Chapter 278 - - 276 Increase the Fame of Clear Heart Temple_1

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Tongshan City.

Jingming Hotel.

By the time Duge arrived, the hotel was besieged by reporters, so much so that water couldn’t trickle through.

After Li Yao was taken away by officials for tax evasion, Cheng Yu’s disdain for fans escalated into the biggest scandal in the entertainment industry.

The journalists, drawn by the scent of blood, naturally wouldn’t miss out on firsthand news.

Dahua Entertainment, backing Cheng Yu, could buy off some reporters, but not all.

Getting out of the car.

A group of reporters and cameramen immediately surrounded him, almost shoving microphones in Duge’s face. He had never experienced such a scene, but as someone who had emerged from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, he was undaunted by this minor confrontation.

Duge extended his divine consciousness, monitoring every movement around him.

He also caused quite a stir, with keywords like “media,” “concealment,” “assassination” being thrown at him in this setting.

He could never afford to let his guard down.

…

“Cheng Yu, was what you said yesterday true?”

“Cheng Yu, why did you shut down the comment section? Is it because you feel guilty?”

“Cheng Yu, there are rumors that you said what you did because you took on a new role about cyber-violence and are trying to get into the mood, is that true?”

“Cheng Yu, you haven’t responded all night, is it because you’re trying to come up with a strategy?”

…

“No comment.”

“Could all the reporters please step aside? If you have any questions, you can ask them at the press conference.”

“Please move aside, I can assure you that Cheng Yu has always been the same responsible idol to society, and that has never changed.”

Zhao Hongmei stood in front of Duge, blocking the reporters crowding in on them.

…

A press conference, huh?

Why should I listen to your arrangements?

Suddenly, Duge stopped walking, gazed at the reporters, and then took out another Spirit Talisman from his bosom.

Click!

Seeing Duge’s action, Zhao Hongmei’s heart skipped a beat: “Cheng Yu, don’t.”

But how could Duge possibly listen to him?

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, he flung the talisman into the air, and the yellow paper automatically burst, turning into fine droplets raining down on all the reporters’ heads.

All the noise instantly quieted down.

Zhao Hongmei’s heart turned cold there and then.

Duge chuckled, “Yes, that statement was mine, I indeed look down on you all. Do you know what the real truth of the world is?

How many people carry burdens to ensure your peaceful lives, to allow you to spout nonsense online? Everything I have, I earned through my own abilities, and I have to protect the world in the shadows for you. Why can’t I look down on you?”

Boom!

The reporters exploded again.

At that moment, no one cared about Duge’s discrimination issue anymore. The reporters, now drenched like drowned rats, focused on the earth-shattering news Duge had just revealed.

“Cheng Yu, was the rain-making just now a magic trick?”

“What did you mean by the true state of the world?”

“When you speak of protecting the world in darkness, what exactly are you referring to?”

“Do you have supernatural powers?”

…

“It’s not supernatural powers, it’s Taoist magic,” Duge said with a slight smile, speaking loudly, “Today, I revealed my identity in front of everyone for a reason—to tell those Heavenly Demons hiding in the shadows, if you want trouble, come at me. Don’t disrupt the lives of ordinary people. Although I look down on them, I won’t allow you to hurt them; only I can do that. Once more, if you’ve got something, come at me, don’t make me look down on you…”

…

On the live stream’s barrage.

A torrent of question marks floated by.

“What’s the situation?”

“Is Cheng Yu some kind of hidden expert?”

“If I’m not mistaken, didn’t he just use a Spirit Talisman?”

“And what the hell is a Heavenly Demon? How much is there in this world that we don’t know about?”

“Honey, I love you, you’re so amazing.”

“It’s gotta be fake! I’d rather believe what he said today was a script he wrote in advance than that line he posted yesterday.”

“What’s this ‘only I can bully my people’ nonsense? Is he having a delusional episode?”

“Only a fool would want protection from a clown like Cheng Yu!”

“But why do I feel like what he said was pretty domineering…”

“Remember that video from yesterday where someone killed a person in the street and then suddenly vanished? Could that guy be the Heavenly Demon that Cheng Yu mentioned?”

“No matter what, I still can’t forgive Cheng Yu for looking down on me.”

…

Smack!

The live stream was forcibly terminated.

In the Special Affairs Office of Tongshan City, a man in his thirties slammed his hand on the desk, “Who is he, has he lost his mind? Why is he making trouble at this time?”

A person dressed as a Taoist next to him had a grim expression, “He’s a new disciple taken in by Daoist Suwen from Clear Heart Temple. It is said that after only one night of cultivation, he could produce a Five Thunder Talisman, and he was even once possessed by the Demon King, but it failed. Suwen reported it to the organization this morning and asked us to keep an eye on him, to prevent him from really getting possessed by the Demon King.”

“Take care of him, how are we supposed to do that?” the middle-aged man pointed at the frozen scene on the screen and paced back and forth, roared in anger, “Using a Spirit Talisman in public, and speaking righteously about facing the Heavenly Demon himself, as if he’d been shouldering burdens on behalf of others! He’s only been studying Taoism for a day. He’s just using his Taoist skills to gain online popularity. Look at this stunt, it’s going to cause us so much trouble. I don’t care whether the Heavenly Demon comes after him, I want to go over there and cripple him myself!”

“…” The person dressed as a Taoist swallowed hard, “I’ll call him and give him a warning!”

“Do it, hurry up,” the middle-aged man said. “Tell him to clean up his own mess, and also call Daoist Suwen from Clear Heart Temple and ask what kind of disciple he has taken in!”

…

Clear Heart Temple.

Taoist Yunfeng was almost going insane. Just after Yu Ming submitted a complaint about Duge, official authorities started calling them.

Looking at the chat log that Yu Ming sent over along with the video of Cheng Yu using the Cloud Rain Talisman in public, Yunfeng felt like crying without tears. Little junior brother, is this your way of making Clear Heart Temple famous?

You’re bringing disaster to Clear Heart Temple!

“Senior brother, what do we do?” Taoist Yunfeng turned to their eldest senior brother Qing Song and asked, “Before Master went into seclusion, he said not to disturb him unless it was urgent. Does this count as urgent? This little junior brother is causing too much trouble!”

“It’s not good to disturb Master just after he went into seclusion,” Qing Song fell silent for a moment and sighed, “I’ll go down the mountain myself. Master values him quite a bit, so we can’t let the junior brother really get killed. If it comes to it, I’ll take him and apologize to the other sects one by one…”

“Shouldn’t we inform Master?” Yunfeng asked.

“Let’s wait and see!” Qing Song turned back, glanced in the direction where their master was meditating, and said, “Master is getting old, and it would be bad if he gets upset again. I’ll try to handle it first. The officials will help with the aftermath; they won’t just watch the junior brother mess around…”

…

Puzhou City.

A man and a woman holding a donation box with “Protect the environment, safeguard the future” stood on the street, staring at their phone watching Duge’s brazen video, dumbstruck.

The man said, “Shit, this guy is really wild! Why didn’t I think of possessing a celebrity? I had a feeling he wasn’t normal yesterday, but to think he actually was a candidate. But where did he get that Spirit Talisman from?”

“There’s indeed a hidden world,” said the woman, “We also need to find a way to become disciples. Otherwise, if other people have Taoist skills and we don’t, we’ll be at a huge disadvantage if exposed.”

“Where do we go to become disciples?” the man asked.

“I’ll look it up online!” the woman replied, “If all else fails, we’ll just cause a scene, and maybe that will naturally draw attention from those sects.”

“With the Heavenly Demon’s information exposed, some people might have already allied with the officials. We need to be careful, wouldn’t want to capsize in the gutter,” the man cautioned.

“It won’t come to that!” the woman said. “You got ‘protection,’ I got ‘business,’ these words are close to the first two simulation fields of Boss Du. It doesn’t make sense that Boss Du could get first place using them, and yet when the two of us teamed up, we got eliminated by someone else.”

“Makes sense,” the man nodded, “but I feel like ‘protection’ is indeed hard to work with in modern society.”

“Take it slow, turn ‘protection’ into ‘business,’ and we both can grow,” the woman nodded, “Stop worrying about it, let’s start our live stream! We need to make a name for ourselves first. Boss Du was unremarkable at the start, but once his career got on track, it grew like a snowball, bigger and unstoppable. We need to learn from Boss Du.”

“Yeah,” the man nodded, “What do you think Cheng Yu is doing, exposing himself like that? Could he be using this as a way to attract allies? After all, Boss Du is very good to his own people and excels at collaboration. This time, the simulation had too many of Boss Du’s tactics.”

“Who cares, we’re all much of a muchness, as long as it’s not Duge himself stepping in, we have nothing to fear,” the woman said with a smile, “The spotlight has changed, and if we can stand out in this simulation field, we might very well join Boss Du in the Alien Battlefield.”

“So what do you think are Cheng Yu’s keywords?” the man asked.

“Arrogance, or perhaps discrimination!” the woman laughed, “Boss Du never hides his keywords. Most likely, the majority of students in this simulation field are his fans and will imitate what they see.”

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