While you look at it, you notice, the roots seem to start from the heart, and most connect to the gate. One particularly large one breaks through the ground, then pops back up near a wall on the west side of the cave, twisting along the ceiling until another hole that it's broken through there.

It looks like a root, but considering it sprouts from the heart, maybe it's better to call it a vein or artery. It might become plain to see an opening from its outer shell where it winds back up along the wall. If you don't mind a squeeze and being submerged in blood, you could ride the flow...

But you go to the east