Entertainment: You're asked to make a graduation project, but you're asked to film Ultrama

Chapter 38 Chinese Horror – "The Awakening of Ghosts and Gods"

The last rays of the setting sun shone through the broken window frame and onto the huge desk.

Chen Bo was staring at the data in the backend, his face flushed with excitement, and he kept chuckling.

He was scrolling through the comments and various fan-made creations and edits from the previous episode.

"Awesome, Nan-ge! The fan-made videos for 'Dream Run' are all over the charts! The whole internet is feeling sorry for Mayumi and Takuma right now, and our studio's follower count just surpassed one million!"

Gu Nan sat to the side, smiled, and said nothing.

He knew this was just the beginning.

In that world, almost every episode of Ultraman Tiga was a legendary work.

"Calm down. You're this happy about having a million followers? What if you break ten million? Will you end up in the hospital?"

Gu Nan joked, pointing to the newly drawn design on the whiteboard, "The next episode will truly test our ability to recreate traditional culture."

Chen Bo leaned closer and looked at the grotesque monster manuscript on the whiteboard, which had a strong ancient style, and couldn't help but shudder.

"Brother Nan, the title of this episode is 'The Awakening of Ghosts and Gods.' I read the first draft you gave me, and the atmosphere... isn't it a bit too eerie? Our previous tone was quite exciting and touching, but this sudden shift to this 'folk horror' style, can the audience handle it?"

Gu Nan tapped the table, his tone firm: "Special effects isn't just about light; it must be able to carry all human emotions, including fear. And this isn't just horror; it's 'Chinese horror.'"

In Gu Nan's mind, the original "Sukuna Oni," which had elements of Japanese mythology, was a classic, but if it were directly transplanted to this parallel world, it would inevitably cause some incompatibility.

If we are to recreate the legend of light in this world, we must integrate it into the blood of this land.

"We want to set the story in the Qinling Mountains."

Gu Nan pointed to the details on the manuscript, "This monster is not some alien, but an evil general that was sealed away by a high monk and some enlightened masters during the ancient war period of Xia Kingdom."

"He was born with two faces and four arms, and was cruel by nature. He killed countless people in his lifetime, and his resentment did not dissipate after death. His body decayed but did not decay, and he became the 'Evil Commander'."

"Not only that, this evil creature once went to a small island further east, where the natives called it—Su Nuo... But these things can just be added to the setting book."

Wang Kai, who was listening intently, quickly raised his hand and asked, "Brother Nan, should we add some talismans, peach wood swords or something to the props? Once that 'Chinese folk' feel comes through, it will definitely scare the audience so much that they won't dare to turn off the lights at night."

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Gu Nan smiled slightly, "In this episode, I want everyone to understand that Ultraman Tiga protects not only modern cities, but also the tranquility of this ancient land. We want to perfectly blend the aesthetics of 'Chinese horror' with the grand scale of 'tokusatsu'."

……

Friday, 8 PM.

The live stream room for "Ultraman Tiga" on Bilibili was already packed with viewers.

The sadness left by the previous episode, "Dream Run," has not yet completely faded, and viewers are looking forward to the next exciting battle.

However, everyone was stunned the moment the screen lit up.

Gone is the technologically advanced metallic feel of the Victory Team's base; in its place lies a deep, eerie mountain shrouded in thick fog.

The background music is no longer the passionate orchestral music, but the deep, repressed sound of chimes, mixed with the faint sound of a mournful wind.

Holy crap, this opening... did I accidentally click on a horror movie?

Why do I feel a chill down my back? Director Gu, you've changed!

[The Qinling Mountains? That place is really eerie; I have a bad feeling about it.]

In the video, three men carrying heavy backpacks and acting suspiciously are struggling through the bushes.

They weren't tourists, but rather "tomb raiders" who specialized in searching for ancient tombs deep in the mountains and forests.

"Brother, is there really treasure in this godforsaken place?"

One of the skinny men had his neck hunched over, clutching a compass that was spinning wildly in his hand.

The scarred man at the head of the group had a gloomy expression as he stared intently at a pile of ruins ahead: "The compass needle is spinning so fast, which means the thing down there is extremely yin energy. In our line of work, places with heavy yin energy often hide big stuff."

The camera uses an extremely skillful shaky motion, as if it were the gaze of some creature lurking in the shadows.

The three of them pushed aside the tall, withered grass, and a dilapidated ancient temple appeared in the center of the picture.

The walls of the ancient temple have long since peeled away, revealing dark bricks and stones. The door beams are crooked, with half a withered red silk hanging on them.

Most alarmingly, several yellowed talismans were pasted on the temple gate, and even after hundreds of years of weathering, the cinnabar on them was still as red as blood.

"Tsk tsk tsk, this talisman... looks really eerie."

The skinny man swallowed hard, not daring to step forward.

"What are you afraid of! What era are we living in? We should trust science!"

The scarred man sneered, stepped forward, tore the talisman to shreds, and kicked open the heavy temple door.

"Boom!"

As the gate opened, a thick plume of dark green smoke instantly billowed out of the temple.

The camera zooms in quickly, and in the very center of the temple stands a huge, headless stone statue of a general.

The stone statue held the hilt of a rusty longsword, but the blade had long since disappeared.

"Where's the sword? I need the sword!"

The scarred man frantically searched around the stone statue, finally spotting a loose floor tile at the foot of the statue.

He used a shovel to forcibly pry open the floor tiles, revealing a stone box.

Inside the stone box lay a bronze sword, wrapped in fine chains and engraved with Sanskrit.

The moment the scarred man recklessly tore through the chains and drew his ancient sword, the entire temple began to tremble violently.

"Awooo—!!!"

A mournful roar echoed through the Qinling Mountains.

The once tranquil mountain range seemed to awaken instantly, with countless startled birds taking flight and thick fog spreading rapidly, completely isolating the entire mountain from the outside world.

boom!!!!

A gigantic hand, splitting through the mountain's rocks, stretched out!

The live chat exploded instantly:

【！！！！】

[The monster is that big? Could the ancients have sealed it away?]

[Mom, help me! This sound is terrifying!]

[I knew it! These tomb raiders were bound to cause trouble!]

[Is the monster already this imposing even before it has appeared?]

……

TPC Headquarters, Operations Command Center.

The alarm blared through the sky.

"Captain! An unusual energy fluctuation has appeared in the Qinling Mountains! An extremely strong negative energy life reaction has been detected, and it is rapidly expanding!"

Megumi Kijima stared sharply at the area shrouded in gray fog on the screen: "Victory Team, move out! Rena, Daigo, Munakata, Horii, proceed to the scene immediately to investigate!"

The Flying Swallow roared out.

Sitting in the cockpit, Daigo looked at the mountain in front of him that was completely shrouded in shadow, and a strong sense of crisis welled up in his heart.

He could vaguely sense that an ancient and evil power was growing wildly deep within the mountain.

"What exactly is that thing...?"

Horii was operating the radar when he noticed that all the electronic equipment was flashing wildly.

"The signal is completely jammed! There's something in that fog!"

……

On the ridge they cannot see.

Just then, the ground below suddenly exploded.

A giant hand covered in long red hair and with nails like steel blades broke through the soil and gripped the mountain ridge tightly.

Immediately afterwards, a ferocious head with protruding fangs emerged.

That face is crying!

It opened its blood-red maw, spewing not flames, but an intense, impenetrable black aura of corpses.

Then, the face turned over and it started laughing again!

In the Chasing Light Studio, Gu Nan stared at the breathtaking scene on the screen, a slight smile playing on his lips.

To create the costume for this "evil and handsome" character, Wang Kai and a dozen interns worked tirelessly for a whole week.

The dynamic switching effect between the two faces was created using precise mechanical transmission combined with realistic human muscle texture.

……