[{"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-77":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},2299046,4497,"Chapter 77: Strange Archive","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-77",77,"\u003Cp>On June 9, 2018, Bai Fugui completed all follow-up checks at the hospital, confirmed his health was fine, and left Qinzhou with his wife and daughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the incident at Bishuiwan Estate and the mysterious deaths of Ye Miaozhu, Gu Yunqing, and others in town, Xinjiayuan Group, which had lost over a dozen executives, lost interest in bidding for the Huhu Scenic Area in Guzhen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All lobbying teams involved in the bidding had withdrawn, leaving only a few personnel to monitor potential downstream industries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The main body of the project was unquestionably taken by Zhang Yangxu’s New World Group, though they had no real desire to do so. Internally, the project was viewed with pessimism; most tacitly accepted it as a murky undertaking, where merely breaking even counted as success.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe, posing as Zhang Yangxu, stayed in Taoyuan City for several days—both to handle work and to organize essential information before departure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After carefully summarizing Yu Zi’s life experiences, Ning Zhe learned that at least three unwritten rules existed within the Ascender circle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>1: 【Ascenders never casually reveal their identities】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyone encountered during a strange event could be an Ascender in disguise—or merely an ordinary person who stumbled in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>2: 【Ascenders never reveal their core rules to anyone, not even closest kin】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is easy to understand: core rules are an Ascender’s very life. Just as Ning Zhe, knowing Lei Te’s rule, could easily kill Feng Yu, someone who knew Taiyi’s rule could use it to murder Ning Zhe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>3: 【Ascenders never easily kill another Ascender】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is not due to mutual sympathy or legal restraint, but because when an Ascender dies, the micro-collapsed rule within their body expands macroscopically, pulling vast regions of reality into a strange event.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the most seasoned Ascender cannot guarantee survival in every strange event.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Ascender circle has no laws—only mutual fear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe wrote these rules in ink with a fountain pen onto a newly opened leather-bound notebook. Besides the Ascender circle’s unwritten rules, the notebook also recorded the rules of several ghosts:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tie Liang, who stepped on shadows; Zhao You, who avoided misfortune and sought fortune; Ye Yao, who traveled detached from the body; and Taiyi, formless and invisible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had condensed all the information he knew about ghosts into this single notebook: the Strange Archive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, if he could avoid it, Ning Zhe would not have done this—the reason has already been stated: Ascenders never reveal their rules to anyone. Writing them down on paper risked catastrophe if someone ever obtained this Strange Archive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet Ning Zhe still chose to do it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Before I find and truly master the ghost with the Thought Stamp rule, my self-identity remains at risk of confusion.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe understood his condition clearly: “I don’t know the limits of Taiyi’s simulation. If one day my cognition still becomes muddled, my memories scrambled or lost, and I become a mindless stranger… then perhaps this Strange Archive might help me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe. Who knows?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a moment’s thought, Ning Zhe picked up his fountain pen again and added subpoints beneath the entry: 【Ascenders never easily kill another Ascender】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ascenders never easily kill another Ascender… though exceptions do exist.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After careful consideration, Ning Zhe wrote a new entry in the Strange Archive: —Ascenders may kill another Ascender under the following conditions:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>1, The other possesses a rule the Ascender desperately needs\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example, the dying Yu Zi, in his final moments, furiously hunted survivors of the Bishuiwan Estate incident to find Tie Liang and extend his life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If future Ning Zhe, on the brink of losing himself, found the ghost with the Thought Stamp rule—only to discover it was already mastered by someone else—then at that moment, Ning Zhe might become the next desperate Yu Zi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>2, The Ascender has fully understood all rules the other possesses\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Understanding the rules means that even after killing the Ascender, one has high confidence of surviving the strange event that unfolds upon their death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the cost of killing becomes bearable, the mutual non-aggression pact among Ascenders becomes meaningless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>3, Someone knows the Ascender’s core rule\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Refer to point 2: the core rule is an Ascender’s life. Once it is cracked, killing them becomes an option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An Ascender will pursue to the death anyone who cracks their rule—whether that person is an ordinary human or another Ascender.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If any one of these conditions is met, there is a probability of Ascenders killing each other… Conversely, when none of these conditions are met, the extreme case of an Ascender killing another almost never occurs.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>=9+ Shu _ Ba\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ning Zhe paused his pen with a dot at the end of the entry, waited fifteen seconds for the ink to dry, then closed the Strange Archive, fastened its clasp, and slipped the leather-bound notebook inside his chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A few minutes later, a knock came at the door. Ning Zhe said, “The door’s unlocked,” and Zhang Yangxu’s assistant entered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mr. Zhang, the flight to Yunzhou departs in two hours. We can head over now.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright, let’s go.” Ning Zhe stood, and together with the assistant, left the hotel for the airport.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Yangxu’s assistant was highly professional; within hours, Ning Zhe had arranged round-trip flights and accommodation upon arrival with a single instruction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though he asked no questions aloud, the assistant was puzzled: the contract for the Guzhen project had barely begun drafting, yet Zhang Yangxu insisted on flying immediately to Yunzhou, claiming that Ji Baichang, the famed calligrapher, had died yesterday and he must attend the funeral…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The assistant didn’t understand: how could a scholar’s funeral be more urgent than a concrete corporate contract worth real gold and silver?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, according to the assistant’s knowledge, although Zhang Yangxu owned many of Ji Baichang’s calligraphy pieces, their personal relationship was not particularly close.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji Baichang’s children had merely sent polite invitations to prominent collectors who owned many of the elder’s artworks—such invitations were ceremonial, not substantive. Attending was a gesture of goodwill; declining was equally acceptable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet Zhang Yangxu had gone—booked the earliest flight, scheduled the tightest itinerary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ve never seen Mr. Zhang care so much about scholars before…?” the assistant was baffled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet as an ordinary man, he did not know that those invited to the funeral were not only Zhang Yangxu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But also Yu Zi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1057,"2026-06-20T06:29:21.893Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","b47418b4b6b5db417b5cc4eb0d386a4febf8dacc578356233b08b2ab4ce55d4d","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-78","survival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-chapter-76",353,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsurvival-guide-in-a-mysterious-world-cover.jpg"]