The whole weird world is waiting for me to go to heaven

Chapter 1022 Equivalent Exchange
Hot, hot, hot!
Blisters appeared on Huo Shu's skin.

Then the skin and flesh melted like wax, eventually turning into a charred black, leaving only the agonizing burning sensation.

The immense pain caused him to scream in agony.

Rolling on the ground.

The fire still wouldn't go out.

Sun Yiying was no longer visible; only the bright firelight remained.

Stumbling and running haphazardly, his eyes, burned and blinded, suddenly caught a glimpse of a reflection.

It's a circular pool!

He didn't have time to think and quickly jumped in!
The flame went out instantly.

A cool sensation permeated my entire body.

He breathed a sigh of relief at finally being redeemed.

However, when he was fully immersed in the water, the sensation was even more scalding and burning, a sensation that penetrated to his very bones, causing him to cry out in pain.

However, this was already because his Taiyi Life-Protecting Talisman had blocked most of the scorching effect after activation.

Wait, a life-saving charm?

Why didn't it activate just now?
Huo Shu was startled.

Looking around, he then noticed that next to him were giant tofu puffs, broccoli, meat rolls, sausages, and konjac noodles wrapped around his waist.

The air is filled with the fresh, spicy aroma.

He was actually in the pot of hot pot!
Looking up, I saw Sun Yiying's enormous face, with an undisguised sneer on her lips.

……

When Liu Sheng and Qiao Yu walked out of the barbecue restaurant, they were holding the greasy menu in their hands.

Anna Zhang still looked puzzled:
How did you come up with the idea of ​​buying this?

She almost burst out laughing when she recalled the boss's uncontrollable look of astonishment.

Liu Sheng didn't speak, but looked at Qiao Yu.

Qiao Yu understood what Sheng Sheng meant.

After thinking for a moment, he said, "Because... it's an equivalent exchange?"

Liu Sheng nodded: "That's right. This night market, including the owner, has never said that you have to buy the dishes specified on the menu."

Anna Zhang suddenly realized.

"Oh yeah, I really was fooled by this language!"

"However, I didn't expect you to have such beautiful handwriting!"

She was referring to the time when Liu Sheng asked the owner to pay for the dirty menu, and after a moment of surprise, the owner asked Liu Sheng with a half-smile:
What are you going to use in exchange?

Liu Sheng smiled and said, "Since it's an 'equal exchange,' then of course we'll rewrite a menu for you. After all, yours is old and dirty; wouldn't it be better to get a new one?"

Then he immediately asked Qiao Yu to bring out two pieces of bright yellow paper with rough edges.

After being cut, it becomes the talisman paper used for drawing talismans.

Two menus were written using this kind of paper.

Surprisingly, the boss actually accepted it.

He even had a satisfied smile on his face.

Zhang Anna immediately realized what was happening.

He also took out his treasured gold-flecked velvet cardstock—perfect for writing, and stiff enough—and used fancy colored pens to rewrite what Liu Sheng had done.

However, this time the boss was unwilling to accept it.

He glanced at Zhang Anna's handwriting with disdain and said it was not as good as his.

"But this paper is much better than theirs—"

But seeing the look in her boss's eyes, Zhang Anna finally shut up.

His gaze shifted and finally settled on the chopsticks on the table.

Fortunately, she had brought a pair of silver chopsticks with her. As soon as she took them out and said she wanted to exchange them with the shopkeeper, his eyes lit up with joy.

"Yes, it's something I learned from a young age."

Liu Sheng was, after all, an "ancient person".

Calligraphy is already a basic skill.

Moreover, if one were to participate in the imperial examinations, having excellent handwriting was the best way to win the favor of the examiners, and as a top student, Liu Sheng naturally practiced it diligently.

“Great! Our master told us to practice calligraphy so that we could better connect with the gods when drawing talismans. But how could we, who were born after the fall of the Eastern Empire—not to mention me, who came from the Western Empire—write such messy calligraphy?”

Anna Zhang pouted her red lips and complained.

"To be honest, as long as you know how to trace it, you can just copy it and the effect of the rune will be about the same!"

Qiao Yu nodded vigorously.

Clearly, I share the same sentiment.

Liu Sheng frowned.

One cannot help but pay attention to what Anna Zhang said about the "demise of the Eastern Empire".

In the history she experienced, the Eastern Empire was doing well, and even gradually surpassed the First Empire thanks to the advanced experience of the Special Bureau.

Unexpectedly, in the world Zhang Anna came from, the Eastern Empire had already declined or even perished.

“However, writing is also a kind of rune, so it certainly has some kind of power. Perhaps it’s best to truly understand its meaning,” Liu Sheng tentatively suggested.

"But those are all gods of the Eastern Empire. If those gods really exist, how could the Eastern Empire have fallen to this state?" Zhang Anna said nonchalantly. "Alright, let's not talk about that anymore. What should we do next? We're probably going to start spending money again, right?"

"Hmm, according to my mental calculation, there are 96 seconds left."

"The time is really tight. It's a pity I can't stay in that shop any longer. I was kicked out as soon as I sat there for a little while."

"That's because we didn't eat anything, otherwise we could have sat for a longer time."

“But they might stay here.” Zhang Anna pouted. “Speaking of which, what about the other three senior brothers?”

As they were talking, a figure dressed entirely in bright red rushed out of a shop with a sign that read "Xiangbala Malatang" not far away.

The figure seemed to still be standing outside, still shaken.

Turning his head, he saw Liu Sheng and the others. His snow-white eyes, whose eyelids had been burned off, looked at him as if they were filled with resentment and malice.

Anna Zhang didn't recognize her at first.

But when his gaze fell on a jade pendant hanging from the man's waist, he suddenly realized something and his heart skipped a beat.

"You are Huo Shu!"

"No, how did you become like this?"

"What about me?" Huo Shu sneered.

Zhang Anna dared not answer this question directly.

Although Huo Shu had a gloomy expression, he was still considered to have handsome features and a dashing appearance.

But now there's not a single patch of healthy skin on his entire body.

It was charred black again.

Below, the mottled peeling revealed bright red flesh.

There was still a layer of blood flowing from his body, dripping onto his feet.

In addition, there was a longsword dripping with blood in his hand.

He looked like a demon crawling out of hell.

It seems that if Zhang Anna dares to say anything he doesn't like, he will immediately take action without hesitation.

Although Zhang Anna likes to provoke, she only does so verbally. Now it seems that Huo Shu has gone mad. If they really fight, wouldn't she also suffer a loss?

"It's nothing, you just didn't follow the rules?"

"Ha, rules are only for the weak."

The large amount of red liquid flowing out from under the transparent plastic curtain also reveals the true meaning behind Huo Shu's words.

Zhang Anna felt increasingly uneasy:

Where is Senior Brother Sun?

"Heh, that bitch, she's trying to ruin me!" Huo Shu sneered. "But she doesn't know how strong I really am. I don't need to follow these rules at all. She dares to use the rules to trick me? I'll just kill her."

Everyone finally understood.

Sun Yiying's blood probably contains some of it.

"Junior brother..."

"I just feel resentful..."

"Why would you let me cooperate with you to fight for the position of Celestial Master? Don't we want it?"

The eerie voice echoed softly.

Everyone was startled and immediately looked towards the source of the problem. Inside the hot pot restaurant, a figure was standing close to the plastic curtain, almost squeezed on top of it, with the curtain jutting out as if it were about to be lifted at any moment.

But it still kept that person firmly locked inside, as if some unknown force was at play.

"Master, senior brother!" Zhang Anna exclaimed.

Huo Shu did not speak.

He just stared fiercely, his charred, bone-exposed hand unconsciously tightening its grip on the longsword.

"You are already dead!"

"Yes, I'm dead. I was just outmatched."

"But I wonder if you'll live to see the dawn?"

Sun Yiying's laughter was extremely strange. It entered my ears with the cold wind blowing through the night market, sounding as harsh as fingers scratching a blackboard.

Huo Shu knew he couldn't escape this curtain.

He felt a chill in his heart, but no fear. He raised his hand and threw a yellow talisman.

"go to hell!"

The yellow talisman was pasted on the plastic door curtain and immediately burst into flames. "Sun Yiying" inside screamed and then turned into a wisp of smoke, disappearing behind the door curtain.

Finally, the night market returned to tranquility.

Huo Shu sneered: "Look, what rules? You don't understand at all. The strongest way is to break through with force."

"What...what level are you at?" Zhang Anna frowned.

"Of course, it's the Nascent Soul stage."

"What!" Zhang Anna exclaimed in surprise, "When did you break through?"

"I don't need to tell you, but you need to understand—if I hadn't broken through, how would I have entered the trial space?"

Zhang Anna exclaimed in surprise, "You...you want to repeat the miracle of the 38th Celestial Master? To be conferred the title of Celestial Master at the same time as receiving the ordination?"

"of course."

Huo Shu's ugly and terrifying face only showed a cold expression, and Zhang Anna's words clearly pleased him.

"Therefore, I suggest you don't fight with me. You'd better cooperate obediently and leave all your reputation points to me."

At that moment, two tall, slender figures approached.

Wearing an elongated and deformed uniform, its face was blurred into a cloud of black mist, and its hands and feet were also thin, elongated mist.

This is probably the night market manager.

A black shadow spoke, its voice as swift as the wind:

"Fighting is prohibited in the night market. Didn't you read the night market's regulations?"

"You have violated the night market management regulations and must be subject to administrative detention."

"Ha, these rules are only for the weak. I don't need to be restricted at all!"

As he finished speaking, lightning flashed from the longsword in Huo Shu's hand.

He slashed straight down at the two administrators.

Suddenly, lightning tore through the darkness of the night market.

It also tore apart two figures.

Then, four identical administrators stood before him.

And it's taken another step closer.

"You have violated the night market management regulations and must be subject to administrative detention."

The administrators repeated this in unison.

Huo Shu was now blinded by rage and didn't care about anything else, unleashing another bolt of lightning.

As a result, eight administrators surrounded him.

"You have violated the night market management regulations and must be subject to administrative detention."

"You have violated..."

The repeated sounds also tore apart Huo Shu's brain nerves.

He had already lost his mind.

Now it seems like only he is left, and lightning bursts from his body, ready to blast away the darkness surrounding him.

But his attempt only pushed the darkness further.

Zhang Anna knew that time was of the essence, so she dared not look again and caught up with Liu Sheng and Qiao Yu once more.

They rushed into a snail rice noodle shop.

"I didn't expect that Huo Shu, who is already at the Nascent Soul stage, still can't beat these administrators!"

Zhang Anna did not continue watching.

However, it was clear that Huo Shu's attack methods had no deterrent effect on these administrators at all, as futile as trying to cut a shadow with a knife.

On the contrary, he himself is being driven crazy step by step.

The outcome is probably already decided.

"Of course, because they are all manifestations of the rules of this bizarre realm. The reason it's called a bizarre realm is that it's a universe in itself," Liu Sheng said calmly. "No matter how strong you are, can you defy the rules of the universe?"

“Now that you mention it, I understand,” Zhang Anna nodded. “I’ve discovered that you seem to know more about the supernatural than my master does!”

"Because I studied with the Special Affairs Bureau."

"Special Bureau?" Zhang Anna asked.

Liu Sheng narrowed his eyes and exchanged another glance with Qiao Yu.

"Yes, it's an organization."

"I see." Zhang Anna's eyes darted around. "I wonder if you could introduce me to someone after we get out?"

"Of course, I won't make things difficult for you. This trial will allow you to gain more reputation points."

"Oh? What do you plan to do?" Liu Sheng raised an eyebrow.

"I will help you break through to the core, and when you reach the core, I will leave the final blow to you."

“Okay.” Liu Sheng nodded.

Have you decided what you want to eat?

A familiar, gruff voice came from behind the counter, but the accent had changed slightly.

Looking in the direction of the sound, they saw a burly man with a buzz cut who looked exactly like the barbecue stall owner from before.

He had a strong smell of pickled bamboo shoots on him, which was simply mouthwatering.

"You!" Remembering she needed to be polite, Zhang Anna quickly asked respectfully, "May I ask if you have any brothers?"

"What bro? I don't understand what you're talking about." The boss snapped without even thinking. "Hurry up and order. We don't welcome people who just want to freeload off the air conditioning here."

It's so stuffy here, the smell of sour bamboo shoots is trapped inside, there's not a hint of air conditioning.
But Zhang Anna only dared to complain in her heart.

I dare not say it out loud.

Without a second thought, Liu Sheng and Qiao Yu each ordered a bowl of snail rice noodles.

"Aren't you afraid?" Zhang Anna asked in surprise.

Liu Sheng offered no explanation.

"What, what are you afraid of? Are you afraid of me?"

The burly boss's head loomed over, its dark shape completely obscuring Zhang Anna's view.

Anna Zhang quickly smiled ingratiatingly, "Of course not."

The boss then looked up, and the cold incandescent light once again enveloped Zhang Anna.

"Then hurry up and order, stop wasting my time with all that nonsense."

Zhang Anna sensed the other party's anger, so how could she dare to say anything more?

I obediently ordered a bowl of snail rice noodles with "more vegetables and less noodles," just like Liu Sheng's.

This girl is smart.

She can't possibly order the wrong thing, right?
Unexpectedly, Liu Sheng even added an extra portion of tiger skin trotters!
"You...hand..."

The thought of "equivalent exchange" made Zhang Anna's gaze fall on Liu Sheng's hands, her pupils trembling with tension.

However, even after the snail rice noodles arrived, along with a fried dish that looked like a real pig's trotter, the owner didn't mention cutting off Liu Sheng's hand.

"I haven't had snail rice noodles in ages, they're so delicious! You can only get them at restaurants run by the descendants of the culinary masters of the Eastern Empire. But they're too expensive, I can't afford them."

Zhang Anna breathed a sigh of relief, slurping her noodles as she mumbled, "But how do you know this is safe?"

"It's not Dahuang again..." Noticing the sharp look from the dog at Qiao Yu's feet, Zhang Anna quickly changed her tune, "Xiaotian told you, right?"

Liu Sheng shook her head.

He pointed to the boss.

"He told me."