin Wu went to the west. For the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle using spirit sense was not even needed as her eyesight could scan everything very well from the skies.
But Lin Wu on the other hand, dug into the ground and moved around at great speed. He first checked the pillars themselves that were in supporting the platform and found nothing attached to them.
They were simple constructs with some formations on them. Even the system did not find anything that was unusual with them. Giving up on them for now, he just went to search for the stone feather.
Since the stone feather was in the village where the platform landed, Lin Wu reckoned that this one should be somewhere nearby too. The first thing he did was to unearth all of the hills here and see if there was anything hiding there.
But it turned out to be a failure and instead, he provoked a few core condensation realm beasts that lived nearby.
~CRUNCH~
"That was a good snack. Back to working." Lin Wu muttered after devouring the three beasts.
"System, scan the area. The interference should be gone, right?" Lin Wu asked.
~DING~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Updating map
MAP UPDATED: New markers added
DATA BANKS: Updated
——
Lin Wu opened the newly updated map and saw the countless new markers that had appeared on it. Since the inference field had stopped after the border of the Dread Coil Marsh, Lin Wu was free to use the system's functions to the max.
He directly filtered out the markers that he did not need, like the beasts below the Nascent Soul realm. In addition to this, he highlighted markers that were unusual and were not particularly recognized by the system.
Lin Wu reckoned that the stone feather was bound to be here. But after going through the many markers, he found it hard to find it.
"Where could it be?" Lin Wu wondered.
And while he was doing this, he found a different colored marker appearing at the very edge of the map.
"Huh? It's moving, so it must be a beast." Lin Wu saw that the color was for the Nascent Soul realm beasts since he had hidden all other markers for beasts.
He continued watching it for a bit and saw that it had gone to one of the mountains in the distance. Since that was the only Nascent Soul realm beast here, Lin Wu reckoned that asking that beast might be a better option for now.
As for whether that beast would comply or not? Lin Wu did not care. The beast would live and answer Lin Wu properly or die and still answer him in the form of its memories.
"Let's go do some good Ol' hunting." Lin Wu said as he approached the mountains from underground.
In less than an hour, he was at the mountains the base of which were covered with blue flowers.
Report chapter
Lin Wu looked at the blanket of flowers that surrounded the base of the mountains.
"Scan the flowers, System." Lin Wu asked, feeling curious.
~DING~
——
SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target selected
TARGET IDENTIFIED: Cyan Blush Azaleas
INFO: Cyan Blush Azaleas are low grade spirit flowers that grow in areas rich in copper. They are also notorious for being the arena where Copper Hide Weasels live.
——
"Huh? This is new…" Lin Wu muttered.
"System, show me information about the Copper Hide Weasels." Lin Wu ordered.
~DING~
——
DATA FOUND: Copper Hide Weasel
INFO: Copper Hide Weasels are hardy spirit beasts that live in regions rich in copper. They eat various types of coppers, whether they be normal copper or spirit coppers. They are often found near the arrear where Cyan Blush Azaleas grow because the flowers also need copper rich soil to grow.
These beasts can reach Dao Shell realm and that is the highest recorded cultivation base that has been discovered till now. Their skin is hard like Copper and their teeth can cut through metal like mud.
——
"Hmm… I guess the beast I saw on the map is probably a Copper Hide Weasel." Lin Wu muttered.
He continued up the mountain and soon reached the area that the Copper Hide Weasel was probably living. Unlike what Lin Wu had expected, the weasel did not live in a cave, rather it made its nest using multiple trees that it had broken and arranged into a comfortable bed.
Looking at the size of the bed, Lin Wu reckoned the beast must not be that big, as the bed was barely a meter in size.
"Well, that's a small Nascent Soul realm beast." Lin Wu muttered.
Till now, all Nascent Soul realm beasts or even the Core condensation realm beasts that Lin Wu had encountered were quite big. Some Qi refining realm beasts were also quite bigger than this beast.
Lin Wu wondered whether the beast had any information about the Stone feather. Looking at the nest, he saw even more flowers in it. The beast had evidently used the flowers as bedding anal created a soft layer.
Most of the flowers were smashed and crumpled, showing that the beast had been here recently.
"Hmm… where is it, though?" Lin Wu wondered.
Looking at the map it was still showing it to be far but Lin WU knew that was because that the map had not been updated.
"System, update the map." Lin Wu ordered.
~WHOOSH~
But just as he said this, he suddenly felt something approaching from the back.
~Thud~
~HENG~
The sound of metal vibrating could be heard as Lin Wu felt something hit him.
"Hey!" Lin Wu shouted as he turned around.
"Huh? Nothing?" Lin Wu spoke.
But then…
~munch~
"What the fuck! Get off from my head!" Lin Wu ordered the thing that was latched on.
"NO!" The beast spoke.
Lin Wu moved his eyes using cellular manipulation and started at the beast hanging at the back of his head. It was none other than the Copper Hide Weasel. Lin Wu's crimson red eyes that had suddenly appeared at the back of his head startled the Copper Hide Weasel.
The beast stopped munching on the crystal spike on Lin Wu's back and looked into the eyes. Lin Wu found it to be hilarious as half of the spike was in the beast's mouth and it washed him with a tilted head.
"I said stop." Lin Wu spoke again.
"No! Food! Tasty!" The Weasel spoke in broken sentences as it continued biting on his spike.
The thing was… the Copper Hide Weasel was unable to actually bit through Lin Wu's defenses. But it definitely was licking him like candy.
~shua~
Wind attribute spirit Qi suddenly rose from Lin Wu's body as it knocked the Copper Hide Weasel away.
~thud~
"I told you to get down before." Lin Wu spoke in a deep voice.
The Weasel got up from the ground pretty quickly and looked at Lin Wu without fear. This made Lin Wu feel strange, as he was sure any Nascent Soul beast would be wary of him. But this beast did not seem to be like that.
Looking at it, there were no injuries sustained either. The beast was in tip-top condition and looked at Lin Wu undauntedly.
"Little beast, tell me have you seen something like this," Lin Wu decided to not waste time and took out the stone feather from his inventory.
The Copper Hide Weasel did not look at it and just started at Lin Wu's body.
~drip~
Slobber dripped from the corner of its mouth as if it was looking at delicious food.
'Has this beast gone dumb?' Lin Wu wondered.
"I SAID, HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?" Lin Wu said in a loud voice.
The Copper Hide Weasel finally snapped out of it after hearing Lin Wu and sensing the aura being emitted from his body.
"Food! Me! Eat! No! Tell!" The Copper Hide Weasel spoke before rushing at Lin Wu again.
This time it attacked the closest thing that was to him, Lin Mu's tail. The copper Hide Weasel latched onto his tail and started to bite on one of the spikes again. The beast was not even focusing on Lin Wu who could very well smash him to a mush.
This intrigued Lin Wu, as the other beasts he had seen were not like. While they would attack him, they would also be able to speak decently if they were in the Nascent Soul realm. But this Copper Hide Weasel seemed to be a unique one.
"It's almost as if… it's a child." Lin Wu muttered.
"System, scan this beast." Lin Wu ordered.
~Ding~
Lin Wu saw the same information as before appear in front of him. But when he switched to the details section that showed the beast's specific information, he saw something that caught his attention.
~Ding~
——
BEAST AGE: 25 years
——
"Huh? 25 years old? How can this beast be so young with such a cultivation base?" Lin Wu wondered.
Report chapter