Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

Lin Wu felt like coming to the Di Guan mines was way useful than he had trigonally thought now.

"All this is way more valuable than normal spirit stones." Lin Wu said as he checked everything.

He took out a few samples from the walls so that the system could analyze them in the background. All the materials had different properties and could be used in many different ways.

There were materials here that could be used for spirit weapon forging, for alchemical pill refinement, formation creation, and even something obscure, like divination. Lin Wu didn't even know how such a vast variety of materials could be formed here.

"How is this possible?" Lin Wu wondered.

~DING~

——

ANSWER: According to the system's analysis, the Earthers Depths obsidian acted like an incubation chamber, and various kinds of energies were trapped within it along with small amounts of minerals. 

Over time, spirit Qi in them got concentrated and they started to morph and grow into different forms. And due to the insulating properties of the Earthen Depths obsidian, it managed to stay like this for a long enough time for the different energies to separate along with the different materials that contained them.

——

Seeing the answer of the system, Lin Wu was intrigued.

"Hmm… so basically what was supposed to be impurities mixed in an almost homogeneous manner were all separated out and nurtured out over a long time to form all these materials." Lin Wu summarized.

"That is amazing…" Lin Wu couldn't help but say.

He continued exploring a bit more and soon found the center of the area. This was a hollow space and was covered in several shining crystals.

"Is this a spirit stone mine?" Lin Wu was shocked again.

"Affirmative." The system replied.

"Damn! No wonder those materials formed so perfectly. They had a steady source of spirit Qi!" Lin Wu exclaimed.

  He looked in the more central area and could feel the concentrated spirit Qi that was hidden within it. It faintly exuded more and more spirit Qi, which Lin Wu could tell was freshly produced.

"That should be the source vein. What grade is this, though?" Lin Wu questioned.

~DING~

——

ANSWER: While the size of this spirit stone mine is very small compared to a normal mine, it is still a mid grade spirit stone mine. The growth of other materials has suppressed it from expanding naturally.

——

Lin Wu nodded his head upon seeing this, as it wasn't a bad thing either. 

'Its value is actually more due to the other materials…' Lin Wu muttered.

This was because even if the materials were minded out, the spirit stone mine will still keep on working normally. It might even spread more and continue expanding, reaching its normal size after a century or two.

~Keeeeeee~

It was now that Lin Wu heard a noise coming from the side.

~WARNING!~

——

NOTIFICATION: Beast detected approaching at great speed.

—— 

Lin Wu snapped toward the direction where the beast was coming from and was surprised. This was because he had not felt the beast nor its presence yet. His spirit sense had been working the entire time and still could not perceive it.

~CLANG~

His body felt like it was hit by a cannonball, but he still managed to hold his ground. After all he was incredibly heavy. Lin Wu's tail slimmed down and quickly wrapped around the object that had just hit him.

~KREEE~

The beast which had now been caught by Lin Wu cried out in protest and he could finally take a look at it. But when he did, he was astonished.

"IT'S YOU?!" Lin Wu said out loud.

The beast in Lin Wu's grasp was none other than the Copper Hide Weasel. Although its form seemed to have changed quite a bit now. It no longer had the copper colored fur it used to. 

Instead of that, it had become inky black and had patches of brown in between. Its claws were also metallic and so were its teeth. They shined like they had been polished for hundreds of hours by an expert craftsman.

Nothing made sense to Lin Wu and he wondered what had just happened.

"STOP SQUIRMING!" Lin Wu shouted.

The Weasel looked at Lin Wu and its eyes squinted as if thinking. 

"FOOD SNAKE!" It suddenly shouted.

"I'm not a snake!" Lin Wu replied. "And I'm not food either!" Lin Wu stated as a matter of fact.

But the weasel did not care and started munching on Lin Wu's body.

"Dammit, it's still dumb." Lin Wu cursed.

Fortunately, Lin Wu's body was far too durable to be broken by the weasel. 

'Is he even a copper hide weasel now?' Lin Wu wondered.

"System scan him and checks what's up with him." Lin Wu ordered.

~DING~

——

SCANNER ACTIVATED: Target Selected

SCAN COMPLETED: Target identified

TARGET: Copper Hide Weasel (Mutated)

CULTIVATION BASE: Adult Soul Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm

INFO: The Copper Hide Weasel seems to have mutated due to the consumption of various materials here. The system can identify high concentrations of Earthen Depths Obsidian in its fur and bones.

Its flesh and blood are concentrated in multiple different forms of energies. Yet even then they seem to be in a harmony and are still keeping his body intact. The weasel beast's spirit Qi meridians though, have been mutated in a strange manner and do not conduct spirit Qi in the normal form.

According to the system's analysis, the weasel beast cannot use any spirit Qi skills or even Qi amplification due to the changes in his meridians. Instead, his meridians are fully dedicated in nourishing his body and are limited to his internals.

His peripheral meridians are almost absent, while his internal meridians have expanded in thickness.

The system can also detect some brain irregularities that were possibly caused due to long term exposure to the effects of the agitation jade.

——

Lin Wu furrowed his brows upon reading this. 

"So from what I'm seeing… he randomly ate everything he came across and mutated, but the mutation crippled his meridians and his body further adapted to it." Lin Wu spoke.

"Affirmative." The system replied.

"That's really weird. I don't know if it's lucky or not." Lin Wu muttered.

Though there was one thing Lin Wu knew for sure, the weasel beast was now a unique beast and possibly a good subject.

"What do you think we should do system?" Lin Wu asked.

~DING~

——

SUGGESTION: The system suggests putting the Weasel beast under observation. The unique balance that its body has achieved despite the damage to the meridians gives clue to a greater adaptability ability.

The system can gather more data and update the data banks. It might even be able to gain father insight into bloodline compatibilities.

——

"I see…" Lin Wu thought over the system's words and found them to be fine.

Right now, Lin Wu had hundreds of raw bloodlines that he had obtained. But all of them could not be used due to being incompatible. While a few of them could be changed to be made use of, they would still not be useful when Lin Wu added more of them.

The bloodlines had small fractions of beneficial traits in them that the system had identified. The only problem was that they could not be used together. 

'If the system can truly figure it out, I might be able to grow my power even more.' Lin Wu thought to himself.

~clack~clack~clack~

While Lin Wu was thinking this, the Weasel beast continue to nibble on his body but was unable to really do anything. Lin Wu looked at it and couldn't help but chuckle.

"He really is dumb and those agitation jades probably didn't help him much." Lin Wu said.

~Sigh~

"Alright! Listen to me," Lin Wu said to the weasel while bonking him on his head.

~thud~

~KREEE~

"I SAID LISTEN TO ME, YOU LITTLE WEASEL!" Lin Wu said out loud.

Finally, the beast seemed to have understood that Lin Wu was speaking to him and paid attention to him.

"What? Eat time?" The Weasel said.

"No, eat time! It's listening time!" Lin Wu replied.

"Listening time? What get I? Eat time better!" The Weasel spoke instead.

In response to this, Lin Wu sprouted a small crystal from his body and injected some vital energy and spirit Qi into it.

"If you listen to me, you get this." Lin Wu waved the crystal.

"You want this, right? Good food! Very tasty!" Lin Wu enticed.

The Weasel Beast looked at the crystal and followed it with his eyes as it moved around.

"I get food! I follow!" The Weasel replied.

"Good, at least you have some sense." Lin Wu said and gave the crystal to the weasel.

He quickly grasped onto it with his claws and started munching on it. The crystal was weaker than Lin Wu's normal level and was still eatable by the Weasel. In a few bites, it had already bitten off half of the crystal and in two minutes he had eaten it whole.

And once he was done, he got sluggish and calmed down. 

"Huh, seems like stuffing his belly worked." Lin Wu muttered.

"Me want more," The Weasel stated.

"And you will get more, IF you follow my orders." Lin Wu replied.

The Weasel looked at Lin Wu without moving its eyes and finally spoke. "Okay." 

"Good, now I'm gonna let go of you. Don't you run away!" Lin Wu warned, and put the weasel down.

Lin Wu was half sure that the weasel would not listen, but surprisingly, it did.

'Hmm… so hunger makes it antsy and feeding him makes him more tame."