Chapter 391: Tipping

I switched off the Brooch Camera. The live stream ended before I could even say a word to the chat.

Sunlight washed over my face as a text message pinged my phone.

"Ding!"

"Live stream task complete: 1 point awarded. Peak viewership exceeded 8,000: 8 points awarded. Total gifts received during the stream exceeded five Yuanbao: 5 points awarded. Completed a commission from the Underworld: 1 bonus point awarded."

"Optional Task 1: Find the extra person. Completed: 5 points awarded."

"Optional Task 2: Kill the Traitors. Task failed."

"Optional Task 3: Kill one person during the live stream. Completed: 1 point awarded."

"Help hotline function not used during this live stream. The free opportunity will carry over to the next stream."

"Tally complete. You earned 21 points this live stream. Current point total: 89 points."

"Merit tally for this live stream: Slain a murderer and avenged a wronged soul. Merit +10."

"Tenth live stream completed. Unlocking new merchandise catalog."

"Great Sun Golden Radiance Pill (Protective golden radiance; purifies fate, grants enlightenment, and awakens the intelligence of ghosts. 30 points), Mount Tai Sacred Sacrifice Stone (The name of Daiyue spans the lands / To ancient wastes its myth expands / Of countless wondrous stones that stand / Mount Tai alone protects the clan. Governs the home, seals away evil, and condenses the will of the ancestors. 5 points), Yellow Springs Boat (Ferry through the netherworld, can enter Yin Meridians. 50 points), Seductive Ghost (Supreme seduction and allure.

3 points), Filthy Ghost (Born chasing stench, cowardly and timid. 3 points), Desire Ghost (Ferocious and sturdy, extremely difficult to tame. 4 points), Yin-Yang Bone-Severing Mirror (Supreme medical treasure. 20 points), Psychopathic Killer Guide (1 point), Dao-Preaching Merit Method (10 points), River Sacrifice Chant (Though the body falls, the spirit is divine; / The soul departs, yet stands supreme. 10 points), Treatise on the Six Segments and Visceral Manifestations (Secret medical classic.

10 points), Damaged Yin-Yang Ghost Ring (Ghost Cultivator secret treasure; stores Yin energy, transforms ghosts into pearls, and refines Yin malignant energy. 10 points)..."

The tenth live stream was officially over. I let out a long breath. The whole ordeal had been a close call, but we'd made it out unscathed. Human malice was terrifying, sure, but comparatively speaking, it wasn't the biggest threat I faced.

Ten minutes later, the motorboat pulled up to He Family Village, where He Bo lived. It was incredibly remote, tucked away on the shaded side of a massive mountain with no land routes connecting it to the outside world. If you wanted out of the village, a boat was your only option.

"There used to be two dirt roads heading north that connected to Henshan Prison. But after they altered the river's course, those were completely flooded. That was when everyone in our village packed up and moved en masse." He Bo tied off the motorboat and stepped up onto his makeshift pier.

"If the whole village moved, why are you still here?"

"The relocation zone the government mapped out for us was all the way in the county seat. Far away from the great river, how is a water-suppressing yin official supposed to suppress the water?" He Bo took the lead, walking ahead of us. "It's a crying shame. I've got skills that even the Dragon King of the River wouldn't dare mess with, yet now I'm stuck making a living scooping trash out of the water, protecting the ecosystem, and recycling plastic bottles. Times really have changed."

The three of us entered the village. Nestled against the green mountains and bordered by water on three sides, the place was practically a Utopian Haven. Every few steps revealed another crooked fruit tree, and free-roaming chickens and ducks occasionally poked their heads out from the fields.

"Pick whatever you want to eat. It's all organic." Reaching the end of the dirt road, He Bo led us into a mud-brick house. "This place used to belong to the village party secretary. After he and his wife hauled ass out of here, I just took it over. Make yourselves at home."

He Bo stepped outside to pick some fruit, ran down to the river to wash it, and brought it back inside.

I sized up the house's layout. A half-woven fishing net was drying in the courtyard, and a mountain of plastic bottles occupied a corner of the room. No matter how you looked at it, this didn't feel like the secluded residence of a worldly master. Blind Liu might have been a miserable wretch constantly chased through the streets by city inspectors, but at least his place was packed with ancient scriptures and Daoist scrolls. One look at his home and you knew he came from an extraordinary lineage with formidable ancestors.

Perhaps noticing my skepticism, He Bo scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed. "I brought you two here mostly to make amends. That wanted criminal I saved—his name is Lu Xing, right? You could say he was the one who dreamed up the lion's share of that confession game. After he laid out the plan for me, he took off. Said he was heading to Xinhu to find his master. I can't be certain he wasn't lying, but I can tell you this much: he's very likely in Xinhu City right now."

"That's a vital clue. Thanks." He Bo had only moved against me because Lu Xing had fed him a pack of lies. Ignorance wasn't a crime, and I had no intention of holding a grudge.

"Don't mention it. I was the one in the wrong to begin with." He Bo walked into his bedroom and brought out three wooden boxes—two small and one large—handing them over to Du Yu and me. "The small boxes each hold an eye from a Five-Colored Koi. Swallowing them brightens your vision, clears heat, and does wonders for your complexion; they're incredibly nourishing. The big box holds a fish bead I carved out of a massive catch during the floods a while back. It's what you folks usually call a Water-Repelling Bead. Hold it in your mouth, and its essence will flow into your body, letting you stay underwater for dozens of extra breaths."

Du Yu and I popped the lids off. The Five-Colored Koi eyes in the smaller boxes shone as magnificently as genuine pearls, perfectly illustrating the old idiom of passing off fish eyes as pearls.

In contrast, the far more precious Water-Repelling Bead in the large box looked completely ordinary, its mystic aura entirely concealed.

"Thank you, Mr. He," Du Yu said. He took only one of the small boxes, pushing the remaining large and small boxes toward me. "If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead by now. Gao Jian, I owe you my life."

"You're exaggerating." I didn't bother with false modesty and tucked the boxes away. After shooting the breeze with He Bo for a few more minutes, he ferried us back out on his motorboat.

We hit the shore not far from Henshan Prison. Dragging our exhausted bodies, Du Yu and I set off down the highway toward the city.

Du Yu spent the entire walk fiddling with his battered, chipped phone. I hadn't wanted to interrupt him, but a sudden thought crossed my mind. "Du Yu, could I take a look at your live stream account? The interface for livestream viewers might look different from a streamer's."

"You won't be able to see it. I had someone test it with me before; the app only opens when you're completely alone." Du Yu held up his phone, tapping his finger against the black-and-white photo of himself on the screen a few times. "See? Not a single reaction."

"That's probably one of the Live Show's security measures." I nodded, throwing an arm around his shoulders as I lowered my voice to reveal my real intent. "Lawyer Du, how about we make a deal?"

"This sudden friendliness of yours is making me very uncomfortable."

"Nobody else can know about this. I need someone I can absolutely trust." I dropped my voice even lower. "The tips and gifts you guys send while watching the Live Show are incredibly useful to me. High-tier tips let me exchange for extremely precious items, so..."

"So you want me to tip you?"

"I can put up the money myself. I just haven't had the chance before this, since I couldn't find anyone I could completely trust." A single point could be exchanged for One Hundred Grams of Pure Gold, yet the actual value of that gold paled in comparison to what a point could buy. I'd had this idea brewing for a long time, but I had always been bottlenecked by the lack of a reliable partner.

"My hands are tied," Du Yu said, spreading his arms helplessly. "There's no way to deposit funds into the Live Show app. None of the gifts sent to the streamer are bought with money."

"Not with money?"

"Right. Gifts can only be purchased using some very specific things. Like the merit and blessings Mr. He mentioned earlier, as well as..." Du Yu's expression turned grim, and his voice hitched. "Yang Lifespan, Yin Merit, and things like that."

I froze in my tracks, my back instantly slick with cold sweat.

I had been trying to figure out the true purpose behind the Underworld Live Show for ages. Now, it looked like viewer tips were a massive piece of the puzzle. The Live Show wasn't running a charity. Through these broadcasts, it was draining the very lives of every single viewer in the chat. The livestream viewers possessed vitally important things that the Live Show was silently siphoning away without them ever realizing it.

A lot of the livestream viewers who had watched from the very beginning had already vanished. Officer Huang of the third year class 2—who had lived in the same city as me—and Huang Boyuan's youngest son were both dead. What about all the livestream viewers living in other cities, out of my sight? Had they vanished because they finally broke free of the Live Show's grip? Or had they already met their ends and departed the mortal world?

"Makes sense. How could a terrifying behemoth like this operate on something as trivial as money?" I laughed self-deprecatingly and didn't press the issue any further.

Seeing my mood tank, Du Yu patted my shoulder. "There are a lot of things I'm not allowed to say, and a lot of questions I can't ask, but I'll do everything in my power to help you. And I'm sure there are plenty of others in the chat who feel exactly the same way."

A taxi turned onto our stretch of the highway. He waved it down in the sunlight. "As long as you keep the stream going, you'll never be alone. Us livestream viewers might be a little rough around the edges, but we come through when it counts."