I’m a Max-Level Taoist Master, and You’re Throwing Me Into a Rules-Based Horror Game?! - Chapter 190

Chapter 190: Could All of This Be Part of Zhang Tian Shi’s Plan?!

Zhang Yangqing’s choices weren’t necessarily the best, but they were definitely the most convenient.

Those familiar with him knew he was an energy conservationist.

The strange tale world had progressed to this stage, and no one questioned Zhang Yangqing’s methods anymore.

As long as Zhang Yangqing could participate in the strange tale world, it was a cause for national celebration.

After all, no one else was as steady as him; everyone just lay back and enjoyed the full attribute bonuses.

This made audiences from other countries quite resentful. So far, only the audience from Ramen Country had gained 1 full attribute point, while other countries hadn’t received any.

Meanwhile, the audience in the Dragon Country had already gained 7 full attribute points, even higher than most of the clearers themselves.

This led many clearers to feel that all their life-and-death struggles inside weren’t as good as just lying down in the Dragon Country.

If anyone was happier than the Dragon Country’s audience, it was naturally Longhu Mountain’s Xiao Xuan.

If Zhang Yangqing didn’t enter soon to torment others, he was about to be tormented to death.

“Ah, finally, I can rest properly for a few days.”

Xiao Xuan found a spot under a tree and lay down contentedly.

This was the second day that the Celestial Master had entered the world of supernatural tales. Xiao Xuan only needed to complete his daily tasks to slip away from the martial arts arena.

It was like slacking off as usual; it seemed all his troubles had drifted away.

But right at that moment, a powerful force hauled him up.

Just as Xiao Xuan was utterly bewildered, he saw that smiling face.

“E-Eldest Senior Brother, what brings you here?”

Seeing this particular person, Xiao Xuan didn’t dare show much attitude and became very careful with his words.

It’s worth noting that many at Longhu Mountain only started fearing Zhang Yangqing recently.

But they had always been afraid of Su Muyu. Who wouldn’t fear the person in charge of finances and resource allocation?

“Since the Celestial Master doesn’t have time to train you, this matter falls to me.”

Su Muyu’s kindly smile seemed to say, You don’t have a choice in the matter.

With that, Xiao Xuan was dragged straight to the training grounds.

This shocked quite a few disciples at Longhu Mountain.

The title of Eldest Senior Brother wasn’t just for show.

Back in the day, someone who could spar with Zhang Yangqing couldn’t be lacking in skill. At the very least, dealing with the current junior brothers wasn’t much of a problem.

Xiao Xuan didn’t dare struggle one bit and could only obediently continue his cultivation.

Because if you struggled in front of Zhang Yangqing, you’d just get a beating.

But if you struggled in front of Su Muyu, he wouldn’t hit you – but not hitting was the scariest part.

He would directly conclude that you didn’t want to cultivate or lacked ambition.

Then he would confiscate all your resources and stop managing you altogether.

Without resources, you’d be left with only slow meditation and energy absorption, drastically reducing your cultivation speed.

The gap between you and your fellow disciples would grow wider and wider.

Xiao Xuan was a genius, after all; how could he willingly let himself fall behind?

Longhu Mountain’s mixed doubles were in effect: Zhang Yangqing finished, and Su Muyu took over.

However, Xiao Xuan’s plight also made his fellow junior brothers envious, because his talent was so exceptional that he warranted personal training from both the Celestial Master and the Eldest Senior Brother.

One could also say expectations for him were very high.

It wasn’t just Xiao Xuan who was being tormented. In the strange tale world, other chosen ones braved the icy cold, detouring around a mountain base.

Here, everyone kept quiet, and the chosen ones and their teammates seemed to maintain a certain distance from each other.

The worst fear is that someone might say something out of nowhere, causing what’s described as an avalanche in the rules to actually be covered by an unstoppable snowfall.

Under such a massive snowy mountain, slower chosen ones could only wait for death.

Even if the faster ones escaped, if their teammates died, they would be erased by the rules.

There was a detailed tactic for this part of the journey: stepping where your teammates had stepped.

As the guide and captain, Goatee naturally had some skills. The footholds he chose were often the correct ones.

Even for slightly tricky spots, he would use hand signals to tell those behind him where to step.

Walking this path required extreme concentration.

The chosen one from Maple Leaf Country seemed to see some white moving creature in the distance. Distracted for just a moment, he stepped on something sharp, making him grimace in pain.

If the Man with the Gold-Rimmed Glasses behind him hadn’t quickly covered his mouth, he might have cried out.

However, the Maple Leaf chosen one felt the Man with the Gold-Rimmed Glasses used too much force, almost enough to crush his bones.

This inevitably made him suspect this guy was trying to kill him.

But he had genuinely saved his life.

If injured here, emergency treatment was needed; otherwise, the journey ahead would be even more difficult.

The Slicked-Back Hair Man had brought tools for treating wounds and gave him a simple bandaging.

Then the Goatee Captain said softly, “Can you still walk? Should I carry you?”

Looking at his four teammates around him, the Maple Leaf chosen one felt a wave of warmth.

He felt that if there were no eerie among them, this mountaineering trip could be quite wonderful.

The Maple Leaf chosen one wasn’t one to be overly dramatic either. He waved his hand, indicating he could still walk; it was just a minor injury.

Those who could enter this strange tale weren’t pampered individuals; a little pain was manageable.

He could properly check the injury once they found a place to rest.

If it could heal by the next day like the Man with the Gold-Rimmed Glasses, that would be even better.

It wasn’t just the Maple Leaf chosen one who encountered danger.

Other chosen ones also faced continuous troubles, keeping the audience on edge.

The team of the chosen one from Kangaroo Country encountered an extremely fast Black-Spotted Snow Leopard.

The Snow Leopard’s eyes glowed green, appearing ravenous.

Its mouth had two sharp fangs, giving the impression it could easily gut someone.

This posed a significant problem. They were all at the base of the snowy mountain. If they fought and made noise, it could cause an avalanche.

Simply dodging might not be enough to withstand the Snow Leopard’s attacks.

The other teammates had some skills, but the Kangaroo chosen one wasn’t a superhuman. Facing a special creature of the strange tale world, he simply had no chance of survival.

The team was momentarily stuck in an awkward dilemma: fight or not fight?

He felt the difficulty of this stage was a bit too high.

As the Black-Spotted Snow Leopard approached, coincidentally (or not), it targeted the weaker chosen one in the group.

The Kangaroo chosen one was so scared his legs gave way, and he sat down in the snow. He felt his time was up.

Facing such a terrifying creature, he couldn’t possibly escape.

“Am I going to die right at the start of the strange tale?!”

Just as the Kangaroo chosen one was in despair, the Purple-Eyed Woman stepped in front of him.

Then, using her magician skills and a puppet in her hand, she constantly shifted positions, toying with the Snow Leopard, making it pounce repeatedly into empty air.

She successfully attracted the Snow Leopard’s attention and lured it away.

At that moment, the Slicked-Back Hair Man, the chef, seized the opportunity.

As the Purple-Eyed Woman led the Snow Leopard to a flat area, the Slicked-Back Hair Man quickly closed in and, with a swift raise and fall of his knife, slew the Snow Leopard in the snow.

The Snow Leopard that wanted to gut others was itself gutted.

His superb technique was truly admirable.

“Are you okay?”

The Goatee Captain kindly helped the Kangaroo chosen one to his feet.

The Man with the Gold-Rimmed Glasses also came over to check if he was injured and asked if he needed help carrying his luggage.

“I’m fine, thank you, everyone.”

The Kangaroo chosen one got up from the snow, looking somewhat embarrassed.

His undignified state wasn’t laughed at by his teammates; everyone seemed to be helping him.

As dusk fell and the blizzard hit, the Man with the Gold-Rimmed Glasses would stand in front of the chosen ones, blocking some of the wind and snow.

When encountering ambushing creatures, the Purple-Eyed Woman and the Slicked-Back Hair Man displayed good coordination, slaying them.

The Goatee Captain’s task was even heavier. Due to the darkness and the blizzard, progress was difficult.

He needed to personally test certain spots, only calling the others over once he was sure they were safe.

Facing cliffs and thin ice over puddles, he also demonstrated his powerful reflexes, repeatedly avoiding danger.

The chosen ones seemed to be the ones being protected.

This made one wonder, was there really a eerie in the team?
Shouldn’t the eerie be trying to kill me?
It looked like a fully functional mountaineering team.

On the surface, there seemed to be some conflict, but when real danger struck, everyone worked together.

Moreover, they were able to chat and laugh together later on, seemingly eliminating their initial barriers, gradually getting to know each other, and striving together for a common goal.

At this point, many of the chosen ones had even forgotten that there was a traitor in the team and had become part of the warm and welcoming community.

Because every teammate in this group seemed to give the chosen ones a sense of security and trust.

It was precisely now that the audience and expert panels outside began to notice something was wrong.

Hu Liuqi, a member of the Dragon Country’s expert panel, had just woken up. Seeing the content on the big screen, his expression turned grim.

There’s a saying: Those closely involved cannot see as clearly as those outside.

In other strange tales, the chosen ones might discover more, but in this one, those watching from outside already knew the chosen ones had fallen into some kind of trap.

After watching for a while, Hu Liuqi said, “This isn’t good. If the chosen ones don’t realize it, something might happen.”

Hearing this, other panel members seemed to understand and said, “Perhaps in such dangerous situations, chosen ones easily trust others. Once they feel safe, they might remember.”

Hu Liuqi shook his head and continued, “No, the chosen ones know the rules. If they calm down, they will indeed be wary of others. But once the eerie realizes the chosen one is so weak, it definitely won’t target the chosen one first.
“Killing the Chosen One would arouse other suspicions, and haven’t you noticed that the more harmonious the team, the less wary they are of each other, making it easier to succeed in a treacherous attack?”

Hu Liuqi’s words made the panel members ponder deeply. What he said was indeed correct.

For the chosen ones, the rules were absolute; they must trust the rules.

Others may be wary, but after a period of adjustment, they will start to rely on each other.

In the past, the eerie were often very ferocious, dangerous like mad dogs.

This time, the story takes an emotional turn, emphasizing sincerity.

If the chosen ones didn’t realize this early, they might not die themselves, but their teammates would likely be killed by the eerie.

In other words, this time the eerie is quite clever, creating a false impression of unity, and the eerie has already integrated into the team.

In a six-star strange tale world, the eerie had started playing mind games.

Thinking of this, the newly awakened Hu Liuqi quickly opened his country’s big screen to see if Zhang Tian Shi had fallen into a trap.

But after rewatching Zhang Tian Shi’s footage, he breathed a sigh of relief.

No matter what trap the eerie set, no matter what conspiracy it had, it was useless against someone like Zhang Tian Shi who fought without any pattern and didn’t play by the rules.

And most importantly, while relationships were harmonious elsewhere in other chosen ones’ scenarios,
In Zhang Tian Shi’s case, not only had relationships not improved, they had actually worsened considerably.

If the team’s relationships were poor, it meant each teammate would be highly alert towards the others, which was a huge benefit for clearing the strange tale.

Because the teammates in the group were all highly skilled; as long as they didn’t die, it was fine.

Zhang Tian Shi didn’t need the help of the other teammates at all.

One could even say that them not dying was the greatest help to Zhang Tian Shi.

Seeing this, Hu Liuqi couldn’t help but sigh, “Could all of this be part of Zhang Tian Shi’s plan? Perhaps he saw through this from the very first sentence he used to confront others at the beginning.”

Although Hu Liuqi had always regarded Zhang Yangqing as an idol, this further deepened his admiration for him.

It’s important to note that Hu Liuqi wasn’t just imagining Zhang Yangqing’s actions; Zhang Yangqing had intended this from the start – he was deliberately intensifying the contradiction.
This left the eerie, who wanted to build good relations, with no way to start.

In the strange tale world, the chosen ones overcame numerous difficulties, braved the blizzard, and finally arrived at the village Zhang Yangqing had reached hours ago.

Upon arriving here, the Chosen Ones rubbed their eyes in disbelief, and their teammates stared at what lay before them.

Wasn’t this supposed to be a village? This is a village?
Based on their understanding of villages, in such a harsh environment, shouldn’t they be low, small bungalows?

Why were these all tall, three-story villas, and about twenty of them at that?

Chosen ones skilled in observation could also see surprise in the eyes of their teammates nearby.

Especially the Goatee Captain, who muttered phrases like “It shouldn’t be like this.”

Clearly, they also didn’t understand why such luxurious residences appeared here.

The chosen one from Pyramid Country, Raheman, asked the Goatee Captain, “Captain, haven’t you been to these places before?”

The Goatee Captain shook his head and explained, “I’ve only climbed the snowy mountain from another route before; this is my first time on this side.”

According to him, there was more than one route up the snowy mountain – a small piece of intelligence Raheman carefully noted.

Meanwhile, the wind and snow outside grew heavier. If they didn’t quickly start a fire to warm up, the mountaineering team could very well die here.

According to the map, this was the only area with buildings nearby.

Even though everyone could see this place was somewhat eerie, they had no choice but to press on.

The most puzzling thing was that as soon as they approached the village, before they could even observe properly, it seemed like people were already waiting for them at the entrance.

Upon seeing the mountaineering team, these people proactively came over.

Moreover, their visual range seemed greater than that of the mountaineering team.

It was unclear whether they were accustomed to living here long-term or if there was another reason.

“Welcome, friends from afar. Are you here to climb the mountain?”

These people were all smiles, enthusiastically greeting the outsiders.

Four or five villagers came forward, all wearing animal pelts and not many clothes.

The leader was a man with a square-faced, honest, and reliable appearance.

“Yes, that’s right. The blizzard outside is quite heavy; we were hoping to borrow a place to stay for the night.”

As the team leader, Goatee was communicating with the villagers.

The other team members, like Raheman, seemed to be observing these villagers, trying to gather information.

From this, it seemed these team members were also here for the first time.

Raheman noticed the villagers had some ‘unnatural’ small habits.

Some liked to scratch their hands, some walked on their tiptoes, and others had corners of their mouths twitching involuntarily.

These small habits, combined with the animal pelts they wore and their relatively long visual range,
made Raheman wonder if these guys were transformed animals?
That would involve one of the rules.

[Rule 4: If a small animal asks you a question, you can try to answer, or not answer, but you cannot answer incorrectly.]

Answering correctly should have benefits, but answering incorrectly might be the condition for the eerie to appear.

Also known as the trigger condition.

But it couldn’t be confirmed yet whether these fell into the ‘animal’ category, so more information needed to be gathered.

More careful chosen ones wouldn’t engage. As long as I don’t say the wrong thing, they won’t attack me.

But watching the Goatee Captain converse with these villagers didn’t seem to trigger any rules. Was his judgment wrong?

After entering the mountain village, Raheman always felt like someone was observing their group from the cracks in the doors and windows nearby.

Due to the blizzard and polar night, his visual range was short, and he couldn’t clearly see the surroundings.

It was just a feeling.

When passing by some houses, one or two smiling people would come out, also enthusiastically welcoming the mountaineering team.

Not every house had people coming out.

Before they even reached their destination, about a dozen villagers had gathered around.

The villagers seemed to keep making small talk with the mountaineering team, trying to make the team remember them.

If this were on Blue Star, the chosen ones would think the local customs here were quite good.

But this was the strange tale world! The villagers’ enthusiasm was somewhat frightening.

Coupled with their occasional small habits, the beast-head hats they wore, especially the eyes on the hats which seemed alive, observing the mountaineering team – it all looked very eerie.

At some point, Raheman started to feel that his mountaineering teammates were quite reliable. As long as they were by his side, he didn’t seem afraid.

If he were climbing alone in this strange tale, this place would probably be his burial ground.

Next, according to the square-faced villager, those entering the village must pay respects to the local guardian deity. This was a non-negotiable rule.

No pay, no stay.

The Goatee Captain knew the drill and gave everyone a reassuring look.

Because in this region, a guardian deity protected the peace of an area.

Entering the guardian deity’s territory naturally required greeting the deity.

Hearing this, the mountaineering team members could understand.

Raheman followed the villagers to a relatively large temple housing a statue of a deity.

This statue wore a hood, obscuring its face.

But it stood with its arms open, as if welcoming outsiders.

Or perhaps, the direction its open arms faced held some special hint.

These details were carefully noted by the chosen ones.

Because the place the chosen ones came from also had a dilapidated temple.

Did all of this hint something?