Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 752 Taking stock of gains
Xiao Ran took out the rewards one by one; these things were much better than she had expected.

"Although the tasks for professionals are more difficult than those for beginners, the rewards are well worth it."

Just as Xiao Ran was sighing, items kept popping up in her email.

"besides?"

Xiao Ran was taken aback. He reached out and took out three golden talismans, obtaining a D-grade cursed item, the Golden Light Talisman. It did not require activation and launched a golden light attack on the target, causing great damage to targets such as evil spirits and demons.

Seeing the treasure talisman in her hand, Xiao Ran remembered that she hadn't had time to claim the reward from the Fifth Hospital.

A D-grade cursed item [Golden Light Talisman], 300 Netherworld Coins; a D-grade cursed item [Spirit Cage]; an E-grade cursed rune: [Insect Master], 300 Netherworld Coins.

Grade C cursed item: [Mold of joss paper]; Grade D cursed items: [Lingfu plaster], 400 pieces of joss paper.

Grade B Cursed Item: Blank Shrine

Special reward: One [Golden Fortune Note]. (The rewards from the Fifth Hospital have already been settled in Chapter 624, so I won't repeat them here; details are below the chapter.)
The rewards from the Fifth Hospital were clearly inferior to those from the Ghost City industry, and were even a level lower.

But upon closer reflection, it makes sense. After all, the Fifth Hospital was located in the small maze city before Bone Spirit Street, and it had been controlled by the Changchun Association for so many years. In terms of difficulty, the man-made disasters outweighed the inherent difficulty of the maze city itself.

Xiao Ran has already received the maximum reward.

There were too many things, so after Xiao Ran put them into her spatial storage, she found a secluded spot and began to take stock of each item.

Xiao Ran tossed aside those D-grade cursed items and runes, not wasting any energy on them. With his current strength, these things wouldn't improve him much.

Grade B cursed item; [Potentative Mental Restoration Potion] x2, no activation required.
Privilege: Essence Like a Spring; after consumption, restores 15% of your own mental energy per minute, and after your mental state is fully restored, you will receive a temporary boost of [Abundant Spirit].

Xiao Ran looked at the two vials of medicine and carefully put them away. These things were very useful to her. Her current abilities relied heavily on her mental strength. If her mental strength were depleted, it would have a huge impact on her. Having such a vial of medicine was a lifesaver in critical moments.

Grade C Cursed Item: Blank Job Scroll

Privilege 1: Copy

It can copy scrolls of any profession below grade C.

Privilege 2: Customization
Customization: A special rune scroll can be customized, which can be used by beginners at or below C level when advancing.

"Anything below Grade C!!"

Xiao Ran pondered for a moment: "After my trip to Ghost City, my barber skills have reached a high level. I need to advance to C-level, which will come in handy. However, I'm currently lacking a few essential requirements."

Advancing to a C-level profession is not difficult for Xiao Ran; the difficulty lies in the conditions for advancement.

To advance from a barber to a C-rank executioner, two professional runes are needed: one is the D-rank [Ancient Mirror] and the other is the E-rank [Lucky One]. Neither of these is difficult to obtain; Xiao Ran can buy them even if he has the money.

However, the condition for advancing to the next level is to shave your head to resemble one of the twelve zodiac animals.

Simply put, it involves shaving the zodiac animal heads of twelve children, but these twelve children all have incomplete destinies, and their destinies need to be completed using the zodiac animal heads.

Such children are rare, let alone twelve of them.

"Then let's wait. Once the bus station is built, a large number of people will naturally enter Ruzhou through the station. It shouldn't be too difficult to gather twelve children then. In the meantime, I need to hurry up and promote the paper-making craftsman to a C-level finishing touch talent."

Having made up her mind, Xiao Ran continued to take stock of the next cursed item.

The C-grade cursed item, "Perfect Repair Gem," requires no activation.

The gemstone was perfectly round, displaying a deep, restrained, ethereal blue luster. The moment Xiao Ran's fingertips touched the cool surface of the gemstone, information about it surfaced before her.

Privilege: Perfect Restoration

Repair the specified cursed item. The cost depends on the item's grade, the extent of damage, and the amount of ghost money required.

(Note: If the level of the cursed item being repaired exceeds C, the amount of ghost money consumed will double! If the repair cannot be successful in one attempt, the repaired cursed item will be irreparable and completely destroyed!!)
Looking at the information on it, Xiao Ran carefully put the thing away: "Wu Man's Ten Thousand Food Cauldron is broken, so it can come in handy."

As a chef, every tool in one's hands is a carefully selected treasure, not to mention the powerful cursed artifact, the Ten Thousand Food Cauldron. Losing this cursed artifact would inevitably greatly reduce Wu Man's strength, which would not be good for the entire team.

So no matter how much it costs, Xiao Ran feels it's worth a try.

After putting away the repair gem, Xiao Ran picked up a wooden box. The box was made of an unknown type of wood; it was completely black, square, and had animal carvings on both sides. Each animal head had a plaque with characters on it: "Power" on the left and "Wealth" on the right.

It is indeed very heavy when held in the hand, but it weighs no less than 100 pounds, even though it is only the size of a palm. An ordinary person probably couldn't lift it.

Above, a surge of yin energy could be seen, and four pictographic characters representing the treasures of the underworld could be vaguely seen. Xiao Ran's mind stirred, and incantations flashed on his palm, intertwining with the wooden box.

Grade C Cursed Item: [Paper Mold - Paper Craftsman]

Privilege 1: Rapid printing of counterfeit banknotes
An equal amount of ghost money is quickly converted into yin money.

1 Dark Coin = 300 Yin Coins
Privilege 2; Funeral paper

Consuming an equal amount of ghost money and underworld currency transforms it into special ghost paper.

Funeral paper: It has extremely strong yin and evil attributes. Its grade varies depending on the amount of money exchanged.

Low-grade ghost money: Contains 1000 Yin energy; can be used to make talismans, paper items, and for spiritual communication. (50 ghost money)

Intermediate-grade joss paper: Contains 3000 Yin energy; can be used to make talismans, paper items, for spirit communication, substitutes, and paper soldiers. (100 joss coins) Advanced-grade joss paper: Contains 8000 Yin energy; can be used to make talismans, paper items, for spirit communication, substitutes, and paper soldiers; for transmitting sound over long distances, forcibly summoning ghosts and spirits, and slaying evil spirits, etc. (300 joss coins)

Looking at the information above, Xiao Ran finally smiled.

This thing is actually relevant to my profession, but it looks like an expensive waste of money. 300 ghost money for a piece of paper...

Thinking of this, Xiao Ran simply took out a stack of ghost money and tried to convert it into so-called ghost paper to see how effective it would be.

"Whether to convert it into high-grade joss paper."

Following the notification sound, Xiao Ran nodded in confirmation.

Suddenly, the 300 coins in his hand disappeared, and at the same time, the wooden box in his hand shook a few times, spitting out a light purple piece of paper from the left side.

The pale purple paper had a very special luster. Under the starlight of the night, it reflected a faint golden light. Upon closer inspection, it was deep and lively, as if it had a life of its own, slowly flowing on the surface of the purple paper.

The paper itself felt soft and cool to the touch, yet it exuded an extremely strong malevolent aura, so strong that even Xiao Ran was surprised.

"nice one!!"

The moment Xiao Ran touched the joss paper, many uses immediately came to mind.

It is not only useful for the profession of paper maker, but can also be used as a talisman for warding off evil spirits.

The malevolent energy on just this one piece of joss paper was enough to instantly inspire him to perform a large-scale curse.

"With these joss paper offerings, I can easily achieve the same level of power as Madam Dongzhu back then, effortlessly casting spells with every gesture."

Thinking of this, Xiao Ran felt a surge of joy; finally, she had a similar cursed object.

After putting that item away, Xiao Ran looked at the last three cursed items.

The B-grade cursed items: the Blank Shrine, the Yin-Yang Creation Robe, and that special cursed item: the Golden Fortune Note.

As the only two B-grade cursed items among the rewards from these two Mysterious City events, Xiao Ran had to be cautious.

He first picked up the blank shrine.

[WARNING!! This item is prohibited. Please use with caution!!]

Before Xiao Ran could activate it, a series of warnings appeared in front of her.

"Forbidden items?"

Xiao Ran's brows twitched slightly; there weren't many cursed objects that could trigger a warning from the Lost City.

He then carefully examined the shrine.

The shrine has an ancient and simple design, and the faded paint on it makes it look like an artifact that has experienced the vicissitudes of time.

The shrine has an exquisite structure, with blurry, ancient-style carvings on the upturned eaves. You can vaguely make out some distorted human faces or animal heads, but the lines are worn down due to the age of the shrine, which adds to its mystery.

Above the central lintel of the shrine, there is a square, recessed lotus seat, but it is empty and devoid of any offerings.

Xiao Ran tried to activate it, but received another warning.

[WARNING! Once activated, this item cannot be accepted by other job sequences or runes. Please consider carefully!]

"This is really a bit strange." Xiao Ran saw the warning. This was the first time he had ever encountered a cursed object giving him warnings one after another. "Strange as it may be, it's not common."

Xiao Ran placed her hands on the shrine, and the paper craftsman's incantation appeared in her palms and flowed into the shrine.

Xiao Ran chose the paper craftsman because she felt that the profession was more spiritual. In comparison, her own professions as a thief and a barber were more domineering than spiritual.

As the runes merged with the shrine.

Xiao Ran suddenly felt a suction force surging out from the shrine, and at the same time, her spiritual power was being rapidly drawn out by the shrine.

The speed was fierce, like a sluice gate being opened, and in the blink of an eye, it drained a large amount of Xiao Ran's mental energy.

Anyone else would have panicked by now, but this shrine happened to be run by Xiao Ran. Just as Xiao Ran said, this thing is strange, but there aren't many of them.

"Since you need it, I'll give it to you!"

Xiao Ran released her mental control and actively invested a large amount of her mental energy into it.

I may not have much else, but when it comes to mental strength, no one in my level dares to say they are stronger than me.

As a large amount of spiritual energy poured into the shrine, a small figure gradually appeared on the empty lotus seat. The figure sat cross-legged on the lotus platform, becoming clearer and clearer. At the same time, Xiao Ran received a strong response. He gained a new perspective in his consciousness, which was the angle from which he was sitting cross-legged in the shrine, looking at him.

"I see!!"

Upon seeing this, Xiao Ran suddenly realized what it meant and roughly guessed its function. Immediately, Xiao Ran focused all her strength on it, pouring her mental energy into it even more intensely...

(End of this chapter)