Chapter 320: I’m Only Here for Money Today, Don’t Force Me to Take Your Life!
The moment the candle in his hand went out, Rahman instinctively held his breath.
Under the general store’s rules, no anomaly could attack a Chosen One who hadn’t violated the rules—they couldn’t even find the Chosen One.
The long-tongued red-clothed guest only licked Rahman once and didn’t continue.
At this point, it came down to Rahman’s breath-holding ability.
This newly appeared long-tongued red-clothed guest wasn’t as “friendly” as the previous two.
This one’s tongue wasn’t just terrifyingly long—his teeth were razor-sharp, like two steel blades.
The most horrifying part was that his eyeballs were split open.
If Rahman wanted to figure out why he was being attacked, he needed to light the candle.
Having spent some time in the general store, he naturally knew the store’s rules.
He also frequently used the store’s rules to avoid danger.
Here, he had to face two conditions. Only by satisfying both would the anomaly not attack him.
First, a lit candle had to be near him—meaning he was within the candle’s light.
This rule only applied inside the general store. Outside, it wasn’t of much use.
By carefully analyzing the rules, you could determine that what was written was indeed the 【General Store Rules】.
Second, when the candle went out, if he wasn’t breathing, he became an “unselectable” attack target.
The anomaly then couldn’t attack the Chosen One. This was the survival condition that a Chosen One who’d thoroughly mastered the general store’s rules could figure out.
So if Rahman wanted to communicate with the long-tongued anomaly, he had to light the candle.
With this in mind, he held his breath and quickly ran to the counter, using a match to light the candle.
The candle flame rose. Just as he caught his breath and was about to ask this long-tongued anomaly what he wanted—
Whoosh~
The sound of blowing wind rose again.
The long-tongued anomaly had appeared beside him at some point and blown out the candle again. He seemed to know the general store’s rules.
Rahman could only keep holding his breath. Looking at this guy, it seemed he was dead set on eating him? Not even giving him a chance to beg for mercy?
Refusing to believe it, he kept striking matches. But the moment the candle flame rose and the general store had a faint glimmer of light, the long-tongued anomaly blew it out again.
The whole general store dimmed once more. If not for the faint moonlight coming through the door, Rahman wouldn’t even know which way was which.
Time passed quickly. Rahman could only breathe during the moments the candle was lit.
The matches in the matchbox had already been used up by half. If he couldn’t think of a solution, he’d soon die in the general store.
A cruel smile appeared on the long-tongued anomaly’s face, like a powerful hunter toying with weak prey.
He didn’t mind playing a while longer—after all, he had all the time in the world.
Rahman now felt things were very bad. Lighting the candle only bought him breathing room. Since this guy wasn’t going to let him go, he could only create his own opportunity to survive.
If he ran outside, he’d definitely die—because outside, there was no rule protection.
Was he supposed to wait for other red-clothed guests to come in and ask for help?
But if none came, wouldn’t he just be waiting to die?
The matches dwindled one by one, as if his life were steadily slipping away.
Thank goodness the ones who came were people like Rahman—bold and meticulous. If some random ordinary Chosen One had come up.
A single mistake while striking a match, or being too nervous to hold their breath, and they could be directly killed by the long-tongued anomaly.
Rahman knew that the closer a situation was to a death trap, the more he needed to stay calm.
When encountering danger in the Strange Tales World, Chosen Ones would definitely panic. But panicking was useless—only finding a solution could keep you alive.
Since there was this kind of problem, there had to be a solution nearby.
Did I need to light all the candles so he can’t blow them all out?
But dragging it out like this didn’t seem like a solution either.
Rahman’s mind raced, constantly thinking, constantly recalling, while his hands never stopped lighting candles.
Suddenly, a detail surfaced in his mind. It seemed the candle had been blown out when he was walking out of the warehouse door.
The long-tongued anomaly had also intended to attack him at that moment.
Actually, the long-tongued anomaly had blown out the counter’s candle long ago. If he’d gone into the warehouse, wouldn’t he have been even worse off?
Was it that he didn’t intend to go in, or that he couldn’t go in?
Or maybe there was something in the warehouse that scared him?
Whatever it was, Rahman only had four matches left in the matchbox. He decided to go check the warehouse.
He couldn’t hide in the warehouse forever—or in a coffin, for that matter. Otherwise, when the time came, he wouldn’t even be able to run.
Actually, his guess was right. There were two yellow talismans at the warehouse entrance, as if a barrier had been set up there, preventing the anomaly from entering.
When the candle in Rahman’s hand went out again and he held his breath, he vaulted over the counter in one move.
Dodging the long-tongued anomaly, he felt his way to the warehouse by memory.
It took a great deal of effort to run into the warehouse. He could no longer hold his breath and forcefully gasped for air.
This clearly violated the rules, which made him somewhat alarmed.
Because he’d already triggered the condition for the long-tongued anomaly to attack him.
But he’d guessed right—the long-tongued anomaly indeed didn’t chase in. He just stood guard at the door with a gloomy expression, somewhat exasperated.
Having entered the warehouse, Rahman had escaped disaster. Although he didn’t know the principle behind the yellow talismans, he didn’t need to know.
In his eyes, this was a 【Hidden Rule】 of the Strange Tales World. But if a Dragon Country Daoist disciple came in instead, they wouldn’t panic at all.
The home-field advantage really could only be understood by those familiar with it.
Next came Rahman’s moment of communication.
He lit the candle, then questioned the long-tongued anomaly outside the door—he hadn’t offended him, so why was he trying to harm him?
The long-tongued anomaly didn’t care about any of that. He just said one sentence: “I want you to help me cultivate.”
After that, he said nothing more. He seemed determined to wear Rahman down.
Maybe when dawn came, this guy would leave.
But that would also easily violate the rule about the shop owner—because if he didn’t close on time, the shop owner would be very angry.
So Rahman put his brain to work and said to him: “I can satisfy your request, but you have to give me your eyeball.”
This sentence was the hint from Rule 6. But for some reason, when Rahman mentioned the eyeball, the long-tongued anomaly became even angrier. In an instant, eerie wind surged, nearly blowing out all the candles in the warehouse.
Because his eyeballs were split open, he seemed to think Rahman was mocking him.
You could say it hit a sore spot. Not only did it not make him compromise, it made him even angrier.
Only then did Rahman understand—maybe this rule only worked on Mr. Emptiness.
Rahman also tried taking out the eyeball Mr. Emptiness had given him, hoping the long-tongued anomaly would give him face.
But who knew the long-tongued anomaly’s anger didn’t decrease—it only grew.
Clearly, he and Mr. Emptiness must have a grudge.
It might also be related to the long-tongued anomaly’s split eyes. But at this moment, Rahman had no mind to study their feud.
How could he drive him away? Wasn’t there a hint in the rules?
Rahman sat cross-legged and fell into thought.
Before long, he thought of a rule.
【Rule 18: When you can’t come back to watch the store at night, you can hang the black wooden sword on the front door. Be careful—do not hang it wrong.】
Rahman had just been checking whether the black wooden sword was inside.
Since the rule mentioned the peach wood sword, could this thing keep anomalies away from the general store?
After all, something placed at the door was meant to keep anomalies from coming.
Thinking of this, Rahman got up to get the black wooden sword, then carefully walked up to the long-tongued anomaly.
He waved the black wooden sword. The long-tongued anomaly only showed a disgusted expression, not paying it much mind.
“Did I judge wrong?”
Rahman began to doubt his own ability.
But then he suddenly snapped to attention. Didn’t the rule have a second half?
“The rule says be careful, don’t hang it wrong. Besides the black wooden sword, there are other swords here. Is the rule reminding me that these swords have different uses?”
With that, he went to the wine jars and found the other two swords.
One of them was what the Chosen Ones saw as a toy wooden sword—actually a peach wood sword.
The other was what the Chosen Ones saw as a craft coin-woven sword—actually a coin sword.
When Rahman brought these two swords to the door, the long-tongued anomaly blocking the entrance clearly showed fear in his eyes, even backing away continuously.
Seeing this, Rahman knew he’d grasped the rule.
There was hope—this guy was scared!
Judging to this point, Rahman taunted: “I suggest you get out now. Don’t force me to act.”
The long-tongued anomaly really wanted to eat Rahman to boost his cultivation, but he was afraid of these two swords hitting him.
Better not end up with barely any cultivation gained and instead get badly injured.
After weighing the pros and cons, the long-tongued anomaly snorted and left the general store.
Watching the long-tongued anomaly walk out, Rahman finally let out a long breath.
Holding these two “treasures” in his hands, he felt much more secure.
These two weapons basically never left his side—always placed somewhere he could reach.
But he was also afraid of scaring off other customers. After all, even a red-clothed guest like the long-tongued anomaly had been scared away.
Chosen Ones all needed sales—that was crucial.
So Rahman could only hide the peach wood sword in his clothes and the coin sword in the cabinet.
If anything happened, he’d immediately pull them out.
Actually, he was quite afraid the long-tongued anomaly would play mind games and come back.
But ever since he took out those two swords, the long-tongued anomaly hadn’t appeared again, which did set his mind at ease considerably.
“I get it now. This stage is the rules hinting to me that there are tools here that can deal with ghost cultivators.”
Rahman stroked the peach wood sword and murmured.
In this so-called “death trap,” if you cleverly found the tools, you could survive.
If you couldn’t find them, you might be worn down to death.
But surviving a great disaster meant good fortune to come.
This peach wood sword and coin sword were also his life-saving tools for the next stage.
After all, he was going to Mr. Emptiness’s graveyard area. That place was full of anomalies. Going without some gear, relying only on Mr. Emptiness’s eyeball, wouldn’t work well.
Everything that had just happened made Rahman sigh internally: It seems the Strange Tales World really is link after link from the very beginning. One mistake and you die.
Things he’d thought were just decorations turned out to have this kind of use.
Rahman just didn’t know what those sealed wine jars were for.
But thank goodness he hadn’t been curious enough to tear off the seals—otherwise, that would’ve been truly playing with fire.
Dragon Country’s Daoists could basically all tell that those jars sealed ancient and terrifying evil spirits.
You could see some clues from the old and new wine jars—the older the object, the more terrifying the sealed evil spirit.
Simply put, the things inside those wine jars were far more powerful than red-clothed fierce ghosts.
If you tore off the seals, unless Rahman had cultivation enough to unleash the peach wood sword’s power, he’d definitely die here.
Rahman’s performance in the long-tongued anomaly stage was nearly standard.
He’d basically solved everything that could be solved.
If you couldn’t approach Rahman’s standard answer, most Chosen Ones would die at this stage.
Of course, that was still “most”—excluding that one person.
The Dragon Country Heavenly Master’s stage answered a question countless viewers had been pondering.
That is, with the long-tongued anomaly’s teeth so sharp, would he bite off his own tongue?
When Zhang Yangqing walked out of the warehouse, this oblivious long-tongued anomaly blew out the candle in his hand.
The smug long-tongued anomaly thought he could eat this breathing fool in front of him.
Because Zhang Yangqing had violated the general store’s protection rules, he could attack Zhang Yangqing.
But who would’ve thought—it wasn’t Zhang Yangqing violating the rules here. It was the long-tongued anomaly violating the rules.
The rules only protected the weak. Here, who was strong and who was weak was obvious at a glance!
Before the long-tongued anomaly could even act, Zhang Yangqing delivered a one-handed slam to his crown so fast he couldn’t dodge.
Crack!
The long-tongued anomaly’s sharp teeth bit off his own tongue.
That severed tongue still flopped and wriggled on the ground.
Like a fish struggling on shore, it lost all vitality before long.
Before the long-tongued anomaly could even get angry, two big slaps from Zhang Yangqing flashed like thunder, making his skull crack with sound.
Actually, Zhang Yangqing had held back his strength considerably—just enough to teach him what “fierce” meant.
If he hadn’t restrained his power, the long-tongued anomaly’s head would’ve already fallen to the ground like his tongue.
After being beaten once, the long-tongued anomaly felt like he was seeing stars.
When he recovered, he saw a shop assistant with a strange expression staring gloomily at him.
Originally, he was the long-tongued anomaly that made Chosen Ones afraid. But now he felt the person in front of him was a hundred times more terrifying than he was.
“Keep blowing. Why’d you stop?”
Facing Zhang Yangqing’s mockery, the long-tongued anomaly covered his bleeding mouth and didn’t dare even breathe loudly.
He knew he’d kicked an iron plate today. Who would’ve thought this tiny general store had such an expert holding down the fort?
Just from those few moves—though the long-tongued anomaly hadn’t sensed any Daoist arts—he’d already felt Zhang Yangqing’s power.
A person who hadn’t even used any spells could beat him like a dog. Who could provoke that?
“Boss, I was momentarily possessed by ghosts. I’ll light it for you right now.”
The long-tongued anomaly said, bowing and scraping, showing nothing but humility.
To other Chosen Ones, he was a terrifying fierce ghost who blew out candles to scare people. With Zhang Yangqing, he wished he had no mouth at all—otherwise he wouldn’t have taken this beating.
He was originally one of the most ferocious red-clothed fierce ghosts nearby, yet now he was as meek as a lamb.
If his acquaintances saw this, their jaws would definitely drop.
After the long-tongued anomaly lit both candles and cleaned up the places he’d dirtied, he prepared to leave.
Just then, a voice spoke coldly.
“Wait. You came to my store—you’re sure you’re not going to buy something before leaving?”
Zhang Yangqing’s words were extremely meaningful.
He was practically saying outright: If you don’t buy something, get out—or I’ll kill you.
I’m only here for money today. Don’t force me to take your life.
If you guys didn’t all have so-called value, I’d go up and slap each of you.
This long-tongued anomaly understood the meaning too.
He’d originally planned to buy a little something and leave, but seeing the shop assistant’s expression wasn’t too good.
He simply spent all the money he had on him. Only then did the shop assistant show a satisfied look.
Then the long-tongued anomaly packed up a bunch of things himself, not daring to let Zhang Yangqing help him pack.
When he left, he was almost crying. This was his savings from several months!
He’d come to the store hoping to gain some advantage, but ended up losing everything trying to be clever.
Actually, he also knew that being able to walk out alive was already that shop assistant’s mercy.
In the future, he probably would never come to this store to buy things again.
Watching Zhang Yangqing’s robbery-style selling, the audience burst out laughing.
: An anomaly who dares blow out candles at Heavenly Master Zhang’s place really thinks he’s lived too long. They should thank the rules—otherwise, one would die for each one that came.
: Heavenly Master Zhang really shows what “plucking a feather from every goose that passes” means. Since you’re here, if you don’t buy something, you’re not leaving.
: Small thinking. These anomalies don’t know any better. Any smart one would know that currying favor with Heavenly Master Zhang is the way to get by in the Strange Tales World.
: This is already the most “gentle” round I’ve seen from Heavenly Master Zhang.
: You don’t get it. The real show hasn’t even started yet. You have to know—the general store has rules, but outside there are none. If an anomaly outside offends Heavenly Master Zhang, it won’t be just two slaps that let them live.
Seeing this, the audience silently mourned for the anomalies about to provoke Zhang Yangqing next.
They were also looking forward to some clueless fool coming to provoke Heavenly Master Zhang. They wanted to see what difference there was between a Heavenly Master exterminating ghosts and other transcendents.
What it meant to be truly professionally matched—which unlucky souls would be tormented.
Those viewers who’d once worried Zhang Yangqing would be too arrogant and flip the cart had even forgotten what they’d said.
How could this person possibly flip the cart? So far, he’d been so steady it was scary.
There were still about two hours of business time left, and Zhang Yangqing’s sales were already more than double most Chosen Ones’.
Basically every anomaly that came to Zhang Yangqing’s store spent money on goods, and his business hours were also the longest.
The night grew darker and darker. Time quickly came to 4:30.
The next scene made all the Chosen Ones feel it was strange.
Outside the door, for some unknown reason, a steady stream of anomaly passersby suddenly appeared.
As if they’d gotten off work at a set time, coming and going frequently.
Quite a few also came into the store to pick things out. At peak times, there were at least sixteen customers in the store.
This made Rahman feel it was dangerous. Though most of these customers were black, gray, and white-clothed, a few green-clothed ones had mixed in.
And with so many people coming, so densely packed, it was impossible to judge a customer’s strength from the wind chime.
Even with weapons on him, to avoid conflict, Rahman could only play mute and try not to speak.
If a customer wanted to buy something, he’d ring it up. If they didn’t, he wouldn’t say anything.
Here, Rahman knew he might trigger Rule 4. If a customer took an item and left without paying, he’d be in trouble.
So while collecting money, he also watched to see if any customers were leaving with things tucked away.
Some Chosen Ones were even smarter—they collected money right at the door, making sure nobody slipped through on the way out.
And wouldn’t you know it—they caught a few sneaky-looking customers.
These customers all seemed to be poor anomalies, genuinely broke, and their strength was quite low.
The Chosen Ones naturally couldn’t let them off. Now everyone had powerful weapons like the peach wood sword. Either you put it back where it belonged, or the Chosen One would act.
This was a weapon even red-clothed guests didn’t dare approach. Ordinary customers were scared just seeing it.
But the Chosen Ones didn’t choose to directly cut down the customers—they just told them to scram.
After all, they were running a business. If they scared away customers, what then?
With customer traffic so heavy right now, they could only reason with them.
Some Chosen Ones even started hiring broke customers at low prices to watch the store.
Because so many customers came, the Chosen Ones needed to go into the warehouse to restock in time.
But doing so meant everyone more or less offended quite a few customers.
Without realizing it, Rahman noticed something odd—fewer and fewer customers were inside the store, but many people were passing by outside the door.
Passersby seemed to want to come in, but turned around after reaching the entrance.
Rahman knew something was wrong. He immediately ran out from behind the counter and checked the shelves.
Sure enough, he found a bowl of blood-red liquid. Rahman picked it up and sniffed it.
“If I’m not mistaken, this should be black dog blood, right?”
Like other Chosen Ones, Rahman didn’t know the purpose of black dog blood. He could only swallow and drink it down according to the rule’s hint.
One mouthful of black dog blood went down, and Rahman only felt his throat burn terribly.
That pungent smell nearly made him throw up.
He’d eaten plenty of miscellaneous things in previous Strange Tales Worlds.
Otherwise, he really wouldn’t have been able to swallow it.
Many Chosen Ones only drank a little, then paused before drinking more.
After finishing, they put the bowl in the warehouse.
After doing this, sure enough, customers started coming again.
“Could this stuff keep anomalies from approaching?”
Seeing this, Rahman naturally discovered another so-called 【Hidden Rule】.
Being able to discover these hidden rules in the Strange Tales World was actually hugely beneficial for clearing the stage.
If other Chosen Ones just drank it without carefully pondering the mystery within, they’d lose a bit of help.
As for Zhang Yangqing, he couldn’t be bothered to drink it. Whoever put it there—he made them drink it.
On the Dragon Country big screen, Zhang Yangqing directly dragged a black-clothed customer outside.
Then he poured the black dog blood into his mouth.
And he muttered: “I dare you to come again. However much you put, I’ll make you drink that much!”
The power of black dog blood was immense—it directly made this black-clothed customer’s intestines rot through.
The reason Zhang Yangqing muttered this was to let the passersby know: I’m not deliberately messing with him. He brought it on himself.
That way, the anomaly passersby would continue coming to his store to buy things.
After all, Zhang Yangqing always remembered he was a shop assistant. What he needed was sales.
The amount of sales would very likely also raise the final settlement score.
And Rule 11 said 【Please drink it immediately】—but the rule didn’t say the Chosen One had to drink it themselves.
Zhang Yangqing had the ability to make someone else drink it, so he didn’t drink this nasty stuff.
The number of customers was high during the period from 4:30 to 5:30.
Once 5:30 passed, outside the door seemed to return to silence.
Once 6 o’clock came, the Chosen Ones could all rest.
But it was precisely this half hour from 5:30 to 6:00 that made the Chosen Ones alert.
According to their understanding, the final moments often brought unexpected things.
After all, at this point, the Chosen Ones were already extremely exhausted and worn out, plus this body that may or may not feel hunger.
The quieter it was outside the door, the more it made people dare not be careless.
Time passed little by little. Just as they were about to close, the Chosen Ones discovered what seemed to be dark shadows flickering outside the door!
