Lin Mu's fists were like sledgehammers, taking down walls after walls without stopping for even a second. While the others struggled to even put a crack, Lin Mu had already gone over a hundred meters in that time.
The others could only watch on in shock as a trail of debris and broken walls were left behind.
"Are we even needed at this point?" The disciples couldn't help but question.
Jing Luo and Elder Weimin had also ended up stopping after a few minutes upon realizing that their work was not needed at all. Lin Mu was already making circles around them, removing all the walls one after the other.
"This… ~Sigh~ I got excited about nothing…" Jing Luo muttered.
Elder Weimin was simply silent, as he knew there was nothing left for him to say. Lin Mu to him at this point was a great anomaly that probably would not be seen ever again. He could simply watch on as Lin Mu cleared out a path for them.
~boom~
~shing~
~DENG~
Various traps were activated while Lin Mu broke down the walls, but to him, they were easy to avoid. Most of them couldn't even damage him, even if he didn't dodge them. The ones that he needed to dodge were the ones that forced him out of the way or made him fall.
The rest that directly damaged were just borne by the armor of the Mortal Strengthening scripture.
"What do we do now, elder?" The disciples asked.
"What do we do now? We follow him, of course. You should be thankful that he removed all the obstacles." Elder Weimin replied.
"Yes, elder!" They replied in unison before following behind Lin Mu.
By now Lin Mu had gone two hundred meters away from them. He was moving in a spiral, breaking walls around a radius. This way, any hidden places or entrances would be revealed to them.
By now, Lin Mu had understood that the entire place was basically a large labyrinth. Though it didn't make full sense to him, as it didn't serve any particular way to test the people that entered.
This made Lin Mu think that perhaps this wasn't an inheritance ground at all.
"You might be right." Xukong suddenly spoke in Lin Mu's mind.
"You really think so, senior?" Lin Mu asked.
"Yes… while there are some experts who like to be sadistic and keep unnecessarily dangerous obstacles on the path, they are rare and few in between. Not to mention, we already know that many people have already entered this place before." Xukong replied.
"Hmm… they say this place is also the tomb of Expert Kushao. But what if that is not true?" Lin Mu proposed.
"What are you thinking?" Xukong asked.
"With so many mazes, and the disaster in the past, I'm thinking… this might actually be made to keep people away, rather than let them enter." Lin Mu replied.
"Hmm… that could be possible. If it really is a place that prevents others from entering and is securing something, the disaster might have been caused by the people of the sects entering in secret." Xukong agreed.
"If we consider it to be like that, then the question is, what is being hidden inside it? Plus, it also doesn't fully make sense that people thought of this place as an inheritance ground since they did find resources and other fortunes here." Lin Mu spoke.
"That might just have been a misdirection tactic on the end of the creator of this place. One must know that people are bound to discover things at one point, no matter how much they are hidden.
Rather than trying to hide it even more, it is better to disguise it as something else. There may even be some benefit to this place with the people entering it." Xukong explained.
"That might be it, but what could be the benefit that this place gets?" Lin Mu wondered.
"We may be able to figure it out. What else do we know about this place? What do people encounter other than these traps here?" Xukong asked.
"From what I've heard till now, there are supposedly strange beasts living in these ruins called as Kushao beasts. The people who enter it need to kill them to proceed. The beasts are native to this place and aren't found anywhere else.
There are many variants of them too and some are more dangerous than others. I think the strongest ones they've seen are at the Dao Shell realm." Lin Mu replied.
"Strange beasts unique to this place, huh? That does seem peculiar but it is not correct to make assumptions. We'll see if we can find more." Xukong stated.
"Yes senior." Lin Mu said as he continued breaking more and more walls.
And while Lin Mu was doing this, Little Shrubby was doing another task. Lin Mu had secretly told him to keep an eye on the changes in the area. He knew that even if the traps were seen by him, there was still a chance that some might have been missed and were not activated yet.
Little Shrubby had the fastest reaction time of everyone here and would be able to warn them in time. While Jing Luo would be able to help and so would Elder Weimin with their strength, Little Shrubby was still faster.
Lin Mu continued his demolition for about six hours, after which the entire floor was leveled.
~huu~
The disciples took breaths of relief after seeing the wide open floor. Lin Mu came to stand at front and didn't look tired at all. Rather, he looked the same as before and not a single bead of sweat could be seen on his head.
Instead it looked like he had just been relaxing the entire time.
"That man is a monster…" A few disciples whispered.
"And handsome too~" A female disciple added.
~shua~
A flickering sound was heard as Lin Mu found the entrance to the next floor.
"So it was located in the center, makes sense. And it's being protected by the same barrier as that of the surface entrance." Lin Mu noted.
Behind Lin Mu, he could see the main entrance of the ruins in the distance. It was still protected by the barrier, and nothing could be seen outside it.
"The others will be rather surprised after entering now," Jing Luo commented.
"They will indeed… thankfully we will be gone by then." Elder Weimin added.
"That'll be for the best. We do not want any extra attention. As long as we are not here, they have nothing to attribute to us." Lin Mu said.
He then walked up to the entrant of the next floor and ripped it open, just like he had done on the surface.
~Crack~
With the barrier torn, everyone quickly descended to the next floor. The next floor was rather deep, and it took them 5 minutes to reach it. But the moment they did, they could feel the aura change.
"Be careful everyone! We are not alone!" Lin Mu spoke.
"More than six hundred beings are here." Little Shrubby informed.
His sense of smell was going crazy and was alarming him about the danger here. Lin Mu's spirit sense also spread around and saw the numerous beasts that were spread around on the floor.
Unlike the first floor, the walls here didn't restrict spirit sense, but the sheer number of beasts made it difficult for normal people to sense other things, as it would distract them too much.
The floor was divided into multiple rooms and halls, and along with the beasts, Lin Mu could feel the presence of other things as well.
'There are certainly plants and spirit herbs growing here…' Lin Mu thought.
Everyone drew out their weapons and was ready to fight.
~step~step~step~
The sound of footsteps could be heard coming from the front. The footsteps were strange, and it felt like whatever was coming was heavy as the sound was deep. The disciples gulped and looked on intently at the front.
Lin Mu, Jing Luo, and Elder Weimin had already seen the beast through.
"What is this thing?" Jing Luo muttered in confusion.
The beast in question looked like a flat beetle but had a pale white exterior. It had a long spined tail that extended from the back and mandibles that were like wide scythes. The most eye catching feature of it was a black and blue crystal that was located on its back.
The Crystal's edges were black but its center was dark blue in color. It was nothing like what Lin Mu had seen before and made him confused. Which was strange as he had read about a lot of strange beasts in the memoirs of the Lost immortal and others that he had read.
"Senior, do you know what they are?" Lin Mu questioned.
"They don't seem like any particular species. What you said about them being native seems to be right. They are probably some normal beasts that were mutated by something and have now proliferated enough to become a dominant species." Xukong answered.
"Mutant beasts huh… if they can continue to grow, that means the mutation was stable and successful…" Lin Mu remembered.
"There is another problem… I cannot estimate its strength." Elder Weimin suddenly spoke.
"What?" the disciples were surprised.
Lin Mu narrowed his eyes and tried to sense the beast in question, only to find that while he could feel its presence and body, he could not find a cultivation base.
"What is this… they have no Dantian?" Lin Mu realized.
Seeing the situation was getting even stranger, everyone became nervous.
