Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

The disciples gazed at the clean courtyard and the plants that were in it. The paved path, the auspicious statues and even the ponds were mesmerizing to them. There was a strange air in the place that calmed down their minds.

They continued to talk and talk, before eventually reaching the main building, which was nothing but the shrine inside. They came to a halt and hesitated to enter it.

"Are guests not going to come inside?" A voice suddenly came out of the shrine.

Hearing this, everyone was startled.

"W-who?!" The Nascent soul realm senior brother was stunned.

He couldn't tell who the voice belonged to and realized that there was no way to use his spirit sense, either. The entire courtyard was like a locked area where the spirit sense simply did not work.

It was as if there was a dense layer of iron around their bodies that prevented their spirit sense from coming out. The enthralling environment of the courtyard had completely made them forget to use their spirit sense.

The senior brother finally realized that they dropped their cautiousness entirely without even getting a hint of it happening. Cold sweat appeared on his back as he clenched his fist. He knew that the situation they were in was rather serious and if they did not deal with it properly, they might never go back.

~gulp~

"May we know who senior is?" The Senior brother asked carefully after assessing his options.

Since his spirit sense did not work and seeing his companions, it didn't seem like they could use it either; the man took the cautious approach and estimated the voice to belong to a far stronger cultivator.

"Why don't guests come inside and see?" The voice spoke.

Hearing this, the disciples were alarmed and wanted to run away right that moment. But something told them that if they tried something like that it would not bid well for them. They swallowed their saliva and forced their bodies to stand in place.

Lin Wu who had been observing everything, was also shocked.

"Damn, that monkey definitely took some drama classes! No way he learned how to act like a mysterious senior in the past few years. He didn't even know how to use the human tongue before." Lin Wu said.

He knew that among the beasts, there were very few that could speak the human tongue. At one point, everyone could do so, but it was certainly far higher than the Nascent Soul realm.

The ones that could do so before that either had unique physiques that allowed them to do so, or used other methods like metal communication to do. It wasn't that they didn't understand the human tongue, it was just that they could not physically speak it.

Of the beasts that Lin Wu had met till now, perhaps only the Slim arm ape king, the demon spine ape king and Zhu Tianying were able to do so naturally. If Lin Wu were to think of it, it seemed a bit obvious that monkey and ape beasts that were naturally closer to humans would be able to do so.

As for the second most likely beasts, it was none other than bird beasts, as could be seen from the normal mortal parrots and many such birds. 

Lin Wu himself was a weird anomaly and used alternative methods to speak. His own natural voice was a distorted screech that was terrifying to not only humans but other beasts.

He had to actively modify his voice using cellular manipulation and cellular crystallization to create unique structures that made speech when air passed through them. The system also helped him by modulating and adjusting the voice.

So far, Lin Wu hadn't really gained a particularly deep control over his cells such that he could use them directly as vocal chords, but hoped that as his skill level rose, he would be able to do so.

The Nascent soul realm senior brother deliberated for a bit, before finally making up his choice.

~Creak~

The door of the shrine was opened by the man and the inside of the shrine was finally visible. There they saw a statue of a man that looked valiant and cold. It was made rather skillfully and exuded a powerful aura despite not having any spirit Qi coming out of it.

There were no specific decorations inside the shrine, and it looked rather quaint. It was not that the decorations were missing, but instead, they were never needed in the first place.

But the most eye catching thing was none other than a person sitting in front of the statue. The person was sitting on his knees and seemed to be meditating. His back was towards the disciples, and they could feel the faint spirit Qi fluctuations coming from him.

'Nascent soul realm?' The Senior brother detected.

"A monk?" The disciples were surprised to see the attire of the person.

But the senior brother felt suspicion instead. And it was because of several points. The monk's hair seemed to be far too long, and it covered even his ears from what he could see from the back.

Another thing was the size of the monk. The man seemed to be bigger than most average humans. Just from comparing the chief disciple Wang Xiong, who was considered to be more of the bulky and buffer disciples in the Frozen Cloud sect, the man found the monk to be two sizes bigger.

"Welcome, guests." The Monk spoke.

~gulp~

"Who are you, senior, and what is this place?" A courageous disciple asked.

~Creak~

The floor boards creaked slightly as the monk stood up from his kneeling, meditative posture. Only now did the other disciples realize just how big the monk was. He was over 250 centimeters tall and seemed like he weighed several quintiles! 

And when the monk turned around, the disciples' surprise turned into shock.

"A B-Beast?" The Nascent soul realm disciple stuttered.

Lin Wu watched with rapt attention, not wanting to miss anything as more and more snacks flew into his mouth.

"Man the suspense…" He muttered as he munched.