Chapter 168: Clues

Lin Mu heard senior Xukong's mutterings in his mind but did not react. Although they were a little shocking to him, there were far too many people around him, thus he did not want to arouse unnecessary attention. 

"What do you mean, Senior? How can someone do that?" Lin Mu questioned.

"I am not a hundred percent sure, it could be something else. But there are far too many flaws in the understanding of the people in this world. Even if it is a low level world, they should have at least figured out the basics such as these. This world most likely has a history of at least ten thousand years or more.

This much time is enough for many generations of cultivators to be born such that they would know most things about the body tempering realm at least." Xukong answered.

Lin Mu thought over Senior Xukong's words and found them to be correct. Now even he started to think that there was something wrong with this world of his. Suddenly a thought came to his mind, it was something that he had heard about a long time ago.

"Senior, could it be because of the sects? When I was younger, I had heard of stories from people about the top sects and how they were the most powerful and had a great amount of knowledge." Lin Mu asked.

"Top sects, huh?… We'll see, for now, you should focus on the current task. We can think of this later at a more opportune time." Xukong replied.

Lin Mu nodded and returned his focus on to the path. Within the time that Lin Mu and senior Xukong had their conversation, another hour had passed by. He could now see the first mountain within which the great slumber bear was sleeping.

Lin Mu estimated the distance and guessed that it would take them another hour to get close to it. They would have to go around the mountain as they could definitely not take the same path that Lin Mu had taken before.

Once they got even more close, Lin Mu could finally see the rest of the northern mountains in the distance. They came to a halt in front of the cave that Lin Mu had previously rested. They took a short rest there before deciding to discuss a little before continuing their journey.

"How much farther is it, brother Lin Mu?" Hei Bao questioned.

"You can see the mountain behind this one, actually. We only have to go around this mountain first and then the route is rather straightforward from there." Lin Mu answered.

Everyone had seen the mountains before, thus they felt a little relieved with how close their target was from here. Some of them were looking around in the cave, and they had not failed to notice the ashes and charcoal that was left behind by Lin Mu.

"Did you stay here as well before?" Teng Xiaolian questioned.

"Ah yes. I took a rest here the night before when I heard the loud roar. I then went to investigate from here." Lin Mu answered.

"I see…" Teng Xiaolian replied before looking around the cave.

He eventually reached the back of the cave and noticed the deep fissure that existed at the end of the cave. Teng Xiaolian seemed a bit interested in this part of the cave but then noticed the water at the bottom of the fissure.

The water was staining his shoes, but he did not mind and bent down to take a closer look at it. He even went so far as to smell and taste the water. He did not find anything peculiar about the smell of the water, but the taste of the water was a little unique.

Teng Xiaolian had been a mercenary for about twenty years now and had seen many caves. Thus he was able to tell instantly that it was fresh water that had flown down from the mountains.

"This cave would have been the perfect abode for some beasts, if not for the size of it. Perhaps some smaller beasts would live here, but it is surprisingly empty for some reason." Teng Xiaolian spoke.

Lin Mu felt a little surprised at Teng Xiaolian's judgment as he was actually right about it. Except the beast in question was on the other end of the cave, and this was just a small external part of it.

"Where did you see the broken trees senior? Where they somewhere nearby?" Xie Bohai questioned.

Lin Mu who had been focused on Teng Xiaolian all this while turned to look at the person who had just called him.

"Ah yes. The trees are right behind this mountain, we should see them as soon as we cross this." Lin Mu answered.

Xie Bohai nodded while Hei Bao stood up.

"We should continue now. Is everyone ready now?" Hei Bao spoke.

"Yes, captain." The Hei corps replied.

"We are ready." The mercenaries replied 

"Let's go then." Lin Mu spoke before standing up as well.

Under the guidance of Lin Mu, everyone left the cave and soon crossed the mountain. It took them a little over an hour before they reached the site of the broken trees. The trees were broken rather randomly in this area, and if one did not know the location of the Great Slumber Bear's cave, they would not be able to find it.

Upon seeing the broken trees, the people could tell that the beast must have been incredibly strong to do something like this. 

"Will we even be able to fight against a beast like this if we encounter it?" One of the mercenaries questioned in a shocked tone.

"We have the advantage in numbers, even if it is a core condensation realm beast, I'm sure we would be able to restrain it." Another one commented.

While their people were discussing about the beast. Lin Mu knew how far from the truth they were. It was in fact their fortune that the great slumber bear was currently sleeping and would most likely not be awakening for at least another year.

Lin Mu could not even begin to imagine what kind of a disaster it would become if they were to encounter the beast right now. Even Hei Yingjie had a tough time against the Alpha steel back wolf and the beast in question right now was definitely many times stronger than that. 

Lin Mu hurriedly led them towards their mission target and brought them to the hidden cave which was used by the culprits before.

"This is a rather unique location. If it were not for brother Lin Mu's luck, perhaps we would have had an incredibly hard time finding this place." One of Teng Xiaolian's teammates spoke.

Some of them then went closer and looked at the cut that had been made to the edge of the large boulder. They could see the size of the boulder and knew that it would have been impossible to get in without doing that.

They thus placed their hands against the boulder and built up their strength. They strengthened their muscles with qi and focused on it.

"Now, PUSH!" One of the men shouted and the people then started moving the large boulder.

~Grrr~

The sound of small rocks and stones grating against each other appeared, as the large boulder blocking the entrance was moved. 

~Phew~

Everyone took a collective gasp of relief and looked inside the cave, which was partially being illuminated by the fading sunlight. It was the time for sunset and the bare minimum of sunlight was still present in the sky.

But the others were already prepared for something like this, as they all brought out the torches they had prepared beforehand. 

"We can go inside now. I've already checked the entire cave before and we can go in safely." Lin Mu spoke, trying to assure the people a little bit.

They all walked in and could finally see the cages that were placed everywhere and also the other stuff that seemed to have been abandoned here. While the mercenaries had more free expressions compared to the Hei corps, they were still a little shocked by this. 

They also noticed the moldy and rotten food that was left behind in the cave.

"How many cages are here?" Xie Bohai asked, feeling a little amazed and unsure at the same time.

"I didn't check them all clearly, but there should be at least a hundred cages here." Lin Mu answered.

~Sigh~

"Seems like we got a ton of clues to look forward to." Xiong An spoke feeling a bit tired.

The members soon notice that some of the cages were bloody and had bald spots on them. 

"Huh? This is rather peculiar. Only the shackles and the restraints have blood on them." Hong Luo suddenly spoke up.

"Hmm, there are no signs of torture here. Rather it seems like the prisoners that were the mercenaries tried to escape on their own but could not." Hei Bao spoke in a grim tone.