Rise Of The Worm Sovereign

The girl and all her companions were just average cultivators from the Ling Kingdom and had come from the nearby Deer wood city. They didn't belong to any particular power and had only gathered together to come hunt.

No one would hunt in the Millennium forest alone anymore and would always go in groups of five or more. This group was even bigger, having ten members.

~thud~

But just as she was wondering what to do, the cicada moved!

~gulp~

The girl swallowed her saliva as she tried to stay as still as possible. The rest of her companions, on the other hand, couldn't move either. They were all far too weak to handle the pressure exuding from the Throw Pulse cicada.

"Phree?" A strange sound could be heard coming from the Throw Pulse Cicada's mouth.

To the girl, it almost felt like it was tinged with surprise.

The beast looked at the humans, and then its eyes turned upwards. It could feel someone on top of its body.

"Phi!" The Throw Pulse Cicada let out another sound.

Its aura started retreating into its body and the spirit Qi fluctuation coming from its body almost disappeared as well. At the very least, they were no longer strong enough to pressurize the humans.

They all felt dumbstruck at this. The girl was even more so.

"Ph!" The beast let out another sound and lightly shook its body.

The girl, as if understanding something, slid down from its back. She carefully stepped back while keeping an eye on the beast, who simply watched them without moving. The girl's companions tactfully understood as well and stepped back slowly but steadily.

Once they were about ten meters away from the Throw Pulse Cicada, it moved again. This time though, it went back into the ground, as its legs moved quickly to burrow. In ten seconds, the beast was nowhere to be seen.

"Did we… Just…" a man spoke with confusion, finding it hard to speak.

"We did…" his companion replied.

"We were… saved by that beast?" The girl finally understood.

"How? That should be impossible?" another girl, a bit older than the first one, questioned.

The old man, who was seemingly the leader of the group though had a serious expression on his face now.

"Don't speak anymore. Let's leave for now. Whatever happened here is a miracle. Best don't test your fate anymore!" The old man warned.

All of his companions nodded their heads in response, not wanting to stay here. Though the girl who was on the back of the Throw Pulse cicada couldn't help but think to herself more.

'Did that beast… understand us? If not, then why would it save us and even let us leave?' this question wouldn't budge from the girl's mind.

She would be thinking this non-stop for the coming few days.

The humans started to move, and so did the girl. They ran as fast as possible, while also avoiding the direction that the beasts had passed over. Thirty minutes passed as they covered large tracts of land.

They used all of their spirit Qi, even going so far as to use spirit stones to continually restore their spirit Qi. Normally they would not use their precious spirit stones like this, but this was a matter of life and death, which they certainly had to take seriously.

They had covered about half of the distance of the Second ring when they felt a change in the air.

~WHOOSH~

Winds started to blow as the sky darkened.

"Huh?" they looked up and saw dark clouds covering the entire sky. "Wasn't it just clear a minute ago?" they were confused.

The clouds had appeared rapidly and covered wherever they looked. They extended past the horizon and all the way to the depths of the forest as well. Looking in the direction of the Ling Kingdom, they could see that the clouds only kept on expanding even more.

"What is happening? Is a storm incoming?" the second girl asked.

~flash~

It was at this moment that they felt a streak of light flashing in their vision.

"Lightning?"

<strong>~RUMBLE~</strong>

And just as they saw that, the loud thunderclap hit their ears!

"EEK!!!!" The two girls were scared and almost fell to the ground.

The other humans were a bit startled by this too, finding the thunder to be the soundest they had ever heard before in their lives.

"Is this a storm? How? This isn't even the season for that!?" one of them realized.

~flash~

~Rumble~

But the clouds had nothing for their questions and continued to thunder as faint arcs of lightning continued to streak across them. It was like snakes swimming in the water as the white arcs of lightning weaved in and out of clouds.

The dark color of the clouds contrasted the bright white color of the lightning, making it seem as if a mystical painting had appeared in the sky.

The clouds continued to spread while the thunder and lightning showed its dominance. And as this occurred, all the humans felt an unsettling feeling filling their bodies. They didn't know why, but the hair on their skin stood up and anxiety filled their minds.

The old man's expression turned dark like the clouds, as he had a moment of realization.

"This… are we really this unfortunate? We really shouldn't have come this week…" the old man muttered with regret.

His companions heard him and were a bit lost.

"What do you mean, leader?" someone asked.

"This… this thing… these clouds… the lightning… it's not a storm…" the old man replied as his lips turned dry.

"Then what is it?" the girl asked while her legs and arms continued to tremble.

"This… is a… Heavenly tribulation," the old man said with difficulty.

The moment the rest of them heard this, they all felt their hearts fall to their guts.

"A HEAVENLY TRIBULATION!?" They all exclaimed.

~RUMBLE!~

And with their voices another thunderclap echoed, but this time a stronger flash of lightning accompanied it.

Though its direction was different, it fell to the ground!