C38 Part2

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

A simple scene awaits Liu Yu’an. This time it is him having received the praises from his four Yaoguai servants and then heading out to patrol his lands alone.

As it is something he has done for tens of thousands of times himself, even if the ‘land’ is just a green screen he can still easily mimic the prideful arrogance of the Emperor of the Yaoguai perfectly, and the scene passes in one go.

The director nods approvingly looking at the footage; if only all his actors are as professional as he is. His hairline might not even retreat so quickly anymore.

“Alright alright, next scene, move!” After a whole morning of scolding the director finally sounds a little less pissed off. Many are grateful to Liu Yu’an for the favour – the atmosphere was too dreary already. It was like a stick of dynamite waiting to blow up.

The next scene is also the Emperor patrolling his lands, but somewhere else. It’s also done in one go.

The director is even smiling by now, and says, “everyone, you should hone your skills better. If you were all like xiao-Liu I wouldn’t have to tell you all off so harshly.”

Everyone “…”

You also knew you were being hopelessly harsh yourself?!

They thought he didn’t even know.

As everyone is looking at the director with their faces twitching, the next scene begins – the scene where the Emperor of the Yaoguai meets with the protagonist and his buddies.

The Emperor is admiring his own beauty by the banks of the Foggy River during sundown. The protagonist and his friends are searching for the Leaf of the Mil-ember Phoenix and are passing by the Foggy River to make their way to the Foggy Mountain where the Leaf is supposedly kept.

When they happen across the Emperor who is sitting by the river in fiery red clothes backlit by the setting sun, the protagonists, shocked, yells out, “a ghost!”

And it pisses off the narcissistic Emperor of the Yaoguai, big time. He almost gets beheaded in one strike, but he is quick enough on his feet and with enough Ascendant Tools supporting him, he dodges it by a hair’s breadth.

It has been a long time since the Emperor has met any cultivator capable of dodging his strike, even if helped by Ascendant Tools. The Emperor decides to elevate the person above ‘insignificant pebble’ and asks, willing to forgive his earlier transgression on one condition, lifting his hair and showing his face in front of them, “look, aren’t I beautiful?”

The protagonist, typical of a BG harem protagonist, is straight as steel. Even if the Emperor is beautiful, he cannot bring himself to call the male Yaoguai in front of him ‘beautiful,’ especially in front of the female protagonist and his equally straight lackeys. So he does not respond.

And it sets off the Emperor, again, who swears to kill them all. The group starts running away, and one of the lackeys was too slow and is smashed into pieces by the Emperor. The rest all fell into the Foggy River.

The Foggy River of the Realm of the Yaoguai, also known as the ‘River of Death.’ So the Emperor assumes they’d all died.

Though, mindful of being called a ‘ghost’ earlier, he had his servants praise him for an extra two hours that night.

Of course, standard protagonist halo applies in this story and he and his pals obviously find massive benefits inside the River instead of dying. Most importantly, they also found something better than the Leaf of Mil-ember Phoenix that could heal their master’s soul.

Unfortunately, that ‘something’ is the basis of the River of Death, which is actually the river the entire Realm of the Yaoguai depends on – Not as a water source, of course, but instead it provides the supernatural cultivable qi that the Yaoguai requires. And it just so happens one of the serendipitous findings the protagonist acquired is the ancient mythical artefact producing the supernatural cultivable qi in the river.

Incidentally, the artefact can actually produce any qi, including normal cultivable qi, demonic cultivable qi and even ascendant cultivable qi. It’s actually a priceless treasure for cultivators.

The artefact being taken away has caused a resonance throughout the entire Yaoguai species; the Realm goes on lockdown as the protagonists are faced with wave after wave of pursuers.

They dart here and there and use the artefact to ensure that their human scent is masked by a thick layer of supernatural qi until they finally manage to escape the Emperor’s wrath. Then they use guerilla tactics to completely upend the law and order of the entire realm to finally loosen the seal on the inter-realm travel network. Of course, they have several narrow escapes, but of course, all ends well for our protagonist here. They manage to escape back to the Human Realm in the end.

Meanwhile, the Emperor, both for being called a ‘ghost’ and for having the prized artefact of the Realm stolen and for the responsibility he had to the realm, is in irreconcilable conflict with them now. He chases all the way into the Human Realm.

Unfortunately, a Yaoguai isn’t fighting on particularly advantageous grounds in the Human Realm; the new and improved protagonist 2.0 after a training montage successfully snipes the Emperor in the heart.

Of course, he wouldn’t die so easily like this. Thousands of years of life has given him experience and foresight and the skills needed to still survive – while his body is dead, his soul escapes successfully.

Too bad for the cannon fodder antagonist that is the Emperor of the Yaoguai who, the protagonist and his pals fearing reprisal, goes after him and, finding that he is practically invincible in the Realm of the Yaoguai as Her Emperor, they seal him into the Foggy River to be the new source of supernatural cultivable qi. He would slowly, agonisingly weaken before dying and the rest of the Yaoguai – well, why would the beneficiaries of this say or do anything?

That is all the parts Liu Yu’an needs to act.

Of course, he is at the beginning of his parts. Unfortunately, there being no river running through the studio, he can only admire himself at a green screen on the ground. The scene is downright farcical.

Thankfully everyone present is professional. Other than the newcomers chuckling quietly everyone else looks dead serious as they do their parts.

Perhaps because Liu Yu’an’s expression isn’t going on camera this scene, or somehow the setting is being reminiscent to him, he can’t help but recall how it played out for him.

He knew where the protagonist would be and that he would have to kill someone there, but he still had to go to the river bank.

He blanks out, and the director yells at him “Liu Yu’an! What the hell are you doing sitting there blank! You think you’re the Emperor and is somehow seeing how beautiful you are in all the green?”

Everyone breaks out into laughter. And the director doesn’t even know who he should scold at for that, and even ends up laughing himself, “alright, alright, get back to work. Reset the scene.”

Then he tells Liu Yu’an, “you should pay more attention. Don’t be so easily distracted by a few praises; there’s a lot to improve still.”

“Yeah, I understand.” Liu Yu’an says, smiling, before apologising to the actors and actresses.

The next go, there’s another problem. This time, the female protagonist tripped on the wire on the ground, which was also covered in green.

And continue shooting they go. That’s the problem with scenes with many actors. You trip there, I forget my line there. When the scene is finally done, it’s almost 2 in the afternoon already.

The director finally lets them loose to go eat.

Liu Yu’an heads out, however, to find a rather interesting scene – xiao-Zhang and Xu Qingqing are distributing meals. Liu Yu’an blinks, and hears Xu Qingqing say, “An-ge ordered takeout from Biyuntian today. There’s fish and pork and lamb and beef. Which one do you want? Mr./Mrs. X?”

Biyuntian, the restaurant in the five-star hotel, is quite the distance away. And, most importantly, they don’t do takeouts; even just eating there requires reservation no matter what.

Liu Yu’an has already had that drama online yesterday. Although the topics were deleted and cleaned up soon enough, everyone is already aware of what background Liu Yu’an has.

An unpopular, even infamous celebrity. If he has nothing standing behind him, no sane company would pay such a great price to clean up after him.

Now, he has managed to get takeout from Biyuntian of all places.

Everyone is looking at Liu Yu’an oddly.

Liu Yu’an’s forehead twitches. It must be Shao Yanxi again.

Xiao-Zhang sees him and passes the takeout in his hand to the staff member nearby, and heads over, saying, “An-ge, your lunch is inside the van.”

“Got it,” Liu Yu’an then asks, “have you eaten yet?”

“No, not yet; mine is also in the van. We’ll be eating after we finish distributing.”

“Alright,” Liu Yu’an says, walking towards the van.

When he’s there, he sees Hou Yueting, the female lead, heading over with joyous steps, calling him out, “An-ge.”

Liu Yu’an stops and waits.

“Thanks for this!” She lifts the takeout in her hand a little smiling, “I always wanted to eat the sweet and sour ribs of Biyuntian, but I couldn’t get a reservation. Now I finally get to try some myself. I’m really grateful.”

“You’re welcome,” Liu Yu’an says, “now let’s eat before it’s cold.”

Then he enters the van and closes the door, not at all seemingly interested in inviting her inside.

Hou Yueting stands there for a bit before retreating, a bit embarrassed. Then, she sees the straightforward second female lead Mu Rui, who has been rather unfriendly towards her these days. She harrumphs a little before moving past her back to her own private room.

At first, Mu Rui thought Hou Yueting was a good actress, especially when compared to the bunch of shallow vases she’s a part of. But after working with her for a month and a bit, she realises that while she is talented and even skilled, but she’s lazy and unprincipled. She started to think less of her since. And even when talking she is markedly less friendly than before. So now, they are in a cold relationship.

Seeing her try to mooch closer to Liu Yu’an and perhaps play little tricks makes her want to snigger.

Thankfully, while they are unhappy to see each other, they do not bring it into their work, so the crew just lets them be.

Liu Yu’an doesn’t know these, of course, having been away for a month. He just starts eating his lunch in private in his nanny van.

As expected, the meal is full of dishes he likes. Smiling, he calls Shao Yanxi on video.

It fails to connect, and Shao Yanxi only calls him back after about 5 minutes.

“Something up just now?” Liu Yu’an asks while eating.

“Conference. It just ended,” Shao Yanxi clearly has just barely sat down on his desk before calling back. In fact, he is still straightening his hair and suit right now.

“Eaten yet?” Liu Yu’an asks.

Shao Yanxi says, still tidying up, “not yet.”

“The assistant didn’t get anything for you?”

Because Shao Yanxi has a habit of not eating properly, he told the assistant to order meals for Shao Yanxi before he left.

“He did,” Shao Yanxi says, standing back up and then moving out of sight, sounding like he’s moving files around before turning the camera to show the meal already put on his coffee table.

Liu Yu’an ‘mm’s as he then watches Shao Yanxi move the camera and himself to the sofa by the coffee table.

There are four dishes and a soup, with a healthy mixture of meat and vegetables. Not a lot individually, but just enough for Shao Yanxi’s appetite.

Then they enjoy their meals together, chatting as well about the morning.

Hearing the director say how he’s admiring his own beauty somehow from a big blank piece of greenscreen, they both laugh.

“Sounds pretty peaceful over there,” Shao Yanxi says.

Liu Yu’an has also infected him and now his habit of not talking during meals is mostly gone.

“It is,” Liu Yu’an says,” you’ll know when you come visit.”

“Sure,” Shao Yanxi replies.

Then they chat intimately for a while more, and Liu Yu’an only hangs up when the staff comes knocking.

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