Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

"Whoa! Is this the place we have been looking for?" one of the disciples questioned.

"Seems like it considering how well kept it is." Another one of them answered.

"But it's not exactly how Chief disciple Wang Xiong described it." A female disciple said, her gaze cautious.

"Hmm… it could be the one we are looking for or something else altogether. But since we are here, we may as well check it." The Nascent soul realm senior disciple stated.

"As you say, senior brother." The disciples all replied.

They went up to the gate of the shrine and looked at it, feeling a bit stunned.

"It is well maintained… doesn't seem like it was abandoned or anything."

"Mmmhmm… perhaps someone is living here?"

"That can't be. If there was someone living there, won't they hide or keep the place to themselves? Who would let a place of such power be left in open?" 

Many questions were in the minds of the disciples and they wondered what was the truth. The senior disciple though, looked at the characters that were carved on the door and tried to read it.

His brows furrowed as he was unable to even recognize the words.

"Do you know what this means, senior brother?" the cautious female disciple questioned.

"I don't… it's in some unknown script." The senior brother said.

"Xiaoge aren't you always reading the history and old records and stuff? Come, tell us if you can recognize anything." One of the disciples asked a small girl at the back.

She had a meek expression and was short, being merely 150 centimeters tall. She scuttled to the front and took a closer look at the characters carved on the gate. Her gaze stayed on it for about five minutes, and she only looked away when she was called again.

"Xiaoge! Xiaoge! Speak… have you lost yourself again?" Her friend called out.

"This… I can't really tell what it is. But I've read this character in a book before." Xiaoge pointed.

"Oh? What is it and where did you read it?" The Nascent soul realm senior brother asked, feeling curious now.

"I saw it back when I was in my clan, the character's meaning is 'Perseverance'." Xiaoge answered.

"Your clan… the Tian clan?" The Senior brother muttered.

"I'm just from a small branch of the Tian clan," Xiaoge corrected, a slight hint of fear in her eyes.

"Okay, and this character means perseverance huh… interesting." The Nascent soul realm senior brother said.

Lin Wu who heard all this, was intrigued as well.

"I didn't think there would be someone else that would actually be able to recognize this… even the system could only do this after extrapolating and analyzing large amounts of data." Lin Wu muttered to himself.

And just as Lin Mu did this, he heard a notification from the system.

~DING~

——

ISSUING QUESTS: Visit the Tian clan and obtain their records

INFO: The system has run into an obstruction when searching the records of the Tian clan. Many such analytical streams lead to the conclusion that the Tian clan may have a lot of unknown information.

REWARD: Data bank update

——

"Oh? A quest? It's been a while since I got one." Lin Wu was surprised.

The system hadn't really given him quests in a long time and Lin Wu knew that it would only do so when it found something truly important. And this level of importance varied according to his cultivation base and power.

For example, the system wouldn't issue a quest for a spirit herb that could no longer help him now. Whereas if Lin Wu was still in the Qi refining realm, the system would be issuing him quests left and right.

Lin Wu had done what was basically… over-grinding, like one would in an RPG game. 

'Though now that I think of it… I've basically been doing one side quest after the other and kinda pushed the main quest to the side. Seems like some habits never die huh…' Lin Wu thought to himself.

His attention went back to the Tian clan, and he wondered what they were.

"System, what's the information that you have about the Tian clan for now?" Lin Wu questioned.

~DING~

——

ANSWER: The Tian clan is a relatively reserved clan that has little to no interactions with the secular world of the Long Continent. They use their weaker branches to interact with what little is absolutely necessary with the rest of the world.

Their exact powers and man power is unknown, but the clan heads of the branches are at the Nascent Soul realm. From this, the system can estimate that the main clan may very well have Dao Shell realm experts.

——

Seeing the information, Lin Wu was interested. The clan wasn't ranked in any way nor was it in any of the talks and conversations Lin Wu had listened to. They weren't in the information and records he had read about the continent, either.

"They've really managed to keep their working quite low… people only do that in worlds like these when they have something to hide or if they are really weak but smart. And in this case… I'm leaning on the former possibility." Lin Wu said, making up his mind to visit the Tian clan sometime.

There was no time limit on the quest, thus Lin Wu was free to visit it whenever he felt like it and there was no compulsion on him. Bringing his attention back to the situation at hand, Lin Wu saw how the disciples entered the courtyard of the shrine.

~CREAK~

The gate of the courtyard let out a loud creak. That was a bit usually harmonious. It didn't seem like it was like that due to age or degradation, but rather it seemed like it was just made like that specifically.

"Oh wow! This place is  better than the shrine in my clan!" Someone commented.

"Same here. Actually, this seems to be better than many capital city shrines as well.." Another disciple that was a bit more well-traveled added.