I am a full-level celestial master, you let me enter the strange talk of rules?

Upon hearing the sound of flowing water, the eerie senses immediately deduced that there must be a river nearby.

He turned around and waved to the mouthless, eerie figure, and the two of them walked together toward the direction from which the sound came.

As you pass through the misty forest, the eerie atmosphere here is even stronger than before, and many strange creatures lurk in the shadows.

Some lay on the dead trees, staring at them with eerie green eyes; some lurked under the decaying leaves, revealing a menacing claw tip; and others pounced directly out of the mist, opening their mouths full of fangs.

However, the eerie consciousness is currently at its maximum level.

With his cultivation at the Celestial Realm, coupled with some combat skills taught to him by Zhang Yangqing, killing these low-level monsters was as easy as cutting melons and vegetables.

With a casual wave of his hand, a blood-red aura swept out, instantly tearing the approaching monster to shreds.

With another swing, another monster that had attacked from the side exploded into a cloud of black mist.

They marched and killed their way through.

Those ugly-looking fellows were fearless in the face of death, but they could only become corpses, lying haphazardly by the roadside.

Strangely, the sound of flowing water kept coming, but I couldn't touch it no matter what I did.

The eerie consciousness quickened its pace, drawing the sound closer.

He slowed his pace, so his voice could travel further away.

No matter how hard he chased, the sound of flowing water always kept a fixed distance from him, as if it was deliberately avoiding him.

"What's going on?" The eerie consciousness frowned.

He began to recall the contents of Rule 15: "Some rivers in the wilderness are alive."

Live?

Could it be that the river I heard was alive? That it could move?
His idea was that since you are alive, there must be a limit to your speed.

With that thought in mind, the eerie consciousness no longer hesitated and accelerated.

With his full power unleashed at the Celestial Realm level, his figure flashed through the mist like a streak of blood-red lightning.

The wind whistled in my ears, and the fog was torn open with a long slit.

But the sound of the flowing water remained at the same distance, and it was impossible to catch up.

To make matters worse, he was moving too fast and the fog was too thick, so the Mouthless Eerie lost track of him.

The eerie consciousness stopped and looked back.

There was nothing around except for the swirling grayish-white mist.

"Damn it," he muttered under his breath.

This is bad, I've messed it up.

He stood there, his mind racing.

Unable to catch up with the river, and lost his teammates.

Where exactly did I go wrong in my analysis?

The rules are clear: the river is alive.

Since it's alive, my line of thinking must be correct. If I catch up with it, I can find clues.

But why can't we catch up?

Is it because I'm not fast enough?

No, the speed of a Celestial Realm cultivator is already fast enough. If they still can't catch up, then how terrifying must the speed of this river be?
Or did I simply go in the wrong direction?

The more he thought about it, the more confused he became; his CPU was almost overheating.

Just then, Zhang Yangqing's voice came from within his mind: "Why didn't you just call me out?"

The eerie consciousness paused for a moment, then lowered its head in shame: "I'm sorry, great god, I thought I could solve it myself."

He didn't want to trouble Zhang Yangqing and wanted to show off his abilities. Of course, he didn't understand the meaning of Zhang Yangqing's words at this moment. Zhang Yangqing didn't blame him, but simply said, "You're wrong. There are many ways to solve this, but calling me out is the fastest way."

The eerie consciousness was stunned: "Huh? What does this mean?"

The next second, the body's eyes regained their clarity.

Zhang Yangqing is online.

Zhang Yangqing moved his wrists to feel the condition of his body.

Although the strange consciousness's thoughts were not clear, its body was not injured and its cultivation level was well maintained.

Zhang Yangqing spoke calmly: "Rule 15 says 'That river is choosing people.' You can interpret this as the river 'eating people.' To trigger its appearance, there must be a 'human' nearby. You are a weirdo, so of course it won't appear."

This is why Zhang Yangqing said, "Why didn't you call me out?"

The eerie consciousness suddenly realized within its sea of ​​consciousness: "So that's how it is! I understand now!"

But he quickly thought of another question: "Great God, I have a question. Are there any other humans on Earth besides you?"

Zhang Yangqing's lips curled up slightly: "Didn't you also notice that the 'fuel' for that car is probably human?"

The eerie consciousness nodded: "That's right. The human corpses at the gas station, the human head wheels on the car, and the 'selection of people' mentioned in the rules—all of these suggest that humans might be fuel. But shouldn't humans live underground? How could they be here?"

As Zhang Yangqing walked, he said, "It's certainly difficult for humans to survive here as humans, but it's different if humans disguise themselves as monsters and blend into the monster world."

"It's like if this world were ruled by humans, and the Weird wanted to survive and hunt humans, they could disguise themselves as humans, as long as they weren't discovered."

The eerie consciousness seemed to understand: "I see, some powerful humans can survive here by disguising themselves as eerie beings?"

"Yes."

Zhang Yangqing paused, then added, "Actually, you've seen humans before, you just haven't noticed."

The eerie consciousness was stunned: "Huh? When?"

Zhang Yangqing's tone remained calm: "On the bus, some humans got on, and you even interacted with them. Guess how many humans you saw?"

The eerie consciousness began to recall the passengers.

The first one, the one for filing nails, doesn't seem like it.

The second one, the one that was dozing off, doesn't seem like it either.

The third one, the fourth one.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind: "Holy crap! God, could that guy pretending to be a ticket seller actually be human?!"

Zhang Yangqing nodded: "That's right, I can confirm that. There's another one, the one wearing a straw hat, who is taciturn, which fits the human principle of 'trying not to speak and not to make mistakes' in the world of ghost stories."

After gathering his thoughts, Zhang Yangqing added, "Furthermore, there's another point to consider: whether the passengers can tolerate the horrible noises on the bus. The screams of those human faces as the wheels turn are commonplace for the supernatural, but for humans, it's a continuous torment. Those who can't endure it either get off the bus or reveal their weaknesses."

After hearing this, the eerie consciousness was completely convinced.

He didn't notice any of these details.

"So, if I had figured out that the gas station needed humans as 'oil,' wouldn't it have been enough to just keep those two?"

Zhang Yangqing nodded: "Yes, but you didn't gather enough information at the time. The fake ticket seller gave you a lot of information, so you thought that was enough and didn't continue to collect information. In fact, each of those passengers could have provided useful information."

"I only figured it out after you got out of the car, by combining all the clues."

The eerie consciousness fell silent.

He began to reflect on his experience, identifying which details were wrong and which judgments were flawed.

Zhang Yangqing did not criticize him too much.

After all, the strange consciousness is just a newly born "new Chosen One," and it has already done quite well to have achieved this much.

"Then, Master, you just said why I can't go inside the gas station?" the eerie consciousness asked again.

Zhang Yangqing did not answer directly, but simply said, "Let's talk about it when we get back."

He looked up into the depths of the mist, his gaze seemingly piercing through everything: "If we don't go find that mouthless monster soon, he's probably doomed." (End of Chapter)