Chapter 66: Variety Show Trailer

Xiao Wang, a member of the editing team, cradled his camera equipment and quietly slipped out of the courtyard where the production crew was staying, heading once again toward the lakeshore.

Ever since he had been rescued from drowning, he had been obsessed with the “Water Demon.”

He had just finished the rough cut of the variety show’s trailer, but he felt like something was missing. Taking advantage of the moment while the rest of the editing team was adjusting the source material, he snuck out alone.

All the staff members were terrified of the sky that had suddenly turned blood-red, but Xiao Wang didn’t care about this apocalyptic scene. His mind was completely occupied by that figure in the lake. If he could catch one more glimpse of his muse, it would be worth dying for.

Xiao Wang stood on a small mound not far from the lake. To capture a panoramic view of the water, he had specifically swiped a drone from the cinematography team. For some reason, the entire cinematography team had fainted again, so no one noticed him borrowing the equipment.

Just as Xiao Wang maneuvered the drone over the lake, he suddenly saw the water surface erupt in violent ripples. Massive splashes surged up, followed by a muffled, thunderous explosion and a tremendous vibration. He could clearly feel the tremors radiating from the lake even from his position.

Following the vibration, a massive whirlpool appeared. The lake water poured inward like a funnel, with faint black fragments swirling within the rotating current.

The airflow generated by the spinning water made the drone in the sky wobble. Seeing this, Xiao Wang hastily increased the drone’s altitude.

A drone cost over seven thousand yuan. If it crashed, he would be eating instant noodles for a month.

However, Xiao Wang’s attention was soon diverted from the drone itself. He stared blankly at the screen in his hands.

The swirling water suddenly came to a halt, as if someone had pressed a pause button. A white line pierced through the center of the whirlpool, and the funnel-shaped vortex was flattened by an unknown force. Like Moses parting the Red Sea, the entire lake was split in two.

The light from the crimson sky seemed to grow even more piercing, staining all the water red. Beneath the blood-colored light, a thin, drenched figure slowly walked out from the very center of the vortex. The lake water closed behind him as he stepped forward, as obedient as an automatic sensor door.

Xiao Wang’s heart pounded. He had a premonition that this person was the “Water Demon” he had encountered in the lake not long ago.

The drone was flying very high, so he couldn’t see the person’s face clearly. Xiao Wang no longer cared if the drone might be sucked into the water. Without hesitation, he pushed the joystick, maneuvering the drone to descend.

As if sensing the drone’s hum, the person looked up.

Blood-red color suddenly occupied the entire screen. It was as if the entire sky had collapsed and been stuffed into that tiny display.

Xiao Wang felt a wave of dizziness. When he regained consciousness, he found himself back in the room used by the editing team.

He didn’t remember how he had returned. His last memory was of those blood-colored double pupils.

He heard from his colleagues that one of the show’s guests had brought him back, but that wasn’t important.

Xiao Wang stared blankly at the drone beside his bed, then sat up with a sudden spring.

He wanted to edit the trailer! What were ten trailers? He could edit them all by himself-he was currently overflowing with inspiration!

As soon as the trailer for the supernatural variety show was posted online, it sparked a massive discussion.

“Please wake up, you’re filming a variety show, not a horror movie!”

“The production crew is going too far this time. Diving without oxygen tanks and doing dangerous stunts like being entangled underwater… I seriously suspect they’re filming a real drowning.”

“The producer is so good at picking locations. Where did he find such a creepy village?”

“I feel a bit bad for the celebrity guests in this show. I’m getting goosebumps just watching the trailer. I can’t imagine what it feels like to actually be there.”

Upon seeing the smooth release of the supernatural variety show’s trailer, the person most surprised wasn’t the netizens, but Tao Xinchen.

Tao Xinchen was the investor who had taken the producer to Shao’s Restaurant. He was also the one who had introduced Wuqi Village to the producer as a filming location.

He had assumed the production crew had long since been brought under control by the villagers. He had originally planned to go to the village in a few days during the sacrificial ceremony to pick up Nie Pengpeng, and then use her to control the Nie Family.

Tao Xinchen was also a member of the Longevity Cult. Because he had joined early and poured a lot of money into the cult every year, he was considered one of the high-ranking members despite having no knowledge of metaphysics.

The reason he had schemed against this variety show crew was that he heard they had a pre-selected guest performer for this episode: Nie Pengpeng.

If something happened to Nie Pengpeng, Tao Xinchen could not only use it to blackmail the Nie Family but also use the incident to turn the Nie Family against Yayun Entertainment. Ideally, he wanted the Nie Family and the Zhou Family to start fighting so he could reap the benefits.

Tao Xinchen’s plan was meticulous.

The crew would pass by Chef Shao’s restaurant on the way. Their filming location, Wuqi Village, was overseen by Daoist Xiutian. Among the guests, there was also the hidden pawn Wen Yue. It should have been a sure thing for the entire crew to meet their end in Wuqi Village. Even Daoist Xiutian thought he was making a mountain out of a molehill and being overly cautious.

However, Tao Xinchen had been frustrated by the incidents involving the Lin Family. The death of the headhunter and the loss of contact with the Fox Immortal had left him with a lingering sense of unease, as if no amount of preparation was enough.

As it turned out, his unease was justified.

With an exceptionally grim expression, Tao Xinchen clicked on the trailer.

The trailer began with an aerial shot of a lake as green as emerald. Pristine mountains and clear waters, a small wooden boat rippling across the surface, and a small mountain village hidden in the white mountain mist… the opening scenery shots looked like a tourism promotional video.

Then, without warning, a plunging camera transition occurred, and the lens was instantly submerged in water. The upper half of the frame showed the surface while the lower half showed the depths. The camera shook violently as water constantly slapped against the lens, making the sensation of drowning feel immediate and overwhelming.

The next second, the lens was completely submerged in the water.

The deep lake water was bottomless, and black hair drifted into the frame along the current… The camera paused, then jerked toward the direction the hair was coming from, snapping a look behind.

It was a massive close-up of a monster covered in black hair, looking like a macabre ape.

Seeing this, Tao Xinchen frowned and pressed the pause button.

He recognized it. This monster was “Wuzhiqi,” the Water Monkey that Daoist Xiutian had raised using talismans.

Tao Xinchen never knew that this man-eating “Wuzhiqi” was such a docile creature that it would help a production crew film a trailer… Something had definitely gone terribly wrong in Wuqi Village.

Frowning, he pressed play and continued watching.

The person holding the camera was bound by the black hair in the water. The background music vanished, replaced only by the sound of gurgling bubbles bursting and the rush of the lake’s current.

The first-person perspective was incredibly immersive. The struggling, shaky camera movements and the rising bubbles made one feel suffocated just by watching.

At the most critical moment, that black-haired ape monster was suddenly torn into two pieces. Amidst the swirling bloody water, a slender figure in a white shirt slowly emerged from behind the corpse…

Immediately after, the rhythm of the trailer’s BGM accelerated. The subsequent scenes seemed stained red by the blood in the lake, all covered in a dark red filter.

Various quick cuts flashed by in sync with the increasingly rapid music – a hideous, grotesque statue inside a shrine; human-faced, snake-bodied monsters lurking in the village; a Chinese wedding scene featuring a bright red coffin; a long line of figures holding candles walking through the woods at night; a karst cave filled with skeletons and floating green Ghost Fire… Finally, the camera returned to the bottom of the lake, and the trailer ended with the lake water pouring inward as a massive whirlpool suddenly formed on the surface.

The final version of the trailer had been finalized by Xie Sui, who had personally inspected it before it was uploaded. Under Xiao Wang’s wailing protests, he had forced Liu Wuyong to delete every frame that might leak his personal information.

However, the amount of information contained in this trailer was still substantial.

Looking at the black fragments in the water, Tao Xinchen was completely stunned. He repeatedly dragged the progress bar, trying his best to identify the black jade fragments in the whirlpool. Eventually, he saw a familiar fragment carved with an eye.

The statue of the Golden Mother of the Jade Pool at the bottom of the lake… it seemed, it seemed to have shattered…

Tao Xinchen scrambled to pull out the map of the Wuqi Sect. This map, made of Talisman Paper, clearly marked every location where the April 4th ritual could be held. And the mark for Wuqi Village on it had completely dimmed.

He was utterly dumbfounded.

Tao Xinchen had considered that this trailer might have been something Daoist Xiutian produced, or that Daoist Xiutian had slipped up and let the production crew escape, or even that someone in the crew had paid a massive bribe to Daoist Xiutian to get his cooperation for the shoot… But he had never imagined that the entire Wuqi Village stronghold would be wiped out in one fell swoop.

What on earth was going on?!

Tao Xinchen pulled up the personnel list for this variety show and began to check them one by one.

When there were no major incidents, the high-level members of the Wuqi Sect did not contact each other. Those who could climb to the upper echelons of the Wuqi Sect were basically all ruthless Evil Cultivators who did anything to achieve their goals. They understood each other’s characters far too well – for the sake of greater profit, they would even harm their fellow sect members. After all, no one ever complained about having too much power or wealth.

Therefore, to avoid fratricide and internal friction, these Evil Cultivators simply chose to forgo contact.

The middle-aged Daoist and his disciple had noticed Xie Sui through Zhang Dadao’s line. Because the middle-aged Daoist was Daoist Xiutian’s junior brother, and he was the one tracking Zhang Dadao’s ledgers, the other high-level members of the Wuqi Sect had stepped back from the matter.

Before this, Tao Xinchen didn’t even know Xie Sui existed. Initially, he just thought the Lin Family had struck it lucky and happened to solve the Feng Shui Formation problem of their ancestral grave.

Later, when the headhunter could not be contacted, Tao Xinchen realized something was wrong.

However, the Lin Family had consulted far too many metaphysical masters and charlatans. Furthermore, Xie Sui had been invited by Lin Zixin and had not gone through the second uncle’s network. Tao Xinchen had spent many days investigating before he finally traced it back to Xie Sui.

Tao Xinchen’s face was ashen as he looked at the photos of the guests.

Shi Shen, Miao Xinyi, Su Caichuan, Wen Yue, and Nie Pengpeng were all ordinary people.

The only variable was this Xie Sui.

None of Xie Sui’s live streams had replays; only a few GIFs and short videos could be found online.

Looking at a screenshot of Xie Sui standing among a pile of human-faced, snake-bodied monsters while looking provocatively at the camera, Tao Xinchen’s face turned livid.

Lin Zixin had given Xie Sui donations, and Xie Sui had been to Rongcheng two days before the Lin Family’s Feng Shui Formation was resolved… The person who had been disrupting his plans all along was Xie Sui, without a doubt.

This person had to be dealt with as soon as possible, otherwise, the Wuqi Sect’s plan for immortality would never be able to proceed.

Inside Wuqi Village.

Ever since the statue of the Golden Mother of the Jade Pool beneath the lake had shattered, the other Evil Cultivators of the Wuqi Sect seemed to have received the news through various channels. On this day, April 4th, not a single person had come.

The production crew had finished filming the variety show over the past few days. Once the post-production editing was done, it would be ready for release.

If he didn’t think about the eerie events they had experienced during the shoot, the Producer was actually very satisfied with the results. He had a premonition that this show would definitely be a massive hit.

The Producer looked up at the sky. It was blood-red as usual, a condition that had persisted for five days. After staying in this godforsaken village for so long, even that blood-red sky started to look somewhat pleasant.

The filming had gone smoothly, finishing exactly on April 4th. The crew planned to leave the village on the 5th, so the Producer was in the courtyard helping the camera crew pack up their equipment.

He didn’t put on any airs. Although he was a nitpicking tyrant when it came to production, he usually got along well with his subordinates.

It was at this moment that Xie Sui approached him.

Seeing Xie Sui appear before him, the Producer reflexively shuddered. He put down the equipment in his hands and asked cautiously, “Do you need something?”

Xie Sui nodded. “I wanted to ask, where did you learn about the location of this village, and why did you choose this place as a filming location?”

The Producer let out a sigh of relief. “An investor told me about it. Six months ago, he treated me to a donkey meat burger at Shao’s Restaurant, and then he started talking to me about Wuqi Village. He said the local customs here were perfect for the supernatural variety show I was filming.” Recalling that donkey meat burger, the Producer’s face turned pale, and a familiar wave of nausea washed over him.

Xie Sui continued his questioning. “Do you have a photo of him?”

The Producer shook his head. “We weren’t actually that close before… but if you want to see what he looks like, you can just search for him online.”

With that, the Producer switched his phone’s interface and typed ‘Yongsheng Group’ into a search engine. He then pointed to the photo of the legal representative on the company’s official page.

Tao Xinchen, Chairman and Legal Representative of Yongsheng Group.

The photo showed a very ordinary-looking middle-aged man with slicked-back hair and a black suit, a standard template for a successful businessman’s portrait.

He looked exactly like the businessman Xie Sui had seen in the memories of the Siamese Shaman.

This was the man who had provided living humans to help the Shaman master the Flying Head Curse, and then hired that Shaman to murder Lin Zixin. He was also the one who had treated the Producer to a meal at Shao’s Restaurant and informed him of the location of Wuqi Village.

The Wuqi Sect was behind everything.

The Wuqi Sect wanted to amass wealth, so they targeted the Lin Family… but why target this variety show? Could their true goal be to use this as a way to scheme against Yayun Entertainment?

Yayun Entertainment was backed by Zhou’s Film Studio, which had ties to the National Audio-Video Administration. Was the Wuqi Sect trying to use this to infiltrate the nation’s media mouthpieces?

Regardless of what they were planning, it was never wrong to oppose them. No matter what the Wuqi Sect’s objective was, they could not be allowed to succeed.

While Xie Sui and the Producer were talking in the courtyard, Nie Pengpeng walked out carrying a pile of blood-stained bandages.

She had been looking after Yan Nanxing for the past few days, barely paying any attention to the variety show.

Although Captain Yan’s injuries wouldn’t worsen thanks to Xie Sui, it was still necessary to clean the blood off him to facilitate future treatment and avoid infection.

Nie Pengpeng leaned toward Xie Sui. Seeing him frowning at the photo of Tao Xinchen, she asked casually, “Mr. Xie, do you want to take down Yongsheng Group? I can help you.”

Xie Sui looked at Nie Pengpeng with some surprise.

“Yongsheng Group’s main industry is real estate, but that pathetic little company only made its fortune by picking up the scraps that fell through the cracks of my family’s business.” There was no emotional fluctuation in Nie Pengpeng’s voice. There was no arrogance or disdain; she was simply stating a fact. It seemed she had never even considered the group worth her notice.

“I heard my dad mention recently that Yongsheng Group seems to be bidding for a piece of land. Mr. Xie, if you want to mess with them, I just need to say the word to my dad. There’s nothing our Huipeng Real Estate can’t snatch away.”

Xie Sui nodded. “Then I’ll leave it to you. This man belongs to the Wuqi Sect; tell your family not to have any private contact with him. Tao Xinchen is essentially the culprit who lured you to this village. Didn’t that face-changing monster say he wanted to kidnap you and demand a ransom from your father? You can pin that entire incident on him.”

Hearing Xie Sui say this, Nie Pengpeng, who had originally only intended to do her savior a small favor, saw her expression twist.

She thought of the poor girls who had died for no reason in this village, and she thought of Captain Yan, who had been seriously injured while saving her… Her fingers tightened around the bandages. Nie Pengpeng said huffily, “I’m going to tell my dad about this! How does that saying go? Right, ‘The weather is getting cold; let’s have Yongsheng Group go bankrupt.’ Don’t worry, Mr. Xie. From now on, as long as Huipeng Real Estate is around, Yongsheng Group won’t be able to earn a single cent!”

The Producer wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

As expected of the only daughter of the Nie Family’s third generation. As the most pampered child in the family, she certainly spoke with immense confidence.

However, Yongsheng Group deserved it. Thinking about how Tao Xinchen had treated him to human meat, the Producer felt his stomach churning again.

The most terrifying part was that the Producer remembered the guy eating it with great relish himself. From Xie Sui’s words, it was clear that Tao Xinchen knew exactly what they were eating… Ugh.

The Producer finally couldn’t hold it back anymore. He ran to a corner of the courtyard and began to vomit.

Holding the Producer’s phone, Xie Sui said to Nie Pengpeng, “To prevent any accidents in the village, I won’t be heading back with you tomorrow. Once Captain Yan wakes up, remember to have him give me a call. I have something to ask of him.”