Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

While Elder Qianshu had healed and opened his eyes, Tian Han had done the same.

Even though his eyes were closest to the source of the bright light, he surprisingly found that he wasn't blinded. He had heard the cries of the elders and knew that they were suffering far worse than him.

'There is a warm energy preventing me from being blinded…' Tian Han realized.

He could feel a warm energy coming from deep inside his head and spreading to his eyes. The burning sensation of the bright light faded away quickly, and he was able to see again.

But when he opened them, he saw the confused Elder Qianshu looking at him and questioning.

"You… DIE!" Elder Qianshu's confusion switched to anger as he sent out more Frost Seeking Palms.

But just as he executed the technique, he realized that nothing happened.

"Huh?" He looked at his hands and saw that no spirit Qi was leaving them. 

Instead, he could now see a pale yellow substance around him and all the elders. 

'What is this?' Without his spirit sense, Elder Qianshu couldn't perceive this energy.

In fact, it had been present here since the moment he had used his spirit sense, but due to it being rapidly corroded, he had not felt it. And only now had it changed from a transparent form to this pale yellow form.

~THUD~ THUD~

Several sounds were heard coming from the back of Elder Qianshu, forcing him to look there.

~COUGH~

~UGH~

He then witnessed several of the remaining elders collapsing onto their knees. Some of them were coughing violently, while some of them had started vomiting as well. 

"MY SKIN! IT BURNS!!!"

"IT ITCHES! IT ITCHES SO BAD!!!"

A few of the weaker elders were suffering even worse and started to scratch their skin. They didn't stop even when blood was drawn and kept on going until their nails were deep into their flesh.

Pieces of meat and bone were forcefully dug out by the elders, their sense of preservation having fallen many levels.

They couldn't think straight and didn't even realize what they were doing.

"ELDERS! ELDERS! STOP! I SAID STOP!" Elder Qianshu said, wanting it to end.

~puff~

But the things were only half done. More effects started to appear as one of the elders developed pustules on his face. From there, they spread and covered every inch of his skin. The pain he was bearing made him scream non stop.

"AARGHHHHHH!!!!" 

Elder Qianshu's eyes darted from one elder to another, witnessing them going through the same phases. 

He turned to look back at Tian Han, a mixture of fear and anger in his eyes.

"What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO!?" Elder Qianshu yelled.

But while he was yelling, he felt his skin start to itch as well. 

"No…" he muttered and looked at his palms.

Yellow bumps appeared on them and soon started to rise. 

By now, he had forgotten about the enemy in front and his mentality started to dive downwards.

"No! No! No!" remembering the horrifying scene of the other elders suffering made Elder Qianshu shudder.

"HOW CAN THIS HAPPENS TO ME! I AM THE CHOSEN ONE! I WAS TO BE THE PATRIARCH!" Elder Qianshu shouted in vain as pustules covered more of his skin.

The burning sensation started to appear as well, and he was barely able to resist scratching his itch. 

'Heavens! What even is this?' Tian Han shouted in his mind, unable to utter a word at the terrifying scene.

He was no less scared than Elder Qianshu and soon realized that he might be in the same wait.

"NO! CAN'T BE!" Tian Han panicked and hurriedly looked at his body.

But after a few seconds of checking, he was taken aback.

"Huh… nothing happened?" Tian Han was confused.

~Humm~

And just as he said that, the spirit Qi infusion that was occurring all this while finally stopped. Tian Han felt his control of his cultivation base returning slightly. While he couldn't use his spirit Qi as his meridians and Dantian were injured, he could still use his spirit sense.

Using that, he probed his body and discovered that all his injuries were healing now. Not only that, he also 'saw' the spot in the center of his brows that was glowing. 

"What is this?" Tian Han said, carefully touching it.

It felt warm to the touch, but at the same time there was a hard surface there. Tian Han could also feel something brushing his finger, as if air was breezing over his skin.

"This energy… it's coming from my head?" Tian Han was confused.

~step~step~step~

While Tian Han was wondering about it all, a few footsteps were heard from his back.

"You… What forbidden technique did you use? What kind of a poison is this?" Tian Chu said fearfully.

She had seen each and every scene from the start to now. In fact, she had seen even more then Tian Han as she had not lost her vision being far away and not looking at the flash of light directly.

She had seen some kind of a jet coming out of Tian Han's head. 

'Was he given some other technique or item by his father? Or Elder Jigou? Or anyone else?' Tian Chu wondered.

Since Tian Han had that sword which could display the power of a Dao Shell realm expert, she thought a poison like this might also be a trump card the man had hidden away or obtained later.

Tian Han who heard the words, turned to look at his cousin, confusion still apparent on his face.

"Me? I didn't do anything." Tian Han said. "I don't even know what all this is!" He said, feeling a bit frustrated.

~gulp~

Tian Chu didn't know what to say to this, but deep down she felt that Tian Han was not lying.

"W-we should leave! We don't know what else will happen now! We should take this chance to run!" Tian Han hurriedly said.

~TREMBLE~

At the same time, they could feel the ground shaking faintly.