After the final scene was completed.
"That's a wrap, that's a wrap! Thanks for the hard work today, everyone!"
Judging from the director's expression, he seemed very satisfied with today's shoot.
"Director, why do you look not surprised at all by the Ethereal attack?"
Ju Fufu looked at the director strangely.
When the Ethereals suddenly attacked during filming, even Ju Fufu had been startled. Yet the director had remained remarkably calm. "If anything, the Ethereal attack felt like it had been 'written into the script'."
"Of course, accidents happen…"
The director still hadn't realized the seriousness of the issue and waved it off nonchalantly. "But not all accidents are bad, right? Just like Miss Fufu joining us—wasn't that also due to an accident? An accident that turned into a pleasant surprise!"
"Everything is proceeding under the arrangement of Mr. 'Executive Producer.' Nothing will go wrong… Miss Fufu, you can rest assured!"
Will nothing really go wrong?
Ju Fufu raised her index and middle fingers into a V shape, propping her chin in a pose often used by Shifu Yixuan.
After we get back, I'll ask Brother Arden and Shifu to divine it properly.
Thinking and divination weren't her strengths, so Ju Fufu decided that once they returned to Suibian Temple, she'd tell Brother Arden and Shifu Yixuan everything that had happened.
"Tomorrow we'll shoot the dialogue scenes first, then the action scenes. Everyone needs to get up early—assemble at Failume Heights on time!"
Before leaving, the director arranged the next day's schedule. "Hehe, especially Miss Fufu and Mr. Cang Huang. As the two leads, you absolutely can't be late."
"Oh? Leads… two of them?"
Cang Huang seemed to take issue with the director's wording.
"Sigh~~ Still have to act again!"
Honestly speaking, compared to being the Young Tiger Hero, Ju Fufu felt that the "Guardian Tiger" in Divine Tiger Companions suited her much better. All she had to do there was run around, jump a bit, occasionally flash her claws and go "rawr"—no lines at all. Unlike the Young Tiger Hero, who had to deal with Ethereals and deliver long stretches of dialogue.
By the time they returned to Suibian Temple, it was already midnight.
"Then Eve and I will head back first."
After saying goodbye, Astra Yao left with Evelyn.
Only Ju Fufu, Yixuan, and Arden remained in the room.
"So, Fufu—how does it feel to be a lead?"
Once Astra Yao and Evelyn were gone, Arden visibly relaxed. He didn't want to leave the impression of indulgence or extravagance on them—it wouldn't be good for future relations.
He joked as he pulled Ju Fufu and Yixuan into his arms.
Arden had naturally observed Ju Fufu's experiences during filming, and just earlier she had retold everything from her own perspective.
"Don't tease me anymore. I'm about to be annoyed to death… If I'd known it'd be like this, I wouldn't have agreed to the director in the first place."
"Hehe, trying more things is also part of life's experience. You never know when it might come in handy."
Yixuan gently advised Ju Fufu.
"Mm… I hope I'll never need it."
Ju Fufu wriggled out of Arden's embrace and burrowed into Yixuan's arms instead. "Shifu, what do the divinations say?"
"Mm, there is indeed something strange about this matter."
Yixuan grew more serious. "But in my view, Fufu, you should enter the situation yourself and observe quietly within the crew."
"Brother Arden?"
After Yixuan gave her opinion, Ju Fufu turned to ask Arden.
"My opinion is similar to my wife's."
In front of outsiders, Arden still called Yixuan "Shifu," but when they were alone, he preferred "wife." "Protection and investigation are the duties of cultivators like us… Don't worry, I'll protect Fufu well."
And Arden always addressed Ju Fufu simply as "Fufu."
"Mm… alright."
Since both Shifu Yixuan and Arden said so, Ju Fufu decided she would endure it, even if she didn't like it.
Early the next morning.
They started with a dialogue scene, set in an "inn," filmed at Yum Cha Sin.
Sweety also appeared as a special guest actor, playing the inn's proprietress—no, wait! She was already the proprietress, so the role came to her with zero pressure.
According to the script, the Demon-Subduing Bell was famous throughout the land. It was said to emit a divine sound capable of subduing any demon, and was enshrined at Demon-Subduing Mountain near Qingping. However, the cultivator alliance leader who was meant to suppress demons there had long since vanished, and over the years Demon-Subduing Mountain had been occupied by all kinds of fiends, causing the Demon-Subduing Bell to be lost.
Recovering the Demon-Subduing Bell would pacify this chaos of rampant evil. Though only a legend, it still stirred the hearts of countless heroes.
"Tiger Hero and Young Tiger Hero, you must have come for this as well, right?"
Sweety delivered her line.
Once the dialogue scene ended, it was time for action scenes, once again filmed inside the Hollow.
During a break, Ju Fufu took the initiative to strike up a conversation with Cang Huang.
"Mr. Cang Huang, actually, you've always had a lot of prestige among the tiger Thiren!"
Since it was rare to meet someone of the same race and they were filming together, Ju Fufu didn't want their relationship to be too tense.
"Among tiger Thiren? How many of our kind are even left in New Eridu now?"
When the topic of tiger Thiren came up, Cang Huang's tone grew heavier.
"…You mean solving the great crisis of New Eridu City, right?"
As he spoke, Cang Huang's gaze passed over Ju Fufu, as if searching for two other figures.
Of course, he found nothing.
"Hehe, Brother Arden and Shifu really are amazing, but as for me…"
Being praised so directly made Ju Fufu scratch her head shyly. "I'm just so-so."
"Back when the tiger clan faced catastrophe, if not for Brother Arden and Shifu, I probably would have already—"
"Oh?"
Ju Fufu's words stirred something in Cang Huang. "What a lucky child."
"But for those of us who survived that calamity, should we call it luck… or misfortune?"
Ju Fufu fell silent. Cang Huang's words seemed to stir old memories within her.
The tiger Thiren possessed forbidden artifacts and forbidden arts, yet never used them—even as the clan was swallowed by Hollows and Ethereals. In the end, only a handful of tiger Thiren survived that disaster, and Ju Fufu was one of those lucky few.
"Lucky… maybe."
Living was luck, but it also meant bearing the fate of the entire clan. "What about you, Mr. Cang Huang? You must have your own convictions."
"Convictions? I just don't want to follow the same path as those clansmen. In the face of life and death, how many convictions still matter?"
Cang Huang clearly held a different view. "This world is nothing more than eating others, or being eaten. You don't actually think the entertainment industry is easy to survive in, do you?"
"Uh…"
Ju Fufu was momentarily at a loss. She didn't particularly want to survive in the entertainment industry, but she didn't agree with Cang Huang's worldview either. "The Hollow has indeed taken many things from us, but aren't there still many beautiful things worth holding on to?"
She thought of Arden, thought of Shifu Yixuan, thought of the disciples of Yunkui Summit, thought of Sweety, Yiji, Astra Yao, Evelyn, and many others.
All of these were things worth holding on to.
"Heh… do cultivators always talk with such lofty righteousness?"
He clearly didn't agree with Ju Fufu's words—there was even a hint of disgust in his expression.
===BREAK===
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