Rules of the Strange: I Became a God in a Bizarre World Through Taoist Arts

Shen Xingzhuo grabbed Hua Jiuyue's wrist and ran up the stairs, leaping over five or six steps at a time.

Shen Xingzhuo counted the steps; each level had exactly forty-nine steps.

She vaguely grasped some clue in her mind.

But behind them, a cloud of blood swirled, and several times they were just a few steps away from catching up with the two.

We finally reached the fourth floor.

Shen Xingzhuo knew very well that the dormitory was located diagonally opposite the stairwell.

But once she got to the fourth floor, she looked around and saw that the stairwell had turned into an octagonal room, with each door located diagonally opposite the staircase.

Shen Xingzhuo made a quick decision, pulling Hua Jiuyue up to the fourth-floor platform and turning back to close the stairwell door.

"This...can it really stop it?" Hua Jiuyue asked, puzzled. "If something is being carried from behind, it'll be fog; it could easily slip through the crack in the door, right?"

Shen Xingzhuo nodded quickly, "Yes, we'll hold them off for as long as we can."

"Our dorm room is 404, but not only is the space distorted, even the room number has disappeared."

"I remember when I came out, the room door was diagonally opposite the stairwell..."

As Shen Xingzhuo spoke, blood mist began to seep in through the cracks at the bottom of the door.

Time is tight.

Unexpectedly, Hua Jiuyue grabbed her collar and dragged her into one of the dorm rooms.

"Thump!"

The blood mist struck the door with a loud thud.

When Shen Xingzhuo was dragged into the room, the back of his head hit the door frame, but before he could even feel the pain, Hua Jiuyue had already locked the door behind him.

The two leaned against the door, listening to the sound of blood mist hitting the door outside.

The sounds were unlike anything you'd hear in fog—too solid, like something shrouded in fog was repeatedly banging against the door, trying to pry it open.

"You chose this one?" Shen Xingzhuo rubbed the back of his head and looked at Hua Jiuyue.

"There was no choice," Hua Jiuyue said. "While you were hesitating, the blood mist had already seeped in through the crack in the door."

If I wait for you to choose, we'll both be standing in the hallway, enveloped in fog. At least there's a door here.

Shen Xingzhuo didn't refute. She quickly glanced at the dormitory room—the layout was almost identical to 404, but the bed was empty, the desk was bare, the surface was covered in dust, and all the objects were covered with a thick layer of dust, indicating that the dormitory room had not been occupied for some time.

All four beds were covered with identical white sheets, and there were no personal belongings or signs of habitation.

"No one lives in this dormitory," Shen Xingzhuo said, walking to the window and glancing inside.

The windows were sealed shut, not with ordinary locks, but with four iron bars nailed to the window frame from the outside, evenly spaced. Only a blurry light could be seen from outside, but no specific scenery could be seen.

The windowpane was covered with a layer of dust, as if it hadn't been wiped for a long time.

Hua Jiuyue also came over, glanced at the iron bars, and said, "It's not to keep people out, it's to keep people out." Shen Xingzhuo did not answer, but her silence was already a tacit agreement.

She returned to the door, bent down to look at the bottom of the crack, and saw that the blood mist was still seeping out, but at a slower pace than before.

The blood mist itself was no longer so thick, as if it was being gradually diluted by something.

"Did you count the steps just now?" Hua Jiuyue asked.

"Level 49 per floor," Shen Xingzhuo said. "Every floor is the same."

Hua Jiuyue paused for a moment, then said, "Level 49, seven times seven is forty-nine. You said you'd seen this number before?"

"In the Xuanmen (Taoist school), this number is 'severance'," Shen Xingzhuo said. "Forty-nine days after a person dies is the time when their soul completely leaves the mortal world. After this time, they can't come back. This school makes each floor with forty-nine steps, not so that you can walk on them—but to remind you that you are going down."