Chapter 582: Filming

The sheer number of bizarre sites in Ri Ben has even made the mainland soldiers escorting the long spear and the leading professors mutter; these days everyone is well‑versed, and they immediately think the claim in internet novels that Ri Ben is overrun with chaotic spirit veins spawning countless demons and monsters is probably an overstatement, but an overactive imagination does sometimes hit the mark. By now everyone has noticed a pattern: places haunted by fierce ghosts or other oddities seem positively correlated with folk legends, urban myths, and even horror comics and movies.

The more people know about it, the more likely it is to appear; the more people fear it, the stronger it becomes… Yet up to now, no matter how powerful, under the Cloudwater Spear it is just a single‑stroke job. Its effect is about as strong as a vacuum cleaner, and according to the agreement the mainland side counts merely tidying up the bizarre sites that threaten a few major metropolitan areas as completing the first‑stage support; as for some remote towns that are in uproar… evacuating the population is even simpler.

Everyone has now witnessed the might of the long spear, and it's impossible not to be jealous, yet even with a few extra guts they wouldn't dare reach out. While exterminating the fierce ghosts on the island, Bai Lang's phantom appeared three times, each time eliminating a powerful, unsolvable monster. The dark clouds that shrouded all four islands of Ri Ben were largely dispelled, and the Special Strategies Headquarters can now continue its endless verbal sparring while everyone idles in restaurants.

Saying we aren't grateful is impossible; we truly are grateful, otherwise things would go badly. Each of Bai Lang's phantom appearances was captured on video, and experts have meticulously recorded the daily changes of the long spear, though the footage hasn't been released; otherwise the infamous Three Kingdoms series might have to rebrand. NHK's historical drama, for the first time, is preparing to co‑produce with CCTV a legend belonging to the mainland—starting directly with the Three Kingdoms.

The drama follows a biographical route, and the first—perhaps the only—installment may be "White Tiger"… Emperor Zhao Lie, Emperor Wu, and Marquis Wu Xiang had CCTV's jewels in the past; NHK doesn't think it can surpass them, but CCTV was somewhat lacking regarding Bai Lang, so this time they consider it a gratitude for the boon left by that fierce general a thousand years ago, and everyone decided to produce a personal biography film.

Who will play Bai Lang and White Yuzhu? Not to mention that in this era it's hard to find an actor who can convey the hint of bravery shown in Bai Lang's phantom; even finding someone whose appearance roughly matches is difficult—over 1.9 m, nearly 2 m tall, definitely a muscular man, a big beard is optional and can be made up. The problem is that whether on the mainland or in Ri Ben, young male actors are increasingly effeminate, and the few tough‑guy types lack the required looks.

As for middle‑aged or older actors with a masculine vibe? Playing officials is fine, but portraying a wandering hero or a contemporary great general? That's just a joke. There are still people who can play Bai Lang; they could be sought among professional athletes or across the Pacific.

In short, the Cloudwater Spear returned to the mainland unharmed, and now it's time to clean up the bizarre sites in Hong Kong and Kowloon—doing nothing isn't an option, or Shenzhen will suffer. Anyway, the New Territories have a particularly dangerous odd site, rumored to be called something like "Mountain Village Old Corpse"… it's already causing a lot of trouble, and all the Taoist priests and sorcerers in Hong Kong and Kowloon are just freeloaders; they have no real skill any more than the masters back home.

So the mainland still has to do the dirty work, and the legendary ghost restaurant, ghost bus, and haunted Orpheus should be cleared out as well.

At this point Bai Lang had entered Canada; after a long drive he decided to rest for a while. This place doesn't discriminate against Chinese as much as the United States, so Bai Lang can stay in a relatively comfortable city hotel. He isn't interested in causing trouble, so he hasn't done much in the United States—just inadvertently spawning a batch of demons and monsters. "Given the situation, Canada will eventually turn hostile one day; after all, those guys kept fleeing north to seek refuge in Canada."

Canada's problem is the same as the United States': something has appeared on lands originally belonging to Indigenous peoples. Fortunately Canada lacks the distinctive urban legends and the city‑level bizarre sites that the United States has, so one only needs to watch out for forest monsters. The vast, sparsely populated land is a plus—people rarely encounter monsters, and the number of victims a fierce ghost can kill is limited; in a few strikes it can wipe out all living people within its reach, and until it can move freely again there will be no new victims.

Canadians seem to have absorbed a lot of aunties, appearing simple and naive—in plain terms, pretty dumb. Bai Lang enjoys an intellectual superiority over them, feeling very pleased, especially when he watches a tall, blond, thin French‑blooded beauty strolling through the hotel and feels a slight stir. "Too bad she's hairy and smells strong, what a pity," Bai Lang sighs, holding a not‑particularly rare Chinese edition of the Records of the Three Kingdoms and another Chinese edition of Romance of the Three Kingdoms—thanks to many Chinese in Canada, there are indeed plenty of Chinese books.

Bai Lang reads his own story, starting with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, "It's rather interesting, how could it have been like this…". In the book the Saint of War is GuanYu Yu, but that occurs when the later situation is unfavorable, and Bai Lang's role is heavier than Lü Bu's, yet he dies early. The narrative is full of unfulfilled heroic ambition—the three great unfulfilled ambitions in the book are: first, Bai Lang's death in Guanzhong; second, GuanYu Yu's death in Jingzhou; third, Zhuge Liang's death on the Guanzhong front…

All are helpless, all are unbearably angry—raging against a heaven that grants no longevity, a lifetime of achievements turned to flowing water in bitter frustration. Before Zhuge Liang's death, the Jiangnan region had already been largely pacified by Wei…

Although Bai Lang is not the protagonist, his several great battles—especially the series of duels with Lü Bu culminating in the final fight—are painted in bold strokes; the showdown between the two peerless warriors is written as spectacularly heroic. The historical records of the Three Kingdoms are the same: the Bai Lang biography appears in the Book of Later Han and also in the Chronicles of the Later Han, written by two authors—among the warlords of the late Han and Three Kingdoms, many were similar, they were the dazzling stars of that era.

Reading the lamentations in the official histories, all expressing regret over his early death, Bai Lang merely smiles—he has already lived such a life. The Ming Dynasty Crown Prince's Junior Protector Bai Lang White Yuzhu was no different. "Only regret killing a few Tartars…" Bai Lang lifts a glass of whiskey and downs it in one gulp; he quite enjoys the smoky aroma of the drink. "If the mood is good, that's that." After speaking, he snaps his finger; the glass turns into a shooting star that flies out, and as it lands a vacant house in the city collapses with a thunderous crash…