[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world":3,"chapter-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-343":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Survival Guide in a Mysterious World",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2299312,4497,"Chapter 343: Pulling the Firewood from Under the Pot","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-343",343,"\u003Cp>Fen Wu sipped lightly from his glass of gin, studying with interest Ning Zhe, who had failed to catch up to Mei Lin beside the balcony railing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy looked no more than seventeen or eighteen, his fair, delicate face still youthful, caught in puberty; a faint scholarly air in his demeanor confirmed his student status, yet this frail, refined young student had captured the wandering ghost Tai Yi, taken away Zhao You, killed Yu Ziqian, and repeatedly escaped Fen Wu’s pursuit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ning Zhe…?” Fen Wu squinted slightly, murmuring to himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Zhao You was taken away by unknown parties, he immediately investigated all disappearances and accidental deaths within Gubei Town during that period, and had full access to the survivors’ information from the massacre at Bishuiwan Estate; Fen Wu had long noticed this high school student named Ning Zhe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An ordinary senior high school student, he survived his first encounter with the bizarre and successfully mastered both Tai Yi and Zhao You. He killed Yu Ziqian in a single glance and faced off against Fen Wu—a man who had walked the Ascension Path for decades—multiple times, never losing ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Could a young boy who had never entered society truly possess such qualities?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or was the “true identity” of this Ning Zhe, now exposed, merely another mask?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ning Zhe, are you truly a genius born with an innate understanding of the Ascension Path? Or are you some ancient undead crawling out of a dark tomb?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As these doubts troubled Fen Wu, hurried footsteps echoed down the backstage corridor of the opera house.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mei Lin strode swiftly through the empty corridor, winding through turns until she reached a door, kicked it open, and saw a wall-mounted monitor divided into multiple display zones—this was the surveillance room of the Saint Gelia Opera House.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside the surveillance room stood a small square wooden table, upon which rested an equally square chessboard; black and red pieces lined the two sides of the river and the border. A slender, delicate girl sat quietly before it, her back to the door; seeing this, Mei Lin’s heart leapt: “Miss!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are you all right?” Mei Lin hurried to the girl’s side and asked: “Did you encounter anything suspicious here?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One second, two seconds, three seconds—the smile that had just appeared froze on Mei Lin’s face. There was no answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pu Lumeiya sat motionless beside the table, her thick, soft, seaweed-like long hair cascading over her slender shoulders; her ink-black eyes stared blankly at the chessboard before her. Mechanically, she raised her hand and pushed one piece forward one square, utterly ignoring Mei Lin’s arrival.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...” Mei Lin gently nudged her shoulder, but received no response, as if pushing a roly-poly toy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mei Lin’s face grew pale. She crept slowly to the opposite side of the board, leaned down, and stared into the girl’s black eyes, searching for any trace of living emotion—she found none.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pu Lumeiya sat motionless before the table like a soulless puppet, her hollow eyes devoid of any readable feeling or gaze, fixed only on the chessboard before her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How could this happen...” Mei Lin’s eyes welled with tears, her hands trembling as she covered her mouth; tears rolled down her cheeks: “No, this shouldn’t be... Miss, I...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet Mei Lin’s grief lasted only a few seconds before it abruptly ceased—the falling tears climbed back up her cheeks and returned to her eyes. Pu Lumeiya’s eyes remained empty, but one slender, pale arm rose like a machine obeying a command, pulling the moved piece back one square.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She had taken back her move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the room saturated with the scent of gin and rotting flesh, the curtain Ning Zhe had lifted fell back into place, defying gravity; the entire opera house’s time reversed, his footsteps retreating step by step back to his seat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe sat on the sofa, looked up, and saw a blood-smeared smiling face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No next time,” Fen Wu said. “You’re excellent. Truly excellent. I’ve rarely failed so many times against the same person—so there won’t be a next time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cat-and-mouse chase was over. No next time. Ning Zhe froze for a moment, then instantly understood—he was trapped. The gambler’s rule “No Leaving” had sealed the space; Pu Lumeiya’s chessboard had sealed time; space and time here were frozen, fate here ended.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had nowhere to run.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fen Wu’s target from the beginning had never been just Zhao You—or not only Zhao You—but him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s over,” Fen Wu said, holding the glass stem and raising it toward him distantly. “It was delightful playing hide-and-seek with you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m truly sorry I didn’t make you use your full strength,” Ning Zhe suddenly smiled, a wild, manic grin. “But have you ever heard the idiom ‘The Cornered Beast Fights’?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fen Wu smiled too. “A beast caught in a hunter’s trap will fight with all its strength at the brink of death—that’s when the hunt becomes most dangerous.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He pointed to his temple with a finger and grinned. “Go ahead. Try.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had already prepared to “take back the move.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Fine, I’ll try,” Ning Zhe raised his right hand, forming a pistol gesture with his index and middle fingers pointed at his own temple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His lips parted slightly, uttering a soft:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Bang—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fen Wu frowned, puzzled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What did that mean? A desperate trick? Or... was there some hidden move he didn’t know?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fen Wu’s confusion didn’t last long—because the next moment, he lost the ability to think.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beside Ning Zhe, Baidang—who had sat silently watching the two—suddenly widened his eyes. He saw clearly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man who had just been lounging, sipping wine, and looking relaxed suddenly collapsed onto the sofa with a thud, without warning. His once-alert eyes turned hollow and dull, stripped of all life, emotion, or thought—like an empty shell with its soul drained.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In a sense, Baidang’s intuition was correct: this “Fen Wu” before him had indeed been drained of his soul.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Did you do this?” Baidang frowned, watching Ning Zhe with wary eyes. “What did you do?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I just erased his memories,” Ning Zhe said casually. “Relax. Next is you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His voice was flat, tone stiff and cold. Beneath his messy hair, his face had already changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dragon Boat Festival greetings! I took yesterday off for the holiday.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Did anyone understand Ning Zhe’s move?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1057,"2026-06-20T06:29:22.815Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","4c6f42cda0f8a90b7433c662c1e1835b0f6818000d2aa8dc295e3230760485d6","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-344","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-342",353,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsurvival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-cover.jpg"]