Infinite Puzzle City

Chapter 891 Ginseng Essence

When they saw the Five Dragons Bracelet on Xiao Ran's hand, the expressions of Grandma Huang and the others became increasingly complicated.

In a brief moment, Xiao Ran saw resentment, anger, and greed on their faces.

These emotions were laid bare on their faces, but were gradually suppressed amidst the conflicted expressions of Grandma Huang and the others.

Grandma Huang and the others calmed down, then walked up to Xiao Ran, staring at the bracelet on her wrist with a glint in their eyes: "So, back then, your families took this bracelet, didn't you?"

Faced with Grandma Huang's persistent questioning, Xiao Ran calmly replied, "This bracelet was given to me by Li Jingqi."

"Li Jingqi gave it to you?" Grandma Huang's voice was sharp with disbelief.

“Yes.” Xiao Ran nodded, looking calmly at Grandma Huang.

The other elderly people, as well as Chang Dawei and others, were in an uproar.

The fragile peace that had been barely maintained was instantly shattered, and everyone's eyes turned extremely hostile as they stared intently at Xiao Ran.

They might be able to set aside their past grievances for now, considering Xiao Ran's abilities and sincerity.

But the Five Dragon Bracelet, the most precious treasure lost by their Five Immortals Hall, is now in Xiao Ran's hands. How could they let this go?

"Kid, are you trying to fool me?!"

Bai Jing, who had just seemed so kind, now had an undisguised murderous intent in his eyes.

Uncle Hu, Aunt Huang, and others exchanged glances and moved closer without making a sound, subtly forming an encirclement.

The atmosphere in the hall instantly plummeted to freezing point, as if the air itself had solidified.

"enough."

At that moment, a voice drew everyone's attention.

As everyone looked over, they saw the group of shamans who had remained silent throughout slowly retreating.

Grandma Huang's great-grandson walked out from the crowd. The child looked to be only seven or eight years old, but he walked with an air of old age.

Upon seeing this, everyone's expressions changed. Even Grandma Huang's expression shifted slightly as she looked at her great-grandson. She stepped forward, no longer displaying the doting demeanor she had before, and instead asked respectfully, "Old Shaman, what brings you here?"

The boy walked up to Xiao Ran, reached out and took Xiao Ran's arm, carefully examining the Five Dragon Bracelet on his wrist: "There's no mistake. Come with me, I have something to tell you."

The hall fell into a deathly silence.

Grandma Huang and the others could only watch from the sidelines. No matter how uncomfortable they felt, they dared not disobey the great shaman.

Xiao Ran did not struggle, but maintained her usual calmness and said lightly, "Okay."

Then, amidst the puzzled gazes of the crowd, she followed the boy into the back room.

The back hall was much quieter than the front hall.

The boy led Xiao Ran to a blue stone under an ancient tree. The boy patted the blue stone, indicating that Xiao Ran should sit down.

The old shaman's fingers slowly brushed across the five-dragon bracelet on Xiao Ran's wrist, the icy touch seeming to penetrate her skin and reach her very soul. Behind her, the ancient tree branches swayed without wind, casting shadows that reflected an aged face onto her youthful features.

Xiao Ran's brows twitched slightly. In that instant, he could feel the inexplicable power surging from the boy. Strangely, he could sense the vastness of this power, but he couldn't accurately grasp it.

This feeling is like an ant trying to shake an elephant; you know it's big, but you don't know its size.

“This bracelet does not belong to you alone.” The child’s voice, hoarse with the passage of time, said, “There are five directions in the world, and there are also five dragon bracelets. Gold, wood, water, fire, earth… when the five bracelets come together, they form a true dragon.”

Xiao Ran's pupils contracted slightly, and the bracelet on his wrist seemed to respond with a barely audible hum. The old shaman turned his eyes to him, as if seeing through the barrier of time and space:
“Those who hold the bracelets are all destined by Heaven, but they are also sacrifices. The five of you belong to different eras, some are remnants of the previous dynasty, and some are heroes of later generations. You are all bound by the fate of your time... but by chance, you have come here to complete this sacrifice.”

He pointed to the majestic outline of Changbai Mountain to the north: "Changbai Mountain is the altar! The Five Dragon Bracelet is the key, and also the brand. Only... kill!"

As he uttered the last word, a chilling killing intent suddenly erupted from the old shaman.

The ancient trees rustled, and the figure appeared even more ethereal in the dappled shadows: "Go. The covetousness of the Five Immortals Hall is nothing but a minor ailment. The real calamity... has been waiting for you in the wind and snow for a long time."

Before he finished speaking, the leaves behind him swayed, a gentle breeze blew by, and the boy swayed a few times before his eyes became clear and bright, no longer showing the old and decrepit appearance he had just had.

The boy was taken aback and looked at Xiao Ran: "Big brother, has Grandma finished telling you?"

"Uh...right."

Xiao Ran smiled and nodded, took out a box of chocolates from her spatial storage and handed it to the boy, asking, "What is the background of that old lady? Can you tell your brother about her?"

"do not know."

The boy shook his head: "I don't know, my ancestors didn't know either. Nobody has ever really seen her. All we know is that she is a great shaman who sometimes comes down the mountain in the body of a clansman to take a look. When there's nothing else to do, she disappears without a trace."

Upon hearing the boy's words, Xiao Ran couldn't help but feel a bit suspicious of this great shaman.

With such extraordinary abilities, could she also be a highly skilled professional? Like that novelist?
But Xiao Ran has no answers to these questions for the time being.

When he returned to the front hall, he found that most of the people from the Five Immortals Hall had left, with only Granny Huang, Bai Jing, and Chang Dawei remaining, and only Jin Chanzi and Wu Man left.

This time, Grandma Huang didn't say anything more, and simply gestured for Bai Jing and Chang Dawei to see the three of them off.

We got in the car and drove back.

Chang Dawei was driving, but he remained silent the whole way, clearly indicating that today's events had really shaken him.

I thought Xiao Ran would be in deep trouble this time, but... she was perfectly fine.

Feeling depressed, Chang Dawei parked his car at the entrance of the guesthouse. After Xiao Ran got out of the car, he didn't even bother to say a polite word. He stepped on the gas and sped off into the street.

"This kid seems pretty defiant, should we go for it!"

Wu Man watched Chang Dawei's departing figure, then turned back to look at Xiao Ran.

"Don't bother."

Xiao Ran waved his hand. He didn't care about Chang Dawei's hostility towards him; the hostility of such a minor character meant nothing to him.

Relatively speaking, for Chang Dawei, this insignificant soldier, although he took the offerings of half the city's people for his own use and profited from it, it was already quite remarkable that he was able to protect the area.

Based on this point alone, as long as Chang Dawei doesn't directly confront her, Xiao Ran doesn't want to take action against him.

After returning to the guesthouse, Xiao Ran paid the bill to the owners, and the group boarded a carriage and left the guesthouse.

Where to go?
Xiao Ran took out the note that Fifth Master Dai had given her.

Looking at the address above, Xiao Ran thought about it carefully.

Master Dao...

The name sounded very familiar. After thinking about it carefully, Xiao Ran suddenly remembered the origin of the name.

"Could it be him!"

Thinking of this, Xiao Ran took out a thumb ring from her spatial storage, wondering, "I wonder if it's the person Grandpa mentioned."

Grandpa and his group went straight to Guizhou with the intention of never returning. So before leaving, they left Xiao Ran some keepsakes. Xiao Ran might not need these things, but they might come in handy if she encounters any trouble.

And so it seems that this Master Dao is one of the people on Grandpa's list of favors. Of course, this is just Xiao Ran's speculation. Whether it is true or not, we will have to wait until we meet him to find out.

The three boarded a sled and headed straight for a town thirty kilometers away, following the address provided.

On the way, Xiao Ran relayed what the old shaman had said to Jin Chanzi and Wu Man.

"So, there are four other stat-ghosting characters like you??"

Upon hearing this, Wu Man looked at Xiao Ran with curiosity.

Since Xiao Ran absorbed the Five-Colored Stone, all her attributes have reached 400, making her a true numerical monster. Although Wu Man is a B-level professional, she is not confident that she can defeat Xiao Ran now.

There are actually four of these perverts; just thinking about it gives me a headache.

"It's not just that there are four numerical monsters. The most troublesome thing is that these four people are all geniuses from different eras. There are probably many more old monsters on the way up the mountain. This is troublesome."

Jin Chanzi sighed, "My original plan was for us to sneak up quietly, wait for the gates of the Land of Return to the Extremes to open, and then just storm in. I didn't expect..."

It's not hard to tell from the old shaman's words that this was a ritual. Although the old shaman didn't say specifically whether this ritual was related to the Land of Return, it's not hard to understand that this ritual might be the way to open the Land of Return.

This thwarted Jin Chanzi's original plan.

Actually, when you think about it, Xiao Ran isn't exactly a prodigy of this era, because there were far too many experts before him.

Putting everything else aside, let's just talk about the Plum Blossom Taoist. Logically speaking, this journey was originally the Plum Blossom Taoist's responsibility.

Whether it was his ability to predict the future or something else, he managed to come up with a method that transmitted the four methods and established four separate Yin practices, thus escaping the situation.

In the end, this confusing cause and effect fell on Xiao Ran's head.

To say it's all a matter of timing and fate is one thing, but it's also hard to say whether someone is manipulating things behind the scenes.

"What's there to be afraid of? At worst, we can just fight our way through." Wu Man also wanted to see what the chosen ones of each era looked like.

Upon hearing Wu Man's words, Jin Chanzi rolled his eyes at him: "Fine, you go first then. Don't blame me for not reminding you, the old immortal from the Hu family said that he met Zhang Sanfeng four hundred years ago."

Wu Man was taken aback by these words and looked up at Jin Chanzi: "Don't tell me you can run into Zhang Sanfeng here?"

"It's hard to say. If you asked who was the number one person in the world four hundred years ago, Zhang Sanfeng would have been the one to defeat the demons in his sixtieth year. Who would dare to disagree?"

After saying that, Jin Chanzi looked at Wu Man with a half-smile, "You don't actually think that Zhang Sanfeng, who is known in the martial arts world, is as kind and benevolent as he is in the novels, do you?"

Wu Man's lips twitched a few times: "Well... I hope so."

Soon the three of them arrived at the location on the note by sled.

A dilapidated bungalow.

After confirming that the room number was correct, Xiao Ran gently knocked on the door. A thin boy came out and asked through the door, "Who is it?"

"I'm looking for Master Dao."

Xiao Ran released her spiritual power and immediately sensed the boy's appearance behind the door. Surprisingly, the boy was holding a flintlock pistol and pointing it at the door, cautiously staring at the door: "My grandfather went into the mountains, and no one is home."

"Oh."

Xiao Ran didn't ask any further questions. She took out a thumb ring from her bosom and placed it outside the door. "I have something here. Please give it to your grandfather when he returns." With that, Xiao Ran turned and sat on the carriage. With a flick of the whip, the carriage sped away from the street.

Only after Xiao Ran left did the boy dare to peek out. He hesitated for a second when he saw the thumb ring placed at the door, picked it up, and carefully examined it for a moment before putting it away.

After locking the gate again, the boy did not go back into the house. Instead, he went around to the back of the house, crawled out through a dog hole behind the woodshed on the other side, and carefully crossed the alley behind it before arriving at the door of a small red brick house.

"Bang! Bang bang bang!"

After one loud knock followed by three soft knocks, the door was gently pulled open a crack, and the boy quickly slipped inside and closed the door.

As soon as I entered the house, I smelled a strong smell of Chinese medicine. On the kang (a heated brick bed), an old man with disheveled hair was sitting on a thick cotton-padded coat, holding a pipe in his hand: "Why are you here at this time? Didn't I tell you, if there's nothing wrong, don't come here?"

“Someone was looking for you, and I told them you weren’t home, so I left this for you,” the boy said, while rummaging in his pocket.

"Find me?"

The old man raised his head, his eyes, like those of an old wolf, staring at the boy, and asked, "Is it a boy or a girl? What do you look like?"

"It was a man, very young, and not a local."

Upon hearing this, the old man's eyes suddenly turned hostile, and he silently took out his knife from his spatial storage.

"Silly boy, you've been tricked." The old man had traveled all over the country and knew these kinds of tricks best. He was afraid that the other party had already followed the boy over by now.

But just then, the boy took out the ring that Xiao Ran had given him and placed it on the table.

Upon seeing the thumb ring, the old man's expression immediately changed, and he quickly picked it up and examined it carefully under the light.

His face immediately showed a look of shock: "It's him??"

Just as the old man was filled with doubt and uncertainty, there was a knock on the door.

"Bang bang bang!"

The boy was stunned. He glanced at the old man and realized that he had been tricked. The boy decisively raised the musket in his hand and was about to pull the trigger at the door.

"Don't!"

Fortunately, the old man suddenly raised his hand, pushing the muzzle of the musket upwards and aiming it at the roof beam.

"Bang!"

Dust from the ceiling came crashing down, filling the room with smoke and dust.

"Cough cough cough..."

The old man coughed a few times and slapped the boy on the head: "You idiot, get lost and open the door."

After finishing his tirade, he didn't forget to snatch the gun away.

The boy lowered his head, walked to the door, and yanked it open.

Sure enough, Xiao Ran was standing at the door. The boy's face darkened: "Liar!"

He then stepped aside to open the door.

Xiao Ran walked in with a smile. Seeing that the room was full of smoke and dust, she raised her hand and sent a wisp of wind that swept up the smoke and dust and blew it all out of the room.

The room became much cleaner immediately.

Xiao Ran looked at the old man on the kang (a heated brick bed), and the old man was also looking at Xiao Ran.

"I apologize for offending you, sir. But this matter is urgent, and I am in a hurry to get up the mountain, so I have no choice but to use this method."

The old man frowned upon hearing this, but didn't dwell on the question. Instead, he held up his thumb ring and asked, "Who is Xiao Zhenye to you?"

"My grandfather."

Xiao Ran was secretly delighted. It seemed that this old man really was the Dao Master that her grandfather had mentioned. Now things would be much easier.

"I see. How is your grandfather?"

"Master Dao continued to ask," he said.

"Hmm, not bad, right?"

Xiao Ran didn't mention her grandfather's current situation, since it was not something that could be explained in a few words.

"Okay, okay." Master Dao nodded. "You just said you were going up the mountain, were you referring to Changbai Mountain?"

"Yes, you are familiar with the situation on the mountain, so I would like to ask you to be my guide."

"Ok!"

Upon hearing this, Master Dao paused for a moment, fiddling with the ring in his hand, and pondered for a while; "I'm afraid I can't help you with this matter."

After saying that, he pulled off the quilt covering himself. Xiao Ran frowned and saw that his two legs under the quilt had disappeared, and his thighs were wrapped in thick gauze.

"How is this going?"

"Sigh, I brought this on myself." Master Dao said with a bitter smile, "I already had diabetes, and if I didn't watch what I ate, my legs would rot, and in the end I had no choice but to have them amputated."

At this point, Dao Ye's expression revealed a hint of regret: "These two rotten legs, if only they could hold on for a few more days."

Sometimes, people's fate is truly helpless. If Dao Ye can hold on for another ten days or half a month, after the arrival of the Lost City, as long as he becomes a professional, he can save his legs.

His neighbor next door also had diabetes, and his condition wasn't much better than his. But after landing in the Lost City, this guy somehow became an apprentice, and his illness was cured.

Dao felt a pang of frustration whenever the matter was brought up.

Later, although he managed to become a beginner, although his illness was cured, his legs could not be restored.

"Right now, I can only make a living by appraising things for others. I'm afraid I won't be able to go up the mountain."

Hearing Dao Ye's explanation, Xiao Ran's expression relaxed: "That's easy. I'll help you reattach your legs, and you can lead us up the mountain, how about that?"

"Leg extension?"

Dao Ye's eyes lit up: "You have your grandfather's methods?"

"Do you know what my grandfather is capable of?" Xiao Ran asked in return.

“I know. If it weren’t for your grandfather, I would have been dead long ago.” Dao Ye opened his chest, revealing a stitched wound on his chest.

It looks like it was stitched up a long time ago; the wound is barely visible unless you look closely.

Speaking of the past, Dao Ye's face showed a hint of emotion.

It turns out that Dao Ye and his family were all long-time ginseng customers here.

They make a living by digging ginseng in Changbai Mountain.

Ginseng digging and gold prospecting have been enduring topics in Changbai Mountain since ancient times, but the depths of the water here are even deeper than the blood diamonds of Africa.

Although one or two ginseng roots can bring in a fortune, once you enter the mountains, it's a matter of life and death, truly putting your head on the line.

Back then, Master Dao and his family found an old ginseng, but the news leaked out, and the whole family was hunted down by two teams of ginseng hunters, and in the end, the whole family was hacked to death.

Dao Ye was only a little over fifteen years old when he was stabbed through the chest. The knife was stuck in his heart, and he was basically doomed.

That enemy was ruthless; he didn't draw his sword, intending to let him slowly die in the snow.

This isn't an enemy being arrogant; with that knife wound to Dao Ye's chest, even if he were sent to the best hospital before landing in the Lost City, his chances of survival wouldn't exceed 20%.

What's more, Master Dao was lying in a place like the freezing cold.

But sometimes, fate is predetermined. After those people left, Xiao Ran's grandfather happened to pass by, noticed the smell of blood, and came over to take a look. He then saw Dao Ye lying in the snowdrift.

The injury wasn't difficult for Xiao Zhenye. While Dao Ye was still conscious, he immediately stitched up the wound and kept him alive with an old ginseng root, slowly snatching him back from the clutches of death.

Therefore, Master Dao knew about Xiao Zhenye's methods, but he didn't expect that Xiao Zhenye's descendants would also have such methods. No, it should be said that Xiao Ran's skills were even more mysterious.

For Xiao Ran, sewing up her legs was a piece of cake, as easy as drinking a glass of water.

As for the legs?
Xiao Ran specially found a pair of long, sturdy, and powerful legs covered in leg hair from the Yin Soldier Gourd.

Dao Ye thought Xiao Ran would prepare, but Xiao Ran acted quickly, slapping Dao Ye on the forehead, which made Dao Ye dazed. When he came to his senses, he was surprised to find that his two legs had been reattached.

"this!!"

Dao Ye thought that Xiao Ran's skills were superb, and he must be a high-level beginner.

But looking at the two legs in front of him, he realized how limited his understanding was; the strength of the person in front of him far exceeded his imagination.

"Stand up and walk around."

Xiao Ran gestured for Grandpa Dao to stand up and try. With his grandson's help, Grandpa Dao got off the kang (a heated brick bed), took a couple of steps, and then suddenly his expression changed and he turned around.

He knelt down in front of Xiao Ran with a "plop".

"Grandpa, there's no need for this." Xiao Ran stepped aside.

"No!! No!! Mr. Xiao, this... I can't go up the mountain for you."

Dao Ye, with a mournful face, slapped himself twice: "I didn't expect you to act so quickly. I didn't even have time to tell you that even if my legs are healed, I can't go up the mountain with you. The mountain is very strange now. It's easy to go up but hard to come down. This child will be left all alone like this. He has no way to survive."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Ran turned to look at the ring on the table, her face turning cold. "A pair of legs is nothing, but how are you going to repay this debt of gratitude?"

Dao Ye was stunned for a few seconds, then gritted his teeth and said to the boy next to him, "Go, take the things out."

Upon hearing this, the boy next to him nodded, then ran off with a chubby face. After a while, he returned with a box in his hands.

Opening the box, you'll see an old ginseng root tied with a red string inside.

This old ginseng is at least as thick as a baby's arm; at first glance, it looks like a giant radish.

To Xiao Ran's surprise, the thing was actually alive. Lying in the box, it would occasionally wriggle its long, thin ginseng whiskers and make soft, whimpering sounds.

Dao Ye handed the box to Xiao Ran: "This is a ginseng spirit, the lifeblood of our family. It knows the best about the mountain. You can take it up the mountain without any problem!"

(End of this chapter)