Lin Wu had certainly not expected a beast like this to be hiding in the temple like this. Rather, he wondered how it got in here.

"No wait… perhaps it's been here since the start?" Lin Wu said as a thought came to his mind.

He observed the Specter Skull Hound which was growling at him and got ready to attack.

~Shua~

"Come at me, bitch!" Lin Wu said as he grew his body to the full size.

The Specter skull hound was over five meters tall, but even it was dwarfed by Lin Wu's body, which was over a hundred meters long. Even though he could not raise his body much more than ten meters in this hall, as that was its height, Lin Wu still looked massive.

Lin Wu's crimson eyes and emerald body glowed in the dark, creating an imposing presence that filled the hall. But while Lin Wu was doing this, he was also looking for the thing he had come here for.

'Where is the bloodline crystal of the Vermillion bird?' Lin Wu wondered.

His spirit sense searched the statue of the vermilion bird and soon found it to be hidden within its beak. The beak of this status was damaged as well and thus the crystal had fallen deeper into it.

Though another strange thing was Lin Wu did not feel the same intense desire that he had felt before.

"Why is this?" Lin Wu wondered.

'Still I guess it's better that I'm not affected by it with this guy here.' Lin Wu thought to himself.

He looked at the Specter Skull hound, which was still gazing at him without any eyes.

"Fuck it! I'll do it!" Lin Wu said before whipping his tail at the Specter Skull hound with a speed that was blinding.

~Swoosh~

His tail almost created a sonic boom and knockdown away all the dust in the hall in one go.

~boom~

The Specter Skull hound was hit square in its torso and crashed into the wall of the hall. But Lin Wu gave it no chance to respond and immediately lunged at the beast. This time his tail turned into a sharp blade that was covered with wind attribute spirit Qi.

~shing~

The blade like tail slashed at the Specter Skull Hound but missed.

~Crumble~

The tail ended up breaking a part of the wall instead as the Specter Skull Hound dodged it at the last moment.

"It's definitely more durable than the last one alright." Lin Wu stated upon seeing the minimal damage borne by the beast.

"But I have just gotten started…" Lin Wu said with a chuckle as he sent out a wind blade at the Specter Sulk hound.

~Grrrr~

The Specter Skull hound let out a growl and sent out a black mist from his mouth. This black mist met the wind blade and nullified it.

"This is new…" Lin Wu muttered before rushing at the beast.

~DENG~

~DENG~

~shing~

~Rumble~

Attack after attack was exchanged by the beasts, with no one coming out on top. Lin Wu was also taking this chance to practice his own moves now. He had not gotten many opportunities to fight a Nascent Soul realm beast before, and this was his second opponent.

Lin Wu couldn't tell what stage of the Nascent Soul realm was this Specter Skull Hound at, but it was definitely not at the same level as him. Even the system could not estimate it exactly as according to its records. All specter Skull hounds were of this size when they were at the Nascent Soul realm whether they were at the infant stage or the adult stage.

The battle between Lin Wu and the Specter Skull hound had been going for about an hour now. Both beasts had sustained several injuries by now, but Lin Wu was looking completely fine. He after all had the system to regenerate his injuries with the vital energy he had.

As for the Specter Skull hound, it had cracks on its mask like face while dark blood seeped out of the cuts on his body.

"I guess this should be enough practice for now… time to end this!" Lin Wu said with determination as waves of radiation emanated from his body, surrounding the Specter Skull hound completely.

~yelp~

The Specter Skull Hound let out a strange screeching yelp which Lin Wu identified as the same move the other one had used.

'It trying to attract those marsh ghosts, huh? Dunno if they can come this far in the ground, but I'm gonna have to end this before that.' Lin Wu thought as his eyes shimmered with a murderous intent.

***

Back at the surface. The Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle had been waiting for a long time now. It could not sense Lin Wu's position directly using his spirit sense, but the unique bloodline aura that came from his body was still like a beacon to her.

"What's he doing there? It's been a while…" The Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle muttered to herself.

It was now that a strange sound was heard by her.

~yelp~

The Silver Beak Sky Soar eagle's eyes turned sharp as it scoured the area with its spirit Qi.

"Humph! Pesky ghosts!" The eagle beast said, upon sensing that the beasts were about to appear.

~Piiii~

She then let out a loud chirp that traveled wide before opening her wings wide and flapping them.

"Be vanquished under the flames of the Vermillion bird!" The Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle proclaimed, as the flapping wings created flames that covered a large swathe of land.

~Crackle~

~shua~

The flames covered all the trees in a radius of ten kilometers and started to burn them.

~Qiyaaa~

The sound of the ghosts wailing could be heard echoing across the skies as they perished with the burning trees. Normally they should be impervious to attacks like this and even spirit Qi attacks would only interrupt them.

But these were no normal flames… these were the pure flames of the legendary vermilion bird!