Read Rise Of The Worm Sovereign Chapter 591 - Unknown Effects Of The Agitation Jade online for free - AllNovelFull
Lin Wu ended up spending some time with the weasel and asked him questions about what actually happened in all this time. The weasel, of course, didn't really answer him straight and Lin Wu had to work a bit hard to comprehend it.
But after about a day, he had finally got the gist of it.
"Never thought it would be like this… talk about luck." Lin Wu muttered.
Apparently, after Lin Wu threw the weasel away, he landed in a random place that it could not explain. But then it kept wandering for food and started eating the beasts around the area.
It then smelled something delicious and ended up digging into the mine. Of course, that was when the Agitation jades had already started being planted. Lin Wu could not tell how many were already installed by then, but the Weasel said that he felt his head hurt.
It made him angry, and he started to kill everything he came across. The first to be the victims were the beasts that naturally resided in the mines. After that were a few humans who quickly escaped.
Then came a strong opponent for him. It was a Nascent soul realm beast that had been asleep for a long time in the mines. It was awakened by the presence of the Weasel beast and came to check who had intruded in its territory.
The beast was sleeping away from the area of Agitation Jade's influence and was thus unaffected at first. But after heading to the main mines, it got affected too and soon lost its mind.
Both the beasts sniffed out each other, and a battle ensued. It was a devastating battle and a lot of the collapsed areas that Lin Wu had seen on the map were made due to their fight.
In fact, that was how the Weasel beast ended up stumbling upon the Earthen Depths Obsidian in here. The battle created an impact that opened up fissures in the ground in which the two beasts fell.
Their battle continued, and they eventually managed to make some dents in the Earthen Depths obsidian. This was really astounding to Lin Wu as he knew just how difficult to do that was.
'That beast must have been rather strong… but then the weasel beast is definitely stronger if it could match up and come out on top in the end.' Lin Wu thought.
He also wondered what beast it was that the Weasel beast fought but was unable to get an accurate answer. The weasel beasts' mind was muddled and even getting these memories took a long time for Lin Wu.
'Not like there are any remains for me to check. The weasel beast ate them whole.' Lin Wu thought.
At the end of the fight though, the weasel beast was injured greatly and was close to death. He ended up eating a broken fragment of Earthen Depths Obsidian and got benefit from it, making him want more.
He continued to do so in a mindless rage and managed to burrow his way through the Earthen Depths Obsidian in a year or so. He ate all that he burrowed through and it changed his body.
It caused him a lot of pain, but then his entry into the Spirit stone mine allowed him to recover using the spirit Qi again. He healed up eventually and then started to eat the other materials that he found there.
For the first time in his life, he did not feel as hungry as before and would get full for days after eating just a small amount of the materials here.
'No wonder the mine and the other materials are still intact. Who knows what would have happened if he could have continued to eat without stopping. Though his body is certainly unique for it to be able to adapt like that.' Lin Wu analyzed.
"Is there any extra information on Copper Hide Weasels, System? Perhaps about their bodies or adaptability?" Lin Wu questioned.
"Negative." The system shortly replied.
"Hmm… there must have been some other factor that played into it other than the materials here. I would have understood if this happened under the mutation induced by me, but this was natural… or was it!" Lin Wu was suddenly reminded of something.
"System, check if the Agitation jade has effects on bloodlines or physiques!" Lin Wu ordered.
The system replied with a confirmatory notification and got to work. In about five minutes, Lin Wu had his answer.
~DING~
——
ANSWER: According to the system's initial analysis, the agitation jade can indeed have mutative effects on the bloodline and physique. Due to its agitation effect, it can spread all over the beast's body.
This effect only presents if the beast has been under its effect for multiple years. The exact estimate will be known after a model assessment is done.
In the case of the Copper Hide weasel, it is likely that the Agitation jade made his physique susceptible to greater changes and allowed it to assimilate the Earthen Depths Obsidian into his body.
This combined with the other materials present in the mine, has resulted in a mixture of chaotic properties that are still contained stably by his body. This final change resulted in its bloodline evolving too and it is now a completely different beast than before.
——
Seeing the system's answer, Lin Wu felt like his conjecture was true as well.
"Hmm… this agitation jade is certainly worth more to research. If I combine this with the information I'll get from the Weasel's body, it might really help in adapting other bloodlines and making them compatible with mine." Lin Wu muttered to himself.
What Lin Wu had right now was basically a drug and the test subject on which the drug had successfully worked. He had both the theoretical data and the practical data ready for him.
As long as the system worked on it long enough, Lin Wu would have gained an important advantage.
"Coming here was a really good decision." Lin Wu said to himself.
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Having understood the situation of the Weasel beast, Lin Wu realized another thing.
"You need a new name or rather… your first name." Lin Wu spoke.
"Name?" The Weasel beast repeated.
"Yes, name." Lin Wu confirmed. "One for yourself, and one for your bloodline."
"Bloodline? Me, Copper Hide Weasel." The Weasel beast stated.
Even if the weasel beast had a low intelligence, it still had the bloodline memories that each beast would have. They contained a varying amount of memories and information, but the most basic thing would be their own bloodline's name.
Thus, the weasel beast at least knew what or who it was.
"Yeah, you were a Copper Hide weasel. But you ate so many things you have changed. And that deserves a new name." Lin Wu stated.
"No new name." The weasel said flatly.
"A new name means you're stronger." Lin Wu teased.
"Strong? Me?" The Weasel beast asked.
"Yes," Lin Wu nodded his head.
"ME STRONG! NEW NAME!" The Weasel beast said out loud with a chitter.
"Hmm… what should we make your new name…" Lin Wu muttered.
The Weasel beast looked on in anticipation at Lin Wu. He had fully left the name up to Lin Wu and didn't want to think about it and spend energy.
Lin Wu thought of the weasel's abilities and the physique and finally came up with a name after a while.
"Myriad Obsidian Weasel." Lin Wu stated. "Yup, that will be your bloodline's name… at least for now. I can't really give an official name like I can with my own."
"Okay!" The Weasel quickly accepted and the system also updated it on its data.
"Though… about your actual name. Do you want me to give you one?" Lin Wu asked.
"I name!" The weasel said excitedly.
"Oh? This time you want to name yourself?" Lin Wu asked, finding it a bit strange.
"Yes!" The weasel beast replied.
"Okay… so what name have you chosen?" Lin Wu questioned.
"Me… Tim!" The Weasel answered.
~thud~
Lin Wu visibly stumbled after hearing this, and his eyes went wide.
"Tim? How the heck did you even come up with that?" Lin Wu asked out loud.
"Tim." The Weasel repeated.
Seeing the straight expression of the weasel, Lin Wu knew he would have no luck in figuring out the beast's thought process.
~Sigh~
"Fine… you're Tim." Lin Wu gave up.
~Kikikiki~
The weasel beast, 'Tim' chittered in happiness and ran around, bumped into a rock pillar, bit it down, pulled out a crystal of some kind, ate it, and returned.
Lin Wu ignored his shenanigans and focused on his thoughts.
'How the hell did he even figure out the name Tim? That is certainly not a name I have heard here. It wouldn't be out of place in my past life, but here… I don't think I've seen any other kinds of names other than the ones from cultivation novels.' Lin Wu wondered to himself.
And while thinking this, Lin Wu had another thought.
"The bloodline memories… is it due to that?" Lin Wu guessed.
He knew that the bloodline of the weasel beast had changed and mutated, thus the memories in it would also be changed. If there was some other bloodline that laid dormant in the original bloodline of the Copper Hide Weasel, there was a chance some of those memories may have appeared in his new mutated bloodline.
"Could there be other places or worlds where they used different names and have a different culture? Plus, now that I think of it… I haven't seen any Caucasians or even blond people in general." Lin Wu wondered to himself.
Lin Wu pondered on this for a bit but still could not come up with anything substantial.
"System, consolidate all the foreign names in my memories of the past life and see if you can find any similar ones in all the data you have." Lin Wu ordered.
~DING~
——
EXTRAPOLATING COMPRESSED DATA: Successful
ANALYZING DATA: Cross referencing given parameters
NOTIFICATION: Parameters found!
ANALYZING: please wait patiently…
.
.
.
ANALYSIS COMPLETED: Several matching results found!
——
Soon Lin Wu got what he wanted, and the results were certainly surprising to him.
"Heck! There are actually other kinds of names in this universe." Lin Wu exclaimed.
The system had managed to match not one, not two, but an entire three hundred and ninety four names from the database. And the database from which the system had found them was none other than the Skull God's memories.
Apparently, there were many different worlds, but most of them were dominated by the same culture as was common in most cultivation novels. But a few of them had different kinds of people and they could have western names too.
Even their appearances were like those of westerns and they were not weak either. The biggest and most important name that the system ended up finding was, 'Denthor, The Flesh Master'.
He was apparently a very strong cultivator and even the Skull god had to stay away from him. While both of them had a similar level of influence and power, Denthor was not an outlaw like him.
He was a true ruler of a world and was legitimately revered by others. Thus he didn't have to fear the same things and have to face the same things that the Skull God had to in his journeys.
Lin Wu learned of several more names, a couple of which were even subordinates of the Skull god. Though they weren't of any particular importance.
"Looks like I have a whole different aspect of this universe to look forward to once I manage to leave this world. Plus… if they have different names and cultures, they definitely have different cultivation paths too." Lin Wu reckoned.
It was an exciting find for him and he was certainly not thinking of the different and unique kinds of foods that they might have.
~nudge~
While Lin Wu was in his mind doing all this, the Weasel came up to him and nudged him with his paw.
"What?" Lin Mu asked.
"Humans." He replied.
"Humans?" Lin Wu furrowed his brows and checked the map. "Interesting… seems like someone is making a move…"
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Lin Wu was looking at the map and could see at least fifty people appearing near the entrance of the mine. All of them were spread around and seemed to be hiding in the trees. Only a couple of normal humans were actually standing at the actual entrance.
"Hmm… three normal humans, twenty Qi refining realm cultivators, eleven Core condensation realm cultivators, and four Nascent soul realm ones… that is certainly a substantial party." Lin Wu muttered as he saw the markers.
He knew for sure that they must be here for the mine, as that was the most obvious option.
"Eat?" Tim the weasel suddenly asked.
Lin Wu looked at him and furrowed his brows.
"No… at least not now. Once we know a bit more, sure." Lin Wu replied.
~KEKEKE~
Tim chittered and snapped his teeth, thinking of the food. Lin Wu chuckled and decided to see just what they were all here about.
"Stay away from them for now, I'll tell you when to appear." Lin Wu ordered.
"Okay," Tim replied and went to sit in the nest he had made. Lin Wu had not noticed it at first, but it was a cup shaped structure that the beast had carved out in the side of the spirit stones.
There was even a small water stream leaking out from the corner that made it look pleasant.
Nodding to himself, Lin Wu continued onwards to the upper levels. Now that he had mapped out the entire area, it took him less than two minutes to reach the top. Once there, he let his spirit sense expand and reach the surface.
"Let's see what they are up to…" Lin Wu muttered and started observing.
The three normal men were cautiously peeking into the side of the cave. Their faces were covered in sweat and it was obvious they were very nervous.
"Is this really as they said, big brother? It doesn't seem like there is any beast here." One of the men asked.
"Hmm… they have all these barriers set and even blocked the entrance, but there is no one here. From the villagers' words, it seemed like there were beasts everywhere." The big brother spoke.
"See! I told you it was just a rumor. My intel is always right! There is no beast here, it was just some bandits that killed the miners here and spread the rumors of a beast." The third man said after wiping the sweat off his face.
'Acting all high and mighty when you are sweating like a pig too, haha!' Lin Wu thought, seeing the man.
"Why would the bandits do this?" The younger brother questioned.
"Are you dumb? It's obvious they hid some treasure here. They are bandits. They will steal stuff and stash it in places no one would look. This mine is perfect for them." The third man answered.
"Hush! It's not that simple. They could have found many other places to stash it, why go through so much just to make a new stashing place?" The older brother interrupted.
"But—" The third man could not speak more.
"Are you sure the man who gave you the information was trustable?" The older brother asked in a staunch tone.
"H-he… he was. He even bought a lot of information from the others. I saw him paying in GOLD!" The man replied.
The elder brother furrowed his brows upon hearing this.
"If someone can afford to buy information at that price, they have no reason to trick us for a couple of silvers. Plus, he even told me that the bandits will be away for a few months as the kingdom is already looking for them." The man justified.
"Hmm… we'll wait a while and see if things are really safe. If nothing happens in an hour, we'll enter." The Older brother stated.
"Alright," the other two men agreed.
They went to the side and hid behind a pile of rocks. There were plenty of them lying around from the time the mine was acting and one would not see them unless they went around.
"At least they are not reckless… but they have certainly been tricked." Lin Wu guessed.
To him, it was obvious that someone was trying to use the three men as bait.
"The weasel should be their target. They are using the three to pull him out and then the rest will attack him." Lin Wu reckoned.
He observed the four Nascent soul realm cultivators and tried to sense their cultivation bases without alerting them.
'They are certainly cautious and are using something to suppress their spirit Qi fluctuation. Even the system can only estimate their realm, but not the stage they are in. If they are in the Infant or child soul stage, they would just be walking into their deaths. The weasel will kill them all.
Even Wang Xiong had to give up when he couldn't catch him.' Lin Wu thought to himself.
All the men that Wang Xiong had sent till now were either injured in the task or even killed. Thankfully, the ones that were killed weren't too important and their numbers were less.
Lin Wu continue observing the cultivators, trying to see if he could identify them, but none of them seemed to be on his list.
"Are they not from the Broken Cliff division? Who else is interested in this place…" Lin Wu wondered before it struck him.
"Weiyuan… could they be related to that person?" Lin Wu guessed.
Once this thought came to him, Lin Wu knew that this was a bit more serious. From what he had seen until now, this Weiyuan certainly had some strong connections and background.
Lin Wu wouldn't be shocked if it was a Dao Shell realm cultivator himself or someone with an expert like that behind them. After all, commanding four Nascent soul realm, cultivators like this was not a simple task.
"That should be enough. We can try entering now." The older brother said after an hour passed.
The three men pulled out some of the rocks around the hole out and made an opening that was wide enough for them to enter.
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Even if the three men were normal humans, they were still warriors at the Seventh to eighth stage of the body tempering realm, thus moving some large rocks was manageable to them.
The moment the three entered the mine, the cultivators got active.
"Follow them," A Nascent soul ream cultivator said in a low voice.
It was still heard by Lin Wu though, and he took note of them. Two Qi refining realm cultivators and a core condensation realm cultivator came out of hiding and entered behind the three men.
Having disappeared inside, the rest of the cultivators waited for five minutes before leaving their hiding places as well.
"Can't hold back anymore?" Lin Wu muttered.
The four nascent soul realm cultivators spread their spirit sense around and ensured there was nothing nearby before looking at each other.
"Begin the plan! Set up the formation array!" The junior cultivators all said in a unison and got to work.
Several different materials were taken out and were being used to construct formations which would then be layered together and liked to make an array.
"Seems like they will be functioning as the nodes themselves. No wonder they brought Qi refining realm cultivators here as well…" Lin Wu understood.
In a formation array, if one wanted to enhance the control while reducing the complexity, one could use more people to control it. Of course, not all formation arrays could be controlled like this, but the ones that could, it was really beneficial.
It would make use of multiple people rather than just one person to control and regulate the formation, reducing the mental burden and cost of spirit Qi to operate it.
Lin Wu observed as they set up the formation array that was rather wide. It surrounded the mine in a wide circle and the furtherer edge of the formation array was about five hundred meters from the entrance.
The Qi refining realm cultivators were situated in the outermost parts, the core condensation realm ones in the middle and finally the four Nascent soul realm experts near the center.
They directly took out hexagonal stone platforms that were carved with thousands of runes and placed them down in a rhombus shape. Then sitting on them, they started to make runes in the air with their hands and joined the formation.
Lin Wu took note of which formations were being made.
"Hmm… A confinement formation as the beast, then a restraining one to enhance it and a Qi gathering fomentation to amplify it. The outermost layers are just there to strengthen it and prevent any impacts from affecting it." Lin Wu quickly identified the formations that were being made.
Because most of the components of the formations were already prepared by them, the cultivators were done, making it in less than an hour.
Lin Wu was also keeping an eye on the three men and their three stalkers.
"Oh? They managed to reach the second level?" Lin Wu saw their markers underground.
It was surprising to him, as he knew just how convoluted the mine was. If someone did not have a guide or some map to show them the path, they would probably get lost. Even the signposts that the miners had put up had long since been broken due to the fights that happened in there.
"This map is really good!" The younger brother spoke out loud.
"Indeed, we were lucky to find one left behind by miners. This place is a maze. But even then, the tunnels don't seem all right. Some of them are not present on the map. What's up with that?" The Third man asked.
"Haven't you seen? The new tunnels are all small. I don't think they are made by miners." The older brother guessed.
"Who could have made them then?" The Younger brother questioned, feeling nervous.
"Who cares! We are in here so we can now find the hidden stash." The Third man said casually.
Hearing their conversation though, Lin Wu raised his brows.
'There was certainly no map here when I came. There were just some destroyed registers and documents that the overseers and miners used to log their haul in. If there really was something, the system would have found it.' Lin Wu wondered.
But then he focused on the three stalking cultivators and understood what must have happened.
"So they are the ones behind this… they not only baited them using a fake information broker, but even made it seem like they got this map by luck. Interesting… but letting them come this far and even following them doesn't make sense." Lin Wu said to himself.
He thought that if the three men were just baited, following behind them was just adding more bait. Rather than that, it would make better sense to stay behind.
Three hours passed like this as the men finally reached the third level. In this time, the rest of the cultivators at the surface had already completed the formation array and had hidden within it.
"Will this be fine, elders?" one of the core condensation realm cultivators questioned.
"Yes, the illusory formation is enough. Now even if we stay here for weeks, we shouldn't have any problem." One of the Nascent soul realm elders answered.
The core condensation realm cultivator cupped his hand in respect before retreating to his position.
"Hmm… making the important formations first and then the illusory one next once they got more time. That was a smart move, though… it's useless against me." Lin Wu said to himself as the system gave him a notification that the formation array had already been infiltrated by it.
Seeing that they were just staying silent, Lin Wu decided to act now.
Within the spirit stone mine where the weasel was resting, a voice was heard.
"Are you ready to eat, Tim?"
The weasel quickly raised his head and tried to look around but didn't see anyone there.
"The humans have entered the mine. You can go and eat them now. There are six of them." The voice spoke again.
This time, Tim found it to be coming from a crystal that was hidden in one of the crevices on the wall.
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Before leaving, Lin Wu had placed the communication crystal in the wall. He knew that if he directly gave it to Tim, there was a 99% chance he would have eaten it the moment he left.
Thus, it was a better option to hide it somewhere nearby. Since Lin Wu didn't have the same communication link as he did with his servants and subordinates, he needed to use this method.
Plus, adding a link to Tim was not an option either as it would likely mess up the unique change and chaotic balance that his body had achieved. It was important that it was kept as it is so that the system could continue to analyze it.
"Humans, Eat? YES!" Tim said in agreement and quickly pulled out the crystal and shoved it into his mouth without blinking.
He then scampered onto the place where he could smell the nearest humans at.
~crunch~crunch~
And during this all, he kept on chewing the communication crystal. It was harder than the crystal that Lin Wu had given him specifically for eating. But even then it wasn't as hard as the Earthen Depths Obsidian and could be eaten by him.
The only thing that he needed was time, and that was no problem for him. He quickly made his way to the third level, where the six humans were and soon reached them.
"Elder brother, did you hear that?" The younger brother of the two suddenly said.
"What?" The elder brother asked.
"There was some sound… something breaking." He replied.
"Something breaking? I didn't hear that." The elder brother stated.
"Are you sure you're not just getting delirious?" The third man questioned.
"No, I'm sure I heard it. It was like… glass or rocks breaking." The Younger brother answered.
"Hmm… perhaps it is just some rocks in the mines cracking. I've heard that some of the loose ones can do that. We should change the route we are taking. The sound may mean that this shaft may collapse.
If any rocks have gotten loose, they may fall on top of us or block our way out." The senior brother recommended.
"But that'll take us long to reach the next level. We can't change it like this," The third man protested.
"Do you really want to risk getting trapped here? Besides, we have the map, we can take an alternate route." The elder brother said and took out the map. "Look! There is another route there, it's not that long either."
Seeing this, the two of them nodded their head in agreement and changed their path. The three cultivators that were stalking them silently communicated amongst themselves and waited for the three men to turn around the fork before continuing behind them.
"Huh?" But the moment they peeked into the new path, they saw that the three men had disappeared into thin air.
"How's this possible? The tunnel is straight for quite a long way." One of the Qi refining realm cultivators said in confusion.
They were sure that no matter how fast the three of them were, they wouldn't be able to cross such a long distance in less than five seconds. Plus, they had not heard them run either.
Running in a mine shaft like this would create noise that would echo and spread all around. They would have known that they were running if that truly happened.
"Stay alert… we may not be the only ones here." The core condensation realm stalker spoke.
The other two understood what this mean and took out their weapons. And along with that, they also took out what looked like a small net. The net was barely thirty centimeters wide, but the intricate runes carved on its fine threads showed that it was anything but simple.
~CRUNCH~
Just as the three stalkers got ready, they heard a loud crunch. It was a sickening sound and made them feel goosebumps for some reason. It was like hundreds of bones breaking all at once and being ground.
The core condensation realm cultivator immediately took out a communication jade slip and tried to contact the others on the surface, but suddenly realized that he couldn't do it at all.
"What?!" The man was confused.
~WHOOSH~
In the second he had taken to do this, a strong gust of wind blew past him and one of the men disappeared. He snapped to look at him, but then another gust of wind blew past his back.
~SWOOSH~
The man knew what was happening by now and swallowed the saliva in his mouth.
~gulp~
His spirit sense finally detected the culprit.
~SHING~
He swung his sword at his full power but missed the attacker.
"The beast?" The man recognized.
He had managed to catch the silhouette of the beast while it was moving past him. Right that moment, he knew that he would be unable to do anything to the beast.
"Dammit, the original plan was useless. They couldn't even delay it enough to use the nets." The man cursed his luck.
But he didn't get to do that for long as a second later, he felt the world spinning.
~CRACK~
~SNAP~
The spinning feeling only lasted a second, and his vision went dark after that.
~drip~drip~drip~
The sound of blood dripping could be heard as Tim stood there with half the body of the cultivator in his mouth.
~Crunch~
~Crunch~
He continued to chew and pushed the body into his mouth with his hands. About five seconds later, he was done eating him entirely.
"Ahh~ Good humans…" Tim said in pleasure.
It was his first time eating humans after the effect of the Agitation jade had been removed and he got to fully enjoy the taste. Earlier, he had always been in a constant state of anger and could not taste the things he ate.
At most, it would satisfy his hunger a bit and provide a little sense of relief, but that was only a brief thing.
For the first time in ten years, he felt calm.
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Lin Wu had been keeping an eye on the situation inside the mine and knew the moment, the six men were dead.
"Huh, he's rather efficient. Though he did end up eating the communication crystal…" Lin Wu muttered to himself.
The six dots that represented the men had disappeared from the map, and Lin Wu knew it was time to start the next step of the plan.
"Hmm… do I act directly or wait a little bit." Lin Wu wondered. "Waiting will be a better option. Let's see if they even find out their men are dead." Lin Wu decided.
His choice turned out to be correct as just five minutes later, there was some movement among the elders.
One of the elders opened his eyes and furrowed his brows. He took out what looked like a mosaic glass mirror. There were multiple sections on the glass mirror and it looked like it was made from hundreds of broken glass shards that were struck together.
Three of the sections were dimmer in color than the others and a few seconds later cracks formed on them, before they fully turned into dust.
"They have failed." The elder spoke.
The other three elders woke up as well and looked at him.
"We already expected something like this to happen. It just means the beast is a bit more powerful than we thought. The rumors about everyone only seeing it as a blur was most likely due to it being fast." The first elder stated.
"If they have been killed, it means the beast has awakened. Considering its aggressive nature, it will probably be on the prowl to hunt more. We should be ready for it to come out at any time." The second elder suggested.
"Yes," The three elders said and one of them stood up.
"All disciples are to be ready!" He said out loud.
The disciples simply responded with cupped hands and got to work. Closing their eyes, they let their spirit senses join with the formation array. The elders on the other hand, focused on the entrance of the mine and stayed alert.
Lin Wu who had been observing all this, raised his brows.
"They are certainly experienced with this. Does not seem like this is their first time doing something like this. Are they from a sect?" Lin Wu wondered.
The system had already scanned all of the cultivators here, but it did not find their identities.
"Hmm… I'll probably have to get their memories. If they can do all this and stay hidden, they are probably the secret force of some power." Lin Wu reckoned.
His attention was pulled back to the map as the system sent him a notification.
"Oh? The weasel is coming up… of course, he wants to eat more. Though I guess it doesn't really matter now. Let's see what he can actually do." Lin Wu decided.
While he had a little clash with the weasel beast, it was more of a one sided thing and Tim could not do much against him. Lin Wu wanted to see just what abilities and skills the Weasel had with his new physique and bloodline.
'Not to mention the system will get the chance to do the first analysis as well.' Lin Wu thought.
Thus with this in mind, he let it happen. He watched as the marker showing Tim's position rapidly approached the surface. Plus, as a surprise to the Cultivators here, he was not taking the usual path.
"Did they not take into consideration that he could come through another opening?" Lin Wu wondered.
~DING~
——
ANSWER: The formation array is omnidirectional. It does not matter from where the beast approaches, the effect will be the same.
——
The system answered for him.
"I see. Guess they only set it up here, as it was easy to observe if anyone enters or exits. Plus, this is really in the center of the area. The mines spread out radially from here, underground." Lin Wu muttered.
In about five minutes, the Weasel beast had already reached the surface. The location that it had chosen to appear from was one of the rock piles that were near the side of the entrance.
It had simply burrowed out and appeared right next to a disciple that was sitting on his formation node.
~whoosh~
The weasel beast pounced on him immediately without caring that there were others here, too. It was now that Lin Wu realized another thing about the weasel.
"His spirit sense… it is gone too." Lin Wu muttered.
He recalled his condition and reckoned that with how his meridians had changed, the Weasel had become more dependent on his body directly. Even his sense of smell had been amplified proportionately.
"It's certainly a different path that he has taken." Lin Wu understood.
~BANG~
But before the weasel could touch the cultivator, a barrier appeared around him in the form of a cylinder and blocked the attack.
~KREEE~
The weasel beast let out an annoyed cry and looked at the barrier.
"THE BEAST IS HERE!" The disciples shouted.
"All disciples, INITIATE!" The elder ordered.
~HONG~
The runes started to glow as the formation array came alive. Barrier appeared around every person and were the same cylinder formed. The Weasel looked around at everyone and sniffed.
"FOOD! TONS!" He said out loud.
Of course, this was only understood by Lin Wu. The others could only hear a sharp and ear piercing cry instead.
The Weasel beast didn't care about the formation array and directly attacked the barrier in front of him. In his eyes, only the cultivator in front of him was important.
~BANG~
The barrier blocked his attack effortlessly. But that was just the start. The weasel beast clawed at the barrier tens of times in the span of a few seconds. The barrier was certainly impacted and seemed to have been dented.
~shua~
But at the same time, the formation array let out a humming sound and a wave of energy spread through it.
~WEENG~
As the energy spread through the air, the spirit Qi started to disappear.. In five seconds, the spirit Qi in the radius of one kilometer was wiped out.
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Lin Wu narrowed his brows seeing the effect of the formation array.
"Huh, a formation array that isolates and absorbs all the spirit Qi in a certain area, preventing anyone from using it. Neat." Lin Wu spoke.
He could see how it would be useful in dealing with an average cultivator. After all, they were protected by a barrier and did not have to use up any spirit Qi of their own, but their enemy would be dependent on their own spirit Qi to sustain themselves.
Sooner or later, they would run out of it and end up getting killed by them. It was a way to prolong and outperform the enemy.
"Unfortunately… The Weasel is not really the perfect candidate to use this formation array on." Lin Wu shook his head.
He watched on as the events progressed.
"Haha! The formation is working! The beast is as good as gone now." A couple of Core condensation realm cultivators rejoiced.
~BANG~BANG~BANG~
But as a surprise to them, Tim didn't care about the missing spirit Qi. In fact, he could barely sense it at all. After all, he no longer absorbed spirit Qi from the air for the most part.
A majority of spirit Qi that it got was obtained from eating other materials that were rich in spirit Qi. Plus, since it was in a constant state of anger the past ten years, it didn't really cultivate normally.
His increase was mostly due to eating the entire time. Still, that was enough for him to reach the Adult Soul Stage of the Nascent Soul realm in that short time. For any other beast, it would take at least five to eight hundred years to reach that level on average.
The Twin Lights Liger King who was rather talented, still spent four hundred years on reaching it. Even the Olive Viper King was nearly three hundred years old before he found the meteor and broke through to the Nascent Soul realm.
Otherwise it would have run out of longevity and died. It was the method of cultivation that often decided this, and cultivating without any resources was often slow and strenuous.
Very few actually cultivated that way and they strive for resources all the time. Only when a cultivator reaches a high enough cultivation base where no resources would help them do they end up cultivating normally for the most part.
This was usually when a cultivator would enter a long seclusion and stay in it till they broke through. Since cultivation states like these needed long periods of concentration, seclusion was the most common method.
The Weasel was an anomaly and acted like one. He attacked the barrier nonstop and mindlessly.
"Activated the offensive formations! Counterattack!" The elders ordered.
"YES ELDER!" The disciples replied in unison.
~shua~ shua~
They all made different hand seals and the offensive formations hidden in the layers activated. Multiple colors appeared in the sky as different attacks materialized. Flames, ice, iron spikes, chains, whips and a multitude of weapons made out of spirit Qi were created.
But the fastest attack was a bolt of lightning that shot out of a Thunder Punishing Offensive Formation and struck Tim the weasel.
~BOOM~
A thunderclap resounded in the air as the ground around the exploded with soil and dirt. For a second the attacks stopped as smoke covered the air, but when it finally dissipated, the junior cultivators were stunned.
~BANG~BANG~BANG~
The weasel was unharmed and casually shook his head before attacking the barrier again. The only difference was in its eyes, and it seemed to be annoyed even more. By now he had understood that his normal attacks won't really work here.
~shing~shing~shing~
And just as he thought this, the rest of the attacks arrived as well.
~KIIIIIIII~
The Weasel growled in anger and moved like a blur, dodging all the attacks with ease. The weapons were unable to even get close to him. As for the energy attacks that still managed to hit him due to a wider area of effect, they just fizzled out in the end.
The fur of the weasel was far too tough to get injured from.
"Just what is this beast?" The disciple whose barrier Tim was attacking this entire time said.
"No wonder it has managed to terrorize this mine for such a long time… it is certainly strong." One of the Nascent soul realm elders said.
"As expected." Lin Wu muttered, seeing the Weasel beast unscathed.
He was sure that even his own attacks won't injure the weasel easily. He had even held him in a crushing hold earlier to stop him from moving, and the weasel was just fine. If it were any other beast or cultivator, they would have had their bones shattered and organs squished.
But then Lin Mu saw something new.
"Oh?" He raised a brow.
Tim started to run in the opposite direction and then turned around, using the barrier of the formation array as support to flip. He then sprinted towards the barrier and mid way through started to roll instead.
~ZING~ZING~ZING~
His speed turned him into a spinning tire that barreled towards the barrier at great speed. His fur stood on its end and a prickly surface was created. Everywhere he passed over, the ground was uprooted and soil sprayed around.
~KATA~
~CRACKLE~
The spinning weasel finally hit the barrier and it made a strange noise. But it didn't stop there, as after the initial impact, the weasel beast kept on spinning and a grinding noise came from the barrier.
"Huh… reminds of me a certain fast hedgehog…" Lin Wu said upon seeing Tim's ability.
The disciples were a bit surprised too, but that soon turned into utter shock.
~CRACK~
"WHAT THE-!" The disciple sitting in the barrier said.
Sweat dripped from his forehead as he watched cracks spreading on the barrier. The spiny fur of the Weasel kept on grinding it down and a couple of seconds later, managed to fully breakthrough.
~KEKEKEKEKKE~
Tim chittered in joy as the food in front of him was now free for him to eat.
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The Qi refining realm cultivator, whose barrier had just been broken, stumbled back and tried to run.
~CRACK~
But all that was for naught, as the Weasel shot forward like a rubber band and pinned him to the ground. Unfortunately for the cultivator, the weasel was far bigger and heavier than him, thus getting pinned was the same as getting crushed under a boulder.
~KIKIKIKI~
The weasel screeched at the scent of blood and quickly stuffed the cultivator into his mouth. Since the bones of the cultivator were all broken, he was stuffed at odd angles and then the weasel's mouth shut close.
The other cultivators that watched all this were horrified.
"VILE BEAST! YOU DARE!" one of the elders was infuriated by this and waved his hand.
~HUA~
With this gesture, an illusory hand materialized in the air and struck the weasel.
~swat~
~THWACK~
It hit the weasel and swatted it away to the very end of the formation array, where he stuck the wall and fell to the ground.
~KREEE~
The weasel was once again uninjured and cried out in anger. Shaking his head to get rid of the slight disorientation, it directly went on to attack the nearest disciples.
~ZING~ZING~ZING~
It began to attack the same way as before and rolled, using his spiky fur to attack.
~KACHA~
And just like before, the barrier protecting the cultivator shattered. But this time, the weasel didn't stop there and mowed down the disciple as well. The cultivator's head burst apart like a watermelon and her guts were squeezed out like toothpaste.
Tim kept on rolling and hit the next barrier, shattering it as well and killing the disciple inside it.
"He's rather effective. That's nice," Lin Wu commented seeing this.
He had not expected something like this would really happen. Since the system controlled the formation array he had the information about how strong the barrier protecting the disciples was.
It could easily bear the attack of a Adult Soul stage Nascent soul realm beast and thus should be impossible for Tim to break. The outer dome like barrier was even stronger and could bear the attack of a Dao Shell realm cultivator.
One could see from this just how complex and powerful the formation array was.
"NOOO!"
~KACHA~
Another barrier was broken as the cultivator within it died. In less than ten seconds, Tim had killed four disciples. This was completely out of the expectations of the elders and the juniors under them.
"DAMMIT! How is this beast doing it?" The second elder questioned.
"Just wait, it will definitely get exhausted at this rate. Without the spirit Qi to replenish its stores, it can't continue like this. That attack definitely consumes a lot of its spirit Qi." The fourth elder replied.
"I'm not gonna stay like this without retaliating. This is a taunt to our dignity!" The third elder through was infuriated.
He directly brought his palms together in a praying gesture before raising his right hand straight up and keeping the palm perpendicular to the other.
"Take this! Qi Upheaval Palm!" The third elder said.
The spirit Qi that had been absorbed by the formation array oozed out and turned into a pale white palm that was translucent. It was a bit different from the other palm that was made before.
That was the attack made by an offensive formation, but this was a proper Qi skill. The Qi skill certainly held a lot of power and descended on the Weasel, trying to stop him from attacking the others.
~THUD~
Tim crashed into the palm that fell like a slab from the sky.
~KIIIIII~
He screeched in pain as the impact actually hurt him from the force. While there were no surface injuries, he still felt its internals being rocked. The palm that had just descended flipped around and wrapped the Weasel.
"HAHAHA! GOT YOU!" The third elder said as he looked on with a grin on his face.
He then raised the palm into the air and started to squeeze Tim.
~KREEE~
Tim let out a screech of anger and struggled within that palm. It wanted to escape but could not, and it was only making him furious.
"STOP… ME… NOT!" Tim said out loud, but only beastly screeches were heard.
Lin Wu watched this and shook his head.
"Guess this is his limit. Going up against a formation array for this long is already quite impressive for him." Lin Wu said, having witnessed everything.
'Time for me to act…' Lin Wu thought and was just about to get the system to disable the formation array when a change happened.
"AHH!" A pain filled cry was let out by the third elder and his face turned pale.
Lin Wu furrowed his brows and looked to see what happened. and was surprised.
"Whoa! He can do this too?" Lin Wu said as he watched Tim biting the hand that held him in air.
Since he could not move his limbs, he moved what he could: His jaws. The elders didn't know that while Tim's claws and fur were strong, they were not the strongest part of his body.
The strongest part of his body were his sharp teeth that could break through Earthen Depths Obsidian, not to mention some Qi construct or bones.
~KEKEKEKEK~
Mid way through, Tim's voice changed from distressed to pleased. It had bitten out a large chunk from the palm and had even started to eat it.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" The elders all said.
The other junior cultivators couldn't even say anything as they were completely lost seeing everything.
Tim quickly swelled the chunk of the palm which turned into spirit Qi in his mouth after being chewed. It was rapidly absorbed into his body, and he felt energized again.
"KILL! MORE!" Tim declared as he gnawed out the five fingers of the hand that held him.
The Third Elder Tried to keep him contained, but it was all for naught. Plus, the damage to the palm also caused pain to him and made him lose focus.
About thirty seconds later, Tim was free!
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Lin Wu who had been watching everything, felt rather pleased with Tim.
"He can certainly carry his own weight. Not bad…" Lin Wu muttered.
For Lin Wu, who had observed many humans and cultivators, Tim seemed to be better than most. His power was good, and he didn't complain about not being able to do anything.
In fact, Lin Wu was sure he didn't even think that far and would just go for anything that he wanted. Him attacking Lin Wu to eat without fear was a sign of that. Though Lin Wu also wondered if his lack of fear was natural or due to some other problem.
It was rather peculiar since Tim didn't seem to be affected by the bloodline aura of Lin Wu either. Almost every beast would feel the pressure exuding from Lin Wu's bloodline and would be nervous around him.
But Tim was the same as he always was and did not seem to care about it. He might be the most peculiar beast Lin Wu had come across till now and it even included Zhu Tianying.
~KIKIKIKI~
The weasel let out a cry upon being freed and flipped in the air and pounced directly on the nearest barrier. He started spinning mid air and crashed into the barrier, shattering it like the others.
The Third Elder who had been injured due to the backlash of the technique, gritted his teeth and was angry.
"ENOUGH! WE ARE ENDING THIS!" The first elder seemed to be in agreement now.
All along, their plan was to suppress the beast and take it away for analysis. It was not an absolute requirement, but their master had told them that the beast was of some interest to him.
They were told that if the beast died, it would still be fine, but they would get more rewards for catching the beast alive. They had already lost a few of their people and now even the third elder had gotten injured.
"The formation doesn't seem to be working on it for some reason or it just has a lot of spirit Qi to last this long. We will just attack directly!" The second elder added.
And thus, the first, second and third elders attacked at the same time. Only the fourth elder stayed in his place, as he needed to maintain the formation array in the meantime.
A multitude of skills were used and all of them went towards Tim.
The other junior cultivators watched on in pleasure as the beast that had killed their companion was about to die. But just when the skills were about to hit Tim, something shocking happened.
~SHING~SHING~SHING~
A circle of green crystal spikes suddenly rose up from the ground and surrounded the weasel beast. Curling up on top of the beast, they turned into a dome that fully protected it.
~BANG~
~DENG~
~CLANG~
~BOOM~
The various skills landed on the crystal but were not even able to make a scratch on them.
"WHAT?!" The junior cultivators were stunned.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" The third elder shouted.
"How can this beast do something like this?" The second elder questioned.
The first elder on the other hand, narrowed his eyes and checked the area with his spirit sense. But the moment he went past the first fifty meters, he felt very uncomfortable. His spirit sense started to waver and it felt like he had entered a swamp.
It became very difficult for his spirit sense to move and the more he went ahead, the more strenuous it got for him.
"What is happening?" He muttered.
The other cultivators also realized that their spirit senses were getting suppressed, and they didn't know why.
"W-what? Why's my spirit sense not working?" One of the core condensation realm cultivators couldn't help but question.
A few seconds later, the situation got so bad that their link to the formation array broke as well.
~RUMBLE~
It was at this time that the ground started to tremble. The Nascent soul elders watched on in anxiety as something started to rise from the ground.
"It… it's surrounding us?" The fourth elder noted.
~TREMBLE~
The ground started to part as more green crystals rose from the ground. But this time, they all seemed to be joined together from the start. The crystals were in a circle and looked to be several meters tall in height.
Only when the ground near the elders parted did they see the truth of what it was.
~Huu~
A hot breath left Lin Wu's mouth as he raised his head from the ground. The crystal dome around Tim also recessed and turned into the tip of Lin Wu's tail. He had split it apart to make a dome to protect the weasel.
Lin Wu knew that even the weasel might get injured from some of the skills that the Nascent soul realm cultivators had used. Even if it did not die, the injuries might be severe and thus Lin Wu wanted to avoid that.
"You were right." Lin Wu said while looking at the first elder. "That was a good show… but now it's enough." He stated.
~SHING~
Horizontal spikes rose from his body, with each of them pointed towards a junior cultivator.
~Shua~shua~shua~
The spikes glowed with a green light briefly before tens of wind attribute spirit Qi arrows were shot at great speed from them.
~SPLAT~ SPLAT~
The arrows penetrated the cylindrical barriers like it was paper and burst the heads of all junior cultivators in less than a second.
"NOOO!" The fourth elder shouted.
~COUGH~
He then spat out a mouthful of blood as the backlash from the formation array reached him. The sudden death of the disciples maintaining the formation array's nodes led to them being abruptly disconnected.
The other three elders watched in horror as all their subordinates died in an instant.
"Now that they are gone… let's get rid of this formation array too." Lin Wu said casually and pointed towards a point in the air with his tail.
~KACHA~
As if a sheet of glass had been poked a bit too hard, the formation array was covered in cracks.
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The Four elders were horrified seeing the formation array getting destroyed in an instant.
"How is this possible?" The third elder couldn't help but say.
They couldn't comprehend this fact because the formation array was very strong. Even a Dao Shell realm cultivator wouldn't be able to damage it directly, while it would still be able to hold on for a few minutes against a Dao Treading realm cultivator.
The cost to set it up was also rather high and they could feel all the components they had planted around the area breaking along with the formation array.
'Breaking a formation array with one tap? Even a Grandmaster Formation Master at the Dao Treading realm might not be able to do this.' The First elder thought.
But what the elders didn't know was that Lin Wu hadn't done what they thought he had. Him tapping was simply a casual thing he did to show off. It was actually the system that dismantled the formation array all at once.
After all, it had been under the system's control from the start. If Lin Wu wanted to, he could have reversed the formation array onto the cultivators from the start. But he didn't do that, as he wanted to observe the power of Tim.
He got good results and reckoned this was more than enough for now.
~KREEE~
Tim, who also got out of the crystal dome, looked around and found everyone to be dead.
"Dead? No kill?" he said, feeling a little lost.
But that feeling soon faded away as he directly rushed to the dead cultivators and started to stuff them down his mouth. The elders didn't even get to look at him for long as the pressure exuding from Lin Wu was getting to them.
"What are you?" The third elder asked, building up a little courage.
Since their spirit sense was restrained, which they didn't even know how, they couldn't estimate Lin Wu's cultivation base. But the pressure and aura exuding from him told them that he was not to be taken lightly.
If anything, just his size was enough to shake their minds.
"Me? I'm just a beast." Lin Wu answered casually.
Upon hearing this, the elders were a bit taken aback.
"Just a beast? Can just any beast do something like this?" The second elder couldn't help but say.
"Ahahaha!" Lin Wu laughed in his distorted voice, unnerving the elders.
Lin Wu usually had to consciously control his voice so that it appeared to be 'normal'. He did this when speaking with people he was fine with or just about anything. But his own natural voice was a mix of strange distortions and screeches that formed together to make words.
It was like someone was rubbing two metal plates to make coherent words. It was a strange condition, but Lin Wu was used to it. Plus, he liked the fear factor that appeared when he used his natural voice.
Though occasionally he would slip up and use it instead of his 'normal' voice.
"I guess I am a little special." Lin Wu replied and looked at the elders. "But enough about me… what I want to know is… who are you all?" He questioned.
~gulp~
The elders swallowed their saliva and didn't know what to say now. Their identity was secret and they couldn't truly speak anything. It was a secret they would take to their death if they had to.
"Hmm… I see. One of those people…" Lin Wu muttered.
The elders furrowed their brows, not understanding what Lin Wu meant before a strong gust of wind went past them.
~SLICK~
A disturbing sound was heard as the three elders turned to look at the fourth elder. His head was pierced with a long spike and his eyes bulged out in shock. Lin Wu closed his eyes and read the information that the system was absorbing from the dead elder's brain
The three elders were stunned at the ease with which the fourth elder died and didn't know what to do. It was now that Lin Wu started to speak again.
"Oh?! So that's now it is…" Lin Wu said, pulling their attention back.
"Never thought it would be someone from the Ji clan." Lin Wu said, shocking the three elders.
"How?" The first elder was horrified at this.
"So your master is this… Weiyuan. His true identity… Ji Yuan, the elder brother of Ji Shirong, current heir of the Ji clan." Lin Wu revealed.
"H-how… how do you know this?" The third elder asked.
"I have my ways…" Lin Wu said as he went through more information in his mind.
In just five seconds, he had understood the gist of it, though there were some blank spots in the man's memories.
'Have they been artificially removed? Doesn't seem like they are due to natural degradation, or the system would have told me.' Lin Wu thought.
He stared back at the three elders, sending shivers down their spine.
It was now that the first elder understood something.
"Soul Search… You used a soul searching skill!" The first elder said out loud.
"Correct," Lin Wu responded, though the answer wasn't really true.
'But they don't need to know that.' Lin Wu internally said.
"A beast that can use human techniques? That's not possible…" The second elder stated.
But the first elder said something else in response.
"No… it is possible." The first elder said, recalling certain information.
While Lin Wu speaking was very unusual, there were still some beasts that could speak the human tongue; though most normal cultivators did not know this. But they were not normal at all and had access to a lot of information the average cultivator would not have.
"Who are you, senior? What's your Dao title?" The first elder finally spoke, understanding something.
Lin Wu raised his brow, seeing the man's reaction before guessing what conclusion the man had come to.
'Huh… he thinks I'm a human that took over a beast too?' Lin Wu thought, recalling Jiao Fan had done the same.
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