Chapter 11 The Stone Mason

The stone mason felt his heart suddenly stop beating, all his strength rapidly draining away, and he staggered and collapsed onto the shelf.

His vision darkened, and the pupils of his unconsciously dilated eyes reflected the heart soaked in formaldehyde solution.

"This is... an anomalous organ..."

The stone mason fell into a deep hallucination. He seemed to see a middle-aged white man with pale sideburns and a beard, strolling out of a luxurious carriage parked by the roadside in a dense forest.

The man was wearing the standard shirt, vest, and coat of a 19th-century upper-class gentleman, leaning on a wooden cane, with an air of composure and authority.

He got out of the carriage, glanced at the workers who were enthusiastically felling twisted trees, a strange smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and he whispered to the butler behind him, "Tell the workers not to discard those curved black trees; use them to build houses."

The butler nodded calmly. "Yes, Master Williams."

The hallucination ended there. The stone mason, whose heart had stopped for more than ten seconds, used his last bit of strength to tremble and grip the craft knife, activating its special effect.

[Name: Dejin Craft Knife]

[Type: Weapon]

[Quality: Rare]

[Attack Power: Low]

[Special Effect: Mailing Blades. Launch several metal blades that cause slight explosive damage within a 30-meter range directly in front of the blade.]

[Consumption: Blade quantity * 20 points of Ling Energy]

[Cooldown Time: 10 seconds]

[Equipment Requirement: Strength attribute greater than or equal to 6, Agility attribute greater than or equal to 6]

[Note: Sending out blades represents my longing.]

[Note: One blade down, Tang Sanzang can become six and a half Hanzos.]

[Note: After the blades are exhausted, they need to be reloaded by yourself.]

As the "Mailing Blades" special effect was activated, four metal blades were hammered into the glass cylinder containing the heart at an extremely fast speed, "clang clang clang clang."

After a short delay, the blades stuck in the glass exploded with a "bang," shattering the glass jar and even causing the entire shelf to topple over.

The stone mason, barely supporting his weight by holding onto the shelf, fell to the ground under the pull of gravity.

He watched helplessly as the beating heart, along with the splashing formaldehyde, rolled and fell to the ground, crushed by a pile of debris from the shelf with a "splatter."

"Hiss—ha."

The stone mason breathed laboriously. He could feel his heart starting to beat again, his blood pumping to all his organs again, and the pitch-blackness in his eyes gradually regaining color.

After a long while, he got up from the ground, carefully lifted the pile of debris, and used the craft knife to pick out the crushed heart from inside.

"Williams... 1830"

————

[Anomalous Heart Cleared, Six Anomalous Organs Remaining]

Forest Cat couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when she heard the two system prompts in succession. "Phew, two organs solved so quickly. This proves that the teammates are still alive and have good strength... That's great."

At this moment, she was in a pyramid-structured room, shining a flashlight back and forth.

The room wasn't particularly spacious, and the color scheme was mainly red and gold.

The floor was covered with a beige hand-woven carpet, scattered with some dark red wool pillows, the corners of the pillows decorated with golden wheat-like tassels.

On the sloping walls of the room hung colorful, delicate thin silk curtains embroidered with flowers. On a table near the corner of the wall were placed several narrow incense boxes made of gold, silver, and gems, as well as some animal masks made of black wood.

And on the ceiling above the room were laid some thick canvases, painted with patterns of the sun, stars, and moon.

Below the patterns was a round table covered with a thick purple silk cloth, with a crystal ball and a stack of tarot cards placed on top. Two small leather chairs were placed on either side of the round table.

"A Gypsy witch's divination room?" Forest Cat muttered to herself.

Gypsies are a nomadic people who originally settled near West Asia and began to migrate outward around the 10th century, spreading across all continents of the world, living in no fixed place, and with a low social status.

And Gypsy witches are often associated with mysterious elements such as witchcraft, magic potions, and tarot crystal ball divination.

"The Fool, the Magician, the High Priestess, the Lovers, the Chariot, the World..."

Forest Cat quietly held a wooden pointer and used the tip of the pointer to lift the pile of dusty tarot cards on the table, reciting the names of the cards one by one.

"One card is missing, The Devil."

Forest Cat muttered to herself, using the pointer to lift the purple cloth covering the table.

Her occult knowledge was quite good. When she was in elementary school, she could use tarot cards to predict fortunes for her classmates in a decent manner. This was mainly thanks to her somewhat crazy grandmother who lived with her day and night when she was a child.

As for the effect of tarot divination... Forest Cat said it was not optimistic.

'If divination was really effective, how could my parents have died in a car accident, how could my grandmother have passed away from grief, and how could I have left my hometown and come south to make a living...'

This girl from the north shook her head, threw the chaotic thoughts out of her mind, and seriously thought about the meaning of the Devil card.

"The Devil, corresponding to Capricorn, symbolizes joy, temptation, and pure, primitive, infinite happiness. The card face is a red-skinned devil with goat horns and bat wings, binding human slaves with chains."

Forest Cat tapped the table with the pointer and muttered to herself: "The teammates have already solved two anomalous organs. Although I don't know how they broke the game,

But at least it is certain that this puzzle will not be too difficult, and it will not require particularly cruel fighting and killing—otherwise I would have heard the fighting long ago.

So, where will the Devil card be..."

She scanned the room, her eyes wandering back and forth, and finally fixed on the table in the corner where many black wooden animal masks were placed.

"The Devil card, the Black Goat..."

She pursed her lips tightly and stretched the pointer towards a wooden goat mask placed on the table.

Suddenly, something strange happened!

The quietly placed goat mask was lifted up by an invisible force and flew spinning out of the window.

By the light of the wall lamp, Forest Cat could clearly see that on the back of the goat mask were attached two dry and shriveled dark red human lungs.

The two halves of the lungs, left and right, corresponded exactly to the two sides of the goat's face.

'This is the anomalous organ?!'

Naturally, Forest Cat couldn't let the mask leave. She waved the pointer in her hand, releasing a pair of pink hands composed of energy, slamming heavily on the wall with a "thump," shaking off countless wall dust.

The palms of the pink hands tightly grasped the mask flying in mid-air.

However, the black goat mask struggled violently, and Forest Cat could only wave the pointer again, allowing the pink hands to slowly apply force, trying to crush the mask.

Suddenly, the goat mask bound in the pink hands stopped twitching, and the left and right lung lobes on its inner side quickly expanded,

Frantically drawing oxygen from Forest Cat's throat in some unknown way.

In just one breath, Forest Cat lost most of her strength, weakly clutching her neck with both hands, making a difficult gasping sound from her throat, and her eyes involuntarily turned white.

"Bang!"

The door was kicked open, and Li Ang rushed into the room like a perverted freak, carrying two petrified legs still wearing white ballet tights on his shoulders, and holding two stone arms in his hands.

Taking a closer look, he shouted at the black goat mask in mid-air, "What kind of monster are you?!"

Having said that, he smashed an arm over.

It's time to strike.