Manual for Survival in a Strange World

Outside the tall walls, the cold moon hung in the sky, scattering fragmented moonlight that illuminated the Peach River flowing beneath the Bishui Bay.

The Peach River was one of the three main water arteries of Qinzhou. With Gubei Town located upstream, the river here wasn’t particularly wide. The clear waters cascading from the Xuanhu Waterfall nourished farmlands and the verdant mountains. Downstream, the Peach River would rush eastward for over a thousand kilometers before merging into the Yangtze River.

“Not a bad view,” remarked a middle-aged man in a gray casual suit, leaning against a marble railing carved with an elegant orchid motif. He stood on a shaded path outside the Bishui Bay Manor, gazing at the rushing waters below.

Behind him, a man dressed in work overalls and a sun-shielding cap stood silently. Unlike the casually dressed man, he didn’t admire the river. Instead, his deep, penetrating gaze was fixed on the high-walled Bishui Bay Manor.

If Feng Yushu were present, she would be stunned to recognize the casually dressed man: none other than her husband, Bai Fugui, the largest shareholder and executive CEO of the New Homeland Group.

The man in overalls, meanwhile, was merely a laborer responsible for transporting materials for renovations within the manor.

“Are you certain Zhao You is in there?” The laborer spoke in a low, raspy voice.

Though phrased as a question, his tone held no trace of doubt. His face betrayed no emotion, as if the voice wasn’t his own but rather emitted by some mechanical component within him. His expressionless demeanor resembled a soulless machine encased in human skin.

“I’m certain. Zhao You is in the manor,” Bai Fugui replied softly. “Tai Su sensed its arrival.”

“Tai Su…” The laborer murmured, digesting this information. After a moment, he asked, “Any leads on who liberated Zhao You?”

“No.” Bai Fugui shook his head. “I understand your need for Zhao You—its ability to foresee fortune and avert calamity is unparalleled. But this isn’t something you can rush.”

“Zhao You has been entrenched in this land for countless years. Among all the known ‘ghosts,’ it’s always been one of the most stable.”

“But in recent years, its mental state has deteriorated for unknown reasons, pushing it toward the brink of madness. The ‘gate’ linking this region to the mortal realm has also grown increasingly unstable.”

“I originally intended to use the scenic area project as a cover, masking fatalities with so-called construction accidents. The plan was to locate the ‘gate,’ enter it, and extract Zhao You. But who could have predicted…”

Who could have predicted that Zhao You’s mental collapse would accelerate far beyond expectations? Before Bai Fugui could execute his plan, Zhao You had been set free.

And with its release, the world it inhabited shattered and collapsed.

“Perhaps the instability of the gate caused some mortals to inadvertently wander into Zhao You’s world,” the laborer speculated after a brief pause. “So far, three individuals have been confirmed. All are dead.”

“Dead people are worthless,” Bai Fugui replied. “We’re searching for the living—a person who unraveled Zhao You’s rules and returned from the shadow of its world alive.”

“That person is inside this manor,” Bai Fugui emphasized.

“Do we have any way of identifying them?” the laborer asked again.

Bai Fugui shook his head.

“All right…” The laborer nodded emotionlessly. “Have Cha Yu seal the manor. I’m preparing to release Te Rang. Make sure to clean up afterward.”

“I understand.” Bai Fugui nodded.

With that, the laborer turned and ascended the steps to the manor’s front gate. From his overalls pocket, he pulled out a red candle and a match. He lit the candle and placed it directly in front of the gate.

The dim flame flickered weakly under the bright moonlight. The laborer stared blankly at the burning candle, then clasped his hands around his head and twisted sharply—

Crack! The sound of his cervical vertebra snapping was unmistakable.

The laborer broke his own neck, collapsing lifelessly at the manor’s entrance.

The faint candlelight illuminated his fresh, still-warm corpse. From his throat, now devoid of breath, came a gurgling sound. A pitch-black, viscous shadow began to ooze from beneath his body. As if repelled by the candlelight, the shadow darted into the manor.

Once the shadow entered, Bai Fugui approached the high wall, pressing his palm against the white marble surface.

In the next moment, the moon within the manor extinguished.

Glancing at the laborer’s lifeless body, Bai Fugui sighed and shook his head. “To think you’d resort to releasing Te Rang. Your condition must truly be dire.”

Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so desperate—so desperate to obtain Zhao You to prolong your life.

“Now, it’s up to the one who unraveled Zhao You’s rules. Can they survive Te Rang’s pursuit until Cha Yu’s seal is lifted?”

Bai Fugui bent down, grabbed the laborer’s corpse by the ankle, and dragged it away from the manor.

He paid no mind to the fact that his wife and daughter were still inside. If a family member fell victim to Te Rang, it would only deflect suspicion from those who might otherwise grow wary of him.

Besides, Bai Zhi… she would never die.

Even if she wanted to.

Once Bai Fugui departed, the secluded manor descended into chaos and darkness.

“Ghosts everywhere.” The first line from Bai Zhi’s high school diary now burned vividly in Ning Zhe’s mind.

The brightly lit manor echoed with frantic screams and desperate cries: “It’s haunted!” “Someone’s dead!” The exclamations pierced the night, chaotic and panicked.

Amid the turmoil, Ning Zhe saw a crowd scrambling to flee the manor, racing toward the gate. Yet, oddly, there was no visible pursuer behind them.

As they ran frantically down the reception avenue lined with grapefruit trees, the leaves rustled eerily in the night wind.

Suddenly, the man leading the group dropped dead without warning, collapsing onto the ground, lifeless.

The crowd erupted in screams and scattered in all directions. Moments later, another person collapsed and died just as inexplicably.

It was as if an invisible, untouchable specter was methodically hunting down each person in the manor.

“Ghosts…” Feng Yushu’s face turned pale as she trembled with fear. “Ning Zhe? Why are there ghosts here?”

“You ask me? Who should I ask?” Ning Zhe shook his head and handed the iPad back to Feng Yushu. Transforming once again into a small, nimble magpie, he said, “I’ll go investigate. Stay here. Don’t move.”

The ghost haunting Bishui Bay Manor seemed far more ferocious than either the Snake God Zhao You or the roaming ghost Tai Yi. Its killing efficiency was unmatched—within mere minutes, a dozen gardeners and cleaners lay dead along the manor’s reception avenue.

“This ghost is different from both Tai Yi and Zhao You… What are its killing rules?”

Ning Zhe flapped his wings, flying low over the reception avenue before perching on the branch of a grapefruit tree to observe the corpses.

But before he could investigate further, a flash of pitch-black shadow darted past him. His vision went dark, and he tumbled from the tree.

The magpie was dead.