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Could Chapter 176 be a masterpiece?!

Darkness enveloped the sky.

It was like a beast that blotted out the sky, shrouding the land.

Countless blood-red eyes flickered in and out of sight in the darkness!
Eerie, hoarse, painful, and desperate sounds echoed in my ears...

As the background music played, everyone in the theater was glued to the screen.

A tense, oppressive, and suffocating atmosphere filled the screening room!

And when everyone's emotions were suppressed to the extreme...

The camera finally focused on that figure!
The darkness transformed into a twisted tentacle, coiling around the figure clad in armor, wearing a mask, and wielding the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.

The knife kept burning with flames, cutting through the darkness again and again, blocking the advance of countless mysterious creatures!
"The blade's light vanished!"

In the screening room, everyone heard a furious shout.

Immediately afterwards, the blade energy unleashed by the Green Dragon Crescent Blade transformed into streaks of fire, illuminating the darkness!

In the endless darkness, one colossal beast after another fell with screams, while from the depths of the darkness in the distance, more and more colossal beasts charged forward.

They were bloodthirsty, brutal, and insane, constantly baring their fangs, attempting to tear apart Guan Yu, the Martial Soul!
"click"

Guan Yu swung his blade once more, and countless fire dragons surged from its blade as it rushed into the darkness...

However, with each swing, cracks appeared on Guan Yu's armor, and his martial spirit core trembled and cracked slightly!
The blade light that was swung out gradually shrank, the flames slowly flickered, and finally, holding the Green Dragon Crescent Blade, only sparks flew when he slashed.

Despair grew on this side, while the beast tide, shrouded in darkness, seemed to materialize and surged forth once more, engulfing Guan Yu!
"I can't back out!"

"If I step down, then what will happen behind me..."

"There's no one here!"

"Martial Soul, detonate!"

"Explode all of them!"

A moment of despairing darkness flashed across the screen, followed by a brief silence in the entire screening room.

Immediately following, accompanied by coughing, an angry roar came, and the surrounding darkness trembled slightly!
A ray of light gradually appeared, and then, the figure clad in armor suddenly plunged his crescent blade into the earth.

A blinding flash of light!

Liu Jiasheng stared intently at the screen!

He saw on the screen, in slow motion, the intense flames spreading wildly in an explosive manner, shattering countless surging black clouds wherever they went, and even cleaving a beam of light through the entire sky...

And that standing body also perished with that blow!

His armor began to crack piece by piece, the light emanating from his body gradually faded, and then the Green Dragon Crescent Blade shattered into pieces...

Guan Yu knelt down, using his broken sword to support his body!

In the void, streams of energy were pouring out, while his body was constantly dissipating...

The flame of his martial spirit on his chest gradually dimmed!
His gaze was fixed intently on the dark tides in the distance...

Not far away, countless deformed monsters filled the void, bloodthirsty and greedy!
After a brief moment of light, an even more suffocating sense of despair followed...

Just when everyone thought the ferocious beasts were about to charge and tear everything apart, it was as if they heard a call, and the beast tide finally receded...

The earth has regained its light!
However, the martial spirit of Guan Yu vanished into nothingness!
It transformed into a human form and landed on the ground.

……

After a series of excited sounds echoed throughout the screening room, Liu Jiasheng stared blankly at the screen.

This is a 20-minute clip from "The Spirit of Zhao Zilong"!

During those twenty minutes of the story, Liu Jiasheng vaguely felt that "the budget was burning!"

The special effects are excellent; they definitely put in a lot of hard work!

Not only the special effects on the screen, but also the fight scenes, soundtrack, including camera transitions and scene rendering!

Everything that happened terrified Liu Jiasheng!
Especially the eerie feeling of darkness enveloping the sky, and the tragic sense of suffocation and despair!
It's really hard for Liu Jiasheng to associate this movie with Zhou Yang.

This time!
Are they really making a serious movie?

........................

[Feihe Cinema]

After the first battle segment finished playing.

Director Che Xiao nervously looked at all the audience members around her.

He saw the children screaming excitedly, some clenching their fists and pounding them in the darkness.

And the adults weren't as impatient as they were when they first watched "Lord of the Beasts"; in fact, they were quite shocked...

"President Zhou, we should have succeeded in the first phase!"

"Mr. Zhou, thank you!"

Che Xiao breathed a sigh of relief, then, suppressing her excitement, looked at Zhou Yang beside her.

After the release of "King of the Beasts," although it was a box office hit...

But then I heard a series of curses...

For Zhou Yang, these insults were a source of attention, but for him, they were a trampling of his dignity!
You could have filmed it even better!

When director Che Xiao was preparing for the second installment of Zhao Zilong, she talked to Zhou Yang, who expressed his frustrations and his desire to make a good movie!

He told Zhou Yang about his determination, expressing his desire to make this IP a success. He even assured Zhou Yang that he would not earn a single penny and would invest all the money into the film's special effects.

Let's say the second installment of the "Martial Soul" series was even better, and he also expressed his desire to improve the special effects...

He was extremely nervous when he proposed this idea!

After all, Mr. Zhou is very frugal when making movies. His previous films were all made with only a few hundred thousand yuan, achieving big results with small investments. But this film will probably cost several million yuan!

He was even prepared to be rejected!

Then, Zhou Yang only said one sentence to him. "You can film this movie however you want. Don't worry about the budget. Ask me if you need more. Since you've made up your mind to make it, then make it in the direction you think is a 'masterpiece'!"

Upon hearing this, he nodded excitedly, and finally, he unleashed his passion and energy into a tokusatsu film!
"Haha, no need to thank me. I'm still hoping this movie will be a huge hit so I can make money and recoup my investment..." Zhou Yang laughed, shook his head, and looked at the screen not far away.

Che Xiao nodded!
Immediately afterwards, he subconsciously looked at the people behind him: prop master Liu Fang, special effects artist and cinematographer Xu Yunyi, and actors Ding Rong and Chen Jianfeng...

At this moment, Ding Rong's arm was bandaged; filming this movie had broken his hand. Chen Jianfeng was also in a sorry state, his face still swollen...

Just because he said, "Let's try shooting with real punches," this group of people started thinking about more thrilling and exciting action scenes over and over again. They even borrowed some dangerous shots from Fang Long's movies. They didn't use stunt doubles and did it themselves, only to fall and get bruised and battered...

Previously, all the films they made with Mr. Zhou were poorly made. Although they made money, they were met with a barrage of criticism on the internet!
This time, everyone was really focused on making a good movie!

..............................

The movie is still playing at the Xinde Cinema in the small county town.

Liu Jiasheng stared at the screen!

Although the characters in "King of the Beasts" are played by the same actor, the plot is rough, the characters are rough, the actors have absolutely no acting skills, and everything is rushed!
But this film, "The Spirit of Zhao Zilong," made Liu Jiasheng realize that the special effects had been upgraded many times over!
Even the acting skills of the characters are worlds apart!

He saw on the screen that after the battle of the beast tide, Ding Rong, who played the role of Guan Yu, the martial soul master, played one of the members of the Earth Defense Force, Xiao Yi, was seriously injured and could only recuperate. After recovering, he found that all the martial soul energy in his body had been shattered and he could no longer transform. In addition, he found that his foot seemed to be lame and he could not move!

Liu Jiasheng saw that Ding Rong's character, Xiao Yi, remained cheerful and optimistic despite the difficulties.

However, as the story progresses, the Earth Defense Force goes on mission after mission, sacrificing one member after another...

As the protagonist, Xiao Yi, recovered, tried to stand up several times, he always stumbled and fell down...

As time went on, the background music gradually became somewhat depressing.

In the shot!

Liu Jiasheng witnessed firsthand how an optimistic and cheerful person completely broke down emotionally after repeated failures!

In the footage, he frantically pounded his paralyzed left leg in the rehabilitation room late at night. The monitor showed him mechanically repeating this action for three consecutive hours until medical staff forcibly stopped him, at which point he closed his eyes in despair...

I also saw the room filled with broken rehabilitation equipment, and the calendar on the wall showing that he had been undergoing rehabilitation for 96 days but had not seen any improvement...

He really is lame!
The footage contrasts the dashing image of him in his Earth Defense Force uniform with his current appearance in wrinkled pajamas. And what about the uniform?
The uniform was haphazardly stuffed into a storage box, the lid of which was covered in dust.

As he limped to hand in his resignation, his fingers trembled uncontrollably as he gripped the Defense Force badge…

Then, under the gaze of countless people, he lowered his head, left the Earth Defense Force, and put the cracked Green Dragon Crescent Blade transformation device into an iron box and buried it deep under a tree.

His emotions began to escalate into agitation. When his comrades came to visit, he deliberately knocked over the fruit basket...

The camera gave a slow-motion close-up of the apple hitting the ground!

as well as……

A series of heart-wrenching cries of "Get out!"...

He began locking himself in his apartment, wasting his days in despair!
The dramatic contrast in acting skills, from a chosen one to a fallen hero...

It was vivid in Liu Jiasheng's eyes!

At this moment!

Only then did he truly take this actor named "Ding Rong" seriously!

If he wasn't mistaken, this actor was just a production assistant that President Zhou randomly picked from the crew...

did not expect……

He was able to portray the character's breakdown and transformation so vividly!
He turned around and saw that his fiancée, Zhang Ying, was in tears, wiping them away.

"He's a hero, he shouldn't be like this... Waaaaah..."

The children at the scene were also very distressed, and some of them shed tears.

Liu Jiasheng watched as the scenes unfolded.

Finally, my gaze fell upon the big screen!

On the big screen, heroes fall...

But the Dark Beast Tide swept across the globe!
Along with the beast horde, there are also apocalyptic scenes of tsunamis crashing into houses, earthquakes tearing the earth apart, and hailstorms ravaging the streets...

The film vividly portrays a series of desperate, hellish worlds on earth!
But the members of the Earth Defense Force did not give up!
Unlike other movies, and even the previous one, *The Beast King*, where the Earth Defense Force was all trash and just there for show, in this movie…

One by one, figures stepped forward in the face of despair...

On camera, one by one, they signed life-or-death waivers, gripped guns, and rushed into the distant darkness, their tiny figures entering the ruins of an earthquake-stricken city.

In the footage, Liu Jiasheng saw them constantly organizing their evacuation, with collapsing houses and a horde of mutated crocodiles tearing at them from behind...

I also saw on the screen that the virus outbreak caused countless civilians to become infected and mutated, and the defense team members were forced to make a cruel choice between protecting the survivors and killing their infected compatriots, and tremblingly pulled the trigger...

They even saw a figure carrying a bomb rush into the darkness, where it exploded into a dazzling light!

The background music gradually changed from rousing war drums to a somber cello solo, accompanied by the repeated requests for support on the defense team's communication channel, before finally fading into silence.

The final close-up shot focuses on the defense force's command post...

The shattered holographic sand table projects a map of China where 75% of the region has fallen, and the control panel retains the last blood-red nuclear bomb button!
Humanity!

It seems like we've completely lost!

……

Each shot.

Tragic and devastating!
Even Liu Jiasheng was deeply moved, and even trembled!
His fiancée, standing beside him, was crying uncontrollably, wiping away tears again and again!
Liu Jiasheng was slightly startled, and his eyes widened!
and many more!

What the hell!

This movie!

Could it be a masterpiece?

The camera then switched to another man...

(End of this chapter)