Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 480 Underground Palace
Go out the door and walk along the corridor.

The road was full of twists and turns, like a maze, making it difficult to tell east from west, south from north.

Xiao Ran naturally didn't recognize the road, but he had the ability to trace back and could see the traces that the little eunuchs had walked on before, so he just had to follow these traces.

From time to time on the road, he saw the imperial guards searching everywhere, obviously searching for him, but at this moment, Xiao Ran just walked along and no one suspected him.

Just following the traces of those young eunuchs, they arrived at a big gate. The guarding imperial guards glanced at Xiao Ran and nodded to let him pass.

Pushing open the door, there is a long underground palace behind it.

A chilly chill gushed out from under the underground palace.

"Underground Palace?"

Xiao Ran suddenly remembered: "Could it be that the Zou family built an underground palace for the emperor? Why was it built here?"

Growing up, Xiao Ran had never heard of anyone’s underground palace being built inside the imperial palace.

There was no time to think about it at this moment, so I just walked inside.

“Buzz…Bang!”

As soon as the door was closed again, the underground palace in front of them suddenly became pitch black. However, the young eunuch beside him had already raised the lantern and walked in front to lead the way for Xiao Ran.

But after walking a few steps and going down the stairs, as I walked deeper into the underground palace, the environment in front of me began to become brighter.

Above the corridors of the underground palace, there were lights shining like torches, illuminating the corridors.

But when Xiao Ran took a closer look, his heart couldn't help but tighten.

"frenzied!"

Xiao Ran couldn't help but curse in his heart, and his face suddenly turned ugly.

Under the light, there were clay-like boys hanging there. Their bellies were bulging and round, as if two big pumpkins were stuffed in them.

A bronze crane, with its wings spread out and flying high, has a flickering fire on its beak, while the back half is connected to the boy's belly button.

"Father-in-law!"

Seeing that Xiao Ran did not leave but stared at the sky lantern above his head, the young eunuch beside him called out softly.

Xiao Ran came back to his senses, sighed, and continued walking forward.

The underground palace is very deep.

The further we go, the colder it gets.

The young eunuch standing by shivered from time to time.

When we walked down one more floor, we saw the young eunuchs who had been there before were crawling on the ground, carefully wiping the bricks and stones on the ground. At the same time, various gold and silver utensils were placed in their proper places.

It turns out that these little eunuchs are here to clean.

As the leader of the eunuchs, Xiao Ran certainly didn't have to go out in person. He simply pretended to inspect and walked around the underground palace casually with a lazy look on his face.

According to what the Zou family's ancestor said last time, this underground palace is actually an altar, waiting to sacrifice the emperor as a tribute.

"This emperor is also unlucky. He thought he was the ruler of the world, but in fact he is just a pig in everyone's eyes. The Zou family wants to kill him, those Jianghu people want to kill him, and even I want to kill him."

But Xiao Ran didn't have the slightest intention of pitying him. The emperor had done so much, so he should be killed? It was only right to torture him to death.

"Huh? This isn't the right place?"

Xiao Ran was just looking at it casually, but as he looked at it, he felt something was wrong.

In theory, the requirements for the altar are not high, but there are some rigid requirements. First of all, the altar must be set up. It is said that the altar should be built on flat ground for three meters, with the eight directions and four corners facing south.

This is the requirement of the altar.

Whether it is a legal altar or a sacrificial altar, this is indispensable.

After that comes the sacrifice. Even if it is a sacrifice to heaven and earth, there is a sign with the five words [Heaven, Earth, Emperor, Parents, and Teacher] written on it. It is not like in TV dramas where you just kneel down and it means you are worshipping heaven and earth.

So whether you are offering sacrifices to gods or ghosts, there must always be a sacrifice.

It was the same when Xiao Ran was in Xiaotaishan before.

But let’s not talk about the altar for worship. Even if I don’t see it, the height of the altar itself is a bit wrong.

A few inches shorter.

"Could it be that the craftsman was lazy?"

Xiao Ran was puzzled. He turned his eyes and noticed that there were several stones wrapped in yellow cloth on the dome. He asked the eunuch, "What are those?"

"This...I don't know either."

The young eunuch scratched his head and said, "Hey, I don't think this was available last time I came."

"Not last time?"

"Yeah, I've never seen it before, who put it there?"

The young eunuch shook his head repeatedly and told Xiao Ran with certainty that this thing had not existed before.

"It wasn't there before, but it's put there now. What is this thing? It can't be... a talisman."

Xiao Ran was just thinking about it when he suddenly heard the heavy door outside being opened.

This underground palace is a closed environment. The sound of the door opening was very loud, and then a burst of hurried footsteps were heard coming down from above. Xiao Ran felt something was wrong and hurried out.

The old man of the Zou family and a group of guards rushed into the underground palace, supporting a man wearing a dragon robe among them.

"That's the Emperor?"

Seeing the emperor, Xiao Ran couldn't help but look up to take another look. However, he didn't see the emperor clearly, but instead saw a face that surprised Xiao Ran.

Wu Man!

This guy has changed his appearance now, wearing the clothes of the imperial guards and hanging around Chu Tianming.

Xiao Ran learned his lesson this time. Seeing this, he immediately bent down and followed the eunuchs to retreat to the side.

He now couldn't figure out whether Wu Man was an enemy or a friend, and what this guy wanted to do, so it was better to just stand aside and watch.

What’s interesting is that in addition to Wu Man, Li Jie was also in the crowd, but he was hiding at the back, obviously not wanting people to notice him.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!!"

I saw a group of people supporting the emperor to sit on the dragon throne, and a group of old ministers including the Zou family surrounded him and called him softly.

The emperor sitting on the dragon throne looked to be around 30 years old, or maybe even younger.

His skin was delicate and lustrous, but it was sickly pale. I was afraid that, as the old Taoist said, the emperor practiced the Blood-Transforming Sutra, and although he looked eternally youthful, he had actually exhausted all his blood.

At the call of the crowd, the emperor slowly opened his eyes and glanced at everyone: "Chu Tianming! Chu Tianming!!"

"Chen is here!"

At the emperor's call, Chu Tianming quickly stepped forward.

"Have all the garrisons opened. Send out all the elite troops and kill all those unruly people!"

The emperor angrily slammed the dragon throne and yelled.

Obviously, the martial arts people led by Gu Xintang suddenly turned against the emperor, which caught him off guard. In addition, there were fires everywhere in the palace. Without the suppression of the talismans, the martial arts people ran around like monkeys, causing chaos in the entire palace.

"This……"

Chu Tianming frowned, glanced at Mr. Zou with an embarrassed look and said, "Your Majesty, there are fires everywhere now. If you want to reopen the talisman, you need to ask the director of the Imperial Observatory to preside over it. Now I'm afraid... it's too late."

"Snapped!"

After Chu Tianming finished speaking, he was kicked to the ground by the emperor: "Waste! Why do I keep you useless? You can't even handle a bunch of bandits, so what are you doing as an imperial guard? I don't care what means you have, just go and kill them. If you can't kill all these bandits by tomorrow morning, I will take your head."

Chu Tianming heard this, without any hesitation, and bowed: "Yes"

"You stay here and protect His Majesty!"

After Chu Tianming gave some instructions to the imperial guards behind him, he quickly left the underground palace.

This inevitably made Xiao Ran feel a little regretful, and he thought that it would be better if Chu Tianming took all these imperial guards away, at least taking the scourge Wu Man away with him.

Unfortunately, Wu Man was still detained. Although the emperor was right in front of him and seemed to be weak inside, this was the best time to take action, but Xiao Ran did not dare to act rashly. Not only because he could not figure out Wu Man's background, but also because of the old man of the Zou family. Although this old man did not know martial arts, the ancestor of the Zou family who could appear at any time behind his back was not an easy person to deal with.

Xiao Ran simply followed the others, hiding behind a group of young eunuchs and watching from the sidelines.

As soon as Chu Tianming led the imperial guards to leave the underground palace, the atmosphere in the palace gradually became quiet.

Everyone looked as if they dared not breathe, but everyone was thinking differently.

Some ministers looked anxious, while others lowered their heads and closed their eyes to rest, wondering in their hearts whether to have spicy soup or tofu pudding tomorrow morning.

After all, these grasshoppers are just a bunch of scattered gangsters, not rebels. They can't achieve their goals, so they should leave after making trouble for a while.

By then the sun will rise as usual, and another day will have passed.

As for how many people died and who should take the blame, hey, it has nothing to do with these civil officials anyway.

Xiao Ran hid behind the eunuch, glancing at Wu Man from time to time. Seeing that he was motionless,

"Cough cough cough..."

At this moment, the emperor suddenly couldn't stop coughing, and his originally pale face turned red. One could clearly see every wriggling blood vessel under his skin, as if it was about to burst out from his pores.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!!"

Seeing this, the old man from the Zou family hurriedly took out a box from his arms.

The box was opened, and inside was a blood pill about the size of a thumb. When many princes and nobles in the underground palace saw the pill, they couldn't help swallowing their saliva. Their originally decadent expressions suddenly became energetic, and they stared at the blood pill, wishing they could pounce on it and put it in their mouths.

Li Jie, who was watching this scene, couldn't help but tremble in his heart. Once upon a time, he was just like them, with no resistance to this blood pill. He seemed to be eternally young, like an immortal, but in fact he was a walking corpse and had long forgotten himself.

He didn't feel it at that time, but now looking at himself, and then looking at these royal relatives, and looking at those nephews, each of them has a wolf-like and dog-like demeanor. Li Jie suddenly felt a sense of sadness in his heart, but then he felt a little more fortunate.

Thanks to the blessings of my ancestors, I managed to get out of this quagmire.

Otherwise, my life now would be controlled by this pill.

"Your Majesty, this is the blood pill that our Zou family specially made for you. The light golden lines on it are the result of the fusion of many precious and rare medicines. It can enhance your power and restore your blood. Your Majesty, please take it quickly."

Xiao Ran quietly raised his head and glanced at the pill in Mr. Zou's hand.

A faint light flashed in his eyes, and he looked back and saw a small snake as big as an earthworm coiled in a circle inside the pill. The small snake slowly turned its body and kept spitting out its scarlet tongue, as if it had been looking forward to this moment for a long time.

Xiao Ran was shocked when he saw this: "It's the ancestor of the Zou family!!"

(End of this chapter)