Chapter 438: Official Joint Live Broadcast
The final episode of *Inspiration* officially begins filming.
As soon as the live-streaming channel opened, a flood of online viewers poured in immediately, with everyone focused on the sixth guest in front of the camera and bursting out in amazement.
[As expected of Director Clark! He actually managed to invite this guy! Director Clark deserves a chicken leg for this!]
[Ahhhh! I thought the voting was just for fun—didn’t expect everyone to actually get this guy selected! Mind-blowing! Straight up mind-blowing!]
[Who is this dude? Why don’t I recognize him? Is he a newbie fresh out of the industry?]
[Clearly, the comment above didn’t watch the fourth episode. You don’t know Silly Xander?]
[It really *is* Senior Brother Xander! When he’s reciting spells seriously, he’s insanely cool!]
[Haha, wasn’t this the same guy making such a fuss before, claiming that live-streaming was all about appealing to the crowd? So, why did he show up? Did Director Clark cough up a lot of money or what?]
The revelation of the sixth guest drew plenty of scattered mocking remarks in the live chat, and within minutes of the broadcast, the comment section was already in chaos.
On camera, Scarlett Jennings was a bit surprised too and softly asked the person next to her,
"Senior Brother Xander doesn’t like variety shows, right?"
The fact that Gregory Xander was the sixth guest was news Scarlett hadn’t heard of. She didn’t even know when he came down from the mountain.
Gregory Xander sat there rigidly, looking straight-laced and entirely humorless, replying solemnly,
"The Dean instructed me. It counts as my semester-end coursework assignment, with bonus credit."
In short, he really didn’t want to be here—but the Dean offered too much to refuse.
From the side, Ariel Zimmerman couldn’t help but lean in to join the whispering conversation and explained in hushed tones,
"Director Clark announced that this episode’s guests would be selected purely via official voting. Senior Brother Xander ended up as the sixth guest because his votes were overwhelmingly high, forcing Director Clark to grit his teeth and invite him."
To be fair, Director Clark does have some real skills.
He managed to convince the Dean to let the production crew film inside the Taoist Academy last time, and this time, he even got the Dean to send Gregory Xander as a participant.
Honestly, even Ariel didn’t see this coming.
Scarlett hadn’t been following the voting incident, but after hearing Ariel’s explanation, curiosity got the better of her,
"Why did the online voters pick him?"
Leaving aside the fact that Gregory isn’t a celebrity—even if he were—considering all those superstars with millions of die-hard fans, how could a complete amateur like Gregory possibly get the spot?
Scarlett didn’t get it, but Ariel, as someone from within the industry, understood perfectly.
"It’s all because of the curse tied to the sixth guest position."
If it had been any other public vote, fans would have tried their hardest to push their idols to the top spot.
But with *Inspiration* and the cursed sixth guest, getting to number one here wasn’t as simple.
Fan groups naturally wanted to show that their idols were squeaky clean and had no skeletons in their closets—but they were also afraid the curse would come true. So, they hesitated to vote their own idols to the top.
Meanwhile, rival fans had similar concerns but figured they could take the opportunity to test the waters with other idols. They started voting against their competition.
From the moment the official poll started, fans were nominating and voting for one another’s idols, leading to all-out fan wars within a single day.
And then, out of nowhere, some clever person added Gregory Xander’s name to the list. After much deliberation across many fan camps, they decided to call a truce. Since none of their idols could top the chart safely, they might as well put someone else there.
With online viewers loving nothing more than chaos, they went along with it, eager to see if Director Clark could actually invite the man they voted for.
After all, Gregory Xander had previously been very vocal on the show about his disdain for live-streaming and its promotion of metaphysics.
And thus, Gregory Xander was unitedly voted by fan groups and enthusiastic troublemakers straight into the number-one spot.
Scarlett Jennings, equipped with the backstory, nodded in understanding.
She found this perfectly reasonable.
Gregory Xander glanced at Scarlett, noticing her contemplative look, and said, "If you want to laugh at me, just laugh."
Even though his relationship with Scarlett had softened somewhat recently—he’d even helped her repress a resentful aura not long ago—this situation was essentially a slap to his own principles. He had prepared himself to be made fun of.
But Scarlett’s expression didn’t change. Instead, she looked at Gregory with a slightly puzzled look and replied,
"Why would I laugh at you?"
"Then what were you just thinking about?"
Scarlett replied seriously, "I was thinking that after this episode is over, I need to ask the Dean for bonus credit too."
Not just her—the episode that Nathan White appeared in also deserved bonus credit.
The Dean couldn’t be playing favorites.
Just perfect to make up for the marks Scarlett lost from taking too much leave recently.
Scarlett felt like her mind had just been opened up to new possibilities.
Gregory Xander: ...
While Scarlett, Gregory, and Ariel were quietly chatting on the side, their words were all clearly carried to the audience through their mic system.
The initial wave of mocking viewers in the live chat had been suppressed by a group of righteous onlookers, and the comment section had returned to a harmonious state. Now, hearing Scarlett’s curiosity about Gregory’s selection, the audience eagerly chimed in—
[I swear, we didn’t mean to stir up trouble. We just genuinely wanted to see a rainmaking ritual.]
[Exactly! Spell duels—so thrilling!]
[Just start the fight already!]
[Come on, Scarlett, one more duel, please?]
[Everyone calls Senior Brother Xander a demon—but he’s clearly an auspicious sign!]
The lively chatter on the live stream persisted as the host began the formal introductions,
"Welcome, everyone, to the recording of Episode 7 of *Inspiration*. This is our final episode, and the identity of our sixth guest should already be no surprise to anyone—it’s the person you all voted for..."
"As it’s the last episode, the production team aimed to elevate the show’s theme. While promoting metaphysics, we also hope to showcase how it can genuinely serve the public. Therefore, for this episode, we’ve secured a very special location!"
"I hereby announce that this episode will be a joint collaboration between the Sea City Taoist Academy, the Sea City Special Security Department, and the Sea City Police Station. Up next, follow our guests as we head to this episode’s filming site."
William Zeller, quick-tongued as ever, rattled off the announcements rapidly, instantly piquing the curiosity of everyone watching the live broadcast.
Just the mention of those three entities was already something extraordinary for any ordinary reality show.
This clearly hinted at an official, large-scale promotion!
And soon, both the viewers in the live-stream and the show’s guests themselves discovered precisely why the host had hyped up their tone so much.
Scarlett Jennings and the other five guests stared at the gleaming façade of the Sea City Police Station, momentarily dumbfounded.
This—is this the location for this episode’s filming??
Are they sure this isn’t a mistake???
The six guests collectively turned to look off-camera at Director Clark.
Director Clark silently, slowly nodded at them.
He too believed his audacity had reached new heights.
The guests: ...
The guests weren’t the only ones astonished—viewers in the comment section were equally flabbergasted.
[Wait... Is the production team really going this far for the final episode?]
[Live-stream collaboration with the police?! *Inspiration*, what kind of divine privilege is this?!]
[Step aside! *Inspiration* is about to level up into a new tier instantly!]