The medicine shopkeeper slowly continued, "This place was arranged by several Body Integration great cultivators who set the rules. An array contains gates of life and gates of death; the Heavenly Dao always leaves a glimmer of vitality, so the rules established here must contain a path to survival.
"However, those Body Integration cultivators were unwilling to truly let people leave, so they instituted such a specious rule.
"It serves their interests while abiding by the principle that the Heavenly Dao leaves a chance of survival."
Lu Yang suppressed the urge to curse and wrote: *Then how can the town mayor be killed?*
The medicine shopkeeper said, "He cannot be killed. The town mayor possesses an undying body. How could you possibly kill him?"
Meng Jingzhou clenched his fists, cursing every last Body Integration cultivator who had laid out these rules in his heart.
They might as well not have set the twenty-first rule at all! What difference was there between setting it and not setting it?!
Lu Yang's expression was grim as well, but he remained fairly calm. Knowing that swearing would not solve anything, he continued writing: *Where is the town mayor?*
The medicine shopkeeper chuckled softly. "Do you two truly think you can kill the town mayor? Unfortunately, I do not know his location. However, you can go ask the yamen runners. After all, they are the closest to him. As for whether they will tell you or not, that is none of my concern."
Before they left, the medicine shopkeeper called out again, "Seeing that you genuinely want to leave this place, let me give you a piece of advice: the town mayor knows everything that happens in the town. That is his ability. You must be careful."
Meng Jingzhou was about to politely say thank you, but remembered he could not speak to the medicine shopkeeper, so he could only nod to acknowledge it.
Lu Yang remained impassive from start to finish.
"Do you think that medicine shopkeeper was telling the truth?" Meng Jingzhou asked quietly.
Lu Yang did not answer right away. Only after they had put some distance between themselves and the medicine shop did he sneer. "Constrained by the rules, what he said was naturally the truth, but that doesn't mean he's on our side."
"Do you know the biggest difference between him and the innkeeper?"
"What?"
"The medicine shopkeeper tried every way he could to make us speak."
Meng Jingzhou was startled, then realized the truth. When communicating with the innkeeper, both sides had used writing. But when communicating with the medicine shopkeeper, from start to finish, only they had written while the shopkeeper spoke aloud.
When one side spoke, the other could easily reply aloud if they were not paying attention.
"Old schemer," Meng Jingzhou muttered under his breath, then frowned. "Since he wants to harm us, why did he remind us that the town mayor knows everything that happens in town?"
Without hesitation, Lu Yang said, "He saw that we were trying every way we could to leave and realized he couldn't stop us, so he gave us another crucial piece of information to make us feel the town mayor is insurmountable.
"That would likely lead to two outcomes: either we give up on leaving, or we throw ourselves into disarray and defeat ourselves without a fight."
Meng Jingzhou clicked his tongue, finding the situation increasingly thorny. "Right now, the most troublesome thing is that the town mayor knows what's happening with us. Even if we come up with a way to escape, he can still stop us!"
How could they sneak away right under the town mayor's nose?
Lu Yang pondered for a moment, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
He pulled out paper and brush and wrote: *If we communicate through writing, perhaps we can reduce the town mayor's attention on us.*
Meng Jingzhou nodded.
Lu Yang continued writing: *Remember the jade pendants the sect issued us? Each jade pendant is a symbol of our identity. Once a pendant shatters, the sect will actively dispatch people to investigate. The pendants are too sturdy for us to crush, but we can throw them at the exit; the astral winds there will tear them to pieces.*
Meng Jingzhou's eyes lit up. He calculated in his head and realized this was indeed a brilliant idea.
Meng Jingzhou wrote: *Then how do we deal with the town mayor?*
Lu Yang wrote: *We need to figure out his patterns of behavior. Start with the yamen runners.*
The two scribbled and sketched on the paper, formulating a detailed plan. Afterward, they burned the paper to ashes, acting as though nothing had happened.
As Lu Yang walked along, he came near the private school. As always, the sound of reading aloud could be heard. According to the Immortal Fairy, however, it was actually the barking of dogs, transformed into reading voices by the power of the rules.
If anyone gave in to their curiosity and tried to enter the school, the reading voices would turn back into dog barks, and something terrible would occur.
The private school teacher walked up to Lu Yang and continued urging him to enter. Lu Yang lowered his head, turning a deaf ear.
The teacher spoke with glib eloquence, rambling on incessantly: "Friend, we meet again. You came all by yourself; it seems you had a falling-out with your companion. That shows that deep down, you still believe my words. Don't believe what the rules say—nine out of ten statements in the rules are true and one is false, and you won't be able to tell them apart..."
Just as the teacher was about to launch a surprise attack on Lu Yang, suddenly bending down to lock eyes with the bowed youth, his vision abruptly went dark, leaving him completely unaware of what had happened.
He had focused all his attention on Lu Yang, while Meng Jingzhou had crept around behind him and thrown a burlap sack over his head!
The two rolled up their sleeves. Last time, they had been badly frightened by the teacher; now that they did not have to fear meeting his gaze, they were definitely going to get their revenge!
People of demonic cults were mostly creatures of impulse who never let a grudge go unpaid—a trait fully embodied by Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou.
"Beat him!"
Punches and kicks rained down without mercy on the school teacher.
The teacher had never experienced anything like this before and wailed repeatedly, "Stop hitting me! Stop hitting me!"
[Rule Nine: The person wearing a gray robe is the private school teacher. If you encounter the private school teacher, no matter what they say, you must pretend not to hear them.]
Both of them were soft-hearted men; had the other begged for mercy, they would not have kept hitting him. Sadly, constrained by the rules, they had to pretend not to hear whatever the private school teacher said.
Left with no choice, they could only keep beating him.
Finally, the two let out a long breath, feeling thoroughly satisfied. Before leaving, Meng Jingzhou even spat on the ground. "Pah! Scum, don't let me run into you again!"
Shoulder to shoulder, the two returned to the inn. The school teacher broke free of the sack and glared venomously at their receding backs.
"Don't let me run into you again!"
At the Si hour on the fourth day, the two arrived at the eatery downstairs. This was the only place in the entire town that served meat buns.
[Rule Eleven: All food in the town is provided free of charge and can be taken freely, but meat buns must not be consumed.]
Considering that the meat buns were free, and that even if they could not eat them they might as well take them along, the two packed up every last meat bun in one go—using the very same burlap sack they had thrown over the teacher yesterday.
When the yamen runners in black arrived at the eatery as usual, they discovered that not a single meat bun was left.
"Who did this?!" the runners raged.
According to the [Buyi Town Yamen Runner Rules], they could only eat meat buns each day. Now that the buns were gone, what were they supposed to eat?!
"Boss, look at those two! Aren't they carrying our meat buns on their backs?" One runner with a sharp nose caught the scent.
Seeing the runners looking their way, Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou knew they had been spotted, and immediately took off running.
What had been mere suspicion was now confirmed: "It's definitely them! After them!"
The residents of Buyi Town noticed that their usually quiet town was extraordinarily noisy today.
"You two bastards, halt!"
Running at full tilt, Lu Yang called back, "Can't do that! Rule Twelve says, [If you encounter officials, flee immediately]. I'm just acting according to the rules! Don't make things difficult for us!"
The leader of the runners flew into a rage. "The fucking rules didn't say you could take all the meat buns!"
Lu Yang and Meng Jingzhou's legs pumped at blazing speed; the yamen runners could not catch up to them at all.
Chapter 136