Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 729 Jade Seal
"Long live our emperor, long live his, long live his..."

A deafening roar of "Long live the Emperor!" erupted from the main hall ahead, startling both Xiao Ran and Gu Xintang.

No, they just walked in, and there wasn't a single soul in the hall. Where did these people come from?

Xiao Ran immediately scanned the area with her mental energy.

But the moment her mental energy was released, Xiao Ran suddenly felt a buzzing in her head, as if she had hit a wall. Her vision went black, and she staggered, almost falling to the ground.

Instantly, all sorts of eerie whispers filled Xiao Ran's mind.

Are you alright?!

Seeing this, Gu Xintang quickly grabbed Xiao Ran. Xiao Ran shook her head, trying to clear her mind, and at the same time activated her soul cultivation technique to forcibly suppress the distracting thoughts in her mind.

"It's alright, quick, go see what's going on outside."

Xiao Ran stood up, her face deathly pale. Upon seeing this, Gu Xintang immediately walked out. He carefully went around to the back of the dragon throne and looked down. The hall was still empty, without a single person in sight.

"Strange, there's nothing there?"

Gu Xintang was also somewhat bewildered by what he saw, but he and Xiao Ran had clearly heard the shouts just now.

Just as Gu Xintang was feeling puzzled and was about to go out to take a look, a hand grabbed his shoulder: "Don't move!"

Gu Xintang was taken aback, only to see Xiao Ran slowly peek out from behind: "Look up."

Following Xiao Ran's voice, Gu Xintang slowly raised his eyelids and looked at the dome of the main hall. He was shocked by what he saw, and even a master like Gu Xintang felt his hair stand on end.

Above the main hall, white silk ribbons hung, each bearing the head of a minister. What was even more astonishing was that these heads seemed to be still alive.

Even though the head was rotten and even infested with maggots, the expression on his face remained very serious, and his eyes were fixed on the direction of the dragon throne.

"Damn it, is Huang Chao a psychopath? Why did he hang these heads on there?"

Even someone as good-natured as Gu Xintang started to swear at this moment.

Xiao Ran didn't know why these heads were hanging there, but he noticed that their gazes seemed to be fixed on the dragon throne, so he cautiously peeked out and looked in the direction of the dragon throne.

The dragon throne was empty, so Xiao Ran continued to look up.

The dragon throne is not an empty ceiling, but a caisson ceiling.

What is a caisson ceiling? It is a dome-shaped structure formed by an upward indentation, decorated with dragons and phoenixes, and inlaid with stars, making it extremely dazzling.

For example, the golden dragon hanging on the dragon throne in the Forbidden City is a caisson ceiling.

This thing is not seen in ordinary places; it only appears in certain places in the imperial palace. The Tang Dynasty explicitly stipulated that "no one other than a prince or nobleman may use double-arched algae."

The caisson ceiling in front of us is also intricately designed, with an exaggerated golden dragon descending from above, seemingly about to fly down from the starry sky.

What caught Xiao Ran's eye was not the caisson ceiling, but a box held in the golden dragon's hand.

The box was square and neither too big nor too small; it looked exactly like a box used to hold an imperial seal.

"Pass the country's jade seal!"

Xiao Ran had been wondering why Huang Chao hadn't buried such an important item as the Imperial Seal of the State with her when he didn't find it in Huang Chao's coffin.

It seems that the imperial seal was placed on top.

This explains why these people's eyes were always fixed straight ahead.

"Look, doesn't that box look like an imperial seal?"

Xiao Ran told Gu Xintang, who was standing nearby, about her discovery. Gu Xintang looked up and took a closer look, then nodded in agreement: "It does look like it."

As he spoke, Gu Xintang was about to draw the sword from his waist.

But Xiao Ran immediately stopped her: "Don't rush, these heads hanging there are definitely not just for show. Let me test them first."

As Xiao Ran spoke, she took out a stack of yellow paper from her spatial storage and used her paper manipulation technique to make the paper into the size of a normal person. Then, taking advantage of Gu Xintang's inattention, she reached out and cut off a lock of Gu Xintang's hair and stuck it on the paper figure.

Then, he made a hand seal and chanted a spell. Immediately, Gu Xintang felt something was wrong with his body. When he turned around, he found that he and the paper figure in front of him seemed to have a kind of spiritual necklace.

This strange feeling made Gu Xintang realize that Xiao Ran was behind it all.

"Don't misunderstand, I just suffered a slight injury to my mental strength, so I can only use you to test it out. Don't worry, even if this paper figure is destroyed, it won't harm you in the slightest."

Hearing Xiao Ran's explanation, Gu Xintang nodded. He didn't want to argue with Xiao Ran, but he was curious about how ingenious Xiao Ran's surgical technique was.

"You fellow, your swordsmanship is already unparalleled, how come your magic is also so mysterious? I remember that Prince Qi has a magic master named Chen Cheng, who is very knowledgeable in magic, but your magic seems to be even more amazing than his."

"Haha!" Xiao Ran grinned, not telling Gu Xintang that a casual spell he cast had already shocked Chen Cheng for a whole year.

He simply laughed and said, "It's nothing more than borrowing the time of our predecessors."

The senior that Xiao Ran mentioned was the series of techniques created by Plum Blossom Taoist. If it weren't for Plum Blossom Taoist, even with the power of the Suppressing Calamity Token, he probably wouldn't have reached such a level.

"let me try."

Gu Xintang closed his eyes and tried to control the paper figure. Soon he was able to easily control the paper figure to move.

Although it was a paper doll, its body was more flexible than Gu Xintang had expected, as if it were another version of himself. It seemed that all the abilities of his original self could be displayed on the paper doll.

"Excellent." Gu Xintang nodded in satisfaction. He was about to reach for the weapon at his waist, but Xiao Ran stopped him: "You can't use these, but I can make you a set. Just wait a moment."

Since it's a paper figure, even if Gu Xintang controls it, it can't use Gu Xintang's Sun and Moon Twin Swords. That's why Xiao Ran prepared two paper swords for Gu Xintang.

Having obtained the two swords, Gu Xintang no longer hesitated. He immediately manipulated the paper figure to leap into the air, stepping on the dragon throne. With a spin, he lightly touched the dragon throne with his toes and quickly climbed up the screen wall to the dome.

However, just as Gu Xintang's figure leaped into the air, the heads suspended in the dome all locked their gazes on Gu Xintang.

"presumptuous!!"

With a roar, the paper figure, which had been climbing in mid-air, suddenly froze and then exploded.

Gu Xintang suddenly opened his eyes, a fine layer of cold sweat seeping from his forehead. He was breathing rapidly, the feeling of the paper figure being torn apart in an instant seemed to have directly affected his mind, bringing a chilling sense of destruction.

"no!"

His voice trembled slightly as he turned to look at Xiao Ran, whose face was still pale.

"These things are too eerie! The moment their gaze locks on you, there's absolutely no chance to resist! I feel that if you get targeted by them, your fate will be the same as that paper figure—torn to pieces in an instant!"

He looked up at the dome. The hanging heads seemed to have no change in expression, but from their empty, decaying eye sockets, there seemed to be an invisible, cold killing intent locking onto every move around them.

Seeing this, a resolute glint flashed in Gu Xintang's eyes. "Otherwise, let's use fire! No matter how strange these heads are, they are still just rotting flesh and blood. Let's set them on fire and see if they can still be so arrogant!"

"no!"

Xiao Ran waved her hand: "We're still here. If the fire starts and gets out of control, it might burn us or even cause bigger trouble."

Xiao Ran didn't believe that there were only a few heads in this huge palace; there must be something else.

Therefore, Xiao Ran doesn't want to complicate simple things unless necessary.

"Then what can you do?"

"Let me think about it."

Looking at the heads hanging in mid-air, Xiao Ran suddenly had an idea: "I've got it!"

He rummaged through his spatial storage for a while, and soon a round bead appeared in his hand.

【Dragon Lip Bead】: A special cursed item, no activation required (from Chapter 550)

Privilege 1: Dragon Lips

The holder can understand dragon language and can transform their own language into dragon language.

Privilege 2: Dream Lips.

Activating this privilege can turn all false delusions into illusions.

Duration: 30 minutes
Cooldown time: 28 days.

(Note: Once activated, this item will also affect everyone within a one-kilometer radius.)
This thing was the Dragon Ball that Mother Xi stole from Zhu Rong at the Demon Market, but it turned out that it was just an illusion.

The Dragon Ball eventually ended up in Xiao Ran's hands, but Xiao Ran never had a chance to use it, since it was a large-scale illusion generator.

But now it comes in handy.

Xiao Ran held the dragon pearl in her hand. As the dragon pearl shimmered with a bewitching luster, it seemed as if music was playing in the vast palace, solemn and majestic yet with an ethereal echo.

Above the dome, the heads that had been hanging in mid-air, empty and lifeless, seemed to be pulled by invisible threads, their heads swaying slightly, their decaying lips opening and closing silently.

In a daze, the entire scene in the hall was distorted. The carved beams and painted rafters seemed to come alive and shine instantly. The hall was filled with smoke and shadowy figures, as if we had returned to the scene of officials standing solemnly and shouting "Long live the Emperor!" in the past.

Gu Xintang's eyes instantly became confused and astonished. His body swayed slightly, and the scene in front of him had completely changed. It was no longer the gloomy and terrifying hall of human heads. He seemed to see the warm home in his memory.

Just as he lost his composure and was about to succumb to it—

"Snapped!"

Xiao Ran slapped him hard on the shoulder, the force of which made Gu Xintang stagger and completely wake him from his illusion.

"Hiss...!" Gu Xintang gasped, still shaken, as he looked around at the scene that was still swaying between eerie illusions and terrifying reality. He shook his head and looked at the dragon ball in Xiao Ran's hand, his expression complicated.

"Get ready to go!"

Before he finished speaking, Xiao Ran leaped up like an arrow, landing on the back of the dragon throne. Using the momentum, he soared upwards again, rushing swiftly towards the high, domed ceiling. This time, although his movements were rapid, he deliberately concealed all unnecessary noise and energy fluctuations.

Sure enough, the heads hanging there still stared blankly toward the dragon throne, but their gazes were unfocused, as if they were trapped in the illusion of the court created by the dragon ball, a re-enactment of the past, and completely ignored Xiao Ran's rapidly approaching figure.

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Ran had leaped to the core of the caisson ceiling, beneath the claws of the golden dragon looking down.

A glint flashed in his eyes, and with lightning speed, he firmly grasped the square box tightly held in the ferocious dragon's claws! Upon touching it, he felt that the box was warm and slightly cool to the touch, yet it also carried an indescribable weight.

"Got it!"

However, just as Xiao Ran was about to put the thing away, the box in front of her suddenly cracked open, and a blinding red light burst out of the box, instantly shooting into Xiao Ran's arm, accompanied by a burning pain.

The original mark on her arm now seemed to ignite, coalescing into a fiery red shadow that quickly rushed into Xiao Ran's consciousness.

Xiao Ran suddenly felt a wave of dizziness, and then she heard Huang Chao's voice in her ear: "You really did come!"

(End of this chapter)