[{"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-35":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},2299004,4497,"Chapter 35: How Can We Tell Apart","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-35",35,"\u003Cp>After witnessing the deaths of Gu Yunqing and Ye Miaozhu, Ning Zhe left the clinic and flew swiftly along the town’s main road.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to Zhang Yangxu’s own account, his entry into Hejia Village occurred when he stopped at a gas station; within a five-kilometer radius of Guzhen, there was only one official gas station: “Sunshine Gas Station.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe soon arrived above Sunshine Gas Station but saw no vehicle matching Zhang Yangxu’s; only a few ordinary sedans and cargo vans were parked sporadically—clearly incompatible with Zhang Yangxu’s status as a real estate tycoon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It seems Zhang Yangxu hasn’t arrived here yet,” Ning Zhe lowered his body, hiding atop a tall loquat tree beside the station, concealed by dense foliage, waiting patiently for Zhang Yangxu’s arrival.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During the wait, Ning Zhe organized his thoughts and reviewed the events in Hejia Village: 1, the serpent god “Zhao You” was native to Hejia Village, while “Tai Yi” was an outsider, a wandering ghost; 2, Tai Yi wandered through Hejia Village, manipulating villagers’ mistaken beliefs to steal the serpent god’s identity, driving Zhao You mad; 3, the symptoms of Zhao You’s madness remain unknown, as Ning Zhe successfully cleared Hejia Village before Zhao You went insane, so they never saw how the serpent god lost his mind;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>4, when Ning Zhe flipped through the almanac and violated the death taboo, he simultaneously possessed three identities: Ning Zhe, Tai Yi, and Zhao You.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The subsequent developments then become easy to deduce…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If the serpent god identity I hold is complete enough to deceive the rules, then the death taboo I violated by flipping the almanac would be treated as if the serpent god himself broke it—according to the rules, the serpent god must kill himself, meaning Zhao You.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But besides the serpent god Zhao You, I also possess the wandering ghost identity of Tai Yi; and since the serpent god’s eyes are both blind, it could easily mistake the one who broke the taboo as a ghost—so if the serpent god kills Tai Yi, it still complies with the rules.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Or there’s another explanation…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe turned his head, peering through gaps in the loquat leaves down at the gas station:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That the serpent god also mistook me for a ghost.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe could use the serpent god Zhao You’s identity to violate the death taboo, but only Zhao You himself knew whether the serpent god had ever flipped the almanac.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps to the serpent god, driven mad by a ghost stealing his identity, it was the wandering ghost Tai Yi who used his form to flip the almanac—Tai Yi attempting to exploit the death taboo to kill him outright. The serpent god had ample reason to believe this… yet in truth, the one who committed this mad act was merely a teenager named Ning Zhe, accidentally drawn into Hejia Village.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So when Hejia Village shattered, which one did the rules kill? The serpent god? Or the ghost? “Perhaps the answer is… all of them.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, the entity that stole the serpent god’s identity was not only Ning Zhe—many villagers were not deceived by him, and Tai Yi could easily transfer his own death taboo punishment back onto Zhao You.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that would only further cement the serpent god’s false belief that it was Tai Yi who flipped the almanac.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe lowered his head, examining the black-and-white feathers streaked with blue-green hues on his body, and the two talons gripping the branch tightly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The serpent god mistook me, the one who broke the taboo, for a ghost; the ghost then transferred his own death taboo punishment onto the serpent god; and this only reinforced the serpent god’s conviction that I was the ghost…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If my theory is correct, and both the serpent god and the ghost were killed by the falsely triggered rules, then the only one left in this world who still possesses the identity of ‘Tai Yi’ is me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Both the serpent god and the ghost were dead, and the one who cleared Hejia Village gained Tai Yi’s abilities. It fits perfectly with the logic of a monster-slaying game.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No wonder he’d previously suspected whether the Hejia Village Bai Zhi dreamed of was some game’s story Fuben .\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Speaking of Bai Zhi, why did she dream of Hejia Village?” Ning Zhe wondered: “I’ll go talk to her after seven tonight, when Auntie returns.” If Feng Yu Shu was still alive then.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While organizing his thoughts, Ning Zhe remained hidden atop the loquat tree, waiting quietly. About four hours later, at 11:31 a.m., a sleek black luxury business car entered his view.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe knew nothing about cars and couldn’t identify its brand or model, but instinctively felt it must be extremely expensive; he left the canopy of the loquat tree and landed in the nearby greenery, closer to the black car, observing silently.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shortly after the car stopped at the fueling spot, the rear door opened, and a tall woman in a women’s suit and black pencil skirt stepped out, walking directly toward the convenience store.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Xie Sining.” Ning Zhe recognized her at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to Xie Sining’s own account, she entered Hejia Village after buying cigarettes for Zhang Yangxu at the gas station and stepping out of the convenience store; Zhang Yangxu, waiting too long for her return, got out of the car to check—and at the moment he opened the door, he too was pulled into Hejia Village.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The facts proved that at least on this point, Zhang Yangxu and Xie Sining told the truth, and what followed matched their accounts exactly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From afar, Ning Zhe saw Xie Sining emerge from the convenience store after buying cigarettes, then collapse instantly, dropping dead right at the threshold, terrifying the store owner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Xie Sining is dead too. Then the next one must be Zhang Yangxu?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking this, Ning Zhe left the greenery, not taking flight, but hopping along the ground on bird talons until he reached beneath the luxury car.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Minutes later, Zhang Yangxu, growing impatient from Xie Sining’s prolonged absence, opened the other rear door. At that instant, the light in his eyes vanished, and his body slumped limply against the rear seat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yangxu was dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe seized the moment, leaping onto the car and transforming back from a magpie into his true form, sitting beside Zhang Yangxu’s corpse and slamming the door shut.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thud—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Master Zhang, what’s wrong?” The front-seat driver, startled by the loud door slam, asked in confusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The driver glanced up at the rearview mirror and saw “Zhang Yangxu” had somehow moved to the seat Xie Sining had just vacated—now even more puzzled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sining took too long,” came Zhang Yangxu’s smoky voice from Ning Zhe’s throat: “Go out and check on her. Hurry her up.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, Master Zhang. I’ll go right away.” The driver got out and headed toward the convenience store.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe took a deep breath, reached into Zhang Yangxu’s pocket beside him, pulled out his phone, then shoved the corpse into the trunk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—From Zhang Yangxu’s memories, Ning Zhe had learned this business car had no internal surveillance or recording devices, and its windows were one-way glass, invisible from outside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After hiding the corpse, Ning Zhe casually slipped Zhang Yangxu’s phone into the inner lining of his suit, sat calmly on the leather-reclined rear seat, and waited for the driver to return with news of Xie Sining’s death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1241,"2026-06-20T06:29:21.893Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","a34dc846a3d9857994a9885cbb95b4988009a024bc67901fa306ed1bed8686ab","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-36","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-34",353,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsurvival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-cover.jpg"]