Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

Shirong looked into the hall fearlessly while the others looked at him as well. 

'Humph! Puny attempt.' Shirong thought to himself.

~shua~

A wave of spirit Qi that combined his spear intent, the aura of the Immortal Sky Shaker art, and the killing intent he had developed over the years was sent out. As soon as this came into contract with the spirit sense of others, they were turned back.

It was like a deer had met a tiger and had no option but to escape. 

~gulp~

The only person who was unaffected was the old minister who was beside the king. All other Nascent soul realm cultivators, whether they be at the Infant soul stage or the Adult Stage were all affected by Shirong's defense.

"He's not simple… your majesty, be careful." The old minister spoke.

"Yes, senior Kong." The King spoke.

The minister who had just spoken was none other than the very same Senior Kong that Lin Wu had seen in the abode hidden in the mountains. It was evident that the man had returned to the capital and took up the position of a minister again.

Shirong also noticed the unaffected minister and knew that the man was above the Nascent Soul realm.

"Interesting…" Shirong muttered.

He wasn't afraid that they would attack him since once he stated his identity, they would have to be courteous to him even if they were a Dao Shell realm cultivator. The pressure brought on by the Ji clan was not light.

Besides, the two kingdoms Ivory Heron dynasty and the Ebony Duck dynasty were nothing but cash puppets in the hands of the Ji clan. It was due to them that they existed and the Ji clan reaped a part of their total profits from these two kingdoms.

The Ling Kingdom could also be considered to be a bit similar to this now, since Shirong had made them into an ally too. But this was under his own authority. These two kingdoms were not under his authority but directly under his father's thus, he couldn't fully control them either.

"Please enter," The King spoke.

The guard who had blocked Shirong's path quickly moved aside. The guard was already trembling and didn't know if he would have lived long enough. He was fully terrified and had decided that he would leave the capital today itself.

Shirong walked ahead and looked at everyone in the hall.

"Greetings King Cang Lu." Shirong cupped his hands.

"Who are you and why have you come here?" The king asked.

While Shirong had told who he was to the guard, they had not gotten the chance to tell the king and thus they didn't know about it yet.

"I am Ji Shirong… The heir of the Ji clan." Shirong revealed while holding out the token of the Ji clan.

The people in the hall were stunned upon seeing this. They had not expected they would receive someone like this today.

"How can this be?"

"Is it really someone from the Ji clan?"

"Didn't someone else from the Ji clan pass through the kingdom a year ago as well?"

Several questions were appearing in the minds of the court members and they didn't know what to think. The king was the same, but he decided to ask them straight.

"So it is Young master Shirong." The king also cupped his hands.

Senior Kong, who had been watching from the side, did the same and lowered his guard. Being one of the oldest and highest ranked people of the kingdom, the old man knew the underbelly of the kingdom and how things worked.

He knew that while the Ivory Heron kingdom was independent on the surface, a lot of its interests were tied with the Ji clan. They were simply lucky that the Ji clan never really interfered in the workings of their kingdom and only took some amount of assets as a tribute.

In fact, Senior Kong was secretly pleased that Shirong was here now. He had known that the current situation was not something that could be handled by them easily, as the threat of a Dao Treading realm beast was very high.

But requesting the Ji clan for help was also not an easy task and they would have had to wait a while to obtain it. Though now that Shirong was here, it would be far simple he thorough. Especially with his identity as that of the heir of the Ji clan.

"Greetings Young Master Shirong, I am Ou Kong." The old man introduced himself.

Hearing this, Shirong along with several members of the court were intrigued. There were a lot of members who actually did not know who Ou Kong was. The king simply called him Senior Kong, which showed the level of respect he commanded.

At most, they assumed that he was one of the retired elders of the Royal family that seldom showed themselves. His appearance at this time was obvious due to his identity and strength. The Nascent soul realm cultivators here could tell that Ou Kong was far stronger than them and thus were respectful to him as well.

'Didn't think I would see him here… wasn't he one of the disciples of external elder Simu?' Shirong recalled having read about this man.

While he had never met him before, Shirong did know the names of a sizable number of people that were linked to the Ji clan. 

"Seems like Elder Simu would have been proud of you if he was still here." Shirong said.

Hearing the name of his late master, Ou Kong sighed to himself.

"It's been a long time since I heard master's name… oh how I wish he was still here with us." Ou Kong replied.

"Indeed. From what I've heard, he was a dedicated external elder and did a lot of work for the Ji clan." Shirong nodded his head.

Hearing this information, even the King was shocked. He had not known there was such background behind Ou Kong. The other ministers were even more shocked that one of the royal elders was the dispels of a Ji Clan external elder.

Though hearing this also made them a bit proud since they had someone backed by the Ji clan among them. But what they didn't know was that Ou Kong had no influence on the Ji clan.

Compared to the King he was even lower than that. This was due to the fact that the disciples of the external elders would not get a rank in the Ji clan unless they became an external elder themselves or were taken in by the clan.

This was a very rare opportunity that many took seriously and look forward to. Unfortunately for Ou Kong, this never came as his talent wasn't as high as his other fellow disciples and they managed to take up the position of an external elder first.

The King didn't question what Shirong had just spoken, plus it also severed as an additional verification to his identity. The identity of a Ji clan member could be faked, albeit with great difficultly, but such information that Shirong had spoken would be impossible unless one was a member of the Ji clan.

As for the identity of an heir, there were no doubts since it was confirmed that Shirong was a Ji clan member. And if one was a Ji clan member, they would never falsely claim to be the heir to it.

Doing so was basically asking one to get executed, as the Ji clan would not take falsehoods like that lightly.

If someone had claimed they were the heir of the Ji clan and even had the token, they might actually be fooling others. But with the information stated, Shirong had proved it now that he truly was who he said he was.

It was a covert way of proving his identity to the people that mattered. 

"Please take a seat, Young Master Shirong. We'll take after that." King Cang Lu said.

Shirong nodded and sat down before looking at the king.

"I believe you asked me why I was here?" Shirong asked.

"Yes, Young master." The King replied.

"The main reason for it is something I can't say as of now, but at this moment, I am here to learn about what happened to the Dread Coil Marsh." Shirong answered.

"I see…" the King said, finding it to be good.

To him, if Shirong was inquiring about their situation, it meant that he was either here to help or would probably get his clan to help. Either of these options was beneficial to them, and they were pleased with it.

"Very well, young master. I shall tell you all that I know." The King said before looking at the rest of the people in the hall. "The rest should focus and listen as well, as this will be the information which could not be revealed to the commoners and I believe you want to know it as well." He added.