Cracking the Rules

"An inn room."

Li Xuanxiao fished some money from his pocket.

At that moment, several more cultivators walked in from outside.

"Senior Brother, what exactly is going on here? We can't use our spiritual power, and we can't get out either. I've never encountered anything this strange."

"I don't know either. Let's find someone and ask."

The waiter had just handed Li Xuanxiao his room key.

Wen Qi, the senior brother among the three, walked over and cupped his hands in greeting.

"Brother, I am Wen Qi, a disciple of Qingmen Mountain Sect. May I ask what is happening in this place?"

Qingmen Mountain Sect?

Li Xuanxiao searched his memories, but found no record of this sect.

It was most likely some obscure little sect.

The highest cultivation among the three, Wen Qi, was only at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.

Presumably, they had no idea that those in the Body Integration Realm could establish rules.

Nor did they have any way of learning such things.

Li Xuanxiao explained the situation to the three of them.

They looked as though they had heard something utterly unbelievable, all wearing shocked expressions.

Li Xuanxiao gave them a few more reminders. "Be careful in everything you do here."

Wen Qi hurriedly said, "Thank you, Fellow Daoist, for informing us. Since we all stumbled into this place by mistake, we can look after one another from now on."

Li Xuanxiao nodded and did not refuse.

Li Xuanxiao did not think having more people meant greater strength, nor did he think it would be of much use in a situation like this.

It was simply that these three were clearly fresh-faced, hot-blooded young heroes. If he could lend them a hand, he would.

Righteous cultivators helping one another was a fundamental principle.

There was no reason to stand by and watch someone die, unless extraordinary circumstances arose.

Li Xuanxiao arrived at his room.

Guests who checked into the inn received two candles for free.

A lantern shade covered the windproof candle holder.

Li Xuanxiao lit the candle.

He had no time to rest and immediately began considering a solution.

The other rules were not urgent.

But Rule Five required new residents of the town to report to the Government Office within three days.

Rule Six stated that anyone who entered the Government Office would permanently lose their five senses.

If he did not report to the Government Office, he would violate Rule Five.

He would likely be erased on the spot.

Though he had formed a transcendent-grade golden core, the gap between him and the Body Integration Realm was far too great.

If he reported to the Government Office, he would permanently lose his five senses.

Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Just then, a conversation suddenly drifted over from next door, and the voices sounded extremely familiar.

Zhang Tianxin said, "My Pure Yang Body is actually going to be broken today!"

"There's no helping it. Who told us to come here and be required to fall in love?"

"...Since Heaven has decreed it, then I won't hold back!"

"Please ravage me to your heart's content."

Five seconds later.

Zhang Tianxin said, "What do you think the meaning of life is?"

Li Xuanxiao pressed his ear to the wall. After confirming that the person next door was Zhang Tianxin, he knocked on the other room's door.

After quite some time, Zhang Tianxin finally opened the door at a snail's pace.

The moment he saw Li Xuanxiao, he was overjoyed.

Skipping the idle chatter.

The three gathered around the candle in Li Xuanxiao's room.

According to Zhang Tianxin, after he and Li Xuanxiao had escaped from Di Nüfeng of Asura Hall, he had originally intended to return to his sect.

But he had feared Di Nüfeng's retaliation.

After all, he did not have a backer as formidable as Li Xuanxiao's.

So he hid himself away. By chance, he heard that many people had gone missing in this place, so he came to investigate, only to end up trapped here.

As for the female cultivator beside him, she was a disciple of the Xuantian Sword Sect and had come with him.

The two recalled the rule requiring them to find partners and complete a grand wedding within seven days.

So... they had...

Li Xuanxiao saw Zhang Tianxin's problem at a glance. He had too much theory and loved practice matches.

So when it came to real combat, he could not perform.

Of course, this was not the time to discuss that.

"You still haven't reported to the Government Office?"

"Mm."

Zhang Tianxin and Han Yao nodded at the same time.

Han Yao said, "That rule is just too... too inhuman."

Zhang Tianxin said, "Many people in this town have already lost their five senses, but many others haven't. There must be some way to deal with it, but whenever I ask them, they won't tell me."

Li Xuanxiao nodded. "Rule Eleven forbids town residents from revealing information about the town. The most important information is the rules themselves, so we can only figure out a solution on our own."

Han Yao sighed, sounding rather dispirited.

"Tomorrow is the last day. Who knows how many people stumbled in here and died here? The town has countless graves, and only then did some people finally figure out the rules."

The night passed without incident.

The next day, Li Xuanxiao, Zhang Tianxin, Han Yao, and Wen Qi's group of three arrived at the entrance to the Government Office.

They were not the only ones. There were also more than a dozen people who had stumbled into this place at the same time.

Along the way, they saw many people on the streets.

They simply sat on both sides of the road, waiting in despair for death to descend.

Their five senses had been forcibly stripped away. They could feel nothing, touch nothing, hear nothing, and could only let time drain away here.

In the entire town, normal people were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.

Seeing this scene, and imagining himself becoming like that, was truly more torturous than death.

The crowd stood before the Government Office, looking at one another.

Not one of them dared to enter first.

As time slipped away second by second, Zhang Tianxin finally could not hold himself back.

"I want to see what's going on inside. I'll take the lead."

Li Xuanxiao glanced at him.

After their previous interactions, he had already realized it.

Aside from being a little dim-witted, Zhang Tianxin was quite good in every other respect.

Li Xuanxiao reached out to stop him. In truth, he had already thought of a solution last night.

What he needed to consider now was how to tell the others the method for solving it.

Town residents were forbidden from actively revealing information about the town.

They now counted as town residents. Even if they knew the solution, they could not tell one another.

Otherwise, they would violate the rules.

A gentleman did not save everyone.

When he saw others suffering and wished to save them, if the cost of saving them was not great, then naturally he should lend a hand.

But if saving others demanded too high a price from him—so high that it required his own life—then he could choose not to save them.

At such a time, there was no need to feel guilty. After all, a person had to love himself before he could love others.

If Li Xuanxiao encountered such a situation, he would not hesitate.

But at this moment, he had thought of a way that did not violate the rules.

Not allowed to actively reveal information...

Sure enough, every solution lay within the rules.

He walked before the crowd.

Facing them, he found them all looking at him in confusion.

Li Xuanxiao pressed two fingers together against his forehead.

He stripped away his sense of touch, then thrust his fingers into his eyes, then his ears, and finally destroyed his sense of smell.

This scene startled everyone present, and they instinctively backed away, thinking he had gone mad.

He had not even entered the Government Office to report yet—why had he stripped away his own five senses first?

Li Xuanxiao said nothing and turned to walk into the Government Office.

A voice sounded from the depths of his heart.

"Who goes there?"

Li Xuanxiao replied, "New resident of Luoshui Town, Li Xuanxiao."

"Good."

Li Xuanxiao turned and left the Government Office.

When he stepped out of the Government Office once more, everyone discovered in astonishment.

At that moment, Li Xuanxiao's five senses had completely recovered.

Since those who entered the Government Office would permanently lose their five senses.

Then those who had already lost their five senses would not lose them upon entering the Government Office.