Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 714 Salt

Xiao Ran was stunned.

On the throne of the shrine in front of him, Jin Chanzi sat upright, his face kind and his eyes compassionate.

She held a ruyi scepter in her hands and wore a beaded dragon crown on her head.

That design really does resemble the Jade Emperor.

"No, what happened to you??"

Xiao Ran was stunned for a few seconds. He had thought about what identity Jin Chanzi would become after entering the Ghost Capital, but he never expected that he would actually turn into a stone.

Xiao Ran walked up to the statue of the golden toad and waved.

"Blink if you can hear me."

However, the stone statue did not move.

Seeing this, Xiao Ran pondered for a moment, then carefully released a wisp of spiritual energy.

Only then could one hear the voice of the Golden Toad in fits and starts.

"You...have seen...a stone...wink??"

Upon hearing Jin Chanzi's voice, Xiao Ran breathed a sigh of relief: "How did you become like this??"

As she spoke, Xiao Ran increased the release of her mental energy. There were no other shrines to interfere with her, and all Xiao Ran could hear was the voice of Jin Chanzi.

This feeling instantly gave Xiao Ran a sense of relief, as if she had broken free from constraints.

"When I came in, this is what I looked like. I thought you were all made of stone, so I sent the tiger demon out every day to look for clues about you."

At this point, Jin Chanzi was also quite depressed.

Xiao Ran could also sense that this guy was about to go crazy from being trapped here. Before Xiao Ran could even ask, he started complaining to him.

That's understandable; after all, if I were turned into stone, I'd go crazy from suffocation.

The fact that Jin Chanzi didn't go insane is already a testament to his profound composure.

Jin Chanzi and Xiao Ran complained for a long time.

He had been here for almost two months. At first, he thought everyone was made of stone, but he had an advantage: the tiger demon who came with him had not turned into stone.

They thought they could use the tiger demon's power to find Xiao Ran and the others as soon as possible, but the tiger demon was out running around every day and they still couldn't find a single person.

Aside from not being able to find Xiao Ran and the others, they did find some natives who were wandering around here.

He didn't know what was going on with these people, but finding survivors was better than being all alone here.

So they had the tiger demon bring them all over and settle them in this valley. The number of people increased, but these natives were all incredibly stupid. If it weren't for the fact that the Golden Toad could briefly regain its mobility every night and protect them a few times, they would have long become food for the evil spirits in the other shrines.

Then Jin Chanzi kept asking Xiao Ran and the others about their situation.

When Jin Chanzi learned that Xiao Ran and the others had entered a world of normal people, he became even more depressed.

Fortunately, Xiao Ran immediately told him that Dai Long was still a eunuch, which made Jin Chanzi's depressed mood much better.

After all, compared to eunuchs, he, a stone, was treated much better.

Xiao Ran then told Jin Chanzi that this was the examination hall and Shao Hongzhang's conjecture.

After hearing this, Jin Chanzi thought about it carefully: "That idea is not wrong, but such a big method cannot be set up by ordinary people. Are you sure that Huang Chao is not good at array formations and strange arts?"

"Well, at least in my memory, Huang Chao wasn't good at this. As for whether he studied it on his own after becoming a Celestial, I don't know."

"impossible."

Jin Chanzi waved his hand: "I still maintain that even a celestial being is still a human. Becoming a celestial being does not mean that he is omniscient and omnipotent. In such a short period of time, even a peerless genius, one in ten thousand, could not achieve this."

So you mean, someone helped him?

"That's right. This person must be a master of extraordinary arts. With the help of the Imperial Seal in Huang Chao's possession, it must have taken a tremendous amount of effort to transform this place called Ghost City."

Jin Chanzi speculated that if someone was helping Huang Chao, that person's strength was probably no less than Huang Chao's.

This speculation was exactly what Xiao Ran was worried about, but he couldn't guess for the time being who could have such ability.

Xiao Ran and Jin Chanzi chatted until dawn.

"Dawn is approaching. Once it's daytime, we'll truly be stones. There's no danger here during the day, but the opportunity you're looking for will disappear. You can also get some rest. As for the natives outside, you can help them if you can."

As he spoke, the golden toad's spirit grew weaker and weaker, and in no time he turned into a large rock.

"Oh! You've suffered too much."

Xiao Ran sighed, turned around and walked out of the shrine.

Outside the shrine, the natives were watching Shao Hongzhang with curiosity. When Xiao Ran came out, some of the bolder natives came over with some dark things and presented them to Xiao Ran with both hands.

"Uh-huh!!"

The native gestured for Xiao Ran to eat it.

Xiao Ran had heard from Jin Chanzi that there were stones everywhere here and absolutely nothing to eat.

These natives found a kind of soil here.

Mixed with soil and dew, a dark substance was stirred up, which was the food they ate daily.

Jin Chanzi had no idea how it tasted, but the tiger demon would rather go out and try hunting down weaker statues than eat a single bite of this thing to find out what it tasted like. "No need."

Xiao Ran shook her head, declining the offer.

Seeing this, Shao Hongzhang curiously came over and asked, "What is this thing?"

He didn't mind that the thing was ugly, so he simply stuck out his finger and put it in his mouth to taste it.

Just one bite made Shao Hongzhang feel as if he were wearing a mask of pain.

"Why does this taste so sour..."

Shao Hongzhang suppressed the urge to vomit and forced himself to swallow the mouthful of dirt.

Seeing his appearance, Xiao Ran couldn't help but give him a thumbs up. This guy was really brave. Anyway, she never thought of eating this kind of thing.

"You rest here for a while, I'll go out and familiarize myself with the surroundings."

As Xiao Ran spoke, she mounted the tiger demon, turned around, and left the city, quickly heading outwards.

After riding on the tiger demon for a long distance, Xiao Ran signaled the tiger demon to stop.

He took some food out of his spatial storage and stuffed it into the tiger demon's mouth, while he sat to the side, eating the energy bars made by Wu Man with a bottle of mineral water.

He still had plenty of food and drinking water in his space, but he didn't share them with the natives. It wasn't because he was stingy, but because Xiao Ran wasn't sure if these people could leave.

The food and water I can provide are limited. They might last them for a month, but what about after that?

Once they've tasted these foods, will they still be able to get used to eating that dark, muddy stuff?
This is why Xiao Ran avoided those natives.

This moved the tiger demon to tears, and it gnawed on a large piece of meat with relish.

Its tail, like a steel whip, lashed the ground with a loud clang, sending sparks flying.

It was clear that he hadn't been able to get a proper meal during this period; he had practically eaten up all the statues of deities that he could reach in the vicinity.

If Xiao Ran doesn't come soon, the tiger demon might not be able to resist going after the natives.

After the man and the tiger had eaten and drunk their fill, they found a shady spot to rest for a while before Xiao Ran rode the tiger demon to patrol the surrounding area.

When he arrived last night, he remembered that several shrines were flashing with strange light, so he decided to take a look.

When Xiao Ran arrived at the shrines, she smelled the pungent stench of blood in the air.

Once they got close to the shrines, the tiger demon refused to leave, seemingly very wary of what was inside, even though it was still daytime.

Seeing this, Xiao Ran didn't force him. He jumped off the tiger demon, signaled the tiger demon to wait for him there, and then went into the shrine alone.

Upon entering the shrine, Xiao Ran was greeted by two half-eaten corpses and other mutilated limbs on the ground.

It seems that quite a few people died here last night.

However, it seems that no one has ever managed to escape from the statue in front of them.

Xiao Ran's eyes flashed with light as he activated the Eye of Retrospection, causing the surrounding scenery to rewind instantly.

Xiao Ran saw what had happened last night in it.

These guys, like myself, didn't initially have any doubts about these statues.

Or rather, upon entering this place, their first action was to examine the statue in front of them.

But a stone is a stone, and no matter how they examined it, they couldn't find anything wrong with it.

As night fell, a box appeared on the statue's chest. Upon seeing the box, the group guessed that it was the so-called opportunity, and they all began to fight over it.

Unexpectedly, the statue had already come back to life at some point. Taking advantage of the chaos of the fight, it suddenly attacked, killing the two people on the spot. At the same time, its two large hands came together and crushed them down with its massive body.

The scene was horrific, with many people being crushed to death by the statues.

However, a few people were quick-witted and realized something was wrong. They immediately flipped over the statue's arm and narrowly escaped.

One person even took advantage of the chaos to use his demonized tentacles to snatch the box from the statue's chest.

The scene ended there, and Xiao Ran was equally disappointed.

I never imagined that the opportunity here had already been taken by someone else.

Without any further opportunity, Xiao Ran lost interest in the place. After leaving the shrine, he rode the tiger demon around for a while before leisurely returning to the village.

As soon as she returned, Shao Hongzhang rushed over excitedly, grabbed Xiao Ran's arm and said, "It's salt soil, this is salt soil, I know, I know how he did it."

"What??"

Xiao Ran looked at Shao Hongzhang, whose face was full of excitement, and didn't understand what he was talking about. Shao Hongzhang, however, held up the clump of dark soil from before and explained to Xiao Ran, "This place is actually a salt pond. These rocks... this soil is all made from salt..."

"Salt?"

"Yes, it's made by mixing coarse salt with loess!"

Shao Hongzhang was excited. He didn't realize it at first bite, but after carefully tasting some more and studying the raw materials, he finally determined that the place was actually a model made of salt.

Combined with his previous theories, this idea is indeed the most feasible solution. Now that we know this place is made of salt, the solution becomes even simpler.

At this point, Shao Hongzhang pulled Xiao Ran aside and said, "If we can just manage to make it rain, this place will immediately collapse!"

(End of this chapter)