Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

Shirong did a little mental Tetris and figured out that if he floated in the air horizontally, he would be able to enter the hole easily. 

And thus that's what he did. He floated, turned horizontally, and entered the hole which was slowly closing. When he fully passed through it, Lin Wu intentionally stopped his control on his spirit Qi and let the barrier close.

~Zing~

The barrier flickered due to being restored, and Shirong flinched.

"It closed back?… Never mind, I should be able to open it again later." Shirong said before taking a look around.

He walked about ten steps ahead before...

~DENG~

~Thud~

He hit an invisible barrier.

"Huh? Another barrier?" Shirong said as used his spirit sense to check the barrier.

"Heavens! This is no simple barrier!" Shirong exclaimed.

If he were to compare it, the barrier was on the same level as the ones which were in his own clan. They were made by the many ancestors that came before his time and reinforce over time.

There was no way Shirong would be able to get through this. 

"There should be some other way… if the Immortal Crystal Armament brought me here, it should have a method to go further." Shirong said.

"Bingo! Was just waiting for you to say that." Lin Wu stated before starting to morph into the form of a spear again.

"Huh? What-" Shirong was a bit surprised as the Immortal Crystal armament acted on its own.

It changed back into the spear form and floated in front of him. 

"What are you going to do?" Shirong asked.

In response to that, Lin Wu stabbed into the ground and let out waves of spirit Qi. Shirong had a bout of realization as he understood the Spear's intentions.

"It's going to open the formations somehow?" Shirong muttered.

He observed how there were different spirit Qi fluctuation coming from the spear and how the barrier was interacting. Runes had appeared on the barrier, which revealed the structures of the formation beneath.

Shirong then saw that the spear was sinking deeper into the ground until only the bottom six inches of it were left out. 

"It must be directly interacting with the formation matrix deep in the ground." Shirong fussed to himself.

"Good, good! Make up stuff so I don't have to." Lin Wu said with a chuckle.

He then extended his body and detached a long twelve inch crystal from his body. This was the very part that seemed to be outside the ground and made it seem like he was stabbed in the ground.

In reality, Lin Wu went back to the barrier and opened another hole before leaving through it. 

"There we go. The 'crib' should keep him in there for a while." Lin Wu stated with a chuckle.

Lin Wu had basically baited Shirong into entering the barrier and was going to leave him there, while he went away with the Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle. The eagle beast was looking at Shirong and was wondering what Lin Wu was doing.

~thud~

The eagle beast sensed something moving behind him and saw that the earth was rising. It looked at the ground with sharp eyes, ready to act at any moment. The moment a crystal head appeared out of the ground, it realized who it was.

"How are you here?" The eagle beast said, before turning her neck. "And there too?"

"Don't mind that. We can now leave for work. The 'baby' should stay in the 'crib' safely till then." Lin Wu joked.

The eagle beast tilted her head in confusion, unable to understand the words Lin Wu had just used. Lin Wu saw the awkwardness and lightly coughed.

~cough~

"We should go and search for the underground temples." Lin Wu suggested.

"Alright…" The Eagle beast agreed before taking flight.

Lin Wu too flew up behind it at great speed, leaving Shirong wondering why the eagle beast had left.

"Strange…" Shirong muttered, unaware that the Eagle beast was not the only one that had left.

He looked at the spear in the ground with a smile on his face and spoke, "Haha, I'll be able to get the secrets of these ruins soon!" 

***

Once Lin Wu had gotten far enough from Shirong, he transformed back into his real form.

"You're quite big…" The eagle beast said upon seeing Lin Wu's true form, which was twice as big as her in size.

"Yeah, people say that a lot." Lin Wu chuckled.

"Though… are you sure you are a worm? I sense an aura similar to that of the Olive Viper King." The Eagle Beast said, narrowing her eyes and wondering if she had been tricked.

Lin Wu got a bit tensed and realized that the eagle beast couldn't tell that his aura was similar to that of the Olive Viper King due to him being 'equipped' by Shirong. This had made their auras mix and made it difficult for the Eagle Beast to tell them apart.

But now that she could fully sense Lin Wu's aura, which was revealed, she found it to be quite similar to that of her old enemy.

"I'm not related to the Olive Viper King if that's what you're thinking. Though we did get our cultivation and bloodline from the same thing." Lin Wu replied.

"The fallen star…" The Eagle beast muttered.

"Indeed." Lin Wu chimed in.

Seeing that the Eagle beast was still a bit unconvinced, Lin Wu decided to speak to her a bit more.

"Look, can the Olive Viper King change its shape and size?" Lin Wu asked the Eagle beast.

"No… not from what I've seen." The Eagle beast shook its head, which knocked away a few clouds in the process since she was flying at a great speed.

"See, I have different abilities than the Olive Viper King." Lin Wu stated.

"As for the Bloodline…" Lin Wu said in a deep tone as his eyes glowed crimson red and his body emerald green.

"MINE IS FAR SUPERIOR TO THAT SNAKE!"