Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 689 Memory Imprint
Before Xiao Ran could think it through, the woman pulled her to the back, through the front hall, where large wine vats came into view.

At a glance, there are about twelve in total.

Each large vat was covered with a memorial tablet. Xiao Ran looked at the names enshrined on the tablets: "Are these all ancestors of the Li family?"

Filled with doubt, Xiao Ran followed the woman into the last room, where she saw a white-haired man lying on the bed, barely alive.

The room was filled with the smell of herbs and blood.

"Father, Li Xiao is back." The woman walked quickly to the bedside and gestured for the man on the sickbed to open his eyes.

Hearing the woman's voice, the man opened his mouth and laboriously stretched out one hand.

Xiao Ran stepped forward and reached out to grasp the man's hand.

"I am back."

With just four simple words, the man simply nodded, and the pressure on his hand quickly subsided.

Upon seeing this, the woman beside her turned deathly pale and collapsed to the ground with a thud. At this moment, the eldest aunt also came in. Seeing the man who had already died, her attitude was completely different from the woman's. She had a joyful smile on her face: "Oh dear, at least we didn't miss the time."

After saying that, the aunt called out to Xiao Ran, "Li Xiao, don't linger there. Go and change your clothes quickly. Tonight's big event depends on you."

After saying that, she ignored Xiao Ran and quickly went out to make arrangements.

"What is 'Great Avoidance'? Why is Auntie so happy?"

Xiao Ran asked the woman beside her, her mind filled with doubt.

The woman coldly raised her head, stared at Xiao Ran for a while, and then said, "Are you out of your mind from gambling, or have you been brainwashed by that vixen? The Great Abstinence is about making the living live the lives of the dead. If you can't get through this... your fate will be worse than death."

"Your aunt is so happy because her brother is dead. If you don't survive tonight, this shop will belong to their family."

"That's it."

Xiao Ran roughly understood the rules involved.

At this moment, the eldest aunt had already arranged for people to bring in a large wine vat. They had people carry the man's body from the bed into the vat, put the body inside, and then sprinkle in handfuls of salt until the vat was full, leaving only the head sticking out.

After doing all that, the aunt quickly had the woman bring Xiao Ran a new set of clothes.

Xiao Ran took a look and realized that it was actually a set of funeral clothes. These clothes were not worn on a dead person, but on her own body.

After she put on her clothes, her aunt led Xiao Ran to the front hall and had a white lantern hung at the entrance.

"Remember, when that light outside comes on, the Great Sun-Avoidance begins. Li Xiao, whether you survive or not depends on your own abilities."

The eldest aunt grinned, her mouth splitting from her cheeks almost to her ears, and pointed to the lanterns hanging by the door.

He then took the woman's hand and said, "Let's go. It's a day of rest and women can't be around."

After saying that, he pulled the woman and quickly walked out of the store.

Once the two left, the entire shop fell silent, and the sky outside began to darken.

Xiao Ran stood at the entrance of the shop, looking around. There were no pedestrians on the street, but she could see a few shops with white lanterns hanging in front of them and their doors wide open, which seemed to be in a similar situation to her own.

"I wonder how Jin Chanzi and the others are doing, and whether they are facing a situation like mine."

Xiao Ran pondered for a moment, then turned and walked to the counter.

He took out a mirror from his spatial storage and examined himself closely. His reflection showed a gaunt face, looking malnourished, clearly indicating that a woman had drained his body.

"There seem to be quite a few strange tales here, but there are no hints whatsoever, not even for side quests. And my current identity is also rather odd."

Xiao Ran believed that Huang Chao would never be so bored as to let his people be trapped here and play a role-playing game.

This is not Huang Chao's style; there must be a deeper meaning behind his actions.

However, Xiao Ran couldn't figure out what Huang Chao was up to. Before she could figure it out, Xiao Ran decided to go with the flow and take it one step at a time.

However, sitting idly by and waiting for death is not in his nature.

After looking around, Xiao Ran picked up the inkstone on the table, walked to the door, looked around, dug a hole in the corner of the wall, and stuffed the inkstone in.

"start!"

After burying the inkstone, as Xiao Ran formed a hand seal, a vine sprouted out of thin air from the spot where the inkstone was buried. The vine's branches and leaves were entirely black, and in a short while, it grew into a large patch against the wall.

"not bad."

After confirming that there were no problems, Xiao Ran returned to the front hall and sat behind the counter to wait.

The sky outside grew darker and darker.

Before long, it was pitch black. Xiao Ran glanced at the lantern and, seeing that it wasn't lit, simply ignored it, took out a piece of bread, and started eating it.

"Knock knock knock... It's past midnight! The night is dark and windy, be careful with fire!!"

At one end of the street, the sound of a night watchman's drum could be heard.

At that moment, the lantern hanging outside the door suddenly lit up with a stark white light.

Xiao Ran squinted at the door and saw that all the white lanterns on the street lit up at the same time. Under the white light, many ghostly figures emerged one after another from the street.

The world, which had fallen silent, became lively again at this moment; however, while it was a world of living beings by day, it transformed into a paradise for demons by night. "Boss!!"

Someone called out from outside the door. Xiao Ran looked up and saw a man covered in a foul stench walk in: "Give me two pounds of coarse salt that's been aged for over thirty years."

"More than thirty years?"

This was the first time Xiao Ran had ever heard of salt being sold based on its age.

He glanced around, then suddenly remembered something: "You wait here."

As she spoke, Xiao Ran walked into the backyard, glanced around the corridor, looked at the neatly arranged large wine jars in front of her, and then looked at the memorial tablets on the wine jars. They all had dates on them. Xiao Ran checked them briefly and then came to the memorial tablet of Li Xiao's grandfather.

He reached out and yanked the lid off the top.

What came into view was a head that had been pickled and dried, surrounded by blackened salt.

Xiao Ran glanced at the salt and saw that it had been disturbed. She figured it must be true, so she casually scooped some out with a small shovel.

With one shovelful, a dark red liquid seeped out from under the salt, spreading rapidly like a venomous snake and lunging at Xiao Ran.

This scene caught Xiao Ran off guard, but her body instinctively retreated quickly, while her immense mental power formed an air wall in front of her.

This set of movements was already at its fastest speed, but what Xiao Ran didn't expect was that these liquids completely ignored the barrier of Xiao Ran's mental power, and even rushed up at an even faster speed, quickly sneaking into Xiao Ran's sleeve.

"what?"

Feeling the strange sensation on her arm, Xiao Ran's expression changed drastically. She immediately pulled up her sleeve and saw a dark red mark on her arm.

The dark red mark on my arm throbbed slightly as if it were alive, bringing waves of icy stinging pain, yet strangely carrying a trace of warmth from our blood connection.

The fragmented memories flooding my mind were chaotic and filled with unbearable pain, a burning sensation spreading through my body.

"The magistrate said the salt tax will be increased by 30% this year, and your family dares not to pay. Believe me, we'll shut down your shop tomorrow!"

The middle-aged man was prostrate on the ground, his face still smeared with tea leaves and hot steam. The man in the robe in front of him had one foot on his head, but he dared not utter a word of protest. He could only kneel on the ground and kowtow to the man repeatedly: "Manager Wang, it's not that our family doesn't want to pay, it's just that there's a lot of smuggled salt this year. We didn't even sell our salt from last year, and we really don't have the money to pay the tax this year. Please, sir, give us some time. Once we sell our goods and raise enough salt tax, we will definitely deliver it to your residence."

"Hmph, you merchants! No merchant is without guile. I'm here to tell you that the magistrate has said that if you can't pay the salt tax within three days at the latest, then your property will be confiscated to pay off your debts!"

After finishing his sentence, Manager Wang didn't give the man a chance to speak before getting up and quickly leaving.

"Three days... My God, how can officials these days be so heartless..."

The man covered his face and lay prostrate on the ground, wailing loudly, until a boy walked in and asked, "Grandpa, are you alright?"

Hearing his grandson's concerned voice, the man finally looked up and wiped away his tears with his sleeve: "It's alright, Grandpa's alright. And you, grandson, remember this: never sell salt again, you must become an official, a very high-ranking official!!"

The images in her memory gradually began to blur, and then slowly faded from Xiao Ran's consciousness.

But the brand on his arm is still there.

Before Xiao Ran could examine the object closely, a series of blood-red characters suddenly appeared in front of her.

Side Quest: The Mark of Truth

Mission Description: Find the truth behind the markings.
Mission failed: Death!

Task reward: ?

Looking at the information that appeared in front of him, Xiao Ran felt a deep sense of malice from the mission for the first time.

There were no clues, only punishment or death.

Isn't this pushing people to the brink of despair?

"Where's the salt? What are you dawdling for! Can you afford to be late?!" came the impatient shouts of a customer from the salt shop from the front hall, his voice filled with an inhuman impatience and coldness.

Xiao Ran frowned, turned around and went to the front hall. She weighed the salt bag in her hand and, after confirming that it weighed two jin, handed the salt bag to the other party.

After taking it and opening it, the other person poked it with a finger, tasted it, and then smiled, saying, "Not bad, that's the taste."

After saying that, he casually tossed a bag of money onto the table. Xiao Ran picked it up and weighed it in her hand. It was surprisingly heavy. But the next second, Xiao Ran felt something was wrong. She tore open the bag and found it was full of stones.

"Stone!!"

Upon seeing this, Xiao Ran's face darkened considerably, while the other person grabbed the salt bag and ran away without looking back.

"Run? Do you think you can run?"

Xiao Ran snorted coldly and didn't chase after him. She slowly picked up a brush and paper from the counter, looked at the other person's back, and lightly touched the paper with the brush, instantly freezing the figure that had already run out the door in place.

Immediately, Xiao Ran flicked the brush in her hand, and the man's body was forced to sway left and right in the direction of the brush.

A closer look reveals that after this person entered, the white soles of their shoes were already covered with a thick layer of ink.

This is precisely the apocalyptic technique that Xiao Ran learned from the [Zhen Jing], the ink-wash shadow technique.

It's not some profound sorcery, but once you enter, your feet will be stained with ink. Once stained, your movements will be manipulated by Xiao Ran's pen tip.

Of course, the solution is simple: just take off your shoes.

It's ineffective against evil spirits, but it's a piece of cake to deal with these little devils...

(End of this chapter)