Chapter 319: Once You Choose, There’s No Going Back!
So here’s the question—where do you go to find information?
This problem gave the Chosen Ones a headache.
Even if they asked Mr. Emptiness, he said he didn’t know either. He’d only seen the boss once.
He hadn’t even exchanged greetings with him, and didn’t even know what the boss actually was.
Reading into that statement, he didn’t even know if the boss was human.
In this area, everyone knew there was a general store that sold things, but nobody actually knew the store owner.
With the mindset of “the less trouble, the better,” nobody was willing to dig into it.
After all, having a general store here was good for them ghost cultivators.
If they angered the boss and he shut the store down, then the nearby ghost cultivators would be the ones to suffer.
When Rahman heard this, he remembered a rule.
【Rule 9: Remember, a cat is a person with two legs, and a person is a cat with four legs.】
“A black hat? Could the boss be a black cat?”
Or maybe if you find the black cat, you find the boss?
Rahman quickly dismissed this idea.
Because his understanding of the rule just now was too shallow—it couldn’t even be called understanding, it was practically wild guessing.
He thought it over carefully. Maybe it meant finding the cat that walks on two legs, or the person who walks on four legs.
Maybe this “person” was the general store owner. And even if this person wasn’t the boss, they’d still know something about the store.
Rahman was already trying to curry favor with Mr. Emptiness, and since Mr. Emptiness didn’t eat people, the two of them struck up a conversation.
He asked Mr. Emptiness whether he’d ever seen a cat walking on two legs, or a person walking on four legs, around these parts.
And wouldn’t you know it—Mr. Emptiness actually provided some useful information.
In this area, there were only 【Ghost Cultivators】, but in a farther area, there were also 【Demon Cultivators】.
Demon cultivators were basically carnivorous anomalies—anomalies formed from various animals that had gained spiritual power.
If Rahman wanted to find a two-legged cat, he could go search in the demon cultivator area.
Here, if your favorability with Mr. Emptiness was high enough, you could get hints from him.
Many demon cultivators retained animal characteristics and loved eating rotting corpses. Rahman had a faint smell of rotting corpse on him, but not much.
Hearing this, Rahman was greatly alarmed.
Am I a dead person? Or do I not have a heart, and I’m dying?
No wonder Rule 1 reminded me to find my heart quickly.
Actually, only a few of Chosen Ones had triggered this hint.
Mr. Emptiness didn’t have Zhang Yangqing’s ability, but Zhang Yangqing could smell it himself and distinguish it.
This was also the special advantage of being on home turf.
Rahman was very panicked and asked if there was any way to get to the demon cultivator area.
After all, the rules said so much—he couldn’t just sit here waiting to die, right?
Mr. Emptiness shrugged, indicating he couldn’t help.
Ghost cultivators and demon cultivators generally didn’t interact much, and both tended to reject each other’s aura.
Mr. Emptiness didn’t even know where that place was, let alone help the Chosen One find his heart.
Then came the important information. Mr. Emptiness casually mentioned, 【Our graveyard area seems to have a ghost cultivator who has connections with demon cultivators. If you want to get some clues, bring the gold-edged candle over tomorrow, and I’ll introduce you. I won’t shortchange you on the travel fee either.】
Hearing this, Rahman felt that being a simp this time had paid off.
It seemed that as long as you licked boots well enough, mission intel wouldn’t be lacking.
But the travel fee was extra income—Rahman naturally couldn’t take it.
He didn’t dare violate the hard rules of the Strange Tales World.
Actually, Zhang Yangqing’s thinking was even clearer. Since Mr. Emptiness mentioned a travel fee, it proved that the graveyard area he was in was very dangerous.
He might not harm the Chosen Ones, but that didn’t mean other anomalies there wouldn’t.
Inside the general store, before agreeing to deliver something to Mr. Emptiness, Rahman said to him instead: “Can you give me your eye? Otherwise, tomorrow before I even find you, I’ll already have been killed by someone else…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, but it was already tactfully implied.
The place I’m going tomorrow is a graveyard area.
They know you, but they don’t know me.
Although most ghost cultivators don’t eat people, that’s still just “most.”
What if I’m unlucky and run into one of the few that do eat people?
Besides, this is also what the rules told me to say. You can’t hit me for it, right?
Actually, when he said this, Rahman felt uncertain. He’d worked so hard to get Mr. Emptiness to like him—if one sentence wasted all that favorability, that wouldn’t be good.
What’s more, if Mr. Emptiness wasn’t the key figure and felt offended by him, that would be trouble.
Mr. Emptiness had so many people under him that even the red-clothed guest from earlier didn’t dare provoke him.
If he just pulled out any one of them, Rahman wouldn’t be able to beat them.
Just as Rahman was getting scared, Mr. Emptiness slapped his own head and said, “Oh my, look at my memory. I almost forgot about this.”
Then, a terrifying scene appeared.
Mr. Emptiness brushed the hair of his bangs backward, and four eyes appeared on his forehead.
He looked like a multi-eyed ghost.
Because Mr. Emptiness cared about his image, he usually covered them with his hair.
Then he plucked out one of his eyeballs and handed it to Rahman.
It would serve as a token for Rahman. If any anomaly in that graveyard area blocked him, he could show the token and make them leave.
Mr. Emptiness reminded him here that only the people in his graveyard area would give him face—other places might not.
If Rahman flashed the eyeball at anomalies from a hostile graveyard area, it would instead bring about deadly trouble.
Rahman promised he would definitely remember, then gratefully accepted the eyeball. Finally, the task was complete.
After all, this was the Strange Tales World, and the strange tales he’d encountered before also had plenty of horrifying things.
For Rahman, holding an eyeball in his hand was a common occurrence.
It was just that some first-time Chosen Ones found it a bit uncomfortable.
Once he had the eyeball, Mr. Emptiness became someone the Chosen One could trust, and the rule’s hint was fulfilled.
While promising to deliver it to him, Rahman asked about the mark on his hand.
Mr. Emptiness took one look and could tell he’d been marked by someone.
Don’t let his strength fool you—he was only on the weaker side among the red-clothed ones, but far stronger than those in other clothes.
Mr. Emptiness confirmed that what the three guests said wasn’t false. Rahman had been targeted by that green-clothed ghost with cross-shaped scratches on his face.
Here, Mr. Emptiness had a high status and definitely wouldn’t stay to help Rahman.
Besides, the two of them had no real friendship—just shop assistant and customer.
After explaining, Mr. Emptiness walked out of the general store and got into his sedan chair. The whole group majestically left the area.
Anyway, the address and time had been agreed upon. When the time came, Rahman just needed to deliver it personally.
To show his friendliness, Rahman even escorted Mr. Emptiness to his sedan chair, then helped him close the curtain, and finally watched him leave.
This kind of behavior indeed raised the favorability of the vain Mr. Emptiness toward him.
Maybe transcendents disdained doing such things—it was beneath their status.
But for ordinary Chosen Ones, they wished for more opportunities like this.
Returning to his own general store, Rahman’s expression turned gloomy.
“It seems that to survive this tribulation, I still need to go to where those three guests are before four o’clock. Only by using them to kill that cross-scratch guest can I survive.”
Because those three guests said they would leave at four o’clock, it had to be resolved before four.
According to the address Mr. Emptiness gave, his graveyard area was incredibly far. He might get beaten to death halfway there while seeking help.
The address the three guests gave was not far. Since they wouldn’t harm him, he could only beg them.
And the next rules hadn’t appeared yet, so he still needed to stay at the general store.
During the time he temporarily left the shop, he’d definitely have to close it, and Rahman’s sales would drop.
If that guy wasn’t eliminated, Rahman would have endless trouble.
Thinking of this, Rahman felt there was no time to lose. He carried self-defense items on him—candles, bone knives, and such.
After getting ready, he closed the shop door, took the key, and ran out.
Because he had the mark on him, that guy would definitely come looking!
After three o’clock, the Chosen Ones’ strategies began to change.
The Chosen One from Maple Leaf Country had offended many guests in black, gray, and white clothes, but hadn’t offended that cross-scratch green-clothed guest.
Because he simply hadn’t sold him the blood-bone jade. Without it, he couldn’t repair his injuries, so he wouldn’t fixate on the Maple Leaf Country Chosen One.
Of course, he also had plenty of trouble—he’d offended other guests when selling goods.
Namely those black, gray, and white-clothed guests. After Mr. Emptiness left, these guests would come to the Maple Leaf Country Chosen One’s shop to cause trouble.
They’d tamper with the area near the general store’s front door, making his business worse.
At this time, the Maple Leaf Country Chosen One could summon the yellow-clothed female anomaly to deal with the trouble.
The yellow-clothed female anomaly’s level just happened to suppress these three types of guests, so this stage was actually easier than Rahman’s.
Rahman had nearly been beaten to death, running through the forest all the way to escape the danger.
This made the expert groups outside marvel.
They’d originally thought the Maple Leaf Country Chosen One was going to die this round, but who knew he’d pass so easily.
Could it be he wasn’t stupid—was this his plan all along?
Better to offend weak guests than strong ones.
As long as you understood the general store’s rules and cleverly resolved conflicts, you could find a solution.
This way of passing made the expert groups wonder if he’d designed it this way or if it was just luck.
Actually, it was normal for the expert groups not to understand. After all, only the Chosen Ones who went in could see certain special details.
Or rather, could experience certain subtle atmospheres.
Ultimately, before the “delayed” danger erupted, the Strange Tales World would give Chosen Ones some opportunities to handle things.
Whether the Chosen Ones could seize the opportunity to handle it depended on their own abilities.
During the period from three to four o’clock, the problems the Chosen Ones had accumulated all began to erupt.
The Chosen Ones’ various brilliant moves made the audience exclaim “awesome.”
Every time the Chosen Ones survived against the odds, repeatedly escaping by wit when facing anomaly guests’ pursuit, playing the anomaly guests around in circles, the audience sighed in amazement.
Thank goodness these Chosen Ones went up—if it were me, I’d be dead for sure.
But there were also Chosen Ones who made mistakes and died with regret in the wilderness on the spot.
At this stage, many Chosen Ones’ big screens were packed with people, with barrage comments flying everywhere.
Only Zhang Yangqing’s side was ice-cold.
If you asked how the Dragon Country Heavenly Master was going to solve this stage?
Solve what? He was practically about to fall asleep.
Nobody dared provoke him, and he hadn’t offended any guests.
The slightly threatening guests had all been sent off early.
In other words, in this area, the most dangerous thing was Zhang Yangqing himself.
So during the 3 to 4 o’clock phase.
While other Chosen Ones were closing their doors to deal with problems, quite a few customers still came to Zhang Yangqing’s place to buy things.
His sales had already far exceeded other Chosen Ones.
Time quickly came to four in the deep night. Just as other Chosen Ones were solving their troubles and reopening for business.
Outside the door came the sound of birds and beasts flapping their wings.
A pigeon flew into the general store, a piece of paper in its beak.
The pigeon didn’t bother with where the Chosen One was. It just delivered the paper to the counter, then flapped its wings and left the general store.
Zhang Yangqing was already at the counter. He picked up the paper and looked—it was the next rules.
General Store Rules:
【Rule 12: When out and about, do not expose your body to sunlight for extended periods. Sunlight can make you rapidly perish.】
【Rule 13: Our store’s business hours are from 10 PM to 6 AM. At other times, do not open the store door for guests, or the boss will be very angry.】
【Rule 14: If you run into any trouble, you can go to the riverbank to find a blind old man fishing. If he’s in a good mood, he’ll answer some of your questions.】
【Rule 15: Just because you don’t feel hungry doesn’t mean you don’t need to eat.】
【Rule 16: Remember, the money you get in the general store can only be used in the Ghost Market. Do not expose it in front of normal people, or “they” will find you.】
【Rule 17: Absolutely do not eat people. Once you eat a person, you can never go back.】
【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.】
Seeing these rules, the Chosen Ones all instinctively swallowed.
Rules 15 and 17 were simply terrifying.
“What does this mean? I’m a normal person—why would I eat people?”
First-time Chosen Ones couldn’t understand this rule for the time being.
But the veterans all knew that in some Strange Tales Worlds, if you don’t eat, you won’t survive.
Rahman stared at the rules and pondered for a long time, having a bad feeling. Because Rule 17 only said that after eating a person you can’t go back—it didn’t say eating a person would kill you.
This was Rahman’s deeper understanding.
Could something happen after eating a person?
But as a normal human mindset, he still wasn’t willing to consider this outcome.
Unless absolutely necessary, what Chosen One would do such a thing?
The Strange Tales World would definitely give Chosen Ones room to choose—it just depended on whether they could find a better way to pass.
Rahman felt that the old blind man mentioned in Rule 14 was definitely of utmost importance.
It was also a special task that had to be found tomorrow.
But there were several huge problems here. First, he needed to get a map of the nearby area.
Otherwise, how would Rahman know where there was a river nearby?
And there might be more than one river. How to find the old blind man would definitely also require information.
So in that case, Rahman absolutely had to go to Mr. Emptiness’s graveyard area.
Second, the prerequisite for finding the old blind man was making him happy.
The latter half of the rule said that if he wasn’t happy, he wouldn’t answer the Chosen One’s questions.
How to make him happy—you couldn’t just ask him to his face, right?
Bring him a gift? Help him complete a task? These were all unknown.
Next were the two keywords: Ghost Market and black wooden sword.
Here, Rahman clearly judged that sales were linked to the Ghost Market.
Because the currency here was special currency, only usable in the Ghost Market.
So the Ghost Market would definitely have things that could increase your “combat power” or “defense.”
When the time came, you’d definitely need to spend money to buy them, so the more money you got, the better.
After all, combining this with Mr. Emptiness’s information—the Chosen One needed to go to the demon cultivator area to find the “two-legged cat” or “four-legged person” mentioned in Rule 9—they had to be prepared.
Going there with no preparation at all? Wasn’t that just seeking death?
As long as these rules and information appeared, Rahman had a way to connect them into a main storyline.
The settlement rules hadn’t come out yet, but the current main storyline was already very clear: find the heart or the general store owner.
It was just that the main storyline passed through many dangerous areas. What kind of troubles you’d encounter depended on how the Chosen Ones handled them.
Knowing how to pass and being able to pass were two different things.
This was also why the people who came in basically all had strong minds and bodies.
Even if your head was full of brilliant moves and you understood everything, if your body couldn’t keep up with your brain and you didn’t have the ability, you still couldn’t pass.
As for the black wooden sword, Rahman had already found it in the back warehouse earlier.
Rahman fiddled with it for a while, couldn’t figure it out, and stopped.
When Zhang Yangqing saw it, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
“Strange. A peach wood sword isn’t pink, but even after long use it shouldn’t be this black.”
Zhang Yangqing complained internally.
Because this sword was indeed made of peach wood, similar to the ones beside the altar.
But why was it so black? Zhang Yangqing couldn’t understand.
Maybe the boss here made it using some special method?
It couldn’t be that it turned black from too much sun exposure, right?
After all, Zhang Yangqing only understood Daoist things—it wasn’t like he could understand the tools of demon cultivators and ghost cultivators too.
But the core of a tool is its usage. A normal peach wood sword is the nemesis of ghost cultivators, but it can’t deal with demon cultivators.
This black peach wood sword emitted an aura that warned ghost cultivators, but not enough to make them afraid.
Hanging it at the door would indeed tell ghost cultivators that the store wasn’t open today, without offending them.
Next, Zhang Yangqing continued analyzing the rules.
Actually, most of what Rahman guessed was right. It was just that Zhang Yangqing could judge some rules through cognition even without information.
From Rules 12 and 17, Zhang Yangqing could judge that his body this round might be an incomplete zombie.
Belonging to a human who hadn’t died yet—a living dead in the process of becoming a zombie.
Actually, Dragon Country’s cultivators could tell just by carefully looking at the rules.
Zombies can’t be exposed to sunlight and have a desire to eat people.
Isn’t that just zombie behavior?
If you couldn’t find your heart within the allotted time, you’d completely become a zombie.
That was the normal way to play.
Thinking of this, another extreme strategy appeared in Zhang Yangqing’s mind.
The so-called extreme was definitely abnormal. The rules didn’t say becoming a zombie would kill you, so why not find a way to transform faster?
Not just transform—find a way to keep evolving.
After becoming a zombie, as long as it wasn’t a fatal wound, you basically wouldn’t feel anything, and your body would become abnormally strong.
But after transforming, problems would arise. Zombies had huge limitations—they couldn’t go out during the day at all, and to some demon cultivators, they were even more delicious.
Without energy replenishment, zombies would basically head toward death.
A normal human body could eat meals. A zombie’s food could only be humans.
This was also why Rule 17 gave such a warning.
Once you become a zombie, you truly can’t go back.
Other Chosen Ones would collect information in the following process to judge this.
In their eyes, all these subsequent rules were complete mysteries.
But Zhang Yangqing didn’t need information at all. These rules were like an open-book exam, placed directly in front of him.
Just as the Chosen Ones walked to the warehouse to check the black wooden sword, the wind chime at the door made a violent ringing sound.
If a guest was coming, Rahman naturally prepared to go out and receive them. After all, during the time he’d closed the shop, he’d lost a lot of business.
But when he appeared in the general store holding the candlestick, he found the candle on the counter had already gone out.
The candlestick in his hand, after a gust of eerie wind, suddenly extinguished.
And beside him, at some point, stood a male guest in red clothes.
This red-clothed man had a very long tongue, and it was very cold.
Don’t ask Rahman how he knew—because that tongue was already pressed against his face!
At this moment, Rahman was terrified and also speechless.
If a female guest did this, he could tolerate it. But you’re a man—why are you licking me!
What strange constitution have I awakened this round?
