Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3897: Teeth Marks

Lin Mu had expected many things upon entering the Mad Demon Depths. Ancient prisoners, mad cultivators, hidden guards and even forgotten experts. But finding little more than a skeleton surrounded by insects had never crossed his mind.

His attention shifted toward the torn robes.

Most of the cloth had rotted away but several portions still remained attached around the waist and shoulders. Lin Mu immediately recognized the material. He reached into his hidden storage ring before retrieving the torn cloth fragment he had discovered earlier.

After comparing both pieces... He nodded.

"They match." The tear pattern lined up almost perfectly.

The fragment had unquestionably belonged to these robes. His eyes continued examining the skeleton and soon another familiar object appeared: The prison shackles.

They were identical to the ones around his own wrists and ankles. Each limb still carried thick rings forged from Baleful Qi Eater Steel.

Lin Mu stared at them thoughtfully. "They never retrieved these?"

He found the idea somewhat strange. Baleful Qi Eater Steel possessed tremendous value. The material alone justified recovering every single shackle after a prisoner’s death. Even if the sect had no shortage of wealth, discarding High Grade Immortal Tools remained wasteful.

Lin Mu continued considering the matter.

Then another possibility emerged.

"Unless they never had the opportunity." He slowly looked back toward the tunnel.

Perhaps nobody had visited this area since the prisoner’s death. Perhaps patrols rarely reached this place. Or, perhaps there were no regular patrols at all. The thought sent another ripple of unease through him.

Just how exactly did this prison operate?

The corpse itself provided few answers. Lin Mu attempted estimating the time of death. The effort proved largely impossible. The insects had devoured much of the remaining tissue. The rats had chewed away flesh and even portions of the bones.

Too many natural processes had altered the body. Anything from hours to a couple days remained possible.

He quietly sighed.

"There is one method..." His gaze rested upon the skull.

The Murdering Heart Sutra could search for lingering soul fragments. Even if the soul had long entered reincarnation, strong emotions sometimes remained. Fear, hatred and despair along with regret, such remnants occasionally endured long after death.

Lin Mu had relied upon the technique several times.

His expression became thoughtful. Then, he slowly shook his head.

"No." The risk outweighed the reward.

Activating the Murdering Heart Sutra inevitably released traces of Devil Path aura. Ordinarily, that mattered little. But inside the Mad Demon Depths he remained completely unfamiliar with the surveillance methods employed here.

His Spatial Perception had discovered no monitoring formations. But that hardly guaranteed their absence. The greatest formations often remained hidden until triggered. Lin Mu had no desire to expose himself over simple curiosity.

He quietly abandoned the idea.

Instead... He removed the shackles from the skeleton.

The rings came away surprisingly easily. Apparently their restraining formations automatically deactivated once the wearer died. Lin Mu inspected them briefly before storing them inside his hidden ring.

"They may become useful later."

Having extra Baleful Qi Eater Steel never hurt, especially material already refined into usable tools. And after giving the skeleton one final glance Lin Mu resumed walking. The tunnel continued forward.

Several minutes later... He noticed another change.

The floor beneath his feet gradually became smoother. It remained solid stone. Yet the rough jagged texture slowly disappeared. The surface appeared worn and polished. Not through craftsmanship of course but through use.

Lin Mu lowered himself into a crouch before touching the stone.

His fingers slowly brushed across it. "People have walked here often."

The countless footsteps had gradually smoothed portions of the rock over many years. The passage itself had become a road. Someone regularly traveled this route. Feeling increasingly certain that he had finally discovered something meaningful, Lin Mu continued onward and the polished pathway eventually widened.

A cave appeared ahead and compared to the enormous caverns he had already crossed, this one appeared rather small. It was barely five meters across and its interior remained uneven. Natural stone still formed most of the walls.

But the entrance contained thick metal bars.

Lin Mu slowly approached. "A prison cell."

There could be little doubt. The bars divided the cave from the corridor and a simple doorway occupied one side. Curiously enough, the door stood open which made Lin Mu take a closer look.

The latch remained intact and there was even a place for a lock but no lock existed.

Lin Mu quietly frowned. "Is this where the prisoners stay?"

His eyes slowly swept across the empty interior but nothing remained. No bedding or any belongings. There was only bare stone.

"If cells exist... why wasn’t I placed inside one?" His confusion deepened.

The masked cultivators had thrown him through an enormous shaft before abandoning him somewhere underground.

If prison cells already existed... Why ignore them entirely?

Lin Mu continued following the corridor as another cave appeared. Then another. Every single one shared the same construction: Stone chamber, metal bars, and a simple doorway with no lock.

Every door remained open and every cell stood empty while the corridor stretched onward. Lin Mu continued on as more cells appeared. Ten, twenty, fifty and eventually... Lin Mu estimated he had passed over a hundred prison cells.

Every single one remained vacant.

A handful contained skeletons lying upon the floor but most had already collapsed into scattered bones. The rats had clearly reached them as well. Lin Mu barely slowed as the repeated bite marks all resembled those upon the first corpse.

They were small and numerous. Clearly belonging to rodents. As such there seemed little reason to investigate each one. Then as he walked past another cell, something caught the corner of his eye. Lin Mu stopped and slowly turned.

Inside the cave lay another skeleton.

At first glance nothing seemed unusual. Then he looked closer and observed that the skeleton had not remained intact. Its torso rested in one corner, while both arms lay several meters away. The legs had become separated as well. Even the skull had rolled toward the opposite wall.

The remains looked almost deliberately pulled apart.