Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

Lin Wu didn't doubt that Tian Han was lying by now. His sense had grown good enough that he could judge falsehoods.

"Is he saying the truth, system?" Lin Wu asked.

"Affirmative." The system replied.

'Hmm… then what could it be. The most likely person to do it would be someone from the clan itself, since they won't have to deal with the formation array. And considering that the sword was given to help him, the most likely person would be someone who is close to Tian Han.' Lin Wu thought.

While Lin Wu was thinking, the silence only made Tian Han more and more nervous. He felt like his heart would jump out of his throat if he did not get a reply.

"Alright… we'll get to that later." Lin Wu replied. "But… I want to know how this beast is still alive." He added.

"Of course! How the hell is this Crocodile Head Wolf still alive? I thought the patriarch and elders killed it!" Tian Chu asked as well.

"They… they did kill it." Tian Han stuttered.

"And that's clearly false." Lin Wu spoke.

"They did kill it… but my father saved it secretly." Tian Han replied.

"Explain." Lin Wu stated.

Tian Han felt hesitance for a bit, but went ahead to explain the entire thing. By the end of it though, Tian Chu seemed to be angry.

"Seems like Elder Ruan has gone astray and no longer has the clan in his thoughts." Tian Chu scoffed.

Tian Han couldn't reply to it and only stay silent.

'So they thought they killed the beast by exploding it, but this elder Ruan actually pulled the wool over their eyes and used an illusion to replace the beast with another corpse.

He then later went to the place where he had sent the beast to using a short distance teleportation talisman and healed it just enough so that it won't die.' Lin Wu thought.

All this that Elder Ruan had done was so that he could tame the beast. The crocodile Head Wolf was a rather strong beast that had lived in the area for quite a long time and they had known about it for a while.

The Tian clan and the beast had even clashed several times, but it had never reached a point of death for either party. But then the beast finally overstepped and killed a few clan members, prompting the elders to go and hunt it down.

But Tian Ruan had some other thoughts and wanted trump cards of his own. Thus, he secretly saved the beast and even managed to control it in a roundabout way. They could use the sense of smell of the beast to make it ignore certain targets.

That was how Tian Han had managed to escape the sight of the beast. That, combined with another illusory spirit tool, made it even more effective and safe for the man.

Tian Han knew very well the beast was living here for the time being and had thus chosen this area intentionally so that he could let Tian Chu and the rest be killed by the beast.

He wanted to avoid being implicated by the clan's rules and be executed for fratricide. This was a way to avoid that and also get some leeway for being unable to complete the mission.

The appearance of a beast like this could be considered to be a valid excuse and would allow him to content for the position of the top clansmen, even if the mission was not a great success.

"Seems like there are some new undercurrents in the Tian Clan." Lin Wu said as he looked at Tian Chu. "Is there anything more you know about it?" he asked.

"No master. While there have indeed been some internal conflicts in the clan, they were mostly normal and nothing serious. The only major thing that is going on is the recruitment for the Main clan." Tian Chu answered.

"I see… then there is someone definitely interfering in this." Lin Wu spoke after thinking for a bit.

"You really think so, master? But what would they get from interfering with us? The Tian clan avoids most matters with the secular world and other powers. We keep to ourselves and have no known conflicts." Tian Chu asked.

"One doesn't need to have a conflict with your clan to antagonize it. If a party has something that another party wants… a conflict is inevitable. Especially since that can't be resolved through dialog." Lin Wu replied.

Lin Wu didn't need to hide much from Tian Chu since she was all but under his control now. She was the same as other beasts and could be killed at anytime Lin Wu wanted. But he probably won't need to do something like that ever, since she had willingly offered her support.

Lin Wu even went a bit further and let the system, implant some mental restrains on her that would prevent her from ever thinking of revolting or betraying him.

This was a new thing that they were testing out and Tian Chu was the perfect subject for it, since the restrains were something that needed the willingness of the subject to work as well.

It was why Lin Wu had picked Tian Chu as a servant for now. Tian Han was also a choice, but he didn't know if he would be the same as Tian Chu and fully accept it due to potentially having someone backing him.

That would add a mental diversion that would quite likely make the restrains fail.

"Then who could be behind it all?" Tian Chu couldn't help but wonder.

"If Tian Han doesn't know it, then we can explore a bit more." Lin Wu said and looked at the man. "Tell me… where is this Elder Jigou?" Lin Wu questioned.

Tian Chu looked at Tian Han as well and had a sharp gaze.

"He… he's in Tieba City." Tian Han answered.

"What!" Hearing this answer, Tian Chu was rather offended.

"What is someone like him doing in that rat hole of a city! No honorable person would go there… ever!" Tian Chu said out loud.