Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1582 Flying Yaksha
"Speaking of which, what was that movie that Shangluo was going to make again?"

When Wen Ge Lao was young, he also read Wang Lingguan, but the Wang Lingguan of that time was much simpler than it is now—or rather, more fancy.

Early versions of the Wang Lingguan storyline resembled some kind of urban legend, such as demons and monsters causing trouble in the city, or a woman in white swaying back and forth in front of the window.

Wang Lingguan does not encourage supernatural or bizarre plots. It's not that those mountain spirits and monsters don't appear, but even if they do, there must be some hidden story behind them. It's not simply a matter of saying "a place is haunted, and Wang Lingguan goes to fight the ghost." Zhong Kui's story is more complicated than that.

If Wang Lingguan were to film a story involving ghosts, the ghosts couldn't possibly commit murders using traditional methods like bleeding from all seven orifices. It had to be bizarre, such as "the dead all turning into wax figures," and the dead had to have some connection to the murderer.

This is actually the plot of early supernatural tales and detective stories—the direct predecessor of this type of plot is Zhong Kui. The story of Zhong Kui also combines detective work and supernatural tales, emphasizing that every wrong has its perpetrator and every debt its debtor.

Modern drama theory also extracted from those novels two and a half essential elements for creating tension and suspense in any plot: house, cause and effect, and monster (the monster is half of the element).

First, there must be a house—meaning there must be a closed space. For example, if a planet were to explode, it would obviously be a disaster for everyone on Earth. But if humanity had already entered interstellar civilization, and the exploding planet was not Earth, then the people on that planet could evacuate at will. In that case, it wouldn't be a disaster movie, but a business adventure, an effort to save a business deal.

If we take a more conventional approach, it would be a "locked room mystery," where a blizzard first cuts off all contact with the outside world, and then the killer cuts the telephone line. Only in this way can the story unfold within the confined space.

Secondly, there must be cause and effect—this is especially important. All good suspense films, all good monster films, and all good supernatural films must have cause and effect. That is, the actions of monsters, murderers, and demons must have a cause and effect. There must be something that someone in the protagonist's team did, or something that the victim did, that caused retribution to come knocking.

This is absolutely necessary. There are so many good people in this world, and the general consensus is that "good people should be rewarded." If a morally flawless person is inexplicably killed in a storyline, the audience's first reaction will not be horror, but absurdity.

Furthermore, in contrast to humanity's preference for "good deeds being rewarded," the opposite also holds true—the fear of "retribution." This doesn't mean that everyone has done bad things and therefore feels the same fear of retribution. Rather, it means that people are more likely to identify with complex characters than with blank slates.

A typical example is the ghost in the story of Wang Lingguan who "turns people into wax figures." This ghost originated from a local corpse that had been abandoned at the bottom of a lake after being involved in tomb raiding. The corpse was buried in the mud and became adipocere. The people the ghost killed were all descendants of those who had participated in the tomb raiding. Among the victims of that case, especially the elderly members of their families, they knew about it.

They gave vague answers during Wang Lingguan's investigation, and the truth only came to light after his death when Wang Lingguan examined his belongings. Finally, Wang Lingguan staked out the area around the last remaining member of that family's bloodline—a policewoman in charge of the investigation. Together with the policewoman, they subdued the monster.

This is a very classic story of Wang Lingguan. It is actually a modern version of the story of Zhong Kui catching ghosts, but with some contemporary elements, making the plot easier for modern readers, especially elementary and middle school students, to understand.

However, such stories eventually come to an end. Countless ancient detective novels have rewritten this type of story countless times, and even the plots of Bao Zheng and Di Renjie include parts where they go to the underworld to judge cases. Some Di Renjie novels from hundreds of years ago are quite remarkable; they were mostly written by people working in the judicial system. They simply copied the cases, presented them as documents from the underworld judges to the psychic Di Renjie, and then, having seen the correct answers, Di Renjie would return to uphold justice.

This isn't just a matter of poor writing skills; it's that every genre of story has been explored. Because people genuinely love this type of novel, the author's creative output simply couldn't keep up, so they resorted to copying official documents. This type of *Judge Dee* novel has been prolific since the Wanli era, and it wasn't just a bestseller in the capital region; it also sold well in Korea and Japan, because it was so abundant and satisfying.

Unfortunately, Wang Lingguan, the previous king, also followed this path.

"Sigh." Grand Secretary Wen shook his head, recalling the story of Wang Lingguan from his early years. "I don't know how the plot is here. But the ending of the Wang Lingguan story we watched back then was truly disappointing."

"How so?" Shangluo asked.

"Because the sales were so good, the editors kept dragging their feet on ending it, and then the story of the previous generation of Wang Lingguan began to drain the author's writing power like a detective story. In the end, it ended because of a disastrous plot, which made it impossible to continue drawing the entire comic."

"Huh, what's that?"

"The Emperor should still remember."

“Ah, right, I remember.” Zhu Xianxi nodded. “What a coincidence! I was right when the old and new Wang Lingguan were transitioning. When I was in elementary school, Wang Lingguan started to decline, it ended when I was in middle school, it stopped publication in high school, and a new author created a second-generation Wang Lingguan when I was in college. The disastrous plot that Elder Wen mentioned happened before I was in elementary school. Let me tell you briefly, it's about Wang Lingguan—I should add that Wang Lingguan's role in the story is a criminal police officer, so he can take on all sorts of cases and incidentally encounter other police officers from different places—that part of the story is about Wang Lingguan being in charge of a ‘mind-blowing’ case.”

"What kind of mind-blowing idea is that?"

"It literally means 'out of your mind'—your brain exploded! So what was the reason in the end? Can you guess?"

"Because you offended someone?"

“No,” Zhu Xianxi replied. “The deceased was a thief, and that night he was going to steal something from an old lady’s house. The old lady’s house was inhabited by a fox spirit with precognitive abilities. The fox spirit had been saved by the old lady and was repaying her kindness. He foresaw that the thief might harm the old lady, so he sneaked into the thief’s house beforehand and smashed his head in.”

"Ah, this..." Shangluo thought for a moment, "It doesn't seem so bad, does it? I think the story's plot, its cause and effect, and so on, are all pretty good?"

“Yes, that’s right,” Zhu Xianxi said helplessly. “This story doesn’t seem so bad on its own. But it’s plagiarized.” “Huh?”

"Yes, the author was forced to submit a manuscript and racked his brains but couldn't come up with anything. So he picked a story from his readers' letters. That reader was originally a fan of 'Wang Lingguan' and wanted to write one himself, so he sent his manuscript to the author of 'Wang Lingguan' for review. He found that his work had been used as an illustration of Wang Lingguan and was not recognized. This matter quickly became a big deal, causing the author and the magazine's reputation to plummet, and it ended in a dismal failure."

"Tsk tsk tsk." Shang Luo shook his head. "There's actually such a thing."

Grand Secretary Wen also expressed his deep regret: "To be honest, I actually know the author. Before I entered politics, I was a teacher at the Imperial Academy, and that's when I met him. It's truly lamentable that the story ends so tragically. But thankfully, the story of the second-generation Wang Lingguan has a successor, so that today's children can at least see a similar story. This is it."

Grand Secretary Wen pondered, unsure how to put it. He felt that the modern story of Wang Lingguan was somewhat complicated and difficult to explain.

"Speaking of which, I haven't watched it from the beginning yet." Shang Luo himself had watched Wang Lingguan—it was actually quite good. He wasn't as obsessed as Wen Yuan and Han Xingzhi, and he wouldn't shout out lines in the street, but he would go to see movies with them. However, Shang Luo himself didn't follow the updates of Wang Lingguan from the beginning; he only started watching it from the later episodes.

“Oh, you’ve come to the right person,” Zhu Xianxi replied. “This Wang Lingguan has a unique character setting—a very special one—that completely distinguishes him from the previous Wang Lingguan: the setting of Wang Shan (Good) and Wang E (Evil). The story continues from the previous generation. The all-powerful and dashing detective Wang Lingguan was severely injured after provoking a major villain. In desperation, his master, Master Sa, performed the ‘disintegration’ technique on him. However, Wang Lingguan’s own unwavering determination to punish evil and promote good was so strong that it broke through the limitations of disintegration and was not completely separated. In the end, he split into two parts: Wang Shan and Wang E.”

Zhu Xianxi spread his hands and said, “A part of Wang Shan is the soul of Wang Lingguan himself, who went through reincarnation. Eighteen years later, he was reborn as a hero and became a criminal police officer again—the story naturally shifts its timeline from the modern era to the present. However, this Wang Shan does not possess any magical powers. His powers have become Wang E: a murderous shadow formed by the obsession with punishing evil and promoting good, who often executes criminals privately without trial or arrest. The second case that Detective Wang Shan takes on is investigating Wang E's murder case. Because traces left by 'himself' were found at the scene, he himself became the suspect. In desperation, he had no choice but to launch his own investigation and clear his own name.”

A college student detective, full of fighting spirit, embarks on a solitary path after being wrongly accused. Meanwhile, the righteous spirit of Wang E realizes his methods were somewhat unreasonable. Ultimately, the two reach a reconciliation. Wang Shan will go to work during the day, transforming into Wang E when arresting ordinary people. Wang Shan, in turn, will use his detective identity to cover up Wang E's existence.

“Look, isn’t that where the conflict and contradictions between these two come from?” Zhu Xianxi said. “The original Wang Lingguan was too amazing. He was practically a perfect man throughout history, skilled in both literature and martial arts. The new generation Wang Lingguan splits one person into two. He often fights with both hands, fighting himself, especially in the scene where Wang E wants to go on a date in place of Wang Shan. Ah, it’s really fascinating.”

"That's why I dislike this new Wang Lingguan." Grand Secretary Wen shook his head. "If you're going to fight monsters, then fight monsters. Why are there so many scenes of him fighting himself? And then there's the romance, strolling in the park, soaking in the hot springs—there are just too many of those scenes. I came to see Wang Lingguan fight monsters, but I ended up seeing him in love. Tsk tsk tsk tsk."

"Oh dear, Grand Secretary Wen, young people these days like this. Besides, the parts that can be written have already been written about in the previous Wang Lingguan story, right? It was precisely because he couldn't continue writing after writing it all that it ended. If the new Wang Lingguan is drawn like this, it won't last more than a year. Moreover, there aren't many of these popular plots; it's just the foreplay. Soon we'll get to the main event of fighting monsters."

“It’s not just that,” Elder Wen waved his hand and said, “There are some plots that I still find hard to understand. For example, there’s an episode where a newly built factory causes environmental damage in a certain place, which angers the mountain god. Then Wang Lingguan goes to negotiate with the mountain god, and in the end, everyone is happy.”

"Huh?" Shangluo asked, "Isn't this very fashionable? It perfectly fits the theme of environmental protection."

"No, no, no," Elder Wen shook his head. "The theme is good, but the story isn't true. You young people may understand what modernity is, but you don't understand what environmental protection is. An old man like me happens to know a little. Let me tell you, industrialization is the real environmental protection. Large factories and tall chimneys are what protect the environment."

"Huh? Why?"

“Look, you don’t even know,” Elder Wen said. “If you look at the rural environment from fifty or sixty years ago, look at those photos, you’ll see—the mountains were barren. The fields were yellow. The water was dry. Why? Because people needed firewood! To cook, they had to cut down trees for firewood. Before industrialization, you could go to the mountains everywhere and see—there was hardly a good spot. All the trees were cut down by the people for firewood.”

"Ah," Shangluo thought for a moment, "it seems there is such a thing."

"Therefore, true environmental protection only comes after industrialization—after industrialization, we provided local residents with railways and highways, gas cylinders, natural gas for their homes, and electrical appliances for heating. Only then did people stop treating trees as firewood and truly cherish them. So look at what you young people are drawing, this so-called idyllic pre-modern countryside with clear waters and green mountains. That basically doesn't exist; it's been cut down long ago. People who are used to industrial products made by large machines and mass production have started to despise chimneys. Tsk tsk, these mountains and forests are only starting to turn green now because of the big chimneys."

[That seems to be the case. However, upon closer inspection, there's a significant discrepancy between the current storyline and that of Grand Secretary Wen.]

"So, Shangluo, what's the storyline of Wang Lingguan that you're going to film again?"

"Ah, this..." Shang Luo thought about it carefully and suddenly felt something was wrong. "Elder Wen, I think I'd better not spoil it."

"Let me hear your thoughts. I want to see what Mingluo and I can come up with in this collaboration. I remember the theme is Flying Yaksha, right?"

"Um"

"Wait a minute, judging from that expression, does it mean Wang Lingguan is going to fall in love with a demon?"

"Oh, excuse me for a moment. I'll go to the restroom and come back later."

(End of this chapter)