Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

On the map, Lin Wu could see that Wang Xiong was rapidly approaching the Frozen Cloud sect. He seemed to be about an hour ago, though his speed was certainly considerable.

"Is he on something? That marker seems to be a little too big…" Lin Wu said before zooming in on the map.

"Oh? It's a boat?" Lin Wu noted.

~DING~

——

ANSWER: The object that the host can see on the map is a spirit boat.

——

"So that's what it is…" Lin Wu muttered.

He knew of the spirit boats as they were one of the common forms of transportation in the world used by cultivators. They came under a category of spirit tools as well and were generally referred to as spirit vehicles.

There were many kinds of them with conventional forms like boats, ships, carts, carriages, all the way to more unique forms like swords, compasses, and many more. The platform that Lin Wu and Zhu Tianying used to fly around in the Dread Coil Marsh was a form of a spirit vehicle as well.

The strange thing was that even after spending time in the sect and listening to the conversation of others, Lin Wu had still not learned where Wang Xiong had gone to exactly. Even Ye Jin did not speak one word about it, only mentioning that he was out on a mission and will be back when he's done.

"There is certainly some level of secrecy going on if they are not speaking about it at all." Lin Wu reckoned.

Soon, Wang Xiong reached the sect and was met with a small entourage of his people. He briefly talked before quickly entering his private courtyard along with the closest of his people.

Lin Wu too decided to hear in on the conversion and see what happened to him.

"Did you manage to solve the problem, Senior?" One of Wang Xiong's subordinates, named Kai asked.

~Sigh~

"Unfortunately not… whatever that beast is, it has forced the merchant Lai Hai to sell of the mines to the highest bidder. Since we were unable to solve the problem, he did not want to make any more losses." Wang Xiong replied.

"Then… did the Frozen Cliff members take over the mine?" he asked further.

"Thankfully no. It is currently in the hands of a local clan called Juntai. They are a neutral power of that region, but I do not trust that the mines would be with them for long enough.

The members of the Frozen Cliff division are bound to interfere soon enough. They are simply waiting for us to lose the influence there." Wang Xiong replied.

"And what about the cooperations with the merchant unions of the south?" Ye Jing questioned next.

"That was also inconclusive… those merchants are really devious… no less shrewd than our own elders." Wang Xiong said.

Overall it did look like he was exhausted from the work and needed to rest. The small group discussed a bit more for less than ten minutes before Ye Jin quickly sent everyone out to allow Wang Xiong to rest.

~clack~

The door of the courtyard closed and Ye Jin approached Wang Xiong, who was rubbing his forehead. She came to sit behind him and started to massage his shoulders.

"Was it really fine going there yourself? If it was really necessary, I could have gone there too. Now all the eyes are on you again." Ye Jin said in a light voice.

~Sigh~

"They really forced our hand this time. Elder Gun Kai managed to get his way in the end." Wang Xiong said.

"Ugh, that man will never stop, will he? Even if he is not getting any benefits, he wants to sabotage all our working relationships with the others." Ye Jin said in a frustrated voice.

"Indeed…" Wang Xiong replied.

"Are we really that helpless? Will patriarch not interfere either?" Ye Jin asked.

"If he could do that, he would have already done it. But the supreme elder is holding him back as well. They cannot break the balance in the power right now, or the consequences will be really bad." Wang Xiong repelled.

Ye Jin didn't know what to say either and thus kept silent.

"If only senior was out of seclusion…" Wang Xiong muttered to himself.

Ye Jin knew about who Wang Xiong was talking about and had seen him mention him many times. At this point, she was really curious about who the senior Wang Xiong talked about was like.

"WANG XIONG!" Suddenly, a loud noise was heard in the courtyard. 

It echoed several times in the courtyard, yet strangely it never left it. It was as if the courtyard was fully enclosed.

~shua~

At the same time, some formations could be seen appearing around the courtyard. They could only be seen from the inner side and nothing could be seen from the outside.

"W-who!?" Ye Jin was startled by the voice.

The voice was strange, and she had never heard it before. It seemed inhuman to her and the power contained within it, sent shivers down her spine. Ye Jin's hands started to tremble and she didn't even realize.

Her thoughts went to the formations and she wondered if someone had managed to infiltrate this far inside their area. 

'Did some expert decided to interfere on behalf of the Frozen Cliff division?' Ye Jin wondered.

But Wang Xiong's reaction was completely different. While he too, was shocked, he was not scared. Instead, he was a bit overwhelmed at first and then joy appeared on his face.

"SENIOR!? SENIOR, YOU'RE HERE?" Wang Xiong called out.

"Seems like in my absence you have lost yourself a little…" Lin Wu's voice was heard again.

~RUMBLE~

At the same time, the ground started to shake and tremble.

Ye Jin forcefully held onto Wang Xiong and was scared of what was happening. Her mind couldn't even comprehend what Wang Xiong had just said, due to the fear that clouded it instead.

All her instincts told her to escape right here, right now; they told her that whoever was about to appear was not something they could deal with.