Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

The seven cultivators arrived in the second trial and were greeted by a similar world that they had seen before. Except, this world's flora and fauna had been strangely corrupted by the shadows.

Lin Wu saw it too and realized that this world was one of the worlds that were taken over by the shadow calamity after they obtained the two consciousnesses, Bai and Hei. That was the reason why the shadows were not as corrosive as before and had not fully covered the ground.

"What is this place now?" The grey robed cultivator questioned.

"The aura is the same as before, but… it's not as violent." The senior brother spoke.

They felt anxious as they knew that if this was the second level it was bound to be more difficult than the first one. If the aura was not violent, that meant something else was gonna be.

~step~step~step~

Suddenly the sound of footsteps could be heard coming from behind them. They turned around hurriedly and saw the being that was standing behind them.

"What in the heaven's name!" 

The being that was standing in front of them was humanoid, but had no nose or a face. It only had a wide mouth filled with teeth and eerily long arms that dangled to its side. They went all the way to its knees and were tipped with long claws.

Its legs were shorter than its arms and much wider. There were smaller claws on them, and its skin was wrinkly and oily. A pungent smell emanated from its body as drool dripped from its mouth.

~Screech~

It let out a loud cry that pierced the ears of every one present and filled them with fear. 

~shua~

~Splatter~

The screeching cry stopped and they opener their eyes only to see something even bigger standing in front of them. It looked like a huge bird beast and it had bitten the humanoid being in half. But even this bird beast seemed to look similar to the humanoid beast and had similar features.

"What the hell are these things?!" The mid stage core condensation realm woman questioned with horror.

It was now that the voice sounded again.

"Defeat ten Shadow Dread beasts!" The Voice declared.

"Seems like we know what they are now…" The Senior Brother said before swinging his Guan Dao.

"Get ready to fight!" He stated.

Everyone brought out their weapon and flew ahead. The Senior brother attacked the bird like Shadow dread beast first and slashed a wound on its torso. But the beast seemed to be unaffected by it and lifted its large eye-less head towards him and snapped its beak.

~clink~

The Senior brother parried the sharp beak with the blade of his Guan Dao and stepped back. 

~Sss~Boom~

A fire ball came and hit the beast on the side of its head, melting a part of the skin.

"It's defenses are not that strong, quickly defeat it!" Su Wen shouted as he controlled his spirit sword to strike at the beast's wings.

~Scree~

The beast let out another ear piercing screech as it flapped its wings, making gales of winds. 

~draaa~

A shearing sound was made by the beast as it dived at one of the mid stage core condensation realm cultivators. 

"Take this!" The late stage core condensation realm woman cultivator shouted as she released an arrow made out of spirit qi.

The arrow was blue colored and moved at a great speed. In the blink of an eye, it was close to piercing the beast.

~Splick~

The arrow penetrated the head of the beast and splattered black blood everywhere. 

~Shua~

~crackle~

A cold air came out of the arrow and the beast's head started to freeze. In about five seconds the beast's head was frozen.

~pow~

~shatter~

The grey robed cultivator, who was at the late stage of the core condensation realm, executed a fist technique and punched the frozen head of the beast, shattering it into icy fragments.

~thud~

The corpse of the beast fell to the ground with a loud thud, knocking up a cloud of black dust.

~phew~

"One down, nine more to go…" Su Wen said.

And just as he said this, more screeches were heard coming from afar. The Senior brother gritted his teeth and spread his spirit sense far and wide.

"There are three of them together this time, we can do this!" he said.

"Yes, Senior brother!" They responded before entering offensive stances.

Lin Wu watched on as the team defeated the Shadow Dread beasts one by one and soon reached the required number of kills to pass. This time they were not uninjured though, they had cuts and scratches everywhere on their bodies and their clothes had been tattered.

Blood dripped from their wounds as their cuts burned.

"THE TRIAL HAS BEEN COMPLETED! ALL HAVE PASSED!" The voice spoke again.

The seven cultivators returned to the second level's hall and collapsed on the ground in exhaustion. Their wounds had been healed as it was just an illusory trial, but the mental strain would be hard to recover that quickly.

"Rest for a bit, we'll precede after we are in a better condition." The Senior brother advised before sitting down cross legged and meditating.

"Hmm… despite his looks and demeanor, he is not a bad leader." Lin Wu stated.

This trial had been beneficial for Lin Wu too, as he actually recognized one of the Shadow Dread beasts that the seven cultivator beasts had fought.

'Wasn't that beast similar to the Shadow claw beasts I killed before I met the mole beast and the beetle beast?' Lin Wu thought.

The beast that the seven cultivators had fought was like a much bigger version of the Shadow claw beasts and had no eyes, but for the rest, its features were the same. Lin Wu thought of its implications and wondered what was the link between that world and the Ming Dao world.

"Either the beast is found in multiple worlds, or… this world is the same as that one…"