Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 699 The Second Mark

The skeletons on the Tower of Bones roared silently, yet their roars shook the entire salt shop.

A chilling wind howled like the wailing of ten thousand ghosts. Inky black smoke of curses swirled around the bone tower, soaring into the sky, yet seemingly drawn back by an unseen force, abruptly retreating into the mouth of the skull atop the tower!

The two crimson lights suddenly intensified, like two burning embers of hell, fixedly locked on the direction of the government office...

Inside the county government office, the study room was dimly lit.

After finishing writing the final "ironclad evidence" to frame the embroiderer, Fang Yunshen put down his pen and rubbed his throbbing temples. For some reason, an inexplicable sense of unease and chill welled up inside him. He subconsciously tightened his official robes.

"It's just a salt woman who died... The case will be closed tomorrow, and the Li family will benefit..." He tried to appease himself with the promise of financial gain.

suddenly!

His blue official robe suddenly contracted inwards! The once soft silk instantly became hard and cold, like a rapidly frozen iron plate! Or like a shroud soaked in well water, digging tightly into his flesh and bones!
"Ugh!" Fang Yunshen felt like his chest was about to burst, his eyes bulged out, and his tongue uncontrollably stuck out halfway! He wanted to call for help, but his throat was being choked so tightly that he could only make a "hoarse" sound as he breathed out!
Meanwhile, the candlelight in the room gradually turned bluish-green, and putrid bodily fluids began to seep from the cracks in the floor tiles.

This viscous, gelatinous fluid seemed to wriggle on the ground as if it were alive.

They sensed the target's presence and transformed into a black torrent, frantically drilling into his body through the seams of his official robes, his seven orifices, and his pores!
"No! No!!" Fang Yun Shen struggled desperately with both hands, pushing all the official documents on the table to the ground.

The clattering sounds did not attract the attention of the servants outside.

Fang Yunshen's body began to tremble uncontrollably. He could clearly feel these things traveling through his blood vessels, being engraved in his bone marrow, and lingering in his internal organs!

"Corruption! Embezzlement! Perversion of justice!"

At that moment, Fang Yunshen heard a cold voice.

In a daze, he seemed to see a shadow of a person standing in front of him, staring at him with cold and merciless eyes. His voice was like the judgment of a god, and with each word he spoke, the writhing corpse fluid in his body became even more rampant and frenzied.

Fang Yunshen's body twisted and convulsed wildly on the ground. His official robe was so tight that it was deformed and torn, revealing dense, writhing black veins on his exposed skin.

After a frantic struggle, Fang Yun Shen finally collapsed to the ground, his eyes completely lifeless, his face still contorted in pain, saliva mixed with blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth, and he stopped breathing completely...

Inside the salt shop, the boiling of the corpse pool gradually subsided. The red light in the skull's eye at the top of the bone tower slowly faded, and the empty coffin below slowly sank into the dark pool and disappeared.

Xiao Ran opened her eyes and looked at the embroiderer's corpse beside her: "He got off too easily, dying so quickly."

Once the bodily fluids receded, Xiao Ran helped the embroiderer tidy up her clothes, used massage techniques to remove the strangulation marks on her neck, and then applied a new makeup to the embroiderer.

"Wait here! I'll give you an explanation later."

After doing all this, Xiao Ran placed the embroiderer on the chair she often sat in, turned around and walked out of the salt shop, heading straight towards the back, towards the direction of Aunt Li Xiao's house.

The moonlight was like water, casting Xiao Ran's slender silhouette against the wall of the Li family mansion. He nimbly vaulted over the wall, landing without disturbing a single leaf.

Through the courtyard wall, Xiao Ran could hear the older woman's laughter from afar.

"I heard that the bitch is dead, hahahaha."

"Good riddance, good riddance, saved me a lot of trouble."

"Tomorrow, have someone take three hundred coins of ghost money to Lord Fang."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Ran followed the direction of the laughter.

From afar, one could see Li Xiao's aunt sitting smugly in the courtyard, eating delicious grapes while saying to the steward beside her, "That slut is dead. Bring the salt shop contract tomorrow."

“But… Li Xiao…” the steward beside him reminded him with a worried expression.

"what!"

Mentioning Li Xiao, Auntie's smile deepened, her eyes filled with disdain: "Him? He's just a good-for-nothing. I don't know how he survived the Great Mischief, but a good-for-nothing is a good-for-nothing. You see, I haven't seen him in the shop for a month. I guess he's having a good time in some vixen's bed."

After saying that, the aunt sneered again, "Maybe he doesn't even know his wife is dead yet."

No sooner had she finished speaking than the courtyard gate was kicked open with a bang, and Xiao Ran appeared in the doorway, staring intently at her aunt: "Aunt, aren't you celebrating too soon!"

Xiao Ran stood at the courtyard gate, the moonlight casting a long, slender shadow. Aunt Li Xiao's grapes fell to the ground with a "plop," the bright red juice splattering onto her elegant skirt, resembling blood about to flow.

"Li Li Xiao!" Aunt's voice began to tremble, but she quickly regained her composure, stood up from her chair, and glared fiercely at Xiao Ran. "What are you doing here?!"

"doing what?"

Xiao Ran walked into the courtyard, squinting as she looked the older woman up and down: "I want justice."

"Justice?" Upon hearing these two words, the eldest aunt seemed to have misheard something, rubbing her ears in disbelief. "What justice? What kind of justice do you want? Your wife poisoned your parents, and you come to me for justice?" After saying that, she winked at the steward beside her.

The steward immediately understood and quietly retreated, intending to go to the front yard to summon the servants.

The eldest aunt stepped forward, walked up to Xiao Ran, and circled around her: "Li Xiao, what kind of bewitching drug has that bitch been giving you lately? You don't even believe your aunt anymore? I know you don't like managing the family business, but I'll take over the salt shop business from now on. You won't be shortchanged by a single penny. You can do whatever you want to have fun..."

Before the eldest aunt could finish speaking, a heavy thud came from the corner of the courtyard. The eldest aunt looked over in shock and saw the steward, who had been trying to slip away, lying face down on the ground.

After his body twitched involuntarily a few times, he stopped breathing.

Xiao Ran glanced at the manager's corpse, then looked sideways at the bewildered Li family aunt: "Let's not call for help. I didn't intend to make a big fuss."

Xiao Ran's voice was colder than a blade under the moonlight. She glanced at Li Xiao's aunt with cold indifference, as if she were looking at a corpse.

The color drained from the aunt's face instantly. She stumbled back against the edge of the stone table, knocking over the fruit plate and scattering grapes all over the floor, their juice splashing everywhere as she stepped on them with her elegant embroidered shoes. "Li Xiao... are you insane!" Her voice shrill and distorted as she pointed at the corpse on the ground, "Did you do this?"

Xiao Ran did not answer, or rather, she disdained to waste her breath on a dead man.

He took a step forward, his shoe crushing a plump grape, the scarlet juice bursting open like a miniature rehearsal of death.

As Xiao Ran approached like a ghost, Li Xiao's aunt felt a chill in her throat as Xiao Ran gripped her throat tightly with one hand.

The aunt trembled with fear. At this moment, she looked at Li Xiao's face in front of her, a familiar face that was now completely unfamiliar.

"You...you're not Li Xiao!! Who are you!!" she said, grabbing a silver fruit knife from the stone table with her other hand and stabbing it viciously into Xiao Ran's ribs!
"Clang!"

Before the knife tip even touched her clothes, a flash of cold light appeared. The aunt felt a sharp pain in her wrist; the fruit knife slipped from her hand and fell to the ground, along with two fingers adorned with ruby ​​rings! The severed fingers rolled in the blood-stained grape juice, a horrifying sight.

"Ah!! My hand! My hand!" Heart-wrenching screams echoed through the courtyard, but they could only resonate within that courtyard.

The area was completely enveloped by Xiao Ran's mental energy, so even if she shouted herself hoarse, her voice couldn't travel out.

“Help…Help!!”

As Xiao Ran's fingers tightened, Aunt Li Xiao's body convulsed violently in mid-air, emitting hoarse gasps from her throat, and her body was quickly soaked with blood and incontinence.

Until Xiao Ran squeezed her fingers tightly.

"Kakaka..."

Only after the sound of bones cracking did Li Xiao's aunt stop convulsing.

Xiao Ran took out the [Decapitation Blade] and slit it across her throat. Then, she turned around, picked up the severed head, and jumped over the wall out of the Li family's house.

About an incense stick's time later, a servant passing by the courtyard smelled a strong stench of blood in the air and came to the courtyard to take a look, puzzled.

He then saw the housekeeper lying on the ground, with a headless female corpse lying beside him.

"Ah!! Murder!!"

A piercing scream echoed through the night sky, and at that moment, Xiao Ran had already returned to the salt shop with the head.

Place the head in front of the embroiderer.

Xiao Ran placed three incense sticks in the incense burner and bowed to the embroiderer's corpse: "I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise. I can only help you take revenge. If you can go to the underworld, go to Fengdu City and find a guy named Chongshan. Tell him you are my friend, Xiao Ran, and he will take good care of you."

"This is for your travel expenses. If we are destined to meet again, I will repay you many times over."

Xiao Ran raised his hand and splashed out a thick stack of Yin banknotes.

Immediately afterwards, Xiao Ran looked at the oil lamp on the table, walked over, and gently pushed it. The oil lamp fell onto the table, and the flame quickly ignited the table and chairs along with the lamp oil.

Xiao Ran then set fire to the other rooms as well, and the fire quickly spread throughout the rooms.

To prevent the fire from getting out of control, Xiao Ran used a curse to keep the fire firmly contained inside the salt shop, which caused the flames inside the salt shop to soar into the sky and the fire to grow higher and higher.

By the time people discovered the fire and rushed over, the entire salt shop had been engulfed in flames, burning everything to ashes.

Xiao Ran stood on a distant rooftop, watching the fire. Her eyes showed neither joy nor sorrow, only a hint of regret.

As more and more people came to help put out the fire, Xiao Ran was about to leave, unwilling to stay any longer, when a red dot suddenly flashed in the distant sea of ​​fire.

The next second, a red light flew out from the sea of ​​fire, heading straight for Xiao Ran. Xiao Ran frowned as he saw the incoming red light, but he neither dodged nor blocked it. He calmly opened his palm, and the red light fell, quickly wrapping around Xiao Ran's arm. Before long, another mark appeared on his arm...

(End of this chapter)