~CRACK~

The locking mechanism of the door broke apart as the force of the wind reached a peak.

~DENG~

The doors were opened with a bang and a wave of spirit Qi hit Shirong's face. There he saw all the treasures that were lying in the room. If it was any normal cultivator, their eyes would have glowed with excitement, but instead of that, Shirong became wary.

"Is this safe…" Shirong muttered to himself.

"Ugh! Just go in, I've already verified everything." Lin Wu said, but Shirong could not hear it, of course.

The man assessed the room for a bit before coming to the conclusion that it truly was safe for the taking.

~phew~

"At least this was not all loss. But seeing as there are other rooms empty, uncle Quan was likely killed by either some trap that laid in there, or the other party that came in. Seeing as they have no personal items on them, they were definitely robbed postmortem." Shirong said.

He stored all the treasures in the spatial storage treasure before collecting the rest of the corpses. He was going to let his clan assess them once he got back.

"I best get back to the clan. There are far too many uncertainties here. Besides… my mission is already complete." Shirong said to himself.

But just as he stepped out of the underground hall, he heard a loud sound.

~BOOM~

"AHAHAHA! THE BARRIER THAT STOOD FOR CENTURIES HAS FINALLY FALLEN!"

"THE WILL OF THE SKULL GOD SHALL BE FINALLY FULFILLED!"

"GLORY TO THE SKULL GOD!"

"MAY THE SKULL GOD REIGN ETERNAL!"

Multiple shouts and cheers came from the distance after the explosion.

~shua~shua~shua~

The three layers of the barrier that surrounded the ruins suddenly started to retract at a rapid pace.

"What in the name of…" Shirong said as he saw the barrier fade away into nothing.

~whoosh~

Wind could be heard as a group of men in strange garbs flew in from the south.

"Followers of the Skull God!" Lin Wu and Shirong both said at the same time.

***

Twelve Hours Ago.

Two men in strange garbs who were none other than the follower of the skull god had been sitting on top of a small hill. They had been skillfully hiding between a cleft that was naturally created at the edge.

From here they were gazing at what were ancient ruins. These were the same ruins where Lin Wu and the eagle beast were currently in.

~shua~

"What was that!" One of the men was startled by a noise.

"It came from the ruins!" the other man said.

They looked at the ruins but could not see anything different around it. The barriers of the ruin extended quite far up in the sky such that the top was even hidden by the clouds themselves.

Thus, when Lin Wu and the Silver Beak Sky Soar Eagle descended on the platform, they were not seen by anyone else. But the noise caused by them was still enough to attract the attention of a few people.

"Quick, we need to inform the priest! We were told to report everything that happened here, no matter how small." The other man said.

They then took out a jade slip and sent a message to their superior. Once that was done they took a breath of relief and kept on observing the ruins.

"Hey, what do you think must have happened?" one of the men questioned.

"It can be anything. I remember the high priest said before that this is the place the Skull god has been desiring for a long time, but it was hidden away for centuries. Only when those people came here ten months ago did this truly appear.

At least now we can see the outer area of the ruins, previously the barrier was too strong and could hide everything behind it. If a change similar to back then is happening, then it must be the barrier weakening due to the influence of the great skull god!" the second man said, fervor present in his eyes.

"Praise to the Skull god! With him guiding us, we shall reach the peak of the world!" The first man said proudly.

The two of them waited for about an hour before the sound of wind blowing could be heard. The two men immediately became alert and looked to the west.

"They're here!" The two men said in unison.

From the distance, over five hundred men in strange grabs were flying towards the hill. All of them were exuding spirit Qi fluctuations which showed that each of them was a cultivator.

But that was not all as there were multiple Nascent Soul realm spirit Qi signatures in them, along with even more core condensation realm signatures. Along with this, several strange beasts were running on the ground as well.

These beasts had plain white mask-like heads. They were nothing other than the specter skull hounds. Though the strongest spirit Qi fluctuation was coming from none other than the person who was in the front.

It was a boy that looked to be no less than ten years old. But he had a crooked expression on his face and black smoke constantly emanated from his eyes. If one looked at his hands, one would find that he had seven fingers on each hand along with nails that were at least three inches long.

The boy seemed more like a demon rather than a human at this moment. A minute later, the large group came to land in front of the two men.

~thud~ thud~

The two men instantly kneeled on the ground upon seeing the boy.

"Glory to the Prophet! Glory to the Prophet!" The two men greeted.

"Speak…" The boy said in a raspy voice, that strangely echoed in one's head.

"The ruins. We felt a strong wave of energy coming from it a while ago. We think that there might be a change similar to before happening there." The two men spoke.

"Hmm… very well… Head out!" The boy ordered.