Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 736 Siege (Part 1)

"Click, click-click!!"

The staff was only slightly rotated, and an indescribable, massive tremor, seemingly emanating from the very depths of the world, erupted!
The entire ruined space where the City God Temple was located, and even the entire ghost city of Chang'an as far as the eye could see, seemed to have been gripped tightly by an invisible, all-encompassing giant hand.

The air groaned under the weight of the storm, like a giant piece of glass about to shatter.

The ground was no longer just trembling slightly from the ashes, but convulsing and undulating violently as if it were alive! The charred rubble, carbonized beams, and white bones sunken into the ground began to surge like waves, piling up, pressing, and emitting teeth-grinding friction and cracking sounds.

Beads of sweat were already forming on Xiao Ran's forehead.

The three-dimensional diagrams constructed in my mind seemed to appear before my eyes, with the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, the Thirty-Six Heavenly Generals, and the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends forming a huge compass code.

"Strange, what's the point of this design? Is it just to buy time?" Xiao Ran frowned.

The steps of the staff's rotation were filled with numerous redundant loops, as if deliberately consuming his mental energy or deliberately delaying time.

"boom!!"

A loud roar interrupted Xiao Ran's thoughts. The commotion outside grew louder and louder, and a large amount of malevolent energy evaporated, forming a cloud of black smoke in mid-air.

"Big brother, where are you?"

The girl throwing the beanbag had bloodshot eyes and bulging veins on her face, seemingly on the verge of a breakdown because she hadn't been able to find Xiao Ran for a long time.

With a flick of her wrist, one sandbag after another flew out in all directions, accompanied by a shrill shriek that tore through the air, shattering the surrounding mirrors.

However, the shattered mirror quickly split into more mirrors that converged, each reflecting the girl's face. Her torn face clearly showed the wounds from a knife cleaving her head, and her cheeks were rotting and infested with maggots. This was her true appearance.

When she saw her reflection in the mirror, the girl's expression became even more ferocious, and she began to let out hoarse growls.

"Get out here!! Get out here!!"

Despite the girl's frantic roars and struggles, she was unable to break through the layers of mirrors in front of her.

However, Xiao Ran did not feel relieved because there was more than just this one evil spirit trapped inside.

"Waaah... my child... are you cold? Let me put some clothes on you..."

A muffled wail, like a sob or a murmur, seeped in from the edge of the distorted light and shadow, like a cold, venomous snake coiling around one's auditory nerves.

The hunched figure of an old woman had quietly entered the area of ​​the City God Temple.

Her head was bowed, her loose white hair obscuring her face, revealing only her pale, withered chin. The few strands of pale mourning cloth she held in her hands suddenly seemed to come alive, like venomous snakes awakening from their slumber, and quickly slithered into the cracks between the bricks.

Their goal is not to attack the surrounding mirrors, but to drill holes in the ground and precisely lock onto the direction in which the talisman is placed.

"Master!"

Xiao Ran's heart skipped a beat, realizing that this old woman was no ordinary person. She was likely a master of magic and Taoist arts when she was alive, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to come up with a way to deal with him so quickly.

"Chichichi..."

Those pale strips of mourning cloth, like greedy maggots, quickly blew away the color of the scorched earth and stones, turning them grayish-white and decaying. Visible pale marks, like venomous snakes, spread rapidly towards the location of the three mirrors and the decapitation sword!
hum!
The weakest of them all, the [Dressing Mirror], was the first to succumb.

After all, it was only an F-grade cursed object, and it was already very difficult to support such a high intensity of curse. At this moment, under the enormous pressure, the mirror surface trembled violently and emitted a mournful hum. The cursed patterns flowing on it instantly dimmed, and the evil energy covering it dissipated wildly like a punctured balloon.

"Kacha!"

With a cracking sound, a dark figure silently emerged from the shadows, trying to rush in through the cracks in the mirror as it shattered.

"Old man, you're pretty fast!"

Seeing this, the old woman let out a strange cry and tried to rush inside, but unexpectedly, Xiao Ran's eyes suddenly turned cold, and he opened his fingers to grab at the void.

In an instant, the overwhelming malevolent energy surrounding the entire City God Temple seemed to have found an outlet, frantically converging towards the [Decapitation Sword] stuck in the roof beam.

The thick, dark aura coiled around the sword, causing it to ring out and burst forth with rings of chilling light, a mixture of pale white and dark red!

"Whoosh—!" In the next instant, an unstoppable sound of air being torn apart the wailing yin wind, and countless solid and chilling sword shadows suddenly appeared out of thin air, surrounding the core area of ​​the City God Temple, with Xiao Ran and the staff that pierced through time and space as the center, weaving into a terrifying vortex that was impenetrable!
Its speed was faster than lightning, and its power was as sinister as a prison, turning the entire interior of the City God Temple into a wildly spinning meat grinder!
This sudden and deadly move was insidious, swift, and extremely destructive!
The shadow that was about to force its way through the crack in the mirror, and the old woman who was following closely behind and trying to rush into the City God Temple, were instantly swept up by the swirling current of sword shadows!
"Ah!!" The shadow seemed to let out a scream, clearly not expecting that Xiao Ran's curse technique would contain such a deadly trap.

"Run!!" The old woman screamed shrilly, filled with terror. Her instincts told her that the sword formation was enough to tear her body, formed from yin energy, to shreds.

She wanted to back away and escape this vortex of death.

However, the moment she uttered that strange cry, something unexpected happened!

The eerie shadow abandoned its advance in the blink of an eye, suddenly retracting and, with unparalleled precision, burrowed into the dim shadow at the old woman's feet!
"No!! You old ghost, you'll die a horrible death!" The old woman's scream instantly twisted and distorted, filled with unbelievable resentment and horror. She could clearly feel a chilling, bone-deep power, carrying an absolute will of domination, instantly taking over the core of her soul.

It was that Shadow Demon! It actually chose to sacrifice her at the critical moment of life and death!

The shadow's manipulation caused the old woman's body to completely lose control, like a puppet controlled by invisible threads. Instead of retreating, she accelerated and crashed into the center of the all-consuming vortex of sword shadows!

"Pfft! Sizzle—!!!"

The unparalleled sharpness of the sword pierced into the old woman's hunched and withered body without any resistance. The pitch-black, viscous baleful energy, along with fragments of her decaying soul, was instantly shredded, torn apart, and mashed by countless crisscrossing beams of cold light, like fruit thrown into a high-speed blender!
The screams stopped abruptly.

The old woman's body didn't even last a breath in the sword formation. Like a tattered cloth soaked in thick ink, it burst open, and countless tiny, pitch-black chunks of flesh and thick, foul blood, like black raindrops swept by a storm, violently splashed onto the surrounding scorched walls and ground, making a hissing, corrosive sound.

"Whoosh!!"

The moment the old woman's flesh was torn apart, the shadow beneath his feet suddenly sprang out and pounced toward the shadow beside Xiao Ran. As long as he controlled the shadow, no matter how powerful Xiao Ran was, he would surely be subject to his control.

However, such methods were nothing more than child's play for Xiao Ran, and she didn't even need to take any action.

Most of his mind remained focused on the staff that pierced through three layers of time and space and affected the entire spatial structure of the Ghost Capital, controlling the massive Yin God dharma image behind him to slowly and firmly twist the pivot like a Luban lock.

It's true that I can't spare a hand right now, but that doesn't mean I'm helpless against these things. "Hmph..."

A barely audible snort escaped his lips.

At the center of Xiao Ran's brow, a vast amount of spiritual power instantly condensed and collapsed, transforming into a silver-gray sphere of light that had been refined to its extreme! That sphere of light was not a physical object, but it seemed to contain immense power, unleashing the terrifying might of Xiao Ran as a master of soul cultivation with spiritual power at the critical point of three hundred!

The invisible spiritual power surged forth like a raging torrent, without any fancy techniques, it was purely a shockwave formed by the condensation and compression of terrifying spiritual power!
"boom!!"

This shockwave, composed entirely of mental energy, struck the dark figure with perfect precision.

The feeling was like a steam locomotive traveling at full speed, violently crushing a pool of filthy mud.

puff!

The dark figure emitted a short, muffled, eerie hiss, like mud being crushed and broken. Its condensed, chilling form was instantly shattered by this overwhelming spiritual power!
"what!!"

A sharp, piercing scream, filled with pain and venom, erupted from the fragments of the shadow, brimming with unbelievable shock and rage.

The shattered black shadow, like a startled venomous snake, retreated swiftly.

But now that he's here, how could Xiao Ran let him leave?
Suddenly, the [Lu Ban Hand - Barber] on Xiao Ran's shoulder was activated!
The intricately designed hand, with its five fingers moving at a terrifying speed imperceptible to the naked eye, replaced Xiao Ran's hand seals, its movements as fluid as if it had been practiced a thousand times.

Om-!
As Lu Ban waved his hand forward, the countless cold sword shadows that flew through the entire City God Temple and cut through everything suddenly stopped, and then converged like rivers flowing into the sea!
Countless icy sword lights roared as they converged, condensed, and compressed towards the center! The air was torn apart by the extremely sharp aura, emitting a piercing shriek!

In an instant, a massive light sword, three zhang long and formed entirely from countless sword shadows, appeared out of thin air! Its blade was as solid as icy black iron, and its entire body radiated a dazzling, eerie white light and a faint yet viscous, ink-like aura of malevolence.

“Imperial Command!!”

Lu Ban's five fingers came together forcefully and pressed down!
The massive, white sword, suspended in mid-air and exuding an aura of destruction, suddenly turned around. With a terrifying force capable of piercing through the void and tearing apart everything, it slashed down with overwhelming force towards the terrified, dark shadow on the ground that was trying to escape underground.
"boom!!!"

A dull, piercing sound rang out.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only the sharp, piercing sound of something tearing through everything!

The gleaming greatsword pinned the twisted, writhing, thick black shadow firmly to the scorched ground with unparalleled precision!

The terrifying baleful aura contained within the sword instantly erupted, the icy white light intertwining with the pitch-black baleful aura, like billions of fine needles of light and shadow piercing through the tip of the sword, penetrating from the inside out, instantly piercing, tearing, and shredding the shadow completely...

(End of this chapter)