Rules of the Strange: I Became a God in a Bizarre World Through Taoist Arts

Welcome, Chosen One, to the S-Rank Rule Tales: The Sleepless Night at the Thorn Inn

You are a clean pig.

You grew up in the surrounding forest, shunned by your tribe for eating anything. So you embarked on a journey. You crossed a log bridge in torrential rain, crawled out of a ditch under the scorching sun…

You've been gone for a long time...

They finally arrived at the Thorn Inn and were taken in by the kind innkeeper.

But every night, you could always hear him sharpening his knife...

The poor little pig spent countless sleepless nights.

But what about tonight?

Sleeplessness, or being eaten?

The ethereal echoes of the ghost story were swallowed up by the sudden downpour.

Large raindrops pounded against the roof, making Shen Xingzhuo worry about the quality of the shed.

She carefully avoided the leaky areas and found a pile of dry hay to lie down on.

During his break, Lu Qianling had explained that the rules for S-rank supernatural tales were much harder to find, and Shen Xingzhuo began to ponder this—

"I accidentally sat in the mud just now, and I broke out in a rash all over my body. Severe allergies can kill a pig, so being a clean freak isn't just a persona, it's a prerequisite for survival."

"That just goes to fit perfectly with the fact that I'm a clean... pig."

"Why."

Shen Xingzhuo still wanted to sigh. The perspective of turning into a pig was too low!

She couldn't see outside the pigsty and could only search for clues in the limited space.

"Tick-tock".

The path inside the pigsty was uneven, and small puddles quickly formed. Raindrops fell into the puddles, making soft sounds.

Shen Xingzhuo turned around instantly and saw an oil lamp not far away, and under the oil lamp was a wooden box that could keep out all dirty things.

Since she has "germaphobia", the rules are likely in the cleanest place.

Thinking of this, Shen Xingzhuo took a running start, steeled his resolve, and rammed the little pig into the box.

Ok……

The box was completely undamaged.

On the contrary, Shen Xingzhuo almost knocked herself unconscious.

She shook her head and got up from the ground.

"How about we try a lightning-summoning spell? Do you even think I, with my pig's trotters, can draw a spell?"

She glanced at her pig's trotters and was skeptical about the matter.

But there was no other way at the moment, so Shen Xingzhuo could only try anything as a last resort.

She began to hum rhythmically.

"Thunder God and Lightning Goddess, quickly descend with your divine powers! So be it!"

She struggled to lift one hoof and draw intricate runes.

A streak of white light flashed across the sky, and a bolt of lightning the size of a thumb struck the wooden box, creating a hole just big enough for a pig's snout to fit through.

"Since I eat everything, can I even chew through this wooden box?"

"What's a pig's bite force again?"

Shen Xingzhu shook her head. "That's not important."

After all, it's still a tale of the supernatural, and common sense has long been disregarded.

The amount of her bite force is not important; what matters is that the ghost story says she eats everything.

So Shen Xingzhu quickly mustered his resolve and opened his mouth to bite into the small hole.

Sure enough, the thick wooden box was like a thin, crisp biscuit under her mouth; in no time, she dug out an opening large enough for her to move freely.

Shen Xingzhuo stepped into the wooden box and suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.

But the strange feeling quickly disappeared. She examined the interior of the wooden box and saw characters the size of rice grains on one of the sides.

The rules of this ghost story have been established.

【Thorn Inn Rules - Part 1】

[1: You're the only pig in the hotel. The backyard is your territory, the pigpen is your safe haven...maybe...]

[2: Do not make loud noises. Even if you are in great pain, even if you are very hungry, your voice must never exceed 40 decibels, otherwise, if you are discovered, you will be eaten.]

[3: You have severe mysophobia. Your food must be carefully washed and seasoned by the restaurant owner before being served, and you must finish it all... no, you cannot drink the clam chowder served by the owner.]

[4: You expect to make friends with humans (crossed out). You don't expect to make friends with humans; humans have no sense of boundaries and will always grab you by the scruff of the neck.]

[5: This is the backyard, a relatively unimportant area, but children always come and bother you. If a child is clinging to the fence and laughing at you, shoo him away, the farther the better!]

[6: With hotel guests coming and going, you hope to meet one or two kind people who can take you to their room to sleep at night.]

[7: The Thorn Hotel only has rooms on the ground floor. If you see someone go to the basement, run! Run in the opposite direction immediately!]

[8: You must not go near the kitchen! There's fire in the kitchen, there's...]

[9: As a happy little pig, I greet everyone I meet loudly.]

[10: It stinks, it stinks. You don't like smelly things; it's disgusting, it's disgusting, you don't like fish; and this dog is so awful, so awful! If you see it, you'll eat it!!!]

[11: I'm so happy, time flies!]

[12: Every day is a sleepless night, how delightful (crossed out). Every day is a sleepless night.]

[13: Sleepless nights are safe, but once someone falls asleep... death is permitted!]

[14: Kill him, kill him! Then take his place!]

【…】

Shen Xingzhuo used the flickering light of the oil lamp to see the rules clearly.

Fourteen rules, that's alright, but it's only one of the rules?

If a second, third, and fourth rule appears after that, wouldn't the total number of rules exceed 50?

There are more things to do when staying in a hotel than when staying in a palace.

What if you want to run away overnight?

Shen Xingzhu shook his head slightly, focusing his attention on the rules.

Those who tried to deduce the truth by following the live broadcast of the ghost story went mad first.

Wait... what was written after the third sentence?

That's too fast! It's really too fast!

[Did anyone see what the tenth question said? What's wrong with the dog? Should we eat it or not?]

[I only realized how amazing Sister Shen is after trying it myself. Can any of you let me copy her homework?]

I just bent down to pick up a pen... and when I looked up, the weather had changed?

The comments section was in complete chaos.

Shen Xingzhuo's shadow was cast onto the wall, distorting and dancing.

As expected, the difficulty of S-rank ghost stories increases dramatically.

She quickly categorized the 14 rules into three groups in her mind:

These are the principles of stance 1, 4, 6, and 7;

生存守则2、3、5、8、9；

以及认知污染守则10、11、12、13、14。

Then, after analyzing the potential paradoxes and pitfalls, it was discovered that every step was as difficult as Minesweeper.

Isn't she a little pig?

Who on earth would have so many demands on pigs?

Does that mean the more a pig thinks, the more delicious its meat becomes?

Shen Xingzhu twisted his forelegs on the ground to relieve the headache caused by the overload of pig brain.

"Da, da, da."

The sound of footsteps grew louder as they approached.

Someone's coming!

Shen Xingzhuo instantly shrank back into the depths of the box, held his breath, and peered out through the hole he had gnawed out.

The next second, a bloodshot, cloudy eye suddenly pressed against the cave entrance!

Shen Xingzhuo's body suddenly lost its weight!

She was lifted up!