Seeing that Shirong had decided to reveal his identity and use the influencer card, Lin Wu didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"They killed your uncle without much. Do you think they will not do the same now? They definitely don't care for the opinion of other powers." Lin Wu couldn't help but say.

Alas, Shirong didn't get to hear that or he would have definitely been shocked. But the reason why Lin Wu was even more sure of how the followers of the Skull god would act was the fact that they were inexplicably linked to the Shadow calamity.

And if they were linked to something this strong, then the powers of this world would not really fare well against them.

"AHAHAHA!" Suddenly, the child started to laugh.

This brought Lin Wu's attention to him and he felt that he was truly thinking right. The Dao Shell realm cultivator was laughing in ridicule.

"Ahahaha!" The child continued to laugh as if he had heard the world's biggest joke.

Seeing this Shirong felt infuriated.

"What are you laughing about? Don't tell me you get scared to insanity?" Shirong said out loud.

"Huh?" Upon hearing the words of Shirong, the child stopped laughing and looked at him. "Do you think I care about the Ji clan? While they may be powerful, they will still take a long time to reach this place." He added.

Shirong narrowed his eyes and knew that it was true. Even if he died here and the soul flame lamp in his clan died out, they will still take a long time to find out the exact location. This was the reason why the Ji clan was investigating this location in the first place.

None of the powers of the world currently had a full idea about what had happened in the Dread Coil Marsh and why it was so strange and dangerous.

"Even if you die, and the Ji clan comes here, we would be long gone and our power would be the strongest in the world!" The child exclaimed with a hint of insanity in his eyes.

"Besides, I'm sure the Ji clan will never find out because I'm not going to kill you." The Dao Shell realm cultivator spoke.

"Huh?" both Lin Wu and Shirong couldn't help but be dumbfounded at this.

'It can't be that he wants to forgive us or something, right?' Lin Wu wondered.

~chuckle~

Seeing Shirong's confusion, the child chuckled again and pulled them closer towards him.

"Rather than killing you, I have a much better use." The child said as he trailed a finger over the face of Shirong.

"Ugh… Suuuper Creepy dude…" Lin Wu felt himself tremble.

Shirong was the same and felt the coldness from the fingers on his face despite the helmet of the armor.

"What are you going to do?" Shirong questioned staunchly.

"You must be a direct descendant of the Ji clan… you're the heir, aren't you?" The Dao Shell realm guessed accurately. "No wonder you were so arrogant." He added upon seeing the faint reaction from Shirong.

"Your talent definitely gives you the pass to be arrogant though… and that's the very talent I desire." The Dao Shell realm cultivator spoke.

Hearing this Shirong's brows furrowed when it clicked him.

"You want me to join you? NEVER!" Shirong staunchly said.

"Ahahha! You will join us… but not as a follower." The Dao shell realm cultivator said before an obsessive look appeared on his face. "No… YOU WILL JOIN US AS OUR GOD!"

It was time again for Lin Wu and Shirong to be confounded by the words of the child. At this point, they were really wondering if these were just the nonsense ramblings of a real child and not an actual cultivator.

"Our god has been searching for a vessel to descend into this world and you will be the perfect one. You have the talent and the identity that is worth being the great Skull god's vessel." The Dao Shell realm cultivator revealed.

Hearing this, Shirong's eyes went wide while Lin Wu couldn't help but say, "I KNEW IT! ANOTHER OLDIE WANTING A FRESH YOUNG BODY TO TAKEOVER!"

By now Lin Wu knew for sure that the Skull God wasn't actually a god and was just a strong cultivator who might have reached a cultivation base above the Immortal Ascension realm. The ones that reached that realm, would obviously ascend to a higher realm and could not come back.

Unless of course, they fulfilled certain conditions for that. Usually, they could suppress their cultivation and descend, or send an avatar made by them. But for some cultivators, there were additional conditions such as those that were specifically rejected by a world.

For such cultivators, the paths to descend were far less and they could only wait to find a good opportunity. One such method was taking the soul and body of a person native to the world.

While this was something that could be accomplished easily for someone on their level of power and people, if they also wanted to be strong when they descended, they would need a body that was equivalent to that strength.

Which meant that while they could literally pick up some random beggar off the street or an orphan off the street, it was more than likely that their bodies would be destroyed before the cultivator fully took over them.

If they were talking over a weaker person, they might need to have a very high compatibility to do so. The other option that they had, thought was for them to find a talented cultivator to take over.

That way, their avatar that descended or they themselves will have a far stronger cultivation base than the others. They will also have the chance to progress it further and faster than normal, which would allow them to do whatever they wanted much quicker.

Shirong here fulfilled all of those conditions and on top of that, had the identity of a prestigious clan heir. If they were able to fool the other clan members, they would even have a better advantage than before.

With all that done, Shirong and Lin Wu realized that Shirong was fucked.

"Welp… it was nice knowing you. See you sometime later, maybe I'll meet your reincarnation." Lin Wu said and started to think about an escape plan.

While he had not been found out yet by the Dao shell realm cultivator, if he changed his from right now, there was a great chance he would be found out. As Lin Wu thought this, the Dao shell realm cultivator seemed to have pulled out a black skull from his spatial storage treasure.

The Skull looked like it was covered in dark tar and gave off an ominous vibe.

"BEHOLD!" The Dao Shell realm cultivator said before raising the Black skull towards Shirong.

The skull suddenly started to shake and trembled in his hands before floating on its own. It then started to deform before endless amounts of smoke started to come out of it. The smoke was dark like crude oil and covered Shirong and in turn, Lin Wu.

"You shall now have the honor of becoming the vessel of the great skull god! Be happy that your meager existence now has a better meaning!" the Dao Shell realm cultivator stated.

While this was happening, the system was sending out a multitude of warnings to Lin Wu.

~WARNING!~

——

FOREIGN PRESENCE DETECTED: Unknown

INTRUSION DETECTED: Taking preventive measures.

MEASURES COMPETED: Link to Subject Shirong disconnected

——

The moment this happened, Shirong felt as if the brand he had on the Immortal Crystal Armament had disappeared.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Shirong let out a loud roar of disagreement.

Lin Wu on the other hand, didn't really feel anything.

"Oof! Lemme just take back the synchronizing links as well." Lin Wu muttered before retracting the hundreds of needles that were pierced into Shirong's body.

This process was not something that could be hurried and thus Lin Wu needed to be careful, lest he ended up injuring his meridians. Shirong could also feel the power he got from the Immortal Crystal Armament, fading away by the second, and got tensed.

"Don't worry, after all this is over and the great skull god descends, you won't even know why you were anxious in the first place… AHAHAHA!" The Dao Shell realm cultivator said before laughing.

"HAIL TO THE SKULL GOD!"

"HAIL TO THE SKULL GOD!"

"HAIL TO THE SKULL GOD!"

"HAIL TO THE SKULL GOD!"

"HAIL TO THE SKULL GOD!"

All the followers of the Skull god except for those that were working on the barriers kneeled down and kowtowed in the direction of Shirong. Their dedication and emotions could be felt from this and their voices joined together to echo across the ruins.

Seeing all this, Lin Wu felt even more creeped out and couldn't wait to get away from here.

"Dang man, they're getting even worse." Lin Wu said to himself.

It was now that the smoke started to enter Shirong's body fully.