Chapter 858 - An Octagonal Room And Secret Of The Fountain

It had been about an hour since Lin Mu arrived on this floor and he had gone through over half the rooms that were here. 

"Can this even be considered an inheritance ground at this point? All signs point to it not being that…" Lin Mu said, feeling strange.

No matter what room he checked after the second one, they would have nothing by trash and dirt, if not more stinky pills. Those couldn't even be differentiated and just looked like black sludge.

Lin Mu reckoned they had been lucky enough to even find the one Bone Enameling pill in the second room. 

'At least I'll have plenty of poison to use in the future…' Lin Mu consoled himself.

He continued to break down five more rooms before he finally came across another object that seemed in a better condition.

"A wooden board?" Lin Mu picked up the dust covered board from a table.

~Huu~

He blew some air on it, and the dust was cleared out. A few deeply carved words could now be seen on the wooden board. The words were a bit rough looking and it looked like someone had carved them with whatever they could get their hands on.

It was certainly not done with a proper tool or a carving knife. Lin Mu flipped the board upside down and read the content.

There were only three words written on it, but they were written in an older script of the Great Zhou Empire. Lin Mu had seen it before and learned it a while ago, thus could read them with ease.

But those three words did not serve to please him.

"Leave… We… Failed…" Lin Mu recited the three words.

The ominous feeling that came from the combination of the three words affirmed the truth of this place in Lin Mu's mind.

"This was not a place that was ever supposed to be opened… was it?" Lin Mu reckoned.

He probed the board with his spirit sense, trying to estimate how old it was or if there was anything else hidden in it. While Lin Mu didn't find anything hidden, he did get a rough approximation of the age of the board.

Lin Mu had at first thought that this might be something left by the sect people who were trapped in the ruins five hundred years ago. Since the room it was in was open from the start, it was a possibility that could not be denied.

But after checking the board, Lin Mu was sure the carving was at least two thousand years old. 

"This does not bode well…" Lin Mu spoke.

"It may be time to speed up and end this mission. I do not feel like this is a good venture either now." Xukong agreed.

Lin Mu nodded his head and quickly checked the rest of the rooms. This time, he didn't pay as much attention to detail as before and rushed through all of them. He had already gotten enough proof that whatever was in here was either damaged or useless to him.

But when he arrived in the second last room, he discovered a new layout. The previous rooms were either bedrooms, or study rooms. They were set in an alternate pattern, as if the people that lived here were assigned one bedroom and study room each.

But the second last room was different. It was larger on the side than the other rooms and had an octagonal shape. There were a few stone shelves carved into four of the sides of the room and various tables on the other four sides.

In the center of the room thought there was a octagonal trough. It was very shallow, being only two feet in depth, and was empty. A small spout could be seen in its center from which water must have come out at a certain time in the past.

"An indoor fountain?" Lin Mu muttered and furrowed his brows.

His spirit sense checked the room and found the fountain to be the most peculiar part. His spirit sense could not penetrate it like the other walls of the floor, so he did not know what there was hidden underneath it.

But he could certainly feel a very faint aura coming from the fountain. 

Lin Mu thus walked over to the foundation and touched the top. It was then he felt the difference in texture. He lightly pressed and the entire fountain stem sank in.

~KACHA~

Some kind of a mechanism was activated and Lin Mu found the floor rotating beneath him. He too, spun with it and found himself descending into the floor. He immediately flew up, wanting to avoid any trap that might have been set up.

~THUD~

A few seconds later, the sound of stone hitting stone was heard as the floor finally settled. Lin Mu peered into the octagonal hole that had replaced the fountain and could only see the darkness inside.

~spark~

Lin Mu created a small orb of fire and dropped it into the hole. It illuminated the area and allowed him to get a good look at what was below. 

"Its… Normal?" Lin Mu was surprised.

  Seeing that there was nothing, Lin Mu spread his spirit sense and flew down as well. This was a secret room built under the main one and was about half its size. It was completely empty, other than what looked like a mottled pedestal on the other end.

Lin Mu's eyes lit up as he saw the box that was placed on the pedestal. 

"It's actually of a good quality!" Lin Mu took note.

He checked the area once more to ensure there were no traps and approached the box. Lin Mu carefully touched the box before picking it up. It was the size of a common spice box and was slightly heavy, being at least ten kilograms in weight.

Lin Mu knew that there was something good in it, since it was just made of some Light Spirit Oak wood. 

'There should be something substantial in it!' Lin Mu thought.