Chapter 60: Wen Yue’s Face

By the time Xie Sui and the others returned, it was already close to noon.

Other staff members who had gone out for filming were also trickling back into the small courtyard. Without exception, every single one of them had a terrible expression on their face.

The logistics team members who were accompanied by villagers were relatively fine, but the photography team members who had gone out alone to gather material were almost entirely wiped out. They were found fainted by the roadside and carried back by other staff or villagers.

No one knew what these unconscious staff members had encountered, but fortunately, there were no casualties for the time being.

With more than half of the staff incapacitated, a gloomy atmosphere hung over the courtyard where the production crew was stationed.

From the moment they woke up with mysterious memory loss until now, almost all the staff members had realized there was a major problem with this village.

However, no one dared to suggest “canceling the shoot” or “resigning” to the Producer.

It was impossible to leave this village, surrounded by mountains on three sides, on foot. Even if they resigned, it would be difficult to leave if the rest of the crew stayed.

Since they had to stay in the village regardless, they figured they might as well keep working with the production crew; at least they would still get paid.

Looking at the unconscious staff members, Xie Sui felt a bit puzzled.

He had cleared out all the ghosts and monsters Daoist Xiutian had raised in the village the previous night, and he had essentially sent away all the lingering spirits. Both the Wutong God and Wuzhiqi were dead. Logically, there shouldn’t be anything terrifying enough left to scare them into a faint…

Xie Sui returned to the room the crew had assigned him, quickly changed his clothes, and then went to the room where the unconscious staff members were being kept to check on them one by one.

It was just as he suspected. These staff members had been struck by Yin Energy. Inhaling a large amount of Yin Energy in a short period had caused an imbalance between Yin and Yang in their bodies, and fainting was their body’s instinctive defense mechanism.

Xie Sui extracted the Yin Energy from each of the unconscious staff members. Soon, a physically robust staff member slowly woke up.

From his mouth, Xie Sui learned what had happened before he lost consciousness.

This staff member was part of the props team. According to him, before he fainted, he had been searching for his missing prop box in a villager’s home.

He was one of the staff members who had arrived early at the filming location to stay in the village and had been controlled by the villagers for several days.

Although he had returned unharmed, the tools he used for work were nowhere to be found. Therefore, after waking up, he followed his memory to search the village for the tools of his trade.

Upon arriving at the villager’s house he had visited before his memory loss, the props team member found the house empty. There were only some rags and dark red bloodstains on the floor, and his toolbox had been discarded in front of a bizarre, unidentifiable statue.

A few days ago, he had lost consciousness because he saw a head floating in the air in front of that statue.

This time, seeing no human head, he summoned his courage and ran as fast as he could to grab his toolbox.

Just as his hand touched the handle of the toolbox, he suddenly felt something cold and slimy wrap around his hand. It was a snake tail with a complex pattern, and judging by its thickness, it looked like a python.

The staff member’s body went stiff. He didn’t dare move, fearing he would provoke the giant snake. He swallowed hard and slowly moved his gaze up the snake’s tail… and then he saw a monster with a human head and a snake’s body sliding down from the rafters above the statue.

The monster’s human face was very close to his; he could even smell the foul stench coming from its mouth.

Just as the monster opened its mouth to lick the side of his face with its forked tongue, the staff member finally couldn’t take it anymore and fainted.

As he reached this point, the burly man looked around the room.

Seeing that his toolbox wasn’t there, he said to Xie Sui with a sob in his voice, “So, after being rescued this time, my toolbox still wasn’t brought back? I really don’t want to step foot in that hellhole again, wahhh…”

Seeing a muscular man covering his face and crying like a child in front of him, Xie Sui felt a bit at a loss.

Seeing that he wouldn’t get any more information, he could only offer comfort. “Uh, don’t cry yet. Don’t worry, I’ll help you get your toolbox back.”

The burly man stopped crying instantly. As if afraid Xie Sui would go back on his word, he said repeatedly, “Really? That’s great, I’m counting on you! That house is very easy to find, it’s right to the right of the Daoist temple in the center of the village.”

Xie Sui’s promise was like flipping a switch. The other staff members who were still “unconscious” suddenly bolted upright like springs, all talking at once to beg Xie Sui to help them retrieve their lost work equipment from the eerie village.

Amidst the tearful pleas of the staff members, Xie Sui made a somewhat flustered escape from the room housing the injured.

These people must have been truly terrified. This was the first time Xie Sui had seen such a spectacular scene of so many grown men wailing together.

The bizarre statue the staff member mentioned was likely a statue of the Wutong God, which was enshrined in the homes of the “upper-tier” villagers who wore belts with tobacco pipes.

Based on the information gathered from the staff who had been controlled, they had all lost consciousness after making eye contact with the human head in front of the Wutong God statue, and were then controlled by the villagers using evil arts.

As for that monster with a human head and a snake body…

Xie Sui frowned.

He had heard Nie Pengpeng mention that she and Captain Yan had encountered a human-headed snake monster at the village’s “waste disposal site.” It had appeared alongside the face-changing monster and was eventually torn in two by Captain Yan’s bare hands while he was possessed by Guan Jiang Shou via a Deity Invitation Talisman.

During his sweep last night, Xie Sui had cleared out many ghosts and monsters raised by Daoist Xiutian, but none of them were human-headed snake monsters. Therefore, Xie Sui had thought that, like the face-changing monster, there was only one of them.

But today, the human-headed snake monster had appeared again, and many of them had appeared at the same time… Xie Sui had just asked around, and most of the staff members who fainted had done so because the human-faced snake monster licked their faces, while a small number had fainted because they accidentally entered places in the village where Yin Energy was heavily concentrated and stagnant.

However, aside from scaring the staff members unconscious, that creature with a human head and a snake’s body had not harmed them. For the time being, its purpose remained unknown.

It seemed there were still many things hidden in this village.

Last night, Xie Sui had taken Liu Wuyong with him to search the village. Although doing so was a bit unscrupulous, to be honest, Xie Sui’s decision to patrol with Liu Wuyong was partly to protect him and partly to use him as bait for a sting operation.

As long as a monster was attracted by the outsider’s scent on Liu Wuyong and tried to rush out to eat him, Xie Sui, who was hiding nearby, would take the opportunity to deal with it.

Using this method, Xie Sui had lured out quite a few monsters that had lost control due to the death of Daoist Xiutian.

Yet Liu Wuyong had failed to lure out those human-headed, snake-bodied creatures…

Xie Sui thought about the physical appearance of the staff members who had fainted. They were almost all from the props and filming crews, every single one of them a muscular man. Among those who fainted, there were even a few unlucky, burly bodyguards brought along by the celebrity guests.

So, was it because Liu Wuyong’s constitution was too weak that he wasn’t the type the human-faced snake monsters liked?

Xie Sui, who had originally planned to take Liu Wuyong for a walk around the village after lunch, changed his mind. He looked toward Shi Shen, who was not far away.

Shi Shen didn’t seem like the type who could sit still. Unlike the other guests, he hadn’t returned to his room to rest. Instead, he was in the corner of the courtyard helping the logistics team chop wood, preparing to start a fire for cooking.

Xie Sui knew that if he asked Shi Shen for help, the man would definitely not refuse him.

But Xie Sui still hesitated… unless it was absolutely necessary, he didn’t want to involve ordinary people in these matters.

Just as Xie Sui was pondering how to lure out all the human-faced snake monsters in the village, a loud slamming sound suddenly rang out.

Everyone in the courtyard looked toward the source of the noise. Wen Yue was walking out of her room in a fury; the loud bang had been the sound of her kicking her door open. Under her merciless kick, the door wobbled precariously, and the nearly broken hinges let out a strained creak.

Seeing it was Wen Yue, the show’s staff didn’t dare say much. They silently stepped aside, clearing a path for this high-maintenance ancestor.

The sound of her high heels clicking against the ground was like the beating of drums before a war. Wen Yue’s target was very clear: Xie Sui.

She rushed up to Xie Sui and unceremoniously hurled her phone at him.

Xie Sui didn’t catch it. Instead, he frowned and stepped aside to dodge.

The phone hit the ground with a sharp crack. Wen Yue clearly hadn’t expected Xie Sui to dodge. Looking at the shattered mess of a phone on the ground, she froze for a moment.

“Do you need something from me?”

A cold voice devoid of any emotional fluctuation rang out, snapping Wen Yue out of her shock over the broken phone.

Seeing the “innocent” expression on Xie Sui’s face, the anger in her heart instantly doubled. “Did you tell the Producer that all the livestream warm-ups for the variety show will be handled by you from now on? Who do you think you are?!”

Wen Yue had nearly exploded with rage after receiving the notification from the Producer just now.

In the past, when the Producer made variety shows, he always put her feelings first. Now that a pretty boy who had latched onto a director had arrived, the Producer had instantly turned into a weathercock¹ and sided with him. On what grounds?

It had been like this from the start. Only this guy ignored her charm as if he were blind, and even dared to throw dead human limbs at her. Furthermore, wherever Xie Sui was present, other people seemed to develop a resistance to her beauty…

If she hadn’t still been able to see obsession in the eyes of some staff members, Wen Yue would have almost thought her face had become ugly again.

Thinking of this, Wen Yue subconsciously touched her face, and the hideous rage on her features vanished abruptly.

She looked at Xie Sui, her lips curling into a very sweet smile. “Do you know? I suddenly realized that as long as you exist in this world, I can never be the focus of everyone’s attention. This feeling of potentially falling from a great height at any moment is truly torturous…”

“Do you know why the production team bought accident insurance for us before we signed the contracts?” Wen Yue twirled a lock of long hair draped over her shoulder with her finger. “Because we are a Paranormal Adventure Variety Show. Since our show has an adventure segment, it’s perfectly normal for guests to have accidents or get injured.”

A flash of ruthlessness crossed Wen Yue’s eyes. The red fox tattoo on her left cheek actually began to glow faintly. The staff members closest to her stopped their work and stared at her blankly.

Those staff members who knew Wen Yue’s foul nature well and could never possibly like her had now completely changed. They seemed to have lost all reason, allowing themselves to be driven by Wen Yue.

At Wen Yue’s command, they gripped the tools they hadn’t had time to put down and rushed toward Xie Sui with stiff, zombie-like movements. Their fearless demeanor suggested that even if Wen Yue ordered them to commit mass suicide, they wouldn’t offer any resistance.

It was as if they were possessed, frantic and reckless.

Looking at the shifting red fox head tattoo on Wen Yue’s face, Xie Sui understood something.

Xie Sui didn’t dodge. He simply gave a casual glance at the staff members rushing toward him, and one by one, those staff members collapsed to the ground without any power to resist.

He bypassed them and walked up to Wen Yue, whose face was filled with disbelief.

Xie Sui looked at the red fox tattoo on her left cheek and asked in a serious tone, “I’m a bit curious now… can you tell me where the Fox Immortal you worship came from?”

Translator’s Notes