Next Time, for Sure

"What are your thoughts after three days of exploring the simulated Wasteland Zone? Would you share them with everyone?"

In front of the camera, He Caihua smiled at Yue Wen.

Three days had flown by. After the commotion caused by Yellow Big Tiger and the other yao creatures had died down, the livestream project had returned to normal. Everyone was searching for treasure chests and hunting yao beasts in an orderly fashion. The question of "just how weak is Ji Yang?" had also become a popular topic of discussion among viewers.

At any rate, Ji Yang had gotten the recognition he'd wanted before coming here... though probably not in the way he'd hoped.

The participants hadn't run into each other much over the past few days, but the director's team had filled He Caihua in on a few things, such as Yue Wen's brief rise to fame as "Ruthless Brother." So, just after they came out of the Wasteland Zone, at the short closing ceremony, she pulled Yue Wen over with the reporter who'd been interviewing her.

Facing the cameras, Yue Wen said sincerely, "Truthfully, I don't want to leave. Truthfully, I want to stay."

After three days of exploring, everyone was a little worn out. Yue Wen alone was full of energy, and even looked reluctant to leave.

"Heh-heh." He Caihua smiled. "Are you disappointed? I heard you didn't find a single treasure chest in all three days. But that can't be helped. Life is always full of regrets."

"Yeah." Yue Wen's smile was impossible to suppress. "I'm so disappointed."

The program staff gave him strange looks, thinking that he deserved to be disappointed. He'd worn those shabby old sunglasses from dawn to dusk. How was he supposed to find anything?

The director looked at Yue Wen as if he were her sworn enemy.

She'd arranged at least seven or eight treasure chests with promotional ads along Yue Wen's route. A few had practically been placed in the middle of the road, but Yue Wen hadn't even glanced at them. He'd headed straight for the ravines where the yao beasts were hiding.

It was as if he'd come here solely to hunt yao beasts.

The staff, sneaking around to avoid the cameras and panting from exhaustion, had been running in circles around the treasure chests in a panic. Yue Wen was a popular contestant whose later-stage traffic rivaled Li Feixia's, yet he hadn't brought Wangyou Media a single bit of promotional exposure. Instead, the clothes he wore kept advertising his shabby little studio.

It would've been one thing if he'd simply passed up the promotional opportunities. But his yao-beast hunting had reached a downright outrageous level.

The second batch of yao beasts the director's team had released was nearly wiped out by the second day. They'd even started reminding Yue Wen over his earpiece that the audience loved watching him fight, but he didn't have to be quite so conscientious.

Did the monsters cost nothing?

On the third day, they'd urgently released another batch. Before the livestream ended, Yue Wen had seemed to gain X-ray vision, searching the entire Wasteland Zone for yao beasts to kill.

He wasn't even trying to hide it anymore!

The director had nearly cried as she begged him to stop.

It was certainly a pleasant surprise that he'd drawn in some of the viewers and made the livestream more exciting. But he'd killed far too many yao beasts. Because of him, the program's budget for buying them had doubled!

By the time they did the math, Wangyou Media had definitely lost quite a bit of money on him.

Apart from Yue Wen and Ji Yang, who'd dropped out midway, the others had all kept up their earnest search for treasure chests.

Liu Yuanjun found a real treasure chest containing a prize, but quietly put the prize back. After going out to find his junior sister, he brought Li Feixia over to open the chest.

The young woman was delighted, and the viewers watching from home gave the senior-and-junior pair a flood of likes. The comments were filled with the same six words: "Sibling love! I'm shipping them like crazy!"

He Caihua, who'd been searching diligently, found a treasure chest too, giving her fans something to celebrate.

In truth, her performance throughout the expedition had been fairly average. But she already had a strong fanbase, so her personal livestream consistently had the most viewers, and the number of comments she drew in the main livestream was far ahead of everyone else's.

Su Renxue didn't find the last treasure chest until the afternoon of the third day. In fact, the program staff had only just placed it there. The third chest also held the biggest prize, so she could consider herself lucky.

But she didn't look happy on the award podium. Her face was cold, and she even seemed a little troubled.

Throughout the expedition, everyone had killed yao beasts as soon as they saw them, without much trouble at all. Only Ji Yang of Hidden Dragon Pool had been so badly injured by a little yao beast that he had to withdraw. It had all happened in front of everyone.

She had no idea how badly people would mock their sect once they got back.

Yue Wen hadn't found a treasure chest either, but he wore a radiant smile that never faded. Every now and then, he'd hum something about how staying when you couldn't leave was the loneliest thing of all.

The only one who was truly furious was Zhao Xing'er. She stamped her feet and cried, "Aiya! This is so frustrating! Why were all the treasure chests I found fake? I refuse to accept it! Was there some kind of rigging?"

The staff beside her were angry but didn't dare say anything. They wondered what was wrong with the people from her studio.

One couldn't spot a chest sitting right by the roadside, and the other couldn't find one even when it was hidden just a little more cleverly.

Their brains were like perfectly straight highways.

They didn't even want to comment on how she searched. When she got frustrated, she'd grab her giant battleaxe and chop down every tree on a hill. If the program staff hadn't stopped her, she'd nearly set the mountain on fire. Even if there had been a real chest, she would've destroyed it.

And every time she fought a yao beast, she blew up a mountain. Every fight took out a whole stretch of land. Having her around meant spending a lot more on the set.

Still, compared with the kid beside her who was killing yao beasts, her problems seemed minor.

And she was accusing them of rigging things?

At the end of the interview, Yue Wen smiled at the camera. "To speak from the heart, I didn't find a treasure chest on this expedition, but I had a great time. I'm looking forward to the next one."

After a brief interview, He Caihua took the reporter away to chat with the next explorer.

Just then, Liu Yuanjun and Li Feixia came over to Yue Wen.

"Brother Yue." Liu Yuanjun greeted him with an old-fashioned cupped-fist salute. These days, it seemed only disciples of ancient Immortal Gates still used this kind of etiquette. "Feixia told me that you helped her when a yao creature ambushed her. We came to thank you."

When Li Feixia had been ambushed by Big Rhinoceros Deer, it was Yue Wen's Flying Sword that had stopped it. Otherwise, who knew what might have happened? She must have remembered the help.

Li Feixia politely bowed behind her senior brother. "Thank you, Brother Yue Wen."

"Hey, it was nothing," Yue Wen said. "Anyone would've stepped in under those circumstances."

"Regardless, you saved a disciple of Xuanfeng Temple," Liu Yuanjun said generously. "If you ever need help in River City, just let us know."

His offer was far more substantial than Qi Dian's. Linjiang Gate was merely a well-regarded sect in River City, while Xuanfeng Temple was unquestionably the city's top Immortal Gate and ranked among the best in all of Tianbei Prefecture. Liu Yuanjun was also the sect's chief disciple.

Yue Wen thought for a moment, then said, "In that case, there's no need to wait. I already have something I need help with."

"Oh?" Liu Yuanjun asked. "What is it?"

"I need a dose of Grand Unity Profound Blazing Cinnabar, but it's very difficult to obtain, and I don't have any good connections." Yue Wen smiled. "If you have time, could you use Xuanfeng Temple's connections to find out where I might buy some? I only need a seller's name. I'll cover the cost of the Immortal Material myself."

The longer a favor went unclaimed, the more uncertain it became. If he went to ask for help later, they might not be willing. As it happened, he was in a hurry to gather the materials. Xuanfeng Temple had been around for a long time and had deep roots, so he might as well ask them to look into it.

Most sects had their own channels for buying Immortal Materials. A nobody like him, a freelance cultivator, couldn't get access to them. They'd be far more reliable than searching Cultivation Chat.

Hearing this, Liu Yuanjun nodded and agreed at once. "I've heard a little about it. It's indeed a rare Immortal Material. When I return to the sect, I'll ask the elders to do all they can to look into it. But if they don't find anything, I hope you won't blame us."

"Of course not," Yue Wen said. "I'm already grateful that Xuanfeng Temple is willing to help. Thank you both."

Li Feixia nodded emphatically. "I'll get everyone at the temple to help you. Don't worry. They all listen to me."

"Feixia," Liu Yuanjun chided softly. "When we're around outsiders, you have to show respect to the elders."

"Oh." Li Feixia lowered her head and stepped back.

Yue Wen wondered if that meant she didn't show the elders much respect back at the sect.

But it was their family business, so he didn't ask. He just smiled and chatted with them for a while. Then the director approached with several assistants, holding a stack of receipts.

"We've finished calculating the shares from the livestream gifts over the past few days. These receipts have all the details, so you can compare them with the figures in the livestream later." She handed a receipt to each person. "Your shares will be deposited into your accounts within three days."

Yue Wen took the receipt and glanced at it. His hands trembled involuntarily.

It showed that his share of the tips from the main livestream and his personal livestream came to a total of 957,632 yuan and five jiao.

Even after a hefty tax deduction, it was still an astonishing amount. For the owner of a small studio who'd hardly ever made any money, it was undoubtedly a fortune.

An ordinary person could use that money to buy an apartment and a car in a satellite city, then settle into a comfortable life. But for a cultivator hoping to break through, it might not even be enough to buy a single Immortal Material.

That was how unequal the world could be.

"Livestreaming really does bring in money fast," Yue Wen couldn't help remarking.

"It burns through money fast, too," the director said through clenched teeth. "The company loses quite a bit putting on a livestream like this."

She was telling the truth. The tips looked like a lot, but they weren't nearly enough for Wangyou Media to break even. Even with the promotional fees and sales revenue, a livestream project this large still lost money.

The project had originally been a trial run, an exploration of this kind of format, so spending some money upfront was normal.

But then they'd repeatedly increased their investment in yao beasts, and the budget had ballooned.

It had gotten out of hand.

When she got back, her superiors would definitely criticize her for failing to control the budget.

"A good company should shoulder more social responsibility," Yue Wen said with a smile. "If there's another opportunity like this, remember to call my studio again."

"Heh-heh." The director gave a sharp, fake laugh. She thought, If I ever invite you to another yao-beast hunting project, I'll be a dog. Then she replied, "Next time, for sure!"

On the ride back, Zhao Xing'er dozed beside him while Yue Wen took out the Mustard Seed Jade again.

He hadn't been idle these past two days. Whenever he had time to rest, he'd take out the jade pendant and work it over, refining it with his true qi to gradually erase its former owner's mark and try to control it.

Now, he'd nearly finished refining it.