Chapter 124

When he first learned that the person seeking help was Yan Xingwei, he had checked the official social media of the movie, and there were very few followers. He even suspected that Yan Xingwei hadn't done much in terms of pre-publicity and promotion.

The sudden increase was so big that he couldn't believe his eyes.

Liu assistant, a newcomer in the entertainment industry, remained much calmer: "Previously, the female lead's family kept suppressing Yan Xingwei. Over the past ten years, the money spent on blocking information was more than a hundred times the amount spent on promoting him."

If it weren't for Wanli Group's involvement this time, Yan Xingwei would probably have been destroyed by that venomous beauty, losing his confidence and pride, becoming her family's useless son-in-law.

As for Yan Xingwei's future life, he didn't need to think hard; he knew he'd probably be labeled as "the genius director who fell from grace for love."

Zhu Chu, who had gained a lot of perspective following Liu assistant, immediately understood the meaning behind Liu's words without him explaining further. Thinking carefully about what Liu had said, he couldn't help but break into a cold sweat.

"My God, isn't this just extortion?"

The girl looked delicate and weak, even fainting when emotional, but who knew she was this ruthless!

However, Yan Xingwei was already in his thirties, and he was still being chased around by a little girl in such a pathetic state, while he himself had remained single all this time...

Zhu Chu's gaze toward Yan Xingwei immediately became complicated.

Yan Xingwei: "…?"

Although it was already a done deal for the spirits of the Xianyao Sect to join the crew, and even the crew members felt that the spirits' acting had already won over Yan Xingwei, Yan still wanted to conduct another round of auditions for the sake of the integrity of his work. He took the spirits to the mountains for another audition.

Honestly, he had no hope for their acting; he just hoped that when they were on screen, they wouldn't stand out for the wrong reasons.

To his surprise, the spirits immediately understood the scenes and shots he described, especially the parts involving animal instincts. No one could understand themselves better than the spirits did.

After the auditions, Yan Xingwei found that the performance wasn’t as bad as he had expected.

Thinking about it, Yan Xingwei promoted several of the spirits with especially high talent to supporting roles with lines. Their pay went up tenfold, much higher than the original extra roles.

The spirits, probably for the first time, had such a generous employer. Even when they were in the Southwest with Mu Shui Shui, they had never had such an easy and well-paid job!

For a moment, they felt that coming to the capital with the Xianyao Sect was the right decision, and they felt more of a sense of belonging to the sect.

Until Yan Xingwei made an unreasonable request: "There’s one more thing. The costumes for the roles are usually customized by a shop, but the body measurements of the previous people were too different from yours, and there’s no time for custom fittings. How about..."

The three dog spirits, who had clearly become the representatives of the spirits, immediately asked earnestly: "How about what?"

Yan Xingwei thought that besides not being human, these actors had great conditions and attitudes. He wasn't at all polite in his response: "How about you change into something yourselves?"

The spirits: "?"

The three dog spirits exchanged confused glances, and each of them showed a puzzled expression: "But, boss, we don’t have a silkworm spirit, nor do we have a weaving maiden."

Yan Xingwei: "?"

He naturally responded: "Just use magic to change into a set of clothes, it’s not that difficult, start with silk."

The three dog spirits: "…"The big dog asked with a soulful question: "Boss, it's not that we don't want to, but... do we look like the type who knows how to wear clothes?"

Yan Xingwei: "…"

This argument made a lot of sense.

In the end, it was the ever-capable Assistant Liu who solved the problem—

When Assistant Liu was driving Ke Xingzhou and the others back to the capital, he received a call from the Special Event Handling Bureau, saying they needed to contact Mr. Nie.

On the other end of the phone was Xiang Ting.

Xiang Ting briefly explained the situation that had occurred at the inn, and then, after a moment of silence, he slowly spoke about the real reason for the call: "The female lead's family company is quite substantial. Could you please send someone from your subsidiary to warn them, so they stop targeting this poor soul?"

Ke Xingzhou blinked, then immediately realized that Xiang Ting was following through on the promise that Bi Fang and the others had made to Yan Xingwei earlier.

It seemed they had mentioned that someone from the Special Event Handling Bureau had connections that could handle the female lead's company.

So, was this connection Mr. Nie Chen?

Since Wanli Group invested in Yan Xingwei's film, they naturally supported the costume design for the movie. Assistant Liu immediately borrowed the corresponding character costumes from a shop specializing in film and TV costumes and arranged for a tailoring company under Wanli Group to come and measure the spirits for custom outfits.

Yan Xingwei was flattered: "This... this... it's too much! It's not necessary to go as far as custom-made..."

Assistant Liu: "No trouble at all. This team is responsible for the daily costumes of the actors under the Xianyao Sect."

Yan Xingwei: "…Oh."

Now, both Director Yan and the spirits were happy, and Zhu Chu was excited when he saw the payment for the spirits' roles on his phone—

"Master! Our project is doing great! The entertainment industry really makes money!" He raised his phone and turned around, only to find that Ke Xingzhou and Nie Chen were sitting far apart for some reason. Upon his inquiry, their expressions were quite different.

The master’s eyes brightened for a moment when he heard this, but when he met Zhu Chu’s gaze, he paused for some reason and politely nodded: "Mm, not bad."

The junior’s reaction was even more obvious, his face cold, and his green eyes looked as though he wanted to skin him alive.

Ah, haha... He must have misunderstood.

Zhu Chu thought with a good attitude, his junior was just a little fierce normally, but their bond as master and disciple was still deep.

Moreover, the three of them had slept in the same room last night!

Wouldn't this strengthen their bond?

Deliberately ignoring the blunder he made last night by calling his junior "a man who serves others with his beauty," Zhu Chu chuckled awkwardly and turned back.

The Taoist priests still needed to finish the ceremony at the inn. Ke Xingzhou, not seeing his master here, had already lost interest and planned to leave early to go home and relax.

Naturally, Nie Chen followed wherever he went.When the three of them from the Xianyao Sect passed through the inn’s lobby, Ke Xingzhou and Nie Chen both paused for a moment.

Zhu Chu quickly rushed ahead of them, curiously turning back: "Master, Junior Brother?"

What’s going on? Last night, all three of them slept together, so how did the master and junior brother’s understanding surpass his?

Zhu Chu silently took a half step back to his original position, watching as the master and junior brother's expressions briefly seemed dazed, but soon returned to normal.

Ke Xingzhou, with an unchanged expression, walked through the central barrier of the lobby. It was probably because it was daytime, so this time, he wasn’t pulled back into the Yellow Spring Inn.

Nie Chen’s expression didn’t show anything special. If anything, it seemed that his previous inexplicable hostility toward Zhu Chu had now turned into complete disregard.

However, when they reached the inn's entrance and were about to get in the car, he still turned back to look at the spot where they had just stopped.

In that brief moment, it seemed like he exhibited a similar state of losing himself.

Fortunately, it was only for a second or two. Looking at Zhu Chu’s expression, it seemed that he hadn’t been out of it for too long, unlike before when he would need to sleep for a while to wake up.

His gaze lingered on the inn. Nie Chen noticed something even stranger—despite this being his first time here, he felt a strange sense of familiarity with the place.

Filled with confusion, Nie Chen turned around and met Ke Xingzhou’s gaze.

Ke Xingzhou instinctively asked, “Do you feel it too?”

Nie Chen's brow twitched. Did Ke Xingzhou have the same symptoms as him?

Ke Xingzhou glanced at the eldest disciple, Zhu Chu, and then lowered his head to type a message on his phone. Not long after, a special notification sound came from his phone.

[There is a barrier in the inn’s lobby.]

Nie Chen relaxed his brow and soon returned to normal: "Mm."

The two of them looked at each other. Despite the distance between them, there was an inexplicable closeness that seemed like outsiders couldn’t intrude.

Zhu Chu: "…"

Are you two for real? I’m still here!

You’re isolating me in front of me?

He was upset that despite all three of them having slept in the same room and on the same bed last night, the bond between the master and junior brother seemed to be progressing much faster than his. Just then, he heard his junior brother slowly speak: "I might be quite busy for a while."

Ke Xingzhou was taken aback and instinctively asked, "Is it about the company?"

Nie Chen looked into his eyes, paused for a moment, and casually nodded: "Mm."

He rarely spoke so succinctly when facing Ke Xingzhou. Ke Xingzhou instinctively felt that something wasn’t quite right, but the phone of Assistant Liu in the front seat was ringing constantly, and there were still company documents in the back seat that hadn’t been handled.

It was said that Old Master Nie kept all the power in his hands, and many documents had to be personally reviewed by the person in charge. He had been curious earlier about how Assistant Liu managed to handle company affairs while always appearing around them, solving their problems.

Now, it seemed everything had piled up.

Ke Xingzhou, not understanding much about business matters, didn’t suspect anything and nodded with a lost look.

Zhu Chu, however, immediately became happy.If the junior disciple is not in the sect, then isn't the sect his world?!

The junior disciple had only been here for one night, yet easily surpassed the bond between him and the master. He had originally worried that if this continued, the junior disciple would eventually completely replace him.

But now it was good—since the junior disciple was busy with company matters, he could take this opportunity to serve the master well and make the master change his mind!

He carefully planned it out. In order to imitate Nie Chen, he even learned the technique of scrubbing his back thoroughly. However, before he could apply it to the master, an unexpected event occurred.

That day, as usual, he ignored Master Ke Zhengye’s scolding and was cleaning the incense burner while also browsing his phone, reading discussions online about Yan Xingwei’s comeback.

Despite not having any works for ten years, Yan Xingwei still held considerable influence. In just a few days, his official announcement about collaborating on a new project had received millions of shares, almost surpassing some popular celebrities.

Of course, it wasn’t just Yan Xingwei himself who could generate such a massive amount of traffic in such a short time.

The turning point came when Yan Xingwei announced he was filming a new movie. News that had been blocked for years finally reached his loyal fans, who eagerly shared it.

Among them, there was a well-known influencer who had been documenting their battle with cancer. The day before, they had posted a long Weibo apologizing to fans, saying that their condition had worsened, they couldn’t hold on anymore, and they were possibly contemplating suicide.

Fans immediately called the police and used various means to locate the influencer. After searching the entire night with no updates, just as they were giving up, they found that the influencer had suddenly logged back online.

The influencer retweeted Yan Xingwei’s official announcement and wrote: [I want to watch the movie.]

The location was at the hospital where they were receiving treatment.

The influencer had regained the will to live.

This news brought tears of joy to all the netizens, and then they realized that the director’s name in the retweeted post seemed familiar—it was the genius director who almost sparked a revolution in the film industry ten years ago!

At this point, Yan Xingwei’s return had completely exploded across the internet, and even the master was so happy that he ate two extra bowls of rice.

Zhu Chu, who had been reading the touching comments in Yan Xingwei’s comment section, was crying uncontrollably when he suddenly heard someone at the door asking, “Excuse me, is Mr. Ke the owner of this place?”

Ke Zhengye still cared about his face in front of outsiders, and his scolding immediately stopped.

Zhu Chu wiped his face and looked up to see a middle-aged man with a stiff, formal air standing at the door. Behind him were several men and women in their thirties, all dressed in suits, their hair neatly combed.

They didn’t look like they came to offer incense—they didn’t even have incense. Zhu Chu thought they were looking for Ke Zhengye but still asked, “Which Mr. Ke are you looking for?”

Before he could finish his sentence, Ke Zhengye had already come out of the room, smiling as he approached the man and shook his hand. “Oh, isn’t this Director Wen? What brings you here today…”

The man, called Director Wen, curiously sized up Ke Zhengye but was still very polite. “Do you know me?”

Ke Zhengye, noticing Zhu Chu’s gaze, straightened his back and flicked the little remaining hair on his head. “Of course. Don’t you remember? Two years ago, when the local cultural tourism promotion seminar was held, we shook hands, remember?”

Director Wen: “…”

He remembered the cultural tourism promotion seminar from two years ago, but it had invited most of the tourism-related businesses in the capital. He had shaken hands with over a hundred people, so he didn’t have much of an impression of the man in front of him.

He probably sensed something was off and smiled at Ke Zhengye. “We can catch up later. I’m here today regarding the Xianyao Sect’s site application. Is Daoist Ke from the Xianyao Sect here?”

Ke Zhengye’s innocent old face immediately fell.

Considering that Ke Xingzhou’s rebellious disciple was standing next to him, he forced a smile and said, “Haha, Director Wen, you’re really joking... Are you really not looking for me?”Director Wen nodded: "No."

Ke Zhengye: "......"

Ke Zhengye was really angry.

At least he managed to keep some face in front of Director Wen, but when it came time to call Ke Xingzhou down, his steps were so heavy it felt like he was going to collapse the stairs, and his tone was extremely unfriendly: "Director Wen from the Department of Culture and Tourism is looking for you!"

Department of Culture and Tourism?

Ke Xingzhou, who had been feeling happy about his increased merits, blinked when he heard that.

Wasn't that the department that silently took the original location of their Xiaoyao Sect and turned it into a heritage site for restoration, later developing it into a tourist experience base?

The conflict between the two had started rather early. Ke Xingzhou had been thinking about when he would be able to reclaim his sect's land, but unexpectedly, they had come to him first.

Thus, his expression remained calm, even though Ke Zhengye was wildly signaling at him from across the room. He showed no enthusiasm: "Director Wen is looking for me?"

When Director Wen saw him, he obviously sighed in relief. This was the "Daoist Ke" he had seen in the media. When he had first seen Ke Zhengye, he had thought he had come to the wrong place.

But the large incense burner of the Xiaoyao Sect was right at the door.

His mind quickly turned, and without hesitation, he stepped forward with some polite small talk: "Daoist Ke, I've heard of you for a long time. I’ve heard about your work in the Southwest leading other Daoists to eliminate evil sects. I’ve always wanted to meet you."

His tone was a complete contrast to the one he had used when speaking with Ke Zhengye. Ke Zhengye nearly lost his smile.

Not wanting to embarrass himself here, he glanced at Ke Xingzhou and made an excuse to leave the meeting room.

Ke Xingzhou felt indifferent to this and directly interrupted Director Wen: "What’s the matter?"

His attitude was visibly cold, and Director Wen, a bit confused, didn't understand when he had offended Daoist Ke.

However, he was indeed here on a mission, so he wasn't angry: "Daoist Ke is straightforward. The thing is, our Department of Culture and Tourism recently restored a Taoist temple site and built a Taoist cultural experience base on it. Interestingly, it happens to share the same name as your Xiaoyao Sect."

Ke Xingzhou: "Heh."

Director Wen: "?"

Director Wen hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out what Ke Xingzhou meant. Was he upset that their "Xiaoyao Sect Taoist Cultural Experience Base" shared the same name?

But at the time, they had clearly checked the list of Taoist Association members, and there was no such organization as Xiaoyao Sect!

If anything, it was Xiaoyao Sect that had taken their name.

Director Wen completely forgot that the name had been chosen because the plaque at the site was already called "Xiaoyao Sect." Now, Ke Xingzhou’s attitude made him feel a bit displeased.

He grew more blunt: "Our Taoist cultural experience base has been open for some time, but recently we've been getting frequent reports saying that someone has seen the entrance to the underworld at Xiaoyao Sect."

When Ke Xingzhou heard this, his expression finally became serious: "The underworld again?"

The Huangquan Inn, which was strictly speaking another entrance to the underworld, was located exactly at the boundary between the Yin and Yang realms, allowing the coexistence of humans, ghosts, and demons.

But how could there be an entrance to the underworld at Xiaoyao Sect?

Ke Xingzhou recalled his time studying at Xiaoyao Sect. At least until he completed his training and left, there had been no strange occurrences there.Director Wen nodded: "This matter has spread online and gained a lot of attention. There are even conspiracy theories emerging, with people questioning the structure of the world! We've contacted Taoist associations across the country and issued clarifying statements, but we still can't suppress the heat of this issue. In fact, more and more tourists have been taking similar photos. This situation is really tricky. According to the Taoist priests, we've heard that you have close ties with the underworld, so we had no choice but to come to you for help."

After a pause, perhaps after having inquired about Ke Xingzhou's personality, Director Wen quickly added: "Don't worry, we will offer compensation."

Ke Xingzhou's expression indeed softened considerably.

Just as Director Wen was about to relax, he heard Ke Xingzhou ask him, "So, about the land you're going to allocate to us, is that still valid?"

Director Wen: "?"

Wait, hold on. Did he just mention allocating land to Xiaoyao Sect?