[Rules] + [Ancient Rites] + [New Year Approaches] + [The Nian Beast Descends]
I went home for the Spring Festival and stumbled upon the Nian Beast awakening.
The whole village was dragged into a realm of rules, where even missiles turned into firecrackers.
While everyone else nervously checked their phones, I calmly corrected their etiquette.
That was because the “old-fashioned nonsense” my grandpa had forced me to memorize since childhood was the only way to clear this place.
Pay respects at the ancestral shrine at night. Bow three times and kowtow nine times to stay alive.
Offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God. Mistake the wrong statue for him, and you’ll be killed on the spot.
Relying on the ancient rites passed down through my family, I cleared one trial after another and soared to ever-higher realms.
Until I discovered that my grandpa was the sole survivor of the previous cycle.
The treasure he left behind could absorb the death energy of those who “showed disrespect.”
And on the last page of the dog-eared Book of Ancient Rites, it said:
“Sixty years from now, if no one can ‘bring the rites in harmony with the present,’ the Nian Beast will remain in the human world forever, cleansing all those who ‘fall short.’”
Now, time is running out.
The radical “Rule Breakers” want to smash through the rules with money, while the old-school “Followers of Antiquity” would rather drag everyone down with their ancient rites.
As for me, I’ve chosen a third path.
I’ll use the spirit of the Rites of Zhou to forge a new way in the modern age.
I’ll turn this “mythical Spring Festival” shrouding Huaxia into a ritual of civilizational rebirth.
Make one misstep in a rite, and you die.
But perform every rite correctly, and you can... become a god.
