Rules of the Strange: Starting with the Weird Peppa Pig

"Hurry up and find me an exit. I'll explain everything else later."

"Oh oh."

Chapter 43 The Ancient Tree Underground

Li Fan then remembered his important task. He floated up and planned to pass through the wall to see what was happening outside.

With a dull thud, he slammed solidly into the wall.

"Ugh, what kind of lousy wall is this? Why can't I get through it?"

He rubbed his forehead, which was throbbing from the impact, and floated up to the sky above the house, reaching out to touch the ceiling.

The fingertips felt icy cold; could it not even penetrate the ceiling?

Unsurprisingly, it was solid when it touched the ground.

Li Fan was completely dumbfounded; he was a soul.

This godforsaken place can even trap souls, making it impossible to escape.

Am I going to die again as soon as I get out?

No, he's already dead.

But he didn't want to vanish into nothingness too soon...

He turned to look at Wuyin, and could only place his hopes on him.

It seems that Wuyin summoned him, so if Wuyin can survive, he certainly can too.

But what if Silent died...?

I won't talk about it.

Wuyin stared intently at the wall, her expression serious.

"There's a lot of sticky secretion on this wall."

Li Fan followed Wu Yin's gaze and sniffed closer, a sour, rotten smell hitting his nostrils.

"Ugh... what is this?"

He touched the sticky substance with his finger out of curiosity, and a scream rang out instantly.

"what!"

Li Fan jerked away, staring at the finger with a pained expression.

Wisps of black smoke were hissing from his fingertips, and his originally translucent soul-like fingers were turning black and shriveling at a visible speed.

The excruciating pain spread from my fingertips to my soul; it was the agony of my soul being burned, ten times more painful than being kicked in the balls.

This liquid can actually corrode the soul.

"Be careful, don't touch anything."

Without a sound, he gave a deep reminder and subconsciously took half a step back, his gaze sweeping across the wall.

Like an illusion, the walls became distorted and slowly undulated in a wave-like pattern.

Some sticky liquid seeped out of the floor, and the soles of the silent shoes began to slip.

Looking down, I saw that the slime on the soles of my shoes was emitting wisps of white smoke.

However, it wasn't as severe as the corrosion of Li Fan's fingers; perhaps they were targeting the soul more.

The pungent, sour smell in the air grew stronger and stronger. Li Fan covered his nose, not daring to touch anything anymore, and could only float in mid-air.

Wuyin also realized more clearly that the room was indeed shrinking.

The living room used to be very spacious, but now, he could walk to the other side in just three steps from one end of the living room.

The walls were silently pressing inwards, and the wriggling slime was slowly eroding the remaining space as the walls moved.

"Snap—"

The sound of wood breaking rang out; it was the pressure from the room causing a beam to break.

Li Fan's face was pale. If this continued, even if the two of them weren't corroded by the slime, they would be squeezed to death.

Wuyin's gaze once again locked onto the few items that remained in the room.

He met the gaze of Grandpa Niu in the portrait and walked to the table.

Grandpa Niu in the portrait seems to have a faint smile on his face.

The fresh apples on the table and the cleaned portrait of the deceased prove that this room has always been maintained.

So where is this person now?

Is he a human, a ghost, or... something inside this wall?

Without a sound or expression, he reached out and picked up a fresh apple from the table.

Just as I was about to take a closer look, I heard a soft "click".

It sounds like the sound of a mechanism being triggered.

Before I could even react, my feet were suddenly suspended in mid-air.

All the floorboards in the room disappeared, and in an instant, they fell silently into the bottomless abyss.

"No sound!"

Li Fan immediately pounced over and grabbed Wuyin's wrist tightly.

But he was a spirit, and didn't have much strength, so he was forced to fall down with Wuyin.

Fortunately, as the hole extended further back, the space became increasingly narrow, and the path became extremely twisted.

This greatly slowed their descent.

After colliding in the cave for an unknown amount of time, a ray of light finally appeared ahead. The two passed through the light and fell heavily to the ground.

Wuyin reached out and rubbed her numb buttocks. Li Fan, lying sprawled on the ground beside her, had a buzzing head and seemed to see many spinning stars in front of him.

Wuyin dusted himself off and stood up. When he looked up and saw the scene before him, a chill ran up his spine from the soles of his feet.

Before me stood a towering ancient tree, its roots intertwined and embedded in the soil.

This tree is so thick that it would take at least ten people holding hands to encircle it.

There wasn't a single leaf on the tree, but the branches were laden with one "fruit" after another.

They were babies, their bodies purplish-blue, curled up and hanging from the branches, with thin branches piercing their bodies from the back of their necks, supplying dark green sap.

The babies' eyes were closed, but their chests were rising and falling.

Perhaps the noise of the two landing startled the babies, because the next second, all the babies opened their eyes at the same time.

They had no whites in their eyes; their entire eyes were filled with pitch-black pupils.

Immediately afterwards, their mouths all turned into wide grins, and they let out bursts of giggling laughter.

This scene was indescribably chilling, sending shivers down one's spine.

Wuyin saw the children and fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.

With so many children, which one is Grandpa Niu's child?

Seeing that they were just staring straight at the two of them with smiles, Wuyin also walked closer to observe something different.

Just then, a soft "plop" sound was heard, and an infant struggled violently, tearing off the branch that was piercing the back of its neck, before falling heavily to the ground.

But his expression didn't change. He just quickly adjusted his posture, got on all fours, and crawled towards Wuyin with his arms and legs bent at a backward angle.

Although it's just crawling, its speed is by no means slow.

Immediately afterwards, the second baby also broke free from the branch and fell, lying on the ground in a twisted position as well.

Slowly, all the babies on the tree began to struggle, and more and more babies fell to the ground, crawling towards the direction of silence.

A dense crowd of babies gathered around, calling out in their sweet, childish voices.

"father!"

"mom!"

Li Fan's dizziness and blurred vision subsided, and he quickly hid behind Wuyin, his voice trembling.

"My God! Are the scariest horror movies this scary?!"

Imagine a bunch of babies crawling up to you calling for your mom and dad. Who could stand that?

The area around the big tree was a closed space, making it impossible to escape.

Wuyin looked at the group of babies warily. They must have a weakness. What could it be? You stupid thing, think of it quickly!

Suddenly, Wuyin's lips slowly curled up, and he shouted loudly.

What is 1 + 1?

Hearing this, Li Fan was dumbfounded and couldn't help but complain.

"At a time like this, you still have the mind to joke? I may be a bit unreliable, but I'm not stupid. Of course, it's equivalent to..."

Chapter 44 The Unknown Child

Before he could finish speaking, Li Fan shut his mouth, staring at the baby in front of him in disbelief.

The babies stopped crawling and stood still, tilting their heads as if they were thinking.

They sat cross-legged on the ground and started counting on their fingers.

One of the babies quickly figured it out and shouted out the answer, though his words were unclear.

"Ah (two)!"

Li Fan's pupils dilated.

Li Fan's mouth gaped open.

Li Fan's worldview has collapsed.