Chapter 135: I, Leader of the Demonic Cult! Teetering on the Edge
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Huo Hong and Yanyan stared at his hands.
Neither of them had seen how the deck of cards had appeared in them.
Zhang Wuyong immediately began shuffling and cutting the deck. His movements were smooth and fluid, dazzling Huo Hong and Yanyan.
They watched as the cards opened and closed in his hands, forming fans one moment and squares the next.
“Here, draw any card you like!” Zhang Wuyong spread the entire deck in a straight line before Yanyan.
Yanyan drew a card, keeping its face turned away from Zhang Wuyong, and secretly looked at it with Huo Hong.
It was the five of hearts.
“Put it back anywhere you like,” Zhang Wuyong said.
Yanyan inserted it back into the deck.
Zhang Wuyong cut the deck again and shuffled it. After shuffling continuously, he spread the cards before Huo Hong.
“Choose any number from left to right.”
Huo Hong thought for a moment. “Seven!”
Zhang Wuyong counted off seven cards on the spot and casually turned one over.
It was the five of hearts.
He smiled. “That was only the simplest trick. I’ve actually learned quite a few others.”
Yanyan and Huo Hong were both stunned.
Neither of them had cooperated with him. Yanyan had drawn her card at random, and Huo Hong had called out a number without thinking.
Moreover, they had kept their eyes fixed on Zhang Wuyong’s hands the entire time. They truly could not see anything wrong.
But to Zhang Wuyong, this really was the simplest trick.
He had not made use of his system storage.
He was relying purely on the techniques he had learned by endlessly watching videos of magicians during this period.
After Yanyan drew her card and returned it to the deck, he shuffled again and again, yet the card remained at the very bottom. Whatever number Huo Hong named, he could “turn over” that card at the corresponding position.
Double lifts, false cuts, force selections… Once these principles were understood, what remained was the result of years of painstaking practice.
With “Flawless,” however, Zhang Wuyong could directly replicate the techniques of renowned magicians.
This “Flawless” ability really was much like the Sharingan.
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More importantly, there was no time limit on simply imitating movements and bearing.
Huo Hong and Yanyan exchanged a glance. They both knew that, with this one skill alone, Zhang Wuyong already had enough to succeed.
The most important point was that Zhang Wuyong was handsome.
And his kind of handsomeness was not the effeminate, pretty-boy sort.
He was the traditional type: a broad, full forehead, sharply arched brows, bright, expressive eyes, and clearly defined features.
Add to that the bearing and smile he had displayed while handling the cards, as though he were already a world-famous magician, and he possessed the rakish, over-the-top charm of a God of Gamblers or a Gambler Hero come to life from the movies.
At his level, the magic itself was not important. He merely had to know how to perform it.
With careful cultivation, that alone would be enough to attract a huge female following.
They knew perfectly well that a large female fan base was not only profitable, but highly loyal as well.
Once it reached a certain size, those fans might even promote and advertise for him of their own accord.
That was a completely different path from the girls who appeared in livestreams.
Although those girls could attract plenty of male viewers, most of them only watched without spending any money.
Their income came from the sudden appearance of one or two wealthy patrons.
The truly rich patrons did not care about spending money.
Female fans might not have as much money, but there were far more of them. Even when they had none to spare, they would somehow squeeze out something to give their favorite idol.
The two approaches were fundamentally different.
Huo Hong and Yanyan had been in the business for some time and already knew how to get started and how to promote someone.
They began discussing the matter with Zhang Wuyong immediately.
“Honestly, Big Fist, how long have you been practicing that technique?”
Huo Hong was extremely surprised. “You amaze me more and more. The way you handled those cards just now—if you told me you were the God of Gamblers who had fought his way out of Macau, I’d believe you.”
Zhang Wuyong smiled. “It was only a performance. A real God of Gamblers wouldn’t act so ostentatiously.”
“That may be true,” Huo Hong said, “but with the way you handled those cards, I refuse to believe you haven’t practiced for several years.
“And you still have to study for the university entrance examination. How did you find the time to hone that skill to such perfection?”
“Come on, I’m a young man,” Zhang Wuyong said. “It’s perfectly normal to enjoy playing with cards. I don’t believe you never tried practicing when you were a kid.”
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Huo Hong could not help laughing. “You call that practicing? At most, it was playing. Every boy may dream of becoming the God of Gamblers, but how many of them actually put their heart into practicing?”
Yanyan said with a smile, “I’m worried that Big Fist Brother will barely have started livestreaming with us before some sharp-eyed director notices him and poaches him to make movies.”
“Impossible,” Zhang Wuyong said. “Besides, I still have to attend university.
“When I start university, I’ll continue livestreaming from there. You two can keep promoting me. You don’t need to pay me a salary, either—we can just split the profits. If we make more, we all earn more; if we make less, we all earn less.”
Huo Hong slapped his thigh. “Done! We’ll cover the initial investment. Also, at the beginning, we’ll shoot some videos first, then have the younger girls promote you whenever they’re livestreaming.”
“We should choose a name for your livestreams first,” Yanyan said. “Why not simply call you Big Fist Brother? The simpler it is, the easier it will be to promote, and it rolls off the tongue.”
“I think that works too,” Huo Hong said. “What do you think?”
Zhang Wuyong shook his head. “Actually, I’ve already thought of one: Zhang Wuqi, Lord of the Magic Cult. What do you think?”
Huo Hong had not heard him clearly. “Zhang Wuji?”
“Zhang Wuqi,” Zhang Wuyong corrected. “At first, I wanted to use Zhang Wuji outright, but I was worried about copyright infringement. Changing it to Zhang Wuqi makes it, at worst, a close imitation—something like Jin Yong the Younger.
“‘Magic’ refers to magic tricks. The Lord of the Magic Cult, a cult leader who performs magic—it sounds a little sinister, but not quite criminal. Even if the cyber-police see it, they’ll simply associate the name with the Magic Cult in Jin Yong’s The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. They won’t go so far as to ban me.
“Once we have enough fans, we can borrow the Magic Cult’s hierarchy from The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber and create the Left and Right Envoys, the Four Great Guardians, the Five Wanderers, and so on.”
Huo Hong and Yanyan exchanged another glance.
It was actually a very good idea.
Under normal circumstances, creating some sort of “power structure” would easily get them banned.
But something that was obviously taken from a work of fiction was generally harmless.
Besides, Jin Yong was hardly going to crawl out of the ground and sue them over something so trivial.
As for the platform, they understood it perfectly well.
For websites, traffic was king. There were countless names and pieces of content that skirted the line.
Take those attractive girls who posted yoga or gymnastics videos, for example.
Did anyone who clicked on them really care about yoga and gymnastics?
A Magic Cult leader from a famous novel, a Magic Cult leader who performed magic… Zhang Wuji, Zhang Wuqi…
At least in the beginning, before they had any traffic, the association would genuinely help draw viewers in.
As for what to do after he became famous?
They could worry about that after he became famous.
He had not even started gaining recognition yet, so why think about what would happen afterward?
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