The six coins thrown by the Old man reacted to his chant as they started to spin on their own axis before forming into the shape of a hexagram.

~DENG~

As if a hammer had hit a bell, the Prime Coin Hexagram shield was struck. It trembled and looked like it would crack at the moment now. The attack of Shirong was far stronger than the old man had expected.

"HAA! BREAK!" Shirong pushed ahead with his fist and increased the output even more.

Lin Wu did the same, and the amount of spirit Qi within it directly doubled. Plus with the added radiation, the spirit Qi holding the Prime Coin Hexagram shield got unstable. A few seconds later, the shield started flickering and was unable to hold back.

~Crack~

~clang~

~clang~

~clang~

The shield broke apart, and the six coins were blown away, scattering against the ground.

"Aargh!" The old man tried to dodge at the last moment but was still hit on his right arm.

The arm could obviously not bear the attack and was directly reduced to a mush due to the force of the vortex. The radiation mixed in the vortex also penetrated the wounds of the old man, making him suffer even more.

~cough~

The old man spat out more blood as the pain coming from his now gone arm did not stop. He felt as if his insides were busing and an unknown energy coursed through his body.

"What is this… ~cough~ what is in my body?" The old man questioned as he struggled to control himself.

"Die, old man!" Shirong yelled as he sent out another punch.

~boom~

The punch shot through the old man's chest, destroying it completely. The old man's Nascent Soul tried to escape, but the radiation in Lin Wu's spirit Qi was enough to corrode it away and kill it instantly.

The old man could not even let out a voice of protest before his life was ended.

~shua~shua~shua~

But before Shirong could do anything else, wisps of smoke came from behind him. He turned to look and saw that there were over twenty Nascent Soul realm cultivators that had arrived behind him with a lot more core condensation realm cultivators and Qi refining realm cultivators.

Though what caught his attention the most was the child that was floating at the very back. His face and hands looked to be eerie, but the thing that caught his attention the most was the spirit Qi fluctuations coming from him.

"Huh? That child is a Dao Shell realm cultivator? HOW!?" Shirong said in shock.

Lin Wu had a similar reaction but he was not shown outward and was just in his mind.

"That's one creepy kid! I guess that's what they mean by crotch goblins in this world…" Lin Wu said.

While Lin Wu had known that there was a Dao Shell realm cultivator in their midst, he didn't know what he looked like. A seven fingered child with long nails was definitely not something that Lin Wu had expected.

"Oh? Interesting… I didn't expect another person would be able to find the keys of the Ruins of the fallen beast." The chills hoarse voice traveled from the back.

"Yup, definitely creepy." Lin Wu confirmed.

Hearing the child's voice, even Shirong was a bit stunned, but soon understood something.

"It's an old cultivator that has used his Nascent Soul to take over other's body. That is definitely not his original body… and seeing the unusual physique of the child, it is bound to be done using an unorthodox technique… fiendish even." Shirong analyzed quickly.

Unlike most other cultivators, Shirong was from the Ji clan and had a plethora of experience with matters such as this. Not only did he know about the detailed cultivation realms, but he also knew their peculiarities.

From the Nascent Soul realm onwards, even if a cultivator's body was destroyed, they would still be able to live on in the form of their nascent soul. Of course, the nascent soul was not something that could stay stable for long periods without having a vessel.

But getting one was easier said than done. Cultivators often spent long periods of time finding suitable corpses for them to take over, but even then there was the problem of incompatibility.

A corpse that had gotten too old could not be used either and either needed a recently died person or a literally living person. Some cultivators even had secret agreements with unique organizations that could find them compatible bodies.

The clans and sects though, had it a bit easier as they could just pick someone from their descendants. This was another reason why clans often had hundreds if not thousands of descendants and why the clans would not get rid of trash descendants.

What if one day they died, and they needed a body and the trash descendant was the only compatible one?

Plus, there was also the fact that until a person died and their nascent soul was released, they would not be able to fully determine which body would be suitable for them from the very start. Even if they did so and found a compatible body, there was a great chance that it would not be compatible at the moment of their death.

The compatibility of the body could change on various factors and they were far too vast to keep track of by most people.

Shirong now took their entire thing far more seriously than he had till now. The appearance of the child had changed everything for him, it was not just the twenty Nascent Soul realm cultivators and hundreds of other lower ones.

"Surrender and you shall be spared… for now." A Nascent Soul realm cultivator from among the ground spoke.

~flicker~

And just as he said this, another barrier of the ruins started to fade away. Lin Wu and Shirong looked at it feeling surprised that they had managed to get through the fifth barrier as well.

"Well… Fuck!"