Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

Following the path that was shown by the fallen stalactites, Lin Wu finally reached the deeper levels of the Dark Bloom Caverns. On the way, he had seen many branches and forks in the path, which would be dizzying for the average person.

There were simply too many routes and blind ends, turning the place into a labyrinth. 

"Wonder how the Twin Lights Liger King even managed to find the path. Did he try for many years or something like that?" Lin Wu wondered.

He ended up traveling for another day before he finally reached what looked to be the deepest part of the Dark Bloom Caverns. Lin Wu didn't know just how deep he had come, but it was probably a few kilometers deep at this point.

"What the heck!" Lin Wu couldn't help but exclaim upon seeing what was inside the final cave.

Multiple layers of barriers were covering something that could not be seen. There were millions of runes floating around, their functions seemingly unknown for now. There were also carved formations on the floor which were actually uniformly flat.

It was obvious that it had been made like that manually and intentionally. The runes carved on the floor also looked to be well detailed, and it didn't look like they were that old. But from the faint aura that they exuded, Lin Wu could tell that they were ancient at this point.

"Just what is this place… is that the power source that the system was talking about?" Lin Wu questioned.

The multiple barriers made it hard to see what was actually behind them, thus Lin Wu could only guess.

"Is it a spirit Qi spring? A mine? Or something else entirely?" Lin Wu wondered.

These were the most common spirit Qi sources that came to Lin Wu's mind and were used by many people. But the protection used here seemed to be a little too much for things like that.

"Just what could be behind it?" Lin Wu wondered and got closer.

His spirit sense had already checked everything and he hadn't found anything dangerous to be here. Regardless, Lin Wu carefully approached the barriers and came to stand in front of them.

~WARNING~

~WARNING!~

~WARNING~

All of a sudden, the system sent out warnings and Lin Wu got into a defensive stance. The system didn't even get the opportunity to tell just what kind of a danger it was due to the interference field, but still managed to pick up something from the passive sensing.

~SHING~

Spikes sprouted from Lin Wu's body, looking extremely gruesome. This was one of the defensive abilities that Lin Wu had devised. Anything that attacked him was bound to get hurt as long as they did so physically.

The spikes also helped in blocking ranged energy attacks, as they would dampen the force of impact and would be the first to break off in case of excess damage. This would prevent the damage from traveling to Lin Wu's body.

Radiation swirled around Lin Wu's body and suppressed the spirit Qi in the area. This would also prevent spirit Qi based energy attacks from being used easily. It could even prevent the spirit sense of others from approaching Lin Wu.

Taking a two pronged approach, Lin Wu opened his mouth as energy started to gather inside it.

"I'll blast every MOFO that gets near me! Try me, bitch!" Lin Wu said as his eyes glowed.

But the danger that Lin Wu was looking for never approached. 

"Huh? Why a warning then?" Lin Wu questioned.

"Finally…" It was then that a raspy voice was heard from behind him.

Lin Wu's eyes flipped to the back and saw the source of the voice.

In front of Lin Wu, he could see a pair of black eyes watching him from inside the barriers. They were large… larger than the entire body of Lin Wu and looked terrifying. The pupils of the eyes were acid green in color.

But the strangest thing was that there was nothing attached to the eyes. They were just a pair of eyes floating in the air. Though if one looked closer, they would see that there were faint wisps of something fluid emanating from their edges.

"Finally, someone else managed to reach this place…" The eyes spoke.

That was right… the eyes were speaking. The edges of the eyelids had small teeth, and the eye blinked like lips talking.

"W-what… W-who are you?" Lin Wu questioned and continued to charge energy in his mouth. 

"Oh? A beast that can speak? That was unexpected… I never thought I'd see one speak in this world." The eyes spoke.

The eyes closed for a few seconds, as if thinking and then opened again.

"Hmm… doesn't matter. Even if it's a beast it is fine…" the eyes spoke and then started into Lin Wu's eyes.

"Tell me… Little snake… do you want power?" The eyes spoke.

"I'm a worm," Lin Wu interrupted and continued to charge the energy in his mouth.

The size of the energy ball in his mouth started from a pea size and was now about the size of a basket ball. Of course, in Lin Wu's mouth, it looked rather small even now.

"Okay… Little worm, do you want power? Do you want to be more than just a worm?" The eyes spoke.

Lin Wu didn't know what the eyes were getting at, thus decided to engage it for a bit. At least until his attack was ready to be launched.

"Umm… Sure?" Lin Wu said.

The eyes went still and started at Lin Wu for a bit before speaking again.

"You seem to not believe me?" The eyes spoke.

"No, I fully believe you, 100%. Trust me," Lin Wu said as the energy ball in his mouth reached half of its full size.

"You say you trust me. But your body seemed to be saying something else." The eyes said, looking at the energy gathering in Lin Wu's mind.

"Oh, this? I just have indigestion. Lemme puke and I'll be fine.." Lin Wu replied in a deadpan voice.