WALKER OF THE WORLDS

2725  A Hidden Cave

"Let's see…" Lin Mu muttered before turning to the Grand Elder. "I saw that High Elder Yannan had a short temper. Was he always like this?"

"Yeah, but after he fell out of the competition for the position of Patriarch, it got worse," the Grand Elder replied.

"And that was when he found his cultivation technique?" Lin Mu guessed.

"Yes!" The Grand Elder suddenly realized where Lin Mu was leading.

"And how long ago was that?" Lin Mu asked next.

"It's been a long time… about four thousand years, I suppose?" the Grand Elder estimated.

GASP!

The people around them were shocked.

"How did he last that long?" Daoist Chu couldn't help but wonder.

"The Surging Pestilence Water Art probably helped him. It controlled the energy and prevented it from corrupting him too much," Lin Mu reasoned. "Combined with his alreayd bad temper, it probbaly went unnoticed all this time." He added.

"How do we proceed from here?" Daoist Chu asked next. "Logically, we should investigate the core of the array, but that's gone with the collapse of the island."

"True." Lin Mu furrowed his brows.

His own actions had extinguished their hopes of finding further clues.

"Is there anything else we can do or look at?" Monk Hushu asked.

Lin Mu fell into deep thought before suddenly remembering something.

"There is!" His eyes lit up.

It wasn't just High Elder Yannan who had discovered a unique technique—there was also Elder Nui!

"Elder Nui?" The Grand Elder raised a brow. "He's buried beneath the rubble of the island as well."

"We don't need to look there." Lin Mu pulled out a jade slip and held it up. "There's a clue here." He handed it to the Grand Elder.

"Here?" The old man took the jade slip and scanned through it. Soon, his expression shifted in surprise.

"A secret cave? There was something like this in our sect all along?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than one," Lin Mu replied. "I'm certain that High Elder Yannan found his technique within the sect, not outside it."

"No wonder he kept its origin hidden," the First Elder realized.

"How do we find that cave?" Daoist Chu asked.

"Grand Elder, you must know where recent repairs and maintenance to the sect's arrays took place, right?" Lin Mu questioned. "That should help us narrow down the area Elder Nui visited."

"I do!" The Grand Elder nodded and retrieved another jade slip. "We keep records of all maintenance work done on the arrays, as well as the elders assigned to it."

He quickly searched through the entries.

"Here it is! The Northwestern section of the sect, behind the herb farms," he revealed.

"Let's go there," Lin Mu said, following behind the Grand Elder.

They soon arrived at the location—a beautiful herb farm.

Surrounded by small mountains on two sides, the farm was bordered on the third and fourth sides by various structures, including herb-drying sheds and other facilities.

"The disciples here reported some leakages in the Qi Accumulating Array that covers the farm," the Grand Elder explained. "Elder Nui was sent to fix it."

"Let's start searching," Lin Mu instructed, spreading his immortal sense throughout the area.

The others did the same and began scouring the farm.

After several minutes, they gathered once more.

"Nothing," Lin Mu stated.

"Hmm… The elder hid the cave using his own barrier, right?" Daoist Chu mused. "I might be able to track it down."

"Do it, Daoist Chu," Lin Mu urged.

"Alright." Daoist Chu took out a compass and activated it.

PING!

The needle twitched before it began spinning rapidly.

A minute later, it stopped, pointing toward one of the mountains.

"It's outside the herb farms, huh…" Lin Mu narrowed his eyes and followed behind Daoist Chu.

The compass needle adjusted, guiding them behind the mountain.

"It should be somewhere around here…" Daoist Chu murmured as he studied the readings.

They reached an unassuming slope.

"I'll take it from here," Lin Mu declared, expanding his immortal sense.

It took him only a few seconds to pinpoint the hidden barrier.

"There it is!"

Lin Mu approached a nearby tree and smashed his fist into it.

BOOM!

The tree shattered into splinters, revealing a faint glow beneath it.

SHUA! SHUA! SHUA!

Runes flickered into existence in the air before starting to waver.

CRACK!

"Hidden behind an illusory array… Smart," Daoist Chu remarked.

SHATTER!

Lin Mu delivered a final punch, breaking the cracked barrier entirely—revealing what lay beyond.

"It was here all this time?" The Grand Elder was stunned.

Before them stood the entrance to a three-meter-tall cave.

"How did no one find this?" the First Elder wondered. "There are always disciples nearby, and patrols pass through this area daily."

"There was probably another illusory array concealing it before Elder Nui found and dispelled it," Daoist Chu speculated. "He likely put up his own barrier in its place."

"Let's head inside. Be careful—there might be traps," Lin Mu warned.

The group nodded and cautiously followed him.

The cave was deep, and they couldn't see its end.

Using immortal sense proved useless, as the passage was protected by a Qi-suppressing array.

They had to rely on light-generating skills as they ventured deeper.

Then, as they reached the cave's depths—

"Heavens! What is this?!" The Grand Elder gasped.

They had entered a bloodstained hall.

The age of the blood was unknown, but from its dark, dried appearance, it had been there for a long time.

Despite its age, the scent of blood still lingered, a grim reminder of what had transpired in this forsaken place.

But that wasn't all.

At the back of the hall, a menacing statue loomed over them, its presence radiating an eerie aura.

It was that of a humanoid creature with eight arms and four heads. Each of the head belonged to a different type of demon and had several chains hanging from its hands. Several skulls were piled up at its feet, as if in offering. All of them seemed to be human skulls and in front of it laid an altar.

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