Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 492 The Second Day

Zhou You's eyebrows furrowed slowly.

However, he did not rush to reply, but took a few steps back—but just as he was about to leave the place, the hairs on the back of his head suddenly stood on end.

—That was a warning given purely by instinct after so long of fighting.

If we take another step back, we will die.

Naturally, Zhou You's steps came to a stop.

He looked up at the faint sunlight filtering in.

It's still daytime, and normally there shouldn't be such a dangerous situation.
Remembering Xuan Cheng's gloating face, Zhou You silently spat, then walked forward with an extremely shrewd air and asked.

"Who are you? What's going on, and why are you asking me to save you?"

The voice in the book paused, then suddenly became extremely shrill.

"This sect is full of monsters, monsters everywhere, utter monsters, I—"

The scream was so piercing that it felt like it was shaking his brains – suppressing the urge to vomit, Zhou You said with a furrowed brow.

"Please be quiet for a moment. Can you explain what happened clearly?"

Upon hearing this, the voice finally softened, and then all that could be heard was the anxious explanation.

“Listen to me, I was originally a disciple of the sect, but I was forcibly assigned to do odd jobs here—and like you, I'm new here too. I didn't pay much attention to this job at first, but after that old man told me about putting down the last book, I suddenly felt dizzy, and when I woke up, I was trapped inside this book. Oh, and I also discovered the sect's fatal flaw in the book. I have to get out, I have to get out.”

The voice repeated itself in a neurotic manner, and Zhou You suddenly interrupted it.

"How do you want me to save you?"

Upon hearing this, the voice in the book suddenly became overjoyed and began to speak rapidly, like a machine gun.

"It's simple. Didn't the old man say you had to put the book in the right place? Just do the opposite and put me in the wrong spot on that bookshelf. That way, I can get out. And don't worry, there's a reward. Once I'm out, I can help you escape this hellhole. I know the sect's weaknesses; they can't catch me. They absolutely can't catch me."

Zhou You thought for a moment, bent down and picked up the book, but did not look at the contents. Instead, he turned the page from which the sound was coming out to the side and glanced at the cover.

The fourth row of bookshelves on the right is just around the corner; it's not far.

Zhou You moved his body little by little in a strange posture—with the book pages open, trying to avoid aligning himself with the inside of the book—and got to the right spot.

Seeing that escape was imminent, the voice in the book suddenly became excited.

"That's right, that's right! After we leave here, whatever you ask for, I can get it for you. Whether it's the fundamental cultivation techniques of this sect or those precious pills, I know many ways to obtain them, as long as you..."

The sound suddenly stopped abruptly.

Zhou You slammed the book shut and, before the voice inside could react, shoved it into the bookshelf.

—The same number as in the book, the exact correct location.

The character in the book was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly began to shout and curse.

"What the hell have you done?! Are you insane?! This means we'll both die, why?"

Zhou You's reply was only one sentence.

"Dude, I'm not trying to be mean, but your acting is just awful—do you think you're some kind of old man in a ring? If you're going to try to fool people, you should at least go back and practice for a few years first."

The voice seemed to be choked up, suddenly falling silent, but soon bursting into a frantic tirade.

"You little bastard, you just wait! I'll kill you sooner or later! I'll make you suffer the same torment of being locked in this book! I'll make sure you're never reincarnated!"

The rest was mostly vulgar language, but with Zhou You's thick skin, he couldn't even break through that defense. He turned around and strolled back to tidying up the books.

And so time passed little by little amidst the cursing. Eventually, perhaps tired of cursing, the contents of the book quieted down. However, Zhou You also noticed a problem, though he didn't know why. Although people continued to return books, no matter how many times he carried them, the pile of books never decreased.

It felt as if as soon as one book was returned, another would immediately appear to refresh the shelves, an endless stream of new books. Similarly, the bookshelves seemed never to be full; no matter how many books were added, there would always be a perfectly sized empty space.

Fortunately, there's no such thing as having to finish everything here.

As the sun began to set, the old man slowly walked downstairs again, speaking indistinctly with his few remaining teeth.

"Is everything sorted out?"

Zhou You remembered how he had addressed Senior Sister Xuanji before, so he politely bowed first before speaking.

"Uncle Chen, I'm sorry, I've been working for half a day and this is all I've accomplished."

Uncle Chen stared at him with his cloudy eyes for a while, then staggered over, touched the pile of books, and after a long while, sighed.

"Alright, you're just starting out. If you can't finish it, you can't finish it. But you're still a young man, you should try your best."

Zhou You nodded in agreement.

—Throughout the entire process, neither side mentioned any unusual occurrences.

After leaving the library, Zhou You managed to get back to the cafeteria before the sunset painted the sky.

Coincidentally.

And then they bumped into Lin Yunshao, who had just returned.

Unlike in the morning, the once perfectly healthy little girl was now covered in patches of coal dust, her face was blackened, and she looked as if she had fled from Africa.

Seeing this, Zhou You couldn't help but laugh out loud—only to be met with a threatening hiss from the little girl.

"Senior brother, have you laughed enough?"

Seeing that the other party was finally about to get angry, Zhou You shut up.

"Have you laughed enough? No, Junior Sister Lin, are they dumping all the work on you? How did you end up like this?"

Lin Yunshao looked at her own figure, her small face scrunched up, and sighed helplessly.

"The senior brothers and sisters over there were relatively kind; they didn't make me do any heavy work. It's just that I'd never experienced anything like this before, so I was a bit clumsy and fell several times."

However, after saying that, she seemed to remember something, looked around again, and then whispered to Zhou You.

"Senior brother, but I seem to have discovered something else."

"What's the problem?" The little girl suddenly frowned.

"Something seems off about this Taoist temple."

A few seconds later, she spoke as if she were very hesitant.

"I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong, but when we were moving things through the front gate, I noticed that the senior students would always deliberately avoid certain passageways. Even if they absolutely had to go through, they would first form groups of three or five and then run across the other side like they were fleeing a disaster."

—Does this problem exist elsewhere?

Zhou You thought for a moment, then shook his head and gently patted Lin Yunshao on the shoulder.

"Forget it, don't think too much about it. Just follow the senior brothers and sisters and never get separated from them under any circumstances. Also, never pay attention to anything that looks strange, understand?"

Seeing Zhou You's serious face, the little girl didn't say much this time, only nodding hesitantly.

Back to the cafeteria.

In this Five Aggregates Contemplation, there are only two meals a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

In the morning, they ate with the servants, but by the afternoon, only the young Taoists remained. Due to their different duties, they ate in different batches. Zhou You and Lin Yunshao were the last to arrive, and by the time they entered the room, there were hardly any people left at the seats.

Dinner was more lavish than breakfast—there was plenty of steamed buns and pickled vegetables, and each person was given a large, plump duck leg. Although it was salted far too much, just as overly salty as the pickled chicken we had before, it was still a rare treat.

Zhou You was enjoying his meal, holding a duck leg in one hand and a steamed bun in the other, when a noisy voice suddenly reached his ears.

"Hey, look who I see here! Isn't this Junior Brother Zhou? Hey, I went to great lengths to throw you in that place, and you still managed to come back alive? You're as tenacious as a rat."

Zhou Youming knew who it was, but he didn't bother to pay any attention to it, focusing instead on tearing apart the duck leg in front of him.

After a while, seeing no response, the man became visibly anxious and poked Zhou You again with the leather whip in his hand.

"I'm talking to you, didn't you hear me?"

At this moment, Zhou You slowly turned around, glanced at the furious face, and then lowered his head to admit his mistake.

"Excuse me, senior brother, your voice is so peculiar that I thought the duck was alive."

"you!"

The man—that is, Xuan Cheng—picked up the whip and was about to strike, but after looking around, he held back his anger and put it back.

After what happened this morning, Zhou You realized that things were different inside the Taoist temple than outside. Outside, it would be easy for Xuan Cheng to kill a child, as long as it didn't exceed the limit. At most, he would suffer a punishment later. But inside the Taoist temple, it was different. Even if someone was offended, he could only scold them once or twice, and it would be difficult for him to even take action.

Moreover, among the senior brothers and sisters in the same batch, his status seemed to be the lowest—that is, Senior Sister Xuanji's status was obviously much higher than his, at least she could take one child directly from the children without being notified.

Of course, Zhou You knew that if he just brooded it over like that, he would definitely be held a grudge, but what was that saying again?
The more debts you have, the less likely you are to be burdened. Since the original owner of this body has already offended them to death, why should I still be so subservient? I'll just enjoy myself while I can.

Xuan Cheng stared at Zhou You with murderous intent for a while before grinning.

"Good, very good. Junior brother, you truly are a young prodigy, always possessing a certain sharpness—but I wonder how long you can keep it up?"

—Tsk, why does that sound so familiar? Should I add a line like "Don't underestimate a young man's potential"?

Xuan Cheng didn't pay any attention to it. Instead, he looked at Zhou You with a strange expression for a while, then snorted and turned to leave. Zhou You simply took the cold duck leg, sat back down, and continued eating his meal.

On the contrary, Lin Yunshao seemed somewhat worried.

"Senior brother, if you speak like that, I'm afraid there will be consequences later."

Zhou You simply smiled and reassured him.

"Don't worry, he's all bark and no bite. He's just a petty person and won't cause any trouble."

Lin Yunshao opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he shook his head, lowered his head, and remained silent.

Nothing more was said after that.

Soon, night fell again.

It was still that same little house.

Honestly, this is the first day of my formal travel experience. After traveling around non-stop, I feel that everything in this place is done in a routine manner.

Get up on time, eat on time, attend classes on time, work on time, and go to bed on time.

It's like a completely formulaic management system.

However, this also gave Zhou You time to be alone, and even time to think and organize his thoughts.

He squatted on the ground, using wax as a pen, writing down his guesses.

"First of all, the scenario of the Five Aggregates Temple is completely different from what I've experienced. In other instances, even those involving evil cultivators, they try their best to avoid pollution. But the Five Aggregates Temple seems to have completely integrated pollution into itself. It was wrong from the moment I started taking the pills."

"Secondly, there are many things in this temple, but it's possible they are branches of a single entity. These things are much stronger at night, otherwise there wouldn't be a gate restriction. However, there are still some residual effects during the day, such as the book I encountered before, or the paths that must be avoided when transporting coal and ore."

After thinking for a moment, Zhou You made a few more strokes in the dust on the floor.

"But the temple has ways to combat these things. For example, this room can effectively block the invasion at night, and there should also be spells in the library. So as long as they don't find a weakness, nothing will happen."

However, at this point, the brushstrokes suddenly stopped, and then several large question marks were drawn.

"But there are still a few strange things. First, why do the people in this temple insist on living in the same place as such a dangerous thing? The temple is very popular, and the people are very devout. It wouldn't be difficult for them to move to another place, so why do they refuse to leave? Moreover, the temple is not short of manpower, so why do they need to recruit us, a group of Taoist novices?"

Unfortunately, he had only been learning for a couple of days at most, so he couldn't find any answers.

In the end, Zhou You could only throw away the wax-based pen and put this part aside for now.

"Forget it, I'll see later. This damn black book is getting more and more of a mystery; I always have to go through all the trouble to find the truth myself."

Blow out the candle, close your eyes, and lie down on the bed.

—By the way, not long after, the scratching sounds started again.

However, Zhou You completely ignored it.

He had secretly hidden a few scraps of paper in the library before, and now, with cotton wadding, waxed paper balls, and other materials, he was finally able to block out 80-90% of the sound.

As for the remaining bit...
Just pretend you accidentally fell asleep while watching an adult film, and let it keep moaning and groaning.

(End of this chapter)