Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 614 It turns out... it was all a dream (two pages combined)

"Xing Xie!"

A strange light appeared in Xiao Ran's eyes. He hadn't expected that a god like Xing Xie would directly attack him at this time.

But Xiao Ran quickly understood the reason.

"This place must be an exceptionally auspicious location for you."

The evil god punishes evil, unlike ordinary gods who need the power of faith. All he needs is pain. Physical pain is no longer enough for him. Only the kind of pain that comes from the depths of the heart, that makes people despair, go crazy, hate, and regret, is the best spiritual nourishment.

These things were not only plentiful in this hospital, but there were also many of them, so many that even this evil god had to personally intervene to stop Xiao Ran.

“Crack!”

The red cloth on the shrine of the evil spirits suddenly tore apart, and billowing red smoke rushed towards Xiao Ran. Xiao Ran dared not touch the red smoke and quickly raised his decapitation knife.

Xiao Ran swung his broadsword, creating a gust of cold wind that struck the red smoke. However, Xiao Ran's attack seemed to sink into the sea; it vanished the moment it touched the red smoke.

Instead, the red smoke passed through the blade's edge and touched Xiao Ran the next moment.

Even with the dragon armor protecting him, the moment the red smoke touched his skin, Xiao Ran heard the sound of all 837 bones in his body shattering simultaneously.

It wasn't a real bone fracture, but rather the embodiment of the suffering accumulated by the Evil God of Punishment on Xiao Ran's body. It was as if countless steel needles were piercing his flesh, and every barb was injecting concentrated despair into his bone marrow.

“Listen.” Xing Xie’s clay-sculpted lips parted to his ears, revealing gums inlaid with human teeth. “What a beautiful melody this is…”

In an instant, Xiao Ran was overwhelmed by memories of her time at the hospital.

Those who were tricked into coming to Changchun for drug trials suffered from festering sores all over their bodies after ingesting the experimental drugs. They clung tightly to the IV tubing with their hands as the drugs continued to be delivered into their bodies.

Until his last breath, the man pleaded in agony to die, but when he opened his eyes again, he was still lying in the cold observation room. Beside him, a man in a white coat, expressionless, held a medical record and added another entry: [Fourth death, increased drug resistance, new medication required this time…]

Here, death is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is that after dying in agony, you will soon be reborn in the Changchun Regeneration Furnace.

The torment was almost endless, and it seemed like there was never any focus.

Xiao Ran then saw one deformed corpse after another being thrown into the reconstruction furnace by the caregivers. In the scorching furnace fire, the souls roared and cursed fiercely in the flames.

A pregnant woman was strapped to an operating table, and in front of her, her unborn child was dissected. Then, cultured drug-induced tumors were implanted into her abdomen. These tumors grew larger and larger until they drained the woman dry.

A couple was lured in, and the boy witnessed firsthand how his lover was tortured, treated like experimental material, until her body was covered in tubes and not a single patch of her skin was intact.

The most outrageous thing they did was to leave this girl, who was completely unable to take care of herself, to the boy to look after, and demand that the boy say "I love you" to the girl a hundred times every day.

In the end, the boy went mad and strangled the woman he once loved to death with his own hands.

After the girl's body was repaired in the reconstitution furnace, she went mad. They handed the boy over to her, bound hand and foot. That night, the boy's screams echoed throughout the entire drug testing building...

The resentment and pain that had been trapped in the hospital for years had now all become the power of evil, carrying billowing red smoke, wanting to devour Xiao Ran.

Various pains assaulted him, as if he were being torn apart by a thousand knives. This time, even the half-mastery of Yin and Yang techniques was ineffective.

However, Xiao Ran's eyes remained clear. With his powerful mental strength and the [Great Freedom Mara Sutra], Xiao Ran's heart remained as unbreakable as a stubborn rock, and no amount of negative emotions could shake him.

But as these painful scenes kept flashing before her eyes, Xiao Ran's anger grew stronger and stronger.

His knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists, and his eyes grew increasingly cold.

Even if you know the other party is an evil god, everything is in the other party's interest.

But Xiao Ran really didn't understand, and couldn't comprehend, how could someone be so heartless for the sake of profit?

What's even more ironic is that there's supposedly a god behind this, tacitly condoning it, even blatantly protecting it.

"You dare call yourself a god??"

Xiao Ran raised his head with red eyes and stared directly at the shrine in front of him. He could feel the pain in the hearts of those drug test subjects who had been dragged into the fire by the Changchun Society.

"You're not even as good as an animal!"

Faced with Xiao Ran's curses, the shrine trembled, not with anger, but with pleasure. For Xing Xie, anger was also something that brought him joy.

The angrier Xiao Ran became, the happier he was, even if the target of his anger was himself, because God... didn't care.

He realized that his curses had no effect whatsoever on Xing Xie, a creature who had completely lost all sense of decency.

Xiao Ran stopped talking and his broadsword hummed as the barber's runes merged with the blade.

In an instant, Xiao Ran felt the broadsword in her hand become lighter.

Although he hasn't yet become an executioner, the barber and the guillotine are now far more compatible than before.

【The Guillotine - The Barber】

Privilege 1: Slaying Calamity

Once activated, it can attack all negative curses.

Privilege 2: Punishment

The greater the sins committed by the target, the stronger the destructive power, which can be increased by up to three times.

Privilege 3: Dragon's Might

(Activation is temporarily unavailable due to insufficient activation conditions.)
The properties of the guillotine have changed drastically. It is no longer an attack on flesh and blood, but rather, like a barber's, it is more effective against things that cannot be seen, making it more lethal.

However, for some unknown reason, the third privilege cannot be activated at the moment.

However, this is enough for me.

"cut!!"

Xiao Ran swung his broadsword, the blade slicing through the red smoke before him, and a howl of a ghost emerged from the shadow of the blade.

Xiao Ran's wrist trembled violently, and light and shadow flashed on the blade. It seemed to cut through nothing, but it actually severed the negative emotions entangled in the red smoke.

"Go to hell!"

Xiao Ran moved like lightning, rushing to the shrine in one stride and slashing at Xing Xie inside.

However, when this blade struck the shrine of Xingxie, it was rebounded by an even greater force.

The shrine stood majestically, seemingly small yet as imposing as Mount Tai. Xing Xie, standing in the center, chuckled, mocking Xiao Ran's overestimation of his abilities.

Although it possessed a guillotine capable of striking the shrine, it was ultimately like a mayfly trying to shake a tree—utterly ineffective.

"Can't be cut?"

Xiao Ran refused to believe in evil, sheathed her sword, and silently recited the name of Taihua in her heart. As she recited, a wisp of divine power appeared behind her.

Now, the shrine seemed to sense the danger and quickly gathered the surrounding red smoke, enveloping itself completely, but its eyes were fixed on Xiao Ran through the red smoke.

Seemingly unexpectedly, this ant possessed an aura that instilled fear in him.

Although it was only a wisp of aura, it was enough to terrify Xing Xie.

Xiao Ran was radiant, but the light emanating from her was dim, deathly, and cold.

"cut!"

Immediately, a murderous glint flashed in Xiao Ran's eyes, and the knife in his hand cleaved forward like a crescent moon.

"Rumble..."

The moment the blade struck, the surrounding blood evaporated instantly, and the shrine shattered into pieces under the blade's light, revealing the evil sculpture inside.

The sculpture was bound by a force and could not move; it could only watch as a large sword cleaved down from above.

"Bang!!!"

A loud bang was heard, followed by the entire space trembling, and streaks of cold light burst out in all directions.

Cut open the filthy blood, and outside the coffin, everyone heard Zhang Jingmin's screams.

Immediately afterwards, the surrounding void began to shake violently.

"Could it be that he succeeded??" Pumpkin and the others were shocked, and their fear of Xiao Ran's strength increased even more.

"Look!!" Someone pointed to the left and shouted to everyone.

Everyone turned around and looked in that direction, only to see a gap in front of them. Through the gap, they could see the hospital corridor outside.

"It's the exit!!"

Everyone was overjoyed at the sight.

One of the beginners rushed over impatiently, but Jin Chanzi quickly stopped him.

"Wait a moment……"

Before Jin Chanzi could finish speaking, the newcomer, who was in a hurry to leave, had already plunged inside.

As a result, as he leaped through the gap, he disappeared without a trace, but screams could still be heard coming from behind the gap.

Hearing the screams, the crowd was confused and didn't know what had happened. However, before long, the corridor behind the crack turned into thick, foul blood, clearly a dead end.

"Don't move. Some of these cracks are real, and some are fake. One wrong step and you're doomed."

Pumpkin quickly signaled to Dijun and the others not to do anything rash.

But as the cracks around them multiplied, and they looked at the hospital corridors behind them, it would be a lie to say that no one was tempted.

However, not knowing which crack was the real way out, no one dared to move.

Just then, Jin Chanzi suddenly noticed something. He quickly walked to the corner of the wall and saw a man in a hospital gown squatting there.

"Hey bro, what are you looking at?"

Jin Chanzi squatted down and asked.

The man glanced back at Jin Chanzi, whose eyes revealed a pair of double pupils. It turned out that this guy was the madman who had told Xiao Ran's fortune before.

The man did not answer the question posed by the golden toad, but instead looked at the coffin in front of him that was still oozing foul blood.

"Can you win?"

Although the man was outside, he could see what was happening inside thanks to his double pupils.

Jin Chanzi shook his head: "It's a bit risky."

"Since we can't win, why run? Let's sit down and save some energy."

"Yeah, want some peanuts?"

Jin Chanzi simply sat down, took out a handful of peanuts from his sleeve, and handed them to the man.

The man's eyes lit up, and he took it with a smile.

Everyone was speechless as they watched Jin Chanzi and the man squatting on the ground, cracking melon seeds. What kind of time was this? Why was this Taoist priest chatting with a lunatic? Just as the two of them had said.

Amidst the filthy blood, Xiao Ran's blade had already fallen, but what surprised Xiao Ran was that when she slashed down...

The shrine has been split open, but it has no effect on Xingxie.

The blade struck his body, as if it were absorbed by an invisible force.

Not only did it not harm Xing Xie, it also elicited a series of giggling laughs from him.
It was just a clay sculpture, but at this moment, it made Xiao Ran feel a sense of powerlessness.

He couldn't understand why his sword couldn't slay a malevolent god like Xing Xie.

"Is it a difference in strength? Or..."

Xiao Ran opened his hands; if there was really no other way, he would have to ask Plum Blossom Taoist to take action.

Although he was very unwilling to be able to personally cut off Xing Xie's dog head, Xiao Ran dared not delay any longer.

His dragon armor was about to expire, and if it was delayed any longer, he would probably be submerged in this filthy blood.

Just as Xiao Ran reached out to take out the portrait of Plum Blossom Taoist.

Suddenly, a faint voice came from beside him: "Zhan, he, I'll help you..."

The sound was very faint, almost inaudible, merely a pure emotion. If Xiao Ran hadn't possessed strong enough mental power to detect this faint call, probably no one else would have heard it at all.

Xiao Ran looked in the direction of the sound and found that the source of the sound was the red tumor hidden in the bloodstains.

But the voice sounded strangely familiar to Xiao Ran, and her heart skipped a beat: "It's you!!"

The voice of that tumor belonged to Zhang Jingmin's daughter, the disabled girl who was confined to her hospital bed.

The two had met once before in a dream, and Xiao Ran found her voice unusually familiar.

The girl's current condition is very bad. After losing the medical equipment provided by the Ghost Doctor and his team, the girl's mental state is almost in a state of unconsciousness.

Struggling to stay upright, he sent a faint message to Xiao Ran: "Kill him, I... will help you..."

"help me?"

Xiao Ran stared intently in the direction of the tumor, her gaze seemingly penetrating it to see the girl trapped inside.

How can she help me?
But Xiao Ran quickly dispelled this doubt and, without the slightest hesitation, placed her hands on the hilt of the knife again.

No matter what the other party does, it's just a matter of one stab for me, so what's there to hesitate about?

At the same moment Xiao Ran focused on raising his knife, the tumor that had been bound deep within the filthy blood also began to stir.

A faint light then broke free from the tumor and clung to Xiao Ran's blade.

"This is!!"

Xiao Ran looked at the guillotine in her hand, a strange expression appearing on her face, and a peculiar feeling welled up from the guillotine.

This feeling was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before; it was like a ray of sunshine shining on me in the snow, bringing a long-lost warmth.

This warm feeling grew stronger and stronger, clinging to the blade. The light seemed peaceful, yet it brought a sense of tranquility I had never experienced before.

Xiao Ran didn't know where this sense of peace came from.

But this power warmed Xiao Ran's heart as if it were being basked in sunshine. All the anger and hatred from before vanished in an instant, replaced by peace, tranquility, and an unprecedented confidence.

Xiao Ran gave no reply, but her gaze hardened, and she silently recited the name of Taihua once more.

"Taihua!"

This time, the greatsword in Xiao Ran's hand emitted a different kind of buzzing sound, like the roar of a dragon. The deep dragon's roar echoed through the filthy blood, creating layers of white light patterns.

"Um!!"

Outside the coffin, Jin Chanzi and the old madman with double pupils stood up simultaneously.

"It's a dream!!"

The old madman's eyes were blank, his secondary pupils trembled, and his body involuntarily took a few steps forward.

Then he knelt down with a thud and cried out in a wail, "She's still here, she's still here!"

The crowd was puzzled, wondering why the old man had suddenly started crying.

At that moment, the people who had come here with Jin Chanzi to test the medicine suddenly seemed to sense something and all turned their gazes toward the coffin.

"Did you... hear that?"

One of the beginners turned around and looked at his companion with suspicion.

Zhao Hongzhong and the others nodded in agreement.

Their strange commotion baffled Pumpkin and the others. Finally, someone couldn't help but ask, "What are you talking about? What did you hear? I didn't hear anything!"

When Pumpkin and the others asked questions, none of Zhao Hongzhong responded to them.

It wasn't that they did it on purpose, but rather that they didn't know how to explain it.

Tears welled in some people's eyes as they murmured, "So... she's always been there, she's real!!"

Pumpkin and the others didn't understand; they didn't know what kind of evil had possessed these people.

But they soon understood.

"cut!!"

Xiao Ran raised his broadsword again, and this time the statue of the evil god Xing Xie in the shrine trembled uneasyly, while thick, blood-red smoke firmly protected it.

"Om!!"

But as Xiao Ran's blade slashed down, time seemed to freeze around them. Only a beam of intense light burst forth from the blade, and wherever the light passed, the billowing red smoke vanished instantly.

The agonizing cries emanating from the red smoke, upon contact with the white light, seemed to transform into waves of gratitude, as if they had been released from their suffering.

It was as if what Xiao Ran slashed down was not a blade of light, but an indescribable force.

The intense blade light slammed into the body of the evil god Xingxie.

"what!!!"

A heart-wrenching scream burst forth from the clay sculpture, its milky-white light as sharp as the sharpest knife in the world, tearing a gash through despair.

In an instant, the clay sculpture exploded, and a blurry, distorted shadow struggled to crawl out of it.

Just as the shadow peeked out, a cold light suddenly shone from Xiao Ran's body, and a huge shadow gradually enveloped him, radiating an immeasurable divinity.

As if overseeing an execution, he raised his hand and tossed out a token.

"cut!!"

As the token fell, Xiao Ran's blade slashed at the shadow.

"puff!!!"

This strike not only severed Xing Xie's head, but the blade's light also pierced through the filthy blood and broke through the coffin, appearing before everyone like a silvery-white rainbow.

Only then did everyone see that within the brilliant light emerged sleeping faces, each with a relaxed smile, as if they had found long-lost warmth in their dreams.

That's a dream.

It is the beautiful dream of the trial participants escaping from the hospital, a dream that soothes the heart in despair, a dream that, after nightfall, is like the hopeful moonlight shining on each patient, allowing them to briefly forget their inner pain and torment in their sleep.

Although it was just a dream, it gave those who suffered so much a little more hope every day.

Don't underestimate this little bit of hope; it's the reason why most people have been able to persevere and survive to this day.

Previously, all they knew was that a voice would accompany them into their dreams every night.

But they never knew who the voice belonged to, or even whether it actually existed.

Only now did they realize that what accompanied them to sleep every night was not just wishful thinking, but that someone was truly helping them all along.

No wonder Pumpkin and the others were completely unaware; the source of all this evil was none other than the mischief orchestrated by the Changchun Association.

After the rainbow light cleaved open the coffin, the surrounding void began to tremble and become unstable.

The cracks that were already unpredictable are now multiplying.

"This place is going to be destroyed. We need to find a way out as soon as possible."

Pumpkin was frantic, but didn't know which way to go. She tentatively threw a spirit into the rift, only to find it filled with layer upon layer of worlds, like an endless nightmare. Soon, it completely lost contact with Pumpkin.

Pumpkin was now unsure what to do; she didn't have that many spirits to waste like that.

"Run! Run! Run fast!!"

Just as Pumpkin and the others were at a loss, Golden Toad suddenly jumped up and shouted at the madman who was still eating peanuts beside him, "If you don't run now, you'll never wake up again."

Upon hearing this, the madman threw down the peanuts in his hand and turned to run away.

Seeing this, Jin Chanzi quickly waved to Zhao Hongzhong and the others. At this point, Zhao Hongzhong and the others dared not linger and followed Jin Chanzi.

As he was leaving, Zhao Hongzhong saw the emperor who was still unconscious on the ground. Feeling sorry for him, he simply picked him up and followed behind the others.

"How to do?"

Seeing that these people had suddenly started running after a madman, Di Jun and the others turned their attention to Pumpkin.

"Take him with us, let's follow them and take a look."

Pumpkin pointed to the unconscious Ghost Doctor on the ground, then quickly followed in the footsteps of Golden Toad and the others, running backward together.

All they could see were cracks extending to the left and right, and one wrong step could send them tumbling into an abyss. But the madman running ahead was deliberately heading towards these dangerous places.

His double pupils twitched incessantly in their sockets, fixedly locking onto what lay ahead amidst the chaotic cracks.

Until one corner, the guy suddenly stopped and jumped into the crevice on the left without hesitation.

Seeing this, Jin Chanzi followed closely behind, taking the lead of Zhao Hongzhong and his group.

Seeing this, Pumpkin and the others hesitated for a few seconds, then gritted their teeth and jumped in after them.

The moment their bodies passed through the crack, Pumpkin and the others felt a sudden lightness in their bodies, followed by a strong sense of weightlessness. This made them tense up, and they involuntarily jolted open their eyes.

It was only then that Pumpkin and the others realized that they were all safe and sound standing at the top of the stairs leading to the fifth floor.

Not only were they unharmed, but even the wounds on Beast Lord's body had disappeared.

Even Taiyi stood there, lifeless, staring in horror at his own resurrection. Pumpkin pinched his cheek hard: "So... it was all a dream?"

(End of this chapter)