The audience followed the steadily moving camera, drawing closer and closer to the man standing by the altar.
At first, stepping into the basement only made viewers feel uncomfortable because of the eerie atmosphere, but now… Most people’s hearts were pounding like crazy. Some even had dry throats and felt a bit dizzy.
Barrage comments flashed by at lightning speed.
Some viewers admitted they couldn’t take it anymore and covered the player window with a picture, asking their fellow viewers to notify them when it was safe to look again.
Others, braver, were enthusiastically discussing things.
“This is… isn’t this like some ritual to offer sacrifices to an evil god?”
“Look at those deep red patterns on the walls, don’t tell me that’s real blood?”
“With Spiritual Energy Revival, I’m not surprised at all that all the mythical stuff from stories is actually popping up now!”
“Bro, I…”
“Honestly, I don’t like cultivators. I’ve dealt with them before, and their attitude to us regular people, it’s exactly like how you’d look at ants, that’s how they look at us! And they’re not even doing it on purpose! But this is exactly what I’ve always worried about, that after Spiritual Energy Revival if there are no cultivators to protect us… would we just get hoodwinked by some random thing, and turn out like that guy by the altar…”
“Don’t say anymore, bro—I’m scared!”
“I’m telling you, this is the Qin Family, you know, that Qin Family. The one by the altar, looks like Qin Family’s second son to me. My impression was that he was a model young man, but now he’s…”
“The Qin Family can totally afford to hire a cultivator to mentor their kids, right?”
“That’s why I said it’s scary…”
“And how do you know the Qin Family isn’t aware of their son’s condition, that they haven’t consulted a real cultivator? Whether those cultivators just don’t care or can’t do anything, for us regular folks... well, you can see for yourself.”
This viewer, flaunting his Supreme VIP badge, made a highlighted comment that was clearly holding something back. After that, the barrage slowed to a trickle.
At this moment, Ling Jing was holding the camera rig, watching the comments pour in with a big smile alongside Qin Jingzhou. Seeing the viewers growing suspicious of cultivators and even worried about the future, she decided to speak up, “You’re all geniuses, seriously. Qin Family’s second son really does believe in the evil god and even plans to sacrifice all of us here to that evil god, but the reason we’re livestreaming is to make everyone believe in science, and believe in taking charge of your own fate.”
As soon as Ling Jing finished her speech, the barrage stopped completely for a minute.
She paused, then asked, “No way, did I just leave you all speechless?”
Qin Jingzhou’s short clip showing off black-tech flying swords had gone viral globally within half a day, and during this period, all sorts of well-informed folks had given crash courses to viewers everywhere, including background on who Zhang Jingzhou was, who his friends and enemies were, and who he currently cared most about, and so forth.
So, most people watching knew who Ling Jing was.
Everyone felt obligated to show respect to the girlfriend of President Zhang.
That’s why the same Supreme VIP guy posted another highlighted comment, “Sis-in-law, you’re taking us on a tour of an evil god sacrifice site and asking us to believe in science—it’s not exactly convincing. By the way, the deep red lines on the wall have been slowly writhing for a while now.”
A highlighted comment visible across the entire platform cost a million.
After seeing other viewers’ hints, Ling Jing turned her head and asked Qin Jingzhou, “You…” She left off the words “the original host.” “Do you know him?”
Qin Jingzhou used a small trick, though it lost a little in translation over the internet. “Yeah. We got along, ate together a lot.”
As soon as this voice came through, even when viewers clearly saw those deep red lines writhing on the wall, they all instantly felt reassured.
The Supreme VIP guy also finally relaxed, and a moment later, he looked even happier: President Zhang acknowledged him and that was enough.
At that moment, Qin Jingzhou felt that the timing was just right. He gestured to the Qin Family members following behind Ling Jing, letting them step a bit closer. Then he walked up to the altar, facing Qin Er, who still stood there with both arms raised, eyes wild with fervor, and said, “You can start now.”
Viewers stared at the screen, anxiety at a fever pitch, even with President Zhang standing there cool and collected in his white shirt and dress pants.
Next, those deep red lines on the wall seemed to come alive, crazily surging toward the altar, then gathering beneath it into a… something that couldn’t be described, a sight so nauseating and indescribable that to look at it too closely would make you want to throw up.
Luckily, everyone just felt a little uncomfortable, not enough to cloud their minds, but it was still scary enough to leave them shaken in hindsight.
“Pass it over, please.” President Zhang said, and then someone from offscreen handed him a… a… broom!
All the viewers cried out together: What the heck! This is a sudden plot twist if ever there was one.
There was hardly time to comment before President Zhang gripped the broom handle, aimed the brush end right above that deep red mess, and jabbed it straight down… at which point, half of the broom disappeared on the spot.
President Zhang continued, “See that? The broom is half gone. That means we’ve found where this so-called evil god is hiding. All we have to do is hold tight to the handle, give it a good stir, then yank it back out…”
As the camera zoomed in, everyone clearly saw that part of the intact broom was now wrapped around a thing that looked a bit like an octopus, but with several eyes!
The viewers were shocked. This thing seemed exactly like the indescribable monsters described as evil gods in novels and movies. They all squeezed their eyes shut at once.
President Zhang’s voice came through again, “If you have to ask, this is just an evil god larva. It’s fine to look directly at it. It’s very weak. Its greatest skill is creating illusions and…”
His girlfriend's laughter spilled out, “Chattering nonstop in your ear.”
With the biggest grin that almost lit up the dark basement, President Zhang gave the broom a hard shake, flinging the many-eyed octopus thing onto the floor, then… stomped on it with his foot…
He stomped on it…
He stomped...
And stomped...
The viewers: ...I feel so bad for President Zhang’s handmade leather shoes...
Then, in the shot, President Zhang drew back his leg and turned to face Qin Er, who was now kneeling, and said, “You really put your faith in something so weak an evil god that even a girl with no grip strength could slap it with a slipper—you must be desperate for something.”
As soon as he finished, the barrage exploded.
“It’s here, it’s here, the soul-questioning is here!”
“Evil gods, at their core, are just scams.”
“How am I supposed to ever take an evil god seriously again? With a slipper and done, such indignity for the evil god!”
“The Society for the Protection of Evil Gods lodges a strong protest!”
While most viewers busied themselves making memes, some, clearly older, were engrossed in serious discussion.
“Remember what President Zhang said before? Whether it’s immortal cultivation or technology, the future is bright… Check what this livestream is called.”
“So this really is a science livestream?!”
“They’re explicitly telling us ordinary people we don’t have to panic at the mention of evil gods, and teaching us how to deal with them. How is this not a science stream?”
“Come to think of it, if I ran into an evil god of this level, I could handle it too!”
“Hold up, I think I could as well!”
Just then, while the excitement was at its peak, the Supreme VIP blew another million on a highlighted comment, “Brother Zhang, can this thing be eaten?”
The viewers all snapped to attention: Good point! Why didn’t I think of that earlier?
Barrage: “You asked exactly what I wanted to!”
“As a citizen of the Foodie Empire, I’d also like to know, President Zhang, if it’s edible, does it taste good?”
In the basement of the Qin Family, still dim but no longer the least bit creepy, Ling Jing couldn’t help bursting into laughter at all the comments. She kindly read out the Supreme VIP’s highlighted message for Qin Jingzhou, and also the questions about flavor.
Qin Jingzhou was amused as well. “You can eat it. But it doesn’t taste good.” He went on, “At this stage, evil gods are basically formed from pure spiritual energy, a large amount of protein, a small amount of water, and minerals. It really doesn’t taste like much, but eating it is about the same as absorbing a surge of pure energy. So for ordinary people, there are quite a few benefits, the effects are even better than those mutated animals and plants. How much you gain mainly depends on the evil god’s attributes and whether it’s compatible with you.”
Ling Jing glanced at the comment barrage and couldn’t hold back her giggles. “Do you know what people are saying? All I can see are countless exclamation marks and wall after wall of drooling emojis.”
Qin Jingzhou shook his head, laughing. “No wonder everyone perks up as soon as we talk about eating.”
“Hey,” Ling Jing saw the Supreme VIP guy throw down another million for a highlighted message. She quickly read it, “He’s asking if you'll sell the evil god. He’d like to buy it—wants to be the first to give it a try.”
Qin Jingzhou picked up the evil god, now barely clinging to life, from the floor. “If he doesn't mind that I stepped on it, he can have it for free. Just DM me an address or come pick it up.”
The Supreme VIP was apparently so excited that his fingers scrambled for the keyboard. His next highlighted message, after “Thank you,” was an endless string of gibberish.
The other viewers could only feel jealous.
Right then, another Supreme VIP burst onto the scene. “Who's complaining? An evil god crushed under President Zhang’s shoe has got to have an extra flavor! I’m willing to pay more!”
The Supreme VIPs who’d stayed out of sight because they didn’t know President Zhang well all suddenly posted, “Yes, raise the price!”
Qin Jingzhou laughed. “As Spiritual Energy Revival continues, these evil god spawn living in the cracks of space will gradually wake up. As far as I know, there’s going to be a lot of them… Don’t focus only on the one in my hand.”
He had Ling Jing adjust the camera to point at him and taught viewers how to recognize the strength of evil god offspring. After all, a small subset of them really are dangerous. If you charge in blindly, you might end up hospitalized or worse, dead, though that’s very rare.
He went on to explain how you can tell if an evil god’s attributes suit you. If it doesn’t, you can just sell or exchange it. And as for cooking, you can prepare evil gods exactly as you would meat.
Having finished all that, he waved to the camera.
Ling Jing went along and closed out the stream.
That night, the replay for this barely-fifteen-minute livestream set off a sensation worldwide.
Governments everywhere were cheered and immediately arranged for personnel to run their own tests.
At midnight, a daring and detail-oriented young couple, having watched the science livestream, used a plunger to successfully capture an evil god larva in the apartment of that one coworker who’d been acting all spooky lately—a short clip of which instantly shot up the trending lists on social media worldwide.
Meanwhile, several e-commerce platforms in Hua Country rushed to put up “evil god capture tools”… which turned out to be long-handled, soft-tipped spiked clubs, since those with hard spikes apparently left the evil gods too battered to sell at a good price.
From then on, an earth-shaking evil god hunting boom swept the globe.