Everyone was tense as they entered the third floor. They knew that the danger would only increase the more they went down. Lin Mu had already killed a beast that was equal to the Dao Shell realm and they only imagined more of them being here.
~snap~
"EEK!" A female disciple flinched as she heard something break.
~shua~ shua~
"What was that?" the others asked as different illumination techniques were used.
But the moment they saw the floor; they felt chills going down their backs.
"Are these…"
"Yes… they are the remains of the ones that failed to escape." Elder Weimin said in a grave tone.
The entire floor was seemingly littered with numerous bones and it was hard to tell who the bones belonged to. Some of them looked like normal human bones, and some of them were either too large or too long.
Some of them also had some strange shapes, which made them think that these may have belonged to beasts or some other creatures.
Lin Mu furrowed his brows and looked around, trying to see if he could find any clue or something like that here.
"Everyone stay close and keep an eye out on the remains on the floor. Pick up anything that looks like it's important." Lin Mu spoke.
"Yes, senior!" They all replied.
Lin Mu had already spread his spirit sense around, but realized that it was being suppressed again.
"Dammit, they got another formation array that restrains spirit Qi here." Lin Mu cursed.
"There wasn't one on the previous floor, though. It's rather strange… perhaps they are set on alternate floors?" Jing Luo guessed.
"That could be possible, but it only increases the danger even more as I won't be able to react quickly." Lin Mu replied.
"We'll try to stay as alert as possible." Jing Luo said, and took out a couple of spirit tools from his spatial storage ring.
The spirit tools looked like a pair of sticks and were rather normal. But on their surface, one could see several fine runes carved.
"What is this?" Lin Mu asked.
"Just wait and watch. This might be the perfect place to use them." Jing Luo said and held out the stick in his two hands.
He raised his hands and then hit the sticks perpendicular to each other.
~Humm~
Instead of the usual sound, a rather harmonious humming could be heard coming from it. Wang Xiong then took out a large piece of sheepskin and placed it on the ground before holding the sticks on it.
Lin Mu looked on in intrigue and wondered what Jing Luo was exactly doing.
"No way, are those… True Sound Dowsing Sticks?" Elder Weimin seemed to have recognized the spirit tools.
"Oh? Elder Weimin actually knows about them?" Jing Luo was a bit surprised.
"Yes, I do. I had the fortune of seeing a pair of them a long time ago when I was a junior. It was held by an elder of the Centennial sword sect and I saw it during one of the conferences back then.
The elder had organized a lecture on different spirit tools and I got to learn a bit about them." Elder Weimin replied.
"What are they?" Lin Mu asked.
He looked at the sticks and saw that they were moving on the sheepskin. It looked as if they were moving on their own and other than some spirit Qi fluctuation that were rather faint, nothing could be felt from them.
They were still humming and light vibrations could also be observed. The sticks moved on the sheepskin and a few markings started to appear on the sheepskin.
"This is a special kind of spirit tool called as a True Sound Dowsing rods. They are made with Sonorous Harmony Feather brass combined with a mixture of woods. They can create unique humming sounds and that spread around in the area and are then reflected back.
These combined with certain formations allow the sticks to translate that into an appropriate medium like this sheepskin. It is basically using sound to map out the area." Jing Luo explained.
"Oh? Isn't this how bats move around in darkness too?" Lin Mu remembered having learned this from Senior Xukong.
"Indeed. This spirit tool takes inspiration from their ability. Though its uses are rather limited. The special kind of brass used in its making gets damaged with just a few uses and makes it so that the spirit tool does not work again." Jing Luo replied.
"I see… no wonder you didn't use it on the first floor." Lin Mu stated.
"Yes. Even if I did, it wouldn't have helped much as the area was a labyrinth and the sound would not map out very well due to too many walls." Jing Luo said.
"I understand." Lin Mu said and observed as a map was etched out on the sheepskin.
About five minutes later, the sheepskin had turned into a sheepskin map instead. Lin Mu observed it along with Jing Luo and Elder Weimin trying to find their path ahead.
"Wait, what's this mark?" Lin Mu asked as he pointed to what looked like a circle that was a bit oblong.
"Huh… that can't be… that mark… it is for a person." Jing Luo answered.
"A person? Can it be Elder Liqiang?!" Elder Weimin asked hurriedly.
"No wait, that's not just him… there are more of those marks." Lin Mu soon pointed out the other such circles that were very faint.
In all, they could count at least twenty such markings on the map and it made the man bit confused.
"How are there so many people here? Did others manage to enter before us?" Hu Yun, who was watching from the side, spoke.
"Perhaps it might be the people that were pulled in along with Elder Liqiang?" Elder Weimin suggested.
"Whatever it may be, we need to be careful. For all we know, this could just be a trap instead." Lin Mu warned.
Elder Weimin and Jing Luo nodded in response before making a plan to act.