Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

"Senior Lin Wu has returned rather quickly." Ye Jin spoke.

"I know, even I did not expect him to return this fast. I fully expected him to be gone for at least a couple of months." Wang Xiong replied.

"You have experience with that?" Ye Jin asked, feeling curious.

"Well… I don't know what Senior did exactly. But that's just how much communication I had with him in the past. He would barely contact me a couple of times in a year." Wang Xiong replied. "So I just guessed based on that estimate." He added.

"I see. But we do have the means to contact him directly, so that maybe the restricting factor back then." Ye Jin replied.

"Possibly, yeah." Wang Xiong nodded in agreement.

The two of them were flying towards a location that had been designated as a meeting point by Lin Wu. It was a sufficient distance away from the Frozen Cloud sect such that the elders of the sect shouldn't detect Lin Wu.

He had decided to be a bit cautious after seeing Tian Han's spirit tools and bet on the fact that there would be someone else with such tools or similar skills in the sect. So far, he had been lucky when he infiltrated the sect, but this time there was no Yun Bai there.

The man would be able to cover for Lin Wu if he was there, but since he had not returned yet, doing so would be unwise. Additionally, the little battle that Yun Bai and Lin Wu had back then had alerted a few strong experts of the sect and Lin Wu didn't want to alert them again, just in case they were keeping an eye.

And thus, Wang Xiong and Ye Jin had no option but to leave the sect to meet with him.

"There it is. That should be the place." Wang Xiong said as he pointed towards a certain area.

It was a rocky hill that was bare of any trees and there was a lake that was attached to its base. It seemed like over many years, the rain had washed over the soil from the hill and left behind only a rocky core.

The rain water then accumulated at its base to form the lake. It wasn't particular picturesque and there were also many spirit beasts that lived near it, thus no one really came here.

"I didn't even know there was a hill like this here." Ye Jin spoke.

"I've only passed by here a couple of times. I remember the first time I went past here, it still had some trees growing on it." Wang Xiong commented.

The two of them came to land beside the lake and looked around for Lin Wu.

"Where is Senior? I can feel him nearby, but can't estimate where he is exactly." Ye Jin wondered.

~Ripple~

And just as she said that, the water of the lake started to ripple. Faint tremors appeared in the ground, before a dark body could be seen in the depths of the water. 

~gush~

Then from the lake rose up the head of Lin Wu along with a part of his body. Sitting on one of his spikes was none other than Tim the weasel. Though he seemed to be irritated by the water and shaking it off from his body.

"Just in time." Lin Wu spoke.

"Senior!" Wang Xiong and Ye Jin cupped their hands in greeting.

"Do you know where Yun Bai is, or when he's coming back?" Lin Wu questioned.

"Guardian Yun? I thought he was in contact with you." Wang Xiong answered.

"No… while I did try to contact him, I couldn't. When did he leave the sect?" Lin Wu replied.

"Hmm, I can't tell exactly. But I went to see if he was there on his peaks after returning from the mine and couldn't enter it. The formation arrays blocked me from progression, which means that he wasn't on the peak." Wang Xiong explained.

"I guess he had left by then. He didn't say anything to you before leaving?" Lin Wu asked.

"No nothing. I don't even know when he left." Wang Xiong repeated.

Hearing this, Lin Wu couldn't help but furrow his brows.

'So we have no estimate on when he's going to come back and no way to contact him either.' Lin Wu understood.

While Lin Wu could very well leave for the forest and talk to Yun Bai later, he would prefer if it was done face to face since there were somethings best shown to him directly. Plus, Yun Bai was also likely to bring some records that Lin Wu would need to check physically to read.

"Did you want to ask 'us' anything?" Wang Xiong questioned, feeling a bit strange since Lin Wu could have very well asked them this through the communication link, unaware of the extra caution that the worm was taking now.

Until the system gave him the green signal that it had patched a few new vulnerabilities and cross checked them, to ensure they worked, Lin Wu would not dare to use the communication link in areas controlled by others.

"Ah yes, how are things going with Di Guan mines?" Lin Wu questioned.

"Oh! Everything is going really well due to the senior's help. We have already secured the area and assigned some people there temporarily. Ye Jin will work on expanding the numbers and make sure that everything is fine on the end of the sect as well, since we will be sending out disciples." Wang Xiong answered.

"Hmm… that's good—" Lin Wu was mid way to replying when he felt something and his aura changed.

"Tim! Attack them!" Lin Wu ordered as he rapidly sank back into the water and drilled back underground.

~KIIIIII~

The weasel needed little more to act and spun in the air while aiming towards the confused Wang Xiong and Ye Jin.

"W-what?" Wang Xiong hurriedly dodged and Ye Jin did the same.

They couldn't understand why Lin Wu would do something like this all of a sudden.