Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 786 It's Noon (Two Chapters Combined)

The sudden sigh startled the high priests who were tasting the powder, and the strange "powder" in their mouths instantly became scalding hot.

"who!"

The high priestess, standing at the head of the table, had a glint of light in her eyes. Almost the instant the sigh fell, two cold white beams of light shot out from her eyes, which were covered by a mask with a hideous totem. They were like solid ice spikes, striking the direction from which the sound came from the shadows with lightning speed!
Suddenly, a coffin appeared out of thin air and blocked their way.

"Snapped!!"

As the coffin exploded, a corpse slowly emerged from it.

The body was clearly highly decomposed and emitted a nauseating stench.

But at this moment, the corpse seemed to come alive, swinging its fist and smashing it at the group of people who were still in shock.

This sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard.

After all, this was their own stronghold, guarded by villagers on all sides. What kind of expert could suddenly appear here in full view of them?
In their shock, they were all caught off guard and unable to dodge in time. At the critical moment, Miao Zongpan reacted quickly and raised his palm to block in front of him.

As soon as she raised her slender arm, a black-headed centipede opened its mouth and bit her arm from inside the sleeve. In an instant, the veins on Miao Zongpan's arm bulged, the muscles of her entire arm swelled rapidly, and purple liquid surged from the blood vessels.

A muffled "bang!"

Then the corpse flew out horizontally and crashed heavily to the ground, making a sound like bones shattering.

So simple?
Everyone was taken aback, not expecting this thing to be so easily defeated.

"Who exactly are you? Stop playing tricks and show yourself!"

Miao Zongpan looked around and shouted sternly.

After saying that, he turned to look at the two pickled vegetable jars, his eyelids twitched, and he raised his hand to throw the two pickled vegetable jars directly into the campfire.

"boom!!"

However, after the pickled vegetable jar was thrown into the campfire, the campfire suddenly exploded, and the flames surged, transforming into a giant fiery hand that slapped towards Miao Zongpan.

This time, everyone was on guard and quickly dodged, watching as the fiery hand slammed a huge palm print into the ground.

When everyone looked up again, they saw that the campfire had died down, and two kimchi jars stood in the embers. Behind the jars, two old men had appeared out of nowhere.

This set off alarm bells for everyone. Without them having to say a word, countless flying insects swarmed out from all around, rushing towards the two of them.

These poisonous insects are all carefully raised Gu worms, and they are all highly poisonous. Even a beginner would be severely injured if they came into contact with them, if not killed.

However, when these Gu worms fluttered to the two old men, they scattered in a swarm, and no matter how the other Gu masters tried to control them, they would not obey.

This was the first time they had encountered such a situation.

Even the high priest standing next to Miao Zongpan couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise: "How could this be? Is this a ghost?!"

These words brought a smile to the faces of the two elderly people.

Xiao Zhenye squinted, his aged, hoarse voice speaking slowly and deliberately, with an eerie calm, as if he were discussing the day's weather:
"If you say I'm a ghost, then I'm a ghost."

He nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the high priests, and continued, "Although guests are welcome, my ashes... are not here for you to supplement your calcium intake."

As soon as Xiao Zhenye finished speaking, the expressions on Daiya, Miao Zongpan and the others changed drastically. They all frowned. They had never felt disgusted even if they ate a fly or an insect, but when they learned that what they had just eaten was actually the other person's ashes, their stomachs began to convulse.

The high priest, who had been eating heartily, suddenly turned deathly pale. He was about to start cursing when, with that strange taste still lingering in his mouth, he immediately collapsed to the side and vomited.

"Ooh~~"

Seeing this, Zhao Qingming grinned mischievously and said, "Stop vomiting. It's burned clean. It hasn't gotten infested with bugs even after being underground for over ten years."

It would have been better if he hadn't mentioned it; the moment he did, the high priest vomited even more violently.

It's no wonder they didn't recognize it as ashes, since cremation isn't common here. Even in the present world before the arrival of the Lost City, burial was still the practice in some remote areas of Yunnan and Guizhou.

Miao Zongpan asked coldly, "Are you two in cahoots with those two old men down the mountain?"

By this point, Miao Zongpan realized he had been tricked.

No wonder those two old guys down the mountain waited until dawn; now I know why.

"Yes, they're in cahoots."

Xiao Zhenye nodded, making no attempt to hide anything: "Isn't this exactly what you wanted?"

Upon hearing this, Miao Zongpan felt a surge of anger. "You two old devils, how dare you cause trouble here? Do you really think no one can deal with you?"

"Go ahead and kill them!"

Daiya was the first to make a move. With a shake of her arms, the intricate purple totem tattoos on her body suddenly twisted and moved, transforming into several long whips of thorns that shimmered with a dark purple light. With a piercing whistle, they lashed fiercely at Xiao Zhenye and Zhao Qingming! Wherever the thorns passed, they left a trail of putrid stench in the air, clearly containing a deadly poisonous curse.

Seeing this, Xiao Zhenye and Zhao Qingming did not dare to be careless and quickly dodged to the left and right.

Another high priest suddenly slapped several strangely colored leather pouches at his waist. With a few soft "pop" sounds, the pouches exploded, and three fat Gu worms burst open in the air.

Under the incantation chanted by the high priest, they transformed into three eerie wisps of mist, which seemed to come alive in an instant, whizzing away and quickly chasing after the two.

Since ancient times, witchcraft and sorcery have been indistinguishable.

As high priests, they are skilled in more than just witchcraft; sorcery is their forte.

However, they underestimated these two old men.

Xiao Zhenye's figure kept dodging, deliberately rushing towards the Miao people on the side. He was a ghost, and a wisp of his spirit could ignore obstacles and keep dodging in the crowd.

But the fog behind them wasn't so intelligent. It crashed into the crowd in an instant, and many people didn't have time to dodge. They were hit by the fog and their flesh melted into a pool of blood before they could even scream.

On the other hand, Zhao Qingming was not so despicable, or rather, he disdained to resort to such dirty tricks.

Faced with the approaching white mist, Zhao Qingming opened his palm, his body shimmering with emerald green fluorescence, and a long staff gathered in his palm.

With a single blow, the pursuing white mist was shattered.

The long staff was composed entirely of a solidified, emerald-green fluorescent light. It moved without making a sound, yet it struck the core of the white mist churning with eerie energy with unparalleled precision.

"puff!"

A soft sound, like popping a balloon filled with rotten juice.

The moment the white mist was struck by the tip of the stick, its form suddenly dissipated. The strange energy it had condensed melted and disintegrated as quickly as ice and snow under the blazing sun, disappearing into the air in the blink of an eye, leaving only a patch of scorched earth that was corroded and hissing, emitting black smoke.

Seeing that Zhao Qingming had broken their family's witchcraft so easily, the other high priests were not to be outdone and took action one after another.

Suddenly, all sorts of bizarre witchcraft were activated, dark clouds covered the entire village, and ghosts wailed and howled.

Seeing this, Zhao Qingming no longer held back. His eyes suddenly turned cold, and with a wave of his hand, clusters of emerald green fluorescent balls were flung out from his sleeve.

The projectiles that were thrown out were completely different from the previous witchcraft; they were round and covered with long, thin spikes.

It even looks a bit bouncy and cute.

But when the other high priests saw this thing, their faces turned green.

"Aoi Zang Lei!! Run!!" (Chapter 491, the first time Zhao Qingming used this.)
Miao Zongpan screamed and turned to run, and the other high priests also turned around and ran away as fast as they could.

Immediately, the thrown-out sunflower-shaped lightning bolts bounced and flew in all directions, sticking to the surface like bubblegum once they made contact.

then……

With a loud "BOOM!!", black and white lightning flashed violently in the air!

This light was not like ordinary lightning that tears through the sky, but rather presented an extremely bizarre softness, like flowing liquid ink, or like suspended black and white gel.

However, this seemingly gentle "liquid" quickly sprayed in all directions.

Everyone could hear a faint, teeth-grinding hissing sound, as if the space itself was being corroded by the high temperature.

Wherever the black and white lightning touched, whether it was the hard wooden pillars or the bluestone paving, it was as if it had encountered strong acid wax. Before even a wisp of smoke could rise, it melted and collapsed silently.

A middle-aged Miao man's trouser leg was stuck to a drop of sparking lightning. He didn't even feel any pain. The fabric, along with the flesh and bones underneath, melted upwards at an unimaginable speed, starting from the point of contact, like a snowflake thrown into a furnace!

The speed was extremely fast; in the blink of an eye, it covered the thighs, waist, abdomen, and chest...

He barely had time to show a bewildered expression before half of his body vanished silently in less than a breath, leaving not a trace of ash, as if he had never existed.

The horrific scene turned everyone else pale.

If Xiao Ran were here and saw this scene, he would probably praise, "Master Zhao is really something, he used this thing to smash his own ancestors back then."

"enough!!"

Just then, the priest king finally spoke up and stopped the farce.

Beneath the mask, her gaze was fixed on Zhao Qingming before her: "Who exactly are you? Kui Zang Lei is a technique of my Wu family."

"The Wu family?"

Zhao Qingming asked with a forced smile, "Since it's your family's property, why don't you use it?"

The priest king fell silent.

“Hey, you guys can’t, but I can. That’s mine.”

After saying that, Zhao Qingming opened his palm: "I don't want to waste words, take out the Gu Mother."

Upon hearing this, the priest king stepped forward, and it seemed as if some aura had been awakened within him.

“I don’t know who you are, but since you refuse to say, then please stay here forever. I have plenty of ways to get you to talk.”

Zhao Qingming narrowed his eyes, his expression turning serious.

But just then, Xiao Zhenye's voice came from the side: "It's not difficult for you to spare us brothers, but are you willing to risk the lives of everyone in this village for it?"

The High Priest King glanced sideways at Xiao Zhenye, his eyes revealing a hint of contempt and disdain: "With your...?"

"Yes, it's me!" As soon as Xiao Zhenye finished speaking, billowing corpse energy suddenly rose from the ground around him, and viscous corpse fluid, like black oil, gushed out from the cracks in the soil inside the village.

In a short moment, the pool of corpses had expanded to cover half a mountain.

It turns out that Xiao Zhenye was initially dodging everywhere, but in reality he was constantly activating the Corpse Pool. Although there weren't many corpses buried at the foot of the mountain, these Miao people needed a special environment of cold decay to raise Gu in order to refine Gu over the years, so the corpse energy in these places was still very strong.

Xiao Zhenye extracted all of it, which led to its current scale.

At this moment, Zhao Qingming slowly raised his hand, and a Kui Zang Lei appeared in his palm, then he turned his palm down.

"How about we take a gamble and see how many people in this village survive if one of these grenades goes off?"

"do not move!!"

The priest's expression under the mask changed drastically.

The properties of this thing, Kui Zang Lei, are like those of a liquid, possessing extremely terrifying extensibility. Once the corpse pool beneath one's feet is ignited, the entire mountain will be ablaze in an instant.

I don't know how many of my people will die then.

"You are despicable!" Miao Zongpan and the other high priests gritted their teeth.

But Zhao Qingming didn't care at all. Instead, he calmly nodded and said, "It's good that we can win."

"you!"

Miao Zongpan and the others had never seen such a shameless person as Zhao Qingming, and they were so angry that they went crazy.

"Alright! I'll give you the Gu Mother."

At this moment, the priest king concealed his aura, opened his palm and a black box appeared in his hand, which he casually tossed to Xiao Zhenye who was standing to the side.

Xiao Zhenye picked it up, carefully opened the box, and through the gap in the box, he saw something that looked like a cicada pupa wriggling restlessly inside. He nodded with satisfaction, then threw the thing into his urn, and picked up both urns with both hands.

The priest stared at the two men: "I've given you the things, but are you sure you can escape?"

"threaten?"

Zhao Qingming narrowed his eyes, and suddenly, he casually threw the Kui Zang Lei in his hand downwards.

"don't want!!"

This scene shocked everyone, and they instinctively leaped behind them to find something to hide behind.

"boom!!"

With a muffled flash of light, everyone's heart leaped into their throats.

However, the bright light gradually faded, and the great destruction that everyone had anticipated did not occur. When they looked again, they found that the two people had long since disappeared.

Realizing he had been tricked by a feint, even the High Priest King trembled with rage: "Chase him!! Chase him! Tear him to pieces, grind his bones to dust!!!"

The savage aura emanating from the priest king was amplified by the dormant power within him.

Then her figure swayed slightly, leaving only a visible ripple in the air, and she disappeared from everyone's sight like a ghost.

The next second, the priest king's figure had already rushed out of the city.

Immediately following, a massive spiritual wave erupted from the point where she disappeared, like a bursting dam, sweeping across the entire Jiuxian Mountain forest in an instant.

This power was extremely terrifying. Wherever it passed, the branches and leaves of the trees moved without wind, emitting a mournful howl. It was not moved by the wind, but by the pure and violent spiritual power that forcibly stripped them of their vitality, revealing a sickly, withered appearance! The birds, beasts, insects and ants hidden in the shadows did not even have time to utter a mournful cry before their intelligence was extinguished and they instantly froze.

However, this terrifying mental scan, powerful enough to plow through the entire mountain forest, was like a mud ox sinking into the sea; it couldn't find a single trace of Xiao Zhenye and Zhao Qingming!

They've disappeared!

"How is this possible?!" the priest king cried out in disbelief, his voice sharp and shrill.

In her perception, those two old men were strong, but they were only capable in some ways.

But now, it's as if it's been wiped clean from the world by an eraser, and I can't even find a trace of myself?
After a moment's hesitation, she suddenly remembered that there were two old men down the mountain, who were their accomplices.

Thinking of this, the priest king suddenly rushed down the mountain like lightning.

"Boom!"

At that moment, Li Qing and Zhou Shang, who were standing in the forest, also heard the loud rumble of thunder. They exchanged a glance and then stood up without daring to linger.

"Grandpa, we..."

But Li Qing and Zhou Shang didn't have time to explain. Zhou Shang took out a piece of Yin paper from his pocket, held it in his palm, and chanted a spell. The Yin paper was immediately set on fire.

"A wrong path between Yin and Yang!"

As Zhou Shang threw out the Yin banknotes, they floated in mid-air and turned into a wisp of green smoke.

"Okay, let's go."

Zhou Shang said that he would walk quickly forward and go straight through the smoke and clouds, while Li Qing took Amei's hand and followed closely behind.

Before long, a gentle breeze blew by, and the three of them vanished without a trace.

The Miao man who had been watching from a distance was immediately bewildered. He quickly ran out and searched the place where the three had disappeared, but found nothing.

Just as he was feeling lost, a strong gust of wind swept in from behind, and he saw the figure of the priest king leap down from the distant mountain peak.

In the blink of an eye, it had already landed in front of the man.

After learning from the other party how the three people had mysteriously disappeared, the Priest King suddenly realized something, and a cold glint appeared in his eyes beneath the mask: "Bastards, they all deserve to die!"

After speaking, he leaped up again, quickly soaring into the air, his immense spiritual power spreading out and covering the mountains.

Just then, the priest king suddenly sensed something and looked toward the northwest.

A figure was rushing towards them at an equally astonishing speed.

"Are they accomplices?"

Thinking of this, the priest king's eyes turned cold beneath his mask, and he swiftly rushed towards that figure.

At this moment, Xiao Ran ran along the national highway path by the roadside, heading towards Jiuxian Mountain.

To save time, he temporarily separated from Wu Man, Jin Chanzi, and Lu Cheng, and rushed towards Jiuxian Mountain alone.

This will at least shorten the two-hour journey to half an hour.

"It should be the mountain in front of us."

Looking at the distant mountain peaks, Xiao Ran's mood instantly brightened. She thought to herself, "I wonder if Grandpa would be astonished if he saw my current strength."

Just as he was thinking, a fierce mental storm suddenly burst forth from the void without warning, like an invisible giant net suddenly tightening and instantly locking onto Xiao Ran! This mental power was vast and powerful, carrying an undeniable pressure, like a ten-thousand-foot mountain pressing down on him.

Xiao Ran was startled and immediately stopped her rapid pace, looking up instantly.

High above, the clouds churned, and a Miao woman wearing a mask with ferocious totem patterns descended from the sky like a meteor! Her eyes, hidden beneath the mask, seemed to hold thunder, their sharp light piercing through the heart.

Behind her, the void twisted and writhed, and an enormous, pitch-black figure, shrouded in a savage aura, materialized, blotting out the sky and the sun.

The dark figure opened its giant hand, which seemed capable of grasping mountains. The space in the palm twisted and collapsed wildly, and a huge spear made of pure dark energy, with an aura strong enough to pierce through metal and stone, instantly took shape in its palm!

"You little thief, where do you think you're going!" The priest king's voice was icy cold and filled with murderous intent, clearly mistaking Xiao Ran for an accomplice of Xiao Zhenye's gang.

However, this is not exactly a misunderstanding. After all, of the four old men, one is his own grandfather, and he has to call the other three grandfathers as well.

Before the words were even finished, the dark spear in the shadowy figure's hand tore through the air, whistling so loud it shook the very space, and thrust straight down! Even before the spear arrived, the terrifying pressure had already pressed spiderweb-like cracks into the ground beneath Xiao Ran's feet.

Xiao Ran's brows furrowed suddenly. Faced with this earth-shattering attack that could instantly kill an ordinary professional, he not only showed no intention of dodging, but his expression suddenly turned icy cold.

Although he didn't know who the other party was or their identity, he could sense the immense spiritual power emanating from them, which was in no way inferior to his own.

Can……

Should I avoid your sharp edge?

His right hand shot out like lightning.

"Buzz! Clang!"

A clear, high-pitched sword cry, like a dragon's roar, suddenly rang out in the air!
The A-grade cursed artifact, [Dragon Abyss], had already appeared in his hand, and the dark red patterns quickly merged with the Dragon Abyss.

Suddenly, the dragon opened its eyes, and a domineering dragon's might suddenly emerged from the blade.

cut! "

Xiao Ran let out a low shout, his eyes flashing with cold light. His immense spiritual power covered the blade, and at this moment, it was as if man and sword had become one. He raised his hand and delivered a simple, unadorned vertical slash towards the top of his head.

A blood-red blade aura, condensed to the point of being tangible and seemingly capable of cleaving the boundaries of heaven and earth, shot out from the tip of the Dragon Abyss Blade!

Wherever the blade's energy passed, the space groaned under its strain, instantly tearing open a twisted rift.

The moment the dark spear made contact with the blade's energy, a burst of intense light erupted from both, illuminating the surrounding world. In an instant, all color was stolen from the two, leaving only black and white.

"boom!!"

A deafening explosion resounded in mid-air.

The violent energy shockwave swept out like a tsunami, instantly turning the surrounding trees and rocks into dust.

The huge black shadow behind the priest king trembled violently and dimmed slightly before she could regain her footing.

Xiao Ran held the sword horizontally with his arm raised, the spine of the blade resting on his arm. The dragon eye on the dark greatsword in his hand slowly opened, as if the power contained within the sword had been activated.

"Professional Skill: It's high noon!"

(End of this chapter)