Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 301 Encountering a Ghost Merchant
"Master, why do we have to go east?"

“The sun rises in the east, and life often lies in the east. If you encounter difficulties, go east, and it will help your luck.”

"If you keep fooling me like this, I'll throw you out now."

"Well, the underworld is too big to tell the direction. If we go east, we might be lucky enough to see the secluded mountains. Then we can roughly tell where we are."

The master and the disciple chatted as they walked.

The Yinshan Taoist and Qianbingwei walked in the front, and Xiao Ran walked behind. At the same time, he released the archer and the tiger to protect them.

Keep yourself firmly in the center.

Once the situation changes, you can make the most favorable choice at the first time.

Fortunately, along the way, apart from the occasional humming of the Yinshan Taoist, no accidents occurred.

When the two of them passed through the dead woods, the view in front of them suddenly became clear, but the Yinshan Taoist priest who was held in the arms of Qianbingwei stared at them: "Why are we here???"

Xiao Ran walked forward from behind, looked over, and couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Is this Youming?"

This was his first time to truly enter the netherworld.

But the first impression he had of this place was just two words: "withering"

All I saw were sporadic flashes of phosphorous in the distance, and as far as I could see there was nothing but barren hills and land. There was no breath of life here, only death and silence.

The vast sky was gloomy and gray, covered with dark clouds, as if even the gods were disgusted with this land.

Gusts of cold wind whistled past, raising clouds of dust, but they could not take away the strong smell of death here.

The ground is covered with broken stone tablets and graves. They are incomplete and the traces of time are deeply engraved on them.

The bones are exposed, intertwined, and rustle in the wind, like the whispers of ghosts. The air here is filled with the smell of decay and exhaustion. In this dark land, time seems to have frozen and everything has stopped growing.

"Master, can you tell where this is?"

Xiao Ran turned around and looked at the Yinshan Taoist.

Taoist Yinshan had a bitter face and opened his mouth for a moment before uttering two words with difficulty: "The sea of sand, or the dead and desolate hills, is the most desolate place in the underworld. Even those evil ghosts are unwilling to set foot in this place."

Although Xiao Ran didn't know where in the underworld this place was, if even evil ghosts were unwilling to enter, it obviously couldn't be a good place.

"Turn around!"

After a moment, Yinshan Taoist gritted his teeth and said, "We can't go this way. Let's go to the left!"

There was a dead end in front of me. I couldn't go forward at all. I could only walk to the left along the dead forest in front of me.

But Yinshan Taoist didn't know where the left side led to, or whether it was also a dead end.

Xiao Ran saw that this was not a solution, so he asked, "How long will it take to get there? Can we fly here?"

"fly??"

The Taoist of Yinshan looked back at Xiao Ran and sneered meaningfully: "You can give it a try."

Well, this sentence dispelled Xiao Ran's idea of using the [Spiritual Clothes] to fly away.

So he asked Senbingwei to pick up swords and cut some branches.

Now that Senbingwei had the blessing of the mutated profession [Thousand Machine Craftsman], he made a two-wheeled cart for Yinshan Taoist in no time.

Although it lacks materials and is less comfortable, it is enough for the Yinshan Taoist to lie down in it.

Xiao Ran took out the cursed object [Bronze Horse] and activated it, then summoned the warhorse, gathered up Qianbingwei and others, pulled the cart, and swayed towards the front.

With the bronze warhorse, the two men's speed increased immediately, but it was Yinshan Taoist who suffered a lot from the bumps.

They walked and stopped for an unknown amount of time. During this time, the bronze horse's time was up, so they let Senbingwei push it, and when the cooldown was over, they continued to pull the cart forward.

Xiao Ran didn't have to worry about food and water. He had prepared everything when he came, so eating and drinking was easy for him.

"Master, how did my magic work? It should be that the extreme yin gives birth to the yang, so why did Xihu foolishly send us here?"

In front of the campfire, Xiao Ran was toasting bread with one hand and eating canned food with the other, occasionally looking up and asking the Yinshan Taoist.

It would be a shame to miss such a good opportunity right now. I can't call you master for so long in vain.

The relationship between the two is now very delicate. Both sides are eager to kill the other, but at this time both of them have concerns in their hearts.

Therefore, they tacitly maintained the scene of a loving master and a filial disciple.

"So, your Yan Sheng technique is not up to par. The first thing to look at when practicing Yan Sheng is the object of suppression. The properties of the object itself determine the final result of the entire Yan Sheng technique. You only focus on the technique, emphasizing the technique more than the object. You are putting the cart before the horse."

Taoist Yinshan was lying on the ground, chewing the bread Xiao Ran gave him. He said weakly while eating, "The stone in your hand is not simple. It looks pure, but it is actually more evil than you think. You don't understand the mystery, and you rashly use it as a talisman..."

The Taoist from Yinshan originally wanted to say a few words of blame, but when the words came to his lips, he was too embarrassed to say them out loud.

If Xiao Ran hadn't done this recklessly, this kid would have been turned into a ghost pill and eaten by himself.

Obviously, the old Taoist priest still has some idea about this matter.

Perhaps he knew that he was not bringing up something that was not relevant, or perhaps he wanted to comfort Xiao Ran, so the Taoist of Yinshan groped in his sleeves.

"for you."

Xiao Ran turned around and saw a book being taken out by the Yinshan Taoist. The pages had turned yellow and it looked like it had been there for a long time.

The words "Zhen Jing" were clearly written on it.

"This is the note I took from my master when I was learning the art of warding off evil. I'm giving it to you."

"Hehe, then I won't be polite. Thank you, Master. Don't worry, Master, when you can't hold on any longer, I will give you a grand funeral."

Xiao Ran took the book with a smile, flipped through it casually, and saw crooked bloody words on the first page. The words had turned black, but bloodstains were still left on the paper.

There was only one sentence on it: "Mao Xing, you will not die well!"

Xiao Ran looked at the words above and then looked at the old Taoist priest in front of him.

"My master's name is Mao Xing."

"Oh, so that's it. Isn't he my master? Then what is this book..."

"Of course it was passed down from your great-grandmaster to your great-grandmaster."

"Spread?" Xiao Ran's eyes widened.

The old Taoist nodded: "It means the same thing as what I am passing on to you now."

"Then... Grandmaster..."

"Dead." The old Taoist took a bite of the bread in his hand viciously and said, "When my junior sister and I were practicing dual cultivation that year, I took advantage of her inattention and smeared a deadly poison on her chest. That night, the old Taoist died."

Xiao Ran's mouth twitched, and he thought to himself: "Well, your family is in such a mess, is it too late for me to quit now?"

However, Xiao Ran's curiosity was aroused, and he asked curiously, "What about the master's wife?"

"Of course we'll die together. Do you want to keep her to fight with me?"

Xiao Ran: ...

He finally realized that his master was a pure egoist, and if given the slightest chance, he would eat everyone to the bone.

Just as he was about to speak, Xiao Ran and the old Taoist priest suddenly stopped talking at the same time and pricked up their ears, as if they were listening to something.

Until they heard a faint sound of gongs approaching in the distance, and the two looked at each other.

"Quick, turn off the engine!!"

Without the old Taoist priest's instructions, Xiao Ran stood up and grabbed the sand on the ground to cover the campfire.

Then he summoned the [Guillotine] with one hand and took out the [Bronze Horse] with the other hand.

I kept my eyes on the [Black Swan Brooch] on my chest, holding my breath, and waiting quietly.

"Dong dong dong..."

The sound of gongs in the distance is getting closer.

Xiao Ran squinted his eyes and saw a team walking towards them along the slope in the distance.

"Looks like a ghost merchant!" The Taoist of Yinshan looked at the approaching convoy, pondered secretly for a while, and said uncertainly.

"Ghosts still do business?"

"Of course, the underworld is too big and boundless. There is a sea of blood in the west and the Yellow Spring in the east. Mortals like you and me will never be able to get far in our lifetime. The wandering ghosts down there don't need to eat, drink, defecate or urinate, but they also have desires. Moreover, in order to ensure that their spirits do not dissipate, they also need incense and offerings. As long as there is a demand, there will naturally be vendors."

Xiao Ran nodded thoughtfully, and turned to look at Yinshan Taoist: "Why are you so familiar with the place down there? Have you been here before?"

"I have been here, I have been here. When you advance to the level of a life stealer, you must come here too."

Xiao Ran's heart moved when he heard this. Life thief, this is a B-level profession among corpse-seekers, and it is only one step away from the highest level A in the beginner's manual.

This not only reminded him of the time when the bald old man helped him to go to the underworld, he seemed to have mentioned that anyone who practiced cultivation would need to go to the underworld.

It seems that this is also the case for beginners like them.

However, this made Xiao Ran feel alert.

"This old Deng must have come to the underworld more than once, otherwise he wouldn't be so familiar with it. He is entangled with me now, could it be that he has some connection with the underworld?"

Thinking of this, Xiao Ran felt inexplicably nervous. If that was really the case, he would have to consider whether he should take action as soon as possible to kill this old thief.

But then again, when it comes to connections, I do have them. Apart from Mr. Liao, I am also a legitimate ghost messenger.

On the other hand, although my experience in the Dream Pool was a dream, it was not entirely false. It just deviated from reality.

This means that his great-grandmaster might have also ended up in the underworld.

If that's really the case, then as a good disciple, I'll have to find a way to pay a visit to him.

Xiao Ran was just trying to figure it out when an old Taoist priest at the side shouted, "Everyone, please stay!!!"

As he spoke, the old Taoist jumped out and ran towards the group of merchants.

When Xiao Ran saw the old Taoist priest walking briskly, he couldn't help but curse in his heart: "Old Deng, you are such a good grandson..."

(End of this chapter)