Chapter 33: The Serpent God's Madness

The sweet, clear aroma of rice wine permeated the He family courtyard, where tables and chairs stood in rows. The sound of string and wind instruments playing in harmony drifted from afar, drawing closer, as if a heavy hammer were constantly striking Ning Zhe's skull.

The guests invited here believed they were raising their glasses to the Serpent God, but in reality, they were toasting him. In this fleeting moment, the ghost's rules were triggered hundreds of times. Erroneous perceptions constructed the medium for identity theft, and the complex memories of the Serpent God surged into Ning Zhe's mind.

But there was no time left to slowly sort through this information; with such a commotion, it was impossible for the ghost not to have noticed.

"No, perhaps it had already noticed as early as when I sat idly by and watched Lin Zhiyuan die..."

Because, to a certain extent, the ghost is the Serpent God.

Ning Zhe found a total of two puzzles in He Family Village: 【1: Why did the Serpent God go mad?】

【2: How does the ghost steal others' identities?】

The puzzle regarding the ghost had long been solved by Ning Zhe, and as he stole the Serpent God's identity to a certain degree, he was finally able to confirm that the answers to these two puzzles were actually the same.

"The reason the Serpent God went mad is that long before I even made a move, His identity had already been stolen by the ghost."

Ning Zhe curled up inside the Serpent God's throat, his small body trembling slightly.

Feeling the massive amount of information from the Serpent God's memories scouring his consciousness, in a trance, Ning Zhe felt as if he were that green jade serpent with horns on its head. Its long body transformed into water veins, winding and crawling through this peaceful little village, quietly passing an immeasurable amount of long time. Then, one day, a nameless wandering ghost arrived, gradually breaking down the peaceful days.

The formless ghost wandered in front of and behind the houses of He Family Village, gradually bending people's perceptions thread by thread, slowly stealing the Serpent God's identity bit by bit. Its long body gradually decayed during the process of being replaced, until everyone who knew of the Serpent God's existence regarded the ghost as the Serpent God... The true Serpent God went mad just like that.

The Serpent God's long memories gradually faded, and in the end, it was like waking up from a long dream.

The time Ning Zhe experienced in the Serpent God's memories was so long, so long that it felt as if the short 18 years of life he had experienced as 'Ning Zhe' were the only dream.

"So dangerous..." Ning Zhe opened his eyes abruptly, as if waking from a dream.

Using the ghost's rules to steal others' identities and life experiences might seem interesting, but it is actually extremely dangerous. The previous few attempts were just minor skirmishes, but the Serpent God was extraordinary. Its complex memories and long life rushed down like a rolling torrent, scouring Ning Zhe's own memories and personality.

Sadness, resentment, fear, joy, madness... all sorts of emotions from the Serpent God churned in Ning Zhe's mind. He was only a hair's breadth away from forgetting who he was.

Ning Zhe quickly repeated the ghost's rules in his heart to stabilize his mind:

【When someone mistakes the ghost for someone they know, using 'erroneous perception' as a medium, the ghost can steal the corresponding person's identity, as well as all information related to that identity.】

When the stolen identity is complete enough, it can even deceive the Serpent God, transferring the punishment for violating taboos onto the person whose identity was stolen.

Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu both died this way, and Ning Zhe himself was almost deceived, lost in the long memories, regarding himself as the Serpent God.

"But this stolen identity didn't even fool me completely; can it fool the Serpent God?" Ning Zhe asked himself softly.

But immediately, he felt relieved. "... Who knows? Come on, whether I live or die depends on this one move..."

Ning Zhe struggled and slowly crawled out of the Serpent God's mouth. His black and white wings were stained with blood, the feathers were filthy and greasy, and covered with pitch-black mold spots.

Under the watchful eyes of hundreds of guests in the He family courtyard, this magpie that crawled out of the Serpent God's mouth shed its black feathers and transformed into a handsome young man covered in wounds.

In the main hall of the residence where the Lotus Platform was located, two dignitaries in brocade clothes and jade shoes sat on the left and right; the man and woman were the Master and Lady of this grand mansion.

The strange music continued to play, and the headless servant was still shaking his head and blowing his double-reed wind instrument, while cup after cup of wine stopped in mid-air.

Below the Lotus Platform, two maids wrapped in brocade led a softly charming woman dressed in full regalia, walking forward with tiny, graceful steps. Her delicate and exquisite figure was dignifiedly wrapped in a loose, bright red dress. On her pale, snowy face, a faint touch of red plum blossom was dotted, and her bright red lips held a trace of ethereal resentment. Looking higher, however, the rest of her facial features could not be seen.

With jade butterflies and emeralds, and quiet jade flowing with light, this girl without facial features, yet dressed in full regalia, bowed gracefully under the support of the two maids, kneeling before the Serpent God. Then, her cherry lips parted slightly, and a faint voice drifted from her throat: 【Only ask of the gentleman's arrival, do not ask of the gentleman's return...】

"I don't know why you would want to marry a female snake, but if the Serpent God were a male, I could understand you to some extent." Ning Zhe said this casually, then sat panting before the Lotus Platform, silently reaching out toward the fragmented Serpent God corpse pieces before him.

In the deathly silence of the hall full of guests, Ning Zhe's fingertips pinched a corner of the almanac, and the mournful singing lingered at his fingertips.

"I now possess three important identities... Serpent God, Ghost, Ning Zhe..." Ning Zhe whispered to himself in his heart, closing his eyes and flipping the withered yellow paper upward. The almanac was thus flipped to tomorrow.

The next moment, Ning Zhe opened his eyes: "Then, which identity will I use to bear the punishment for violating the death taboo?"

Ning Zhe's question was not answered.

The moment he flipped open the almanac and lowered his gaze, everything before him shattered.

It was as if someone had punched and shattered the mirror on the bathroom wall, and fine cracks spread through the surrounding air.

The two rules that originally did not interfere with each other and operated independently produced a fatal conflict due to Ning Zhe's current actions, like two misaligned and jammed gears creaking, causing this world built on rules to fall apart.

The moment before losing his vision, Ning Zhe seemed to hear someone screaming, and someone else wailing in sorrow, but he couldn't tell who was who, and couldn't even determine if the one making the crying sound was someone else or himself.

When Ning Zhe's consciousness became clear again, soft, cotton-like sunlight entered his eyes, and he was slightly stunned.

Lowering his head, Ning Zhe saw that he was stepping on a wooden threshold that was uneven due to years of wear, and in his hand, he was gripping an old door knocker covered in copper paint. A heavy, simple red-lacquered gate in front of him had just been pushed open by him.

Ning Zhe walked into the gate, subconsciously casting his gaze toward the right side of the gate, seeing the old camphor tree that he often climbed and played on with the neighbor's younger siblings when he was a child. A raw wood table was placed under the shade of the tree, and red and yellow fallen leaves were piled on the table, which seemed not to have been cleaned for a long time.

Ning Zhe took a deep breath of the familiar air and walked forward along the path overgrown with weeds.

"I'm home."

At this very moment, it was the exact moment he pushed open the gate of his old family home and entered He Family Village.

Since he didn't die when he returned to reality, it was obvious that at least one of the ghost and the Serpent God had died.

Or did both die?

The strange world where He Family Village was located had completely shattered due to the jamming of the rules, but the Serpent God and the ghost might not both be dead. Regardless of which one it was, both were extremely dangerous. In any case, he had to find a way to confirm their status...

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration crossed his mind. Ning Zhe didn't know what he had thought of; he stopped his steps and looked up slightly, lost in thought.

The next instant, a fluttering magpie flew onto the canopy of the camphor tree.

At the same time, a word with an unclear meaning suddenly surfaced in Ning Zhe's heart. No one had ever explained the meaning of this word to Him, but Ning Zhe subconsciously felt that this was a name.

It was the name of the ghost that had once stolen the Serpent God's identity: "Its name is... 【Taiyi】."

The Serpent God's name was 【Zhaoyou】, and the ghost's name was 【Taiyi】.

Do their names have any special significance? (End of chapter)