Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 813 Cooperation
"What??"

Xiao Ran was stunned when she saw the three words on the pheromones.

Seemingly sensing Xiao Ran's surprise, the Eastern Tomb Master explained to her directly.

"Don't be surprised. You're an outsider, and you're the one who was specifically targeted for assassination during the tomb raiding, so I'm not worried about you refusing, because we have the same goal."

In response to the words of the Eastern Tomb Master, Xiao Ran retorted, "Why should I believe you? What if you're only pretending to cooperate and then stab me in the back?"

At this point in the conversation, any roundabout probing is superfluous. If the other party cannot provide a convincing explanation, Xiao Ran has absolutely no possibility of cooperating with them.

Faced with Xiao Ran's questioning, the Eastern Tomb Master remained silent for a moment before asking in return, "Then what should I do to put your mind at ease?"

"Simple, give me a part of your soul. If you dare to betray me, I guarantee I'll drag you down with me and make you disappear into nothingness."

Xiao Ran's suggestion seemed like a deliberate attempt to make things difficult to outsiders, but the Eastern Tomb Master only paused for a second before agreeing without hesitation.

This kind of straightforwardness made Xiao Ran feel a little uncomfortable.

He was genuinely puzzled. Gu Xuan had granted them immortality, yet now they wanted to kill him?

"What? I'm willing to give my life to you, don't you believe in my sincerity?"

Seeing that Xiao Ran did not respond, the Eastern Tomb Master became anxious and urged him on.

Xiao Ran said, "Okay, I just don't understand why you want to kill Gu Xuan."

The soul of the Eastern Tomb Master let out a silent sigh: "We had no choice."

Then the Eastern Tomb Master gestured for Xiao Ran to taste the special spores first, and explained the reason behind them to her while she ate them.

It turns out that they followed Gu Xuan and built this great tomb, hoping to achieve immortality.

At the beginning, everyone was very excited. Immortality is an irresistible temptation for anyone.

But once they truly experienced the taste of immortality, they gradually discovered that immortality was not as wonderful as they had imagined.

In this world made of mycelium, there is no food, no gender, and not even sleep.

As a human being, once the novelty wears off, life in this godforsaken place is worse than being in prison.

If that were all, it wouldn't have been so bad, but they soon discovered that all the promises Gu Xuan had made to them were pure bullshit.

When they arrived at this place, they were treated like mere tools by Gu Xuan.

They worked day and night to collect various elemental spores for Gu Xuan.

They had long been fed up with this kind of life.

"Sometimes we feel like we're not human, but ants, insects, beasts. Do you think we should be grateful to this place for making us live like animals for eternity and say thank you?"

The owner of the Eastern Tomb complained to Xiao Ran.

Faced with the Eastern Tomb Master's complaints, Xiao Ran thought of the Plum Blossom Taoist.

He had no sympathy for the Eastern Tomb Master and those who followed Gu Xuan to become mycelia. He could only say, they deserved it. Who told you to take shortcuts and engage in evil cultivation?
In other words, not everyone is entitled to enjoy immortality.

Both Gu Xuan and Plum Blossom Taoist, these two powerful evil cultivators, understood what they were facing from the very beginning.

If they were given the choice again, Xiao Ran believed they would still choose the same outcome.

Because that's exactly what they're looking for.

On the contrary, the Eastern Tomb Master and his group were merely trying to hitch a ride on Gu Xuan's path to immortality.

Gu Xuan led them to achieve immortality, so there's nothing wrong with them doing some work for Gu Xuan as payment for immortality.

The fact that the Eastern Tomb Masters are only now starting to complain shows that from the very beginning, they didn't understand whether they could accept the price of immortality.

Therefore, from this point of view, it is difficult for Xiao Ran to empathize with them.

However, this did not stop Xiao Ran from offering words of comfort.

“I think I understand a little, but there’s one thing: if you kill Gu Xuan, the price might be unbearable for you. I mean… what if… you also have to be buried with him?”

Xiao Ran put it more bluntly, after all, to say the unpleasant things upfront, so that these guys wouldn't turn against them at the crucial moment.

But Xiao Ran had clearly underestimated the determination of the Eastern Tomb Master and his group.

"No need to say more, we know the outcome very well. Once Gu Xuan dies, the mycelium of the Tomb Kingdom may all wither, but we are willing to give it a try."

After finishing his explanation, the tomb owner of the Eastern Tomb said, "I know you may not understand, but do you know what we discovered when we made offerings last time?"

The Eastern Tomb Master sent a wisp of pheromones to Xiao Ran. This pheromone contained a portion of the Eastern Tomb Master's memories, and the images from those memories appeared directly in Xiao Ran's mind.

In the scene, the Eastern Tomb Master and his entourage saw an arm. It was an arm made up of countless tiny mycelia.

Although, judging from the memories of the Eastern Tomb Owner, this arm was in very poor condition, with many parts being forcibly pulled up by mycelium, it at least had the shape of a human arm.

Even if it's not perfect.

This was enough to shock the hosts, but after a brief moment of shock, the Eastern Tomb Master and his companions realized that Gu Xuan was creating a perfect physical body for himself.

Clearly, this guy is no longer willing to live in this place forever.

He has begun to create a new body for himself, and judging from the structure of the arms, they are at least the arms of an adult.

The flesh and blood on it are incredibly lifelike, but because there isn't enough blood, the muscles on the arm look very unnatural.

This scene shocked Xiao Ran. He never expected that Gu Xuan would actually use mycelium to weave a new body for him.

The Eastern Tomb Master's rant didn't end there; he vented all his pent-up frustrations.

"He kept talking about wanting to live forever, but after he actually achieved immortality, he wanted to turn back into a human. Isn't that ridiculous?"

Is it ridiculous?
Xiao Ran didn't think so.

They're trying to get out of their predicament, so what's so funny?

But what Xiao Ran asked at the moment was, "May I ask, senior, what stage has this body reached in its creation?"

"I don't know. It happened a long, long time ago. I don't know the specifics, but it should be pretty close to the truth."

Upon hearing the words of the Eastern Tomb Master, Xiao Ran immediately understood.

He thought to himself, "No wonder, no wonder they are so determined to kill Gu Xuan. I'm afraid that no matter what they say, their ultimate goal is not to kill Gu Xuan, but to take over the physical body that Gu Xuan has worked so hard to create."

"So, one last small question."

Xiao Ran smiled and looked at the Eastern Tomb Master behind her, "What makes you think I can win? Is it just because we are outsiders?"

"Hey, if you weren't strong enough to kill the hunting party, I would have wiped you out the moment you entered the Eastern Tomb City."

The owner of the Eastern Tomb made no attempt to hide his true feelings.

Well, Xiao Ran wasn't satisfied with this explanation, but she couldn't find any other problems.

"I can help you with this, but I need to gather some things."

Xiao Ran wrote down the materials needed for the mission in her pheromones and handed them over to the Eastern Tomb Master.

After glancing at the contents, the Eastern Tomb Master could only explain to Xiao Ran, "I've seen all these things before, but I can't produce them right now. If you're not in a hurry, you can wait a bit, and I'll help you find information about these things."

After finishing his sentence, the Eastern Tomb Master added a reminder: "Of course, these things are not free. They are not in my possession, otherwise I could have given them to you directly, little brother."

Xiao Ran understood the meaning of the Eastern Tomb Master and said that as long as he obtained the items on the task list, he could take out the culture medium of the fourth generation mycelium as an exchange.

Upon hearing Xiao Ran's suggestion, the Eastern Tomb Master was greatly excited and immediately said that there was no problem and that everything could be left to him to handle.

After agreeing on a way to contact each other again once both sides had made sufficient preparations, Xiao Ran left the Eastern Tomb Master's residence.

On the way back, Xiao Ran kept pondering how credible the Eastern Tomb Master's words were.

Xiao Ran couldn't find fault with the Eastern Tomb Master's reasons and sincerity.

However, Xiao Ran couldn't completely trust what the other party said. Even if it was an insect, this guy was an insect that had lived for thousands of years. It wouldn't be good not to take some precautions.

Just as Xiao Ran was pondering how to discuss this with Wu Man after returning home...

Suddenly, a mental fluctuation flashed before her eyes, a fluctuation that felt very familiar to Xiao Ran.

So, after a wisp of spiritual energy swept over, a pink shadow flashed past in front of him.

"Oh, it's her."

Xiao Ran was surprised; she never expected to meet the girl named Lingxi here.

To be honest, this girl felt a bit cheated by them. They had agreed to enter the Tomb Kingdom together, but Xiao Ran and Wu Man just dumped her.

I never expected that she would manage to get into the central tomb area all by herself.

At this moment, Xiao Ran noticed that there were two clusters of spiritual energy following Ling Xi.

Seeing this, Xiao Ran decided to follow her to see what Lingxi was doing there and why someone was following her.

So, on a whim, he silently followed behind.

(End of this chapter)