At first, Wang Xiong couldn't underhand the words of Lin Wu. He could sense the aura and the fluctuations coming from him and they did seem to be at the core condensation realm like he had told him.

But then he thought over it more and realized that emphasis on 'current time'.

"Wait senior you said current time, you mean…" Wang Xiong spoke with hesitation.

"Yes, your guess is correct. My cultivation base has regressed as I have been dormant in sleep for all these years, waiting for a contender to come and pass the trials." Lin Wu explained.

Wang Xiong nodded his head as his doubts were confirmed. If it were that Lin Wu was naturally at the core condensation realm, it wouldn't have made sense for him to stay alive all this time.

"So senior what do we do now?" Wang Xiong asked.

"I think you've seen the carvings on your way here and also the shadow calamity in the trials right?" Lin Wu asked.

"Yes, senior. I did very well." Wang Xiong replied.

"Our master, the Taiji Celestial was the one who had defeated the shadow calamity. The shadow calamity was a strange phenomenon that had gained consciousness. It then spread across multiple words and started to consume them as you had seen.

It would infect the creatures living on that planet and cause them to mutate into what are called the Shadow Dread beasts." Lin Wu explained.

Wang Xiong was amazed at this information and wondered how strong the Taiji Celestial would exactly be. He had seen the shadow tide and just one of them was enough to kill them and he was unable to go against it.

If there were more of them on the entire planet and then even more across the worlds, he couldn't even imagine how someone would fight against that. And yet even then his new master had accomplished that very thing.

"Does that mean this world was also once affected by the Shadow calamity?" Wang Xiong questioned.

"Yes, it was. Master left inheritances at every place that was affected by the shadow calamity spread in hopes that when it arises again in the future when he is gone, he would have more people that would be able to deal with it." Lin Wu answered.

"In the future? You mean the shadow calamity is not gone? But I thought the Taiji Celestial defeated it as you said." Wang Xiong asked further.

Lin Wu slightly nodded his head as the conversation was going, just as he had wished for it to go. With a few lies here and there along with the truth as the base, he was able to weave a plot beneficial to himself.

"The shadow calamity is not gone yet. Master predicted that it would return in the future and would be even stronger than before. You see, the shadow calamity evolves over time as it spreads across the worlds.

Those shadow dread beasts you saw, those were not present when the shadow calamity first appeared. It only gained that ability later on. It is likely that it has gone dormant as well, somewhere.

The most likely place would of course be the planets where it spread originally. It doesn't need to be as big as it was to survive. Even a bare sliver of it can last for many millennia and then grow back to its full potential when the time is right and the conditions favorable." Lin Wu explained.

Wang Xiong had an anxious expression on his face upon hearing this and he couldn't help but think the worse.

~gulp~

"Do you think the shadow calamity will arise on this world?" Wang Xiong questioned.

"Will arise? No… it already has…" Lin Wu revealed.

"WHAT! But we haven't seen anything like that yet." Wang Xiong said.

"I know. I fear that it has changed its form greatly and is likely to be hidden. Still, I can sense its presence on this world, although it is faint." Lin Wu explained.

Wang Xiong no longer had the strong demeanor that he had with his companions now. He looked to be anxious and was gripping his Guan Dao tightly.

"What should we do now senior?" Wang Xiong asked after thinking for a bit.

"Well, master left behind a few instructions in the past. The first was to find a few disciples and train them. The second was to form an organization that could provide us with a base and then finally the third, to gain power in the world and be the strongest. After all, our master is the Taiji Celestial, we would be dishonoring his name if we were weaker than the other powers of this world." Lin Wu answered.

Wang Xiong's eyes went wide upon hearing this, and he could imagine the implications of it. He felt nervousness and excitement at the same time. After all, wasn't this exactly what he wanted? Power so that he could stand tall proud and not having to serve the whims of others?

He cupped his hands in a salute, and a determined expression appeared on his face.

"Please teach me senior!" He said.

Lin Wu nodded his head in appreciation upon seeing this and thought for a bit before speaking.

"Alright then. I shall accept you as a disciple in the master's stead!" Lin Wu said before a powerful presence exuded from him.

Wang Xiong's eyes went wide as he felt the pressure coming from Lin Wu. He felt as if a certain kind of energy was suppressing his spirit Qi and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't muster it.

'What power! What kind of cultivation base must he have in the past if he can suppress my cultivation base and spirit Qi just by the virtue of his presence?' Wang Xiong thought with awe.

Lin Wu extended his tail and placed the tip on Wang Xiong's forehead. He wasn't fully sure if this was going to work, but he hoped for it.

"Alright system, you take over from here."

~Shua~