Chapter 371: Confirmation

"Now that… may be possible. Wait for a bit, I'll try something." Wu Hei replied.

After everyone was done praying, Wu Hei went to one of the priests and spoke something in his ear. The priest shook his head for a bit but then Wu Hei said something again. This time the priest was a bit hesitant but then nodded.

Wu Hei walked back to Lin Mu and gestured for him to follow him.

They went to a separate hall away from the others with the priest. Lin Mu had seen this area with his spirit sense and knew that it was a scripture chamber. 

"So he's the one that wants it to be done?" The priest questioned.

"Yes, and he would like it to be done in private." Wu Hei answered much to Lin Mu's confusion.

"Wait here then and do not leave the room, I'll go call someone." The priest said before leaving the room.

After the priest left the room, Lin Mu immediately asked, "What did you tell him?" 

"I told him that you would like to have your fortune read." Wu Hei replied.

"Huh? My fortune?" Lin Mu questioned.

"Yes, you see some aristocrats come here and ask the priests to divine their fortune with the help of the ancestral spirits. But they don't do this that often and it is expensive to do. I was able to convince them and that priest just went to get his elder who can read fortunes. 

We have three minutes at most before he returns, so do what you have to." Wu Hei explained.

"I need to be alone for this. Having another person would disturb my concentration." Lin Mu said, giving an excuse so as to not expose his skills.

"Alright," Wu Hei replied and did not question his methods.

He went out of the room and extended his spirit sense all the way to the corner. This way when the priest came closer he would be able to sense him before he saw Wu Hei standing outside. Thankfully, the scripture hall was at a right angle and thus could not be seen directly.

~Phew~

"Now to get there and come back safely…" Lin Mu muttered to himself after Wu Hei was gone.

He checked the area below and then used Phase to sink into the floor. A second later he was at the first basement level, where the bedrooms were located. All of the bedrooms were empty at this moment as it was daytime and the priests were working.

Lin Mu went down another level and appeared in the working area of the priests. There were six priests here, and he had actually appeared right behind one of them. Thankfully, the priest was deep in mediation and did not notice him.

Lin Mu scanned for an empty room and blinked there. Now that he was in a safe place, he checked the depths again. He didn't want to go to the third basement level of the temple as there was a chance the head priest could detect him.

He could only use his spirit sense to observe ahead. But when it went beyond the third level of the basement, Lin Mu realized that the ground here was extremely dense and packed with solid rocks. The extent of his spirit sense was being restricted and he could only extend it for one third of its entire length.

Still, he eventually reached a new level that was different than the Temple. It was another cave and looked to have been carved out. Lin Mu was sure that this wasn't a part of the Temple's structure as there were no paths connecting it, unlike the other three levels.

While Lin Mu's spirit sense was able to reach this level, he found it to be stopped again. But this time it was a spirit qi barrier, one that was similar to the ones at the sludge pools. Seeing that he was unable to go any further, Lin Mu decided to check the nearby areas instead.

There was some furniture placed here that seemed to be quite old. Everything was carved into the very stone itself and could not be moved from their place. 

'Someone lives here?' Lin Mu wondered.

While there was some dust in the area, it was still relatively clean. Seeing that he would have no progress further, Lin Mu decided to return. At the very least, he had confirmed that the central area of the caves was right below the ancestral temple.

Now the only question left was- Why here?

Lin Mu had already spent about a minute here, and wondered if he was late. He checked for the priest with his spirit sense and saw that he was going up the stairs with another older priest. This one had white hair and a beard, making him look old and wizened.

"I need to get back up fast." Lin Mu muttered to himself before blinking to the level above.

He blinked another time and then appeared back in the scripture hall. He extended his spirit sense and touched Wu Hei, who was standing outside, signaling him to come back inside. 

"Did you find anything?" Wu Hei questioned, seeing that Lin Mu was standing at the same place he was before leaving.

"Yes, I did. There are there more levels below this and an entire cave system below that. I tried to go beyond that too, but finally met the spirit qi barrier there, the same one that we saw before. This confirms it…" Lin Mu answered.

~Sigh~

"At least we got this much, which is good." Wu Hei said.

~Creak~

The door of the scripture hall opened just as he said that and in walked two priests.

"This is the person who wants his fortune read, elder." The younger priest informed.

Lin Mu and Wu Hei looked at the elderly priest with interest. The priest came forward and started into Lin Mu's eyes before placing his hand on his head. Lin Mu would have almost reacted on an instinct and knocked the old priest away had it not been for Wu Hei's nod.

The old priest closed his eyes and did something before furrowing his brows.

"This…" he muttered.