After breaking up with my girlfriend, I became a Great Sage of the Demon Clan.

Zhou Yan could roughly understand how this world worked.

Xiao Yanjun and Zhou Yan had said that when the Eastern Xia United Nations was first established, it had a very strong control, strong enough to suppress awakened individuals from being exposed to the public.

But after Little Yama died and the Four Divine Beasts rose to power, the Awakened Ones began to break through their original suppression and be exposed to the world.

So, how was the existence of these extraordinary humans concealed before the Awakened Ones were exposed to the public?

It's very simple. They rely on variety shows like "Walking into Unscientific World" to forcibly scientificate supernatural phenomena and irrational occurrences, making people believe that there are no superpowers or awakened individuals in this world, and that everyone is the same.

Therefore, if Zhou Yan's guess is correct, in this era, the Awakened Ones are still suppressed by the Federal Government, and they have not yet been able to swagger out in front of others.

And I am just an investigator who cleans up the messes of the awakened ones and films all sorts of variety shows that force science.

Chapter Eighteen: Foresight

Why are backpackers' belongings frequently stolen?

Why are strange noises coming from an ancient, deserted village in the middle of the night?

Is the shadowy figure in the abandoned house a person or a ghost?

Why do the ferocious beasts of the mountain howl in the dead of night?

Is all of this a distortion of human nature or a decline in morality?

Let's explore the realm of the unscientific together.

After Wu Shanfu finished speaking to Zhou Yan, who was carrying a camera, Zhou Yan turned the camera to Wu Shanfu's other side at the right moment.

On the other side, there is a small path. At the end of the path, there is a fairly large village.

When you come to do a show, you can't just have a few people act like detectives, go to the crime scene, point to some evidence, and identify the murderer.

Viewers don't actually care about the truth and evidence; what they like is the entertainment value and the novelty.

For example, if viewers see a married woman laughing and talking with a man who is not her husband, they are more likely to believe that she is having an affair, rather than accepting that the man is the woman's brother.

So, in order to whet the audience's appetite, they definitely need to find a few locals to talk about the paranormal phenomena and strange situations that have occurred in the area. The more unscientific and mysterious they are, the better, and it would be best if they could scare people into a daze.

That's how you get people to keep watching.

Zhou Yan and his team of seven interviewers from the "Walking into the Unscientific" program left one person to watch the van, while the other three, along with their camera equipment, went to the village at the end of the road.

This village isn't exactly backward; it has electricity and paved roads. However, a few women in their fifties or sixties sit at the village entrance, shelling peanuts and chatting as they eat. Their conversation revolves around whose child got married and whose daughter went to the nearby county town and never came back.

Wu Shanfu's eyes darted around, and she walked up to the group of old women, bowing respectfully.

"Hello, we are reporters from a city far away. May we ask you a few questions?"

The wives stared at Wu Shanfu with great curiosity on their faces.

In this day and age, these elderly people may be old, but they shouldn't be shouting and yelling just because they see a camera.

"Oh, you must be a reporter from the city? You're quite handsome."

A middle-aged woman dressed in white casual clothes stood up and said.

What do you want to ask?

Wu Shanfu immediately went to the old lady's side, and Zhou Yan, who was carrying a camera, pointed the camera at the old lady and Wu Shanfu.

Wu Shanfu first asked the old lady her name, then smiled at the camera and said...

"This is a gentleman from Guangming Village, which is next to Fengyang Village."

Wu Shanfu put the microphone in front of the old lady's mouth.

"Auntie, do you know Fengyang Village?"

The old lady said it very frankly.

"Oh, of course I know. I've grown up here since I was a child. How could I not know what's going on in the village next door?"

Wu Shanfu asked again.

"I've heard there's something very sinister in Fengyang Village?"

The old woman nodded with a smile.

“When I was little, my grandfather told me that Fengyang Village originally had more than 300 people, and they all lived well. One day, something strange happened in the village. Some villagers saw dark shadows laughing outside their windows when they went to sleep, and others saw a willow tree with a human face at the entrance of the village when they returned home at night. The next day, they went to check and couldn’t find the tree.”

"As soon as these things happened, people in Fengyang Village died one after another, and the deaths were very tragic. Some people were fine yesterday, but when they woke up the next day, they were found to be mummified corpses. Others woke up to find insects going in and out of their noses, mouths, and ears, which was terrifying."

The old woman began to shake her head.

“Back then I was young and I was terrified by these things. Every time I made a fuss, my parents would say they would send me to Fengyang Village. After they said that, I didn’t even dare to cry anymore.”

Another middle-aged woman came up.

"I, I've also heard my parents talk about Fengyang Village."

Wu Shanfu and Zhou Yan naturally turned their attention to the new middle-aged woman.

The older woman said with a smile.

"Before the villagers of Fengyang Village left, an old man from Fengyang Village told my parents, 'Ten years ago, um, ten years ago when the old man from Fengyang Village left, not ten years ago now...'"

The woman pointed to a mountain in the distance.

"The old man said that ten years ago, there was a heavy rain, and the rain washed away the big green mountain, blocking the feng shui entrance of Fengmen Village. Originally, Fengmen Village had a good layout of gathering wind and water, but when the mountain collapsed, it directly blocked the entrance of the wind. The pool of water lost its source and became stagnant water. How could people not die?"

The other middle-aged women echoed this.

"Yes, yes, I've heard my parents say that the feng shui of Fengyang Village is bad and that people who go there will die."

“My grandfather told me that many people died in Fengyang Village. These people were blocked by the feng shui, unable to be reincarnated. They could only wander around Fengyang Village, looking for a substitute to die in their place, so that they could leave.”

“This is true. I once went to the county town for the market. Because I arrived late, I passed by Fengyang Village at night. I saw someone calling my name under a crooked old tree at the entrance of Fengyang Village, asking me to come to their house for dinner. When I saw that it was in the direction of Fengyang Village, I was so scared that I ran away. I was seriously ill for several days after I came back.”

"You're lucky. If you dared to answer, those ghosts in Fengyang Village would have snatched your soul away."

Zhou Yan, carrying a camera, poked his head out from behind the camera and looked at the group of people with a strange expression.

You guys are quite the braggarts. If it weren't for the fact that their awakening level is currently zero, Zhou Yan would have liked to use his omniscience to see what these old ladies encountered when they were young.

Bai Yuan, who was standing to the side with a cigarette in his mouth, walked up and said jokingly.

"With so many topics, it's sure to generate a lot of buzz when we get back. It might even surpass 'City Morning News' and 'New Era Legal Talk' and take the top spot in ratings this quarter."

Zhou Yan couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Zhou Yan vaguely remembered watching "Urban Morning News" and "New Era Legal Talk" with his parents when he was still in elementary school. "Urban Morning News" was a variety show that interviewed people about urban ghost stories and supernatural phenomena. Zhou Yan's favorite part of watching "Urban Morning News" was when the host played dangerous games like money spirits, Ouija boards, and spirit boards.

"New Era Legal Talk" is a program that focuses on cases involving death and often collaborates with the police. This program is much more serious and includes a lot of content that only adults would understand. Zhou Yan watched it once or twice before his parents strictly forbade him from watching it again.

After the emergence of the Awakened Ones, the ratings of these variety shows plummeted, and they disappeared into the dustbin of history when Zhou Yan was in junior high school.

Does it still exist in this world?

Moreover, based on the types of content Zhou Yan knew, these three programs, which were intended to popularize science or mislead the public, might include "Walking into the Unscientific," which focuses on rural themes and various folk customs; "Urban Morning News," which deals with urban hot topics and popular ghost stories; and "New Era Legal Talk," which is probably about crimes committed by awakened individuals.

The three columns have different focuses, but since they all rely on deception for a living, they obviously have the idea of ​​competing with each other.

Otherwise, Baek Won wouldn't have used the term "ratings champion."

Wait a minute, I haven't seen Little Yan Jun yet. Could he be a top investigator for those two programs, "Urban Morning News" and "Lectures on the Law in the New Era"?

No, that's not right either. The fourth little Yama King is now two years old, so he's probably in third grade or fourth grade. How could these two programs dare to use a child actor?

A group of people walked out of the entrance of Guangming Village. The leader was an old man whose hair was half white, but whose face was ruddy and who looked very healthy.

"Hahaha, you're reporters from the state, right?"

The old man smiled before he even arrived, and when he reached Wu Shanfu, he extended his hand to her.

Wu Shanfu smiled and took the old man's hand.

"Hello, I am Wu Shanfu, a reporter from the 'Exploring Unscientific' program."

The old man gently touched Wu Shanfu's hand and said softly.

"I am Dong Tailai, the village head of Guangming Village. I heard from some of the young men in my family that you want to come and interview our Fengyang Village?"

Wu Shanfu countered with a question.

"Is it not allowed?"

The village chief nodded vigorously.

"Yes, yes, of course, why not? We welcome any visitors who want to promote our village."

Wu Shanfu withdrew her hand and then spoke to Zhou Yan's camera.

"Dear viewers, we are very fortunate to have met the village chief of Guangming Village. Now, let the village chief introduce the story of Fengyang Village."

Wu Shanfu pointed the microphone at the village chief, and Zhou Yan pointed the camera at him.

The village chief cleared his throat and began to speak.

“You’ve come to the right person. My grandmother was from Fengyang Village in the past. She married into the village after she got together with my grandfather.”

Wu Shanfu's eyes lit up.

"Your ancestor must know a lot about Fengyang Village, right?"

The other women also peered over. Fengyang Village had been completely relocated for over forty years, and they had talked about it endlessly. Now, the main topics were which child in the village had married into a good family, which child had been admitted to university, and which child had gone to the county town or even the prefectural capital to become a civil servant.

Unexpectedly, the village chief dropped a bombshell today, saying that his grandmother came from Fengyang Village.

This is serious.

The women's eyes lit up with surprise; they all felt they would have something to talk about in the coming days.

The village chief's eyes slowly glazed over, a characteristic that often appears when a person is deep in thought or reminiscing.

"I wouldn't say I know too much about it. My grandma loved me a lot when she was alive, but every time I talked about Fengyang Village, she would look unhappy, as if she didn't want to talk to me about the village."

Wu Shanfu said softly.

"Is it because the village of Fengyang has a serious problem of favoring sons over daughters, and your grandfather dislikes the village so much?"

Fengyang Village is a village from a hundred years ago. How severe was the preference for sons over daughters in rural areas a hundred years ago?

Based on Wu Shanfu's years of experience gathering material in rural areas, it means that they don't treat their daughters like human beings at all.

In many rural areas, it's common for women to drown their babies on the spot if they discover the baby is female.

The village chief shook his head.

"No, no, no, my grandmother was quite plump. When she married into the family, the villagers of Fengyang Village seemed very unhappy, but they still gave my family a large dowry."

They gave her a dowry and she's quite plump; it's obvious she wasn't abused. Wu Shanfu was curious.

"Then why is your grandfather unwilling to talk about his maternal family?"

The village chief spoke in a low voice, but clearly audible to everyone.

"It seems that the deity worshipped in Fengyang Village is very problematic."

Wu Shanfu dismounted from the donkey on the slope.

"What's the problem?"

The village chief looked around and saw a group of women gathered around him, staring at him expectantly.

Anyone with even a hint of selfishness should know they shouldn't listen anymore, but the village chief still spoke in a low voice that everyone else could hear.

"It seems this god isn't so particular..."

Zhou Yan added a sentence at the end.

"You're engaging in illicit worship of deities, aren't you?"

What is the practice of worshipping deities in a frivolous way?

These are unorthodox, baseless deities.

For example, if a highly respected elder in your family dies, and you, the younger generation, deify this elder, then this deity is called a deity worshipped in a lewd way.

There are also some rural spirits and monsters, and mortals who have acquired some magic, who establish themselves as gods on a certain mountain. That is also considered worshipping gods in a wicked way.

Of course, if this licentious deity could be certified by the imperial court and personally appointed by the emperor, then it could be transformed from a licentious deity into an orthodox deity.

If there was a deity worshipped in this village in the past, then the evil nature of the village can be understood.

"Yes, yes, yes, worshipping gods in a frivolous way, outsiders are considered cultured."

The village chief nodded to Zhou Yan.