Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 745 The Primordial Qi Returns to the Furnace
Rumble...

The pale white lightning tore through the sky, and the space of the entire Ghost City area twisted wildly. As time went by, the cracks caused by the twisting increased, as if it was about to be torn apart from this world.

"Ow!"

Just then, a tiger's head covered in dust and mud suddenly emerged from the dry well in the ruins! The tiger's wide, amber eyes quickly scanned the devastated scene around it, and its pink nose twitched as it nervously sniffed the air.

A few breaths later, it seemed to have caught the direction of some extremely familiar yet faint aura. The huge tiger leaped a few times clumsily but swiftly, its massive body moving nimbly through the pile of ruins.

Finally, it stopped in front of a corner piled with broken beams and rubble.

It sniffed again, carefully took a few steps forward, and finally found Xiao Ran unconscious in a pile of ruins, her body covered with charred cracks and bloodstains.

The pink-nosed tiger leaned close to Xiao Ran's body and cautiously sniffed his clothes. In an instant, the giant tiger recoiled as if branded by a hot iron, its fur standing on end!
Overwhelmed by terror, its massive body lurched backward uncontrollably, a low, terrified roar rumbling from its throat:
"Ow!!!"

The tiger demon's urgent roars alerted another figure behind him, who rushed over. It was none other than Gu Xintang.

Upon seeing Xiao Ran lying on the ground, Gu Xintang quickly called out to those behind him.

"Over here! Found it!"

Seeing this, Shao Hongzhang, who was still looking around in the ruins not far away, quickly picked up his clothes and rushed over.

Gu Xintang walked to Xiao Ran's side, intending to reach out and feel Xiao Ran's pulse, but as soon as his fingers touched Xiao Ran's arm, he felt as if his fingers were on a red-hot iron, stinging painfully.

He quickly pulled his fingers back, and two large blisters had appeared on his two fingers.

"this!!"

Even though Gu Xintang was a man of great experience, he had never seen anything so outrageous. For a moment, he was solemn and greatly shocked.

At this moment, Shao Hongzhang had also arrived at Xiao Ran's side, intending to do the same as Gu Xintang and reach out to feel her pulse.

Gu Xintang quickly grabbed him, showing his finger: "Don't touch him, he's like a red-hot iron right now, you can't touch him."

Upon hearing this, Shao Hongzhang couldn't help but feel puzzled, but he still placed his hand on Xiao Ran's pulse, albeit with his demonized arm.

When the thick fingers on the arm touched Xiao Ran's arm, she did not feel the burning sensation that Gu Xintang had described; instead, she felt an unusual coolness.

But a strange thing happened: Shao Hongzhang's demonized arm suddenly shed its bloated skin and flesh, and in a moment it was about to return to normal.

Seeing this, Shao Hongzhang quickly withdrew his hand, looked at his palm, then at Xiao Ran, his face full of confusion.

"Strange, how could this be?!" Upon seeing this, Shao Hongzhang carefully examined Xiao Ran.

“Sir, this…” Gu Xintang leaned to the side and pointed at Xiao Ran: “What kind of symptoms are these? Could it be that he has gone into qi deviation?”

Shao Hongzhang was, after all, the Director of the Imperial Observatory. You could question his competence, but you couldn't question his knowledge.

When Gu Xintang asked him, he shook his head slightly and said, "It's not that I've gone mad from practicing qi cultivation."

Then, his tone shifted: "The demon has entered my heart."

In just a few moments of taking her pulse, Shao Hongzhang had already sensed the condition inside Xiao Ran's body.

The demonic energy was boiling, especially since the sea of ​​consciousness had been completely sealed off.

According to Shao Hongzhang's speculation, at this moment, a demon god has probably forcibly possessed Xiao Ran's body, and a power struggle has begun between the two. The demon god is unable to devour Xiao Ran for the time being, and Xiao Ran is unable to expel the demon god.

Shao Hongzhang's guess was pretty accurate, but what he didn't know was that Xiao Ran's body was possessed not just by one demon god, but by the Great Demon King of Bone Scraping, and more than a dozen other demon gods.

Xiao Ran didn't intend to exclude them; rather, he deliberately sealed off his spiritual platform, completely blocking his five senses, and forcibly trapped these demons inside his physical body.

But none of that matters. What matters is that even Shao Hongzhang is helpless in this situation.

"We can't worry about that now, let's get him out of here first."

Shao Hongzhang was completely helpless with Xiao Ran's condition. He could only plan to take Xiao Ran away first, and then ask a renowned doctor to try his skills after they left.

When Xiao Ran and Gu Xintang separated, Gu Xintang gave Shao Hongzhang a piece of yellow paper with the corresponding left side and the method of leaving, so leaving was not difficult.

"Okay! Wait a moment, I'll make a stretcher and we'll carry him out."

Xiao Ran's physical condition is very bad right now, and the two of them dare not touch her easily. Making a stretcher is the best way. Anyway, it is not difficult to find two sticks and planks in the surrounding ruins. They can just tie them up with clothes.

Gu Xintang went to find materials to make a stretcher, while the tiger demon was searching through the ruins with its nose in hand.

Finally, in a corner, they found something. They tore away the broken tiles and planks with their claws and found a huge pig's head lying underneath.

When the tiger demon saw the pig's head, he was initially puzzled, but then he tried a few bites, smacked his lips, and confirmed that the taste was correct.

Then he grabbed the pig's head and started licking it wildly, his wet, hot tongue making the pig's hair stand on end and saliva fly everywhere.

After a while, a severed hand suddenly rose from the nearby wasteland and pushed the tiger demon's head aside.

Wu Man slowly opened her eyes and snorted at the tiger demon with annoyance.

"Snoring..." (Get out of here!!)

The tiger demon stuck out its tongue and obediently lay down to the side. After a short while, Wu Man seemed to have recovered as well, and took out a piece of candy from her spatial storage and put it in her mouth.

Wu Man felt a little better after taking in the candy, but her injuries wouldn't heal anytime soon.

"Hmph hmph hmph..." (Idiot, don't just look, give me a hand.)
The tiger demon turned around and presented its tail to Wu Man. After Wu Man grabbed it, the tail hooked upwards, pulling Wu Man out of the ruins.

He swayed and looked around: "Is everything resolved?"

With no trace of the demons visible in the surroundings, and even their presence no longer felt, Wu Man breathed a sigh of relief and turned to lie on the tiger demon's back.

"Hmph..." (Is that guy still alive?)

Wu Man asked the tiger demon listlessly.

"Agh!!" (Alive! But in bad shape.)
The tiger demon gave a brief account of Xiao Ran's situation, then carried Wu Man to the back. At this moment, Wu Man seemed to notice something, patted the tiger demon to signal him to stop, and then waved her hand. A scroll was seen in the ruins and Wu Man grabbed it in her hand.

This scroll was indeed the painting scroll of Plum Blossom Taoist. Wu Man knew the importance of this item and carefully put it into her spatial storage.

Then, upon arriving outside the palace gate, he suddenly felt a warmth in his arms. He signaled the tiger demon to stop, turned around to look at the little eunuch's corpse on the ground, and saw his small eyes move slightly as he stepped off the tiger demon.

Walking to the corpse, after rummaging through the eunuch's arms, they found the talisman that Jin Chanzi had given them before they entered the Ghost Capital.

"Ugh!!"

Looking at the corpse on the ground, Wu Man's shoulders slumped, and she sighed heavily before reluctantly putting the body into her spatial storage.

Only then did the tiger demon bring Wu Man to Xiao Ran's side.

Both Shao Hongzhang and Gu Xintang were taken aback by the sudden appearance of the pig-headed man.

However, seeing the tiger demon's attitude towards this person, the two could roughly guess that this person was not an enemy, so although they were nervous, they ultimately did not make a move.

When Wu Man walked to Xiao Ran's side and examined her carefully, she shook her head, unsure of what to do.

Gu Xintang quickly prepared a stretcher. The stretcher was actually a door panel that was hung with a rope. One end was hung on the tiger demon's body, Xiao Ran was placed on it, and the stretcher was dragged along the door panel.

"Hum hum!!"

Wu Man then remembered something and gestured for Gu Xintang and the others to leave first. She then climbed up the high platform and came to the stone statue in front of the incarnation of the Golden Toad.

Wu Man circled the stone statue, tapping and knocking on it, but still couldn't wake the golden toad.

But given the current situation, he is unable to take the golden toad with him.

After much deliberation, Wu Man first bandaged up Jin Chanzi's severed arm, and then found a stone and placed it in front of Jin Chanzi.

Write a message on the stone.

Wait, we'll come back to rescue you.

Since we can't take the Golden Toad with us right now, we might as well let it enter the mortal world with this ghost. Once Xiao Ran wakes up, we believe there should be a way to rescue the Golden Toad.

After leaving the message, Wu Man thought it over again and again, and after making sure that nothing was missed, she turned around and caught up with the tiger demon and the others.

Within his sea of ​​consciousness, it had transformed into a pure, blazing white light domain, burning with resolute will. Xiao Ran's solitary thought, suspended at its center, was like a violent, miniature sun, pouring out endless light and heat.

He ignited his own thoughts as the source, unleashing the Soul Cultivation Technique to an unbelievable extreme.

"Ahhh! Stop! Stop now!" The demonic shadow of the Bone-Scraping Demon King twisted in the flames, letting out a furious roar.

They never dreamed that what they thought was just a trivial thought could be easily controlled by them and their fellow demons.

The result was completely unexpected. Xiao Ran's move was so terrifying, and he seemed to have gone mad, igniting his own thoughts.

What terrified the Bone-Scraping Demon King even more was Xiao Ran's magic, which not only suppressed them but also forcibly refined their consciousness.

I've never heard of such a domineering technique.

Even the Bone-Scraping Demon King had a strong intuition that this technique seemed to have been created specifically for demons like them.

In an instant, he thought of all sorts of possibilities, and finally connected them to the Plum Blossom Taoist. It seemed that only the Plum Blossom Taoist in this world could create such a technique.

But now is not the time for him to think things through. Xiao Ran's all-out attack is practically a suicide mission.

The Bone-Scraping Demon King could only roar, "Igniting your very essence is suicide! Even if you refine us, your foundation will be destroyed! You will be utterly annihilated!"

The howls and curses of the other demons were mixed together; they never expected that Xiao Ran would so decisively perish together with them.

Xiao Ran's voice reverberated through the sea of ​​light, and she sneered with sarcasm, "What, you're scared now too??"

“Brother Xiao, there’s really no need for us to fight to the death. You’ve gone to great lengths, and what if you finally ignite your own thoughts? Can you kill us? At most, we’ll only lose a little bit of our thoughts. That little bit of thoughts is nothing to us, but you’ll suffer a major blow to your foundation, or even be completely destroyed. That’s not a worthwhile deal.”

The Bone-Scraping Demon King softened his tone and earnestly analyzed the pros and cons for Xiao Ran.

“We are merely pawns in this game. If we each back down, you can release us and we can find new bodies in return. In return, we swear by our inner demons that we will wreak havoc on the world. Have you heard that you have two demon gods under your command? We can also become your allies. It’s a win-win situation, don’t you think?”

The Bone-Scraping Demon King believed he had shown the utmost goodwill. Unexpectedly, Xiao Ran remained silent for a few seconds before responding calmly.

"Yes, all of you, including that bitch from your mother, are to die!"

As Xiao Ran's angry curses rang out, the pressure on the Great Demon of Bone Scraping and the others increased sharply, clearly indicating that Xiao Ran was pushing the Soul Cultivation Technique even further.

They could even clearly see the white flames flickering in Xiao Ran's mind rapidly eroding his thoughts.

"Warning! Your mental strength has been damaged, permanently deducting 15 points!!"

"Warning! Your mental strength has been damaged, permanently deducting 15 points!!"

"warn…………

......"

Xiao Ran kept hearing notifications that her mental energy was damaged. The permanent loss of mental energy meant that this portion of her mental energy could never be recovered.

But Xiao Ran didn't care, or rather... he was already prepared.

At this moment, he is fully immersed in the practice of soul techniques.

"Sitting in oblivion, forgetting self, extinguishing yin and yang, the spirit roams the vast emptiness, encompassing the eight directions."

The three thieves, having seized the essence of creation, allowed the quintessence of all things to enter the Yellow Chamber.

Xiao Ran's consciousness gradually subsided amidst the passages of scripture.

But at this moment, the Great Demon of Bone Scraping and his companions were in dire straits. One after another, the demon gods around them gradually lost themselves in the sea of ​​fire, slowly turning into clusters of pure demonic energy that drifted away in their sea of ​​consciousness.

Upon seeing this, the Bone-Scraping Demon's face immediately showed a look of horror.

He couldn't help but think of what Emperor Zi had said when he came here: this was Xiao Ran's tribulation, a hurdle destined for him.

Once he gets through this ordeal, he'll be like a fish leaping over the dragon gate, his future will be bright, and he'll be protected by great fortune. At that time, even he won't be able to do anything to Xiao Ran.

This was said by the Great Emperor Fuzi to that damned Taoist priest.

"No!! I have to hold on!" In a daze, the Bone-Scraping Demon King suddenly woke up, glanced at Xiao Ran's shrinking thought, gritted his teeth, and decided to hold on to the end.

"He's just a mortal with a physical body, not even a celestial being. How long can he last?"

"As long as I survive until his soul is completely destroyed, this body will be mine, and the power that even the Great Emperor Yu Zi coveted will also be mine. I will no longer be a mere demon king in the Bone-Scraping Forest; I will become the new Demon Emperor!!"

Just as the stalemate was at hand, the lingering remnants of several demon gods deep within the sea of ​​consciousness suddenly let out a shrill scream. They were repeatedly washed, squeezed, and burned by the power of the soul cultivation technique.

The unyielding demonic thought was finally disintegrated, like a piece of dry paper that had been set ablaze, it went out with a few popping sounds. With the complete annihilation of its consciousness, its pure primordial demonic essence lost its support and turned into rolling black mist that dissipated!
Upon seeing this, the enormous demonic shadow of the Bone-Scraping Demon King trembled violently, as intense pain and weakness gnawed at its core of will like maggots clinging to its bones.

"An opportunity. This is an opportunity!" A thought, both ecstatic and desperate, flashed through his mind like lightning in the darkness.

The Bone-Scraping Demon King's demonic thoughts trembled, urging his remaining soul power to suddenly open that abyssal maw, constructed from his will and filled with serrated fangs!

"Devour! Devour them all!"

Ignoring the depletion of his last reserves, he forcefully guided the nearly dissipated pure demonic energy, like a ferocious beast starved for millions of years, frantically absorbing it into his body.

"It's done! Every bit of strength I gain allows me to hold on for one more breath! Once this guy's life is over, his body and his power will be mine!!!"

The greed and madness of the Bone-Scraping Demon King echoed silently in his heart.

In just a short while, most of Xiao Ran's thoughts had been burned away, and the remaining half was already teetering on the brink of collapse.

Seeing this, the Bone-Scraping Demon King was overjoyed, and a ruthless thought emerged in his heart. He suddenly rushed forward and crashed into Xiao Ran's tiny, sesame-seed-sized thought.

"Die! Die!"

As this thought shattered under the impact, the Bone-Scraping Demon King felt a sense of relief.

The flames gradually died down in his mind's eye, until the suppressing force disappeared...

"Dead? Haha, hahahaha... hahahaha..."

A maniacal laugh echoed within the Bone-Scraping Demon King's primordial spirit.

"Fool, what a complete fool! His soul has been scattered, hahahaha!!"

The Bone-Scraping Demon King laughed heartily, but as he laughed, he suddenly couldn't laugh anymore.

Xiao Ran's soul had already been scattered, so logically, he should have completely succeeded in possessing her, and this body should already be his.

Can……

"Why can't I feel my five senses?"

If one's five senses are not activated and one's spirit is not awakened, one cannot truly control one's body.

"What happened? Could he have destroyed his five senses?"

The Bone-Scraping Demon King was startled by this thought. He had finally outlived this guy, and what would happen if he couldn't control his body in the end?

"Thank you for your concern, but I'm not that stupid."

Xiao Ran's voice suddenly rang out, empty and cold, as if it exploded directly in the depths of the Bone-Scraping Demon King's consciousness, or as if it echoed from inside his "body"!
"You!!" This sudden, unexpected voice, which should never have appeared again, terrified the Bone-Scraping Demon King so much that he almost lost his soul. A chill from the depths of his being instantly swept over him.

"You're still alive?? You should have... been completely destroyed, how are you still... still alive??"

He looked around in horror, but couldn't find any trace of Xiao Ran.

But Xiao Ran's voice truly rang out around him.

"Heh, if a single thought is shattered, the soul will be scattered? What kind of logic is that?"

Xiao Ran's voice grew louder and louder: "The breath of the heels flows into nothingness, golden light covers the body and guards the central chamber, the nine orifices and three essentials subdue evil and falsehood, and the primordial Qi returns to the furnace."

"The primordial Qi naturally returns to the furnace!"

Upon hearing this, the Bone-Scraping Demon King muttered to himself for a moment, then trembled with terror.

"Impossible!! This is impossible!!"

Xiao Ran's words seem simple, but they actually contain the great path of cultivation. In particular, the last sentence means that Xiao Ran no longer simply regards himself as a fixed posture, but is omnipresent in this void of consciousness.

"Impossible, how... how could you do this?? Even my true self couldn't do this."

The Bone-Scraping Demon King could not believe that even his true form had only accumulated one thing after another over the long years in the Underworld.

In order to accumulate more thoughts, they even had to make their bodies swell, become stronger, and even gradually become distorted.

Therefore, they have no shortage of ideas, and it doesn't matter if thousands of ideas are destroyed, but it is absolutely impossible for them to completely scatter and then merge these ideas again.

It's even more impossible to achieve a state like Xiao Ran's, where one transforms into primordial Qi.

"I don't believe you. What makes you think you're in a state of Qi?"

"You can try it!"

Xiao Ran paused for a moment, and then her sea of ​​consciousness suddenly churned. In an instant, black and white were clearly distinguished, and Xiao Ran's figure appeared in front of her, surrounded by light.

He was no longer a mere thought, but strode forward in his own persona, and with each step he took, Xiao Ran's appearance underwent a new change.

They constantly changed into the appearance of those demons.

Actually, the original plan was to forcibly refine these demon gods to make up for the loss of his ignited thoughts.

Theoretically speaking, as long as one's refining speed is fast enough, the losses caused by one's thoughts will be quickly replenished.

But in this process, Xiao Ran gradually touched upon the fourth level of the Soul Cultivation Technique.

The Plum Blossom Taoist did not teach me this level.

Because the mystery here cannot be described in words.

There is a sentence in the general outline of the Soul Cultivation Technique: "Transform the acquired into the innate, encompassing the number of the heavens." Xiao Ran has never fully comprehended it.

It wasn't until that instant that he truly understood the profound mysteries of the entire Soul Cultivation Technique.

This is my own body, and this sea of ​​consciousness is a part of me. Why should I be bound by the tangible and ignore the intangible?

At that moment, Xiao Ran realized that once enlightened, she saw her true self, and all the shackles of the past vanished like smoke.

His current state is exactly the same as that of the Plum Blossom Taoist, where all laws are followed at will, and his posture is unrestrained.

You can be human, or you can become a demon, or... a celestial being.

With each step Xiao Ran took, her posture changed continuously until she arrived in front of the Bone-Scraping Demon King.

At that moment, the Bone-Scraping Demon King felt a chill in his heart, and immediately began cursing and wanting to fight Xiao Ran to the death.

However, just as he was about to self-destruct, his demonic energy did not respond in the slightest.

"Don't waste your energy. The moment you swallowed those scattered demonic energies, you became a part of my consciousness. You don't really think those scattered demonic energies were unclaimed, do you?"

"you!!"

The Bone-Scraping Demon King was truly afraid at this moment. Although the loss to his true self was merely a wisp of thought, he couldn't help but feel fear, fear that one day Xiao Ran would come to his true self.

Sensing the Bone-Scraping Demon King's fear, Xiao Ran's face gradually drew closer to him: "Don't worry, that day won't be far off! You! And those demon gods, none of you will escape!!"

The moment the words fell, the Bone-Scraping Demon King's consciousness was instantly torn apart by an irresistible force, transforming into a pure mass of demonic energy that dissipated into Xiao Ran's sea of ​​consciousness...

(End of this chapter)