Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 129 Rumors
Manager Ma fiddled with the abacus in front of the counter.

Before long, he looked at the numbers on the screen and beamed with joy.

Thank you, Guru; thank you, Buddha; thank you, Bodhi Temple; thank you, Three-Platform Dharma Assembly.
Thanks to this grand event, he earned more in the past two months than he did in the previous six months!
—It's good, but if the guests were a little more kind and gentle, it would be even better.

Manager Ma raised his eyes, but immediately lowered them again.

He looked as if he was afraid the other person would notice him.

Of course, this is understandable, since the guests sitting at the tables today look far too fierce compared to ordinary people.

The group at the table on the left were burly and strong; just sitting there, they naturally exuded a sense of someone who had been living on the edge of a knife—but compared to others, they were the most normal.

At the middle table sat several bald men, but judging from their appearance, the tools they used for begging for alms were probably not monks' alms bowls but steel knives at their waists, so they didn't look like good people.

The last table was occupied by a man as thin as a bamboo pole. Although his appearance was quite different from the previous two tables, he still gave off a very strange feeling.

—It was as if that person wasn't even alive.

In previous years, he would never have dared to receive such unpleasant guests, but now that the town is under the jurisdiction of a Tantric master, the manager is already used to such people.

Anyway, with the guru's decree in place, and it won't interfere with my making money, why bother with so much?

Manager Ma made a note in the ledger and then called over his employee.

"Xiao Liu, go and refill the tea for those guests at the second table, and ask them if they would like anything else."

When the shop assistant yelled "Hey!", Manager Ma turned his attention back to the abacus and began to calculate.

If things continue like this, I might be able to save up a small amount of money this year and even take a concubine, but only if my wife, who's past her prime, agrees.
Thinking of this, Manager Ma shuddered, and behind him, he vaguely heard the roar of a tigress and the blurry shadow of a broom.
Uh... let's talk about it another time.

Just as Manager Ma was sighing over the lack of authority in his household, the bell hanging in front of the inn suddenly rang.

Another guest has arrived?

"welcome."

Shopkeeper Ma excitedly raised his head, but his face immediately fell after he saw who it was.

The visitor was a Taoist priest.

Moreover, he was a Taoist priest who looked quite poor.

Leaving aside Manager Ma's penniless appearance, just look at his clothes—we've never seen such a dirty Taoist robe. It's more like a collection of tattered rags than a Taoist robe, covered in mud and dust, with many parts torn into shreds.

—What are Taoist priests doing these days? They don't even bother to maintain their own tools.
The shopkeeper rolled his eyes dramatically.

As the Dharma assembly approaches, more and more people like this come to beg.

However, when you're doing business, you have to be kind to others, so the shopkeeper took out two copper coins from the counter—after thinking for a moment, he put one back—and then called over his assistant.

"Xiao Liu, go and give this to the man at the door. Let him recite a few nice words, and then send him to another house so he doesn't disturb the master's business."

"Okay, shopkeeper."

The waiter, who had just finished refilling the water, wiped the sweat from his brow with his clothes, took the money, and jogged to the door, saying to the man.

"Hey, you Taoist priest, I'm talking to you. Are you begging for money? This is a reward from my boss. Just sing a few lines, no need for anything long. Hurry up and go to the next place."

The man caught the copper coin that was tossed to him, but instead of thanking him or complaining that the amount was too small, he stood there stunned for a while before smiling and asking.

"Hey buddy, at other restaurants, the customers pay the restaurant first, but at your place, you have to pay the customers upfront?"
-
—That ragged Taoist priest was none other than Zhou You.

Seeing the surprised look in his waiter's eyes, and then looking at his own attire, he immediately understood what was going on.

—Well, I guess I'm being treated like a beggar.

But you can't blame him for that.

The Taoist robe the system gave him when he first entered the script wasn't exactly new, but it wasn't in this state either. However, after fighting with the zombie Gu Master in that abandoned village for half the night, he didn't suffer any injuries, but his clothes were torn quite a bit.

After that, they endured wind and rain, sleeping outdoors, with little opportunity to wash up, which resulted in their current state.

It's not unfair that they were mistaken for beggars.

In the blink of an eye, inside the restaurant.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. I was blind just now and mistook you for a beggar." The shopkeeper apologized, but still kept glancing sideways at Zhou You.

The person in question knew what that meant.

So he took out a small piece of silver and placed it on the table.

Zhou You himself didn't have the money to pay the bill—but just like when Tai Sui happened, he was broke, but others were.

The two Gu masters, along with the surrounding corpses, were all searched. Although they didn't become rich overnight, they were at least able to make a living.

Upon seeing the silver, Manager Ma's face immediately lit up with a smile. He no longer had any doubts and bowed, asking ingratiatingly.

"Master Taoist, what would you like to order?"

Zhou You looked up at the menu hanging in the shop, but couldn't make heads or tails of it.

—Although the system gave him the ability to understand writing and language, the handwriting of the shopkeeper was really ugly, and it was mixed with a lot of dialect and slang, so after thinking for a while, he said casually.

"Give me three or four of your signature dishes, and a pot of wine too. That's all."

Manager Ma immediately replied with a "Yes, sir!"—but just as he was about to have the waiter notify the kitchen, he suddenly remembered something and spoke to Zhou You again.

"Well, if you know, Master, my family's signature dishes are almost entirely meat, and they also contain a lot of scallions, ginger, and garlic. Can you really eat them?"

Zhou You looked at himself.

Oh, by the way, some Taoist priests in this world are vegetarians.

Although we don't know which faction this person belongs to, our Yun Jing Sect is not averse to meat or vegetables. It is said that Xuan Yuan Daoist's favorite food was dog meat, so...
Zhou You waved goodbye.

“I can eat it all. In fact, I’m a carnivore. Let’s do whatever you say.”

The boss agreed and left.

Just as Zhou You was waiting for his food, a commotion suddenly broke out nearby.

Zhou You looked up and realized that the burly men at the table were arguing.

"I already told you, we can't attend that Three Altars Dharma Assembly, but you insisted on going anyway. Now look what's happened, we've already come all this way and we're only now realizing there's a big problem. What do you suggest we do?"

The scarred man, known as the fourth brother, also looked very aggrieved.

"Boss, how the hell did I know it would turn out like this this year! In previous years, this was just an ordinary Buddhist ceremony. Those monks were always generous; you could earn a lot of money just by standing guard for them for a few days. Who would have thought that this year it would turn into such a bloodbath—people from all over the country are rushing to the Bodhi Temple, and they're even killing each other like rivers of blood—this isn't a Buddhist ceremony, it's practically a martial arts tournament!"

At this point, another person chimed in.

"Hey, who says otherwise—by the way, you know that ugly old woman from the Five Immortals Sect in Southern Xinjiang, right? The one who slaughtered the entire village of Black Tiger Mountain next to us last time."

The two people who had just been speaking fell silent at the same time.

They looked as if they had heard something terrifying, and their expressions turned extremely ugly.

So only that person, oblivious to the situation, continued talking.

"Speaking of which, didn't you send me to see it, boss? It was truly horrific; the body parts in the entire village couldn't be pieced together to form a complete human body."

"Enough, Third Brother, what exactly are you trying to say!"

The burly man slammed his hand on the table and hissed in a low voice.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing the leader's reprimand, the third brother merely revealed a mysterious smile.

"Boss, don't be anxious, listen to me—this morning you asked me to go to the government office to find the travel permit that I could use to get back with money, right? Just as I was arguing with the clerk, I suddenly heard some of them talking about this."

The man called Third Brother lowered his voice and said in a deliberately mysterious tone.

“I heard from them that the witch doctor and her lover, including all her witch corpses, were all killed overnight.”

The third brother waved his hand and made a 'snap' gesture.

"Everyone was beheaded with a single sword strike, their heads cleanly and swiftly severed."

(End of this chapter)