328 Blood?

Similar to the previous parts this area was pitch dark and Lin Mu was using his spirit sense to 'see'. But unlike the others, this area was so large that his spirit sense was only able to feel the air and the ends were not visible to him.

"This area is at least a hundred meters wide." Lin Mu muttered.

He extended his spirit sense upwards and finally felt the roof of the cave. But even then it was quite far up as Lin Mu had walked a large distance downwards. He wanted to continue but felt hesitant as his spirit sense did not seem to be able to perceive everything.

There could be things that were beyond his spirit sense that may be dangerous to him. Not wanting to continue directly he took out a torch from the ring. He gestured with his hand and suddenly heard a shout in his mind.

"NO! Stop!" Xukong yelled, but was too late.

A spark appeared in Lin Mu's hand and then "BOOOOOM!"

Lin Mu felt as if time had slowed down and he could see the small spark he had made in his hand using the minor fireball technique rapidly expanding. There was something in the air that fueled the flames and spread around.

In that fraction of a second Lin Mu instinctively activated the three skills Flicker, Blink and Phase all together. He appeared inside the walls of the cave and stopped there. His breath was still held in, but he could feel the tremors that were traveling through the walls of the cave.

They lasted for about five seconds, after which Lin Mu felt them stop. He used his spirit sense to check if everything was fine and after confirming that walked outside. The cave was still pitch black, but the heat could be felt in it.

There was also the sound of rocks crumbling, echoing in the cave.

"That was close, you almost killed yourself!" Xukong scolded.

Lin Mu knew that he had messed up big this time and if it were not for him reacting quick enough, he would have sustained heavy injuries if not for death. But he was still confused about what had just happened, how did the flames grow so big and cause an explosion?

Xukong saw the confusion in Lin Mu's mind and knew that this wasn't exactly his fault either. If anything, it was more because of his ignorance than anything.

~Sigh~

"That stench you were smelling, they were the gases in the air. Some of those gases are toxic while some are even flammable, so even a small spark can cause an explosion if you're not careful. Now that the gases have ignited, while the foul smell itself will have disappeared." Xukong explained.

Lin Mu nodded his head and took a light breath, finding that the foul smell had indeed disappeared. He realized that he could now breathe again here and his eyes did not irritate anymore.

~Hooh~

"This is much better…" Lin Mu muttered.

"It should be fine if I ignite another torch, right?" Lin Mu asked, just to be sure.

"Yes, it should be fine now. Though I don't know how long it will burn thought… there won't be enough air in the cave left." Xukong answered.

"I'll just take a quick look." Lin Mu replied before taking out another torch from his ring.

The one that he had taken out previously had been destroyed in the explosion, and no traces of it could be seen. He used the minor fireball technique and ignited the torch, illuminating the cave. Lin Mu finally saw how big the cave was.

"Whoa!" Lin Mu exclaimed as he saw the size of the cave.

The cave was at least eighty meters tall and around two hundred meters wide. The ground that Lin Mu was standing on was flat, but it slanted towards the center of the cave. Lin Mu looked ahead and saw a large hole in the center of the cave.

This hole was the source of the foul stench that had been bothering Lin Mu this entire time. He looked inside and saw that there was a pool of what looked like a thick sludge of some kind. It was black in color and the foul smell was emanating from it again. From time to time, bubbles would appear from the black sludge and pop in the air.

"Ugh! What in the heavens is this!!?" Lin Mu recoiled with revulsion.

He looked around and saw that there were actually some channels that were joining this hole. He traced the channels and saw that they were heading towards the other side of the cave and reached the walls of the cave. At that point, there were holes for each of the channels and they merged into them.

Lin Mu could also see some dried up sludge similar to that of the large hole, present on these channels.

"So this is where the black sludge comes from. Whatever is behind this wall is the source of it." Lin Mu realized.

"Could it be?…" Xukong suddenly spoke.

Lin Mu was abut startled, but this and wondered if there was danger again.

"What is it senior?" Lin Mu asked with concern.

"Hmm, I think this black sludge wasn't exactly like this before. Rather it should have been liquid and only after being here for a long time has it become like this. As for what it is… it's blood." Xukong revealed.

"Blood?! But why would there be blood here?" Lin Mu asked.

He immediately went to check the wall on the other side and probed it with his spirit sense only to find it blocked again. He tried to use the skill phase but could not pass through it either.

"As I guessed, the first tunnel we went through whatever was behind that gate is behind this wall as well. The source of the blood was from that place as well." Lin Mu guessed.

"There is only one thing that comes to my mind, Lin Mu… The Blood Sacrifice!"