Lin Mu thought over it and realized that he didn’t know who was the mayor before this.
"I don’t know Senior." Lin Mu replied.
"Hmm, then perhaps that is what we need to find out. That could be the key to the identity of the culprits." Xukong said.
Lin Mu nodded and started to move towards the exit of the tunnel. It was already starting to get a bit hard for him to breathe here and he understood that the air was thinning out. It would take a while before this area was breathable again.
But then he realized that the sludge pool will probably turn the air foul again, and he may have to repeat the same thing as before again.
’Wait, the foul smell was not just from here, was it? I was able to smell it on the very end that too beyond the river, where the air was fresh. The foul smell should have dissipated there, but there was still some of it in those tunnels.’ Lin Mu thought.
"Senior, I think this is not the only sludge pool and they are more of them. Or the air would not have been so bad in other tunnels." Lin Mu stated his concern.
"That does seem likely." Xukong acknowledged.
Lin Mu soon reached the end of the tunnel, and the sound of the river could be heard again. He continued following it and reached another branch where there was a bigger tunnel heading deep. Lin Mu saw the runes carved there as well, and the uncomfortable feeling that was coming off it.
"Seems like you found another one," Xukong said.
Lin Mu went inside and saw that similar to before it split into multiple branches, but this one had less than before. There was a bigger one that had a large gate at its end which was impassable and another tunnel that had a sludge pool.
Lin Mu compared the location in his mind and realized that this one was a bit to the northern direction of the previous one. He couldn’t tell the exact direction because of his spirit sense being unable to reach the surface at this depth.
Lin Mu returned and walked along the river, only to encounter more openings that were spread along with it and the tunnels that would branch out. In all, he found about five more sludge pools and five closed gates that had barriers.
Along the way, he was also able to see that the river had a curving path that it flowed around. And along this path were the tunnels placed around. The wells were particularly helpful for Lin Mu to get a rough estimate of where the tunnels were compared to the surface.
Eventually, he had walked the entirety of the river and had reached a point where he could not continue anymore. The river had entered an underground path that was completely flooded and he could not walk there. He thus went back and found a suitable place to leave them.
He had already gone way past the district where he wanted to leave and was now three districts away. He fording a place that was the closest to the surface and then used the combination of Blink and Phase to climb up. About a minute later, he was out and standing on the side of a tree.
Lin Mu had spent nearly three hours underground and had crossed the entire city to come to the opposite side.
"Now to check the wells here and pinpoint the location of the blocked area." Lin Mu muttered.
Lin Mu then started his journey to see what wells were located where in the city. While he had seen them from the inside, he could only tell the short area around the well as that was all his spirit sense could extend for. Since he didn’t know much about the city’s locations either, he had to search them manually.
He spent another hour and a half checking all of the wells and finally figured out the layout.
The underground river curved in the east to west direction. At the bottom of the curve was the first well that Lin Mu had discovered which was none other than the one that was located in the garden of the Mayor’s manor. Then if he plotted all of the blocked gates and the sludge pools, he was able to find the central location.
Lin Mu knew that all the sludge pools must be linked to one single location and the blocked gates must lead there as well. With this in mind, he finally figured out the main location.
"The ancestral temple! It’s roughly below it..." Lin Mu muttered.
"Did you sense any caves below the temple?" Xukong asked.
"No senior. They are probably quite deep into the ground beside the ground below the temple was also quite dense and mostly made up of rocks which my spirit sense could not penetrate." Lin Mu answered.
"Hmm, seems like we will need to investigate the temple. Perhaps you can take advantage of your connection with Wu Hei?" Xukong said.
"Yes, that could work, but if it doesn’t then I’ll just enter it directly with the help of my skills." Lin Mu said with a sharp expression on his face.
Having said this, he started his journey back to his courtyard. It was now getting dark and the sun was hidden beyond the horizon, with the sky a shade of orange. Along the way, Lin Mu avoided the Alluring Wisteria pavilion and reached the courtyard.
"Welcome back, master Lin Mu." The servant greeted.
Lin Mu nodded and stepped in.
"Should I prepare the dinner?" The servant asked.
"Umm, I’ll take a bath first." Lin Mu said.
"I’ll set it up right now." The servant said before going away.
Having spent his time underground in a smelly place had made him feel a bit gross. Thus Lin Mu wanted to clean up as fast as possible. Soon the bath was set up and Lin Mu was soaking in a warm pool of water, with his clothes sent for washing.