Manual for Survival in a Strange World

After witnessing the deaths of Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu, Ning Zhe left the clinic and flew out along the main road of the town.

According to Zhang Yangxu’s own account, his entry into Hejia Village occurred while he was parking at a gas station, and the only legitimate gas station within a 5-kilometer radius of Gubi Town was called “Sunshine Gas Station.”

Ning Zhe soon arrived above the Sunshine Gas Station, but he did not immediately spot the car that Zhang Yangxu might have been in. The gas station only had a few ordinary family sedans and delivery vans scattered about, clearly vehicles that didn’t match Zhang Yangxu’s status as a real estate magnate.

“It seems Zhang Yangxu still hasn’t arrived,” Ning Zhe lowered his body, hiding in a tall loquat tree next to the gas station. Using the dense leaves to conceal himself, he patiently waited for Zhang Yangxu’s arrival.

While waiting, Ning Zhe organized his thoughts, trying to replay what had happened in Hejia Village:

1. The Serpent God ‘Zhao You’ was the native god of Hejia Village, while ‘Tai Yi’ was an outsider ghost;

2. Tai Yi wandered in Hejia Village, guiding the villagers’ mistaken beliefs and stealing the identity of the Serpent God, which caused the Serpent God to go mad;

3. The symptoms of the Serpent God’s madness were unknown, but since Ning Zhe successfully cleared Hejia Village before the Serpent God went mad, they did not witness the Serpent God’s insanity;

4. When Ning Zhe flipped through the almanac and triggered a death taboo, he simultaneously possessed three identities: Ning Zhe, Tai Yi, and Zhao You.

From here, the development of events could be easily deduced…

“Assuming that my Serpent God identity is complete enough to deceive the rules, then the death taboo I triggered while flipping through the almanac will be considered as something the Serpent God triggered. According to the rules, the Serpent God must kill itself, which means Zhao You.”

“But in addition to the Serpent God Zhao You, I also possess the identity of the ghost Tai Yi, and the Serpent God is blind in both eyes. It can easily perceive the person who triggered the deadly taboo as a ghost. Therefore, if the Serpent God kills Tai Yi, it would also conform to the rules.”

“Or there is another explanation…”

Ning Zhe turned his head, looking through the gaps in the loquat leaves at the gas station below:

“That is, the Serpent God also mistook me for a ghost.”

Ning Zhe could use the Serpent God Zhao You’s identity to trigger the death taboo, but whether the Serpent God actually flipped through the almanac was something only Zhao You knew for sure.

Perhaps, from the perspective of the Serpent God, who was driven mad by the theft of its identity by a ghost, it might believe that Tai Yi was the one who flipped through the almanac, and that Tai Yi was attempting to use the deadly taboo to kill itself, making the Serpent God fully convinced of this… But in reality, the one who made this crazy move was just a young man, Ning Zhe, who had accidentally been dragged into Hejia Village.

So, when Hejia Village broke apart, who exactly did the rules kill? Was it the Serpent God? Or the ghost?

“Maybe the answer is… both.”

After all, the person who stole the Serpent God’s identity wasn’t just Ning Zhe. Many villagers weren’t deceived by him, and the ghost Tai Yi could easily transfer the death taboo punishment it suffered to the Serpent God Zhao You.

However, this would make the Serpent God further anchor the mistaken belief that ‘Tai Yi flipped through the almanac.’

Ning Zhe lowered his head, examining the black-and-white feathers with a hint of bluish-green on his body, and his two claws tightly gripping the tree branch:

“The Serpent God mistook me for the ghost who triggered the death taboo, and the ghost transferred its punishment to the Serpent God, which led the Serpent God to further believe I am the ghost…”

“If it’s truly as I think, then both the Serpent God and the ghost were killed by the wrongly triggered rules. The only one left in this world with the identity of ‘Tai Yi’ is me.”

The Serpent God and the ghost were both dead, and the person who cleared Hejia Village gained the ability of Tai Yi. It almost felt like a video game logic of leveling up.

No wonder he had previously suspected that the Hejia Village in Bai Zhi’s dream might be a plot dungeon from some game.

“Speaking of Bai Zhi, why did she dream of the scene from Hejia Village?” Ning Zhe wondered, “I’ll ask her when Auntie returns at 7 PM.”

If Feng Yushu was still alive by then.

While organizing his thoughts, Ning Zhe quietly waited in the loquat tree. About four hours later, at 11:31 AM, a well-maintained black luxury business car entered his field of vision.

Ning Zhe didn’t know much about cars or the brand and level of this luxury vehicle, but he instinctively felt that it must be expensive. So, he left the loquat tree and landed in a nearby greenbelt closer to the black business car, observing quietly.

After the car parked at the gas station, the rear door was soon opened, and a tall woman dressed in a women’s suit and black pencil skirt stepped out and walked directly toward the department store.

“Xie Sining,” Ning Zhe recognized her at once.

According to Xie Sining, she entered Hejia Village while she was at the gas station buying cigarettes, and Zhang Yangxu had been waiting in the car for her to return. When she hadn’t, he decided to step out and check on the situation. The moment he opened the car door, he was also dragged into Hejia Village.

It turned out that, at least in this regard, Zhang Yangxu and Xie Sining hadn’t lied, and the subsequent developments followed exactly what they had described.

From a distance, Ning Zhe saw Xie Sining exit the department store after buying the cigarettes, and then, her body went limp, collapsing and dying right at the door, scaring the shop owner badly.

“Xie Sining really is dead. Is Zhang Yangxu next?”

With this thought, Ning Zhe left the greenbelt, not flying but instead hopping along the ground with his bird claws, making his way to the area under the luxury business car.

A few minutes later, Zhang Yangxu, who had been waiting for Xie Sining’s return, curiously opened the rear door on the other side. At the same time, the light in his eyes suddenly went out, and his limp body slumped against the rear seat.

Zhang Yangxu was dead too.

Ning Zhe seized the opportunity, jumped into the car, reverted to his original form as Ning Zhe, sat next to Zhang Yangxu’s corpse, and slammed the car door shut.

Bang—

“Mr. Zhang, what happened?” Ning Zhe’s heavy and loud closing of the door made the driver in the front seat look up in confusion.

The driver glanced at the rearview mirror, only to see that ‘Zhang Yangxu’ had somehow moved to the spot where Xie Sining had been sitting, which made him even more puzzled.

“Sining has been gone for quite a while,” Zhang Yangxu’s voice, now tinged with a husky tone, came from Ning Zhe’s throat. “Go out and check on her, urge her to hurry.”

“Alright, Mr. Zhang, I’ll go now.” The driver immediately got out of the car and headed toward the department store.

Ning Zhe took a deep breath, fished out Zhang Yangxu’s phone from his pocket, and then stuffed his corpse into the trunk of the car.

— From Zhang Yangxu’s memories, Ning Zhe already knew that this business car didn’t have any internal monitoring or recording devices, and the windows were one-way glass that couldn’t be seen through from the outside.

After hiding the body, Ning Zhe casually tucked Zhang Yangxu’s phone into the inner lining of his suit, then calmly sat back in the leather-wrapped rear seat, waiting for the driver to bring back the news of Xie Sining’s death.