Chapter 370 - Doing The Task

Lin Mu read the names on the tablets and saw a few with the surname Lin but not the same one as his. His surname meant 'Forest' but the ones here meant other things.

'Seems like none of my ancestors are here… wait, so why did father come here to pray?' Lin Mu wondered.

While the commoners also came here to pray, it was mostly because at least one of their ancestries at some point in time would be venerated here. But from what he could see no one of his could be seen. Still, no matter how much Lin Mu thought he couldn't figure out a reason for his father coming here.

"Did you Father ever see the tablets himself?" Xukong asked Lin Mu.

"No, he didn't… oh wait… I understand now." Lin Mu replied as he realized.

'He never knew… most of the commoners in the region had a link to the same family line thus would have an ancestor here. But seems like father just went with that idea in mind and came to pray here every year.' Lin Mu thought to himself.

Now that he thought about it, Lin Mu felt a bit sad for his father. He had passed on and yet never knew that there was no one to listen to his prayers. Lin Mu's heart ached for his father and mother again making his hands tremble ever so slightly even though he tried to control.

***

Far beyond the limits of the universe, beyond the void, there existed a wheel.

Carved out of an unknown material, the wheel turned without stopping. The thing that was moving it was actually a river, but if one looked at the water they would find themselves getting lost in it. 

From this river countless smaller rivers branched, and from each of those smaller rivers, even more tributaries split. Then on each of the branches and tributaries, smaller water wheels were spinning. They weren't attached to anything yet kept on moving without stopping.

The wheels were made out of various materials. Some of the them were made out of gold, some out of crystals and some out of rotting wood. 

In this place, the concept of time did not exist and neither did space. The only things that exited were the River and the water wheel. 

The wheels kept on turning, and then suddenly a new tributary sprouted from one of the smaller breaches of the river. This tributary didn't have a wheel yet kept on flowing. But its flow was not smooth like the others, and there were waves in it. 

The water in this tributary seemed to be rising and receding periodically, its purpose unknown. Then, an unknown amount of time later, whether right at the creation of the tributary or countless eons later, a voice sounded.

"Oh? Something interesting… finally." 

***

Lin Mu snapped out of his thoughts when he heard someone calling him.

"Brother Mu Lin," Wu Hei called him.

"Oh, yes?" Lin Mu asked, still feeling a bit dazed.

"You were gonna do some things…" Wu Hei said in a low voice.

Lin Mu's eyes went wide as he remembered why he had come here. His memories had confused him for a bit, but then he calmed himself down.

"Yes, I'm on it." Lin Mu replied before closing his eyes.

The others that were with them were already praying, thus Lin Mu did not seem out of place. His spirit sense extended from his body and spread around. He avoided touching the people here as he did not want to alert them.

Lin Mu's spirit sense touched the walls and the other parts of the area. But the one thing he found common was the aura that was contained within them. This aura was similar to the one on the doors and the ancestral tablets, yet it was much more faint.

He then directed his spirit sense downward and started going through the ground. The floor was easy enough to pass through and Lin Mu realized that there were actually more level below the temple. The first area that he observed looked like where the priests lived. 

This was still normal, as he hadn't seen any bedrooms in the area above. He then went even deeper and could see some monks moving around and some reading scriptures. There weren't many of them, only six, but Lin Mu could feel the faint waves of spirit qi from them.

All of them were cultivators, although not that strong. This seemed to be the area where the priests practiced and studied. He crossed this level and reached the third level, which was much smaller than the above areas.

There were strong waves of spirit qi coming from the center of the area and just from their intensity Lin Mu could tell that they belonged to a core condensation realm cultivator. He guessed that this was none other than the head priest of the temple, and this was his quarters.

Knowing that he shouldn't let his spirit sense get too close, lest he be detected, Lin Mu directed it to a safer corner and continued downward. But he found himself stopping as this was the limit of his spirit sense, and if he wanted to go any deeper, he would have to shorten the distance.

Lin Mu retracted his spirit sense and opened his eyes.

"There are some things that I discovered, but I need to get closer." Lin Mu told Wu Hei.

"That would be difficult… the priests wouldn't allow anyone to leave their sight." Wu Hei replied.

"I don't need long, just a minute would be enough." Lin Mu said after thinking for a bit.

If Lin Mu use Blink in tandem with Phase, he would be able to travel much faster. Of course, this was only possible since he already knew of the layout of the place. Otherwise there was a great chance he would have been trapped in some random wall.

Wu Hei furrowed his brows and tried to figure out a method for it. Lin Mu saw his troubled expression and spoke again, "just being alone would be fine too. I may be able to figure out another method."