[{"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-57":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},2299026,4497,"Chapter 57: The God Cannot Be Looked Upon","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-57",57,"\u003Cp>“Say that again, more clearly.” Ning Zhe frowned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I said we’ve encountered a ghost,” Bai Zhi said slowly, each word deliberate: “The ghost is watching us right now—don’t look directly at it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe fell silent for a moment, then glanced down at the time displayed on the car screen: 18:01.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t look directly at ghosts… is that the new rule?” Ning Zhe smiled. “Has our urban legend player returned?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“More accurately, don’t look directly at a god,” Bai Zhi said seriously, her eyes heavy with gravity: “A god is a macroscopic manifestation of a ghost; a ghost is a microscopic collapse of a god.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I feel like you’re quoting sci-fi…” Ning Zhe sighed. “Be specific—what’s the actual rule for this urban legend?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bai Zhi nodded and said: 1. The god is everywhere. 2. The god cannot be looked upon directly. 3. Beware those who have looked upon the god.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And… we must find a hiding place before sunset and get inside it,” Bai Zhi added firmly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“OK, that’s all?” Ning Zhe checked the screen—the time was still 18:01, and the nearest gas station was less than five kilometers away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Summer evenings in the south stayed light late; often, the sky remained bright until after seven, meaning Ning Zhe had at least an hour to drive the five kilometers to the gas station. Plenty of time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe pressed the accelerator, raising the speed to 110 kilometers per hour. The Lady of the Lake glided gracefully across the wide highway, leaving Taojiang far behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he drove, Ning Zhe asked: “You said a ghost was watching us—what do you mean?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bai Zhi shook her head: “I don’t know. I just suddenly felt it—an instinctive sense that some things can no longer be done.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In plain terms: she hadn’t seen the ghost, but she felt it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I hope your instincts are reliable,” Ning Zhe sighed, focusing on driving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At 18:10, Ning Zhe arrived at Sunshine Gas Station.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire drive had been eerily quiet—nothing had happened, not even another vehicle had passed. Normally, this wouldn’t have mattered, but after Bai Zhi’s words, perhaps due to psychological suggestion, Ning Zhe felt an odd atmosphere had settled over the highway.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, Sunshine Gas Station was still open. Ning Zhe parked the car, then shifted into Zhang Yangxu’s appearance and went straight to the station’s owner, requesting a room for the night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yangxu’s influence still held weight. Soon, Ning Zhe was given an unused room beside the convenience store—originally a storage closet, now cleared and cleaned by staff, with a bed set up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe tipped generously, so the staff worked quickly; by 19:00, he was settled in the room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first thing Bai Zhi did upon entering was to draw all the curtains and lock the door from inside—her movements fluid and practiced, as if she’d done this many times before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Last night at Bishui Bay Manor, you did the same thing—locked yourself in the room, motionless,” Ning Zhe asked calmly. “Is this enough?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Maybe. I’m not sure,” Bai Zhi shook her head. “Do you want to know what really happened at the manor last night?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe nodded. “Tell me.” Last night, Bishui Bay Manor had been sealed by unknown means—the space at its edges twisted so that any attempt to move outward was automatically bent inward, trapping everyone inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then someone had placed a ghost inside this sealed fortress.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That ghost was called Lei Te,” Bai Zhi continued. “Mother killed it, so she learned its name. She, like you, walked a path with no return.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Lei Te…” Ning Zhe murmured the name several times in his mind, realizing he seemed to have experienced something similar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he had deliberately broken the taboo in Hejia Village, he had naturally learned the names of the Snake God and the ghost impersonating it: Zhao You and Tai Yi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“After Lei Te was killed, the manor’s seal remained intact—we still couldn’t leave for the outside world,” Bai Zhi spoke clearly. “You were in terrible condition then. Your body was covered in other people’s facial features; snake scales and bird feathers surfaced on your skin. You felt extremely dangerous to me… I considered leaving you outside.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe nodded. His condition then had indeed been terrible—he didn’t even know who he was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But Mother didn’t abandon you,” Bai Zhi continued. “She hid you in her room and sent you out of the manor after dawn.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You mean—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes,” Bai Zhi went on. “After dawn, the manor’s seal automatically lifted. That means—even if you hadn’t risked your life to kill Lei Te—if you’d just hidden with me and waited for daylight, you could’ve escaped the anomaly and returned to reality.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her logic made sense, but Ning Zhe shook his head. “The seal lifted at dawn not because time passed, but because the one enforcing it no longer wished to maintain it—that’s all.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bai Zhi thought for a moment. “You’re right.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lei Te had been deliberately placed in the manor—not a rootless wandering ghost like Tai Yi that had drifted there by chance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ghosts are bound by no restraints; only rules can constrain them. Humans, however, live under societal constraints.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Powerful people might label the thirty-six dead as victims of an accident, but even the most twisted narratives have limits. The public’s basic moral sense isn’t clay to be molded at will.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, ceasing the manor’s seal at dawn may not have been impossible—but undesirable. That person didn’t want to pay too high a price for uncertain outcomes, inviting unnecessary trouble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“So what now?” Ning Zhe walked to the bed and sat down, reverting from Zhang Yangxu’s form to his own. “You told me to find a hiding place before sunset—does that mean this ghost’s rule is tied to day and night? Is there danger after dark?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I don’t know…” Bai Zhi shook her head, looking tense. “I can only sense that during the time the sun sets, there will be lethal danger.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She reached into a toolbox in the corner, pulled out a large wrench, jammed it into the door handle to lock it, then still felt uneasy—she checked the window’s security grille and every corner of the walls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only after confirming everything was secure did Bai Zhi relax, sitting beside Ning Zhe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From her words and actions, Ning Zhe added a fourth rule to this anomaly: 1. The god is everywhere. 2. The god cannot be looked upon directly. 3. Beware those who have looked upon the god.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>4. The danger is not from night itself, but from the period of sunset. (End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1100,"2026-06-20T06:29:21.893Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","952f8e479ae23a04523cc5c0b669610ba84a3e13a480e58fef5bc6c6d577d70d","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-58","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-56",353,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsurvival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-cover.jpg"]