Xukong's words made the cogs in Lin Mu's brain turn and everything started to link up; the culprits hiding in caves, them disappearing easily, the kidnapping of the mercenaries, the presences of caves everywhere in the region of which nearly no one seemed to have knowledge of.

Lin Mu then looked at all the runes that had been carved into the walls and realized that all of this should have been ancient and have been exiting here for countless years. He then realized one of the most important things.

It seemed too suspicious that barely anyone knew about the caves. At least the people who took care of the wells in the city should have known of them, and if they knew then normal people should have found out about it as well.

A serious expression appeared on Lin Mu's face as his train of thought progressed. He knew from the kind of thick sludge that had been formed, the quantity of blood that was originally present must have been quite large. He checked the depth of the sludge pool and was even more shocked.

"Senior the sludge pool, it's more than fifty meters deep." Lin Mu spoke.

Now even Xukong was getting worried about this, as he understood the amount of blood required to fill such a large pool would not be easily obtained. 

"Lin Mu, I don't think this is all blood," Xukong said.

"It's not? Then what it is?" Lin Mu asked.

"Use the method I tell you and test it out yourself," Xukong replied.

He then gave Lin Mu a small technique which was actually part of the refinement skills. Lin Mu didn't have a hard time in learning it, as a lot of the steps were similar to those he used for the refinement of the Bloodline of the Trunk Faced Cow.

Lin Mu used his spirit sense and created a few runes in the air. He formed a few seals with his hands and a small amount of sludge came floating up from the pool. It entered the formation which the runes had formed and stirred before turning to dust and dissipating.

But after this, the runes that constituted the formation also changed and then entered Lin Mu's head. He closed his eyes, and a troubled expression appeared on his face.

"You were right, senior. This isn't just blood, but entire bodies mixed with them. There is not only human blood in it, but also a lot of beast blood. In fact, the majority of it constitutes of beast blood." Lin Mu informed.

"Hmm, as I thought. They are using a certain refinement technique to refine the corpses and blood in a certain ratio to prepare blood essence rich fluid. They absorb the blood essence while discarding the rest as a waste." Xukong explained.

Upon hearing this, Lin Mu's rage flared up, but then he quickly chanted the calming heart sutra again to calm himself down. He knew that it would not be the right time to get senselessly angry and it would be the better choice to find out what was going on.

"We should explore a bit and check what exists in the other caves. Even if this one is blocked, there should be others that should be accessible. Besides this many beast corpse should not have been easily obtainable which means, the mayor is definitely part of the entire thing." Lin Mu said in a cold tone.

"That makes sense. First, he employed the mercenaries to hunt beasts for him and then killed them as well to contribute to the blood sacrifice. But this leaves us with another problem. If the mayor is involved in this then does it mean that his sons are as well?" Xukong stated.

Lin Mu was thinking about this very question as well, and it had put him in a dilemma. From the actions of the Hei corps, it was obvious that they were fully against the culprits and that they were definitely bothered by them. The dislike of the Mayor by Wu Hei was also quite obvious and from what Lin Mu had known about it, the mayor had always kept the existence of his younger son in the back.

Most of the people did not even know the name of the younger son of the mayor, which showed that there was some conflict in between them. But even if it was sure that Wu Hei was not involved with the mayor, it didn't mean that Lin Mu could simply tell him that.

In the end, they were still father and son. Blood was thicker than water. Who knew if he had a change of heart at the very end.

"Old man Jing Wei and Duan Ke should have been here at this point, it would have been immensely helpful." Lin Mu muttered.

Xukong heard Lin Mu's words and knew that they were true. Their existence would have definitely made it much easier for them.

"Senior Xukong, what do you think? Should I proceed in investigating the place or not?" Lin Mu asked, feeling unable to come up with a conclusion.

"Hmm, I think you should stop for a while. Whoever it is, they will definitely be strong. Just the amount of cultivators and beasts they have sacrificed would be enough to push them to the nascent soul realm, at the very least if they were a qi refining realm cultivator. 

Another thing we know: that the mayor is at the core condensation realm and has been for a few years. The same is for both of his sons, they are in the condensation realm as well. This means that they shouldn't be the ones that are taking the advantage of the blood sacrifice, but rather a third party." Xukong replied.

"As far as everyone knows, the mayor does not have anymore family except for his wife and two sons. He has also been the mayor of Wu Lim city for nearly forty years now." Lin Mu said.

"Who was the mayor before that, and how did Wu Xun become the mayor?" Xukong questioned after thinking for a bit.

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