"Yo yo yo~" "Hey-yo!"

"Yo yo yo~" "Hey-yo!" 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

"Hehehehe~ Hehhh~~~"

All: "Heyyy~~" "Heyyyy~~~" "Heyyyyyy~~~~"

"Wooooow~~~~~"

When the song ended, the whole crowd erupted in cheers. Yao Yao continued to dance wildly on stage, frantically shaking her slender waist and screaming. Her mouth hadn’t closed for this entire last part. The nightclub girl had truly gone wild tonight, throwing her image to the wind. She’d been holding back a little before, but now she was completely letting loose.

"Wooooo~~~~" She cupped her hands around her mouth, continuing to lead the crowd’s revelry. As the lights flashed on and off, everyone was so immersed in the recent excitement that no one even noticed Li Xiang had disappeared.

The people in the live stream chat were going crazy too. Even through their screens, they could feel the incredibly intense atmosphere of the event.

He Zhixiang: "Dude is amazing!"

Zhang Youyou hugged Xu Xuan and gave him a kiss. "I so wish I were there!"

Xu Xuan: "Let’s go next year. It’s almost over anyway."

Luo Feifei’s eyes narrowed, her thoughts unreadable. Her gaze was unusually hazy, with a lingering intensity.

Finally, someone in the live stream chat noticed something was off. "Where’s Brother Xiang? Why did he disappear?"

"There’s no one announcing the next act. Is the village gala over for tonight? Can we log off?"

Just then, the stage lights came up, and a spotlight landed on Jiang Cai’Er. She walked to the center of the stage with a microphone, while Yao Yao tactfully made her exit.

"Hello everyone! Next up is a special bonus performance. Please turn your attention to the distance, where Brother Xiang will present a super-sized version of ’striking iron flowers’! Please enjoy!"

As soon as Jiang Cai’Er finished speaking, Jiang Jianguo maneuvered the drone to change its view. The live stream feed switched to a distant, empty courtyard with the faint outline of mountains in the background.

It was pitch-black, and no one could see clearly. Faintly, it seemed a small furnace was burning, but it was just too far away.

Jiang Jianguo steered the drone closer. Just then, with a loud "BOOM~", a fiery red mass shot into the sky and, in an instant, exploded into a sky full of iron flowers.

Dazzling and magnificent.

In the brief illumination, everyone saw Li Xiang standing right beside the furnace, holding the tools for the performance.

Before this, a young man from Li Family Village had been here working the bellows to melt the iron. He only gave the spot to Li Xiang after he arrived, and then he quickly got out of there.

The performance could easily cause severe burns, so the young man didn’t dare to linger nearby.

The sky-wide spectacle of fiery trees and silver flowers vanished in a flash. Immediately after, Li Xiang swung the striking board in his hand for a second time.

"BOOM~"

This one went even higher and farther than the last!

A normal performance would send sparks a dozen or so meters high at most, but Li Xiang casually reached twenty to thirty meters. This second strike reached a shocking fifty to sixty meters, making it feel as if half the sky was lit up.

For the third strike, Li Xiang launched it even farther and wider. His skill was simply divine; the molten iron flew seventy to eighty meters into the air before it exploded, scattering in all directions. Everyone was completely stupefied!

It wasn’t that they had never seen the performance before, but they had never witnessed one so masterfully executed and so magnificent!

’What kind of skill and technique is this? How have we never seen anything like it?’

That was, of course, because Li Xiang was using his Spiritual Power to control it, making the molten iron burst exactly when he wanted it to!

He flexed his arms, unleashing thousands of pounds of force. Both the amount of molten iron he launched and the distance it traveled far surpassed that of any ordinary master.

A night breeze from the east, a thousand trees of flowers bloom; it blows down yet more, a shower of stars like rain.

"Wow, it’s so beautiful!"

At the scene, many people, especially the young women, quickly pulled out their phones to take pictures and record videos.

"This rain of flowers filling the sky... it’s truly dazzling!"

"Life should be like this. Even if it’s brief, as long as it’s this magnificent, that’s enough!"

"Brother Xiang, do a few more! A few more!"

Both at the venue and in the live stream chat, people were "shouting," strongly demanding that Li Xiang do more.

Yao Yao jumped up and screamed, "Put more force into it!"

Li Xiang naturally obliged, performing a dozen more strikes before he finished. Each one went higher and farther than the last, until the final one lit up the entire Li Family Village.

It felt like even a Four-foot Jade firework worth over a million yuan would pale in comparison.

But all good things must come to an end. It wasn’t that Li Xiang was exhausted, but that he had run out of prepared molten iron. A considerable amount of iron had been used, but compared to such a beautiful sight, it was a trivial cost.

In the live stream chat, some more safety-conscious fans asked worriedly, "I saw some of it land on the mountain. Brother Xiang, won’t that start a forest fire?"

Starting a forest fire would be disastrous.

Li Xiang replied, "It won’t. I launched it very high, and it’s winter right now. After falling from such a great height, the red-hot iron filings are cooled by the cold air and have basically lost all their heat by the time they land. I’ve run experiments and tested it myself beforehand."

"Also, the surrounding area was cleared in advance. For example, flammable materials and weeds have all been cleaned up."

"Additionally, after the gala ends tonight, the young people from our village will patrol the area. I’ll also keep a close eye on it, check it several times, and go to bed a bit later. If we spot any embers, we’ll extinguish them immediately. If nothing unusual happens within three or four hours, there’s basically no risk of a fire."

The live stream ended, and the earnings were substantial. Li Xiang glanced at the backend—over 600,000 yuan. Of course, the main contributors were the top ten donors, especially the number one, Top Aunt, who alone had contributed over 200,000 yuan.

Truly a big spender.

Li Xiang wondered when he could go and meet Top Aunt in person to express his gratitude.

His fan group all said that Top Aunt wanted to be his sugar mommy, but Li Xiang never thought so. She was very cold and aloof, rarely interacting in the chat, let alone suggesting they meet up.

’If she really wanted to be my sugar mommy, wouldn’t she want to meet in person?’ Li Xiang thought. But Top Aunt never mentioned anything of the sort.

When the music ended, the crowd dispersed. People from the surrounding villages chatted amongst themselves as they gradually departed.

After enjoying its master’s performance, the Little Fox nimbly slipped down from the persimmon tree and dove back into the doghouse to hide. Er Huang also returned, looking for his girlfriend.

The dog and the fox were lovey-dovey in the warm doghouse, putting countless single people to shame.

Li Xiang was seeing some people off when he noticed Zhao Xueqing about to leave and called out to her. Seeing this, Yao Yao immediately came over. Whatever Zhao Xueqing got, she wanted a piece of too. She wasn’t about to miss an opportunity.

’He’s definitely going to do something with us!’ she guessed.

Sure enough, Li Xiang extended an olive branch. He told the two of them that after the New Year, he was going to establish "Apocalypse Media," a company specializing in social media, and he wanted to sign them both.

His main goal with social media was to make money. The profit margins in this field were extremely high, and it was the current trend. Even Musk had bought Twitter and changed it to X.

Musk is very fond of the letter "X." Besides Twitter becoming X, there’s also the Starship from SpaceX.

Netizens speculated that the reason Tesla doesn’t have an "X" in its name is because its main market and factories are in China, so he had to follow local customs.

You know, in China, "X" isn’t exactly a great word. People would laugh themselves to death, and it would definitely affect sales.

For example, many women wouldn’t choose a BMW "X5." In Chinese, "X5" can sound like a vulgar phrase meaning "f*ck me." Whoever drove it would be incredibly embarrassed.

Why did Musk buy Twitter? Why did Zuckerberg create Facebook? Because these media platforms don’t just make money; they can also manipulate public opinion.

Li Xiang didn’t want to manipulate public opinion; he just wanted to make money. Without money, when the Apocalypse arrived, he could at most protect himself and a few people around him. But with money, he could build an Underground City, establish his own power base, and ensure the safety of an entire region.

Humans are social animals, after all. If the population drops below a certain number, the race cannot propagate healthily. After a few generations, everyone would be closely related, and the species would gradually go extinct.

Scientists have run simulations and determined that the minimum population required to ensure the healthy propagation of the Human Race is at least 5,000. Furthermore, the female-to-male ratio cannot exceed 3:1. Otherwise, excessive inbreeding within three generations would lead to severe defects in the gene pool, such as various genetic diseases, developmental abnormalities, and decreased fertility.

Li Xiang’s goal was to shelter one hundred thousand people, allowing human civilization to continue. This was his worst-case scenario plan; even if all other factions were wiped out, his group could still be self-sustaining.

As for the tourism company, he had already thought of a name: "Sichuan Province Apocalypse Saint Realm Co., Ltd." Getting "Sichuan Province" in the name wouldn’t be too much trouble. For one, he now had over thirty million yuan in startup capital, and for another, he had Xu Xuan to help him.

"Apocalypse Media? That sounds awful! Why that name?" Yao Yao asked curiously. She thought to herself, ’Other companies pick such nice-sounding names, like Jelly Media, Starlet Media, Sweetie Media...’

Zhao Xueqing also blinked her bright, sparkling eyes and looked at Li Xiang.