The Magical Spellbook!

In 2004, on the set of the Lotus Lantern in Hengdian.

"All right, take a break! No shouting, no running around, and don't even think about sneaking off for a foot massage—we've still got filming to do!"

The assistant director's shout sent the whole crowd of "heavenly soldiers" sprawling in the shade.

They were called heavenly soldiers, but really, they were just grunts.

They had been the pride of the mortal realm, struggling from qi refinement through foundation establishment, then cultivating for centuries until they reached the spirit transformation stage and ascended. At last, they had arrived in heaven—only to join the rank and file.

Shen Qi played one of them. In the sweltering heat, he wore foul-smelling armor and a stinking helmet that covered half his face.

He didn't even get to show his face!

Everyone else complained about the heat and took off their helmets at once. Shen Qi lifted his costume robe instead and pulled a palm-sized notebook from his left trouser pocket.

Its cover looked rigid and copper-green, with an ancient air about it. Several lines of scribbles that looked like arcane symbols were printed across it.

Notebook in hand, Shen Qi moved a few steps closer to the filming area.

The crew was shooting You Benchang's scene. The Queen Mother wanted to send Yang Jian, the Meishan Brothers, the Four Heavenly Kings, and a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers to capture Chenxiang. You Benchang, playing the Supreme Elder Lord, was trying to dissuade her.

The old man outclassed everyone on set. No wonder he was one of the greats of Chinese acting.

Shen Qi opened the notebook, fished a stub of pencil from his pocket, and began taking careful notes.

Anyone watching him bury himself in study would have assumed he was putting on a show to catch the director's eye and make it big—or trying to attract some actress for a night of fun.

But to Shen Qi, everything he wrote on the page gave off a faint, hazy glow.

The characters crawled like ants, rearranging themselves at will.

Complex symbols and markings took shape at speed, overlapping and fusing together.

Pfft.

As though a spark had gone out, every character dimmed in an instant.

Then they rapidly vanished.

The Parchment returned to its original spotless state.

Fuck. Failed again!

With no time to feel discouraged, Shen Qi kept trying to record it.

He had found this little notebook a few days ago.

At first, he'd thought someone had lost it.

But when he opened it, he found the inside cover neatly filled in:

Name: Shen Qi

Date of birth: March 4, 1981

Height: 186 cm

Weight: 75 kg

Occupation: extra

Skill level: painfully awful!

What the fuck? That's all my information!

Every detail matched.

Not a single thing was off!

Whoever wrote it even knew how terrible he was at acting.

Holy shit!

He'd felt sick to his stomach.

A prank?

He had only recently arrived in Hengdian and barely knew anyone. Who would go to so much trouble to mess with him?

Then he remembered a manga he'd read recently. It said that anyone whose name was written in a notebook... would die!

Cold sweat had nearly broken out all over him!

Fortunately, after a few days of experimenting, Shen Qi had finally figured out what the thing was.

It wasn't a death note!

But it did contain some mysterious power.

It was practically a Magic Book!

The "Magic Book" let Shen Qi record a "skill" while watching someone perform it.

One day, he had accidentally succeeded in recording the Howling Celestial Dog's performance.

Then he had unwittingly pressed his palm against that page.

Good grief. The essence of that dog's performance had poured straight into his head!

At that moment, Shen Qi had finally seen the light!

All his life, he had thought he was good at acting.

So when choosing between "becoming a star" and "working as a gigolo," he had decisively gone to Hengdian to work as an extra.

He had even lamented how unfair life was.

How can I be this handsome and still not get to play Yang Jian's dog?

Only now did he realize how little he knew.

There were just five usable pages in the notebook that could record someone else's performance.

The remaining pages were stuck to the cover.

It was as if they were waiting to be unlocked.

Luckily, the five unlocked Parchment pages could be used over and over.

Record, use, record again, use again...

Perhaps because his occupation was "extra," the unlocked Parchment pages could currently record only performances.

The worse the performance, the easier it was to record.

He had tried to record You Benchang's performance more than ten times in a row, until his head ached, and still hadn't succeeded.

Grandpa, please dial it down!

Shen Qi put the notebook away and gave up on recording You Benchang.

In fact, four of the five pages already held performances. With the Lotus Lantern nearly finished filming, he had wanted to take a gamble with the last one.

He'd clearly been too ambitious.

"Oh, Mr. Shen Qi, writing in your diary again?"

A bright laugh rang out beside him. Shen Qi turned and saw the leading actress, Shu Chang, standing there with a smile.

The girl was dressed for the heat, her slender waist and long legs dazzlingly fair—

No wonder she was playing a fox spirit!

"It's not every day you get to watch Mr. You Benchang act. I'm afraid I'll forget it all, so I write down whatever comes to mind."

To everyone else, the notebook was just an ordinary notebook.

And what Shen Qi wrote in it was an ordinary journal of his observations.

He was simply a weirdo in his twenties who still kept a diary!

"Aren't you hot, still wearing that helmet?"

Shu Chang was impressed. She had been acting for twelve years and had never worked as hard as Shen Qi.

"A calm mind keeps you cool."

Shen Qi casually took off his helmet. With a fox spirit standing so close, he really was starting to feel hot.

"Wow, how are you even more handsome than you were a couple of days ago? Did you get some beauty treatments?"

Shu Chang had only gotten to know an extra like Shen Qi because he was handsome.

In her own words, she'd liked the look of him.

Taken separately, Shen Qi's features might not have been perfect, but together they had an almost magical appeal.

Jiao Enjun was on this set, after all.

Yet Shu Chang still thought Shen Qi was a little more handsome. That said plenty about the effect he had.

If there was one flaw, perhaps it was that his complexion wasn't fair enough. He was several shades darker than Jiao Enjun and Bai Gu.

Not that he was particularly dark.

He was much fairer than the tanned Gu.

That sun-kissed complexion, paired with Shen Qi's distinctive features, made him look all the more natural and healthy, with an indescribable wildness about him.

He was the type girls from sixteen to seventy-six would swoon over.

Shu Chang, though, was only sixteen or seventeen. Her eyes held simple admiration, none of the "lecherous" look Shen Qi despised.

"Come on. Looking like this, do you think I can afford beauty treatments?"

Shen Qi was dirt poor.

At most, having a Magic Book he could rely on had made him much more confident and cheerful.

Confidence made a person glow.

"True." Shu Chang was worried about her new friend. She lowered her voice and asked, "Want me to lend you some money to tide you over?"

"Shu Chang!"

A sharp call rang out, not especially loud but impossible to miss.

Shen Qi glanced at the person running toward them, shook his head, and smiled. "Thanks, but no. Things will get better for me soon."

He had never deliberately tried to cozy up to Shu Chang.

He simply hadn't pushed her away.

As for borrowing money, they weren't that close.

Shu Chang had seen Shen Qi's stubborn streak before. She sighed helplessly. "If you're in trouble, you have to tell me. And I'll keep an eye out for roles that might suit you!"

With that, she hurried off.

If she stayed, her agent might embarrass Shen Qi right there.

Then they might not even be able to stay friends.

An extra and the leading actress...

The gap between them was enormous.

So her agent suspected Shen Qi was using his looks to get Shu Chang to support him.

What a bastard!

If you want to latch on to a rich woman, why not go after Liu Xiaoqing, who plays the Queen Mother?

Our Shu Chang is barely in her teens!