Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 737 Siege (Part 2)

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Ran swiftly and decisively annihilated two powerful evil spirits, their corpses merging with the scorched earth and their souls dissipating. However, Xiao Ran's tense nerves had not yet had a chance to relax even slightly...

"Thump...thump thump...thump thump thump..."

The familiar, eerily rhythmic sound of the rattle drum, like a leech, once again pierced through the distorted light curtain of the surrounding malevolent mirror wall, clearly penetrating Xiao Ran's ears.

The source of the sound was right there in the gap that had just been torn apart by the old woman. A feeling of restraint, even stronger than before, suddenly locked onto Xiao Ran.

Xiao Ran felt as if her torso and limbs had been instantly poured into tons of concrete!

It wasn't just a simple suppression of power; it was more like a confinement from the space itself, a forced lock-up of the rules of the supernatural tales! Even his movement of turning the staff in his hand was severely slowed down, and the huge Yin God dharma image behind him swayed, forcing a delay in the process of turning the staff!
"Damn it! It's her again!" Xiao Ran cursed inwardly. The power of the rules represented by this little girl with the rattle drum was more troublesome and persistent than he had imagined.

"Hiss~"

A piercing noise, like thick leather being torn apart by brute force, rang out!
Suddenly, the mirror wall in front of the City God Temple, formed from malevolent energy and once used to slay evil spirits, caved in and twisted! Several sharp, black claws, gleaming with a metallic glint and swirling with a thick, ominous aura, pierced through the cracks in the mirror!

The tear in the mirror wall suddenly widened, large enough to allow a figure to enter.

A figure, or rather, a distorted humanoid silhouette, squeezed in, following closely behind the claws.

A crack appeared, and a pair of scarlet eyes locked onto Xiao Ran through it.

No longer a childlike, dark, empty abyss, it had completely transformed into two blazing, eerie, blood-red lights! The red light was pure and violent, filled with endless resentment, madness, and... the ecstatic joy of finding its prey.

It was those crimson demonic eyes that locked onto Xiao Ran, who was in the very center of the temple!

"Found you!!"

A sharp whistle, like an echo of a traditional opera tune, accompanied the force of the rules that bound Xiao Ran's entire body, originating from the "throwing sandbags" game, suddenly surged to its peak!
Xiao Ran felt an irresistible force, filled with intense malice, locking onto her.

At this moment, those eyes seemed to notice something. The scarlet eyes turned and noticed the writing staff in Xiao Ran's hand. A playful look appeared in their eyes, like the joy of discovering a new toy.

Xiao Ran also noticed that the thing's gaze seemed to be locked on the staff, and her eyes immediately turned cold.

"It seems the only option is to detonate the stamina!"

Realizing something was wrong, Xiao Ran's heart skipped a beat, and she prepared to detonate the curse spell to drown the thing in her curse.

However, doing so would leave the City God Temple completely unprotected, and if it attracted anything else, they would be in trouble.

Just as Xiao Ran was on edge, preparing to detonate the curse and perish together with the evil rattle drum, in order to buy himself a chance to control the staff—

A sudden surge of heat rushed into my arms!
The heat was not scorching, but it carried a peculiar sense of stability, which immediately caused Xiao Ran's thoughts of gathering and detonating the evil spirit to pause.

My gaze followed that inexplicable pull and lifted up.

At the edge of the charred ruins, amidst the swirling gray dust and lingering black mist, a strange figure was slowly "drifting" towards them.

The figure was blurry, seemingly blending into the desolate, scorched earth, carrying a dark, heavy carrying pole on its shoulder. The two ends of the pole formed an extremely distorted contrast.

One end of the vessel carried a simple stove, the embers of which flickered intermittently. A bronze cauldron rested steadily on top, billowing white steam escaping from the cauldron's crevices, mingled with a strange, unpleasant aroma that resembled meat but wasn't.

At the other end of the carrying pole hung strings of bloody, mangled limbs and severed heads of various shapes and sizes!

The "accessories" swayed slightly with the footsteps of the newcomer, and drops of blood and unidentified viscous fluid dripped down, spreading into small patches of dark stains on the ashes-covered ground.

The person approaching didn't seem to be moving quickly, simply trudging through the ashes of the ruins. However, strangely, just two breaths after Xiao Ran's gaze locked onto the figure, the figure vanished like a ghost amidst the slight ripples of light and shadow in the space…

"Boom!"

The heavy ends of the carrying pole hit the ground simultaneously with a dull thud. A figure had suddenly appeared at the entrance of the City God Temple.

He wore a tattered straw hat, the brim pulled low, covering all the way up to his nose. His strange movement just now seemed to have startled the hat, causing it to slip slightly backward, revealing a huge pig's head.

Its fangs protruded diagonally from between its thick, everted lips, and its skin was rough and wrinkled, covered with blackish-gray bristles and obvious oil stains.

Hidden beneath that straw hat was a hideous, cold pig's head!

Two tiny, beady, scarlet, cloudy eyes darted about in the shadow of the hat brim, like two burning, evil stars. First, they swept over the wicked girl with the rattle drum, whose eyes were bloodshot and staring at Xiao Ran with a bloodthirsty glare. Then, the cold gaze locked onto Xiao Ran, who was struggling to control the writing staff.

The air seemed to freeze at this moment.

Upon seeing this, the girl with the rattle drum trembled with excitement, and sharp, eerie words spilled from the corners of her torn mouth, hissing as she tried to command the pig-headed monster to attack from the other side.

However, she was met only with cold silence.

The hideous pig's head was tilted slightly, and its small, murky, scarlet eyes slowly swept over her body, scrutinizing the girl from head to toe with an extremely critical gaze.

Its rough hand slowly but with unusual steadiness reached towards its waist, drawing out a strangely shaped, thick-backed kitchen knife. The blade was dark, yet its edge gleamed with an ominous, light-devouring, eerie light.

The next instant, that seemingly clumsy figure burst forth with a speed completely disproportionate to its physique!

It didn't rush towards Xiao Ran inside the temple, but rather, like a cannonball, it carried a foul stench mixed with blood and ashes from the stove fire, heading straight for the girl with the rattle drum who had just been calling out to it!

The cleaver, as sharp as an axe, was raised high and brought down fiercely on the girl's face, which was contorted with shock!

As the blade flashed, the air seemed to be cleaved open with a viscous gash, producing a nauseating tearing sound.

"die!!"

The girl's scream suddenly rose, turning from a cryptic whisper into a shrill, ear-piercing wail, as if she had never expected this idiot to actually attack her.

"Does he want to eat it all by himself?"

Without a second thought, driven by instinct, she raised her hand and hurled a dark sandbag at the oncoming pig's head!
This time, the sandbag was no longer the size of a millstone, but compressed and collapsed into the size of a fist the instant it was released, yet it emitted an eerie flame.

However, just as the sandbag was released and shot toward the pig's face at terrifying speed, the pig casually waved its other short, thick arm, as if a chef were shooing away annoying flies.

"Om-"

An invisible yet heavy force instantly enveloped that space. Time and space seemed to solidify into viscous amber.

The sandbag, flickering with black flames, abruptly and defied all the rules of physics, froze in mid-air, less than three feet away from the pig's tusks.

The condensed, violent energy flickered futilely in the frozen spacetime, unable to advance even an inch further, nor to unleash even the slightest burst of power!
This scene instantly froze all the anger on the girl's face, replacing it with an instinctive fear.

"Shhh!!"

A stench wafted through the air...

Her eyes, now completely bloodshot, reflected the cold, expressionless face of the pig-headed man, hidden in the shadow of his straw hat.

Her scream stopped abruptly, turning into short, almost inaudible gasps.

A faint, almost mocking glint seemed to flash in the pig-headed butcher's small, scarlet eyes. It wasn't the excitement of hunting, nor greed, but rather absolute confidence born from a precise grasp and control over the characteristics of a certain "ingredient."

Its massive body didn't pause for a moment, freezing space as if the last speck of dust had been swept away. The thick-backed cleaver, raised high, whistled through the air, and instantly sliced ​​into the girl's heart…

The blade deftly sliced ​​across the girl's chest, as naturally as if it were handling a pre-prepared ingredient. There was no expected spurt of blood, not even a drop of seepage; the wound was as clean and efficient as if it were a solidified ointment.

Just as the cleaver was removed, the pig's head's hand, covered in short, stiff bristles, reached forward with perfect precision. When it withdrew its hand, something was already between its fingers.

A heart.

Pig Head clutched his heart, his beady eyes gazing at it as if it were a work of art, lost in reverie and fascination. He gently cradled it in his palms, then turned and walked to the carrying pole, tossing it into the large cauldron.

As the viscous broth inside the cauldron churned, the girl finally let out a sharp scream, her entire body bursting into flames before quickly turning to ashes.

Looking at the pig's head that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, Xiao Ran's face showed a guilty expression: "I'm sorry for making you stay in this place for so long."

Pighead didn't respond to Xiao Ran. He just sat on the carrying pole with his back to him, blocking the door like a gatekeeper, and gave Xiao Ran an OK sign...

(End of this chapter)