Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 794 Gu Xuan... messed up.

"What, are you saying we're not allowed to enter the cemetery area?"

Wu Man looked at Tao with a puzzled expression.

Tao looked at Wu Man with a puzzled expression, seemingly not understanding why Wu Man didn't know this principle.

Xiao Ran noticed the confusion in Tao's expression, so she took the initiative to say, "Sorry, my brother here never pays attention to these things."

After saying that, Xiao Ran said to Wu Man with a reproachful tone, "I always tell you to go out more, but you just won't listen and you've made such a fool of yourself."

Upon hearing this, Wu Man immediately understood and cooperated by releasing her aggrieved emotions.

"Sigh! Don't get angry!"

Seeing this, Tao immediately spoke up to stop Xiao Ran from continuing to blame her: "Xiao, don't get angry."

After saying that, it explained to Wu Man, "Each level has its own rules. The fungus people in the lower level are not allowed to enter the middle level without permission. They can only enter the middle level briefly each time they pay the fungus tax. Even I am no exception."

Tao is very patient, or rather, as inhabitants of this world, patience is the last thing they have in abundance.

Because they themselves have no concept of time.

Tao's explanation gave Xiao Ran a basic understanding of this cemetery.

In fact, the entire Tomb Kingdom is just like an anthill.

What appears to be a vast and boundless world of freedom is actually a rigidly hierarchical society.

The fungus inhabitants who descend into the tomb, like worker ants, need to constantly expand and collect basic resources.

The middle tomb consists of soldier ants that synthesize and cultivate the basic resources of the lower tomb at a higher level, strengthening themselves while also acting as a protective umbrella for the entire tomb kingdom.

The most premium resources were all sent to the upper tomb, which is equivalent to the core area where the queen and king of ants reside.

Even the tomb owners of the central tomb dared not venture into their territory rashly.

Xiao Ran and Wu Man suddenly understood. Since that was the case, they were basically certain that the things needed for this mission were probably all concentrated in the so-called tomb raiding.

I imagine that my grandfather and Zhao Qingming will also go to the cemetery.

"The things you're looking for can only be found by going to a tomb, but..."

Tao then changed the subject: "You can also try to collect resources yourselves and synthesize them in some special places."

Upon hearing this, Wu Man immediately understood Tao's meaning: "What special place are you referring to?"

"It's a no-man's-land."

Tao released a pheromone containing a large amount of information about the no-man's-land.

After receiving this pheromone, Xiao Ran and Wu Man immediately learned what the so-called "three no-man's-land" was.

Just as its name suggests, this place is where the upper, middle and lower tombs meet, but it is a chaotic area where none of them want to interfere.

As the saying goes, wherever there are people, there is a world of its own.

Wherever there are江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry), there will be people who want to exploit loopholes.

This place is a gathering place for all kinds of will entities. Some will entities need first-hand resources for entering the tomb, while others need special synthetic fungi from the middle tomb.

Even for tomb raiding, there are some special requirements that can only be found here.

If one could find all the things that Wu Man mentioned in one place, it would only be in the Three No-Man's Land.

"But it's dangerous here. Robbery is commonplace, and there have even been cases of other inhabitants being killed. It's best if you two don't go there unless absolutely necessary."

The fungi cannot devour each other's spiritual power to enhance themselves; this is an immutable iron law.

However, it is possible to kill the opponent. As long as you use enough power to kill all the mycelium covered by the opponent's will, so that the opponent cannot find the mycelium to transfer the will, you can kill the opponent.

Of course, Tao knew that Xiao Ran and Wu Man were large, but once they entered the no-man's-land, they had to prepare their own mycelium reserves because the special geographical environment there caused the mycelium to grow extremely slowly.

When someone with a massive physique like Xiao Ran entered the environment, the mycelium even began to decay.

This is why no one wants to manage this place.

"understood."

Xiao Ran was very grateful to Tao for providing this information, which finally gave them a basic understanding of the situation in the Tomb Kingdom.

Having learned this information, Xiao Ran already had a plan for the next step, so she took the initiative to say goodbye.

This made Tao feel somewhat disappointed, but also slightly relieved. He was naturally disappointed that he hadn't been able to obtain Xiao Ran and Wu Man's identities, but sending these two powerful figures away greatly reduced the pressure on him.

Before leaving, Tao also gave him about 200 pieces of "Gold Melting Liquid," which was a hard currency in the Tomb Kingdom.

Its effects include nourishing its own mycelium, and also being sprayed on areas without mycelium to encourage the proliferation of mycelium in those areas.

These synthetic solutions only need to be stored in the bacterial spores.

Two hundred tiny spores are negligible to Xiao Ran, and carrying them on his body has no effect whatsoever.

"Let's go to the no-man's-land."

Xiao Ran had made some guesses in her mind. Her grandfather and Zhao Qingming's purpose was very simple: to find the Yangfeng Hammer.

To find the Phoenix Hammer, we must enter other tomb layers.

Whether it's the upper tomb, the lower tomb, or the middle tomb, there aren't many ways to enter. On the contrary, it's much easier to enter and exit through the no-man's-land.

Therefore, my grandfather and the others must have gone to this no-man's-land first, where they should be able to find traces of them.

After Xiao Ran and Wu Man chose their direction, their immense spiritual power immediately surged towards the no-man's-land like a flood.

At the same time, Li Qing, along with Lu Cheng, Jin Chanzi, Liu Mu, and Qing Hai, carefully made their way forward through an inconspicuous tunnel beneath the ancient city.

After passing through the tunnel, you will see a huge, deep well in front of you.

The width of the deep well is like that of a basketball court, and a staircase along the well wall is like a large snake winding down without interruption.

Li Qing raised his hand to signal the two to be quiet, then picked up a pebble from the side and threw it forward. The pebble landed on a platform not far away.

"Da! Da da~"

The cracking sound echoed in the deep well.

After a while, a withered arm emerged from the thick mycelium beside it.

The arm was riddled with holes, and dense mycelium clung to the corpse, seemingly forming some kind of symbiotic relationship with it.

"Zombies!"

Jin Chanzi glanced at it and was immediately surprised: "I didn't expect there would be zombies here. I thought the corpses had already turned into nutrients for mycelium."

"Quite a bit."

Li Qing turned back, frowning as he said, "Back then, when our group went down into the tomb, we encountered more than a dozen of these things. They were very troublesome, but we could still deal with them. Now that these things are covered in fungi, the methods we used to use to deal with them are no longer effective. Moreover, these zombies seem to have developed some strange skills by utilizing the power of the fungal hyphae."

As he spoke, Li Qing flicked two more pebbles with his fingers.

Hearing the noise, the zombie staggered out and looked in the direction of the sound with a puzzled expression.

"Follow me!"

Li Qing quickly led his group around to the other side of the well. Not far away, the zombie seemed to sense something, but before it could turn its head, Six Eyes glanced at it from the side and, without making a sound, twisted its neck, snapping it shut with a "crack".

After the group had passed, Li Qing breathed a sigh of relief: "Luckily, we acted quickly, and that thing didn't notice us, otherwise it would have caused a lot of trouble."

"Amitabha Buddha, indeed, having an elder in the family is like having a treasure. If it weren't for you leading the way, we would have caused who knows how much trouble we would have gotten into along the way."

The golden toad praised with a smile.

Although Li Qing waved his hand and said he was lucky, the corners of his mouth were harder to suppress than an AK.

Liu Mu and Qing Hai exchanged a glance and followed silently behind. As long as there was no danger, they were quite happy to pretend to be ordinary zombies.

Just think of it as trying to please the elderly; as long as they're happy, that's all that matters.

After "bypassing" the gatekeeper zombie, the rest of the way was very smooth, with almost no trouble encountered.

The smooth sailing made even Li Qing himself feel that something was amiss.

But who cares? Li Qing didn't care about that. He went to the place where he had been taken away because of the mycelial outbreak.

There were still traces of a fight around the place, and some shattered paper figures on the ground.

But Zhou Shang and Amei were nowhere to be found.

"strangeness."

Li Qing carefully checked the surroundings and discovered that Zhou Shang and Amei seemed to have separated and gone their separate ways.

Li Qing was completely baffled. He didn't know what Zhou Shang and Amei were up to, or what trouble they had run into that forced them to split up and escape.

Liu Mu and Qing Hai walked behind, but then Liu Mu's gaze suddenly fell on the mural on the wall.

With a casual tug, the mycelium on the wall suddenly detached.

This commotion immediately attracted the attention of Li Qing and the others.

Li Qing's expression changed, and he immediately ran over, looking at Liu Mu and Qing Hai with disdain: "Why did Xiao Ran arrange for these two burdens to come along?"

After saying that, he jumped up and kicked Liu Mu in the butt.

"Oh, old man, don't be angry. These two aren't very useful, but they can be used as human shields in critical moments," Jin Chanzi said with a smile as he walked over.

Lu Cheng looked apologetically at Liu Mu and Qing Hai. He knew that Liu Mu and Qing Hai were both self-aware and no different from normal people. They were just disguised as ordinary zombies because of their identities and it was inconvenient to tell Li Qing.

At this moment, Jin Chanzi looked at the mural, and upon closer inspection, he was immediately stunned.

After scolding Liu Mu, Li Qing muttered irritably, "Just making trouble!"

He was about to continue searching for Zhou Shang and Amei's whereabouts when his peripheral vision was drawn to the mural that Jin Chanzi was staring at intently.

The mural in front of me depicts overlapping mountains, covered with numerous complex lines.

The content of the mural gradually became clear: a mountain range with overlapping peaks, winding and twisting like a giant python, with an ancient and majestic style.

What made Li Qing's heart skip a beat was the several extremely distinctive "little things" that adorned the painting.

Just below the mountains, near the bottom edge of the image, although the lines are simple, the posture and charm made Li Qing recognize it at a glance!

A weasel, tail held high, crouching cunningly and alertly.

A fox with lively eyes, a white snake with clearly defined scales.

A round, spiky hedgehog, and a mouse peeking out furtively.

"Five Immortals Hall!"

Upon seeing these five little creatures, Li Qing immediately burst out.

The five small figures on this mural are the five great immortals of Northeast China.

"The Old Immortal from the Northeast?" Jin Chanzi turned his head, quite surprised, after all, this was Guizhou, which was a long way from the Northeast.

Moreover, since ancient times, immortals have never left Shanhaiguan Pass. People in remote areas have never even heard of them, let alone understood them.

How could a deity from Northeast China appear in Ke Guxuan's tomb?

This is a bit outrageous.

"Could Gu Xuan be from Northeast China?" This question inevitably arose in everyone's minds.

"wrong!"

After carefully examining the strokes, Li Qing sensed something was amiss.

While the Five Immortals of Northeast China have indeed declined in modern times, they were once the most powerful force outside Shanhaiguan Pass.

At its peak, it could even influence the course of an era, demonstrating its immense power.

However, in the murals, the status of these five immortals seems rather low.

If it weren't for Li Qing's sharp eyes and sensitivity to the Five Immortals of Northeast China, it's likely that no one would have noticed these five little guys hidden in the corners of the mural for a while.

"This picture looks like a sacrificial ceremony."

Jin Chanzi carefully examined the contents of the mural. There were too many complex lines on it, which made the style of the entire painting look very strange.

It appears chaotic, but each line seems to connect to the unseen realm beyond the mural.

At the center of these intricate lines is a massive vortex facing a colossal mountain. In front of the vortex are many figures, as if they are throwing large amounts of offerings into it.

Judging from the scale, such a sacrificial ceremony must have been very grand.

And it's definitely not something made up out of thin air.

Seeing this, Lu Cheng simply reached out and tore off all the mycelium on both sides, revealing the complete mural.

The group held up flashlights and carefully examined the murals.

Suddenly, Li Qing's pupils widened: "This bracelet! And that bracelet!!"

Li Qing's breathing quickened, and he exclaimed in surprise, "How did this thing get here?"

He saw that familiar bracelet on it, the beginning of all troubles and the root of all misfortune.

If Li Jingqi hadn't brought this bracelet to Luo City back then, it wouldn't have caused so much trouble.

Therefore, Li Qing could naturally recognize the bracelet at a glance.

It now appears that Li Jingqi did indeed find Gu Xuan's tomb here.

Could it be that this tomb and this bracelet are related?
Li Qing stared wide-eyed, trying to find the connection between the two in the mural, but after staring at it for a long time, he still couldn't find any other information.

Instead, Jin Chanzi stared at the lines on the mural, and after a moment a glint of light flashed in his eyes: "I think I understand."

"Ok?"

All eyes turned to Jin Chanzi, and Lu Cheng asked, "What do you understand?"

Jin Chanzi pointed to the left side of the mural, to the blurred section where many fungal and algal patterns had reappeared, and said:

"If my estimation is correct, Gu Xuan messed up. This guy should still be alive, but he's in worse shape than dead. The only thing that can save him is probably that bracelet."

(End of this chapter)