Huayu Entertainment: Starting with Exorcising Evil from a Film Queen

"Card!"

"Next scene, hurry up! What are the props department doing? Splash on more blood!"

In the height of summer in Hengdian, the air seems to be ignited by the blazing sun, with every inch radiating scorching heat.

On the dusty battlefield, Zhang Ze, wearing heavy armor, silently crawled up from the pile of corpses, just like dozens of other extras.

A young girl who had just finished playing a minor role came over, her cheeks flushed, and her eyes held a mixture of admiration and shyness as she looked at Zhang Ze.

"Brother Ze, the palm reading you did for me before was so accurate! I really did find money last week!"

"Could you... also take a look at my marriage prospects?"

The little girl's voice was deliberately sweet, and her watery eyes were almost touching Zhang Ze's handsome face.

Just as Zhang Ze was about to find an excuse to refuse, his old Nokia phone suddenly vibrated.

He took out his phone.

The words "old man" on the screen made him instinctively want to hang up.

I accepted it in the end.

"Feed".

"Hey kid, where have you been gallivanting off to?"

A powerful roar came from the other end of the phone.

Zhang Ze moved his phone further away.

"Filming, busy, just say what you need to say."

"Something's happened! Of course something's happened! It's fantastic news!"

The old man shouted on the other end of the phone, "A big star went through several layers of connections to find me, wanting me to tell his fortune."

"They're a big shot and can't get away, so they want to ask me to come over."

"I figured you'd be perfect for this job in Hengdian, so I'll leave it to you!"

"I'm acting, I don't have time."

Zhang Ze is talking nonsense. He's just an extra, his time is the least valuable thing to him.

He just didn't want to go.

"You brat, don't push your luck!"

The old man was grumbling and cursing, "They're so generous! Whether it works out or not, they gave 30,000 yuan the moment they met!"

"Thirty thousand?!"

Zhang Ze's eyes lit up instantly.

That's 30,000 yuan!

He worked as an extra in Hengdian, playing corpses and soldiers. He was exposed to the wind and sun all day long, exhausted like a dog, for only fifty yuan, plus two nearly spoiled boxed meals.

He would have to work for two years without eating or drinking to earn that amount.

As expected, celebrities are rich.

Zhang Ze's mind immediately started working.

"I'll accept it. Give me the address."

His answer was concise and to the point.

"That's more like it!"

The old man chuckled, then became serious again.

"Aze, listen to my advice, come back. You have an innate Dao physique, a cultivation talent that comes along only once in a thousand years. Staying in a place like the entertainment industry is a waste of your talent and your time..."

beep...beep...

Zhang Ze hung up the phone immediately.

Wasting talent? Wasting time?

He chuckled to himself.

The old man had no idea.

The entertainment industry, a veritable melting pot, may seem like a quagmire to others, but in his eyes, it is a blessed land for self-cultivation.

Six months ago, Zhang Ze was reborn, and a panel appeared in his mind.

Besides displaying personal information, the most important function of the panel is to absorb reputation to strengthen oneself.

Reputation can be used to enhance skills and increase cultivation level.

The place where one gains the most fame and recognition is the entertainment industry.

This is a place of fame and fortune. As long as you can make it big here and become a movie star admired by all, you can not only gain both fame and fortune, but also improve your cultivation and prolong your life with the massive fame you generate.

Isn't this more promising than staying in a dilapidated Taoist temple deep in the mountains?

The only thing that made Zhang Ze somewhat helpless was that having cultivation wasn't as miraculous as the legends said. Apart from being able to draw talismans, he was just a little stronger. But Zhang Ze was content, after all, living to be a hundred or even two hundred years old was also a kind of extraordinary thing.

"Brother Ze?"

The little girl saw him hang up the phone and then timidly approached him again.

Zhang Ze glanced at the little girl beside him who was still waiting expectantly, and a slightly embarrassed smile appeared on his face.

"I have some urgent work to do. Let's talk about your matter another day."

After leaving the film set, the streets of Hengdian were filled with pedestrians dressed in strange costumes.

The streets were already decorated with national flags and Olympic slogans.

The shops next door were even playing the song "Beijing Welcomes You" on their phones.

"Beijing welcomes you, opening up new horizons for you..."

Zhang Ze drove straight back to his rented room, which cost 300 yuan a month and was less than 10 square meters in size.

I had just taken a cold shower when an unfamiliar number called.

The other party claimed to be a celebrity's assistant, spoke very politely, and asked to meet him at a coffee shop called Jingyu in Hengdian.

Zhang Ze changed into a clean white T-shirt and tidied his hair in front of the mirror.

The young man in the mirror had striking eyebrows, bright eyes, a high nose bridge, and fair skin; he didn't look like a down-on-his-luck extra at all.

He took a taxi to the Quiet Corner Cafe.

The coffee shop had a quiet and peaceful atmosphere with strong air conditioning, a world apart from the noisy and hot film studio.

He gave the waiter his name, and the waiter led him to a booth by the window.

A woman dressed modestly was already waiting there.

The woman wore a baseball cap pulled low and sunglasses that almost covered half her face, but even so, her unique temperament and figure still made Zhang Ze's heart skip a beat.

He had seen many handsome men and beautiful women in Hengdian who wanted to make it in the entertainment industry.

But the person in front of me, just sitting there quietly, exudes a unique aura.

After the waiter left, the woman took off her sunglasses, revealing a slightly haggard but still exquisite face.

It's actress Zhou Xun!

Zhang Ze looked surprised.

No wonder he's so generous, giving 30,000 yuan after just one meeting.

In recent years, she has been at the peak of her career in the entertainment industry, winning the Golden Horse Award and the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress one after another. Next year, "The Equation of Love and Death" will win her the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress, achieving the achievement of winning the three major awards.

Zhang Ze couldn't understand why this top-tier actress wanted to see a master.

He recalled that this person's acting career seemed to go smoothly afterward, and it continued to flourish for the next ten years.

A surge of emotion welled up inside Zhang Ze, but he remained outwardly calm.

"Hello, I'm Zhang Ze."

"Master Zhang? Please have a seat."

Zhou Xun's voice was a little hoarse, but she was very polite.

At this moment, Zhou Xun lacked the liveliness and beauty she displayed on screen. Her eyes held an undeniable weariness, and her whole being was shrouded in a faint gloom.

But her haggard appearance did not detract from her beauty at all; instead, it added a pitiful and broken quality to her.

Zhang Ze sat down opposite her and subconsciously used his Qi Observation Technique.

The ability to observe qi is a spell that Zhang Ze can only perform if he has cultivated his skills.

It's not as magical as I imagined. There's no such thing as defying fate or changing one's destiny. All I can see are recent fluctuations in my fortune. When my fortune is strong, everything goes smoothly and my work is successful. When my fortune is bad, everything goes wrong and I have many troubles.

The actress in front of us is experiencing a period of bad luck, and her fortune is being suppressed by an inexplicable turbid energy. Judging from the Qi Observation Technique alone, this actress has indeed encountered trouble recently.

This is a sign of bad luck and misfortune, caused by external factors.

However, Zhang Ze was unaware of the specifics.

He thought back for a moment and realized that this person hadn't actually revealed any major scandals...

There have been quite a few minor scandals recently, but they are all fabricated by entertainment tabloids for the sake of traffic.

While Zhang Ze was observing his fortune, Zhou Xun was also sizing him up.

Seeing how young he was, and how strikingly handsome he was, I couldn't help but feel a little surprised.

This was so different from the image of the venerable Taoist priest she had imagined.

"Master Zhang is much younger than I imagined."

She gave a polite smile. "To be honest, you don't seem like a master; you're more like a star about to debut."

This blunt statement also revealed his doubts.

Zhang Ze smiled frankly, "I'm working hard to become a Best Actor."

Now it was Zhou Xun's turn to be stunned.

She has seen too many people who want to be famous, and she has also seen some so-called masters who want to become movie stars, but this is the first time she has ever seen one.

Could this person be a con artist trying to swindle people?

Zhou Xun became wary, but her years of professional training prevented her from showing her emotions on her face.

She just smiled faintly, "The road to the entertainment industry is not easy."

"You should always have dreams; what if they come true?"

Zhang Ze didn't take it to heart; he knew exactly where his strengths lay.

Being able to foresee fortune and know the development of the next twenty years is like having a cheat code.

He didn't dwell on that and steered the conversation back to the main topic.

"Let's talk about your troubles."

When the conversation turned to serious matters, the forced smile on Zhou Xun's face disappeared.

She paused for a moment, seemingly organizing her thoughts.

"I've been having a really bad time lately, nothing's been going right."

Her voice lowered, "Suddenly, a lot of inexplicable negative information appeared online, saying that I was arrogant, ostracized newcomers, and all sorts of nasty things were said. Some collaborations were also affected, and the company was under a lot of pressure."

"It's not just my career, my family life is a mess too. We're always arguing over trivial things. I feel like I'm on edge, like I could snap at any moment."

She rubbed her temples, feeling even more exhausted.

"I suffer from insomnia night after night, and sometimes I have nightmares. I always feel irritable and can't calm down."

After she finished speaking, she looked up at Zhang Ze, and the powerful aura that belonged to the movie queen vanished, leaving only fragility and helplessness.

"I'm really at my wit's end, so I'm asking the master for help."

After listening, Zhang Ze remained calm and noncommittal.

These external manifestations all correspond one by one to the state of fortune he observed.

When one is surrounded by turbid air and plagued by bad luck, everything naturally goes wrong.

Actually, luck is something that can be restored to normal over time if you adjust your mindset and maintain a happy mood.

Even without Zhang Ze, this person would still have pulled through in the end.

In her previous life, Zhou Xun had already overcome everything on her own. As for this little trouble now, once she achieves the Three Gold Medals Grand Slam, she will no longer be around to see it.

However, since they've come to him, Zhang Ze naturally has to play a role, after all, they're paying real money!

He pondered for a moment, then asked, "Think carefully, in recent times, or even further back, have you come into contact with anything strange?"

"For example, have you received any ornaments or decorations of dubious origin as gifts? Or, have you been to any places you wouldn't normally go?"

Zhou Xun frowned as she recalled.

She tried hard to think, and after a long while, she slowly shook her head.

"I don't usually like going out. I spend most of my time at home except for work."

"My assistant checks all the gifts I receive, so there shouldn't be anything special about them."

Her social circle is actually very simple and stable.

Zhang Ze didn't urge him, but just waited quietly.

Sometimes, the details that the person involved overlooks are the key to the problem.

Suddenly, Zhou Xun seemed to remember something and spoke hesitantly.

"If I had to say anything about it... it would just mean going out of town to film."

"I went to Thailand to film a movie a while ago."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Ze's heart stirred.

Thailand.

The belief system there is quite different from that in China.

Most importantly, he's already cultivating, so who knows what the situation is over there?

Have you ever visited any religious statues?

His question went straight to the heart of the matter.

Zhou Xun's body stiffened slightly, then she nodded.

"I did pray there. When the film crew first started shooting, the director took us, the main cast and crew, to a nearby temple. He said it was particularly efficacious, so we went there to pray for a smooth filming process."

"This is it," Zhang Ze said softly.

Zhou Xun immediately understood the implication in Zhang Ze's words and asked in disbelief.

"I don't think so... Many people in the crew prayed together, why are they all fine? And it was a proper temple, very popular with worshippers."

If the problem really arose from worshipping the gods, why did it happen to her?