Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 634 Thin Tiger
On the mountain path, four gaunt laborers carried a huge steamer on their shoulders, singing as they walked.

From time to time, the cries of young children could be heard from inside the steamer.

Xiao Ran looked closely and realized that they were not laborers at all, but four ghostly figures, each with a thin body and a round belly, carrying a steamer without their feet touching the ground.

"How did we run into these guys??"

Xiao Ran frowned. She had just entered and encountered a group of evil spirits, which made her feel uneasy.

However, since we've already encountered them, we can't just stand by and watch. It's just that these evil spirits are unlucky.

However, he did not intend to eliminate these four accomplices immediately. As the saying goes, "to act as an accomplice to a tiger," these four accomplices must be hiding some evil spirit behind them. If he was going to take action, he should uproot them completely.

"Wait until they get there, then follow them and take a look."

Xiao Ran signaled to everyone not to move, while simultaneously releasing his own corpse energy to conceal the living aura on everyone's bodies.

After the four vengeful spirits walked past, the group followed them.

"Leave a crescent moon as a snack, and a sun as a donut."

Whose baby is crying so loudly?
—Snap! It goes perfectly with this bowl of human bone soup…”

The four ghostly figures swayed their heads and sang off-key, their voices filled with ghostly wails. The children in the steamer cried even more bitterly upon hearing their singing.

Not far beyond the woods, there was a dilapidated temple.

Inside the dilapidated temple, lights were on and wisps of smoke rose from the chimneys; the sounds coming from inside suggested it was quite lively.

Xiao Ran initially thought they were just a group of wandering ghosts, but when they got closer, they discovered they were actually a group of beggars.

The beggars gathered around a large iron pot, chatting and laughing, waiting for the four ghostly servants to place the steamer basket on it. They grinned foolishly, completely ignoring the child crying inside the basket.

Xiao Ran and Wu Man could tolerate it, after all, they were professionals and had seen this kind of thing before.

As for the Golden Toad and the Green Skeleton Demon, they are even less worth mentioning.

In comparison, Dai Long, this hot-blooded young man, was too naive. Seeing the piles of white bones on the ground, he knew that this wasn't the first time these people had done this.

"These beasts! How could they even prey on children?!"

Suddenly, Dailong felt his worldview shattered. If it were demons and monsters eating people, he wouldn't be so angry, but these beggars were living, breathing people.

Immediately, Dai Long leaped up and charged straight toward the dilapidated temple.

Seeing this, Xiao Ran and the others didn't stop them. They wanted to see what kind of methods this descendant of the Xiushui family had.

Xiao Ran winked at the Old Demon Qinghai, signaling him to follow.

"brute!!"

Dai Long leaped into the dilapidated temple. Before he even entered, two talismans flew out of his sleeve.

"Boom!!"

Two talismans flashed in the air, accompanied by a thunderous roar, but no lightning or sparks were seen. Yet, it was this thunderous roar that caused the four evil spirits to explode and vanish into nothingness.

This sudden turn of events startled the group of beggars.

After seeing Dai Long's figure descending from the sky, they were so frightened that they trembled.

"Thunderclap Talisman! This kid's got some skills." Jin Chanzi nodded in approval upon seeing Dai Long's technique.

Thunder roars without light, its power to vanquish evil is unparalleled.

This is the highest level of thunder magic. Although it doesn't have the visually striking power of lightning, the thunderous roar is incredibly powerful.

Since he knows the Thunderclap Talisman, this kid has most likely mastered the authentic Five Thunder Technique.

With the Five Thunder Technique, ordinary minor evil spirits would probably not be a match for him.

Dai Long casually tossed a talisman into the campfire under the iron pot, extinguishing it. However, what happened next was something Dai Long never expected.

Upon seeing this, the group of beggars did not rush forward to fight Dai Long. Instead, they stood there stunned, like children who had done something wrong, each at a loss for what to do.

Seeing this, Dai Long assumed that the beggars had been bewitched by the evil spirit, so he immediately shouted, "You audacious evil spirit, how dare you openly bewitch people and disregard human life! Get out here now!"

The rebuke was like a lion's roar, making people tremble.

This skill alone is enough to show that this kid has indeed put in a lot of effort at home. Regardless of his professional level, with this kind of strength, his profession is just icing on the cake, a tool to help him grow quickly.

What Dai Long lacks now is just a bit of experience.

After all, how can someone be like him, charging forward without knowing anything about the situation?

Fortunately, Xiao Ran, Wu Man, Qinghai Laomo, Jin Chanzi and their group were there to keep things in order, so they decided to let Dai Long cause trouble without worry, which would be a good opportunity for them to test the waters.

"Hoohoo!!"

A gust of black wind emerged from the dilapidated temple, and Dai Long immediately took precautions.

Unexpectedly, the black wind rolled on the ground and transformed into a thin tiger with a human body and a tiger's head, which lay prostrate on the ground, trembling and showing no intention of resisting.

"Master, spare my life! Master, spare my life!"

The skinny tiger spoke in human language, his attitude sincere, showing no trace of evil. This stunned Xiao Ran and the others behind him, who thought, "Could it be that this evil spirit sensed us? Is that why it's putting on this act?" "Spare my life? You dare ask!"

Dai Long didn't think that far ahead; he immediately prepared to kill the beast to prevent it from continuing to harm others.

Unexpectedly, a group of beggars rushed forward.

"Daoist Master!! We're innocent! We're innocent! Tiger Sage didn't harm us. If it weren't for him, we would have died long ago."

As they said this, the beggars actually shielded the skinny tiger with their bodies.

Seeing this, Dai Long was stunned. His face darkened, and he pointed at the steamer in the iron pot: "Nonsense! He clearly fed you children!"

Upon hearing this, the group of beggars exchanged bewildered glances. An older beggar slowly stood up, his eyes red-rimmed, staring directly at Dai Long, his face bearing a forced smile as he looked him up and down.

"Children, huh, they are children, but they are the children we traded for!"

"What did you get in exchange?"

Dai Long frowned, somewhat disbelieving, and asked, "You traded your own child for someone else's? Just so you could eat their child??"

Seeing the incredulous look on Dai Long's face, the old beggar's tears welled up in his eyes: "My son, he's only eight years old this year, he's my heart and soul, how can you expect me to bite him? Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

"This……"

Dai Long was skeptical, but still found it unbelievable.

"You kids take turns eating..."

Before he could finish speaking, the old beggar interrupted him, saying, "Young Taoist priest, you are dressed in fine clothes and have an extraordinary demeanor. You must be a highly accomplished Taoist master who has emerged from a sacred mountain. How could a deity like you, who is detached from worldly affairs, know the suffering of us common folk? If my son hadn't stopped eating and drinking, why would I have been willing to exchange my food for it?"

These words made Dai Long blush with embarrassment. The phrase "Why don't they eat meat porridge?" came to mind, and Dai Long felt ashamed.

The old beggar continued, "This Tiger King is a spirit creature that understands human nature. We have survived until now thanks to his protection. It is also thanks to the Tiger King's mediation that the children were exchanged among the disaster victims in several nearby counties. Everyone shared food, which relieved their burden. But if you ask if he harmed anyone, he would never do so."

"Master, Master, you are wise. I had no intention of harming anyone. I just couldn't bear to see them starve to death, but I didn't have the ability to conjure things up out of thin air, so I had no choice but to resort to this drastic measure. I personally escorted those children who were eaten to the gates of the underworld and watched them enter before returning. In this chaotic world, their journey here was in vain."

"Skinny Tiger spoke with deep sorrow."

"fart!"

Dai Long snorted coldly. In his eyes, these words were pure nonsense. However, when he glanced around and saw the eager looks on his face, he found himself in a dilemma.

At this moment, Xiao Ran and the others also walked in. When Dai Long saw Xiao Ran and the others, he immediately felt a little embarrassed. He had acted impulsively and ended up in such a predicament.

Xiao Ran smiled at Dai Long and walked up to him: "I'll buy these children."

"Do not sell!"

The old beggar shook his head: "I traded my son for this. I wouldn't sell it even if you gave me mountains of gold and silver."

"How about I give you a mountain of noodles? Or a mountain of rice?"

As Xiao Ran spoke, she threw out twenty bags of rice and thirty bags of flour from her spatial storage, piling them up in front of the beggars.

Everyone stared wide-eyed in disbelief as the rice and noodles appeared out of thin air before them.

But then they were overjoyed and rushed forward. After confirming that the rice and flour were real, they all knelt on the ground and thanked Xiao Ran profusely.

"Eat this food sparingly. It's enough for you all to get through this winter, and enough to exchange for those children, right?"

"That's enough, that's enough. With food to eat, who would want to eat a child?"

The old beggar waved his hand: "Quickly, let the child out."

Xiao Ran said he wasn't in a hurry, and then walked up to the skinny tiger and asked, "You let people eat their own children, which is a crime punishable by death. But considering that you came from a good cause, I will spare you this time. However, you may be spared the death penalty, but you cannot escape punishment. Show your true form and be my mount. Are you willing?"

"Yes! Of course I'm willing!"

How could Skinny Tiger dare to say no? He was almost scared to death when Xiao Ran and the others walked in.

The murderous aura emanating from Xiao Ran was unprecedented, and the people beside him were even more terrifying than the last. At this moment, how could he dare to say no?

"Alright, let me ask you, what is the current situation in the world? What is the situation in Ruzhou? And what is the current situation of Huang Zaijun?"

Hearing Xiao Ran's series of questions, the skinny tiger was also stunned and didn't know how to answer. After all, how could a mountain spirit like it know what the world was like?

Fortunately, the old beggar beside him was quite knowledgeable and picked up where Xiao Ran left off: "Since His Majesty passed away, the Locust Plague Army has seized the opportunity and stormed into Chang'an in just two months. Alas... what a tragedy."

The old beggar sighed. The first thing the locust plague army did upon entering Chang'an was to storm into the government office, take away the household registration books, and begin killing people from top to bottom according to the names on the registers.

Those powerful and wealthy families were all killed without exception. The locust plague army burned, killed, and looted in Chang'an for more than half a month before the regional military governors led their armies to suppress the locust plague army.

As a result, the locust plague army set fire to Chang'an.

"When Huang Chao left, he even left behind a poem."

The old man squinted as he recited the poem written in blood on the city wall.

"Old blood is newly painted on the Vermillion Bird Trunk, and the frost front wipes the Ming Dynasty Terrace.

"His angry gaze shot skyward towards Hanyuan Hall; a single torch reduced the Tang palace to ashes."

(End of this chapter)