Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

During the entire time, Lin Wu roamed around, the strongest beast he came across was a centipede that was at the early stage of the core condensation realm. Lin Wu actually tried to talk with it but the beast did not respond.

Or rather the beast didn't understand Lin Wu at all, despite the system's adjustments.

"What's the problem here system, why doesn't the translator work?" Lin Wu questioned.

~DING~

——

ANSWER: It's not that the translator is not working, but rather the beast is simply responding with beastly cries. It does not have the intelligence that Core condensation realm beasts should have.

——

'Huh? Are they just naturally dumb or something else is affecting them?' Lin Wu wondered.

"System, do a detailed scan on this centipede beast." Lin Wu ordered.

~Ding~

——

SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target selected

SCAN COMPLETE: Target Identified

TARGET: Dread Coil Centipede 

CULTIVATION BASE: Early Stage of the core condensation realm

INFO: The Dread Coil Centipedes are one of the native beasts of the Dread Coil Marsh and thus named after it. They proliferate quickly and are mostly found in moist areas. Their fangs are venomous and can kill beasts stronger than it. 

Note: The beast's brain is affected due to the interference field that is spread all over the Dread Coil marsh. This has permanently reduced the intelligence of the beast, making it act on mere instincts.

The other beasts of the Dread Coil Marsh may be the same are probably affected by this interference field.

——

Having read all this, Lin Wu nodded his head.

"So it is an environmental effect. Still, this will kinda make my task easier. If the beasts are unintelligent, they will be easier to trick than the beasts in the Millennium forest." Lin Wu reckoned.

Eventually, the sun went down and absolute darkness descend upon the Dread Coil Marsh. The moon already let out a faint light which was then hidden by the clouds and then again by the leaves of the trees.

For normal humans this would have made it harder to see things, but not for Lin Wu. He had multiple ways to 'see' now. He could use his spirit sense to scan the area, watch it on the map of the system, use his radiation perception or simply make his body glow to illuminate the area.

"Boohoo…" Among the whistling sounds of the twisty trees, Lin Wu suddenly heard a strange cry.

He focused on it and heard more of them. Little by little their numbers started to increase and it was as if the entire Marsh was now crying. Lin Wu then saw something that would absolutely terrify children and women.

Pale white specters started coming out of the twisty trees. The cries were coming from these very specters. 

They had no specific features and were basically a torso with arms and no legs. They didn't have a face or eyes and ears, except for a mouth that was letting out the cries.

"Woo~" The specters cried.

Though when Lin Wu looked at them, he found them to be funny instead.

"AHAHAHA! What is this shitty design? They look like some kids in a lame ghost costume," Lin Wu laughed.

The specters wandered around the marsh, seemingly looking for something. It was now that Lin Wu realized there were no more beasts visible in the area. He looked at the map and saw their numbers had decreased even more. Even the system's markers had disappeared.

"System, did some change happen?" Lin Wu questioned, having some guesses.

~Ding~

——

ANSWER: The interference field has gotten stronger and is preventing the system from scanning. The field is approximately four times as strong as before.

——

Lin Wu narrowed his non existent brows as he looked at the specters.

'Could they be the reason behind the interference field?' Lin Wu thought.

"System, scan these specters." Lin Wu ordered.

~Ding~

——

SCANNER ACTIVATED: Selecting target

SCAN FAILED: Target not recognized

DATA BANKS: Activated

DATA EXTRAPOLATED: Stored information about target found

TARGET: Marsh Ghost

INFO: The ghosts are entities that roam the Dread Coil Marsh during nighttime. They are said to be from a long time ago and are the remains of people who died in this area. The dread coil marsh used to be a flourishing jungle within which a prosperous sect was located.

All these ghosts are said to be victims of a forbidden technique that was used by an evil cultivator who drained the vitality of everyone and everything. The ghosts are chained to this world from their unfulfilled desires and laments.

The ghosts are said to affect the minds of all that pass through them and they ail actively seek out living creatures. They are able to affect cultivators and beasts alike, despite their cultivation bases. The ghosts themselves though have no cultivation base and are unique entities.

——

Lin Wu recalled reading this a while ago but a bit more information seemed to have been added to it since then. He reckoned it was system updating it since he had scanned so many information sources.

"Wait a second, it says they will actively seek out living creatures… so why are they not attacking me?" Lin Wu wondered.

Lin Wu wasn't truly scared of these ghosts as he was cautious, but since he didn't see them being antagonistic against him, he decided to test some things out. Lin Wu got closer to one of the ghosts and touched it with his tail.

~poof~

His tail passed through the ghost as it was air, and nothing happened. The ghost didn't react and simply floated around, letting Lin Wu do whatever he wanted. Seeing this, Lin Wu got bolder and slapped it hard with his tail.

~Whoosh~

~Thud~

A crater was formed on the ground and mud splashed all over as Lin Wu's tail hit the ghost, and then the ground. The Ghost's body distorted before reforming in the air. It was completely unaffected by Lin Wu's attack.

"Maybe it's just this ghost that's like this? I should use a bigger sample size…" Lin Wu said before starting what was pretty much a 'Whack-a-Ghost' game.