Xukong then went on to explain to Lin Mu what a sewer system was in brief.
"Oh yeah, I think I've heard of them. The Empire's capital has that to drain the water from all the rain that they get." Lin Mu spoke.
~Sigh~
"At least this world is not that backward…" Xukong muttered.
"But still, senior it's strange that there are caves here too." Lin Mu replied.
Lin Mu had looked around and discovered that there were actually quite a few caves here. Though most of them were about ten to thirty meters deep in the ground. Even his spirit sense was barely able to reach them due to the density of the ground.
If it were not for it having strengthened recently, he may have not even discovered it. Lin Mu thus decided to take advantage of these caves. He first found a suitable location that hidden from people and also had a cave below it.
For this Lin Mu had to go all the way to the other side of the district. But this also allowed him to see the increased security around the Mayor's manor. While passing by, he finally heard what had happened from the people here.
"So it was my fault…" Lin Mu muttered with embarrassment.
"That's what happens when you carelessly probed people with spirit sense. Thankfully, your spirit sense was long enough that she didn't know why it was." Xukong warned.
Having learned his lesson, Lin Mu found a suitable place that satisfied both the conditions. He then used the third skill Phase and started sinking into the ground. It was a strange sensation for him, as when he usually used the skill he wouldn't go into the ground.
This time he felt as if he was sinking into thick mud, which was actually what it was… kind of. A few seconds later Lin Mu fell through the roof of the cave and landed on a wet floor.
~Cough~
~Cough~
"What the hell is this smell!" Lin Mu exclaimed.
"Hold your breath! This air could be poisonous or at the very least stale." Xukong warned.
Lin Mu immediately held his breath and looked around for the path. It wasn't a problem for Lin Mu to hold his breath in for more than five minutes now. But while waking he discovered another problem, his eyes had actually started burning due to the fumes in the air.
"This seems much worse than I thought. The air here shouldn't be this bad though to hurt your eyes, unless… there was something rotting here." Xukong stated.
Lin Mu smelled it a bit and realized that it was indeed a rotting smell in the air. He followed his spirit sense and tried to find the quickest way out. He was using his spirit sense to look up onto the surface of the ground to see where to go.
Even the path that he had seen from above didn't seem to accurately match the one that he was seeing here.
'Seems like I was mistaken due to the difference in the depths.' Lin Mu thought.
Still, Lin Mu didn't worry that he was in danger, as if he really had a problem he could just use phase and blink to get to the surface quickly.
~Woosh~
After walking for a minute, Lin Mu felt a faint breeze hitting his face.
"Wind, here?" Lin Mu wondered.
Unlike the rest of the air, while this had a rotten smell in it too, it was not as strong and it didn't irritate his eyes either.
"You should go that way, it possibly leads to an open path maybe," Xukong suggested.
Lin Mu checked it with the map that he had in his mind and realized that the direction this tunnel was going was right through the center of the district.
'Doesn't this pass right below the manor then?' Lin Mu estimated.
~Trickle~
Lin Mu continued onward, and soon the sound of water hit his ears.
"Huh water?… of course the three rivers, they enter the ground when they reach the city!" Lin Mu exclaimed.
"The air is probably coming from a well, if you follow the water you should find a suitable path faster. The air should be good too there." Xukong spoke.
Lin Mu nodded and followed this path. Not even a minute later he found the air clearing up, and becoming breathable.
~Huu~
"This is much better…" Lin Mu muttered.
Soon he found the underground river and saw the gushing water.
~Gulp~
But upon seeing the force of the water he knew he had to be careful, one wrong step and he could fall into the water.
There was a very narrow space to walk along which Lin Mu traveled and soon spotted the first opening. There was a rope dangling from the opening as well.
"That's a well, alright." Lin Mu muttered.
From the well, Lin Mu could let his spirit sense exit out and take a look around.
"Oh damn, I'm right inside the manor…" Lin Mu realized.
The well that was above Lin Mu opened up in the garden of the mansion. He could even see a few guards patrolling around and these were even stronger than the others that he had seen outside. With even the weakest one of them being at the late stage of the qi refining realm.
"They got plenty of people indeed. Though if they really have these many, then they should assign some to the towns as well, then we wouldn't have had incidents like in the past." Lin Mu muttered with a grievance.
Putting the matter aside, he continued on the path. But soon he felt something unnatural.
"Wha-what is this feeling?…" Lin Mu wondered.
There was a certain aura coming from one of the tunnels near him that was quite obnoxious. While it wasn't outright repulsive, it certainly did not feel comfortable to him. He curiously scanned it with his spirit sense and discovered something.
"Are those… runes?" Lin Mu discovered.
"What do you mean runes?" Xukong asked as he focused on Lin Mu's vision.
There he saw runes carved into the walls. Most of them had faded away, and some had crumbled with the dust and gravel lying on the floor.